Back to the Future: Thoughts on Moroni, Son of Mormon

Many times this year my thoughts and scripture study returns to a central figure and themes surrounding his ministry. Moroni, Son of Mormon. It started early in the year after I noticed the date that he visited and tutored Joseph Smith in a reoccurring pattern that coincides the fall equinox in the weeks around September 23. This is the same time of year (even the same day/week) for the celebration of the Feast of Trumpets and the Day of Atonement in the Jewish Calendar.

After making this connection I re-read Malachi and realized how tragically the Old Testament ends. In four short books, Malachi demonstrates the fractured state of Israel as displayed in their worship and the abandonment of sacred covenants. God speaks through his prophet, “Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts.” He warns them, that “my name shall be great among the Gentiles” because they offer polluted sacrifices, and keep not their covenants. The Israelites fragmented covenants are reflected in the calamities that follow. Bondage, captivity, and wars, have already scattered the Israelites culturally and geographically through the last books of the Old Testament. How often the Lord uses what seems to be a punitive consequence, trial, or refiners fire, to bring about some greater purpose. The Atonement being the most Perfect example of Agony and Love, working out our Salvation as part of a great and Eternal Plan. So to was the scattering of Israel and Abraham's seed to fulfill a greater purpose. It would place Moroni, just one of many, in the right place, to fulfill a significant work among the Nephites.

The conquest and deconstruction of Jerusalem, as the consequence of Israels broken covenants, begins during the time of the prophet Jeremiah. Simultaneously, Lehi warns of this before taking his family and fleeing Jerusalem. Such a beautiful ray of light and hope this turns out to be as it begins the Book of Mormon story for Nephi and his family in their journey to the promised land. As we see the complete record come together with the Bible and the Book of Mormon, God's Mercy shine's upon Lehi and his family providing the means for them to escape Jerusalem before its destruction. They prosper in the promised land according to their faithfulness. Jeremiah in contrast represents the Justice of God as we read about the fate of Israel, successive captivity, wars, and imperial rule. But not without the promise of later gathering. Jeremiah speaks to this in such beautiful language referencing this in our day prior to the Second Coming, “For there shall be a day, that the watchmen upon the mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion unto the Lord our God...And there is hope in thine end saith the Lord...” (Jeremiah 31).

Malachi also ends with hope:

Malachi 3: 1-3

1 Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts.

 2 But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap:

 3 And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.

D&C 128:24 clarifies as the Latter-day Saints now fulfill these promises:

24 Behold, the great day of the Lord is at hand; and who can abide the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appeareth? For he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fuller’s soap; and he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. Let us, therefore, as a church and a people, and as Latter-day Saints, offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness; and let us present in his holy temple, when it is finished, a book containing the records of our dead, which shall be worthy of all acceptation.

It is by the work of more than one messenger, that all these things come to pass. It's remarkable to witness prophecy planting seeds of promise and taking root in our in our time, as hearts turn in families with the Spirit of Elijah at work. I wonder if Moroni was bursting to enter this earthly plane and quote from Malachi when he visits Joseph for the first time:

 5 ¶Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord:

 6 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.

I imagine Moroni had a deep and profound understanding of loneliness and a significant appreciation for connection, kindred, and family. To experience loss and separation from his father Mormon, or witness the spiritual and temporal death of the Lamanites and the Nephites, whether it be through genocide and wickedness, and then fear for his own life hiding out the rest of his days. To leave the family of God cut off from each other, from God, unsealed by the power of the Priesthood, would leave the Earth in its purpose of creation “utterly wasted.”

Moroni explains in the Book of Mormon that he has seen our day, and knows our doings. And Elijah, his spirit, is the one who connects all of this, all of the Family of God and the seed of Abraham, together. Not only by increasing desire and turning hearts, so that we "come to a knowledge of our fathers," but so that Joseph would have the sealing power restored in preparation of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ." As well as other priesthood keys necessary for the work of the restoration, such as the Keys for the Gathering of Israel (held by Moses), and the Keys of the Stick of Ephraim (held by Moroni). (D&C 27)

Moroni's inclusion of the Sacrament Prayer at the end of the Book of Mormon has always been curious to me. Almost an afterthought? Or, rather, an inspired inclusion because even though he had “supposed not to have written more,” Moroni finds that he has “not as yet perished” and makes very good use of this time to write in his wanderings. And thus, his life is prolonged. As I consider the connection with the Feast of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the last sacrifice offered in the Old Testament by the Israelites I'm led to wonder how this relates to me. What are we to understand from this in our day? It's also included in the Doctrine in Covenants. Modern revelation could provide the words for the ordinance of the Sacrament. Why does Moroni speak this to us from the dust, at the very end? And why specifically mention that it may be “of worth unto my brethren, the Lamanites, in some future day, according to the will of the Lord?” Finally, how does it relate to the rest of Moroni's discourses?

