The Times of the Gentiles Shall Be Fulfilled
Book of Mormon Notes - Saturday, April 13, 2024, Mormon 5
Just as our merciful Lord temporarily lifted the prohibition on Mormon’s preaching to give the Nephites a last chance for repentance, Mormon mercifully repented of the oath that he made that he would no longer assist his people in battle. I imagine that Mormon completed a major portion of his record during his hiatus. Even though he was without hope for his people, Mormon still had a duty, a labor to perform. It is remarkable that Mormon continued to fulfill his duty and to labor among his people even though he knew that their destruction was assured. He did this because he loved his people, even as Christ finished His work among people who rejected Him.
In my study of the Old Testament a couple of years ago, I noticed that each of the Old Testament prophets, and many others, including the judges, were types or symbols of Jesus Christ. It is worth pondering how Mormon, and his son Moroni, are types or symbols of Jesus Christ.
The Nephites looked to Mormon as though he could deliver them from the Lamanites. But the Nephites didn’t know or remember the things that Mormon knew and remembered. The Nephites relied entirely upon their own strength, and their hearts were hardened to such an extent that they didn’t understand that their only hope for deliverance was not Mormon, but Jesus Christ. Their only hope for deliverance was through sincere repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. Only by returning to Christ and His Gospel could they find hope for deliverance. But the Nephites repeatedly rejected the Lord’s invitation and warnings to repent until their day of grace passed.
Rather than lament or shake our heads at the foolishness of the unrepentant Nephites, it behooves us to consider Mormon’s message to us in the last days. It is human nature for us to fight and struggle for our lives, to go to battle against our metaphorical Lamanites, relying upon our own supposed strength. This mortal weakness of relying on our own strength reminds me of another story in the Book of Mormon with a happier ending.
Remember Limhi’s people? The Lamanites pestered, persecuted, and oppressed Limhi’s people until Limhi’s people could stand it no longer. These burdens and afflictions came upon Limhi’s people in fulfillment of the word of the Lord through the prophet Abinadi. The Limhite Nephites were sorely afflicted, surrounded by the Lamanites on every side, with no way to deliver themselves out of their hands. Their afflictions were so sore that the people began to murmur with the king, and they even desired to go against the Lamanites in battle. King Limhi granted their desire.
What was the result? The Limhites gathered together, suited up in their armor, and went forth to battle against the Lamanites to drive them out of their land. The Lamanites beat them, drove them back, and slew many of them. The mourning and lamentation of the widows and children of the Limhites and their continual cries incited the warriors among them so much to anger that they went again to battle, but they were driven back again, suffering much loss. They even went a third time to battle against the Lamanites, but they were crushed and defeated again. Only after their third defeat did they begin to understand their only hope for deliverance:
And they did humble themselves even to the dust, subjecting themselves to the ayoke of bondage, bsubmitting themselves to be smitten, and to be driven to and fro, and burdened, according to the desires of their enemies.
And they did ahumble themselves even in the depths of humility; and they did cry mightily to God; yea, even all the day long did they cry unto their God that he would bdeliver them out of their afflictions. (Mosiah 21:13-14)
Contrast this response to the response of Mormon’s armies. The Lord, through Mormon, delivered them three times from subjection to the Lamanites, but the Nephites still refused to acknowledge that it was the Lord who delivered them. Contrast both of these stories with the three attempts of Nephi and his brothers to obtain the brass plates. The theme that emerges, a pattern throughout all of scripture, is a revelation of the human tendency to rely upon our own strength, to attempt to fight our own battles, and to try to do things our own way before turning to the Lord for help. In some ways, it is a good and natural human tendency, because we ought to be always and anxiously engaged in a good cause and do many good things of our own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness. (D&C 58:27) Nevertheless, if Mormon’s Nephite warriors teach us anything it is that no matter how strong or brave we are, no matter how great our training and weapons and leaders may be, and no matter how hard we try, the Lord’s ways will always be superior to our own ways. Deliverance comes through the Lord’s strength, and not our own.
