Before we begin, we need to define something:
Definition of "spiritual death": "spiritual death" comes as a result of our own disobedience. Our sins make us unclean and unable to dwell in the presence of God. Through His perfect Atonement for sin, Jesus Christ offers us redemption from this spiritual death.
Knowing Christ and his infinite atonement, the process of repentance and ongoing humble efforts to live a disciples life, on our part, creates connection with God and leads to forgiveness of sin and to spiritual life.
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People tend to assume that Corianton’s one big sin was extramarital sexual relations.
It wasn’t (even though that is a sin).
Let’s parse out the statements made by Alma, Corianton’s father, in verses in Alma 39.
Corianton’s father calls him out on five sins:
a) verse 2: boasting in his strength and wisdom (pride)
b) verse 3: forsaking the ministry (abandoning the work God has called him to do)
c) verse 3: seeking out the services of a harlot (extramarital sexual relations)
d) verse 3 and 4: excusing his extramarital sexual relations by saying that many other people were doing it (justification of sin)
e) verse 4: doing all of the above when he was in a calling that involved preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ with his father and brothers.
Alma uses the plural “these things”, not “this thing” in verse 5 when referring to what Coriantion has done. It’s not just a single sin.
And Alma says that this combination is not as serious as murdering someone, or denying the Holy Ghost (Joseph Smith defined the latter as “have the heavens opened unto him, and know God, and then sin against Him. . . . He has got to say that the sun does not shine while he sees it; he has got to deny Jesus Christ when the heavens have been opened unto him, and to describe the plan of salvation with his eyes open to the truth of it” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith 358). But Alma does say that it’s nearly as bad. (verse 5).
In verse 6, Alma gives a name to what has resulted from Corianton’s combination of sins that he has indulged in. He calls it “murdering against the light and knowledge of God”.
So, what exactly is "murdering against the light and knowledge of God"?
Alma knows what that sin is because he, himself, fell into a variation of that sin as a young man. (Alma chapter 36) Writing about the fomenting of antipathy and prejudice and derision against Christ and His gospel and His church, which fomenting he, himself, actively engaged in when he was a young man, he wrote, “Yea, and I had murdered many of his [God’s] children, or rather, had led them away unto destruction”. (Alma 36:14)
We tend to think of Alma’s persecution of believers when he was younger only in terms of the hurt it caused to believers. And we overlook the fact that he was also actively acting in a way that encouraged others who were truth seekers to not want to have anything to do with the church that embraced the gospel. In his case, he was committing two sins, the second one as a result of the first.
Those were: 1) fomenting and encouraging derision and persecution of church members and 2) making anyone’s conversion an automatic opening to being persecuted in pretty nasty ways.
If that’s going on in your town, you are likely to be either 1) lured into joining the thrill of engaging in arrogant persecution of others (in this case, pesrcutin believers) and/or 2) totally uninterested in the gospel of Jesus Christ that Alma had been deriding because you see the persecution that would be heaped upon you if you do start learning it. Either one of those two courses of action will result in your falling into “being led toward destruction” (which Alma also called being “murdered”) rather than being led toward salvation (“everlasting life”). Alma is talking about the results of his actions fostering spiritual death: further distancing oneself from recognizing embracing Jesus Christ and salvation.
Alma is referring to how his words and actions as a young man had made it significantly harder for people to recognize or embrace the truth of the gospel and of salvation. He is saying that Corianton’s sins, though different from his own sins, have caused and resulted in the same damage to others that his own sinful actions did.
We sometimes recognize this Corianton effect in our society today. For example: Imagine a pastor of a large community church in your town or city who, having committed himself to spreading the word of God engages in the activity of advertising and publishing information about the church, inviting all and anyone to attend those church services, and preaches the gospel, and encourages its members to share their faith with others, (in other words, preaching the word and engaged in missionary work). And then, imagine that a little later, it then becomes apparent to all that this pastor has been caught actively soliciting the services of a highly sought after prostitute in the next town over.
What happens? Naturally, suddenly, almost no one in your town is inclined, at all, to listen to the gospel he preached or attend the church in which he serves. And it is likely that many who were in his congregation will abandon it out of the sense of betrayal and deception that they experience from the pastor’s duplicity, his abandonment of the ministry while still claiming religious authority, and his involvement in activity that is generally known to be totally contrary to what he was preaching. The pastor’s actions have attacked, and in some cases completely killed (murdered) whatever level of faith or interest in the gospel unbelievers may have had or might have been inclined to explore.
God’s whole work is to bring forth the happiness, salvation, and eternal life of His children. The pastor’s actions do not only affect himself, they create a mega setback in the process of increasing light and enlightenment and comprehension of many of His beloved children who heard his preaching or and understood that he was taking on the role of disciple and minister of God. And God does not take such actions lightly.
And Alma is very clear about that in his words to Corianton:
“Oh,, my son, how great iniquity you brought among the Zoramites; for when they saw your conduct, [playing the role of a disciple and called and set apart as minister representing the Lord, and simultaneously indulging in sins that show that your integrity and honesty is not to be trusted] they would not believe in my words.
“And the Spirit of the Lord doth say unto me: Command they children to do good, lest they lead away the hearts of many people to destruction: therefore I command you, my son, that ye refrain from your iniquities (plural); that ye turn to the Lord with all your mind, might and strength; that ye lead away the hearts of no more to do wickedly, and acknowledge your faults and that wrong which ye have done.”(Alma 39:11–13)
It is not fornication or adultery that is “most abominable above all sins save it be the shedding of innocent blood or denying the Holy Ghost” (vs. 5), though those are serious sins. Rather, Alma declares what he has been talking about is the sin of consciously acting with duplicity and actively choosing to commit sins (five specific ones in Corianton's case that seriously erode trust) when you have been specifically called and have committed yourself to represent God’s work and love and faithfulness.
Alma knows that indulging in sin while one is representing oneself as a minister and follower of Christ (which mission and calling Corianton was called to and serving in) makes it extremely hard, if not nearly impossible, for other of God’s children to trust your words about Him and the salvation and truth that He offers to them.
Knowing God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ and the amazing gift of Christ's atonement for our sins is the foundation and of eternal life. (John 17:3) The act of committing sins that actively thwart the gaining of that knowledge on the part of others (be those sins Alma’s sins, or Corianton’s sins, or any others) is the serious accusation that Alma lays at his son's feet.
Alma knows, from personal experience, the consequences of doing that.
He is explaining the seriousness and reality of that sin of "murdering of many of his [God’s] children, or rather, leading them away unto destruction", in this case the specific group of consciously chosen unrighteous decisions and sinful actions that had resulted in Corianton commiting that sin.
The sin second in awfulness to actions that hasten the physical death of another (murder) is not the sin of fornication or adultery.
It looks to me that, in reality, Alma is saying that the sin second to actions that hasten the physical death of someone else (murder) is the sin of engaging in sinful actions that further the spiritual death of someone else.
