So one of them, at least, even saw Nephi's record as meeting multiple primary ends, none of which, I must point out, directly mentions being a witness of Christ.
This might be the best time to remind you of what you surely know, but might not know that you know, and that is that the Book of Mormon is a summarization of the larger record which Nephi started. So Nephi may have never suspected Mormon's later condensation of his work. Nephi didn't see his record that way. Nephi initiated the comprehensive record of his people, even presaging the eventual 'separation of church and state' in the nation he founded through his own separation of the record into secular and sacred sections, but tells us himself that he doesn't really know why.
Betcha never heard about Nephi anticipating the separation of church and state before, eh? But, before anyone goes off on that tangent, just remember what I keep saying about the words of the prophets in scripture not always being positive, like the verse in Isaiah which says that women will be their leaders. Is that a good thing? Or is that a bad thing? Is Isaiah saying that it ought to be that way? Or is he just reporting what he sees, for better or worse?
Anyway, the idea that a mere extraction of his work, rather than the entire record, would eventually better serve a later nation's needs, might just have completely surprised Nephi. And it speaks well of Mormon's prophetic gift. Who of us could decide what parts of scripture would be most important to their great-great-grandchildren? Had Nephi known just what we needed, Mormon would have had little to do.
It's also important to note that Mormon might very well have wanted to title his book almost anything else, but that just wasn't the convention of the ancients. If you write a book, it's your book. You get the credit or the blame, depending on the judgment of history. Had he tried to name it, say, The Book of Moroni, or The Book of Juniors, he might have been accused of trying to distance himself from his own product.
Book of Juniors? Where'd you get that?
What? Have you never noticed all the juniors in and around the book? Alma the younger was a junior. Moronihah was Moroni's junior just as Nephihah was Nephi's junior. Even the curiously named Lachoneus (that I wrote an entire article about) (which I still haven't posted here) (sorry) had a junior. (Betcha never noticed THAT one!) Even the very man who compiled the book was a junior. That's right, Mormon, as concise as he was, made sure to let us know that his father was also named Mormon. And, of course, as you know, if scripture takes the time to mention it, then it's worth pursuing.
Even Joseph Smith ... was a junior!
So what's up with that? I can't help feeling that there's something in there that we're supposed to learn, just like with the similarities between the names of the children of Cain and the names of the children of Seth, both lines having, for example, someone with a name similar to Methuselah, and both of which have an Enoch, both of which built cities, but only one of which, as far as we know, was taken up to God.
See what I mean? You just never know what remarkable things you'll learn from the smallest detail. And, yes, you probably guessed that I already have an idea what that's all about, but that'll have to be the subject of a separate epistle, as will that juniors thing, because they might just lead somewhere. And so might heeding something else that most of us take in stride, never stopping to think much about. Although, given all the other remarkable things in scripture to ponder, who could blame us for missing this one?
What's that?
The Book of General Moroni! Because that, I'm guessing, is what Mormon would have preferred to call it.
Captain is what what we call him, but the Book of Mormon never once mentions him by that specific title, although he was, it's true, named Moroni, and he was the captain of the Nephites' armies, so it's certainly no distortion to call him Captain Moroni.
But was he?
The Book of Mormon itself actually states that Moroni was appointed chief captain over the armies, and that's a different title from a mere captain. Just ask anyone who's ever been in the military whether a Master Sargeant is the same thing as a Chief Master Sargeant, or a Lieutenant Colonel is the same thing as a Colonel. So, basically, 'Captain' Moroni would have been more like our General of the Armies of the United States, of which, we've only ever had two.
Above all, Mormon, in one of his few interjections and observations, just couldn't refrain from writing, for all the world to see, just how highly he esteemed a single figure:
"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."
And that just after having explained why he saw Moroni as such an example:
"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."
And how did he prepare their minds? Home Teaching? Visiting Teaching? Repeating conference talks?
"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."
