...Darn it. When you're not having a conversation with someone in real time, you can't exactly wish them a "top o' th' mornin'." I mean, heck, it isn't even morning over here right now, not to mention that I don't know what time zone you're reading this from, either.
Alas and forsoothishly alack, and etc.
Right. Anyway, I don't need to go into a deep explanation about this post, if you read its predecessor. If by chance you didn't, here you go; click here to read that one first.
Or, if you want the short of it: I really like a book called the Book of Mormon. I'd like you to try reading it, so you can see for yourself why I like it. It's not always easy to read, though, partly because it uses an English format we haven't used for over a century. So here is how I would paraphrase one of these chapters in my own writing voice. That way, you can see (more or less) how someone in the 21st century would write the same things.
I chose to write about this chapter not only because it is one of my favourite chapters in the book, but also because I think it offers some indispensable guidance about... well, actually, guidance about literally anything, once you understand what everything here means.
And with that spectacular build-up, off you go. Have fun, folks. 😇
P.S. It is helpful to know some of the historical context to this chapter, but you will still understand this chapter even if you don't. If you do want to learn more about the context, I'll drop you a link at the bottom of this post. Until then, though, have fun folks. "😇" < once more.
Moroni, Chapter 7
Hello again. It's Moroni. That hasn't changed since last time I wrote here.
Today I would like to write a few of the words of my father, Mormon. Specifically, about faith, hope, and charity. He once spoke to the people, while he stood in a place of worship that they'd built, and these are the things he said:
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My beloved brothers and sisters, I, Mormon, have come to speak with you again. It is such a gift to be among you once more! By the grace of God the Father, and the grace of Jesus Christ, and by their holy will, they have granted me this wonderful calling to allow me to be here with you again today.
Do you know why I say that, brothers and sisters? Why I judge you like that? I say that because I can see your kind and gentle ways among your fellow human beings.
I'm remembering, all of a sudden, one of God's words, recorded in scripture. You know the one, where it says, "By their works ye shall know them," and, "If their works be good, then they are good also."
As God has said before, a person being evil will not and cannot do good. You see, if a person offers a gift, or offers a prayer to God, that person must do it with real intent, or it does not profit the giver.
Or to put it another way, without real intent, that action is not counted as righteousness.
For instance, if a man is being evil, and then gives a gift, this means that he is doing it grudgingly, wishing he didn't have to do it — and so it is counted before God the same as if he had withheld the gift; to God, this is still counted as an evil deed.
In like manner, it is also considered evil if a man prays, but not with real intent of heart. If he does not want to sincerely communicate with God, for fear of hearing the voice of that same God giving an instruction, then this prayer is not "credit for trying;" it profits nothing. God does not welcome any person like that.
And so you see, a person being evil in fact can't do good, or can't give a good gift, even if they go through the motions.
A dirty fountain can't bring up good water, just as surely as a pure fountain will not pour out filthy water. And a servant of the devil can't sincerely follow Christ, because by nature, sincerely following Christ makes that person not a servant of the devil.
Now you see, all good things come from God, and all evil things come from the devil. In spite of what you might have heard recently, the devil is an enemy to God. And he's the kind of enemy who constantly, continually, continuously fights. He is ever and always inviting and coaxing God's children to sin, trying continually to convince them to do evil.
But you should know, the things of God invite and entice you to do good without ceasing. To put it plainly, every thing that invites you to do good, or makes you feel inspired to do good, and makes you want to love God, and to serve God, is inspired of Him.
Knowing all of this that I've told you, my beloved brothers and sisters... please, be careful not to judge evil things as God-given, or to say that good and godly things ever come from the devil.
Allow me to teach you the best way to judge on these matters, so that you can be confident in knowing good from evil. And believe me, it's easy, and it's clear; it will let you see good from evil as clearly as you can tell night from day.
The Spirit of Christ is something that is given to every person, so that he or she may be able to tell good from evil. It is in you. Any thing that invites you to do good, or that persuades you to believe in Christ, is sent to you by the power and gift of Christ. Thus, when you feel that, you may know with perfect knowledge that it comes from God.
But anything that persuades people to do evil, or not to believe in Christ, or persuades you to deny him, or attempts to convince you not to serve God, then you can be perfectly sure that it is of the devil. That is how the devil operates; he will never persuade a human being on this earth — not a single one — to do good. Neither do the angels of the devil, and neither do the people who willingly follow him.
And so, beloved brothers and sisters of mine, seeing how you know the light you can use to judge — this light being the Spirit of Christ, or the Light of Christ — please be conscious about not judging things wrongfully. This is another way to apply the scripture that says, "For with that same judgement which ye judge, ye shall also be judged."
As such, I plead with you, my beloved family: search diligently, make the effort to listen to the light of Christ, and learn to discern between good and evil. If you will take hold of every good thing you can, and not condemn them, then you can rest assured that you are being a child of Christ.