Starting with what we know. We know that Moroni saw the scattering, destruction or demise of three other groups of people. In the abridged record he leaves references and records to all three of these peoples. The Israelites, referenced and called upon beautifully in Moroni 10:31 to “Awake and arise from the dust, O Jeruselem...” The Nephites (his own people) as prophesied, cycled through pride again and again, visited by the Savior Jesus Christ, and once again plummeted into social decay and moral degradation. And another group whose record Moroni includes next to his own at the end of the Book of Mormon. The Jaradites. I imagine Moroni seeing the parallels, and finding comfort in the brief words of Ether. The other wandering prophet like himself. A record keeper, and last of his people, living out his days alone in the same brutal landscape.

Moroni's special witness, and devastating insight gives him something no other prophet ever experienced. A third chance. The prophetic opportunity to prevent our demise. He not only knows from sad experience what destroyed the Nephites, over and over again. He witnessed the Lamanites annihilate them. Two people destroyed through wickedness. He reads the account of the Jaredites, and understands how the pattern repeats itself. And so it comes to our day. For as we know, we were shown unto Moroni and he “knows our doings”

Have you ever stopped to consider how this could be? Have you ever considered how the Lord tutors his prophets? Remember how Nephi is taken up into the mountain where the angel or a personage says “Look!” and he witnesses different moments in history, time, even the “condescension of the Lord,” and is caught up again and transported to another. Or Moses sees the burning bush, after he confronts Satan, and as he hears the voice of the Lord “still speaking, he cast his eyes and beheld the earth, yea, even all of it, and there was not a particle of it which he did not behold, discerning it by the spirit of God.” How is it that Moroni new our day? And what does he have to say to us? What patterns did Moroni identify to prevent our own downfall or the “calamity” of our times? (D&C 1:17)

First, remember that upon Mormon's death, Moroni begins Mormon 8 a timid record keeper. He is obedient, to the commandment of his father, but finds himself with “with few things to write.” “Condemn not my imperfections,” he asks the reader, explaining later concerns with his “weakness in writing,” especially when he feels that the Lord has not made him “mighty in writing like unto the brother of Jared.” The whole first section of his own record are tender, and tragic. Full of despair, and conclusion. “I remain alone to write the sad tale of the destruction of my people....therefore I will write and hide up the records in the earth and whither I go it mattereth not.” At this point, Moroni is out of ore, and since he is “alone” without “friends” and does not know “how long the Lord with suffer that” he will live, he concludes his writings in Mormon 8:13. He buries the record. This could very well be the end of the Book of Mormon?

It is also at this point, that something happens to Moroni. Reading between the lines of vs 13 and 14 Moroni experiences a character arc of prophetic magnitude. He has renewed purpose and vision to keep him (and us) from perishing. From Mormon 8:22-23 we know that Moroni understands the covenants and promises that God made with Abraham and the fathers, and that the “eternal purposes”of the Lord shall be fulfilled. In vs 34-35 Moroni speaks directly to us, all of our world today. After he buried the plates, and left them in the earth, he received a vision. And something in that vision cast his perspective into an eternal round. It changed Moroni, and turned his heart toward us in the future, and his fathers; meaning all those who settled the promised land in the Americas all the way back to Abraham and beyond. With the expressed conclusion being a greater desire for us to “come unto Christ, and be perfected in Him.”

And so, Moroni despairing, without ore, the last of his people and fearing for his life, came back to retrieve the plates and write! Knowing how to prevent needless suffering with faith, hope, charity, and meekness, crying repentance with a clear and fervent understanding in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, reminding us today of the importance of renewing our covenants each week as we partake of the sacrament, and calling to strengthen our stakes in Zion to withstand the the calamity which we know from Joseph Smith (D&C 1:17) is to come upon the inhabitants of the earth. For “Behold, I speak unto you as if ye were present, and yet ye are not. But behold Jesus Christ has shown you unto me and I know your doing. And I know that ye do walk in the pride of your hearts.”

By September 1823, Moroni now a resurrected being, had already or seen our day. Somehow, in whatever way Jesus Christ, the risen Lord, tutored and prepared him to return to the plates, and continue writing in his wanderings. Moroni, Son of Mormon, got to come back to the future (our day) to fulfill many promises. To live prophecy, with the coming forth or the Book of Mormon, and the restoration of the priesthood and New and Everlasting Covenant. It is by and through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, obedience to His Everlasting Gospel and the covenants and ordinances therein, that we find good company, safety, and peace in our future wanderings.