So, he's a strong-on-defense, strong-borders, military-oriented, 'chief' executive. And this, frankly seems very appropriate for another military man, Mormon, to regard as a virtue. After all, Mormon was faced with a military problem, so, like all military men, he searched the history books for a solution to his problem. It becomes very evident that he found his solution in the actions of Lachoneus (Sr.!) who rallied his people in the center of their land, and successfully outlasted the Gadianton Robbers. It's evident that Mormon saw this as the solution he was looking for because of two things:
1) He does the same thing Lachoneus did, and ...
2) his record suddenly becomes very terse and fast-paced after that. He takes time, of course, to detail Christ's visit among the Nephites, but everything else in the 400 years after the death of Giddianhi goes by decades at a time.
But then Mormon just goes on and on about how Moroni 'prepared their minds' through defense spending, and by stratagem in the form of reinforcing weaker sites more than stronger ones.
"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.
"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."
And notice here also the very important association of the cause of liberty with the mission of the church. Don't forget that. It's hugely important, and becoming more important, especially as the church is infiltrated by a cadre of not-so-closeted leftists campaigning that this sort of liberty is actually anathema to Christianity.
"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;"
Notice that 'strong and mighty' are NOT the same thing as was said of the Jaredites: Large and mighty.
Chief Captain Moroni in his late 30s
So what?
It might mean that this is yet another aspect of Moroni which has been completely falsely assumed because we fail to properly decode the code words in scripture.
In what way?
In that Moroni (a form of the name, Moron, seen in the Book of Ether?) was no larger than average, and, moreover, that the strength Mormon mentioned, especially given all the rest of what we know about him, may refer to his courage and conviction, his mental/spiritual strength, not his physical prowess. In fact, you will search in vain for any evidence of Moroni being the macho, sword-swinging hero of the Nephites. It's just not there. In fact, in one episode where one might very reasonably expect Moroni to be standing at the ready, in full battle gear, and armed to the teeth, we read instead how a lieutenant actually had to step in front of Moroni in order to thwart an attack by someone who was only pretending to surrender. And that fact alone indicates that Moroni's attacker must have felt that he could achieve his objective. But, given the obvious scene, how could he have possibly been so deluded? Unless, as I contend, not only was Moroni himself unarmed, but of less than impressive stature, and even of sickly constitution, too. After all, it's also near this place that we read that most unique scripture:
"And there were some who died with fevers, which at some seasons of the year were very frequent in the land--but not so much so with fevers, because of the excellent qualities of the many plants and roots which God had prepared to remove the cause of diseases, to which men were subject by the nature of the climate"
Now, you can go looking, or you can just take it from me that you will never find another line of scripture quite like this one, so practical in its application, so appropriate in its timing, and so very fraught with meaning to us today. After all, even Hugh Nibley used to mention this one quite often, suggesting that the fevers referred to were Malaria, and that the plants referred to in this case would have been the Cinchona tree. And that leads directly to its synthetic derivative ... Hydroxychloroquine.
See? The Book of Mormon really was written to our day!
But, returning to what Moroni, the man, was really like, what you will find are, just like the fevers and plants mentioned above, repeated clues of a frail constitution, a sheltered, cerebral childhood, failing health, a brilliant, but tragically short career in public service, followed by an untimely death, and only one son that we know of. But none of that mattered to Mormon. He just couldn't heap enough praise on the hero of the Nephites:
"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.
"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."
(By the way, that reference to 'loss of blood' is cosmically significant. Let all those who mistakenly think the Book of Mormon a bit short in the cosmic references department take note. But we can't stop for that here now.)
"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.
"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;
"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."
And, as if that weren't enough warm-up to that astounding praise, he finishes with even more:
"Behold, he was a man like unto Ammon, the son of Mosiah, yea, and even the other sons of Mosiah, yea, and also Alma and his sons, for they were all men of God.
"Now behold, Helaman and his brethren were no less serviceable unto the people than was Moroni; for they did preach the word of God, and they did baptize unto repentance all men whosoever would hearken unto their words.
