Selections from All Four Volumes Teachings of the Book of Mormon by Sharman Hummel - HTML preview

 

Lecture 112 Moroni 1-10

Formula of Faith, Hope, and Charity Gifts

[You Are Not Called Upon to Fight God’s Battles]

[Two Forces Pull On Us Equally

[Importance of Faith in Making Choices]

[Angels May Minister to Those Who Have Faith]

[Angels Come Down From God as Messengers]

[Angels Imparteth His Word to Men and Women]

Angels Declare to “the chosen vessels of the Lord”]

[Charity Finds the Sufferings of Others Unbearable]

[Moroni 10:25 Spoken at Joseph Smith’s First Vision]

277 Moroni 1:1,4; Moroni 2:2 Moroni tells us that he’s writing an appendix to the Book of Mormon. He hadn’t intended to write any more, but he had some time on his hands. He ended it with the Jaredites. That’s where it should end, back there, showing that they suffered the same things. Well, I’m going to skip to just the high points here, and then I may go back to some others. He tells us in the fourth verse anything he writes now is for the Lamanites. Of course, his people are finished. Moroni 2:2 is a note from the forty-day mission of Christ, and it’s how we can enlist the power of the Holy Ghost, which is absolutely indispensable. A very elusive thing is the Holy Ghost, but that verse will tell you some very important things about the Holy Ghost.

277 You’ll notice the third, fourth, and fifth chapters, which we’re not going into now, are ordinances that you are familiar with. We have actually taken them from here. We’ve taken them from the Book of Mormon—the sacrament prayer, baptism, etc. Moroni, with a little time on his hands, searched for the most important, the most vital items, and that’s what we have here.

277,278 Moroni 7 Well, let’s consider these chapters in Moroni. This will give you some ideas right here, you see. Chapters 7 to 9 are important chapters. What chapter 7 all boils down to, as it tells us in verse 1, is the ancient formula of faith, hope, and charity. I’ll refer to that later. In chapter 7 you notice that Mormon is sick to death of violence. He wants rest and peace. He’s just obsessed with it now. He said right at the beginning that since he was old enough to observe the ways of men, he had seen nothing but this restless violence. Note verses 3 and 4 in the seventh chapter: “Wherefore would speak unto you that are of the church, that are the peaceable followers of Christ, and that have obtained a sufficient hope by which ye can enter into the rest of the Lord, from this time henceforth until ye shall rest with him in heaven [notice his emphasis on peace and rest]. And now my brethren, I judge these things of you because of your peaceable walk with the children of men.” I want to talk of peace for a change with some peaceable people. He wants a peaceable world and he wants a rest. He’s sick and tired. Remember, he’s led the whole thing here, and he has this obsession. Peace and rest are foremost in his mind here, and it comes out throughout this chapter.

278 Moroni 7:6-11; Mormon 1:15-16; 2:18 He goes on with what he’s been through. Is this cynical when he says in the sixth verse: “For behold, God hath said a man being evil cannot do that which is good; for if he offereth a gift, or prayeth unto God, except he shall do it with real intent it profiteth him nothing. For behold, it is not counted unto him for righteousness.” See, he’s in a fake and a phony world, and he [refers] here to our reluctant gifts, our formal prayers, etc. “Man being evil” is a present participle, active, you see. As long as he is evil, being evil, he can’t do that which is good. Everything we do is wrong here. This is a significant thing. Men are not capable of saving themselves, and it’s the inevitable question. He has no peace or rest. What’s the use? Men are just naturally evil. This is not cynical; it’s just a statement of fact. Mormon sees no point in criticizing here. He takes a wholly positive stand here. He’s not disillusioned at all because he never had any illusions. When he was fifteen years old he was preaching to the people [and it was like preaching] to a stone wall, so he has no illusions at all. He says that’s just the way people are (Mormon 1:15-16; 2:18). We’re flawed from the beginning because of the Fall. We’re naturally selfish; that colors everything we do. We’re not in a position to give a good gift he says in verses 6-10 here. Are we really servants of the devil?

