Mormon 7–9 | November 4–10 | Scripture Study Insights | A Come Follow Me Resource

hello there my name is Tyler Griffin and this is scripture study insights by scripture Central today Mormon chapters 7 8 and n and this is a a fascinating section of the the overall Book of Mormon story because chapter 7 happens to be the Final Chapter written by Mormon the chief of Bridger and it's fascinating to note of all all the things that he could have talked about in his in his last chapter he chooses to address the latterday descendants of the lamanites now there's something beautifully Christlike about what's going on here and I want to

use that as one of a couple lifelong learning overlays that we use for for these chapters today number one if you consider what would you say to to a group of people who are descended from an entire population that destroyed your family your nation your people and killed everybody I don't know that many of us would be prone to speak kindly to that group but we see this beautiful Christlike principle of forgiveness of not holding grudges this charity this this Pure Love Of Christ that flows through Mormon and you see it in his words right

out of the the first verse in chapter 7 he says and now behold I would speak somewhat unto the remnant of this people who are spared it's important to note the context for this chapter knowing it's his last and knowing what happened in the chapter right before it was that great battle at kamora and we don't know the timeline so we don't know the exact time timing for when chapter 7 was written by Mormon it could have been as soon as a day or two or three a few days after the final battle at kamora

as he describes it in Mormon chapter 6 the chapter right before which happened in 385 ad or the other end extreme we know that Moroni gives us a Time stamp in Mormon chapter 8 verse 6 behold 400 years have passed away since the coming of our Lord and savior so using the nephite calendar 400 years would put it at the year 401 ad so it's somewhere in that range we know Moroni is all alone in 401 so somewhere in that 15 16e period Mormon is slain by the the lamanites and so we don't know when

this is written but whenever it's written you know that Mormon is surrounded by that group of people those lamanites who want nothing more than to destroy the Nephites and him and he's watched the entire destruction of of not just his people but his own family and and his son is the only one that remains with the records and so he's speaking to the remnant in verse one he says I would speak somewhat unto the remnant of this people who are spared if it so be that God may give unto them my words that they may

know of the things of their fathers ye I speak unto you ye remnant of the House of Israel and these are the words which I speak and now he's going to go on and give his final teachings his final exhortations to this group of people who are descendants of this group of lamanites so how do we how do we learn from that what do we apply in our own life in our own situation today there are a million answers to that question but one consideration is to remember that as long as I choose to hold

on to past wrongs to grudges to past offenses that have been committed against me the more I Hold On To those the less I'm capable of embracing the savior's infinite power his goodness his grace his healing and what's more if I'm striving to become more like Christ that means I need to work on developing his Christlike attributes in my own life well one of the attributes of the Savior one of the attributes of God is this willingness to forgive this willingness to not hold me hostage to my past wrongs and my mistakes so whenever I

am offended whenever I'm hurt by another person I can choose I I I feel justified in in holding on to that until until Justice is served but at the end of the day today it it doesn't allow me to em Embrace and feel the loving Embrace of the Savior to the same degree as when I drop that burden at his feet and let him carry it let him take those wrongs that were committed against me as you see Mormon modeling beautifully here possibly feeling the Pains of of the war in his physical body that have

been inflicted by these lonit but not defining his life or his relationship with God or his relationship even with his enemies by those hurts or by those wounds that have been inflicted upon him he's thinking Celestial he's looking to the long term and there's a beautiful pattern for us that if if we've been hurt we need the infinite healing power of the Savior Jesus Christ in our life we need him to apply his atoning blood on our behalf his infinite atonement is not just for Sinners not just for people who do wrong things which happens

to be all of us but it's also for those who have been hurt who have been Afflicted with abuse or with any any kind of wrongdoing from other people that have has caused pain or or spiritual or physical injury we need the Savior Jesus Christ in his infinite atonement to heal us we need to feel safe in his loving healing Embrace which means we need to have him help us drop those hurts drop those offenses drop the burdens at his feet to then be able to move forward the other the other lifelong overlay that is

fascinating in these chapters is to consider that in most scripture in the entire Bible and in most parts of the Book of Mormon we're observers of a story we're watching something unfold in its culture in its place its setting its time far removed from us people having conversations people doing things but we have to watch and then try to interpret and apply what we see happening to our own life circumstance you don't need to do that in chapter 7 8 and N because Mormon in seven and Moroni in 8 and N they're not talking to