"And thus they went forth, and the people did humble themselves because of their words, insomuch that they were highly favored of the Lord, and thus they were free from wars and contentions among themselves, yea, even for the space of four years.
"But, as I have said, in the latter end of the nineteenth year, yea, notwithstanding their peace amongst themselves, they were compelled reluctantly to contend with their brethren, the Lamanites.
"Yea, and in fine, their wars never did cease for the space of many years with the Lamanites, notwithstanding their much reluctance.
"Now, they were sorry to take up arms against the Lamanites, because they did not delight in the shedding of blood; yea, and this was not all--they were sorry to be the means of sending so many of their brethren out of this world into an eternal world, unprepared to meet their God.
"Nevertheless, they could not suffer to lay down their lives, that their wives and their children should be massacred by the barbarous cruelty of those who were once their brethren, yea, and had dissented from their church, and had left them and had gone to destroy them by joining the Lamanites.
"Yea, they could not bear that their brethren should rejoice over the blood of the Nephites, so long as there were any who should keep the commandments of God, for the promise of the Lord was, if they should keep his commandments they should prosper in the land."
Now this is all Mormon here, making his observations of the kind of man Moroni was, even comparing their great general to missionaries! And therein lies a lesson we all need to learn, and keep on reminding ourselves of.
You see, there is not only no indication that Moroni himself ever so much as touched a sword, but there is also no indication that he was the prophet, or even a prophet, or that he was even a member of the same faction of the faith as Nephi or Mormon. We do know, after all, that they had factions. At least two mentioned, one by name.
Moreover, Moroni never wrote in the record. That was done by Helaman long after Moroni's time. Moroni may never have even seen the record. That was all Helaman. It was Helaman who inherited responsibility for the record. It was Helaman who wrote of Moroni in the record. Helaman, after all, was the son of two prophets, both high priests over the church, and direct descendants of Nephi. But who was this Moroni? We know nothing of his ancestry, except that he was a son of Zarahemla. And that, of course, pretty much throws the gates wide open to pretty much any possibility. Mormon takes time to point out to us that he's "a pure descendant of Lehi", but, after telling us so much about Chief Captain Moroni, Mormon then omits his genealogy altogether. Strange.
As an aside, allow me to highlight what Mormon wrote about being a pure descendant of Lehi. He writes this as if there were some alternative. Well, of course there was an alternative. The so-called Mulekites, as I just suggested, may have had representatives from a broad swath of humanity among them. Even in King David's day, there was at least one Hittite among them, and probably more than that. But, recall also, that the Mulekites had 'found' (captured might be more accurate) the 'last' Jaredite. Well, let's say that Coriantumr was the last of that core nation which identified itself as Jaredites. There were almost certainly branches and spin-offs extant, much as the Zoramites were to the Nephites, for example, but, and this is one of those critical little things you have to pay attention to, the Mulekites had Coriantumr for how long? EIGHT MOONS! Nowhere else in all of scripture will you find time measured in moons. That's a very ancient, mesopotamian practice, and one that makes perfect sense, being where the Jaredites hail from.
Drawn by Aztecs themselves
But this also shows us how infectious the culture and language of the Jaredites is. It's no wonder Ether declined to tell us some things. Just look at how the Nephites snapped up that Jaredite 'hah' suffix. (It's Adamic for, essentially, ... JUNIOR!) And it's not for nothing that Moroni ben Mormon would bemoan the lack of power of his written words compared to Mahonri Moriancumr's, and that "because of the awkwardness of our hands"?! What could possibly have been so different or superior about Mahonri Moriancumr's hands, especially that his writing was thereby made that much more moving?
But there's still one more thing, and this relates to another measure of time we often see in scripture: Eight moons. Do you see it? How many weeks are eight moons? FORTY! You see, this is the real significance of that figure. It has nothing to do with how large a number could be written with how many characters, or any other such nonsense. Forty weeks is the human gestation period. Wherever we see the number forty used in scripture, it always signifies a birth or rebirth of sorts, a transition from old to new, from lesser to greater.