278 Moroni 12,13 Then he explains what’s going on in verses 12-13. Notice the balance here. They’re perfectly balanced against each other here, using the same expressions exactly. You’re thinking of a person suspended in space, and two planets are trying to pull him in opposite directions to opposite orbits. “For the devil is an enemy unto God, and fighteth against him continually.” There is no mention anywhere of God fighting against the devil. He doesn’t have to. He could dismiss him like that. There’s no issue there because the devil is phony. He can only react, but he’s always fighting against God. You’re not called upon to fight God’s battles for him, as Mormon tells us here. He has not asked you to do that at all. He has asked you to do what’s good. If you do righteously, that’s the deadly weapon—not going out and attacking him [Satan] because he’s evil. Remember, he’s going to have to live with us forever, too, in eternity. We’ve got to get on with each other eventually. He’s going to be forgiven, so there’s nothing you can do by going out and trying to eliminate him. He says here, “The devil is an enemy unto God, and fighteth against him continually, and inviteth and enticeth to sin [that’s his method], and to do that which is evil continually.”

278 So it’s like a gravitational force, a continual force exerting steady pressure or attraction to pull you over into an orbit where you’ll be invited to sin and do evil continually. And with God the same thing: “That which is of God inviteth and enticeth to do good continually.” On the other hand, you’re continually being pulled in the opposite direction. But the same way, inviting and enticing—the same test. “Wherefore, every thing which inviteth and enticeth to do good, and to love God, and to serve him, is inspired of God.”

278 Between the two it’s up to you, and the pull is equal. It has to be. Neither one is overwhelmingly powerful—not in this world. If God exerted irresistible force—which Joseph Smith says he will not do—then you would have no choice. I mean it wouldn’t be a test at all. As Peter says in the famous Clementine Recognitions, if God forced us to be good, there’d be no merit in that at all. On the other hand, if the devil was absolutely overpowering and you couldn’t resist him, we wouldn’t be responsible for yielding to him. He’d be much too strong for us. So each of them has a mighty pull. The one is this direction, and the other is phony, but it’s a mirror image of the other.

279 Ether 3:2 Remember in Ether 3:2, when he’s asking the Lord [for help], he says “because of the fall our natures have become evil continually.” Because of the fall we can’t do any good of ourselves. But the way is free for our probation, so it’s up to us to make the choice. He tells us in the next verse, in making the choice, don’t you start rationalizing. He says in view of this you have your choice to be this way or that way, but “take heed .. . that ye do not judge that which is evil to be of God, or that which is good and of God to be of the devil.”

279 Moroni 7:15 We’re under great pressure to support the establishment, but he says in verse 15, you still cannot be fooled unless you want to be. You couldn’t get out of it, you say. Oh well, but I was fooled. I didn’t know all the facts, etc. Uh uh, he says here. “It is given unto you to judge, that ye may know good from evil; and the way to judge is as plain, that ye may know with a perfect knowledge, as the daylight is from the dark night.” You’re not going to have any excuse on those grounds. In the end you know what’s right and wrong—no hairsplitting about ethics and conditions.

279 Moroni 7:16; Romans 1:28 I noticed an interesting thing here. He says (verse 16), “the spirit of Christ is given to every man, that he may know good from evil.” We know with a perfect knowledge. Well, what happens if you reject it? That is an interesting thing. Paul says in Romans 1:28, “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind.” Forget God, ignore the light of common day [they say]. Let’s be practical and down to earth. We don’t worry about those things. If they didn’t “like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind.” The Greek word he uses is ADOKIMOS which means “sick, wanton, perverse, self-destructive, paranoid.” The whole world is a promised land. We have the story of the promised land, but after all, the whole world is a promised land where we come for our tests. It’s most glorious and beautiful, as God has made it. There is a land choice above all other lands, but other lands are choice, too. This is just choice above all other lands. So the earth is a promised land, and there are certain obligations [that] come with the territory. We’ve seen that in the promised land [references] again and again. It goes for the whole earth. You are not free to take it or leave it, is the point. You say, “Well, here’s the proposition—take it or leave it.” “No, I won’t be interested in that. I won’t concern myself with what God wants or anything else. That’s a fine-pointed argument, and we can’t concern ourselves. We have our daily work to do, and all these things fade into the light of common day when you come down to common sense things.” That doesn’t go at all. You go crazy if that happens, and you see what’s happening in the world today. Everybody seems to have lost their balance. He gave them over to a reprobate mind because they didn’t like to go on thinking of God, “retain God in their knowledge.” So you can’t ignore it. You’re not free to take it or leave it.