their people in their day they're not having interactions in their culture in their time in their setting they're breaking down what is what is considered the fourth wall and they're opening up the screen and looking at us they're talking directly to us so we don't need to put it through any kind of interpretive filter we can actually read these chapters through the lens of sitting down knee to knee with Mormon and Moroni talking to us in our day in the latter days it makes it a very unique set of chapters to read it through that

lens and to take it more personally that they're talking to us they've they've seen our day and we we'll go through those verses a little bit later so now let's go back into Mormon his final speech to these lonit of the Latter Day the descendants of these people and notice what he wants them to know he doesn't he doesn't stir up the wrongs he doesn't hold the grudge and and display all of the the injustices that he and his family and his people maybe have experienced at the hands of the lamanites he's forward looking he's

hope filled and he's striving to build them up rather than tear them down even though their ancestors have torn down his his whole nation look at verse two 3 4 five they all start with the same word no knowledge is power when you know the truth the truth will make you free it sets you free as the Savior taught you you aren't Bound By by un certainty you're not stifled by multiple varying opinions when you know the truth it activates more Liberty more freedom more agency to to act in accordance to to reality things as

they really are so now watch as Mormon the chief of Bridger lays out what he wants these latterday uh descendants of the lamanites to know verse two know that ye are of the House of Israel starts with their identity and their connection to the family of Israel which has all of these promises and the covenants of the Lord verse three know that you must come unto repentance or you cannot be saved your identity your genealogy pedigree chart isn't going to save you it gives you that that core identity but you have to now live up

to it it's a responsibility to act not an excuse to sit back and wait to be acted upon saying well I'm going to be saved because I'm of the House of Israel so they have to repent verse four know that you must lay down your weapons of war and Delight no more in the shedding of blood and take them not again save it be that God shall command you so what do they need to do in in their in order to fully repent and turn to the Lord lay down those weapons of war and verse

5 know that ye must come to the knowledge of your fathers and repent of all your sins and iniquities and believe in Jesus Christ that he is the Son of God and that he was slain by the Jews and by the power of the father he hath risen again whereby he hath gained the victory over the grave and also in him is the sting of death swallowed up again you're seeing a connection here between the way Mormon is talking to latterday lamanites and the way that the Savior Jesus Christ speaks of his own people keeping

in mind that Jesus was a Jew his mother his disciples they were all Jews so instead of defining all of the Jews by the poor decisions of a very small group within that that larger umbrella called Jews those Chief priests and leaders who did what is described here who slew him by turning him over to the to the Romans for crucifixion instead of defining all of them by that you notice how Jesus promises to fulfill his his covenants made to the Jews in the latter days in this Gathering effort to save them rather than condemn

them because of these decisions it's the same pattern you see with Mormon and the latterday lamanites and now verse six he he started talking about the mission and the atonement of Jesus Christ and now watch what he says he brings to pass this is speaking of the Savior the resurrection of the dead whereby man must be raised to stand before his judgment seat this is an all-inclusive restoration or Redemption that Samuel the lonite talked about in detail back in Helman chapter 13 that everyone is going to come out of the Grave overcoming physical death redeemed

from the physical death and every everyone is going to be brought back into the presence of God overcoming that spiritual death introduced by Adam and Eve it doesn't mean it's going to last forever it doesn't mean you get to dwell in the presence of God but everyone is redeemed from the physical and spiritual death inherited by Adam and Eve and Mormon gives us this second witness of that that everyone notice the word he used there whereby man must be raised in other words you can't give a a request to say no I'd prefer not to

be resurrected or no I'd prefer not to come back into the presence of God to be judged he says You must be both of those things are going to happen universally so you could call that a a universal Redemption by grace alone there's nothing you and I need to do to deserve it or earn it or or cause that to happen it will happen for all of us by his grace alone and now in verse 7even he takes more he gives more detail and he hath brought to pass the Redemption of the world whereby he

that is found Guiltless before him at the Judgment Day hath it given unto him to dwell in the presence of God in his kingdom do you see the contrast everyone universally 100% will be brought out of the grave and Resurrection and brought into the presence of God but not everyone will get to dwell or stay or abide remain in his presence it says only those who are found Guiltless before him will be allowed to dwell in the presence of God in his kingdom to sing ceaseless Praises this is the Eternal nature of exaltation with the

choirs above unto the father and unto the son and unto the Holy Ghost which are one God in a state of Happiness which hath no end no end this eternal plan of happiness it is mindboggling when you try to imagine this eternal nature of being able to remain in the presence of God the Father God the son and God the Holy Ghost the the these three members of the godhead and so the pattern in throughout the scriptures is the same prophets give us this big Vision this this eternal perspective they help us think Celestial and

