Moroni announces that his next topic is baptism. This chapter actually describes more than one liturgical practice, but baptism comes first. In contrast to the sacrament prayers, Moroni does not describe the form of baptism or give the words of the accompanying prayer. Rather he stresses the candidate’s qualifications and the covenants that baptism represents. This presentation is a marked contrast to chapters 2–5, which are explicitly liturgical in intent. That is, they all describe church practices among the Nephites. However, much instruction is omitted, including details that one might expect if the Book of Mormon were really, as some critics have suggested, a polemic to resolve issues of church practice in Joseph’s milieu.
In the case of baptism, there is ample opportunity for Moroni to describe the mode. Since immersion versus sprinkling was a controversial topic in Joseph Smith’s day, it would have been an opportune time to resolve the issue by giving a definitive example of the Nephite practice. Similarly, the prickly issue of infant baptism could have been resolved in a section dealing explicitly with liturgy. (The discussion of infant baptism occurs instead in Moroni 8 in the form of a letter from Mormon.) Moroni has established a precedent for recording a form-prayer, as he did for the sacrament in chapters 4 and 5, but he does not do it here. Instead, modern LDS practice takes its standard form-prayer from 3 Nephi 11:25.
The pattern of inclusions and omissions in these chapters tell us what Moroni considers worthy of comment. For example, he includes the sacrament prayers but not the baptism prayer, even though both have antecedents in the Messiah’s visit to Bountiful. However, there is only a tenuous relationship between the Yahweh-Messiah’s instituting the sacrament and the forms that Moroni elects to preserve. In contrast is the baptismal prayer, which is recorded at least as a potential form-prayer in 3 Nephi 11:24–26:
And now behold, these are the words which ye shall say, calling them by name, saying:
Having authority given me of Jesus Christ, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
And then shall ye immerse them in the water, and come forth again out of the water.
The 3 Nephi instructions give the exact wording of the form and unquestionably describe the form as immersion. With such an unambiguous precedent, Moroni sees no reason to repeat that information. In the case of the sacrament prayers, in contrast, he clarifies liturgical forms that were codified in the four centuries after the Savior’s visit.
The statement “Behold, elders, priests, and teachers were baptized” should not be read as exclusive. Elders, priests, and teachers were not the only ones baptized. Moroni is simply stressing that they also required baptism. Their more prominent positions did not exempt them. In short, Moroni is expressing an inclusive intent: All, even the leaders of the church, required baptism.
Baptism required bringing “forth fruit meet that they were worthy.” While this requirement does not specifically exclude infants, it effectively does so since infants would be incapable of showing their worthiness by their fruits. “Meet” in this context means “equal to/worthy of.” It is a parallel to “help meet” in Genesis 2:18 where Eve is to be a “help meet” (help equal to) Adam. Moroni’s passage means that one’s actions before baptism should accord with behavior after the baptism. If we enter into a covenant with God to obey his commandments, we should be willing and capable of living those conditions before making that covenant. This does not require us to live every commandment perfectly; such progression is the lifelong task that lies before us. However, the minimal “fruit meet” for baptism is true repentance, which signals our humility. We not only desire the baptismal cleansing, but we also covenant to change our lives to accord with God’s ways.