By the Ministering of Angels

Mormon taught this about faith to the disciples of his day: “Wherefore, by the ministering of angels, and by every word which proceeded forth out of the mouth of God, men began to exercise faith in Christ” (Moroni 7:25). This suggests that a major purpose of the Lord sending ministering angels to the earth is to help mortals to gain faith in Jesus Christ. I think we see that is indeed the case in the Book of Mormon when angels ministered to various individuals. The first angel recorded in the book was the one who came to Nephi and his brothers near Jerusalem. He not only stopped Laman and Lemuel from hurting Nephi, but he sought to inspire them to have faith in the Lord’s power to help them get the plates. He said, “Behold ye shall go up to Jerusalem again, and the Lord will deliver Laban into your hands” (1 Nephi 3:29). It certainly motivated Nephi who then declared to his brothers, “Let us be faithful in keeping the commandments of the Lord; for behold he is mightier than all the earth” (1 Nephi 4:1). Not long after this, another angel (perhaps the same one?) came to Nephi to show him the things that his father had seen. He showed Nephi the Savior in vision: “And he spake unto me again, saying: Look! And I looked, and I beheld the Lamb of God going forth among the children of men…. 32 And it came to pass that the angel spake unto me again, saying: Look! And I looked and beheld the Lamb of God, that he was taken by the people; yea, the Son of the everlasting God was judged of the world; and I saw and bear record.” Nephi then bore witness of what he saw: “And I, Nephi, saw that he was lifted up upon the cross and slain for the sins of the world” (1 Nephi 11:31-33). His faith in the Savior was clearly strengthened by the angel’s visit. Hundreds of years later, the angel who came to King Benjamin declared the coming of Christ: “For behold, the time cometh, and is not far distant, that with power, the Lord Omnipotent who reigneth, who was, and is from all eternity to all eternity, shall come down from heaven among the children of men…. And he shall be called Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Father of heaven and earth, the Creator of all things from the beginning; and his mother shall be called Mary. And lo, he cometh unto his own, that salvation might come unto the children of men even through faith on his name” (Mosiah 3:5-9). His message was given to help this people to learn of Jesus Christ and develop faith in Him. When Nephi and Lehi took the message of the gospel to the Lamanites, “angels came down out of heaven and ministered unto them,” accompanied by a voice speaking these words, “Peace, peace be unto you, because of your faith in my Well Beloved, who was from the foundation of the world” (Helaman 5:47-48). Clearly their mission was to witness of the Savior and encourage the faith of these repentant Lamanites.

               Nephi wrote this in some of his final words: “Angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore, they speak the words of Christ. Wherefore, I said unto you, feast upon the words of Christ; for behold, the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do” (2 Nephi 32:3). He of course knew firsthand that angels speak the words of Christ, and interestingly, like Moroni, he connected the words of angels with the words of the scriptures as doing the same work. Angels bear witness of the Savior and encourage us to have faith in Him. And the words of the scriptures bear witness of the Savior and encourage us to have faith in Him. So, in one sense, we can say that to read the word of God is to hear the voice of angels. In fact, that is especially true for the Book of Mormon, a book that was given to us by an angel. In one sense all the words of this sacred book are the words of an angel because the angel Moroni gave them to the Prophet Joseph Smith and recommended them to us. We do not need to see literal angels to develop faith in Christ; we need only to study the words of scripture and especially the Book of Mormon so that we can hear His voice. It is the same whether it comes from a resurrected being or the written words of ancient prophets. As we live “by every word which proceeded forth out of the mouth of God” we too can “began to exercise faith in Christ” (Moroni 7:25).