Reference: “Rumors of wars” appears in Matthew 24:6 and Mark 13:7 in an eschatological context. Their presence in this passage indicates that Joseph as a translator saw them as part of the last-days’ description. But it is not clear what Joseph and his contemporaries would have seen as “fires, and tempests, and vapors of smoke.” For Moroni, however, the Nephite world had once before “ended” in tempests and vapors of smoke. (See 3 Nephi 8:19–21 and accompanying commentary.)