Latest / Scripture Central / Mormon 1–6 | Oct 28–Nov 3 | John W. Welch & Lynne Hilton Wilson | Come Follow Me Book of Mormon

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Mormon 1–6 | Oct 28–Nov 3 | John W. Welch & Lynne Hilton Wilson | Come Follow Me Book of Mormon · Scripture Central

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Welcome back to Scripture Central.
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I'm Lynn Hilton Wilson. And I'm Jack Welch, and we are
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excited to be able to talk about the first six chapters in the
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Book of Mormon with a little B. This is a little confusing
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sometimes with this title, but these first six or seven
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chapters cover a period of 63 years.
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And we get a lot more on Mormon as we expand and go through his,
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even his sons records. But this is a real great capsule
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to learn a lot about this wonderful prophet.
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And during these 63 years, these six chapters, we learned that he
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retrieves the plates. He he received them from, it
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appears like it's not a relative Mormon says he is the son of
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Mormon. And he gets them from a man who
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notices him being very wise by age 10.
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You know that youthfulness of Mormon is maybe some reason that
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he was so interested in some young men like.
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Stripling Warriors. Stripling Warriors or Captain
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Moroni and others. In fact, let me just give a few
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dates that were given in the Scriptures.
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He's 10 when he's called as the record keeper.
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He doesn't start the record keeping until later, but he's 10
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when he starts. When he's 11, he's moved down
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from the northern lands to the southern lands around the area
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of Zarahemla that's been rebuilt.
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He's called as a prophet at age 15.
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He's called as a general at age 16.
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He retrieves the larger plates and begins that editing at age
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35, and then at 52, he refuses to fight offensively.
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And he has a few years there, three to five years.
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It appears in the text that I think he had time to dive into
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the editing process. But by age 65 he goes back and
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talks about the records again and at age 74 has his final
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battle and dies. He was called to be a prophet
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when he was 15. How was he called to be a
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prophet? The Lord came to him.
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Did the Lord come to anyone else who was called to be a prophet
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when he was about that age? Oh, interesting with our dear
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Prophet Joseph and Samuel was even younger, and David was
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young. And yes, the Lord has appeared
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to many in their youth. And I'd be happy to point out
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also that some of the really great leaders in the history of
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the world started their career, if you want to call it that,
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when they were young. Well, I think Alexander the
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Great also became a general at 16.
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And Julius Caesar, the most successful Roman general, was a
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very young general when he started.
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So here we have Mormon fitting into a world class situation.
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Out to an ancient situation, not a modern situation, not 19th
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century. No, it's not going to happen
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today. It's just another evidence.
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It's an ancient text. And, and some people have
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suggested that Mormon might have been in a cast, you might say a
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military group, so that he kind of inherited the right to be the
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leader. Maybe.
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And so we, we don't know exactly how that happened.
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But anyway, these other details like this can be, if you want
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more information, let me mention here my, my notes that are
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available on Scripture Central. And if you go to page 31 to 34,
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you'll find a, a longer chronology that goes, for
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example, through the the fact that there were some years of
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peace right before Mormon's 15th birthday.
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So he has a little time to grow up as a youth in a peaceful
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situation. And I appreciate what peace
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would have looked like. If you go down to around 3:50 AD
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after five years of of confusion and warfare, they actually will
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enter into a peace treaty with the Lamanites for a 10 year
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peace. And I've looked at these
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chronological details and wonder if there's what's going on.
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And first of all, 350 years is 7 * 50.
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So if we have a jubilee of 50 years, which might still be a
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cultural phenomenon, or maybe it was a part of the Law of Moses
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that wasn't fulfilled by Jesus after all, relieving the debts
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of the poor and things like that.
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We're all parts of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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But now you're celebrating or recognizing the 7th Jubilee and
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maybe both the Lamanites and the Nephites were willing to say,
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you know, we've been squabbling long enough, let's have a 10
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year peace. And again, that number 10 might
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have had, you know, some real power behind it.
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Personally, I think that this is when Mormon does most of his
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work in doing the abridging of the record or at least getting
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things organized. And I also think that although
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we can't be sure, I think that Mormon would have married
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somewhere around 3:30 when he was 20 years old.
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And so if Moroni is born in 331 or 332, he'll be almost 20 years
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old when that 10 year peace treaty takes effect.
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I believe that Moroni then works with Mormon learning the trade
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of his father. The editing, The making of the
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plates. The language of the Egyptian.
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The reformed Egyptian. In the ancient world, learning
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from your father was the main way you learned a profession.
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And you know, when Mormon dies at the end of Mormon Chapter 7
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and beginning of eight, Moroni finishes the record and he will
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abridge the Book of Ether and he will carry on the work of his
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father. And he doesn't have to be taught
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how to make plates and and how to how to inscribe them.
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Everything it was in its own order, small and simple things
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in the right time. So I've added some of these
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little details into this chronology and it goes on then
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through the 60s, which was the troubled decade and then also
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the three 75384. We have the final 12 years
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really of sustained regular all out war and most of the knee
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fights on some kind of migration.
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They're they're be they've been forced out of their homes and
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they're they're fleeing. They're trying to find a place
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to go. And what I think is really kind
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of interesting and I've got it here on this chronology, is that
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in the year 378 AD, we know that this was a, a period of
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extensive warfare all throughout Mexico, Central America, and
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maybe even well beyond that, where the big powers, the
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Kingdom of Teotihuacan in what is now Mexico City and the
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Valley of Mexico and the great power of Tikal and other places,
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warfare breaks out throughout the whole region.
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And it it extends everywhere. And especially the people from
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Teotihuacan do not want any enemies.
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They do not want anyone who will not work with within their
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society, which by the way, had a lot of blood sacrifice and human
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sacrifice and obviously things that the Nephites would never be
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willing to go along with. They're going to have a real
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hard time finding a place anywhere in this world.
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And we know from this particular Stila that was found in Tikal
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down in eastern the Yucatan, this is stila #31, and it is in
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the National Museum and Guatemala City.
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And it says that in January of 378, a leader named Spearthrower
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Al was ruling over Toyote Wakhan and his warlord named Shiyaj
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Kaka conquered Tikal. So that is now extending to the
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farthest eastern part. So now the people from Toyote
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Wakhan own the West and the East.
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No matter where the Book of Mormon takes place, we have a
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major warfare going on paralleling this time that would
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have affected the whole region because of the extreme size and
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detrimentalness. Even though we don't know where
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Mormons little group is in Zarahemla or Desolation or the
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North, this is going to have ramifications that will affect
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them because they can't flee. And I think this chronology then
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helps to explain those final years, that last decade of
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intense war with the Mormon actually on the run.
