Pahoran's Preparation and More about Moroni's Hatred of Indifference

Book of Mormon Notes - Tuesday, November 14, 2023, Alma 59

Chief Captain Moroni was a very decisive leader.

As soon as he learned of Helaman’s victories in the west and their need for support to maintain the recaptured cities, Moroni immediately sent an epistle to Pahoran in the central government in Zarahemla. As soon as Moroni witnessed the Nephite defeats in the East, Moroni immediately sent another epistle to Pahoran. Moroni and Helaman, along with their brave and noble men - including Lehi, Teancum, Gid, Teomner, the 2,060 Ammonite warriors, and many others - were doing everything in their power to defend liberty and the welfare of their country. As soon as Moroni, like Helaman, suspected that there was a problem in the central Nephite government in Zarahemla, he acted immediately.

This time, Mormon quotes Chief Captain Moroni directly, and we are eternally indebted to him for including this verbatim communication from Moroni to Pahoran. It is the kind of letter that will rouse any sincere, God fearing, and patriotic soul to the same love of liberty and hatred of tyranny that burned so brightly in Moroni’s own noble soul. These are the words of a man whose courage and love of God and country were so great that fear was completely absent from his heart. These are the words of a man who was filled with the gift of charity, like John the Beloved and Mormon himself:

There is no ^afear in ^blove; but perfect ^clove casteth out fear: because fear hath ^dtorment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. (1 John 4:18)

Wo be unto them that shall pervert the ways of the Lord after this manner, for they shall perish except they repent. Behold, I speak with boldness, having authority from God; and I fear not what man can do; for perfect love casteth out all fear. (Moroni 8:16)

But before we dive into Moroni’s epistle, it is helpful to know a little bit about his audience. Who was Pahoran?

Pahoran was the third Nephite chief judge in the Book of Mormon, after Alma and Nephihah. Pahoran was the son of the noble and righteous Nephihah, and he had been appointed as the chief judge over all of the Nephites, according to the reign of the judges as initiated by King Mosiah:

Behold, it came to pass that the son of Nephihah was appointed to fill the judgment-seat, in the stead of his father; yea, he was appointed chief judge and governor over the people, with an oath and sacred ordinance to judge righteously, and to keep the peace and the freedom of the people, and to grant unto them their sacred privileges to worship the Lord their God, yea, to support and maintain the cause of God all his days, and to bring the wicked to justice according to their crime.

Now behold, his name was Pahoran. And Pahoran did fill the seat of his father, and did commence his reign in the end of the twenty and fourth year, over the people of Nephi. (Alma 50:39-40)

Pahoran had very big shoes to fill, because Alma the Younger and Nephihah had magnified the office of the chief judge so well. Think of it something like fulfilling the office of the President of the United States after Washington and Adams. Like Washington, Alma the Younger abdicated political power after justly fulfilling his duties in office, and Nephihah was appointed as chief judge in his stead. Nephihah, in turn, fulfilled his duties before he died “with perfect uprightness before God”. (Alma 50:37). Nephihah was so trustworthy, in fact, that Alma the Younger was ready to hand down him the sacred Nephite records and relics. In other words, Pahoran’s father Nephihah was an honest and noble man.

Pahoran, son of Nephihah, was oppointed chief judge and governor over the people in his father’s stead. Pahoran took an oath and a sacred ordinance to judge righteously, to keep the peace and the freedom of the people, to grant unto them their sacred privileges to worship the Lord their God, to support and maintain the cause of God all his days, and to bring the wicked to justice according to their crime. We know that Alma the Younger’s role as the first chief judge was not easy because he relinquished political power in this position in order to preach the word of God and set in order the Church of God. Nephihah’s reign as the second chief judge was not easy either, because of both internal and external opposition. Similarly, Pahoran’s reign began with much opposition because of the wars against the Lamanites, but particularly because of the internal opposition from dissenters, first because of Morianton, and then because of the tyrannical king-men. To his credit, and building upon the heritage bequeathed to him by Alma the Younger and Nephihah, Pahoran resisted the tyranny of the king-men:

Nevertheless, they did not long maintain an entire peace in the land, for there began to be a contention among the people concerning the chief judge Pahoran; for behold, there were a part of the people who desired that a few particular points of the law should be altered.

But behold, Pahoran would not alter nor suffer the law to be altered; therefore, he did not hearken to those who had sent in their voices with their petitions concerning the altering of the law.

Therefore, those who were desirous that the law should be altered were angry with him, and desired that he should no longer be chief judge over the land; therefore there arose a warm dispute concerning the matter, but not unto bloodshed.

And it came to pass that those who were desirous that Pahoran should be dethroned from the judgment-seat were called king-men, for they were desirous that the law should be altered in a manner to overthrow the free government and to establish a king over the land.

And those who were desirous that Pahoran should remain chief judge over the land took upon them the name of freemen; and thus was the division among them, for the freemen had sworn or covenanted to maintain their rights and the privileges of their religion by a free government.

And it came to pass that this matter of their contention was settled by the voice of the people. And it came to pass that the voice of the people came in favor of the freemen, and Pahoran retained the judgment-seat, which caused much rejoicing among the brethren of Pahoran and also many of the people of liberty, who also put the king-men to silence, that they durst not oppose but were obliged to maintain the cause of freedom. (Alma 51:2-7)

Pahoran, the third Nephite chief judge, was a true conservative. He resisted the foolish and tyrannical methods of the king-men, ancient “progressives” who desired to alter King Mosiah’s just laws in order to obtain positions and power. The freemen were victorious, but as we know, Chief Captain Moroni had already been compelled to come to the aid of Pahoran and the freemen in order to subdue the rebellions and uprisings of the tyrannical king-men. All of these internal dissensions among the Nephites took place while Amalickiah was seeking to destroy the Nephites from the outside. Thus Chief Captain Moroni, and Pahoran, already had experience in fighting both internal and external battles.