then they don't end there they always follow it up with a call to action with an invitation to do something to to come un Christ in some sort of a way in order for that Celestial Vision that they've they've painted for us to become reality and not just aspirational or theoretical look at verse eight therefore so let's look at that a little closer we've mentioned it many times before the when the word therefore is used it's it's usually a connecting word it connects phras a with phrase b in a certain relationship this is the cause

and phrase B is the effect so when when somebody says blah blah blah blah blah blah therefore whatever they then say blah blah blah blah blah blah blah is the outcome it's the effect it was brought to pass because of this or it is the natural progression of because you know this now you need to do this so verse 6 and 7even are the cause they're phrase a he's laying the foundation for this this Grand invitation because you know about this Resurrection from the grave and Redemption back into the presence of God to be judged

this temporary experience coming into the presence of God because you know about that and you know that only those who found spotless will get to dwell in his presence therefore the effect the outcome the desired result is repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus and lay hold upon the gospel of Christ which shall be set before you he makes this invitation to live the gospel as it has been defined and given to us by Jesus Christ himself that these aren't man-made things to to repent and get baptized these are things that are given

to us by God and Jesus Christ himself gave us the perfect example of doing these to show us the way and so here's Mormon pleading with with us in the latter days to because we know all of this to choose of Our Own Free Will without God forcing us to choose to believe have faith in him repent of our sins and be baptized so that we can lay hold upon the Gospel of Jesus Christ and then he gives this in my opinion the best description of why we need the Book of Mormon because let's be

honest the rest of the Christian World there there I don't know the exact number but there are well over 40,000 distinct Christian denominations in the world and they all have the Bible in common we have the Old Testament and we have the New Testament we've got a lot of scripture so why do I need another witness of Jesus Christ another Testament of Jesus Christ why a book of Mormon Mormon the chief of Bridger in my opinion gives the best answer to that question right here in verse 8 and9 so the second half of verse 8

says after describing the things that he's inviting us to do to repent to be baptized and lay hold upon the gospel he says that that gospel shall be set before you not only in this record so pay very close attention to this and that because this is clearly describing the Book of Mormon that he himself is creating so watch the pattern here the gospel is going to be set forth or set before you not only in this record so you could underline this record and write in the margin Book of Mormon but also in the

record which shall come unto the Gentiles from the Jews which record shall come from the Gentiles unto you so notice there was a pattern about another record that other record would begin with the Jews and be given to the Gentiles so you think of the scattering of the House of Israel the Hebrew Bible many things in the old test went with the people as they were scattered by Assyria in 721 BC those 10 tribes lost and Scattered so they went and lived among the Gentile nations of their uh ancient world and then as the New

Testament people in 7080 70 years after uh the birth of Christ are scattered by the ROM rans and divided among the Gentile Nations they also took some of their records and so the writings and the records of the Jews especially through the preachings of Paul and Peter and and Barnabas and Silas and all these other missionaries back then they're taking these records and many of their converts are these Gentiles in Turkey Greece Italy over into Spain and into other parts of the ancient world they take that Bible and then in the latter days he tells

us that the Gentiles will then bring that record from from the Gentiles to scattered Israel which we see in fulfillment of the pilgrims coming over and bringing with them the Bible and doing incredible missionary work among those in the new world and other places in the world so that brings us down to verse 9 where he says for behold this is written for the intent that ye may believe that you could translate this as for Behold The Book of Mormon is written for the intent that you will believe the Bible and if you believe that

if you believe the Bible ye will believe this also the Book of Mormon also and if you believe this The Book of Mormon you will know concerning your fathers and also the marvelous Works which were wrought by the power of God among them so here's Mormon the chief of Bridger saying I wrote the Book of Mormon for the intent that you would actually believe the things that are in the Bible and not treat them as historical fiction that you would actually recognize the covenants of God with his people in Antiquity and liken them to yourselves

apply them to your situation moving forward now he comes back to this theme of knowing and and what does he want people in the latter days to actually know so at the bottom there verse 9 was one of those that we already covered if you believe this you will know concerning your fathers he wants them to know not just who their ancestors were but to know their stories that's an interesting thing that happens when you do family history work when you do more than just fill in names and dates and places and start getting to

know their stories those names now become more significant that DNA connection becomes a little more real when you know more than just their name but when you know their story and look at the seventh time he uses the word no so you can find them the first no is in verse one and we've already covered uh others and here's the last one in verse 10 and you will also know that ye are a remnant of the seed of Jacob therefore you are numbered among the people of the first Covenant and if it so be that