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So it makes sense. And then Moroni on the run after
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that. And we'll see that they're at
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the end in 384 Mormon and the Lamanite king will actually
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agree to a fight, a final battle in Kamor and we'll talk about
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that a little later. So as an overview, I think if
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you take as an approach to reading the Book of Mormon this
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time, keep in mind this chronology.
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Mormon has always loved dates. He always gives us this year of
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the reign of judges and so on. He's a great historian, very
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clear in what he's saying and. We now can see Mormon as a
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chronology if if there is such a word.
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He sees his own life in this series of chronological dates,
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and that's how he's told the whole Book of Mormon story.
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We also can see what he thought was important.
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Yes, the fact that he is a military leader and we have a
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lot on the military is not just because the Book of Mormon
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parallels the last days. It's also because he was aware
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and sensitive of these people and these things that were
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happening. He was a prophet of God, and we
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get a lot of beautiful prophetic messages about what's going to
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happen at the end. The destruction of His people is
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included in this book multiple times before it happens.
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I think intentionally because it meant so much to Him that this
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was prophesied by our Savior and others.
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They knew it was coming and in fact he mentions at the end of
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chapter 1 that this had been prophesied by Abinadi and by
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Samuel. Well, he included the prophecy
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from the Savior that we talked about last week that there would
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be a destruction during his time.
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So the the suggestion is, and it happens.
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This works on many levels. If you read the Book of Little B
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Mormon by asking, what do I know about Mormon?
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What does this tell me about his life and his interests and his
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prophetic calling, his professional calling, his
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military responsibilities and whatever else, and then ask, how
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does that help me appreciate the record that he has given us in
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the abridgment of the records of Nephi?
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It fits together in an amazing way.
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It makes so much sense when you understand that Mormon was a
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real person and he was inspired to tell the real story with
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these real points. You know, Jack, what you're
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talking about authenticates the Book of Mormon as a text from
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God, as a text, as what it says it is.
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Joseph would never have known these little details.
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He hadn't even remember the small plates were last He hadn't
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translated them in the order that we have it now.
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And yet we can see as careful scholars looking at every word,
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Mormon's fingerprint with each author's editing that he does
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that's. Right.
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And you mentioned editing. I've edited and you've edited.
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Can you imagine cutting down a history of 1000 years?
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And as I look back on the editing work that Mormon did
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without a word processor, without an editorial assistant,
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except maybe Moroni. Without even wide out or an
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eraser. I mean, you're on plates.
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Oh, unbelievable job. No, it really is a record that
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it shows that Mormon was a multi talented person, Inspired, Yes,
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also a brilliant general. He a wonderful historian, he
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appreciates human life. He knows the gospel.
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Well, and one reason why he can do those other things is because
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he's a prophet of God. It's because he has the Lord
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helping him and directing him. And I feel like he's a servant
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of God and the Lord is magnifying his his colleagues.
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And like you say, he was called when he was 15 years old.
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It was a part of his persona from the very beginning.
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And you know, let me share 1 little thing about when I was 15
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or 16. No, maybe 17.
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When I graduated from seminary, I was invited to be the speaker
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on our ward seminary graduation and I chose to speak on Mormon.
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So there as a teenager, I appreciated Mormon in many ways.
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I don't have the talk I gave. I know I wrote out notes, but I
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know that it was very positive and that he had a deep influence
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on me growing up. Maybe that's why I've always
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loved the Book of Mormon, because I love Mormon.
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Let's jump into the text then. I'm interested again to see that
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we have these beautiful parallels in structure chatting
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starting in chapter 1. I want to mention at least one
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of the chiasmus in these in this week's reading, verses 13 to 16,
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he parallels this challenge of the wickedness did prevail upon
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the face of the whole land. And if you look down in verse
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16, you'll see because of their iniquity, you know, and it's a
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little bit longer. I've just shortened him here to
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make a tighter chiastic on a slide for you to see, but this
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is when he records that the Lord took away his beloved disciples.
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The Third Point is that the miracles and healings are also
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ceasing because I'm fascinated with the fact that it's not that
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a prophet can't perform these things, it's that the faith is
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not good enough to receive them and so the prophet will be
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stopped from performing them by the Lord.
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And notice that he says that they had willfully rebelled.
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The parallel for No More Miracles is rebellion.
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The opposite, yes. And he's getting those words
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from King Benjamin coming out in open rebellion.
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He will use that phrase again. Beautiful.
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And so I always like to look to the turning point.
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Yes, in the center. What's found at the middle and
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why is that important here? Well, he's talked about being
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visited of the Lord. Is there anything more important
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than that? Yeah, and that's when he's 15
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and he says, I knew of the goodness of Jesus.
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But the tragedy here to me is he wants to preach.
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And yet not only were there no gifts of the Spirit there, the
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Lord commanded him. I was forbidden.
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This is verse 16, that I should not preach unto them.
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And so he had this call from God.
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He wanted to share his witness and the people would not hear
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him. I feel like Moses wanted to take
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the children of Israel straight into the Promised Land.
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He wanted to take them up to Sinai.
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He wanted them to enter into the presence of the Lord and they
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refused. And Mormon is in those same
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shoes in verse 18 and 19. And to me it sounds a lot like
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we've read in Helaman back in Helaman chapter 12 and 13.
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We've got the gadiant and robbers.
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We've got the land is being cursed because the treasures are
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lost. They're, they call them
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slippery. And I'm fascinated with the
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other words. He cocks about sorcerer's,
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witchcrafts, magics, powers of evil 1.
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I, I think one of the really interesting things here is when
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he's talking about magic and witchcraft and so on.
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This was the thing that got Jesus in trouble was that people
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thought that he was working with magic and witchcraft, and that's
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how he was able to perform his miracles.
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The unbelievers were were blaming that.
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That's right, and he's being accused because it's legally
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against. The Law of Moses.
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So the power of the Evil 1 is manifest in all these ways.
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There can be when people without authority manipulate.
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And I don't know whether we would, you know, call it
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witchcraft today, but but this appealing to the dark side of of
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life and the world. It's it's certainly with us
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still today. Oh yes, Oh yes.
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And I think that what Mormon is telling us here is that the the
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land was cursed. And the land is usually what is
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cursed. Even for Cain, it was the land
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that was cursed. Yeah.