It also seems to be characteristic of human nature that we try to do things our own way first before turning to the Lord, and to lean unto our own understanding before leaning on the Lord. I am grateful for Elder Paul B. Pieper’s recent reminder and admonition to turn to the Lord first:
Sometimes the best way to learn to trust God is simply by trusting Him. Like “The Crazy Trust Exercise,” sometimes we just need to be willing to fall backward and let Him catch us. Our mortal life is a test. Challenges that stretch us beyond our own capacity come frequently. When our own knowledge and understanding are inadequate, we naturally look for resources to help us. In an information-saturated world, there is no shortage of sources promoting their solutions to our challenges. However, the simple, time-tested counsel in Proverbs provides the best advice: “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart.”9 We show our trust in God by turning to Him first when confronted with life’s challenges.
I want to repeat Elder Pieper’s observation and counsel, for my own benefit as well as for the benefit of my readers, because it is both accurate and essential:
In an information-saturated world, there is no shortage of sources promoting their solutions to our challenges. However, the simple, time-tested counsel in Proverbs provides the best advice: “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart.”9 We show our trust in God by turning to Him first when confronted with life’s challenges.
Just think of the innumerable websites, blogs, podcasts, videos, movies, articles, and gurus that compete for our attention each day. Even if many of them are good, faithful, Christian and LDS sources - such as The Chosen, Christian Homestead, Meridian Magazine, Public Square Magazine, Book of Mormon Central, FAIR, Latter-day Conservative, CWIC Media, Watcher Palmer, Thoughtful Faith, Radio Free Mormon, Unshaken, Follow Him, All In, and even my Substack The Torch and my YouTube Channel The Torch - even these good sources are not where we must turn first when confronted with life’s challenges or at any other time. It is only by turning to the Lord first, putting the Lord first in our lives, and trusting in the Lord with all our hearts, that we will avoid the fate of Mormon’s unrepentant Nephites, the furious and oppressed Limhites, or Laman and Lemuel. I love the Book of Mormon because more than any other book, it helps us to turn to the Lord, put the Lord first in our lives, and trust in the Lord with all our hearts.
Let’s listen to Mormon’s lament concerning his Nephite brothers and sisters and consider how his lament, which he knew that his contemporaries would not hear, might apply to us, his intended future audience:
But behold, I was awithout hope, for I knew the judgments of the Lord which should come upon them; for they repented not of their iniquities, but did struggle for their lives without calling upon that Being who created them. (Mormon 5:2)
I don’t think that it is a coincidence that so many of the talks from the most recent general conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, including Elder Holland’s “Motions of a Hidden Fire,” Sister Porter’s “Pray, He is There,” and Elder Godoy’s “Call, Don’t Fall,” focused specifically upon prayer: calling upon the Being who created us. Even Elvis, George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Bon Jovi, Aretha Franklin, Sheryl Crow, M.C. Hammer, Josh Groban, Andrea Bocelli, Matthew West, Justin Bieber, the Fu-Schnickens, Sam Smith, and many others knew, like Nephi, that we must pray:
And now, my beloved brethren, I perceive that ye ponder still in your hearts; and it grieveth me that I must speak concerning this thing. For if ye would hearken unto the aSpirit which teacheth a man to bpray, ye would know that ye must cpray; for the devil spirit teacheth not a man to pray, but teacheth him that he must not pray.
But behold, I say unto you that ye must apray always, and not faint; that ye must not perform any thing unto the Lord save in the first place ye shall bpray unto the Father in the cname of Christ, that he will dconsecrate thy performance unto thee, that thy performance may be for the ewelfare of thy soul. (2 Nephi 32:8-9)
Mormon’s Nephites did not call upon the Being who created them, and therefore their enemies, the Lamanites came against them again. The Nephites, in their own strength, preserved the city of Jordan once, and then one more time. But as the Nephites fled to Jordan and other cities, anyone and anything left behind was completely destroyed, and their towns, villages, and cities were burned.
When Mormon was about seventy years old, about three-hundred and eighty years after the coming of Christ, the Lamanites came against the Nephites again to battle. At first the Nephites withstood them boldly again, but Mormon laments that it was futile because there were so many Lamanites that they trod the Nephites under their feet. This reminds us of Chief Captain Moroni’s covenant and prayer when he raised the Title of Liberty:
And he said: Surely God shall not asuffer that we, who are despised because we take upon us the name of Christ, shall be trodden down and destroyed, until we bring it upon us by our own btransgressions.