279,280 Notice he develops his argument by perfectly logical conditions here. This is exactly what you’d expect, you see. First the violence he’s seen—he wants peace and rest. Well, men aren’t capable of saving themselves. What is it then? Well, they are being exposed to equal forces here; they have their choice. Yes, but can’t you be overwhelmed? No, you can’t be. You’re able to judge. Well, in that case, can’t we just put it aside and live our lives? No, you can’t do that either. We find out that that’s so.

280 Moroni 7:20,21; Ether 3:2 Well, then in Moroni 7:20-21 he talks about laying hold of every good thing. Make it yours; live by it. Don’t merely seek to know but to lay hold of every good thing. Notice he’s arguing in a regular, logical order in verses 20 and 21. How do you “lay hold upon every good thing?” Well, he says it’s by faith. Well, what gives you faith? he asks. We’re inclined to avoid intense effort, he says. Ether 3:2 “Because of the fall our natures have become evil continually; nevertheless, O Lord, thou hast given us a commandment.” That’s why we have to go on. Our natures are evil, but we’re not going to get off the hook because the Lord has commanded us “that we must call upon thee, that from thee we may receive according to our desires.” When you make your choice between the two planets that are pulling you in opposite directions, who decides? See, every moment of your life you have two ways before you—the early Christian doctrine of the two ways. There’s a right way and a wrong way, a right choice and a wrong choice. There are many choices, and you’ll never know among those which is the best. But, as he tells you, it’s given you to know with a perfect knowledge which is right and which is wrong. You make your choice, and you have to do that all the time. Well, this earth is a place of testing. Our whole life became just a time of probation, Nephi says. We’re being proven here, so every minute you have to make a choice of what would be preferable to do. In other words, you’re revealing your true nature, your true desire, what Alma calls “the desires of your heart.” That, of course, is what you’ll be judged by. Nobody’s very smart, nobody’s very strong, nobody’s very brave, but what you want—what you would really desire—that is what you will be judged by. So he says in this case we must call upon thee that we may receive according to our desires. If you want to go with the other one, you desired it. It’s your idea all the way along. You’ll never have to be given anything you don’t want, that you don’t desire.

280 Moroni 7:16,19 Here’s an interesting thing here. Doesn’t this look like a contradiction? Notice he tells us in verse 16: “For behold, the Spirit of Christ is given to every man, that he may know good from evil;. .. ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of God.” But then he tells us in verse 19, “Search diligently in the light of Christ that ye may know good from evil.” How does that come in here? When do you make your choice? You have to instruct and inform yourself. You have to know what you’re talking about. You must search diligently and acquire knowledge so you’ll know the choice you’re making. You’re given the power to judge any proposition, but you have to know the proposition first. You have to know what the situation is. You must search diligently; then you may know good from evil and make your choice. That’s up to you then.

280 We have so much stuff here. It’s an interesting thing. In all of Mormon’s teaching, there’s no mention of repentance. Isn’t that odd? The Book of Mormon just bristles with it—500 times the word repentance is repeated? It’s because he’s not talking about that side of it now. He’s just talking about the positive side of it. He knows we’re evil; he’s said that all along. We have to repent. He wants for the time being to be entirely positive. Granted we do evil in this world, he wants to fix our attention on the other world, on the positive values, and to make that real. People underestimate that, he says. If I make that strong enough to you, you might be more enticed to go in that direction.

280 Moroni 7:23,24 Now how does faith bring it about? It has to be by faith. How does faith bring about a meeting of the worlds, joining in the covenant?. Well he goes on right down here (verses 23-24): “And God also declared unto prophets, by his own mouth, that Christ should come. And behold, there were divers ways that he did manifest things unto the children of men [there’s lots of evidence], which were good; and all things which are good cometh of Christ; otherwise men were fallen, and there could no good thing come unto them.” Notice—it’s a choice between all and nothing here.

