Tag: Mormon
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“If ye believe that”
When Mormon tells the descendants of Lehi that “if ye believe that (the record of the Jews that will come to the gentiles and from the gentiles to you) ye will believe this also” i had always understood that to mean anyone who truly believed the Bible would naturally believe the Book of Mormon. I…
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One fell swoop
Did Mormon gather his people in one body hoping they could stand for a time against the Lamanites? Did he hope the Lamanites might opt to lay siege rather than make war so that the Nephites would be confined without the Lamanites losing more men in battle? Or was his hope simply that he would…
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Why return?
If Mormon was without hope for the Nephites because of their wickedness as he says, why did he choose to return and lead them? What did he wish to accomplish if he felt no hope that he could save them?
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Every heart was hardened
We don’t go to open war among ourselves very often (the various riots we’ve had this year could count) but it feels like we have the same hardened hearts in our political discourse where there is so much anger and vitriol and where we treat those we disagree with as enemies rather than people with…
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Seeing what they want to see
Mormon ended his first career leading the Nephites with two great victories. His people then got full of pride at their success while completely ignoring that their success came because they had been preparing for those attacks for ten years before the victory. Ten years of being led by a man who had learned the…
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Learning curve
It is sometimes ready to forget that Mormon, the very successful Nephite general, started his career as a war least with several losses. Sometimes his men would not even stand and fight. Obviously he learned and became more effective before he stepped aside because of the wickedness of those he was leading.
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Periodic peace
Through most of Nephite history there were periods of war but even in times of consistent tension between there was war less often than peace. In the days of Mormon that changed so that periods of peace became the exception against a backdrop of decades of war.
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A God of miracles
All who would deny God in life will find in death that His existence and His power are undeniable as is His justice.
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Thrust into a new role
When Moroni received the plates he didn’t know what to write it how long he would even survive. He wrote what he had been instructed to write and lamented that he had no resources to write anything more. Over the next few decades he would expand upon that initial effort after he found some resources…
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Always inviting
A key trait of the prophets of the Lord is that they are always inviting people to repent. They invite both friend and for. They invite those hearing them live and those who will encounter their record later. They invite when they have hope for success and also when all hope for their people is…