ye Believe In Christ and are baptized first with water and then with fire and with the Holy Ghost following the example of our savior according to that which he hath commanded us it shall be well with you in the day of judgment amen that's it that's his closure his closure of all the things Mormon could talk about do any of you find it odd that he went back to the most basic simple principles and ordinances of the Gospel faith in the Lord Jesus Christ belief learning coming to know truth and rooting that faith in Christ

to the point where we're willing to repent and embrace him completely and follow his example of being baptized with water and then being baptized by fire with the reception of the gift of the Holy Ghost of all the messages Mormon could have shared of all the Mysteries he could have revealed that's what he chose to sign off with in his his last chapter I love that and I see that is extremely significant for us today to keep going back to the basics and asking ourself what is life really about why am I really here is

it is it just to have a few Thrills a few experiences make money work like crazy to be able to support some hobbies and take some trips and buy some things and and work my way through life trying to to find some Pleasures here or there or am I here because it truly is an opportunity to strive to become more like God and to think Celestial as president Nelson would invite and to see God and see people as Eternal relationship potentials rather than just passing interactions or fleeting uh requests from heaven but to build these

deep identity defining connections with God through our covenants with him and through our faith in his only begotten son to the point where we let go of more of the things that this world has to offer us and we Embrace more of him and his divine power and his promises and his Covenant connections that he offers us I love Mormon and very very few people went asked who who are your favorite characters or who are some of your heroes from The Book of Mormon very very few people will say ah Mormons on that list but

for me as a teacher of the Gospel as my career Mormon is one of my heroes of all time because he did such an amazing job of teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ in such a way that most people don't even see him they don't recognize Mormon because he's become transparent he's become a window to the savior's power and glory and love and he tells everybody else's story without drawing attention to himself and I love that attribute and I want to be more like that he's one of my heroes and as we bid farewell to

him can I just say we we owe Mormon a huge debt of gratitude for choosing to live his life in such a way that the Lord could use him as an instrument to a bridge this incredible book that is given to us today that has changed so many lives and brought so many people to Christ and he did all of that in the worst possible environment in the history of the Nephites it was the worst from the time he was a young child until 7 73 years old at that final battle and who knows how

many years Beyond he chose to stay a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ and to do the work of the Lord and you and I now get to benefit from him we owe him a serious debt of gratitude for that and we can now pass it on to people in our life in our circle of influence and people in the future who can benefit from us choosing to stay strong in the faith of Jesus Christ and in his gospel today in our life so with with that we bid farewell to Mormon and we pick up Moroni

who for the first time now has this job of writing on the plates as all these prophets before him have done and his father has done this incredible bridging project now watch Moroni behold I Moroni do finish the record of my father there's no question in his mind this is not the book of Moroni this is this is the record of my father Mormon behold I have but few things to write which things I have been commanded by my father so it looks like he's going to write chapter eight and n and kind of sign

off for himself he's going to bid his first farewell as far as his story and then he's going to abridge the record of the jedit in what is the book of ether that we'll pick up next week and now it came to pass that after the great and tremendous battle at kamora behold the Nephites who had escaped into the country Southward were hunted by the lamanites until they were all destroyed so anyone who survived the actual battle and fled Southward they were hunted and destroyed and my father also was killed by them and I even

remain alone to write the sad tale of the destruction of my people but behold they are gone and I fulfill the Commandment of my father and whether they slay me I know not now Moroni shows us another beautiful example of how we can move forward with faith we don't need to know everything we don't need to know how everything's going to play out as long as we know whose side we're on as long as we know who we've given our heart and our time and our energy and our devotion to if we've given that to

the Lord there are going to be a lot of things that we don't know and in his case he didn't know if he was going to survive or whether they were going to slay him he says I know not therefore because I don't know what's in my future therefore I will write and hide up the records in the earth and with whether I go it matterthe for our world today and remember morona is not writing to people in his day he's not having a conversation with anyone in his time he's speaking directly to us through

the corridor of prophetic time through this capacity of vision to be able to see our and to speak directly to us he says behold my father hath made this record and he hath written the intent thereof and behold I would write it also if I had room upon the plates but I have not and or I have none for I am alone so his point is he doesn't have a lot of space left he doesn't have a lot of a his father's been slain in battle all of his kins folk he doesn't have friends nor