280,281 Moroni 7:25,26 “Wherefore, by the ministering of angels, and by every word which proceedeth forth out of the mouth of God, men began to exercise faith in Christ; and thus by faith, they did lay hold upon every good thing.. .. And after that he came men also were saved by faith in his name; and by faith, they become the sons of God. . . . Whatsoever thing ye shall ask the Father in my name, which is good, in faith believing that ye shall receive, behold, it shall be done unto you.”

281 Moroni 7:28-30 But then he raises the question, having said this here. What about faith? How do we get it? Well, he says, it has to be brought from above. It has to be brought by angels. It has to come from outside. You don’t get it of your own accord. Notice he says here, you not only lay hold of it, but in verse 28 he says “they who have faith in him will cleave unto every good thing.” You cling to it once you’ve got it. You grab it and cling to every good thing. “He dwelleth eternally in the heavens.” Well, there must be a celestial connection there. What happens then? Well, this is the situation here. Faith brings about this meeting of the worlds, which he calls here joining in the covenant. Notice (verse 30), “. . . to minister according to the word of his command, showing themselves unto them of strong faith.”

281 Moroni 7:28 The word covenant is from CONVENIRA, come together. VENIR is “to come.” Venue, conventical, and convention are related words. It’s a coming together of the two worlds. He has just said that the Lord dwells in heaven. Why should he bring that in? “He dwelleth eternally in the heavens.” He says, well, therefore, we have to have a connection here, and he tells us what the connection is. It’s five steps here. First of all, God commissions his angels, but they’re only to represent him and to say what he wants them to say and nothing else. That’s what Bartholomew told the mob in Rome. I’ve been sent as an emissary and ambassador, and I cannot argue your fine points of the law. I just have to deliver my message as it was given to me. So he [Mormon] says these messengers are angels. So you start out with angels. The restoration of the gospel started out with an angel, the angel Moroni—well, with the first vision. It started out with the angel, and in the New Testament, it’s the angel Gabriel who appears in the temple to Zacharias. That’s the beginning, and then he appears to Mary with the coming of angels. And here he sends angels. Without them, we wouldn’t have that connection. So this takes us outside to real things here.

281 Moroni 7:29,30 “Neither have angels ceased to minister unto the children of men. For behold, they are subject unto him, to minister according to the word of his command.” So they represent God, just as if God himself had come. The angels come, and the next step is they come to deliver his message in person, and they deliver it “unto them [notice it’s common gender] of strong faith and a firm mind.”

281 Alma 32:23 If you look at Alma 32:23, he tells us what he means by THEM when he says this: “And now, he imparteth his word by angels unto men, yea, not only men but women also. Now this is not all; little children do have words given unto them many times, which confound the wise and the learned.” When he says “given to them,” it means to women as well as men. They’re all subject to receive revelation. There’s no special privilege here. So they deliver it to what kinds of people? “unto them of strong faith and firm mind.” The words are strong and firm. These are not hysterical types. These are not ambitious types who want to have dreams and visions. They are not self-promoting. They are not empty-headed, unbalanced airheads that get all sorts of ideas and visions of this, that, and the other. That’s very important, that they be of strong faith, but also of firm mind. [They must be] perfectly sane to receive these messages, because, as you know, all sorts of hysterical people [claim] various things. People get hysterical and receive the stigmata. They fall down and froth at the mouth. A great deal of this has gone on in the past and still goes on. So, that’s a very important thing.

281,282 Moroni 7:31 That’s the second thing. First God sends his angels, but to them “of strong faith and a firm mind.” They in turn have a special office. That means their calling, a temporary calling, something that’s assigned to them. It’s their assignment. They have it as the office of their ministry. They minister, but their office is to declare it (verse 31) “unto the chosen vessels of the Lord.” They pass it down another stage. Now it’s the chosen vessels of the Lord. They’re the leaders of the Church that come down from these others. We have a few great prophets, but they in turn declare it, he says, “to the chosen vessels of the Lord.” And what do they do? They bear testimony to prepare for the residue of men to receive it. There’s the fifth stage. It comes from God to the angels to a few people who receive revelation, but they have to be of strong faith and a firm mind. They give it to the chosen vessels of the Lord, and they hand it on to the rest of the world, to the residue of men.

