Let us consider the life and service of this remarkable servant of the Lord before approaching the scriptural material in the book that bears his name. Moroni, whose image graces the spires of modern-day temples of the Church throughout the world, is the angelic messenger who visits young Joseph Smith for the first time on September 21, 1823, to usher in the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. Moroni, son of Mormon, spends his last years in mortality performing the culminating service relating to the ancient records before consigning them to their earthly vault on the crest of the Hill Cumorah. His valuable additions to the text as we have it today include chapters 8 and 9 of his father’s section known as the book of Mormon, the abridgement that Moroni makes of the records of the Jaredite nation (the book of Ether), and the book of Moroni (including three treatises by his father Mormon, together with important observations by Moroni about the administration of the Church and farewell instructions about being perfected “in Christ”—Moroni 10:31–33). He also writes the title page for the entire book, which makes clear that the work is designed for “the convincing of the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God, manifesting himself unto all nations.”
Moroni, the last in a millennium-long sequence of curators of the sacred chronicles of God in the New World, is entrusted with the keys of restoring this divine message of hope and exaltation in the latter days. He and heavenly fellow-ministers of the Restoration are viewed in vision by John the Revelator, who declares:
And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,
Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters. (Revelation 14:6–7)
The message of Moroni is one of certainty in the mission of Christ, faith in the power of the gospel to bring about spiritual rejuvenation leading to a reconciliation with God, and hope for the gift of eternal life and exaltation. He repeatedly sounds the themes of charity, the blessings of the Holy Spirit, and the grace of God. In contrast with the monumental grandeur of Moroni’s message is his personal humility. Moroni labors under a sense of his own self-declared weakness in articulating in written format the eternal concepts and principles of the gospel that the Spirit inspires him to proclaim with power as an orator:
And thou hast made us that we could write but little, because of the awkwardness of our hands. Behold, thou hast not made us mighty in writing like unto the brother of Jared, for thou madest him that the things which he wrote were mighty even as thou art, unto the overpowering of man to read them.
Thou hast also made our words powerful and great, even that we cannot write them; wherefore, when we write we behold our weakness, and stumble because of the placing of our words; and I fear lest the Gentiles shall mock at our words. (Ether 12:24–25)
Nevertheless, the Lord assures him: “if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them” (Ether 12:27). And so it is. Moroni admonishes future readers of the Book of Mormon with these words: “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). It is by the power of God that we may know the truth of the Book of Mormon, and indeed the truth of all things flowing from God, as Moroni states in perhaps the best-known citation from this sacred text:
And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.
And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things. (Moroni 10:4–5)
Moroni lives in the time period from around AD 350 until his death around AD 421. He and his father, Mormon, experience the cataclysmic battle of nations at Cumorah around AD 385, where nearly a quarter-million of the Nephite warriors are slain, including the ten thousand commanded by Moroni (see Mormon 6:12). Mormon himself is slain shortly thereafter by the Lamanite hordes. Thus Moroni is left alone for the better part of thirty-five years, wandering about the land, having to protect his own life during a period of universal warfare among the Lamanite factions, and taking care to invest his energy and devotion in preserving and augmenting the ancient records: “and I even remain alone to write the sad tale of the destruction of my people. But behold, they are gone, and I fulfil the commandment of my father. And whether they will slay me, I know not” (Mormon 8:3). Moroni’s predicament is centered in his unshakable testimony of Christ: “For behold, their wars are exceedingly fierce among themselves; and 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).
Amidst the bleakness of his lonely existence, Moroni is nourished by the light of the gospel and sustained by the Spirit of God. His strength in the Lord derives from a confirmation of the mighty mission given unto him to speak eternal truth to future generations who will face the challenges of overcoming pride and embracing the plan of happiness: “Behold, I speak unto you as if ye were present, and yet ye are not. But behold, Jesus Christ hath shown you unto me, and I know your doing” (Mormon 8:35). His benedictory counsel is this: “O then despise not, and wonder not, but hearken unto the words of the Lord, and ask the Father in the name of Jesus for what things soever ye shall stand in need. Doubt not, but be believing, and begin as in times of old, and come unto the Lord with all your heart, and work out your own salvation with fear and trembling before him” (Mormon 9:27). To the future servant of God who will be called to translate the sacred records in the latter days (Joseph Smith), Moroni testifies: “And in the mouth of three witnesses shall these things be established; and the testimony of three, and this work, in the which shall be shown forth the power of God and also his word, of which the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost bear record—and all this shall stand as a testimony against the world at the last day” (Ether 5:4).
Having been spared yet a little longer, Moroni adds to the sacred records priceless information about Church administration as taught to the people by the resurrected Christ (see Moroni 2–6). He also includes three treatises from his father: first, a speech elucidating the miracle of the Spirit of Christ and the power of faith, hope, and charity (“But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him”—Moroni 7:47); secondly, an epistle on the falsehood of infant baptism (“But little children are alive in Christ, even from the foundation of the world”—Moroni 8:12); and thirdly, another epistle reporting the atrocities rampant among the wicked. He then adds Mormon’s choice fatherly blessing by way of consolation:
My son, be faithful in Christ; and may not the things which I have written grieve thee, to weigh thee down unto death; but 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.
And may the grace of God the Father, whose throne is high in the heavens, and our Lord Jesus Christ, who sitteth on the right hand of his power, until all things shall become subject unto him, be, and abide with you forever. Amen. (Moroni 9:25–26)
At the end of his career, Moroni addressed his future readership with love and candor:
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. (Ether 12:38–39)
His last words (the final words of the Book of Mormon) are in the form of a declaration that he will indeed be on hand at the judgment bar of God following the Resurrection to meet each one of his readers in person: “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. Amen” (Moroni 10:34). As we look forward to this prophetic reunion, we can remember Moroni as the lonely wanderer during the sunset years of the Book of Mormon whose invincible faith and indomitable conviction prevail over adversity to secure his place in the history of the world as an inspired unifier—as one who passes the stick of Joseph (the Book of Mormon) onward to be united inseparably with the stick of Judah (the Bible) in the latter days as a another testament of Jesus Christ (see Ezekiel 37:15–17). As such, he plays an indispensable role in the design of the Lord regarding the “dispensation of the gospel for the last times; and for the fulness of times, in the which I will gather together in one all things, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth” (D&C 27:13).