Alma 63

As the record of Alma and his sons Helaman, Shiblon, and Corianton concludes, there is an interesting note that reminds me that redemption through repentance and faith on the Lord Jesus Christ is available to every person. Corianton, you will recall, struggled as a young man with doctrinal questions and with chastity. His father Alma tried to help resolve his faith questions and encouraged him to repent and make the most of his life. In the record it is clear that Corianton did repent. He served later as a missionary again, and in this last chapter in the Book of Alma, Mormon notes:

10 And it came to pass in the thirty and ninth year of the reign of the judges, Shiblon died also, and Corianton had gone forth to the land northward in a ship, to carry forth provisions unto the people who had gone forth into that land.

11 Therefore it became expedient for Shiblon to confer those sacred things, before his death, upon the son of Helaman, who was called Helaman, being called after the name of his father.

The text clearly implies that the sacred records would have passed to a worthy Corianton if he had not gone off to "the land northward." I'm grateful for the power of the atonement and for the opportunity to repent and be forgiven.