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In chapter 2, we begin to see again more of these human
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interest details coming out already in the way Mormon is
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telling his story. One thing we learn is that he's
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interested in numbers. And we know that people in the
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ancient world were actually very sophisticated mathematicians.
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They kept track of the days of the week, months of the year.
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They built buildings that were aligned with the rising of the
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star of Venus. And even this winter and summer
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solstices were perfectly aligned in their temples across the
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ancient world. Yeah, they they knew their
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cosmos as well. And in the ancient Americas,
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they had calendars that were awfully sophisticated.
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So it's no surprise that you know Mormon will give us all
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these dates. It's evidence that it of its
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antiquity as well, the way that he uses the words and phrases.
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Yeah. And also in Mormon chapter 2, as
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we've already seen, he mentions that the land was filled now
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with robbers. This is chapter 2, verse 8.
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This will become of course, the undoing of all of the Nephi
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world that the robbers are the things that are driving this to
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annihilation and extermination. But we get it very early in
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Mormons awareness and obviously he's worried about this as a
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young leader. They can trying to do something
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that with it. And that may also then color a
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bit why he's spending so much time, as we mentioned before
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talking about the Ghadian robbers.
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I've never counted up how many ghadian robbers there are, but
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it saturates Helaman and 3rd Nephi.
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The first part of Third Nephi. You know, it's what Mormon knows
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a lot about, so maybe that's why he's more inclined to put put
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things in like that. In chapter 2, verses 12 to 14,
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we have lamentation, mourning and sorrow.
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And he's quick to point out that this was not sorrow unto
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repentance. And I think there's a lesson in
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that for us, that, you know, we can be sorry when we do things
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that are wrong. And sometimes we can even kind
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of say, well, sorry, well, we really don't mean it.
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But do we say that to the Lord too?
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He was so disappointed. He was hoping that their
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mourning would take them to Christ.
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Because sometimes when we're on a low is when we fall on our
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knees. But then he, he just is just.
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It's so upset in verse 14. They did not come unto Jesus
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with a broken heart and a contrite spirits.
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And where's he getting that phrase from?
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Well, the Savior quotes it. So that phrase is coming from
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the words of the Savior from the sky.
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There in the darkness, I'll have no more sacrifice by the
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shedding of blood, but the new sacrifice of broken heart and a
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contrite spirit. And so he's, he's aware of that.
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And by giving us that, he's saying they are turning against
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even the words of Christ. It says they did curse God and
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die. And then in verse 15, he says
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they came out in open rebellion. Again, this is coming from
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Mosiah chapter 2, verse 37. But now we can understand why he
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would be focusing in on this. When they don't bring the broken
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heart and contrite spirits, they're rejecting Jesus.
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And when they come out in open rebellion, they are repudiating
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the covenant that King Benjamin and others had made.
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So there's a lot of serious baggage attached to these
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phrases. And tragically, he says in verse
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15, I saw the day of grace was passed with them temporally and
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spiritually. And Chapter 2 ends with that 10
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year peace period that we mentioned.
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They make a treaty between the warring factions.
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And although Mormon doesn't mention the three letters that
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we have from him, you can actually come up with some
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pretty good theories about when those letters were written.
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We'll deal with these letters later when we encounter them in
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the book of Moroni. But Moroni seven, I think, was
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written right toward the end of that 10 year peace period when
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Moroni has now gone off on some responsibility and is is now
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trying to preach in synagogues in various places.
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And Mormon gives him instructions about faith, hope
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and charity and other things. And and then in chapter 8 of
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Moroni, we have a letter that Mormon wrote about how baptism
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has been problematized and people don't understand or
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aren't practicing baptism the way it was supposed to be in are
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baptizing little children. And we'll come back to that
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later. And finally, Chapter 9 in Moroni
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lines up very closely with the the the atrocities that are
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reported than in the 300 and 60s in the next chapter.
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So they have. During this period of peace,
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Mormon is busy building fortifications.
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Are we surprised? As his hero, Captain Maroon?
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I did the same thing, you know, and he cries unto the Lord.
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I love verse 2 where he says, the Lord did say unto me, cry
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unto this people, repent ye, and come unto me and be baptized and
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build up again my church, and ye shall be spared.
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So the Lord had silenced him for many, many years, decades even
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where he wasn't allowed to preach.
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But now this is different than chapter one, verse 16.
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In chapter 3, he's allowed to go and open up his prophetic voice
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of warning and declare peace. And I appreciate not only is he
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building fortifications and trying to build them up
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spiritually, but he says in verse 5, I did 'cause my people
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that should they should gather themselves together if the
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people who are righteous need to be together and and fortify
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themselves in the land desolation.
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So this is in the northern area to a city which was on the
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borders by the narrow pass. Now twice the narrow pass is
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called a narrow neck, and sometimes it's called a narrow
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pass. We don't know where that is, but
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he is north of that. And in verse 9 it says that
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unfortunately, even though he's been crying repentance, they go
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to battle again. We've got 2 battles near
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desolation that they win. And then the Nephites begin to
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boast. And this is the tragedy after
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the 2 battles in verses 7 and 8. Then in verse 9, the Nephites
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began to boast in their own strength.
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They began to swear before the heavens that they would avenge
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themselves. And that's where this prophet
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just says I will not fight offensively, I will not.
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He refuses to lead them at this point.
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Well, especially when it's avenging.
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Now they're they're after revenge and isn't that kind of
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sad that it's more than sad? But this all takes place fairly
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early after that 10 year peace. And you'd think that people,
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after understanding and appreciating and enjoying a
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decade of peace, would not return so quickly like a dog to
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his vomit. Yes.
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You like to quote the Lord? Yeah, and it's interesting also
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that in this area Mormon puts this description in this
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conversation he has with the Lord in a beautiful little
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chiasmus. So he says he refuses to fight
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in verse 1116, says I utterly refuse to go up against my
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enemies. So there's that bookends of that
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little chiasmus. But in verse 13, he says thrice
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I delivered them out of the hands of their enemies, but
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unfortunately they did not repent, he says.
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And in verse 14, he says, and when they had sworn by all that
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had been forbidden them, and that's repeated as well.
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All of these little points are repeated.
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The center point is by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
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And he says that they would go up into their enemies to battle
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and avenge themselves with the blood of their brothers, you
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know. And the Lord came unto him,
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saying, Vengeance is mine. And.
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Not yours. Yeah, Deuteronomy 3234 and the
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people repented. Not so.
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The Lord says I had delivered them.
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You know, it's it's the Lord speaking here.