whether to go anyone he meets is likely to try to kill kill him so he needs to stay isolated and how long the Lord will suffer that I may live I know not morona is making this so clear I have a ton of questions but I'm not going to allow those questions to determine my life's Direction I'm going to stay a disciple of Christ I'm going to move forward on that Covenant path in the face of intense adversity and and extreme ambiguity I don't know what's going to happen but I do know where I stand

and then he tells us that the lamanites in verse 7 have hunted my people the Nephites down from City to city and from place to place even until they are no more and great has been their fall ye great and marvelous is the destruction of my people the Nephites he's lamenting this and how painful it is for him to have all these men memories of these people and they're gone no more and behold it is the hand of the Lord which hath done it and behold also the Lites are at War one with another and

the whole face of this land is one continual round of murder and bloodshed and no one knoweth the end of the war there's another thing that he's pointing out we don't know when is all this war going to end and after describing some of the the wickedness taking place and the destruction in his time he talks about the three Nephites the disciples who who wouldn't taste of death and he says that the Lord would not suffer them to remain with the people and whether they be upon the face of the land no man knoweth there's

another thing that they don't know but he does tell them that he and his father in verse 11 have seen them and they have ministered unto us so he's at least had some interaction with those three which puts them four centuries after the coming of Christ at this point and then he talks to us again and who so receiveth this record and shall not condemn it because of the imperfections which are in it the same shall know of greater things than these behold I am Moroni and were it possible I would make all things known

unto you so this is the first time where Moroni introduces the concept of imperfections and struggles in the record and writing and he's going to pick up that theme uh quite a bit in the book of ether especially culminating in chapter 12 that we'll get in a future lesson he's very self-conscious of of his weakness in in being able to express what he wants in writing and then he goes on to say in verse for 13 and 14 he introduces himself as a son of Mormon and then 14 he says and I am the same

who hideth Up This Record unto the Lord the plates thereof are of no worth because of the Commandment of the Lord for he truly saith that no one shall have them to get gain but the record thereof is of great worth and who so shall bring it to light him will the Lord bless now you read that verse and most of us instantaneously and correctly picture the Prophet Joseph Smith and you see the difference here between the plates and the record thereof he says the plates are of no worth you you're not going to be

able to sell them to make money off of them think of Joseph Smith and as he describes it the Indigent circumstances of his family that they're poor and I hear is saying no the physical plates they are of no worth no value because of the the promises attached to them and the Commandments to the Lord but the record thereof the words on those plates they are of great worth and who so shall bring it to light him will the Lord bless so Joseph Smith gets this incredible promise Nephi invited us to liken all scriptures to

ourselves that it could be for our profit and our learning instead of thinking about it in the 1820s consider it in our day so not considering the plates in Joseph Smith's day but considering instead the book whether it's in paper format or digital format on a screen the the physical book itself itself is of no worth but the record thereof is of great worth when you open this book either physically or on a digital device and you let those words words come off of the page and you learn them and you study them and you

immerse in them they are of great worth and if you're a teacher or if you're a parent verse 14 is for you it's not just for Joseph Smith in bringing the Book of Mormon to light these words are of great worth and who so shall bring it to light him will the Lord bless could apply just as much to a teacher or to a parent today who opens these these scriptures and allows those words to come to light and brings them to people's understanding the Lord will have great blessings for you in those efforts and

he describes in verse 15 again think parallel tracks think of Joseph Smith and what he did and think of what God is inspiring you to do in various roles today for none can have power to bring it to light save it be given him or her of God for God Wills that it shall be done with an eye single to his glory or the welfare of the ancient and long dispersed Covenant people of the Lord so we bring these things to light Joseph Smith brought them to light for that purpose and now we follow that

same pattern of bringing it to light in order to glorify God and to bring to pass his promised Covenant in the lives of those that we interact with or teach or lead or serve and blessed is be he and we would say or she that shall bring this thing to light for it shall be brought out of Darkness unto light according to the word of God yeah it shall be brought out of the earth and it shall shine forth out of darkness and come unto the knowledge of the people and it shall be done by

the power of God so Joseph Smith obviously being the Fulfillment of this but you and I being application fulfillment of this as well it's only done by the power of God just like the book itself was trans written by and translated by and now received by the gift and power of God not by the means of intellect alone or the arm of the strength of the arm if there be faults they be the faults of men but behold we know no fault nevertheless God knoweth all things therefore he that condemneth let him be aware lest

he shall be in danger of Hellfire so there are a lot of people who are going to lay a lot of accusations or blame at the feet of the Book of Mormon and here's Moroni its final author saying oh be careful when you do that let him be aware lest he shall be in danger of Hellfire marona is saying look there might be some struggles and some issues here but be careful you don't condemn the things of God which is going to show up again by the hand of Moroni in the title page which is