And when Moroni had said these words, he went forth among the people, waving the arent part of his garment in the air, that all might see the writing which he had written upon the rent part, and crying with a loud voice, saying:
Behold, whosoever will maintain this title upon the land, let them come forth in the strength of the Lord, and aenter into a covenant that they will bmaintain their rights, and their religion, that the Lord God may bless them.
And it came to pass that when Moroni had proclaimed these words, behold, the people came running atogether with their armor girded about their loins, brending their garments in token, or as a ccovenant, that they would not forsake the Lord their God; or, in other words, if they should transgress the commandments of God, or fall into transgression, and be dashamed to take upon them the name of Christ, the Lord should rend them even as they had rent their garments.
Now this was the covenant which they made, and they acast their garments at the feet of Moroni, saying: We bcovenant with our God, that we shall be destroyed, even as our brethren in the land northward, if we shall fall into transgression; yea, he may cast us at the feet of our enemies, even as we have cast our garments at thy feet to be trodden under foot, if we shall fall into transgression. (Alma 46:18-22)
Sadly, Mormon’s Nephites were as ignorant of their own history as they were of the word of God, and according their own transgressions, they were cast at the feet of their enemies and trodden under foot.
As the Lamanites decimated their cities and trod them under foot, the swifter Nephites fled, and the rest were swept down and destroyed. It was a terrible time to be a Nephite, and an especially terrible time to be a slow Nephite.
Mormon moves seamlessly back and forth from his abridgment of Nephite history and his commentary and exhortations to his latter-day audience. After a brief comment about why he doesn’t give us a full account of what he experienced (Mormon 5:8-9), Mormon shares the lesson that he wished to convey to us, Jews and Gentiles, and particularly to the remnant of the House of Jacob:
And behold, they shall go unto the aunbelieving of the bJews; and for this intent shall they go—that they may be cpersuaded that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God; that the Father may bring about, through his most Beloved, his great and eternal purpose, in restoring the Jews, or all the house of Israel, to the dland of their inheritance, which the Lord their God hath given them, unto the fulfilling of his ecovenant;
And also that the seed of athis people may more fully believe his gospel, which shall bgo forth unto them from the Gentiles; for this people shall be cscattered, and shall dbecome a dark, a filthy, and a loathsome people, beyond the description of that which ever hath been amongst us, yea, even that which hath been among the Lamanites, and this because of their unbelief and idolatry. (Mormon 5:14-15)
Mormon is laser focused on his purpose, and his purpose is perfectly aligned with the purpose of each of the prophets who preceded him. Lehi, Nephi, Jacob, Enos, and each of the Nephite prophets, as well as preceding prophets such as Isaiah, Moses, Joseph, and Abraham, all the way back to Adam, they taught and wrote to persuade all to come unto Jesus Christ, the Son of God, whose purpose is that of the Father:
For behold, this is my awork and my bglory—to bring to pass the cimmortality and deternal elife of man. (Moses 1:39)
It seems to me that Mormon was particularly influenced by his great predecessor Nephi. Certainly Mormon knew and loved all the prophets and great men throughout Nephite history, most notably Chief Captain Moroni. But I imagine that when Mormon discovered and read Nephi’s small plates, he was filled with the Spirit of the Lord and moved upon to write in a manner that reflects and builds upon Nephi’s manner of writing. Thus when Mormon writes of persuading the Latter-day Jews to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, we hear an echo of Nephi’s purpose:
For the fulness of mine intent is that I may apersuade men to bcome unto the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, and be saved.
Wherefore, the things which are apleasing unto the world I do not write, but the things which are pleasing unto God and unto those who are not of the world.