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So before Mormon said I delivered you in battle three
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times, and now the Lord says I delivered them, which I think is
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really a good reminder. Yeah.
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And a reminder, like you say, because if we then take credit
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for the victory, that's the beginning of pride and a lot of
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other problems. Yeah.
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So I appreciate the Lord's reminding him there in verse 15
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that it is. It is the Lord's work that He is
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about. And I think putting the Lord and
26:31
Savior Jesus Christ at the middle of these words, saying
26:37
and authenticating these are the words that Jesus gave me.
26:42
And I'm speaking now with prophetic authority to really
26:47
effective use of the chiastic structure.
26:50
Where the center we've got not only as a turning point and not
26:52
only the most important, but it rearranges the whole thought
26:56
process. There's this big shift at the
26:58
middle. It's not you, honey.
26:59
It's not your battle. These are all mine.
27:01
And the word savior, you know, the Lord and the Savior, that
27:09
also does have some battle significance where we're rescued
27:12
and we're saved. Mormon does not use divine name
27:18
combinations very often. If you look, he, he will speak
27:22
about Jesus or about Christ, especially Christ lots of times.
27:27
So it's quite unusual for him to talk about the Lord and Savior
27:31
Jesus Christ. And I think he adds that here
27:35
because this has been a personal revelation to him, and he wants
27:40
to recognize fully the authority of Jesus who brought it to him.
27:45
And so having that at the middle, sometimes we want to be
27:51
sure that the turning point is something significant and kind
27:55
of unique. It's not just randomly appearing
27:58
in a lot of places. And this is a unique way that he
28:02
is expressing his testimony and his witness of His Redeemer.
28:07
By using those important functions of Jesus Christ.
28:12
I appreciate that he's also humble enough to include this
28:15
little It's not a reprimand, but a reminder, A gentle reminder of
28:20
the Lord. I delivered them from battle.
28:23
Well, and being the commander in chief of the army.
28:27
The whole nation. Has.
28:29
I don't think Alexander the Great ever said that.
28:31
Don't don't think I read that, least in the records we have.
28:33
Yeah, Chapter 3 ends then as he begins to write to the Gentiles,
28:40
and five times he includes these three groups.
28:43
I'm going to write to the Gentiles, I'm going to write to
28:45
Israel, and I'm going to write to the remnant.
28:47
And I sort of see Mormon in the midst of this chaotic world that
28:51
he lives in right now of war and bloodshed, and he just says, I
28:56
want to get away from that and I want to prophecy.
28:59
I can't testify to my people. I can't teach the gospel to
29:02
those I love and I have charity for my people.
29:05
I am going to teach the gospel to those people that will read
29:10
my words hereafter, the Gentiles, to Israel and to the
29:13
remnant. Here you go.
29:15
Five times he talks about this. We'll get those three in the
29:18
title page. Right.
29:21
So Mormon and Moroni, I think they work together to some
29:24
extent. They may have said to each
29:26
other, we will need to put a seal of our authorship on this.
29:30
And seals usually involved identifying who the scribe or
29:35
the author had been with an explanation of what the book
29:39
contained. And you can see here, in this
29:42
little phrase, Mormon's audience being identified in a way that
29:48
would end up in the title page. Again, Jack, Joseph and Oliver
29:52
couldn't have come up with this. I mean, this is just the
29:54
tightest, most carefully kept record.
29:58
It is such a book of God. It's amazing.
30:01
It's a marvelous work and a wonder.
30:02
It is. And and you know, you can, you
30:04
can actually see on ancient manuscripts this process of the
30:09
scribe or the author identifying himself and putting kind of his
30:13
seal on approval. Sometimes it's his name,
30:15
sometimes it's an actual seal. Those are indications from Egypt
30:19
and other places. We don't have any idea exactly
30:21
how in the New World these would have been identified, but the
30:25
tradition going way back into Egyptian manuscripts would have
30:30
called for some kind of an identification of the author at
30:33
some point. I'm also touched that in this
30:35
area where he's writing to the Gentiles, he talks about when
30:40
his efforts of editing this enormous text will come forth.
30:47
Actually, he was just the word will commence.
30:50
And we read about this also in first Nephi, you know, in the in
30:54
Nephi's vision of the tree of life, it's prophesied and then
30:59
it's repeated again in Second Nephi 3 by Lehi and then in 3rd
31:03
Nephi 21 by the Lord. So we now have this as the
31:07
fourth time that this is going to come forth in God's due time
31:12
and, and we are blessed to have this sacred text at our
31:17
fingertips. Chapter 3 ends with Mormons 4
31:21
purposes. The Spirit manifests unto me.
31:23
He says for this, 'cause I write as I told you, He says that I
31:26
write five times. And then he first says that ye
31:28
may know that ye must all stand before the judgment seat of
31:32
Christ. And this has been a theme that
31:33
we've seen in his text for a long time.
31:35
Yeah, every soul who belongs to the whole human family of Adam
31:39
ye must stand to be judged of your works, whether they be Good
31:43
grief. Well, and that's a line right
31:45
out of the gospel of Jesus Christ from 3527.
31:50
So obviously, if you're going to be quoting Samuel the Lamanite,
31:55
you might as well quote Jesus too.
31:58
And he gets them all there. And then the second point he
32:01
mentions, and also that you may believe the gospel of Jesus
32:05
Christ, which is coming out of this, that sermon of the Lord in
32:09
chapter 27, which he shall have among you.
32:12
So there's the promise, you're going to have this gospel,
32:14
you're going to have this witness.
32:16
Then the Third Point he mentions is to the Jews, the covenant
32:19
people of the Lord. And that's how he refers to the
32:22
Jews. Have you noticed that he, he
32:23
loves that phrase, the covenant people, the Lord.
32:26
I counted it up. There were seven times he uses
32:28
that phrase. That's a good number.
32:30
Yeah, that's a very whole and complete number.
32:32
They shall have other witnesses besides him whom they saw and
32:37
heard, that Jesus whom they slew was the very Christ and the very
32:42
God. And then finally his fourth
32:44
purpose. And I would that I could
32:46
persuade all the ends of the world to repent.
32:49
And I am convinced if I want to feel the Spirit more in my life,
32:53
I need to repent more. And the more I humbly fall
32:57
before the Lord with a contrite heart, the more I can feel the
33:01
Spirit, which is the feelings of forgiveness and love.
33:05
So there's How He Ends chapter 3.
33:13
In Chapter 4, we just hear information about the terrible
33:19
situation that will lead up finally to the ultimate battle.
