WANT IMPROVED BEHAVIOR? TEACH THE DOCTRINE OF CHRIST WITH LOVE

The study of the doctrines of the gospel will improve behavior quicker than a study of behavior will improve behavior. 

This oft' quoted line was given by Elder Boyd K. Packer in General Conference thirty-four years ago.  It is true and, I believe, always has been. Eternal truths usually are timeless.

When the four sons of Mosiah went into the mission field with the Lamanites, they understood this.  Fighting the Lamanites was fruitless and bloody.  But in teaching them the doctrines of Christ, the Gospel, they changed their behavior to such a degree that they who were converted never fell away.  

Whenever missionary in the Book of Mormon teaches a people who have fallen away into misbehavior, he always begins by teaching pure doctrine. They usually begin with Adam and Eve, the Creation and the Fall.  That is why we need the gift of a probationary time to repent.  Then they teach about Jesus Christ and His Atonement, the only way we can return to our Heavenly home. They often recount Israel's history and examples from the past of God blessing His children for obedience.  They give an account of the dire consequences of sin and the need for a Savior.

Nephi taught his brothers.  Abinadi taught the apostate court of King Noah. King Benjamin taught his people. Alma taught slipping and apostate Nephites. Ammon and Aaron taught the Lamanites.  

Alma taught his sons. The son who got the lion's share of his father's words was his young son, Corianton, who indulged in sin, in part, because he didn't understand true doctrine.  In going after a harlot, he was exposed to the antichrist philosophies of Nehor and the Zoramites.  Alma, through the Spirit, perceived those things with which his son struggled.  He corrected his son's behavior by correcting his son's perceptions through false doctrine.

Key points of doctrine that were not understood by Corianton included:

• The Resurrection and all points relating to it.  Remember, the Nehor followers didn't believe in a resurrection or in Christ, but taught that once a person is dead, he ceases to exist. He taught that, through Christ, all souls will be resurrected to stand before God for judgement.  The righteous will be resurrected to a state of happiness and joy.  The wicked, to a state of misery.

• Restitution of all things. Men will be restored to whatever level they have reached during their lives.  The righteous will be restored in righteousness.  The wicked will be restored to a keen memory of their wickedness and a life of sorrow.  The Zoramites believed Nehor that there was no sin or crime and that whatever a man got in life was by his own doing.  Somehow Corianton had come to believe that he could do whatever he wanted and then be restored to a state of happiness.  Through his father's loving words, he came to realize that Wickedness never was happiness. (Alma 41: 10)

Even Plato understood
the need for chastisement
in human healing.

• Punishment of the Wicked. If there was no right or wrong, then their should be no punishment for whatever a man did, right? Not so! Alma taught his son about Adam and the fall and how the natural man became carnal (meaning of the flesh.) Adam was removed from the Garden so that he might not partake of the fruit of the Tree of Life and live forever in his sins.  A loving God gave to Adam and his posterity a probationary time in which a man could repent and prepare to meet God.  Whether he chose to do so or not was according to the agency of man.

• Because of the Fall, all mankind was in a state of being subject to the demands of Justice.  Were it not so, God would cease to be God. (Alma 42: 13) Under Justice, none could return to God and would be cut off forever.  Because our Heavenly Father knows His children, he allowed for a state of Mercy to temper Justice.  He provided a Savior, even Jesus Christ, to pay the price of Justice so that we wouldn't have to.  It is a free gift in the sense that we don't have to "earn" it (we couldn't) but it is a gift based on one condition: Repentance. Mercy claimeth the penitent . . . None but the truly penitent are saved.(Alma 42:24)

~ ~ ~

When our young people go astray, there is a tendency for us to nag, lecture, shame, or blame, excusing our behavior as "tough love."  If those four things had any efficacy, the world would have been saved eons ago! While Alma did point out the graveness of his son's sin, he did so within a loving relationship.  There was no nagging or shaming.  Only a description of reality given within the tender and loving relationship between father and son.

Alma, led by the Spirit (Doctrine and Covenants 121: 41-44), set about to correct Corianton's misperceptions that enticed him to sin and with which he rationalized that his sins were of little consequence.  Alma taught true doctrine, his son understood and repented.  He went on to serve an honorable mission and neither his father nor the Lord, ever mentioned it again.

This love, unconditional and unfeigned, is the greatest healing and converting power on earth or in heaven.  Oh, if we could all transcend our own pride and selfishness to share such love with those who mean the most to us!

© Kathleen Rawlings Buntin Danielson July 2020