Whenever I point out that Captain Moroni’s example doesn’t justify modern Saints going to war because he lived the Law of Moses and we live the Law of Christ and that modern revelation commands us to renounce war completely the response is inevitable. I always get some version of, “What about Mormon and his son, Moroni? They were baptized Christians who fought in wars. If they can do it, why can’t we?”
In many ways the answer to this question doesn’t actually matter. In terms of revelation and commandment, it doesn’t matter whether Mormon and Moroni were justified in their military actions. Whatever God told them or allowed them to do is irrelevant to what He commands us to do today. He may have allowed Mormon and Moroni to be involved in the ancient Nephite military, but in our day He has commanded and warned us:
And now, behold, I speak unto the church. Thou shalt not kill; and he that kills shall not have forgiveness in this world, nor in the world to come.
D&C 42:18
What God did or did not allow Mormon and Moroni to do, His commandment to us now, today, through the voice of modern revelation for how we should live now, is clear and direct. If you kill another person as a member of the church today you will not be forgiven either in this life or in the next. Notice that He didn’t say murder either. He specifically says killing. If you as a member of the church kill a human being for any reason, you will be held accountable before God Himself and will not be forgiven either in this life or in the next. And this is the standing law from God to us since the Prophet Joseph Smith’s day as no new revelation has come giving a commandment that supersedes this one (and the other similar warnings against killing found in the Doctrine and Covenants.)
Even so, the question, while not a relevant one, is an interesting one. Why were Mormon and Moroni involved in the military of the Nephite nation? Even setting aside the issue of killing itself, by the time Mormon and Moroni are involved the Nephites are doing stuff like this:
And notwithstanding this great abomination of the Lamanites, it doth not exceed that of our people in Moriantum. For behold, many of the daughters of the Lamanites have they taken prisoners; and after depriving them of that which was most dear and precious above all things, which is chastity and virtue—
And after they had done this thing, they did murder them in a most cruel manner, torturing their bodies even unto death; and after they have done this, they devour their flesh like unto wild beasts, because of the hardness of their hearts; and they do it for a token of bravery.
Moroni 9: 9-10
The Nephites have degenerated so thoroughly as a society that they think raping, torturing, murdering, and eating women is morally good and a proof of their bravery and courage. What a sick, corrupt, twisted, and revolting society! The apocalyptic self-destruction of such a people seems only too fitting as proof of the ultimate outcome of rejecting the Gospel of Jesus Christ to embrace violence, nationalism, and war. But too often do we, as latter-day readers of the Book of Mormon, get lost in this aspect of the text and forget something very important about Mormon.
We forget that, for what was likely the most intense part of his ministry and the time he actually created the text of the book itself, Mormon was not a soldier or a general.
The Life of Mormon
Mormon became a general at either age fifteen or sixteen as he tells us that in his sixteenth year he led a Nephite army against the Lamanites. (Mormon 2: 1-3) Over the course of the next few chapters he talks about the swinging pendulum of Nephite defeats and victories until finally the Nephites stop having victories altogether and begin to retreat more and more, farther and farther north, on the long march towards Cumorah and annihilation. But in these chapters he makes some very important personal choices.
In Mormon 2: 17-18, he tells us that he makes a detailed record of the events that had happened during his lifetime on the plates of Nephi, by which he probably meant what we call the large plates of Nephi. In contrast to this, in an aside, he tells us that on “these plates” – the Book of Mormon plates – he didn’t make a full account of the unending bloodshed and evil which he had seen. During his military career, Mormon kept the secular history of his people. But he seemingly didn’t perform the prophetic work of compiling the Book of Mormon. The text of it, including the stuff written about his life, was written long after the events, not during them, and as a result he interspaces comments and commentary giving us information and insights he believes is relevant and important but which is not chronological. The largest example of this is the Words of Mormon, but it happens throughout the book. This aside where he contrasts the work he did on plates of Nephi with the Book of Mormon plates is but one example among many.