So now the question is: how is it possible to take hold of every good thing? As in, literally all good things?
This is where I need to come to the part I said I would tell you about, concerning faith. This, it so happens, is how you lay hold of every good thing.
You see, God, knowing all things, and being from eternity to eternity, has sent angels to teach his children on the earth. He has had them make abundantly clear that Christ would come — and, as I told you, in Christ comes every good thing.
Not only this, but God has spoken personally to his prophets, and had them also declare that Christ would come.And then there have been various other ways that that He has shown these things to His children on the earth. These were some of these "good things" that I have spoken of, and may I remind you yet again: all good things come of Christ. If it were otherwise, consider the fact that mankind is fallen, naturally inclined to doing evil. Without Christ, and on our own, no good thing would come to us.
But, because of the ministering of angels, and because of the word of God himself, from the beginning of humankind, men and women began to exercise faith in Christ. Then, by this faith, they did indeed gain hold of all good things, and they continued to do so, even until the time of Christ's coming.
Not only that, but also after Christ came, men and women were saved by faith in his name, and by this same faith became known as Christ's sons and daughters. And I testify to you, as surely as Christ lives, that he said to our own ancestors, "Whatsoever thing ye shall ask the Father in my name, which is good, in faith believing that ye shall receive, behold, it shall be done unto you."
Now, my beloved brothers and sisters... have miracles ceased, after Christ ascended to heaven? Now that Christ is no longer on the earth, and instead sits on the right hand of God, and now that he is there to plead mercy on our behalf, does that mean that the miracles on the earth have stopped?
By the way, I would like to testify further of that. Christ is there in heaven, and that is indeed his role to plead mercy for us; the work he performed on the earth satisfied the demands of eternal law, and so now he has claim on all people who exercise faith in him. And, again, let me remind you, those who have faith in him will be drawn to every good thing. So, yes, Christ advocates for God to exercise mercy on all of us on this earth, and yes, he lives eternally in the heavens.
So let me ask once again: because of this, have miracles ceased to occur in this world? Behold, I say to you: No, they have not. And neither have angels ceased to minister to us.
Those angels are loyal to Christ, and they minister to us even now, because that is what Christ has commanded. These angels show themselves to those who have strong faith and a mind firm in all forms of godliness — in other words, those who have developed every necessary virtue in themselves.
Their field of work is to call people to repent, and to tell those people to do the work of the Father, and to fulfill the covenants He has presented to us. These angels do all of this to help prepare the way for all humankind, and then to declare the word of Christ to those who are ready to receive it, which in turn will prepare those who receive it to share testimony of these things with others.
By doing so, the Lord prepares a way for all of the other people on the earth to have faith in Christ, and to allow the Holy Ghost to have place in their hearts. By way of all this, God fulfills the promises he has made to all his children in the past and present.
And Christ has said, "If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me."
He has also said, "Repent all ye ends of the earth, and come unto me, and be baptized in my name, and have faith in me, that ye may be saved."
Consider all of this, beloved brothers and sisters. If indeed these things that I have spoken are true — and I testify to you that in the end, God will show you in great power and glory that they are — if this is all true, then, has the day of miracles ceased?
Or, again, have angels ceased to appear to people in this world? Or has God withheld the power of the Holy Ghost from us? Or will he ever do so, for as long as time shall last, or the earth still stand, or so long as there is even a single soul on the face of this earth that can be saved?
Of course not! Miracles are brought about and performed by faith. It is by faith that angels appear to people, and faith by which those angels teach and testify. If these things have ceased, then, what tragedy it is for us; miracles and the ministry of angels will not cease unless it is because of unbelief, and if that has befallen us, then... well, all is lost.
Because no man can be saved unless they have faith in Christ. He has said so himself. So, if these miracles have ceased, then faith has ceased also. And humankind is in an awful state indeed — the same state they would have been in if there hadn't ever been a way for them to be redeemed from their fallen state.
But, beloved brothers and sisters, I can tell much better things of you than that. I perceive and judge that you all have faith in Christ. I can see it in your meekness. It is good; if you did not have faith in him, then it wouldn't be right for you to say that you are a part of his church.
And now, beloved brothers and sisters, I would like to speak to you about hope. How can you obtain faith without obtaining hope?
What kind of hope, you ask? What will you hope for? I say, you will have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised to life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise.
And thus we see, if a person has faith, then of a necessity, that person will have hope as well, And without faith, then there is no hope either. (They go together, a natural cause and effect.)
Let me tell you further, that you can't obtain this faith and hope unless you will be meek and lowly of heart — humble.
After all, if you are not humble, then what little faith and hope you do have are pointless; no one is acceptable before God if they are not meek and humble. And furthermore, a person who is meek and lowly in heart, and also testifies of Christ, by the power of the Holy Ghost, that person must also have the most important "good thing," charity. If you do not have charity, you are nothing. So, it is crucial to have charity.