33:24
And what we learn here is how awful things have really gotten.
33:29
And so Mormon doesn't dwell on it a lot, but, you know, he does
33:33
write that letter in Muroni Chapter 9 that will actually
33:39
speak of a lot of these problems, this time of great
33:43
wickedness, 363 to 366. We learn in chapter 4, verses 14
33:52
and 21, that women and children were being sacrificed.
33:58
And in fact, human sacrifice was widely practiced among the
34:04
dominant powers in ancient America.
34:06
And according to John Sorenson's book, which I'd like to mention
34:10
briefly here, called Images of Ancient America, he goes through
34:13
and documents with pictures of artifacts and manuscripts and
34:18
other things, a lot of things in the life of people in the
34:22
ancient Americas. And here on page 142, you can
34:27
see pictures of human sacrifice, taking the heart of a person
34:32
out, and here blood letting and the blood of the heart.
34:35
The caption here that Brother Sorensen gives us reads the
34:39
practice of animal sacrifice, early turned to sacrifice of
34:43
humans. It appears the custom was
34:45
widespread in Mesoamerica and finally was carried on by the
34:49
Aztecs on a scale not even approached by any other ritual
34:54
system in the history of the world.
34:56
So one wonders if this isn't a part of the abominations and
35:01
what we're seeing reflected right here, with women and
35:06
children actually being sacrificed.
35:08
You know, Joseph knew so little about the Americans and the
35:11
ancient history. Not No one in the 19th century
35:14
did. And yet we see historical
35:16
parallels. We don't know where this came
35:19
from, but we do know that there are historical parallels that
35:22
can identify similar things in the Book of Mormon.
35:25
That's tragic. This is one of those things.
35:28
The footnotes will give you latest information on
35:34
authentication of of this practice.
35:36
I mean, sometimes you think human sacrifice that's just so
35:39
outrageous, you can't think it ever really happened.
35:42
Unfortunately, it hasn't happened very often, but Mormon
35:46
makes it very clear that this was one of the things that.
35:48
What's happening here there then?
35:50
It's not saying so much that the Nephites are engaging in this,
35:53
although maybe some of them had. At that point the Nephites are
35:57
come to him again and ask him to help defend them.
36:01
And it says in verse 1 of chapter 5, I did repent of the
36:05
oath which I had made, that I would no more assist them.
36:09
And they gave me command again of their armies, for they looked
36:12
upon me as though so I could deliver them from their
36:14
afflictions. Now I just want to pause here
36:16
because Mormon's done this editing.
36:19
He knows how important oaths are.
36:21
You know, he saw all those Lamanite conversions in the anti
36:25
Nephi Lehi's. The people of Ammon would not
36:28
take up their weapons again. I think one of the differences
36:31
here is he refused to go before them in offensive warfare and
36:36
they are now asking them to help defend themselves again.
36:41
But I still think as a prophet of God, he is following the
36:45
commands of God at that time. And sometimes people like Nephi
36:50
are asked to do things that go contrary to something that was
36:53
told by God earlier. In Exodus chapter 21, it says
36:57
that if you lie not in wait, in other words, you haven't been
37:01
planning and hunting and come deliberately with guile and with
37:06
hatred. Deuteronomy 19 will add, but
37:09
there's certain motivations. If you haven't done this and the
37:12
Lord delivers someone into your hands, then you can take the
37:17
life of that person. And Nephi chose to use those
37:19
words to show that this was applicable to him.
37:22
And and so the important thing here is that the Lord is who you
37:26
need to check in with. And I think when he says that he
37:29
repents of his oath, I think he goes and he asks the Lord, I
37:35
have sworn by your name that I will never lead these people
37:38
again. Is it OK with you if I do that
37:42
or whatever he asks. I think he, he, he knows that he
37:47
is bound by that oath unless God will release him from it.
37:52
And the Lord does release him and says, yes, there's no one
37:55
else I can turn to. And you know, and you will see
37:59
not only that this history is wrapped up on the battlefield
38:05
and prophecies will be fulfilled, but you will be able
38:09
to see that the record is preserved and eventually come
38:13
forth. Even verse 2 continues but
38:15
behold, I was without hope. So our dear prophet does not
38:21
feel like I will be a positive end because he's already read
38:25
about it. He's read about it from the
38:26
mouth of the Savior himself. When he says I was without hope.
38:29
I think it meant hope in winning the battle.
38:31
I don't think he means hope, not hope in the savior.
38:33
I'm sure he had hope in our Savior.
38:35
So hold that until we read Moroni Chapter 7.
38:38
Let's keep going in chapter 5. I love verse 5.
38:41
Whatsoever lands we had passed by and the inhabitants thereof
38:44
were gathered in, and if they weren't gathered in, they were
38:46
destroyed. So he talks about this trying to
38:50
save his people, and he finally just writes to us again in verse
38:55
8. I, Mormon, do not desire to
38:58
heart up the souls of men and casting before them such an
39:01
awful scene of blood and carnage as was laid before my night.
39:05
You know, he talks about this for quite a while.
39:08
He says, but I know that all things which are hid must be
39:12
revealed on the housetops. And Jack, we live in a day and
39:16
age where there are things revealed on the housetops, you
39:19
know, not just through TV antennas anymore.
39:22
We now have a lot more cables and abilities to project things.
39:28
Isn't that interesting? No, that's right.
39:29
The kind of openness with information we we couldn't have
39:34
dreamed of in our youth. Yeah, he says the knowledge of
39:37
these things, meaning the text, his editing of the Book of
39:40
Mormon must come unto the remnant.
39:43
Therefore I write a small abridgment.
39:45
So he's written a large abridgment and a small
39:49
abridgment. It sounds like Nephi had to
39:51
write the large plates and then the small place.
39:53
So he again says, I speak unto their seed, and also the
39:58
Gentiles who have care for the House of Israel, skipping down
40:01
to verse 11, they will sorrow that this people had not.
40:05
Repented, that they might have been clasped in the arms of
40:08
Jesus. I don't know how you feel when
40:10
you read these verses, but I am so touched that Mormon thought
40:15
that by reading these things, I could develop greater empathy
40:20
and greater charity for these these fellow citizens, fellow
40:26
human beings, fellow sons and daughters of Adam and Eve.
40:30
He says that I'm I'm worried that they're going to sorrow for
40:33
them. It tells me how Mormon felt.
40:35
It tells me that the author is in dark sorrow for his people
40:40
and he's saying I'm worried about you guys sorrowing so
40:43
deeply, which really is touching.
