Judged at the Great and Last Day

I have written before about the two very different sections of the Words of Mormon, verses 1-11 and verses 12-17. One theory concerning them is that verses 12-17 were actually part of Mormon’s abridgment of the large plates and really belong in the book of Mosiah, an idea supported by the continuity between verse 18 and Mosiah 1:1. This would mean that Words of Mormon 1:12 was the first verse translated after the loss of the 116 pages (i.e. where Martin and Joseph had left off) and was already into the book of Mosiah, a book for which we have no proper beginning. Verses 1-11 would have been the very last thing translated by Joseph (the small plates were translated after the large plates) and then moved to the beginning of the book for its publication. One of the reasons that this theory is compelling to me is the finality with which Mormon spoke in Words of Mormon 1:11. He said this: “And I, Mormon, pray to God that they may be preserved from this time henceforth. And I know that they will be preserved; for there are great things written upon them, out of which my people and their brethren shall be judged at the great and last day, according to the word of God which is written.” This very much sounds like a closing paragraph from Mormon as he finished his brief explanation of the small plates and spoke of what most of the other Nephite prophets spoke of as they finished their records: the preservation of their words and the judgment.

                We see several other examples of final Nephite words focusing on similar themes to the above verse. In Nephi’s final writings he said, “Christ will show unto you, with power and great glory, that they are his words, at the last day; and you and I shall stand face to face before his bar;… these words shall condemn you at the last day. For what I seal on earth, shall be brought against you at the judgment bar; for thus hath the Lord commanded me, and I must obey” (2 Nephi 33:14-15). Like Mormon, he testified of the enduring nature of the words he had written on the plates, and he warned of how they would judge us at the last day. In what he meant to be his final words (before adding the account of Sherem), Jacob likewise focused on the judgment: “Finally, I bid you farewell, until I shall meet you before the pleasing bar of God, which bar striketh the wicked with awful dread and fear” (Jacob 6:13). Mormon’s final words in his abridgment of the large plates also focused on how the words he had written would persist unto the last days: “Therefore repent, and be baptized in the name of Jesus, and lay hold upon the gospel of Christ, which shall be set before you, not only in this record but also in the record which shall come unto the Gentiles from the Jews, which record shall come from the Gentiles unto you. For behold, this is written for the intent that ye may believe that; and if ye believe that ye will believe this also; and if ye believe this ye will know concerning your fathers, and also the marvelous works which were wrought by the power of God among them.” He then finished by telling us about the day of judgment: “If it so be that ye believe in Christ, and are baptized, first with water, then with fire and with the Holy Ghost, following the example of our Savior, according to that which he hath commanded us, it shall be well with you in the day of judgment” (Mormon 7:8-10). Moroni similarly focused on both the way his words would come unto us in the last days and how they would affect us in our final judgment: “For the time speedily cometh that ye shall know that I lie not, for ye shall see me at the bar of God; and the Lord God will say unto you: Did I not declare my words unto you, which were written by this man, like as one crying from the dead, yea, even as one speaking out of the dust?... And now I bid unto all, farewell. I soon go to rest in the paradise of God, until my spirit and body shall again reunite, and I am brought forth triumphant through the air, to meet you before the pleasing bar of the great Jehovah, the Eternal Judge of both quick and dead” (Moroni 10:27, 34). He wanted us to know that his words now contained in the Book of Mormon would be an important part of our judgment, just as his father told us that out of his words his “people and their brethren shall be judged at the great and last day.” We may never know for sure if Words of Mormon 1:11 were indeed Mormon’s last words on the small plates, but what is sure is that we will be judged by how we have received all of the sacred words of the Book of Mormon.