Recall that the king-men were in league with Amalickiah and the Lamanites against their own people. The king-men were glad that the Lamanites were attacking the Nephites, and they refused to defend their country. Moroni was furious, or “exceedingly wroth” with these king-men, and he and his armies came against them and put to death whoever would not support the standard of liberty that he had so nobly planted and maintained. Moroni and his men put an end to the king-men, slaying 4,000 of them and subduing the rest.

Imagine that people in your own country who seek for power and authority sided with enemies of your country against a just form of government and the liberty of the people. We don’t have to imagine this at all, because we see it so frequently today. The insane fury of the pro-Hamas demonstrators, not to mention the previous onslaught of Black Lives Matters rioters and promoters of critical race theory and the 1619 Project, are just a few of the too numerous examples of the mindless mobs that side with America’s enemies and threaten to destroy America from the inside. Perhaps we have something to learn from Pahoran and Moroni in their efforts to resist first the king-men, and then the dissenters and power seekers in the central Nephite government in Zarahemla.

Helaman had suspected that a faction in the central government was the cause for their neglect and their failure to send aid and supplies to the Nephite armies. Even though Pahoran had proven faithful before, Chief Captain Moroni did not know the cause for the government’s neglect, and he sent a blistering epistle to Pahoran, full of complaints and castigations. As I mentioned previously, it is the kind of letter that puts fire in the belly of true patriots and lovers of liberty. In this way, Moroni’s letter to Pahoran reminds me somewhat of John Hancock’s “Boston Massacre Oration” which Hancock probably wrote with the assistance of his mentor Samuel Adams.

Think of the circumstances. The tide of the war was turning in the Nephites favor because of Helaman and his valiant Ammonite sons. In the west, the Nephite armies had gained great victories and reclaimed all of the Nephite cities. In the East, Moroni was laying a plan to do the same, that it, reclaim all of the Nephite cities that had been conquered by the Lamanites. Meanwhile, both Moroni and Helaman were perplexed because of the neglect of the government in Zerahemla. For some unknown reason, Helaman in the west, and Moroni in the east were not receiving the provisions and support that they required and that they had requested. Moroni was rejoicing because of the success of Helaman and the Nephites in the southwest, and he was encouraged to begin strategizing to reclaim the Nephite cities in the southeast. But both he and Helaman needed more support from the Zarahemla.

But the Lamanites didn’t stop attacking the Nephites just because they had lost in the southwest. As Moroni was planning his strategy, and as he and Helaman awaited support from Zarahemla, the Lamanites attacked and conquered the great Nephite city of Nephihah, the city named after the great chief judge who had preceded Pahoran. Many Nephites had gathered into the city of Nephihah, from the city of Moroni, the city of Lehi, and the city of Morianton. Ammoron gathered the Lamanites who had been fleeing from the land of Manti and nearby regions and commanded them to attack the people of Nephihah, which they did, slaying the Nephites “with an exceedingly great slaughter”. (Alma 59:7) Thus the surviving Nephites from the city of Nephihah were forced to flee and to join the armies of Moroni.

One of the reasons why Moroni was so furious and so angry with the government is that he believed that with provisions and support from Zarahemla, the Nephites could have easily retained the city of Nephihah. Furthermore, Moroni understood that it was much easier to retain and maintain cities than to recapture them once they were lost. It is easier to prepare and prevent than it is to repair and repent, as the saying goes. What was Moroni’s response?

And now, when Moroni saw that the city of Nephihah was ^alost he was exceedingly sorrowful, and began to doubt, because of the wickedness of the people, whether they should not fall into the hands of their brethren.

Now this was the case with all his chief captains. They doubted and marveled also because of the wickedness of the people, and this because of the success of the Lamanites over them.

And it came to pass that Moroni was angry with the government, because of their ^aindifference concerning the freedom of their country. (Alma 59:11-13)

To be clear, Moroni was sorrowful and began to doubt, not because of any wickedness on the part of his armies or the armies of Helaman, but because of the wickedness of the people in the capital city and the government in Zarahemla. Moroni had already quelled the rebellion of the king-men in Zarahemla. He was tired of fighting battles on two fronts, one against the wicked in his own country and the other against their external enemies, the Lamanites. As much as Moroni detested the unjust war that the Lamanites had waged against the Nephites, there was perhaps one thing that he detested even more, namely the ^aindifference of the government concerning the freedom of their country.

Approximately four-hundred years later, Mormon experienced similar tribulations in war because of the wickedness of his people. In fact, for a time, Mormon even refused to lead the Nephite armies in battle anymore because of their wickedness:

And it came to pass that I, Mormon, did utterly ^arefuse from this time forth to be a commander and a leader of this people, because of their wickedness and abomination.

Behold, I had led them, notwithstanding their wickedness I had led them many times to battle, and had loved them, according to the ^alove of God which was in me, with all my heart; and my soul had been poured out in prayer unto my God all the day long for them; nevertheless, it was ^bwithout faith, because of the ^chardness of their hearts. (Mormon 3:11-12)

Like Mormon after him, Chief Captain Moroni understood that the Nephites owed their victories to the mercy and goodness of God, and that without Heavenly support, the contest was futile. Thus, even in these dangerous circumstances after the fall of the great city of Nephihah, Moroni was compelled once again to confront his internal enemies. These dangerous circumstances and the indifference of the government called forth one of the greatest, boldest, most patriotic, and most memorable letters in scripture and in all military history.