In the simplest statement of it, hope is that aspiration, that goal, that great desire of the heart of man to obtain eternal life, which can only be achieved through the atonement of Jesus Christ. It frees man to live beyond the internment of the grave, beyond the dust and ashes of the elements of the earth from whence the temporal body does come, and beyond that pessimistic perspective of despair and gloom that is bred in the lie that beyond this mortal life and death there is nothing. Without this hope in continuous life, life its self stands unfulfilled and imcomplete. The why and wherefore, the reason and purpose of life go unanswered, the internal eternal spirit of mankind looses all real resolution and definition, there are no fundamental moral values. And the higher matters of civilization are but swallowed up in uncontrolled self-indulgence. Humanity and order ends, and barbarism and chaos prevails. The very questions of good and evil dissolve into shades of undifferentiated grey. And the eternal cumulative intelligence of mankind desolves into but the drive of man to find his next meal. Culture ends, refinement ends, living for tomorrow ends and beyond, the future gets turned inside out to being only a matter of today and right now. True family love even comes to an end for there becomes no matter to it. If man cannot live for a future then what can he live for?
In coming to a deeper understanding of this great hope of obtaining eternal life we must look to the scriptures. And in them we find that we have ‘hope’ for and in things, which are not seen but which are true (Alma 32:21, Hebrews 11:11, Ether 12:6). The Kingdom of God is a great truth which is not often seen by men, but which is and does exist. We have a great hope in it. Man does not see the oxygen that he breaths, but it is true, it does exist and man is lost without it. So is man lost in that pit of darkness the grave without the hope of life in Christ.
Such ‘hope’ in obtaining eternal life through Christ’s atonement is an optimistic perspective, in this there is a ‘brightness of hope’ (2 Nephi 31;20), that light of new life beyond the dark confines of the tomb. With the lack of such hope, there is no such ‘brightness’ but only the despair of the pit of the grave into which man without such hope descends into oblivion. Indeed, in the light of Christ’s redemption of man from that grave of death, is to be found the ‘surety of hope’ for a better world, that world of endless glory in God’s presence and kingdom (Ether 12:4). It is a better world in which men and women may become kings, queens, priests, priestesses, even Gods and Goddesses. Is this not a ‘better world’? Is this not the ‘surety of hope’ in which we look towards? Is this not that ‘better world’ which we are striving for by our exercised faith in Christ and our charitable living in the love of God and man?
Now there is an eternal tie of dependence between this faith, this hope and even this charity. For Moroni recorded, ‘how can ye attain unto faith save ye shall have hope?’ (Moroni 7:40) And , ‘without faith there cannot be any hope.’ (Moroni 7:42) They exist together, co-dependant one upon the other. One is not without the other in the Lord. If this is no Christ, there is no redemption made and this is no ‘hope’ of a resurrection unto eternal life, thus ‘hope need come of that faith’ in Christ (Ether 12:4). Man cannot redeem himself from death and hell. The power is not in him. The power is in God and in that Christ which he has sent and who had atoned for the fall of man unto the resurrection from the grave. Thus it is in that exercise of faith in Christ’s atonement from which our hope does come. It is dependant upon it. And in turn, if we have not a ‘hope’, a desire, an ambition, an expectation, a prospect, a possibility, goal, an aspiration, the very purpose in of life yearning for a better life after death, then the exercise of faith in Christ has no end purpose in it, for this was the very purpose for which Christ was raised up and sent forth from the Father to so redeem men from death, that fall of man into this temporal mortality as it were. The one is totally reliant upon the other, they have but definition in each other.
Now Satan would have men believe that such faith in Christ and such hope of the resurrection to eternal life in him is a vain and foolish hope (Alma 30:13). They teach that the existence and life of man had an end. They teach that one is swallowed up into that dark pit of the tomb into nothingness, forever snuffed out into oblivion. With such a lack of hope, they ensnare men in that great despair of endless death of the grave. They teach them it mattereth not what a man does or does not do, for when they are dead that is the end of it. And thus they propose that there is no such thing as good or evil for in such a terminal end in death, all things loose such definition of meaning. Only in the truth of continued life beyond the grave is there any definition of meaning to right and wrong, good and evil. Yet the very continued existence of human society attests to the very eternal principle of it. That this is good and evil and that such as is done by a man in this life does have a lasting effect in life and times to come. Such nature of such eternal principles of light attest that man’s very nature extends beyond the grave. For, there is good and evil. There is right and wrong. And there is a ‘better world’ to come after death in Christ for such who do merit it.
