Moroni 7-9: Come Follow Me with Sam Book of Mormon
Welcome to Come Follow Me with Sam! These next chapters show the core of certain experiences Moroni had, his relationship to his civilization and the church. He lays out some of the fundamentals of Christianity in such a simple way that people can understand. I ask every true Christian to read these and see if they are not the true teaching of Christ, and I ask every non-Christian to read these things and ask if they are not the true teaching of life.
Moroni 7
I am going to do my best to deep dive Moroni 7 because I think we read past it way too much.
It can be roughly broken into 4 interconnected sections that teach how someone can truly be a disciple of Christ through faith, hope, and charity. Remember that Moroni (actually Mormon, since this is just his words) is speaking to those who have already been baptized and received the Gift of the Holy Ghost, so these words are written specifically for that audience. If you don't know the Gift of the Holy Ghost yet, this can definitely bless your life, but I'm not exactly sure which promises work to what degree. As one wise eastern teacher said, please 'uproot all the inner workings of your mind' and try to understand this with that Spirit.
Section 1: how to discern good from evil - vs 1-20
vs 5 Christ preached that by their works ye shall know them, for if their works be good, then they are good also. This is true, but it is confusing, since many wicked people have made many great things happen. In the last days even the elect will be deceived and men will call evil good and good evil, and the hearts of many will wax cold. So while this is true, we need to understand more than this. which is why we have vs 6. And the rest of the chapter for that matter.
vs 6-11 man being evil cannot do that which is good; for if he offereth a gift, or prayeth unto God, except he shall do it with real intent, it profiteth him nothing. So God does not see things the same way that we see them. He is seeing what their real intent is. We have a harder time seeing it. We don't even see it in ourselves sometimes. What we can understand is that the real intent of the person will lead their work, no matter how good or evil they seem to be, to be good or evil as it truly is. This also means that whatever good is in an evil person can work upon the world to have some benefit and whatever evil is in a good person can drag down good works from becoming all they could have become. It is truly a universal burden, because it is a burden that fills the entire universe. Look up the Law of Restoration in Alma 41
vs 12 and 13 There are two forces that are constantly working on you to turn more to the good or more to the evil, God, and the devil.
vs 14, 15 a repetition and a warning that you take heed that you do not judge wrongly. As hard as this seems, you do have the power to do this, and if we could see with the same understanding, this would be easy for us to do.
vs 16 For behold the Spirit of Christ is gven to every man, that he may know good from evil, and anyone can use this to know good from evil, but you have to really seek, and you have to be really dialed in, and you have to give up, you yourself, all guile and insincerity. If you warp your own reality with falsities, you will never be able to see the rest of it clearly.
vs 17-18 here comes the tricky part. Mormon says that by the light of Christ which is in you (and in everyone! theoretically everyone should be able to do this part), you can truly know these things. It is the light of Christ by which you must judge which means you need to recognize the light of Christ when it manifests in your life and continually listen and look for it in all situations for how it manifests.
vs 19, 20 So Mormon tells us we need to DILIGENTLY seek the light of christ, which we all have and then do this strange thing called 'lay hold upon every good thing'. The Truth is so precious that when it is found, you must hold on to it. That leads us to the heart and soul of faith. Note is how he transitions so directly into Faith.
Section 2: Faith - vs 20-39
vs 22 - 26 compare to Alma 30. In your life, you will find messengers bearing truth. When these people come, and point to Christ, you need to listen for that light of christ within you and when you feel that light of Christ, you need to act upon that which you have discovered according to the spirit.
There are many ways that this can come. Sometimes the messengers are angels. Sometimes the messengers are inspired prophets, sometimes they are the words of men, women, and children spoken by the inspiration of God (remember Alma 32).
So people who had never seen God were able to hold upon these things until His coming. By listening to the light of Christ, and when they found true messengers, holding onto all their words, they exercised faith and became the sons of God, and this unlocked the powers of heaven in their life. When ever Heaven touches earth, it is a miracle.
vs 27-30 Just as people had faith and the heavens open before Christ's coming, so it can be so now.
vs 30-33 Compare to Ether 12. God will send true messengers to those who are prepared and by doing so, those people can bless the entire world, and 'prepareth the way that the residue of men may have faith in Christ that the Holy Ghost may have place in their hearts, according to the power thereof. Thus, by goodness, truth, by truth, faith and greater truths, by faith, miracles and power and the covenants.
vs 34 - 39 if you can do all things through Christ, then surely you can repent, which is the true power and the message Christ has for the world. And all these things are possible when you have faith and seek the light of Christ. And if you do not see the miracles of repentance and angels, it is because you have lost something in this process.
Section 3: Hope vs 40-44
Compare Ether 12. There isn't a lot of explanation of what hope is in these few verses, so it is really worth pondering. In a way, Mormon focused this discourse on discerning truth from error and faith, and now he is coming back to hope as another integrated part. In Vs 3, he specifically called out hope. He said that he is assuming that you have already obtained a sufficient hope that ye can enter into the rest of the Lord. In vs 40, he reminds us that if we don't have hope, we can't have faith. We need this heavenly hope to work true faith.