282 Moroni 7:32 Well, is this a case of rank? No, it has nothing to do with it, because verse 32 completely wipes that out. “And by so doing, the Lord God prepareth the way that the residue of men may have faith in Christ, that the Holy Ghost may have place in their hearts,” It isn’t that the Holy Ghost gives the message to one person, and he goes and gives you a message. No, it’s the Holy Ghost directly who comes to everyone singly and individually. He has as much a revelation as any of them through this handing down in this way, “that the residue of men may have faith in Christ, that the Holy Ghost may have place in their hearts, according to the power thereof; and after this manner [this is the way he does it] bringeth to pass the Father, the covenants which he hath made unto the children of men.” A covenant, as I said, is a coming together, an agreement. This is a covenant where everybody is joined in the same atonement, at-one-ment. They’re all joined together, and this is the way it happens. He says he does it in regular order here. But nobody’s privileged above another. It’s just the office of their ministry. As Brigham Young said, prophecy is not an office at all—it’s a gift. It doesn’t go with any office. Some women have the gift more often than men, as a matter of fact. One of the greatest prophets we had was Eliza R. Snow. My grandmother told us some marvelous prophecies she gave that have been fulfilled.

282 Moroni 7:34-37 So this is the situation here. Well, here’s repent, though (verse 34): “Repent all ye ends of the earth, and come unto me, and be baptized in my name, and have faith in me.” If you have faith in Christ, then “ye shall have power,” and in verse 34 we’re invited at all times to put it to the test. If you take action (verse 35), God will show you that it’s true, but you must take action first. Then (verse 37): Why don’t we see the plan working? Well, if we don’t have faith, all is vain. Now that’s no secret. The Koran says, “All is vain in this world.” The Greek chorus is fond of making such remarks as “how absolutely nothing I estimate the world to be.” All is vain. Well, that’s no secret. Everybody who’s ever looked at the earth knows that it’s all vain and absurd because you’re going to end up with nothing at all. Everybody’s admitted it, of course. If these things have ceased, that’s all you have. You have nothing else, you see. It’s just a void, a vacuum.

282,283 Moroni 7:39,40 Well, so Moroni says in verse 39 there must be something better than that. “But behold, my beloved brethren, I judge better things of you, for I judge that ye have faith in Christ,”—you must have some faith, and that fact should give us hope. So we begin with that. In verse 40 he asks, hope for what. For eternal life. Well, can’t we ask for anything less ambitious? No, we can’t stop short of that. Anything else is just a reprieve, isn’t it? If you’re granted a few years more, it doesn’t make any difference. At my age, I don’t care. A year or two—that’s a bonus. That’s gravy; that’s great. I have no right to expect it at all. A reprieve is the best thing you can expect. Ah, but eternal life— that’s something else, you see. That’s the only alternative. But you’ve got to have that hope first and must receive faith. Well, what will justify it? Remember, Mormon prayed for his people without hope, and he said he led them without faith. You have to have the two together. They can both be completely out of our sphere, not even wishful thinking. That’s where the world is today.

283 Moroni 7:44 Well, what is the insuperable obstacle? Why don’t we get these things? Why don’t we have the faith and the revelations that go with it? Verse 44 tells us that—because we’re not honest. We are not meek and lowly. That’s what being honest is, recognizing what you don’t know, not what you do. Forget degrees and everything else. “The glory of God is intelligence.” Intelligence is problem-solving ability. We know that. William James’s definition is problem-solving ability. How do you go about solving a problem? You always, step by step, find out what you don’t know. This is where I’m ignorant. This is what I don’t know, and I have to fill that gap. There are no fields anymore. There are no fields; there are only problems to solve. If you have a particular problem you have to work on and it requires a certain language, you’ve got to get the language. If it requires certain math, you’ve got to get the math. See, it’s not the field you’re in that makes it; it’s the problem you have to solve. You have to get whatever you lack. You can’t fall back on your degrees and your reputation and all this sort of thing and say well he’s an authority on the subject. There are none such. You have to be honest and smart enough to realize where the limitations are and where we’re supposed to go. But only by a systematic and progressive revelation of your own ignorance can you do that. That’s a humiliating process, and very few will face it. They must be meek and lowly.

