This Our Faith

Despite the teachings of Alma and his brethren and his sons to the Zoramites, most of them did not repent and rejected the word of God. Mormon recorded what happened soon after the missionaries and their converts left: “For behold, it came to pass that the Zoramites became Lamanites…. And it came to pass that the Lamanites came with their thousands; and they came into the land of Antionum, which is the land of the Zoramites; and a man by the name of Zerahemnah was their leader. And now, as the Amalekites were of a more wicked and murderous disposition than the Lamanites were, in and of themselves, therefore, Zerahemnah appointed chief captains over the Lamanites, and they were all Amalekites and Zoramites” (Alma 43:5-6). So the Lamanites joined forces with the Zoramites, and they went to battle against the Nephites. Moroni and his men fought them until eventually they overpowered them, and Moroni put a stop to the fighting. He then declared to these Zoramite leaders, “But now, ye behold that the Lord is with us; and ye behold that he has delivered you into our hands. And now I would that ye should understand that this is done unto us because of our religion and our faith in Christ. And now ye see that ye cannot destroy this our faith. Now ye see that this is the true faith of God” (Alma 44:3-4). John Bytheway in a recent podcast highlighted the fact that this was the same group who had overtly rejected the Savior. They prayed on the Rameumptom, “We believe that thou hast elected us to be thy holy children; and also thou hast made it known unto us that there shall be no Christ…. We also thank thee that thou hast elected us, that we may not be led away after the foolish traditions of our brethren, which doth bind them down to a belief of Christ, which doth lead their hearts to wander far from thee, our God” (Alma 31:16-17). It seems that Moroni was responding directly to their tradition and he wanted them to know that Christ was real and was the God that delivered them from the Lamanites. Their pretended Zoramite prayers on the holy stand could not save them in that moment from the strength of Jesus Christ given to the Nephites.

                We see in subsequent chapters that Moroni was indeed focused on Jesus Christ and had unwavering faith in Him. When Amalickiah caused many dissenters to reject the Savior, “Moroni prayed that the cause of the Christians, and the freedom of the land might be favored.” He said to the people, “Surely God shall not suffer 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 transgressions.” His words inspired the people to come forth and make a covenant “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 ashamed to take upon them the name of Christ, the Lord should rend them even as they had rent their garments.” Moroni affirmed to them that they would suffer “if we do not stand fast in the faith of Christ” (Alma 46:16, 18, 21, 27). Indeed, it was their faith in the Savior that preserved them from falling into the hands of their enemies. Mormon later summarized Moroni this way: “He was preparing to support their liberty, their lands, their wives, and their children, and their peace, and that they might live unto the Lord their God, and that they might maintain that which was called by their enemies the cause of Christians…. Yea, and he was a man who was firm in the faith of Christ, and he had sworn with an oath to defend his people” (Alma 48:10, 13). Of all the reasons we might list as to why he was so successful as a military general in this war, surely the most important would be this: he was firm in the faith of Jesus Christ. His faith came first and he never wavered in his commitment to the Savior. Because of his faith the Nephites were preserved and the Zoramites and Lamanites beheld firsthand what true faith in Jesus Christ can do. No matter what challenge we face in our lives, the example of Moroni teaches us that the most important thing we can do to address it is to have faith in Christ.