Then he asks - what do you hope for? There are two ways to see what he says next. The first is an external way - that despite all our trials and how rough life is today, the atonement will make it so that all this will go away and we can be happy one day. This isn't exactly wrong, but there is a better way to look at it - the internal way. That although today you yourself are imperfect, have weaknesses far beyond your poor ability to handle in one lifetime, and so little lack of knowledge, that through the atonement of Christ, you do have a path where you can work through, and even overcome, all your weakness such that you will be a being that can be raised to life eternal, if you follow through this path by faith.
Hope is the belief that you yourself can be better through the way Christ has set. It is the inspiration that you will not be in your current position forever, and that there are things much better ahead for you, yourself, your soul.
To have hope you need to be meek and lowly in heart. I think I have spoken on meekness during Christ's ministry to the America's. Meek is knowing you can use your sword and keeping it sheathed. It is tied to true humility.
Section 4: Charity vs 44-48
Of the three great mysteries here, charity may be the greatest. Mormon says that If you are exercising faith and hope and meekness and lowliness of heart, and the gift of the Spirit, you must have charity. He then gives aspects of charity to understand it. He then says that you should pray to the father 'with all the energy of heart,' that you may be filled with this love, thus we become the Sons of God and are purified as He is pure.
In a sense Charity is the culmination of your work. It is what you receive day to day as you exercise hope and faith. I would say it is ineffable, like the spirit. It is a piece of heaven that is so close to Godliness, it is hard for it to be compared to anything on earth.
If we were shooting an arrow, hope would be looking at the target and keeping your aim downfield. Faith would be knocking your arrow to the bow, pulling back and shooting, no matter what else is happening around you. Charity would be almost like a Zen connection in this case with the actions you took, your connection to the bow and the goodness of what you have done. Incidentally sin comes from etymological roots that mean you aimed off the mark, so that fits very nicely into this metaphor as well.
Moroni 8
Called to the work and endurance of faith
Moroni 8 is another writing of his father that he wished to include. This beginning portion, vs 1-3, gives us so much insight on the nature of the world that Moroni and Mormon specifically lived in. They had a mission and a calling, and one given to them from God. They took this calling seriously, both in its reception and it its execution. vs 3 has a lot wrapped in it. I would like to focus on this idea of endurance of faith. Alma in chapter 32 talks about the enriching of faith over time. One of our songs talks about the patience of hope and the labor of love. Endure comes from the French 'endurer' which means to harden over time, like a tempered sword or a polished shaft.
Solemn Mockery and Perfect Love
I have many dear catholic friends who are faithful in their devotion, and I know this chapter could certainly give offense. I think Mormon felt this in his own time because he was speaking to faithful member that he may have known personally, and at least were living at the same time as him and were doing this and this whole letter/epistle is specifically addressed to them. Notice in vs 16 how he addresses this. He says
'Behold, I speak with boldness, having authority from God; and I fear not what man can do; for perfect love casteth out all fear."
Isn't it interesting that love casts out fear? We don't think in those ways. I believe that perfect love helps you understand both your destiny and the destiny of the person to whom you are showing it, and this helps you to speak truth to them because you understand them and yourself, and you know that they aren't 'the bad' part of the equation, and that you are both united in your experience here on earth. And this gives you power to do what you need to do and say what you need to say.
There is a mysterious connection between gratitude, connection, charity, and the priesthood. I would welcome your thoughts on understanding this connection.
There is also this idea of solemn mockery. There is an idea that something is sacred when you know you shouldn't mess with it, no matter your intentions. For example, Steadying the ark of the covenant was not something allowed because the ark was sacred so no matter the situation you did not violate that rule. We have a finite understanding of some of the higher things. Even though we don't understand certain things, we can understand that there are certain things that are sacred and holy and should not be touched except at the right place and the right time in the right way if you don't want to risk your own utmost peril.
Moroni 9
Moroni 9 is another transcendently beautiful and utterly horrifying moment where Moroni strives once again to reach us and help us understand what his world is like. He gives us a peek at some pretty awful stuff. He warns us, through Mormon's words, that this can happen very quickly. I think about WWII and how so many everyday people in Europe and Asia were plunged into the worst of hells in only a few years. This has happened to countries in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and to some extent, South America as well. Even in our lifetime. It is truly a dangerous precipice we dance on without realizing.
In the midst of most awful suffering, Mormon and Moroni have glories with heaven that most of us still only dream of. The juxtaposition of radiant light from heaven among blackest of darkness is something I hope I never have to understand fully, but the fact that these giants of men on earth walked in Christ's way through greatest suffering gives me intense faith on their testimonies and great courage of hope that, like them, no matter the bitterness around me, I too can walk the holy path through any trial, however insurmountable.
Comments
Post a Comment