And that leads us to the why. Why keep some old, battle-scarred Jaredite around for forty weeks?
To be sure the children he sired were born alive before you got rid of him!
And why would they do that?
Because there was something about his DNA that the Mulekites found very advantageous, maybe something about those hands that could write so powerfully. Whatever it was, the Mulekites wanted it.
But they didn't want him.
Why?
Because Coriantumr was a threat, for some undisclosed reason. Surely the fact that he was an outsider will have had something to do with that feeling. But children born into Zarahemla of Mulkeite mothers, whatever other attributes they may have been blessed with by virtue of their father, could be trusted. The fictional Kal-El, aka Superman, may have been born on Krypton, but he was raised in Kansas, so there was never any doubt about his loyalties. Coriantumr, on the other hand, especially given whatever natural gifts he appears to have possessed, could simply not be trusted, so they killed him as soon as they no longer needed him.
And this may be why, while Mormon informs us that he's a pure descendant of Lehi, he completely neglects to enlighten us about the parentage of the man he admires so much. After all, Moroni does become known for his powerful writing, especially that on his Title of Liberty.
Are you suggesting that Captain Moroni was a giant?
No! Yes. Maybe. What I'm really just suggesting is that, while the Mulekites, and, after having mixed with them, the Nephites, too, had some Jaredite blood in their veins, perhaps granting them superior strength and stature (remember "large and mighty"), General Moroni appears to have been born a little less than hoped.
How so?
Because Zarahemnah thought he had a shot at killing him right there in the presence of his body guard. You just don't do that with someone who's your physical superior.
I'm also suggesting that his smaller (than a half-breed giant) stature, and shaky health, haunted him all his life, resulting in maximizing his other gifts: Intelligence. After all, the crippled general is practically a trope in history. Just look up Ivar the Boneless, Tamerlane (Timur the lame), and 'Commander in Chief' Franklin Delano Roosevelt. And our hero took command of the armies at a surprisingly young age. (Remember, fighting age was 21.) (Which figures in to the episode with the stripling warriors, too.)
And it doesn't really even matter if he never fought in battle himself, anyway. After all, how many of our top military have? And yet, they are military men, born of that same structured, disciplined, motivated approach to the world as Mormon himself. And, as a military man in a wartime environment, he will have had far more in common with Porter Rockwell than with any of our recent prophets, or anyone else one encounters in church these days. He will have been tough, if only mentally tough. He will have been rough, having long ago learned the folly of the gentle approach. He will have been blunt and direct. I mean, this man, as Mormon is also careful to point out to us, wrestled with whether it was a sin to employ stratagem. As all flattery and sweetness are also based on guile, a flavor of dishonesty, you will find none of them in his personality. But candor, precisely that candor most people strive to avoid, and never manage to cultivate in their own characters, will be there, and in buckets! And that's pretty much what was said of Christ, too. And that was one of the things that made so many people so mad at him that they wanted to kill him, so you can guess that Moroni was no social butterfly, or even very popular with the genteel crowd. Just look at his letter to Pahoran!
He probably stuck to the company of others like him.
Rarified air indeed.
In short, he was precisely the kind of man few Latter Day Saints would want home-teaching them, and even fewer would want to see as bishop. And yet there he stands, second only to the Messiah himself in praiseworthiness, according to Mormon, who clearly can hardly believe that his people, the very people he once declined to defend, ever had such a man to lead them.
And that's the lesson here: That kind of person you really want to be, ought to be, might just be the last one you'd ever think of.
Now here's the most curious thing. We're accustomed to seeing Moroni portrayed as a muscle-bound warrior, even though that's clearly not true, as I explained above. But then we're told that this he's one of the types of Christ in our scriptures, even though Christ is always portrayed as some candy-coated, winsome, male-model. How do we reconcile the Conan the Barbarian 'type of Christ' with the effeminate one?
