Alma had further cause to rejoice because he saw that the Saints in and about Gideon, that growing center of Nephite activity, were walking uprightly before God and their fellow men. He said to them, "I perceive that ye are in the path which leads to the Kingdom of God." None there were who attempted to shorten the prescribed way, none moved in by-and-forbidden paths, all labored to make straight the Way of the coming King so that those who followed after might know the right Way and walk therein without let or hindrance.
The Lord does not, nor can He, walk in crooked paths. For Him to do so would mean a changeable god, an inconstant and variable person, on whose word we could not rely. He commands and it is so; He forgives us our trespasses, and we are forgiven. He marks the Way, and He, himself, walks therein, saying as He does so, "Follow thou Me!" or "Come after Me." (Matthew 4:19)
And again I speak unto you who deny the revelations of God, and say that they are done away, that there are no revelations, nor prophecies, nor gifts, nor healing, nor speaking with tongues, and the interpretation of tongues;
Behold I say unto you, he that denieth these things knoweth not the Gospel of Christ; yea, he has not read the Scriptures; if so, he does not understand them.
For do we not read that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and in Him there is no variableness neither shadow of changing?
And now if ye have imagined up unto yourselves a god who doth vary, and in whom there is shadow of changing, then have ye imagined up unto yourselves a god who is not a God of miracles. (Mormon 9:10)
For I know that God is not a partial God, neither a changeable Being; but He is unchangeable from all eternity to all eternity. (Moroni 8:18)
For I am the Lord, I change not ... (III Nephi 24:6)
His paths are not crooked; He does not say one thing and mean another. Neither does He command, and accept something else in its place.
In describing a road, straightness is that characteristic it has of leading directly to its goal without turnings or deviations. Under any interpretation of its meaning, straightness is always the same. There can be no shortcuts, nor can it be twisted. The command, "Follow thou Me," is made clear by the Prophet Nephi, who, when speaking to his brothers, said, "Wherefore, my beloved brethren, can we follow Jesus save we shall be willing to keep the commandments of the Father?" (II Nephi 31:10)
He does not dwell in unholy temples. The Spirit of the Lord, or the Holy Spirit, cannot abide in an unclean shelter, nor can it take sanctuary in a diseased and depraved habitation. Its abode, whether in our hearts or elsewhere, must be spotless; its dwelling place, pure and undefiled. The Holy Spirit giveth life and light. But, just as disease breeds in filth, so also, in corruption evil begets spiritual disorder and often, severe malady. Sin is spiritual filthiness. It destroys the soul. Death is sin's eternal compensation.
Every son and daughter of Father Adam must receive a just reward for deeds done in the mortal body. Eternal Life in God's Kingdom is the prize awarded the righteous, while the wicked, or those who choose evil, will reap everlasting punishment in a place of despair and anguish, which is hell. Hell is that place prepared for the devil and his angels. Satan is its chief architect and builder. The Prophet Nephi said, "The devil is the foundation of it." (I Nephi 15:35) The devil is filthy. His children are also filthy. They become his children who do his bidding: by choice they elect to follow his way, not by mandate. This choice extends after the death of the mortal body, and just so long as their choice is evil they will remain filthy, and must dwell forever in their filthiness with those who also remain in their wicked condition.
Jacob, the brother of Nephi and in whose loyalty Nephi greatly rejoiced, in a great sermon recorded in the BOOK OF MORMON, said,
And assuredly, as the Lord liveth, for the Lord God hath spoken it, and it is His eternal word, which cannot pass away, that they who are righteous shall be righteous still; and they who are filthy shall be filthy still; wherefore, they who are filthy are the devil and his angels; and they shall go away into everlasting fire; prepared for them; and their torment is as a lake of fire and brimstone, whose flame ascendeth up forever and ever and has no end. (II Nephi 9:16)
The punishment meted out to the wicked, or to those who are filthy, will be to them as the pain caused by burning brimstone.
Nephi, the son of the Patriarch Lehi, in explaining the meaning of their father's great vision, said to his brothers:
And I said unto them that our father also saw that the justice of God did also divide the wicked from the righteous; and the brightness thereof was like unto the brightness of a flaming fire, which ascendeth up unto God forever and ever, and hath no end.
And they said unto me: Doth this thing mean the torment of the body in the days of probation, or doth it mean the final state of the soul after the death of the temporal body, or doth it speak of the things which are temporal.
And it came to pass that I said unto them that it was a representation of things both temporal and spiritual; for the day should come that they must be judged of their works, yea, even the works which were done by the temporal body in their days of probation.
Wherefore, if they should die in their wickedness they must be cast off also, as to the things which are spiritual, which are pertaining to righteousness; wherefore, they must be brought to stand before God, to be judged of their works; and if their works have been filthiness they must needs be filthy; and if they be filthy it must needs be that they cannot dwell in the Kingdom of God; if so, the Kingdom of God must be filthy also.
But behold, I say unto you, the Kingdom of God is not filthy, and there cannot any unclean thing enter into the Kingdom of God; wherefore there must needs be a place of filthiness prepared for that which is filthy.
And there is a place prepared, yea, even that awful hell of which I have spoken, and the devil is the foundation of it; wherefore the final state of the souls of men is to dwell in the Kingdom of God, or to be cast out because of that justice of which I have spoken.
Wherefore, the wicked are rejected from the righteous, and also from the Tree of Life, whose fruit is most precious and most desirable above all other fruits; yea, and it is the greatest of all the gifts of God.... (I Nephi 15:30-36) (SEE COMMENTARY OF THE BOOK OF MORMON, Volume I, p. 157)