40:45
But that's the beauty of the written record with the spirit
40:48
is we do develop empathy and we can learn without having to have
40:52
our own experiences when we read other people's and apply it to
40:55
our lives. And I like how he talks about
40:58
what their ultimate potential was.
41:02
Their potential was that they could be clasped in the embrace
41:07
of the arms of the Savior. And we can feel that.
41:12
Oh, we can. To me, this is the whole purpose
41:14
of entering into the presence of the Lord.
41:17
It's it's this idea of being enwrapped in his arms again.
41:21
And a lot of these things we feel and know, and we've seen in
41:25
3rd Nephi that these people received a lot of information
41:31
about what we would call the endowment of the temple.
41:35
And it would seem to me that when he is saying to them, you
41:38
know, you could have been embraced in the arms of the
41:42
Lord, You could have felt that you could have been brought into
41:48
his presence, which we, I think, can understand very, very
41:52
vividly. So sad.
41:53
And we live in a world where people sometimes don't realize
41:56
the beauty of the gift of the gospel either.
41:59
So we can have empathy, we can feel for these.
42:02
Continuing on in verse 12, he talks about the plates again.
42:05
He said they are to be hit up unto the Lord, that they may
42:07
come forth in His own due time. And then skipping down to verse
42:11
13, behold, they shall come forth according to the
42:13
commandment of the Lord, when he shall see fit in His wisdom.
42:16
And behold, they shall go into the unbelieving.
42:19
Now that is interesting to me. The people who don't understand
42:22
are going to receive these works.
42:23
The people who are not believers are going to get these words
42:26
that they may be persuaded. These words are to persuade us
42:30
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and the
42:34
Father may bring about through his most beloved the great and
42:38
eternal purpose. This is a powerful testimony of
42:42
the purpose of the Book of Mormon.
42:43
In addition to the title page, we have his own testimony here
42:46
in chapter 5. As he talks about the the seed
42:49
of this people, he also talks about the book coming to them
42:52
specifically he says in verse 15, and also that the seed of
42:56
this people may more fully believe the gospel.
42:59
We shall go forth unto them from the Gentiles for this people
43:03
should be scattered. And then if you go down all the
43:06
way to verse 18, it says, but now they are LED about by Satan.
43:08
You know, they're not in a place to hear it now.
43:10
So the Lord's going to wait a few generations and a few
43:13
centuries and a longer than that and and then they will have
43:17
hearts to hear. So chapter 5 ends with these
43:21
beautiful verses. I'll start with 22 The Lord will
43:24
remember the prayers of the righteous which had been put up
43:28
unto him for them. And then verse 24.
43:30
Therefore repent ye and humble yourself.
43:32
Sometimes the Lord says I'm not going to hear and answer you if
43:36
you haven't been answering and listening to me.
43:39
But here this promise that our prayers will be answered.
43:42
If we are trying, if we are trying, come unto Him.
43:46
Yeah, and what do you think it means to put up prayers unto
43:51
him? I thought it was like calling
43:53
upon God in heaven. What do you think it means?
43:55
Well, I'm, I'm thinking that it might mean also prioritizing
43:59
putting it ahead of other things and your little drawing here
44:04
with upraised arms. That when we put up our petition
44:10
and do so not just in words but in deed and with full intent to
44:18
be compliant with all that he has asked, we can stand with
44:23
confidence before him and we can then know that he will answer if
44:31
the prayers are appropriate. Well, having spent a fair amount
44:39
of time there in chapter 5 talking about the future of the
44:42
record and something that I'm sure Mormon would rather talk
44:46
about the future than the present in his life, he returns
44:49
in chapter 6 to winding up the final business here.
44:53
And so in chapter 6, verse 1, he says, and now I finish my record
44:56
concerning the destruction of my people, stating the conclusion
45:00
up front. So OK, you if you hadn't read
45:03
this before and some people, you know, reading it for the first
45:06
time, oh, yeah, this is how it's going to turn out.
45:09
Mormon begins then by saying that he takes the initiative and
45:13
writes an epistle to the king of the Lamanites.
45:15
And he says, why don't we pick a battleground?
45:18
And maybe he's looking for some advantage.
45:23
They're much smaller as an army than the Lamanites and the
45:26
robbers who are all working with them.
45:29
And he says that, you know, they do pick in verse 4 a land called
45:37
Kimura where they were going to pitch their tents around that
45:41
hill, and that it was a land of many waters and rivers and
45:48
fountains, meaning springs, I suppose.
45:52
But it must be a fairly large hill.
45:54
And I think the reason that he thinks this might be to the
45:58
advantage of a small army is that they can be more nimble and
46:04
they can work through these rivers and the watercourses or
46:08
whatever the inconsistent terrain might have created.
46:11
Where a larger army couldn't have had that flexibility.
46:14
OK, and they OK. Interesting thoughts.
46:17
The other thing I'm sure that they've found in these other
46:20
battles, whenever you're you're in open territory, the bigger
46:23
army is always going to win because you can surround an
46:26
attack from 2:00 or sometimes three sides.
46:30
And at least that was the old phalanx version of how people
46:33
fought. The Romans were eventually able
46:36
to develop strategies and the use of a century, which were
46:40
smaller, nimble, movable units that were able to then defeat
46:46
the Persians and the the big phalanx kind of armies.
46:51
But so I think Mormon is wise enough to see we're small.
46:54
We need a place where we can work with, you know, smaller
47:00
units, smaller groups. And he does divide his people
47:03
and his men into ten groups, each with their 10,000.
47:08
Now, they may not have 10,000 in the army.
47:12
In every one of these units in Rome, you could have a century.
47:17
And of course the word century comes from the word that we get
47:20
100 from century. Centurion is one of 100
47:26
soldiers. You could not have more than 100
47:29
soldiers in a century. They should have a lot less, so
47:32
maybe these thousands are not up to 1000, but it could have been
47:35
up to 1000. Well, it's up to 10,000.