Charity is a quality where a possessor of it suffers long, and is kind, and does not envy, and is not prideful or selfish, nor is easily provoked, nor dwells on evil thoughts, and does not rejoice in evil or wrongdoing, but rather rejoices because of the truth. Charity is the attribute that bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (*Or, to paraphrase that again, charity is the attribute that all other attributes are built on. It is because of charity that you are able to have faith. It is because of charity that you are able to have hope. It is because of charity that you can have strength to endure.)
My beloved brothers and sisters, if you do not have charity, then you are nothing. Charity never fails. Seek out and add into yourself to this attribute of charity, because all things eventually must fail...
...except for charity, which is the pure love of Christ; it endures forever. For those who have developed this attribute before the last day, it will be well with them.
*******
For So It Is
(*I'm just really feeling imaginative with the titles tonight, eh?)
I said earlier that I would let you know a little of the cultural context, which led Mormon to be saying these things, and which later led to Mormon's son, Moroni, recording these things and repeating them.
To look at an online copy of the Book of Mormon as a whole, click here.
To look at the chapter where Moroni explains what is going on in his life when he records these things, click here.
To look into the general circumstances that plagued the world in Mormon and Moroni's lifetimes, click here.
Or if you want to be boring, I can explain it to you really quickly.
Mormon and Moroni, the people I was quoting, lived in quite the terrible world. Disturbingly, I have heard their world compared to the present-day world that surrounds us. It's not disturbing that I've heard someone make that comparison; it's disturbing that I recognize a lot of truth to that comparison.
Mormon grew up among people who were quite nice, compassionate, and humble people. But in the course of his lifetime, he watched people break into small factions and fight with each other. He saw how they bragged about their own greatness and glory, and was appalled to find how much they glorified violence. I mean, they actively enjoyed hurting people different from themselves. To the point of committing genocide when they could get away with it. And, of course, they'd settle for a quick robbery, beating, torture, or rape of their enemies if that was all they had time for.
Mormon was a proficient military commander, and leader in general, so he was asked to be a military officer, in a society that was quickly degrading into a warrior hierarchy. He did his best to unite the people and put an end to senseless slaughter. He was so good at uniting the people and executing strategy, that before long he was the general over all of the armies.
But he wasn't just another warlord. No, as you can see from the chapter above, Mormon was a man of God. A prophet, of all things; in a world where he was one of the only people left on the face of the whole continent who believed in God, and believed in being righteous instead of being selfish; in a world where he wanted to do the right thing, while everyone else wanted to do the easy thing, he was as faithful to his people as he could be, while being as faithful to his God as he loved to be. This meant that he led the armies of his people, and at the same time tried to convince them to turn away from their love of fighting and bloodshed.
Ultimately, however, he did not have much success in either regard. That's all I will say. (You don't want spoilers, do you? Read the book to find out what happened.)
 |
| This painting is probably not very accurate in historical detail, but the sentiment is still there. |
One of the things that Mormon did during the latter part of his life was compile the history of his people, abridge it, and record some of the history and sacred teachings into one book. You... might have heard of it. As you can probably guess... heh. Want to guess what it's called?
"The Book of Mormon." Yes, really imaginative. Ha ha.
Well, avoiding spoilers again, there was a point where Mormon felt it was better to hand off his book to his son, Moroni. Moroni was also a former military commander, and a man of God — and, yes, a prophet in turn. So, he faithfully kept guard of the book, and when he found extra space at the back, he recorded a few more things he thought were worth including. This sermon of his father was one of those things.
It's an interesting context to think about: Mormon spoke that sermon because he wanted the people around him to remove the harmful indoctrination of the culture in his day. Moroni, by this time living in exile (oh, sorry... is that a spoiler?), wrote down the sermon, even though he knew full well that it wouldn't be read by any of the people around him. No, he included those words in the Book of Mormon because he was looking ahead.
In other words: Moroni included this chapter because he was thinking of you.
Moroni, apparently inspired, included the chapter because he wanted you to be able to think about these things, and have a chance to undo the harmful indoctrination of the culture around you today.
I look around at the world outside and feel like weeping sometimes. Even in my own life, I come across people who enjoy hurting others, and who feel like it is perfectly normal to hate. Everywhere I look, I see people starting to act like it is better to be selfish than righteous, or better to be confused rather than wise, or that instead of trying to fix the world, it is better to "revel in the brokenness."
...Sure. You do that.
Or... you know what? Maybe consider the alternative. That's why I chose to share this chapter today. The world might want you to stop believing that good and evil can exist, independent and clear. But they do. And I wanted to give you the chance to consider the words of someone who knew very well just how real and how important they are.
...I'll leave you with that for the moment. I'm probably going to come back and edit this soon, so I might add some lovely little conclusion here.
For now, though, I need to publish this, and let you take care of the rest, whomever you are.
Peace be with you, unknown person, ok?
Con amor,
- TAB III
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