And that's why you couldn't see it.
Likewise, 'Mormons', like the other 'Christians' they've so struggled to emulate (for some strange reason), can scarecly conceive of a Christ, of a God, who will cut you down where you stand, of a God who will tell you to your face just how wicked you are, and in what way, who will scold you harshly for not knowing the answer to the pop-quiz, especially if you're one of his students. Christians today do not know this Christ any more than Mormons today know this Moroni, this Mormon, and, yes, even this Joseph Smith.
Joseph Smith (jr.!) was known for using his fists when he felt they were needed. You probably didn't know that about him. But even Brigham Young mentioned how eager he was never to disappoint Joseph, precisely because of how unpleasant it would be.
And, finally, for now, anyway, there's that scripture which points out to us that, if we manage to escape the rebuke of the Lord, you shouldn't count yourself lucky, but rather as a bastard, as one who is not a son of God.
We say it all the time. We know the truth of it. When the going gets tough, the tough get going. One aims to become a 'lean, mean, {choose your path} machine'. We know this. We know that rigid displine is essential to achieving anything, including following Christ. Those wealthy enough may even hire personal trainers to motivate them to do the things (like run, clean, work, study) that they otherwise might not do if left to their own devices. And we full well know that the military, our military, with centuries of experience in training recruits, does not use the 'kinder, gentler' approach. And yet, it's the military, not the parents of those recruits, who are able to finally make viable citizens of those who were, many of them, one step away from a prison sentence.
Now, imagine we could all be loved that perfectly, with that perfect love which casts out all fear (because it prepares us to face the ultimate test).
And now you even know what that means, and why.
But who wants that? Who's willing to invite that upon themselves? Almost no one.
Perfect love was what Mormon saw in Moroni, a love like Christ himself. That is what Mormon saw Moroni's military expertise as: Love.
And that perfect love made the Nephites unafraid of the Lamanites, possibly for the first, and certainly for the last time.
And, if we want to be free of that fear, then we need to toughen up, act as if we've got a Moroni headed in here to wake us up his way because we failed to wake up on our own.
After all, it was Paul himself who told us that "By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet (his definition of faith), moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith."
I see a lot of Chief Captain Moroni in that.
And the final lesson here, the one I meant all this to point toward, is this: Do NOT be so arrogant as to apply your silly, childish standards of conduct, poise, or rhetoric to those you would have lead you. Too many will have nothing to do, for example, with any politician but those who sweet-talk them into believing flattering things, such as that God loves unconditionally, all will be saved, they aren't responsible for their plight, or that they're free to do anything they want, and even deserve annual vacations in Disney World, or, worst of all, prattle on endlessly in barely intelligible word-salads only a Harvard Law School grad could formulate, and only the NSA could decode. Few are willing to accept that a tough-talking, mono-syllabic, rough-dealing, blunt, military (ish) man from the farm or the docks or even the actual military could possibly make a suitable President.
Just as that person you think least likely is the very one you ought to emulate, so, too, is the one you think least likely the very one you should follow.
Unless, of course, if you, like me, yearn deep in your soul, and pray out loud, for another drill-sargeant like Chief Captain Moroni to show us the way.
Just one more thing about that, though. Remember also that Moroni executed many thousands of his very own people for refusing to defend their liberties.
And Mormon clearly knew this as he praised the man.
And the Book of Mormon, as I point out above, was very clearly written to our day.
There are those among us, and above us (in station), who may very well find themselves on the wrong end of that spear that Moroni fastened his coat to.
Remember what I've written here, and don't be confused by what you see. Be honest in your hearts about what liberty actually entails, and who is and is not on the side of that liberty. And let not your hearts be troubled when you see them brought to justice for treason, or even worse than that.
Dr. James Dobson's Tough Love turns out to be the only real love.
Anything less is just enabling.
And Chief Captain Moroni, like Christ, was no enabler.
And I, for one, aspire to emulate them both.