47:37
Yeah, but they only use 10s, thousands and hundreds of
47:40
thousands and 10s and 10s of thousands, because in the
47:44
ancient world, at least in Hebrew, thousands, the largest
47:47
number. So it's always thousands of
47:49
thousands of thousands. Again, another evidence of the
47:52
antiquity of the book. Dividing up into these groups
47:56
may explain why he wants to fight at a hill and not out on
48:00
some big open field. Which I wouldn't have thought of
48:05
as a well, maybe I would have, but but I'm not a military
48:09
genius like Mike Morman was. And let me mention, if you're
48:12
curious about more of this kind of thing, we have to know whys
48:16
know why #489 talks about factors to consider in
48:21
understanding the nature of and the place of this hill kimura
48:25
#453 actually goes on and gives some comments about how we
48:31
should consider some of all our cowdrey's statements regarding
48:34
the hill kimura. Obviously, as most people are
48:37
going to read this, they'll wonder, well, what do we know
48:39
about the the hill and places and the records and all of these
48:43
things. So those know whys I think are
48:46
well worth reading. They don't come to a final
48:49
conclusion, but they do give you information and evidence that's
48:52
useful. I just want to remind everyone
48:55
as we come across names in the ancient world, that doesn't mean
48:59
they're in the same location as our world.
49:01
Just want to remind us that this battle is in the location that
49:06
we do not know where it was, but we know that Mormon LED 10,000
49:12
and he had these other groups and there it was filled with
49:15
waters and springs and. Yeah, and once Mormon has worked
49:19
out an agreement with the enemy and where we will meet, I think
49:25
we can assume that he knows this is likely the final battle.
49:29
They'll give it their best effort.
49:31
However, he has no real hope and certainly no prophetic assurance
49:36
that they will win. And so in verse 6, he does go
49:42
and bury all of the remaining records, and Moroni, he says,
49:48
will keep a few of them. He gives his son charge over the
49:52
plates. Now what does he keep?
49:54
Well, he keeps the plates of Nephi, large plates, and the
49:58
small plates. I think he may have kept either
50:05
the plates of ether the 24 gold plates, or he may have kept
50:10
instead King Mosiah's translation, because King Mosiah
50:15
did translate them already and so why would Moroni not use that
50:20
translation anyway? He he may have kept a few other
50:25
things. Obviously he kept the letters
50:28
that Mormon had written to him. I don't think those were on
50:31
plates though. Not yet, He writes them later.
50:34
But he's protecting those and treasuring them as an heirloom
50:39
from his father. And he knows that he will have
50:44
ultimately the responsibility to finish this project.
50:48
And then we have the description of the the slaughter, which
50:54
Mormon spares us any great detail in.
50:56
He doesn't talk about how they lined up or where they met.
51:00
There are some who will flee, but for the most part the enemy
51:06
of the Nephites will kill everyone they possibly can.
51:10
There's 24. Yeah, except for 24 and you
51:14
count here. It's it starts with Gid Gadonna
51:19
and his 10,000, Llama with his, Gilgal with his and so on.
51:26
There are ten groups of these 10,000.
51:29
So I think they've arranged themselves in an order that they
51:32
hoped would be pleasing to God. Maybe it's in a sacrificial kind
51:36
of way, saying we we will go and we're going to go in honor and
51:41
order. And in the end all but Moroni
51:45
and a very few remain. And where they go and how they
51:49
are spared or escaped, we don't know.
51:51
But Moroni does manage to get away with the with the Lord's
51:55
help. And while we don't know where
51:58
Moroni went, it seems to me that if I were Moroni, I would have
52:03
gotten as far away from that area as I possibly could, and I
52:07
would have stayed away from that area.
52:09
The people who have killed all the rest of my people would
52:13
especially like to be sure that the record of those people,
52:18
which doesn't speak favorably of the victors, would be something
52:22
that they would certainly destroy.
52:25
And if they knew that the metal was precious, which would be
52:30
obvious, Moroni's carrying a pretty good a supply of precious
52:37
gold and Annie Victor would like to take that as a trophy back to
52:44
their capital. So they may have looked for
52:48
Moroni and he may have been able to hide out and get away, and I
52:53
don't know. But where he went eventually, we
52:56
know that he will wander for many years before he will
53:01
finally complete his his assignment and his writing and
53:05
editing. Even decades.
53:07
Well, as Mormon chapter 6 ends, we have what I like to call
53:12
Mormon's lament. And he, I don't know whether he
53:19
writes this, dictates it to Moroni.
53:23
Maybe he had even composed it somewhat before, as he's saying
53:28
farewell to his people. O ye fair ones, how could ye
53:32
have departed from the ways of the Lord?
53:34
Well, they already have, you know.
53:35
He knows that they are dying, and he will now present this,
53:40
and Moroni will include this. I think Mormon is not quite
53:44
through yet. Chapter 7 will be Mormon's final
53:46
farewell. But what we have here at the end
53:51
of chapter 6 is a classic text of lamentation.
53:56
We have a whole book of lamentations in the.
53:59
Old Testament. Jeremiahs.
54:01
And we, we have lamentations. It's a big part of ancient
54:06
literature. Lamentations were spoken like we
54:10
speak at funerals and people would gather for a funeral and
54:16
what would they do? They didn't have hymns to sing
54:19
very often, but they would have lamentations that sometimes
54:24
would speak about the dead or the deceased person or the
54:28
circumstances surrounding it. One of the greatest collections
54:32
of lamentations comes from Homer's Iliad.
54:36
And you know, the Iliad is the battle of the Greeks against the
54:40
Trojans and Achilles against Hector.
54:44
And it's one of those battles that goes on and on and on, like
54:48
what we have here in the Book of Mormon, where this battle, these
54:52
final years have gone on for more than a decade.
54:56
And finally, as the dead are being buried and over and over
55:04
again in the Iliad, you will have these words of lamentation.
55:09
And so we can see from Hebrew and Greek ancient literature
55:16
models of how you would you would lament.
55:20
They even had professional lamenters who would write these
55:24
kinds of things and would come and would participate in the
55:29
funeral and may have known the deceased.
55:32
And I think Mormon, he gives a fairly simple lamentation, but
55:40
it fits the classic modes. One of the things that most of
55:44
these lamentations do is they begin by addressing the
55:47
deceased. And oh, you have who have fallen
55:52
under such unfortunate situations or whatever.
55:55
But they would be there would be words of praise and there would
55:58
be words of our our mourning and our sorrow at our loss that you
56:03
were gone. And you know the kind of
56:07
ordinary human experiences that you would expect.
56:11
So here you can see that Mormon makes made very clear that he is
56:19
personally mourning. I mourn your loss.
56:24
He also says my soul was rent with anguish.
56:28
I mean, he's he's participating in this.
56:33
He's not just an outside observer.
56:36
He's tearing his soul. He says my soul was rent torn.
56:44
And in fact, in the ancient world, and you see this in
56:48
almost all these funerals, people will tear their clothing
56:52
and just in their morning, it's a way of tearing.