probably the very last thing that Moroni wrote after he finished chapter 10 so here's Moroni telling us he's all alone trying to avoid interaction with people at this phase of his life sometime in the year around 401 and we know that he's going to bury the plates in the hill kamur in New York in 421 ad so 20 years down the road from this point when he's writing this and notice what he says here in verse 22 for the Eternal purposes of the Lord shall roll on until all his promises shall be fulfilled did you

catch the contrast in the beginning part of this chapter he listed all these things that he didn't know and all these things that the people didn't know and he talked about all this uncertainty and here here there's no uncertainty the Eternal purpose of the Lord shall roll on until all his promises shall be fulfilled period it's sure it's going to happen and so what is the invitation search the Prophecies of Isaiah behold I cannot write them so he's going back to something that the Savior introduced in in third Nephi chapter 23 this command to search

diligently the word of Isaiah munai comes back to that because Isaiah is talking so much about the latter days y behold I say unto you that those Saints who have gone before me who have possessed this land shall cry ye even from the dust will they cry unto the Lord and as the Lord liveth he will remember the Covenant which he hath made with them are you seeing all these themes that are coming out of moroni's first writing that are going to show up again in his final writing read the as a as a beautiful

compare and contrast exercise go back and reread the title page the two paragraphs in the very very front of the book Mormon written by the hand of Moroni and compare them to what he's writing here it's this bookend to his prophetic writing then in the rest of the these verses here 24 25 26 all the way down through verse 32 he's describing our day as he sees it and you would think that he was watching our our news channels and he speaks directly to us in verse 33 instead of just in prophesying mode verse 33

says oh ye Wicked and perverse and stiff necked people why have you buildt up churches under yourself to get gain why have you transfigured the holy word of God that you might bring damnation upon your souls behold look you unto the revelations of God for behold the time cometh at that day when all these things must be fulfilled all these certainties that he's laying out and then he says behold this is verse 35 I speak unto you as if you were present and yet we are not but behold Jesus Christ hath shown you unto me

and I know your doing that verse right there makes the Book of Mormon so unique this is the most personally direct passage I know of in all of scripture in in Antiquity that would be the Old Testament the New Testament and the Book of Mormon where the writer is looking directly at me directly at you saying I'm speaking to you as if you were present but you're not but Jesus Christ has shown you unto me and I know you're doing doing and I know that you do walk in the pride of your heart speaking to

the world collectively not individually and this is this is amazing where he's describing what he now knows compared to what he didn't know and so as you read through these verses especially verse 37 38 39 down to the end 41 it's an opportunity for us to seriously reflect and take this personally say why would Moroni have written that to us if if the Lord showed him our day why is he writing that and what can I do what is the therefore what that I can apply in my own life moving forward which now brings us

to chapter nine he says now I speak also concerning those who do not believe in Christ so he spoken to those who believe in Christ and in that last part of chapter 8 now he shifts to those who don't believe in Christ behold will you believe in the day of your visitation behold when the Lord shall come the second coming yeah even that great day when the Earth shall be ruled together as a scroll and the elements shall melt with fervent heat yeah in that great day when you shall be brought to stand before the

Lamb of God then will you say that there is no God then will you longer deny the Christ or can you Behold the Lamb of God do you suppose that you shall dwell with him under a consciousness of your guilt again Mormon in chapter 7 described those who will dwell those who are found Guiltless and now he's asking do you suppose you can dwell with him under a consciousness of your guilt will you want to be there do you suppose that you could be happy to dwell with that Holy being when your souls are racked

with a consciousness of guilt that ye have ever abused his laws behold I say unto you that you would be more miserable to dwell with a holy and just God under a consciousness of your filthiness before him than you would to dwell with the Damned souls in hell so Moroni is thinking Celestial here and trying to encourage Us in the latter days to not have that be our situation where we would rather dwell with a consciousness of our guilt with damned Souls rather than to dwell with that perfect and holy being because we have trespassed

his laws and have set at not the infinite atonement of his son and he says for behold when you shall be brought to see your nakedness before God and also the glory of God and the Holiness of Jesus Christ it will Kindle a flame of unquenchable fire upon you he's speaking with prophetic future seeeing Authority he's not just seeing our day in the future he's seeing the Eternal future day down the corridor of that that prop prophetic Corridor of time oh then ye unbelieving turn ye unto the Lord this is moroni's version of therefore because

