LDS Freedom Forum

I was just reading in Alma 5:6 which reads: "And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, you that belong to this church, have you sufficiently retained in aremembrance the captivity of your fathers? Yea, and have you sufficiently retained in remembrance his mercy and long-suffering towards them? And moreover, have ye sufficiently retained in remembrance that he has bdelivered their souls from hell."
It just occurred to me that the long suffering of their fathers also refers to the spirit world, and is a part of turning the hearts of the children to the fathers. I had always thought it was referring to the temporal captivity of their fathers only. Any thoughts?

I think that could well be the case. It could also be a warning to us to remember the temporal captivity of our ancestors and the tyrannical forms of government many of them lived under.

Christ will not have opened the gates of spirit prison for another couple hundred years, but I suppose they could be looking forward with an eye of faith to that event. Any angle where the spirit is present is a good angle on scripture. One way that I've remembered the captivity of MY fathers is to think about their conversion stories early in church history, and the challenges they made it through.