The Endurance of Faith on His Name to the End

This week’s Come, Follow Me lesson states, “As disciples of Jesus Christ, we must remain faithful even when we face trials and opposition. As you read Moroni 1, what inspires you about Moroni’s faithfulness to the Lord and to his calling? How can you follow his example?” Certainly Moroni’s determination to stay true to the Savior when all around him had abandoned God is an inspiration to us in our day as more and more turn from the Prince of Peace. He described the lonely situation he was in, “Because of their hatred they put to death every Nephite that will not deny the Christ. And I, Moroni, will not deny the Christ; wherefore, I wander whithersoever I can for the safety of mine own life” (Moroni 1:2-3). For decades he wandered alone, but even with his life in danger he would not renounce his faith. The end of Moroni’s life teaches us that we can stay true to the end no matter what happens around us. Enduring in faith in Christ to the end, his example showed, is even more important than preserving our own lives.  

               The rest of the book of Moroni fittingly emphasizes the need for each of us to endure to the end just as the prophet Moroni did. Priests and teachers were ordained “to preach repentance and remission of sins through Jesus Christ, by the endurance of faith on his name to the end” (Moroni 3:3). True remission of our sins only comes as we continued in faith to the end. The Sacrament prayers he recorded both remind us that we must “always remember him” in our quest to endure to the end (Moroni 4:3, 5:2). Moroni recorded the requirements of baptism, saying, “None were received unto baptism save they took upon them the name of Christ, having a determination to serve him to the end.” He similarly described their efforts to help those who joined the church to stay faithful: “Their names were taken, that they might be remembered and nourished by the good word of God, to keep them in the right way, to keep them continually watchful unto prayer, relying alone upon the merits of Christ, who was the author and the finisher of their faith” (Moroni 6:3-4). To endure to the end we must be “continually watchful unto prayer” and rely upon Christ who is “the finisher of [our] faith.”

Mormon’s words that Moroni recorded in the final chapters of the Book of Moroni similarly highlight the importance of enduring to the end. In his great teaching on charity we are told that this most important of Christian virtues “endureth all things” and “endureth forever” (Moroni 7:45-47). Surely this means that for us to truly have charity we must be determined to endure forever, to hold out true to the end of our mortal lives with faith in Jesus Christ. In Mormon’s powerful letter about baptism and the purity of children, he similarly asserted that the “Comforter filleth with hope and perfect love, which love endureth by diligence unto prayer, until the end shall come, when all the saints shall dwell with God” (Mormon 8:26). We can have that love which endureth forever as we continue “by diligence unto prayer” until the end of our lives. Clearly Moroni did this, and he hearkened to the encouraging words of his father to remain faithful no matter what happened: “And now, my beloved son, notwithstanding their hardness, let us labor diligently; for if we should cease to labor, we should be brought under condemnation; for we have a labor to perform whilst in this tabernacle of clay, that we may conquer the enemy of all righteousness, and rest our souls in the kingdom of God.” Mormon’s message to his son is a call to all of us to stay true to the Savior throughout the end of our lives no matter what the cost: “My son, be faithful in Christ… may Christ lift thee up, and may his sufferings and death, and the showing his body unto our fathers, and his mercy and long-suffering, and the hope of his glory and of eternal life, rest in your mind forever” (Moroni 9:6, 25). Moroni did remain faithful in Christ all his days, and his life stands as a powerful example for us to similarly endure in faith that we may also be “brought forth triumphant through the air, to meet [him] before the pleasing bar of the great Jehovah” (Moroni 10:34).