In Mormon 3:11, 16, we discover that Mormon utterly renounces his role as leader of the Nephites and that God has commanded Mormon to quit leading the Nephite armies. He is to stand as a witness of the destruction to come. It is during this time that he begins to write to the Gentiles, the house of Israel, and the remnant of his people to try and convince them to repent and live the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For the next decade, from roughly 362 A.D. to roughly 375 A.D., Mormon is not the leader of the Nephites and is totally absorbed in his prophetic calling.
It is during this period of his life that he most likely created the Book of Mormon plates as it is during this period that he would’ve had the time to do the hard work of cross-referencing, compiling, crafting the plates, and actually writing them out. The lingual drift alone of trying to understand forms of his language almost a millennia old would have been extremely difficult. Just go back and try to read English from 500 years ago and see how incomprehensible it is to modern English speakers and you’ll start to understand the problems Mormon would’ve had trying to understand a thousand year old version of his own language. it is telling that it was during his time as a man of peace and not as a man of war that Mormon was spiritually in tune with God enough to carry out this essential and historically important work of creating the Book of Mormon.
Christians Going To War
After this decade, Mormon says, “I did go forth among the Nephites, and did repent of the oath which I had made that I would no more assist them; and they gave me command again of their armies, for they looked upon me as though I could deliver them from their afflictions.” (Mormon 5:1) This comment is a very interesting one.
First, as we noted before, it wasn’t just Mormon’s personal decision to refuse to lead the Nephites. He records that in doing so, “I did even as the Lord had commanded me[.]” (Mormon 3:16) It was God’s commandment that he refuse to do so and at no time here does he record that God ever commanded him to return to leading the Nephites. Mormon seems to have made that decision on his own and it may very well have been in violation of the Lord’s commandment to him not to do so. If this is correct then Mormon hardly seems like a good justification for Saints today to kill others as he did not in violation of God’s commandments and violating God’s commandments is always wrong.
Giving the most charitable interpretation possible though – which I believe is always the best policy – it is likely that Mormon simply didn’t record his getting permission from God to once more assume control of the Nephite armies. There is precedent for this in the scriptures:
Behold, this is the law I gave unto my servant Nephi, and thy fathers, Joseph, and Jacob, and Isaac, and Abraham, and all mine ancient prophets and apostles.
And again, this is the law that I gave unto mine ancients, that they should not go out unto battle against any nation, kindred, tongue, or people, save I, the Lord, commanded them.
D&C 98: 32-33
The Lord then goes on to elaborate on the very specific set of circumstances that must occur before the Saints could be, not automatically would be but could be, given a commandment by Him to go to war. While this deserves an article all its own (and in the future it will get one) here it is enough to note that while the Lord’s default stance is that we should not kill there are times where He may allow us to do so by specific commandment. Not because we think we are justified, but because He has commanded it or at least allowed it by specific commandment. We also know from this text that this is the same pattern that God has given to all his prophets, including the Book of Mormon prophets. As a result, it is possible that Mormon gained such a commandment or allowance from God to do so and he merely forgot to mention it specifically in the text.
Indeed, I would argue that this is really the answer to the question, “What about Mormon and Moroni?” The Lord’s commandment to us today is to renounce war completely and to abstain totally from all bloodshed lest we face eternal damnation. But, He can make exceptions to His commandments in specific times and places. Given such an exception through prophetic revelation, for we can never receive personal revelation to violate the commandments establish by God Himself, we may then engage in war and killing. This is a very exacting exception. It does not mean anytime we think we are justified or even anytime we are being attacked violently as individuals or as a community that we are justified in going to war and/or killing those attacking us.
Unless we are given a commandment from God through the Prophet of God where He explicitly allows us to engage in a conflict we are not justified in killing others and risk damning our souls eternally for doing so. Indeed, God warns that if we are attacked and attack back instead of bearing the attack patiently then the original act of violence against us, “shall be accounted unto you as being meted out as a just measure unto you.” (D&C 98:24) Killing a person attacking you certainly is not bearing violent attacks patiently and reviling not against those who are attacking you. This means that deadly self-defense, self-defense by killing your attacker or attackers, is automatically against God’s commandments.
