Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God

I have written before about how Moroni appears to have finished the record multiple times. There are several places where he wrote with finality as if he wasn’t sure if he would be able to write anymore. I’m certainly glad that he didn’t end on Ether 15 after describing the destruction of the Jaredites—that would have been a very depressing end to the book! It would have been fitting, though, if he had ended after Ether 12. This is the well-known invitation he gave at the end of that chapter: “And now I, Moroni, bid farewell unto the Gentiles, yea, and also unto my brethren whom I love, until we shall meet before the judgment-seat of Christ, where all men shall know that my garments are not spotted with your blood. And then shall ye know that I have seen Jesus, and that he hath talked with me face to face, and that he told me in plain humility, even as a man telleth another in mine own language, concerning these things; And only a few have I written, because of my weakness in writing. And now, I would commend you to seek this Jesus of whom the prophets and apostles have written, that the grace of God the Father, and also the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, which beareth record of them, may be and abide in you forever. Amen” (Ether 12:38-41). The invitation to “seek this Jesus” is surely a major theme of the Book of Mormon and would be a perfect conclusion. Near the actual ending of the Book of Mormon gave a similar message: “Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God” (Moroni 10:32). The whole purpose of the Book of Mormon is to help us to seek this Jesus and to come unto Christ, and Moroni’s words are a powerful invitation to do that. We are grateful that he persevered and gave us all the words that he did to invite us to come unto the Savior.  

               When I visited the Whitmer farm recently with my family, the missionaries there showed us a church video depicting the translation of the Book of Mormon which was completed there. The video shows Joseph finishing with these words: “… that ye may be found spotless at the judgment-seat of Christ.” He then confirmed to Oliver that that was it—the book was over. That phrase does not come from the end of the Book of Mormon (Moroni 10:34) as we know it, though in that verse Moroni does similarly talk about the “pleasing bar of the great Jehovah.” The small plates were translated after the abridgement of the large plates, so the books of 1 Nephi through Words of Mormon would have come after Oliver and Joseph got through the book of Moroni. But then after the Words of Mormon, there would have been one more thing to translate: Moroni’s introduction to the whole book. This was apparently the very last thing on the plates, and that is where that final phrase depicted in the film comes from: “And also to the convincing of the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God, manifesting himself unto all nations—And now, if there are faults they are the mistakes of men; wherefore, condemn not the things of God, that ye may be found spotless at the judgment-seat of Christ.” So, this was also another ending for Moroni, and it too is an invitation to come unto Christ, emphasizing that the purpose of the Book of Mormon is to convince Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ and will manifest Himself unto all nations. And if He will manifest Himself to all nations, then He will manifest Himself to each of us as we seek Him and come unto Him. All who read the Book of Mormon can come to learn “what great things the Lord hath done for their fathers” and come to “know the covenants of the Lord, that they are not cast off forever.” The book invites all to come unto Him through the waters of baptism and to know that they are not cast off because of salvation through Jesus Christ, the Eternal God.