Moroni’s final message at the end of his father’s book is aimed specifically at the faithless and unbelieving. Moroni foresaw that atheism, secularism, faithlessness, unbelief, and a variety of worldly philosophies would dominate in the last days. Thus, Moroni speaks directly concerning those who do not believe in Christ, rebuking them and posing pointed and poignant questions. Moroni does not hold back or mince words.
Then he exhorts the unbelieving to repent, to turn to the Lord and pray fervently. He rebukes those who deny revelations and spiritual gifts. He reveals an unchanging God who is a God of miracles:
But behold, I will show unto you a God of amiracles, even the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and it is that same bGod who created the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are. (Mormon 9:11)
Moroni teaches the plan of salvation and poses more pointed and poignant questions to the unbelieving and philosophically confused. He testifies with sound logic that if God is a God of miracles and an unchanging Being, then God is still a God of miracles. If miracles cease, it is because of the faithlessness and unbelieving of the people, not because God ceases to be a God of miracles. He testifies of God’s promise regarding faith and prayer:
Behold, I say unto you that whoso believeth in Christ, doubting nothing, awhatsoever he shall ask the Father in the name of Christ it shall be granted him; and this bpromise is unto all, even unto the ends of the earth. (Mormon 9:21)
He testifies of the Lord’s commission to His disciples to preach the Gospel in all the world and to every creature, and that faith in Christ precedes signs and miracles. Moroni poses more pointed and poignant questions, challenging any and all who attempt to oppose the work of God. Then he exhorts his audience to repent, to pray, and to come unto Christ:
O then despise not, and wonder not, but hearken unto the words of the Lord, and ask the Father in the name of Jesus for what things soever ye shall stand in need. aDoubt not, but be believing, and begin as in times of old, and bcome unto the Lord with all your cheart, and dwork out your own salvation with fear and trembling before him. (Mormon 9:27)
Moroni counsels and encourages wisdom, cleanliness, resisting temptation, service to God, worthiness, and doing all things in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God. Because Moroni directly addresses the faithless and unbelieving in these passages, what might those of us who have faith in Christ and believe learn from Moroni’s preaching, questions, and exhortations? What does the Lord want His faithful and believing disciples to learn from Moroni’s philippic?
The answer will be different for every student of the Book of Mormon and disciple of Christ. One thing that we learn, however, or of which we are reminded, concerns the character and attributes of God, our Heavenly Father. Moroni repeatedly emphasizes the doctrine that God is unchanging and unchangeable, a doctrine that was taught from the beginning of the Book of Mormon and in all the standard works:
For he is the same yesterday, today, and forever; and the way is prepared for all men from the foundation of the world, if it so be that they repent and come unto him.
For he that diligently seeketh shall find; and the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto them, by the power of the Holy Ghost, as well in these times as in times of old, and as well in times of old as in times to come; wherefore, the course of the Lord is one eternal round. (1 Nephi 10:18-19)
I perceive that it has been made known unto you, by the testimony of his word, that he cannot walk in crooked paths; neither doth he vary from that which he hath said; neither hath he a shadow of turning from the right to the left, or from that which is right to that which is wrong; therefore, his course is one eternal round. (Alma 7:20)
For I know that God is not a partial God, neither a changeable being; but he is unchangeable from all eternity to all eternity. (Moroni 8:18)
Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever. (Hebrews 13:8)
Thereby showing that he is the same God yesterday, today, and forever. Amen. (D&C 20:12)
Listen to the voice of the Lord your God, even Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, whose course is one eternal round, the same today as yesterday, and forever. (D&C 35:1)
From eternity to eternity he is the same, and his years never fail. (D&C 76:4)
Or as Moroni first puts it:
For do we not read that God is the asame byesterday, today, and forever, and in him there is no cvariableness neither shadow of changing?
And now, if ye have imagined up unto yourselves a god who doth vary, and in whom there is shadow of changing, then have ye imagined up unto yourselves a god who is not a God of miracles.