Thus the ‘hope of mankind’ must press forward, having a perfect brightness of that great hope in a glorious life to come through Christ (2 Nephi 31:20). All great societies and civilization of the world are built upon just such a ‘great hope’ of continued life beyond the grave. And this ought not be surprising, for from the beginning it was so, even with Adam and Eve. It was the basis upon which Satan tempted Eve. That by partaking of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, she might be as the gods, knowing all things as the gods know them to be (Genesis 3:4-5, Moses 4:10-11). Thus Adam from the beginning, from the time of the fall of man into this temporal mortality, did exercise faith in God, in Jesus Christ unto the attainment through the atonement of Christ that he might again regain God’s presence, that better world of God, and have eternal life and not an end in the grave (Moses 6:52).
Now, indeed, we of the church do have a great optimistic brightness of hope in the atonement of Christ unto eternal life. In deed, we do ‘hope for all such things’ in Christ (AofF 13). And being of such a nature of being just men in Christ, we do attain unto a ‘firm hope of the resurrection’ (D&C 138.14), that we do know that all men will be resurrected from the grave to have their spirit reunited their body and live again in Christ. Even the very messengers from God of the restoration do confirm our great hope in Christ. (D&C 128:21) And we feel a great sorrow unto even that of weeping for those who do not have such a great hope of a glorious resurrection, but are caught in the snares of Lucifer, who is Satan, and do fail to obtain that most exalted status with God in glory because of their rejection of Christ and the resulting wickedness of their lives in this temporal sphere. (D&C 42:45) For indeed, he who has not faith in Christ, a hope in the resurrection unto glory and has not lived in the light of the love toward God and toward one’s fellow man in righteousness, can do nothing towards becoming an exalted being in that great fraternal brotherhood of oneness with God in Christ unto obtaining the Kingdom of Heaven (D&C 18:19). For, indeed unto the attainment of God’s Kingdom of Glory, if there must be faith there must be hope, and if there must be hope there must be charity’ (Moroni 10:20). For without such love of God and one’s fellow man in the righteousness of the Lord, there is no great reward to be obtained through the merits of Christ, for if men do not come unto him and take upon themselves that name of Christ in living according to the love of God and of their fellow men, they cannot ‘hope’ to obtain such a reward of Christ through the atonement. For it will not redeem men in their sins, only from their sins in Christ if men will come unto him and live according to that which he has taught, and he had taught that be must have such love of God and of our fellow men, for they are the great commanded of God unto man. And without such charity, faith and hope availeth not (1 Corinthians 13:1-3, 2 Nephi 26:30).
Now, it is with the understanding of the inseparable link of inter-reliance of that of faith and hope that we turn now to the topic given in the book of Alma, chapter 32 where Alma the younger as the prophet of the church of God upon the earth at that time did preach concerning this faith and hope. It was in this chapter in which Alma set forth that faith and hope were to be exercised in that which is not seen which is true. And it is in that chapter that Alma prescribes the planting of the seed, the word of God concerning the plan and process of attaining eternal life, which would grow into a tree from which the fruit of eternal life might be picked. That seed of the brightness of hope was in the obtaining eternal life through the atonement of Jesus Christ. And if that brightness of hope of attaining eternal life through Christ be implanted in the human soul, and nourished and not cast out, it would grow into that tree of life, for it is the true seed of that hope though it was of such things as are not seen but which are by the spirit of God so ascertained and confirmed in the hearts and souls of men.Now, have you such a hope in Christ? Do you look forward to eternal life and not to an end in the grave? Have you that hope of that better world? That prospect in that world in which you will unite again unto that God from whence we have come? Do you have that brightness of hope in obtaining that glorious goal of aspiration of becoming even as the gods, to become kings and queens, priests and priestesses, gods and goddesses in that world yet to come? Is this your great hope, the desire of your heart, your great desire to so obtain that place of glory and honor according to that grand plan of God the Eternal Father? Or are you confined in that dismal despair of death of that pit of the grave and hell in which there is no such hope to inspire the human mind and heart and soul to a much greater fate than being eternally interred dwindling but to dust and lost to oblivion and nothingness having a final end in earth's cold ground with never having hope in a life beyond?
Does not your soul stir to grasp such a seed as this great and bright and glorious hope? Does it not long to live on and on? Does it not swell with that nourishing truth of the spirit from God that enlightens the soul of man with that understanding of things unseen which are true in god? Can you not have that inspiring hope of optimistic view of perspective? Or will you but concede to that fate of death and of the grave and of that hell to which the devil would have you in complete despair succumb? Will ye yield to that darkness of death when the bright light of the truth of God is at hand to be so easily grasped? Does not your hope spring eternal with your human breast? Or is your soul so turned inward upon itself in that deep despair and gloom that you are forever lost to any such contemplation or consideration than to aspire to but the dust of the ground?