you know this what is the invitation turn ye that's the Hebrew way of saying repent turn ye unto the Lord so you'll notice this is not a horizontal turning or a shifting of Direction This is a turning heavenward look up Turn turn ye unto the Lord cry mightily unto the father in the name of Jesus that perhaps ye may be found spotless pure fair and white having been cleansed by the blood of the lamb at that great and last day as described by his father in chapter 7 that judgment that everybody's going to be brought

before God so there's his invitation and then in if you jump down to verse uh 8 through 11 he describes these Godly attributes our God is the same yesterday today and forever there's no variableness no shadow of changing he doesn't shift you can rely on him you can put your faith in that he is a god of Miracles he's created the heavens and the Earth he's a god of creation he doesn't sit back and wait for things to happen he acts and the elements obey and then he describes the the three pillars of Eternity all

in one verse verse 12 behold he created Adam and by Adam came the fall of Man and because of the fall of Man Came Jesus Christ even the father and the son and because of Jesus Christ came the Redemption of man we get creation fall and atonement all in one very short verse verse 12 linked together there and because of the Redemption of man which came by Jesus Christ they are brought back into the presence of the Lord he's repeating the concept from his father everyone is going to be redeemed into the presence of the

Lord ye this is wherein all men are redeemed not a half not those who repent it's all men are redeemed because the death of Christ bringeth to pass the resurrection with bring which bringeth to pass a Redemption from an endless sleep from which sleep all men shall be awakened by the power of God when the Trump shall sound and they shall come forth both small and great and all that's 100% shall stand before his bar being redeemed and loosed from this eternal band of death which death is a temporal death 100% Redemption by grace alone

but it's not the Eternal element of being able to dwell with him it's an immortality an eternal salvation from physical death and a temporarily redeemed into the presence of God the Father to be judged but then verse 14 then cometh the Judgment of the Holy One upon them 100% of people brought of the grave in his presence and now comes the judgment and then cometh the time that he that is filthy shall be filthy still and he that is righteous shall be righteous still he that is Happy shall be happy still and he that is

unhappy shall be unhappy still and then he describes something that our world really struggles with and now oh all ye that have imagined up unto yourselves a God who can do no Miracles now in this case he describes a God who can do no Miracles but the reality is we live in a world that specializes in imagining up unto themselves a God after the manner of whatever we decide individually and collectively as a people we are creating God's in the image of man and whatever we want God to be all over the place in our

society today and he's saying I would ask of you have all these things passed to which I've spoken has the End come yet behold I say unto you nay and God has not ceased to be a god of Miracles so those of you who say no God doesn't do things like he did before he's saying is that really the case are you really so certain about that are you going to tell the infinite god of the universe that he can't bring forth new scripture or gather Israel or perform Miracles the way he has through the

history of time are you really so certain of this God you've created that he he's not capable of doing what things like President Nelson has promised in the coming days the savior's going going to perform the greatest Miracles he has ever performed so after this long discussion of Miracles verse 21 he says behold I say unto you that whosoever believeth in Christ doubting nothing whatsoever he shall ask the father in The Name of Christ it shall be granted him and This Promise is unto all even unto the ends of the Earth that is an amazing

exclamation mark promise not this I know not question mark that we open the chapter with you're noticing or that we open chapter 8 with you'll notice Moroni as he's finishing up he's getting more and more bold in his prophetic statements in his pronouncements of what's of things as they really are and he says and he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned or stopped the progression will cease you can only go so far and these sh signs shall follow them that believe in my name shall they

cast out Devils they shall speak with new tongues they shall take up serpents and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them and they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover now there are a variety of ways you can apply those five different promises there some of them literally and some of them figuratively as we move forward in doing the work of the Lord and assisting him in doing that work so he says verse 26 Now Behold who can stand against the works works of the Lord who can deny

his sayings who will rise up against the almighty power of the Lord who will despise The Works of the Lord who will despise the children of Christ behold all ye who are despisers of the works of the Lord for you ye shall wonderer and perish he's making some bold prophecies here oh then despise not so again a call to action a prophetic invitation they do it all the time despise not Wonder not but hearken unto the words of the Lord and ask the father in the name of Jesus for what things soever you shall stand

in need doubt not but be believing and begin as in times of old and come unto the Lord with all your heart and work out your salvation with fear and trembling before him be wise in the days of your probation strip yourselves of all uncleanness ask not that you may consume it on your lusts but ask with a firmness unshaken that you will yield to no temptation but that you will serve the true and living God and he goes on it's it's invitation after invitation after invitation look at the verbs Mark the verbs the action

words that's the call to repentance these are the steps he's asking us to take in order to make it so that we aren't standing there at the Judgment Day burdened down with under a consciousness of our guilt and then he repeats this concept in 30 behold I speak unto you as though I spake from the dead for I know that you shall have my words I love that he's seen it through the quarter of time he knows we have his words and then verse 31 he brings back this idea of I'm not a perfect writer