But behold, I will show unto you a God of amiracles, even the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and it is that same bGod who created the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are. (Mormon 9:9-11)
And if there were amiracles wrought then, why has God ceased to be a God of miracles and yet be an unchangeable Being? And behold, I say unto you he bchangeth not; if so he would cease to be God; and he ceaseth not to be God, and is a God of miracles. (Mormon 9:19)
Each of these passages is very clear, and the common sense reading of them by the average student of the Book of Mormon or member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is accurate.
However, a few years ago I encountered a current of thought among some LDS philosophers that I found a bit puzzling. I met good, faithful LDS people, philosophers and their students, who tried to persuade me that God is changeable. I read a couple of pieces from my friend Richard Williams at the Wheatley Institution, pieces that were influenced by a school of thought connected to Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, and the LDS philosopher Jim Faulconer. (See, e.g. “Faith, Reason, Knowledge, and Truth,” “The God of Condescension, and the God of Philosophy,” “Restoration and the ‘Turning of Things Upside Down’: What Is Required of an LDS Perspective,” “Agency, Atonement, and Psychological Theories of Change: A Latter-day Saint Christian Perspective,” “Agency: What Does It Mean to Be a Human Being?” and “Utah Conversations with Ted Capener: Richard N. Williams.”) I also read a related book Who is Truth: Reframing Our Questions for a Richer Faith.
Richard was very kind and helpful in email exchanges, in conversations during lunch, and so forth. The conversation is too complex to repeat here, but essentially Richard and his friends argued that many ancient Greek notions, such as the notion of “Being” (and abstract ideas such as omniscience, unchangeableness, and an unmoved mover) were incorporated into Christian theology throughout the period that has been called the Great Apostasy, and that many if not most latter-day saints and other Christians have unwittingly adopted these false Greek notions into their own theology. Thus, according to Williams and his friends, when latter-day saints and other Christians read the scriptures, they unwittingly impose a template of abstract ideas that they inherited from the ancient Greeks through apostate Christianity, and therefore fail to understand the true meaning of the scriptures.
Another way to put the argument of Williams and his friends, at least insofar as I understand it correctly, is that we need to think of the reality of God as a Person rather than as an abstract law or principle. The real enemies, according to Williams and his friends, are modern rationalism, rational systems (such as ethics, metaphysics, epistemology, physics, mathematics, Newtonianism, Hegelianism, Marxism, feminism, etc.), and other abstract ideas. In essence, everything went wrong with the Greeks, and especially in modernity (Descartes, Bacon, etc.), but there are post-modern thinkers such as Husserl, Heidegger, Kierkegaard, Levinas, Marion, and Merleau-Ponty who can help us to resist the currents of modernity that make us read the scriptures in the wrong way. What I could never quite understand, however, is how the work of the post-modernists such as Husserl and Heidegger were somehow any less abstract ideas than those of the moderns or some of the ancient Greeks. Does imposing the template of Husserl or Heidegger upon the scriptures help us to understand what the original author really meant any better than the common sense reading of scripture by the average latter-day saint or Christian? I don’t think so. (I’ll provide a portion of my email exchange with Richard Williams in a follow-up post for anyone who might be interested).
Honestly, I believe that Moroni knew his latter-day audience very well, even better than we know ourselves. If Moroni thought that there would be a problem with our misunderstanding of “unchangeable,” “the same yesterday, today, and forever,” “no variableness neither shadow of changing,” or “he changeth not,” then I think that he would have made sure to add a warning about Greek philosophical notions, an explanation of the true definitions of the words that he used, and a recommendation of the works of the post-modern philosophers. Because he didn’t, I take Moroni at his word, and I put my faith in the unchanging and unchangeable God who is the same yesterday, today, and forever, with no variableness neither shadow of changing, a God of miracles. In other words, I choose Moroni’s testimony over whatever it is that Husserl, Heidegger, Kierkegaard, Levinas, Marion, and Merleau-Ponty would prefer that we think about God.
There is so much more in Mormon chapter 9. I’ll pick up on the rest in a subsequent post.