283 Moroni 7:44 Now we come to this insistence on charity. You notice he just has a thing about charity here (verse 44 and following). Why this insistence on charity? Well, charity puts the stamp of authenticity on the whole thing. Without charity there’s always an element of ulterior motives, calculation, self-interest, and manipulation—it’s always there. In the most abstract problems, you’re liable to fool yourself. Charity is the love one has for children—he talks a lot about children—and you expect nothing in return. It’s completely spontaneous, and it’s irrepressible. Mormon broke his oath out of charity, you see. He had to. Charity finds the suffering of others unbearable, you see. Mormon just couldn’t leave them alone. They were his people. He knew they were wrong. He knew they were going to be destroyed and everything else, but his charity was too great. He just couldn’t do it. He realized that he might alleviate the suffering and give them a bit of cheer for a while, and that’s what he did.

283,284 Moroni 7:45-47 In verses 45-47 you notice he goes into a long section from the New Testament. Aha! He’s quoting the New Testament in the Book of Mormon. Well, there’s an answer to this. We get to it right here, as a matter of fact. Well, Paul labored, as you know, to define [charity]. It’s rather laborious. He had to go through all this, for “if ye have not charity, ye are nothing.” Verse 45: “And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not.” We all know this. Therefore, without charity all things must pay. Verse 47: “But charity is the pure love”—unbiased, without any calculations, just for the love of it. Why would you do science or anything else? The only motive would be pure love, even for that, you see. A true scientist or a true artist does what he does for love. It is just as much love as a sexual attraction, something like that. It’s a great attraction. “But charity is the pure love of Christ,. .. and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.” So, this charity is a very important thing.

284 Paul gives an operational definition here, as you may notice. Charity is an intimate, subjective thing—very hard to define. Unless you have it, you don’t know what it is. It’s like indigestion or a gift for music or math or something like that. You have to have it. That’s what charity is, very hard to define. It’s impulsive, and yet it’s ongoing. It can’t be faked; it can’t be artificial. You can’t use artifice, and you can’t use faking as you do in everything else, in every other act of life. In order to get along, we have to grease the rails or oil the machinery to make things go smooth. See these little lies we give to each other make life much easier. You have to write “Dear Sir” to somebody you hate, etc. We have to act as if we had affection toward others and respect of others that we really don’t have. I mean in a debate in the Senate or something like that, you might just despise the person you’re talking to, but [you say] the Honorable Learned Senator from so forth and so on. These things are necessary to grease the rails in any society.

284 Incidentally, Paul’s definition is quoted in the Book of Mormon. It’s a long one. But Paul was quoting another work. He was quoting an old hermetic work on the subject. Richard Reitzenstein and some others showed that some years ago, and it’s typical of the hermetic writings. In fact, yesterday I was reading an apocalyptic work I’d never read before, and it gives exactly the same analysis of charity. This was a very common theme, not only with the philosophers. We know, especially from recent research, that Paul quoted all over the place. He quoted about every classical writer you can name. Possibly half the statements in Paul are quotations from the classics, from the orators, from the plays, etc., Paul quoted all over the place; he was a very learned man. What he’s quoting here [in 1 Corinthians 13] is from an ancient writing, and it’s quoted here in the Book of Mormon. Where we find it is in the hermetic writings which were taken over from the Jews at a very early time. Remember, [Moroni] was going through the records now and picking out the best things. So he picked Paul’s definition. It’s the best thing you can find [on charity].

285 In the normal run of things, all things must fail. But remember, Paul said, “Charity faileth not.” Charity is the only thing that doesn’t fail, in other words. All the others are contrived, they’re contingent, they’re contemporary. Everything else is an illusion.

285 Moses 1:39,48 Notice he [the Savior] has infinite charity. And what does he want? He wants us to become like him.