I feel quite inadequate in this in this sphere in this domain condemn me not because of mine imperfection could I just say that we could attach that phrase to every prophet in the history of time to every Bishop that you've ever had to every stake president every relief Cy president every young woman's president every home teacher visiting teacher ministering sister ministering brother you could apply that to every parent to every sibling to every child condemn me not because of mine imperfection don't Define me and condemn me because of what I've struggled with or what I

might not be perfect at neither my father because of his imperfection neither them who have written before him but rather give thanks unto God that he hath made manifest unto you our imperfections that ye may learn to be more wise than we have been when you see problems when you see struggles when you see imper Perfection instead of being judgmental instead of condemning what an amazing principle of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to rather learn from it so that we can be better in the way we treat people and the way we talk and the

way we express ourselves what a powerful invitation to not condemn people but learn from them even when we think they're wrong well learn from it and it turns out they might not have been the one that was wrong in the first place it might be our own perception and then he describes the book itself Now Behold we have written this record The Book of Mormon according to our knowledge in the characters which are called Among Us the reformed Egyptian being handed down and altered by us according to our manner of speech so Nephi spoke Hebrew

and wrote an Egyptian and a thousand years later here's Moroni saying we've altered the L language the spoken language of Hebrew we've altered and the Egyptian now is reformed Egyptian so we don't know if it's reformed characters compared to what Nephi had been written writing a thousand years before or if Nephi already had reformed it we don't know Nephi just says he was writing in the language of the Egyptians here's the only place that we get the phrase reformed Egyptian either way it's written in this uh pictographic language or characters and symbols that paint a

bigger picture rather than what we call a syllabic language or syllables where you spell out the way to pronounce it like Hebrew would be written as a syllabic language and he tells you if our plates had been sufficiently large we should have written in Hebrew which is this writing out like English and Spanish and Portuguese and French and German but the Hebrew hath been altered by us also and if we could have written in Hebrew behold you would have had no imperfection in our records so he's saying look to try to take what we've what

we're saying and what we're thinking and what we're writing in the Hebrew our reformed Hebrew if you will that's been altered by them and then to translate that into this other language to write it down in a very compressed way on metal plates to make it so that it would fit that's the struggle he's facing but then he gives the solution after talking about his imperfections and his struggles look at the solution but the Lord knoweth the things which we have written and also that none other people knoweth our language and because that none other

people knoweth our language therefore he hath prepared means for the interpretation thereof in other words this translation process with Joseph Smith it's going to be done by the gift and power of God not by the gift of intellect or by linguists or experts in various forms of Egyptian and Hebrew coming into the English of the 20th or the 19th century and he finishes in verse 36 and 37 by saying and behold these things which we have desired concerning our Brethren yet even their restoration to the knowledge of Christ he's following his dad's example trying to

restore these Latter Day lamanites to the knowledge of Christ are according to the prayers of all the saints who have dwelt in the land and may the Lord Jesus Christ grant that their prayer prayers may be answered according to their faith and may God the Father remember the C which he hath made with the house of Israel and may He bless them forever through faith on the name of Jesus Christ amen that's his final or his first of three or four farewells as he finishes with that Amen in closing we've talked about a lot of

things in chapters 7 8 and n and I would just say take all of those and say therefore the invitation for you and me from these two prophets who who wrote to us they saw us they're they're speaking specifically to us the invitation would be therefore let us have faith in Jesus Christ repent of our sins come down in humility in the waters of baptism receive the gift of the Holy Ghost and endure on that Covenant path building that connection those connections with Christ deeper and deeper every day every week and seeing our life in

this eternal think Celestial way so that when we are brought forth out of the Grave or brought up to meet him at his coming and then brought into the presence of God for judgment it will be a glorious reunion rather than a bitter period of regret for us as we realize what have I done why didn't I give my life to God when I had the opportunity to use my agency to make that choice to follow the example of Jesus Christ in all things and strive to give my life to him so that he now

gives his life to us on that glorious day and allows us to dwell with him forever singing ceaseless praises to his name I love him with all my heart and I leave that with you in the name of Jesus Christ amen know that you're loved [Music] [Music]