56:56
My life has been torn apart. And and he says maybe he's
57:01
tearing his coat. And in a generation where you
57:03
didn't have multiple, multiple, multiple layers of thickness
57:07
clothing, the tearing of your garments that you wear every day
57:11
is is really quite significant as a message.
57:13
And he would have been well aware of another time that a
57:17
coat was torn. Not just Joseph in Egypt, but
57:20
Captain Moroni who tears his coat.
57:23
And writes the title of Liberty. As a solemn way of of saying to
57:30
God, this is coming from the depths of our existence and
57:35
maybe this is kind of a final we're burying these people.
57:40
They didn't get a proper burial. There was no one left to bury
57:44
these people. But he doesn't mention he's
57:46
renting the coat. He mentions, though, his sorrow.
57:48
Yes, he mentions the rendering of a soul.
57:50
Yeah, yeah. My soul was rent with anguish
57:54
and in a prophetic way, prophets would often use these kinds of
57:59
things Abinadai did as a way of of making the words more
58:07
impressive and real. So with with that, let's take a
58:14
a final look at these words and maybe just read them together
58:18
and notice that it's kind of a three-part lament.
58:23
It could have been a kind of dirge where these lines could
58:28
have been repeated or chanted. He will begin and end.
58:35
So parts one and three address the dead.
58:39
And then in the middle we have his his personal lament.
58:43
O ye fair ones, how could ye have departed from the ways of
58:46
the Lord? O ye fair ones, how could ye
58:49
have rejected that Jesus who stood with open arms to receive
58:53
you? Behold, if ye had not done this,
58:55
he would not have fallen. Behold, ye are fallen, and I
59:00
mourn your loss. I'm sure there are tears coming
59:03
out of his eyes as he's writing this.
59:05
O ye fair sons and daughters, ye fathers and mothers, ye husbands
59:10
and wives, ye fair ones. I like how he mourns here with
59:14
the family. A funeral was usually a family
59:18
event, and there's nobody in the family to bury these people.
59:23
They're all the children and husbands, wives.
59:25
But he recognizes, as we mentioned in Fourth Nephi, that
59:31
the family unit was the beginning of Zion.
59:34
I think it's that Zion society that he's referring to when he
59:37
calls them fair ones. I thought it was interesting
59:41
because in my vocabulary, fair sometimes refers to a color of
59:45
something light. And so I looked up in the Book
59:47
of Mormon to say, how was that word fair used?
59:50
I looked up every time it's used and it was interesting to see
59:53
that it often allocated a spiritual righteousness and now
59:57
occasionally you'd see it, you know, fair as the sunshine
1:00:00
doesn't mean darkness, you know, So that is definitely a full of
1:00:03
light kind of thing. But it still had to do more with
1:00:06
lightness and brightness of glory and goodness.
1:00:10
So when he's talking about these fair ones, he's not talking
1:00:13
about anything the color of someone's hair.
1:00:17
He's talking or he's talking about their condition of
1:00:21
goodness and falling to depravity.
1:00:24
I think that's a great insight and especially when he repeats
1:00:27
it so often, the fair sons, the fair daughters, she it's a
1:00:34
quality. It's, it's not a skin color or
1:00:40
something of that nature. How is it that ye could have
1:00:44
fallen, but ye are gone, and my sorrows cannot bring you return.
1:00:49
So once again, my sorrows, my lamentation.
1:00:51
This is clearly a lament on his part.
1:00:54
The central parallelistic part of this continues then, and the
1:00:59
day soon cometh that your mortal must put on immortality, and
1:01:03
these bodies which are now mouldering in corruption must
1:01:06
soon become incorruptible bodies.
1:01:08
And then ye must stand before the judgment seat of Christ, to
1:01:12
be judged according to your works.
1:01:14
And if it be so that ye are righteous, then ye are blessed
1:01:17
with your Father's who have gone before you, You Beautiful
1:01:21
couplets, parallel structure. And you wonder.
1:01:24
Obviously, when poets write, there's still a remaining
1:01:28
poetical order to the world, even though the world may be
1:01:31
just coming unglued around you. TS Eliot and the Hollow man and
1:01:35
the poetry of of this kind of nature.
1:01:40
The poetry does bring a sense of, of organization.
1:01:45
The words can at least still stand in a beautiful place and a
1:01:49
beautiful way. But with that he concludes
1:01:53
coming back. Now he won't speak about the
1:01:55
fair ones, but he does address them as ye or you.
1:01:59
O that ye had repented before this great destruction had come
1:02:03
upon you. But behold, ye are gone, and the
1:02:05
Father, yeah, the eternal Father of heaven knoweth your state,
1:02:10
and he doeth with you according to his justice and mercy.
1:02:15
What a closure for that justice and mercy.
1:02:19
I think he's thinking of Alma, chapter 42.
1:02:23
And the Father, yeah, the eternal Father, I think he's
1:02:29
thinking of Christ here, knowing King Benjamin's name, for Jesus,
1:02:34
the Son of God, the Father of heaven and of earth.
1:02:39
And ye are known to them, but the impersonal and general use
1:02:43
of the word ye and you. Now he's not just addressing
1:02:47
them as sons and daughters or fair ones, but as you as a as a
1:02:56
whole body, as his people, and as the sons and daughters of
1:03:02
God. It clearly shows his charity and
1:03:05
love for. Them.
1:03:05
And he does say. He doesn't say that I will see
1:03:10
you there. He hopes he will, but he does
1:03:14
say that we have confidence that God will do with you, not only
1:03:20
with his justice, but He will deal with us and with them
1:03:25
according to His mercy as. Well, and we all need mercy from
1:03:29
our God. So this is Mormon's way of
1:03:33
saying goodbye to his people in Chapter 7.
1:03:37
Next time we'll see Mormon saying goodbye to his audience,
1:03:42
his readers, us. But with this, I think we learn
1:03:48
a lot of lessons about life and death.
1:03:52
Death, of course, is real. Death will affect us all
1:03:58
eventually, and we must prepare. This life is a time to prepare
1:04:05
to meet God, and as Latter Day Saints, we actually see death in
1:04:12
a very positive and happy way. Yes, we mourn the death, we
1:04:18
mourn the loss, but we of all people know, and I know that we
1:04:24
will stand again and we will go forth and we will be together,
1:04:30
and especially together in the arms of our Savior and within
1:04:34
the love and the justice and mercy of our wonderful Heavenly
1:04:40
Father. And I testify of that in the
1:04:43
name of Jesus Christ, Amen. Amen.
1:04:47
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