Wherefore, I shall give commandment unto my seed, that they shall not occupy these plates with things which are not of worth unto the children of men. (1 Nephi 6:4-6)
Like Nephi, Mormon wrote to persuade men to come unto the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, and be saved. Like Nephi, Mormon did not write the things which are pleasing unto the world, but the things that are pleasing unto God and unto those who are not of the world. Like Nephi, the things that Mormon wrote are of great worth unto the children of men. Mormon was a direct descendent of Nephi and Lehi, who were direct descendants of Manasseh, the son of Joseph who was sold into Egypt, the son of Jacob whose name was changed to Israel, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham, the friend of God:
I am Mormon, and a pure adescendant of Lehi. I have reason to bless my God and my Savior Jesus Christ, that he brought our fathers out of the land of Jerusalem, (and bno one knew it save it were himself and those whom he brought out of that land) and that he hath given me and my people so much knowledge unto the salvation of our souls.
Surely he hath ablessed the house of bJacob, and hath been cmerciful unto the seed of Joseph. (3 Nephi 5:20-21)
Thus, although Mormon was without hope for his own generation, he was filled with faith, hope, and charity for the remnant of the house of Jacob, and particularly for the future seed of Joseph:
And ainsomuch as the children of Lehi have kept his commandments he hath blessed them and prospered them according to his word.
Yea, and surely shall he again bring a aremnant of the seed of Joseph to the bknowledge of the Lord their God. (3 Nephi 5:22-23)
Mormon’s hope for the remnant of Jacob impels him to write directly to them, while simultaneously warning the Gentiles:
And now behold, this I speak unto their seed, and also to the Gentiles who have care for the house of Israel, that realize and know from whence their blessings come.
For I know that such will sorrow for the calamity of the house of Israel; yea, they will sorrow for the destruction of this people; they will sorrow that this people had not repented that they might have been clasped in the arms of Jesus.
Mormon is talking to us, and about us. As we read the Book of Mormon and feel sorrow for the destruction of the seed of Lehi, Mormon teaches us that even though the Nephites were destroyed and the Lamanites dwindled in unbelief and were scattered by the Gentiles - with the knowledge of their fathers hidden from them for a time because of wickedness - the Lord would, in His wisdom, bring forth this record, the Book of Mormon, and the Book of Mormon would not only persuade the unbelieving of the Jews that Jesus in the Christ, the Son of the Living God, but it would also be the instrument for gathering all the house of Israel to the land of their inheritance. The Lord will fulfill His covenant, the seed of Joseph, the seed of Lehi, will more fully believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ that they receive from the Gentiles. These prophesies are in process of fulfillment, because the time of the Gentiles is rapidly coming to a close:
And this I have told you concerning Jerusalem; and when that day shall come, shall a remnant be ascattered among all bnations;
But they shall be agathered again; but they shall remain until the times of the bGentiles be fulfilled. (D&C 45:24-25)
and
And when the times of the aGentiles is come in, a blight shall break forth among them that sit in darkness, and it shall be the fulness of my cgospel; (D&C 45:28)
and
And in that generation shall the atimes of the Gentiles be fulfilled. (D&C 45:30)
This is our generation that the Lord is talking about! Read D&C 45. This is what is happening right now, even as I write. Mormon saw it. Joseph Smith revealed it.
The Lord’s blessings went first to the Gentiles who possessed the promised land, because the seed of Lehi, the Lamanites, dwindled in unbelief and became a dark, a filthy, and a loathsome people. But like the Jews and the rest of the house of Israel that were scattered, the Lamanites that were driven and scattered by the Gentiles will be gathered because of the Lord’s covenant unto Abraham. They will be gathered and blessed because of the prayers of the righteous which have been put up unto God for them.
In other words, even though Mormon was without hope for his generation, and even though he knew that many generations of Lamanites would be smitted and scattered, he also know that in the due time of the Lord, God would bless them, gather them, and restore them. Then, Mormon warns us, that the tables will be turned unless we repent:
And then, O ye Gentiles, how can ye stand before the power of God, except ye shall repent and turn from your evil ways?
Know ye not that ye are in the ahands of God? Know ye not that he hath all power, and at his great command the bearth shall be crolled together as a scroll?
Therefore, repent ye, and humble yourselves before him, lest he shall come out in justice against you—lest a aremnant of the seed of Jacob shall go forth among you as a blion, and tear you in pieces, and there is none to deliver. (Mormon 5:22-24)