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TODAY'S THEME
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The Prophet Mormon with the Golden Plates -by Tom Lovell |
This is the third post in a series on the subject:
"The Prophet Mormon's role in bringing about The Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ."
The painting above is the only one of Mormon, of the two of him to which I have access, that I've used in my blog thus far. This second painting of him portrays him in, perhaps, the final hour of his life.
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Mormon Bids Farewell to a Once Great Nation -by Arnold Friberg |
That touching scripture along with my having just viewed that painting, brought tears to my eyes and an even greater love for Mormon. What a man he was! He testified of Christ! His love and great concern was extended to his people in our day whom Latter-day Saints (and Mormon himself) refer to as: Lamanites
22 O that ye had repented before this great destruction had come upon you. But behold, ye are gone, and the Father, yea, the Eternal Father of heaven, knoweth your state; and he doeth with you according to his justice and mercy. (emphasis added)
Mormon 6:17 O ye fair ones, how could ye have departed from the ways of the Lord! O ye fair ones, how could ye have rejected that Jesus, who stood with open arms to receive you!
18 Behold, if ye had not done this, ye would not have fallen. But behold, ye are fallen, and I mourn your loss.
19 O ye fair sons and daughters, ye fathers and mothers, ye husbands and wives, ye fair ones, how is it that ye could have fallen!
20 But behold, ye are gone, and my sorrows cannot bring your return.
21 And the day soon cometh that your mortal must put on immortality, and these bodies which are now moldering in corruption must soon become incorruptible bodies; and then ye must stand before the judgment-seat of Christ, to be judged according to your works; and if it so be that ye are righteous, when are ye blessed with your fathers who have gone before you.
However, he knew very clearly by the Spirit of Prophecy and Revelation which was a constant guide to him, (even through all of the awful battles in which he participated even as a physically large teenager, I'm sure that although it may seem impossible to you that the Holy Ghost could be with him during battles.) I'm grateful that we, to whom he refers to as Gentiles, (people of the future in the Western Hemisphere, were much loved and prayed for by Mormon.
I know he sought to prepare us to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the Lamanites of our day especially by bringing that which he wrote which was to become: which he, Mormon, knew would be a great and an eternal blessing to those of us who believe in what he wrote and especially when we live by what is taught in it!
The Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ
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Captain Moroni and the Title of Liberty -by Arnold Friberg |
Mormon, himself, as you know by now, had been an officer since age sixteen and perhaps even before as a sodier of no rank. He was much like a Moroni who lived in about 75 B.C. whose life's story he knew because he read the record written by Helaman about him and etched those accounts onto the golden plates.
Captain Moroni had much success against very hostile Lamanite armies led by a Nephite traitor, Amalakiah, who cunningly and by evil means had become the king of the Lamanites who considered the Nephite Nation to be enemies.
Here are Mormon's own words he wrote during the abridgement of the records from the Plates of Nephi concerning one of the battles in which that Captain Moroni was leading the Nephite army of that day through to victory. These words were written by the Prophet Mormon many centuries after these events took place:
Alma 48: 7 Now it came to pass that while Amalickiah had thus been obtaining power by fraud and deceit, Moroni, on the other hand, had been preparing the minds of the people to be faithful unto the Lord their God.
8 Yea, he had been strengthening the armies of the Nephites, and erecting small forts, or places of resort; throwing up banks of earth round about to enclose his armies, and also building walls of stone to encircle them about, round about their cities and the borders of their lands; yea, all round about the land.
9 And in their weakest fortifications he did place the greater number of men; and thus he did fortify and strengthen the land which was possessed by the Nephites.
10 And thus he was preparing to support their liberty, their lands, their wives, and their children, and their peace, and that they might live unto the Lord their God, and that they might maintain that which was called by their enemies the cause of Christians.
11 And Moroni was a strong and a mighty man; he was a man of a perfect understanding; yea, a man that did not delight in bloodshed; a man whose soul did joy in the liberty and the freedom of his country, and his brethren from bondage and slavery;
12 Yea, a man whose heart did swell with thanksgiving to his God, for the many privileges and blessings which he bestowed upon his people; a man who did labor exceedingly for the welfare and safety of his people.
13 Yea, and he was a man who was firm in the faith of Christ, and he had sworn with an oath to defend his people, his rights, and his country, and his religion, even to the loss of his blood.
14 Now the Nephites were taught to defend themselves against their enemies, even to the shedding of blood if it were necessary; yea, and they were also taught never to give an offense, yea, and never to raise the sword except it were against an enemy, except it were to preserve their lives.
15 And this was their faith, that by so doing God would prosper them in the land, or in other words, if they were faithful in keeping the commandments of God that he would prosper them in the land; yea, warn them to flee, or to prepare for war, according to their danger;
16 And also, that God would make it known unto them whither they should go to defend themselves against their enemies, and by so doing, the Lord would deliver them; and this was the faith of Moroni, and his heart did glory in it; not in the shedding of blood but in doing good, in preserving his people, yea, in keeping the commandments of God, yea, and resisting iniquity.
17 Yea, verily, verily I say unto you, if all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men. (emphasis added)
After reading that, we all know now that the Prophet Mormon strongly identified with Captain Moroni! Anybody willing to dispute my guessing where he, Mormon got the name for his son, Moroni?
In Post 37b I helped you understand how it was that Mormon was selected to do things that prepared him to actually write the Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ.
In Post 37c I told you that Mormon besides being told at age ten of the assignment by a Prophet of God to write the record of His people on what are named The Plates of Nephi at the age of twenty-four, was also assigned to produce after that, that which came to be named:
The Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ. Mormon was also the father of at least one child, Moroni. His wife's name isn't mentioned. However, in his writings we learn that family is very important to him and I'm sure she was too. We are also told that he had been serving, since age sixteen, as a top leader in the Nephite Army. Perhaps he served even before then as what we perhaps would call, in the U.S.A., "an enlisted man."
In Post 37c, the just previous post, I got you involved in several serious matters regarding Mormon's early work with sacred records. If you read (and listened to Chapter 12- of the Book of Helaman)Also in Post 37c, I alluded to how Mormon, throughout the entire Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ, on many occasions, including his writing of Helaman, Chapter 12, had written words of explanation and encouragement and even of admonishment, while pursuing his course of teaching key principles and about special spiritual events throughout his assignment of abridging the records found on the Plates of Nephi from Father Lehi's day whose history begins in about B.C. 600, and then down to Mormon's own day in the mid A.D. 300 years.
Your soul should have been deeply touched and you would have recognized that the Lord God through His faithful and obedient servant, Mormon, was reaching out to each of us to prepare us for that day when when we stand before the Lord Jesus Christ/or His apostles in great humility to be judged by Him for how we lived our lives!I expect, that in an upcoming post I will consider some more of Mormon's written words of explanation and encouragement and even words of admonishment as mentioned above in the previous paragraph. Those words will show you how important it was to Mormon, through the Lord's guidance, to assist you in your quest for a happy life and for living in the Lord's presence in the afterlife and in the resurrection!
In the next post, 37e, which I will publish on about July Twelfth, I will delve into a very interesting and crucial step which Mormon was guided by the Lord to take regarding his abridgement, or using another word, condensation of the Nephite records, to bring us The Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ, in its present form!
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Neil Birch
