Moroni’s understanding of the gospel is centered on the mission of the Atoning Messiah. Therefore, in his farewell he refers to his earthly death in terms that emphasize the redemption from physical death through the Savior: “until my spirit and body shall again reunite.” In this last statement, Moroni testifies not to the Book of Mormon, but to the Atoning Messiah. He depicts the resurrection with the image of being “brought forth triumphant through the air,” since heaven is conceived as being above the earth. Thus, he must be “brought forth… through the air.”
There are two aspects to the atonement; and in Moroni’s final testimony, he declares both of them. He rises because of the resurrection, in which the atonement overcomes physical death. Then he stands before “the Eternal Judge,” who must appraise how well the candidate qualifies for the atonement’s effect on spiritual death. Unlike overcoming physical death, overcoming spiritual death is not automatic. Moroni’s final statement underlines not only his faith in the Messiah’s person but also in the Messiah’s mission.
Obviously, the Book of Mormon does not include an account of Moroni’s death. Charles D. Evans has left this fourth-hand account in his 1897 journal:
At a meeting at Spanish Fork, Utah Co., in the winter of 1896, Brother Higginson stated in my presence that Thomas B. Marsh told him that the Prophet Joseph Smith told him (Thomas B. Marsh, he being then President of the Twelve), that he became very anxious to know something of the fate of Moroni, and in answer to prayer the Lord gave Joseph a vision, in which appeared a wild country and on the scene was Moroni after whom were six Indians in pursuit; he stopped and one of the Indians stepped forward and measured swords with him. Moroni smote him and he fell dead; another Indian advanced and contended with him; this Indian also fell by his sword; a third Indian then stepped forth and met the same fate; a fourth afterwards contended with him, but in the struggle with the fourth, Moroni, being exhausted, was killed. Thus ended the life of Moroni.
This is an interesting account because it fits some practices known for the Aztecs. One-on-one combat was valued, and the resulting defeat of a powerful enemy after exhaustion set in is quite believable. However, Moroni was aged when he died. His father was probably born in A.D. 301 (Morm. 1:2). Moroni ends his record in A.D. 411 (Moro. 10:1). If Moroni were born when his father were twenty, he would be ninety years old. Even had his father been thirty when Moroni was born, it is unlikely that an eighty-year-old man could have survived the described assault. This account should be seen as faithful pseudepigrapha, useful to honor Moroni, but not as history.
There is no way to know how the plates arrived at Cumorah. However, the remarkable book translated from those plates provides evidence that they were really there.