Returning to Mormon, it seems most likely to me that Mormon obtained such permission from God after completing all his work with the Book of Mormon and resumed control of the Nephite military. It is even likely that he went through a similar process when assuming control of it the first time. We see a hint of this in his final words, written not to his own people who are about to be destroyed, but to the Lamanites who will survive the Nephites. In Mormon 7, Mormon tells them what they must do in order to accept Christ and how they must live in order to be saved. One of those things is:
Know ye that ye must lay down your weapons of war, and delight no more in the shedding of blood, and take them not again, save it be that God shall command you.
Mormon 7:4
In order to follow Christ we must renounce all war, lay down our weapons on war, no longer shed blood, and never take them up again for any reason unless God specifically commands us to do so. This is the commandment reiterated in Doctrine and Covenants Section 98 and tells us that Mormon lived the same law. He received permission from God as the prophet to specifically fight in the wars that he did. The same cannot be said for any of the wars anyone has fought since the Restoration. This is Mormon’s example and what he teaches us about when the Saints can engage in war – only when God specifically commands it and at no other time for any other reason. And since no modern war has been authorized by such a command, nor have any of the prophets issued any statements claiming such a revelation and authorization from God has been given, the Saints are not justified by Mormon’s example in joining modern wars. Mormon had an exception granted by the commandments of God. We do not.
Loving The Wicked
Secondly, we have to ask ourselves why Mormon (and presumptively Moroni, though we don’t actually know the extent of Moroni’s actual military experience) would want to become the leader of the Nephites again. Their society had degenerated to the point that they were more like animals than people, joyfully engaging in rape, torture, murder, and cannibalism. They sacrifice women and children to idols. (Mormon 4:21) Even as we feel sorrow for the innocent -namely children – who would suffer from their destruction, surely they as a society deserved what was coming to them. Even Mormon said as much explaining that even though he was resuming control over them he was, “without hope, for I knew the judgments of the Lord which should come upon them[.]” (Mormon 5:2) Within the shadow of Cumorah, knowing the Nephites were swiftly headed towards a justly earned apocalypse, why did Mormon resume control over these people?
I think the answer can be found in Mormon’s explanation of why he led them the first time:
Behold, I had led them, notwithstanding their wickedness I had led them many times to battle, and had loved them, according to the love of God which was in me, with all my heart; and my soul had been poured out in prayer unto my God all the day long for them; nevertheless, it was without faith, because of the hardness of their hearts.
Mormon 3:12
Despite all their wickedness and evil – despite the rape, torture, murder, idolatry, human sacrifice, and cannibalism – Mormon still loved his people. In his leadership role, and especially by the end he was probably more like a dictator than only a general, he saw them at their worst, their most corrupt, their most evil. And he loved them. He knew that they were hurdling towards destruction no matter what he did, but he still had to try. It wasn’t because he wanted to kill the Lamanites or save the Nephites (he knew the latter was impossible already.) It was because he loved his people so much he couldn’t keep himself from serving them in the best way he could, even if it meant he died with and for them.
That is Christ-like love.
That is also the most powerful example that Mormon provides for us to follow today. It isn’t his example as a soldier that we should try and emulate. It is his example as a Christian that we should seek to emulate. Mormon loved his people no matter how evil they were. Mormon loved his enemies no matter how brutal they were, which is why his last words in the Book of Mormon are directed towards them to tell them how they can be saved in the Kingdom of God. Can we say the same? Do we love the anti-Mormons? Do we love the ex-Mormons? Do we love young people? Do we love old people? Do we love the Progressives? Do we love the Conservatives? Do we love the Leftists? Do we love the Rightists? Do we love the Democrats? Do we love the Republicans? Do we love the Russians? Do we love the Iranians? Do we love the terrorists? Do we love the refugees? Do we love immigrants? Do we love illegal immigrants? Do w love criminals? Is our love for God obvious? Is our love for others obvious? If not then our hearts and actions need to change.
I haven’t said much about Moroni in this article, mostly because everything said about Mormon most likely applies to Moroni. But I want to invoke him here, to give him the final word he about what it means to be a Christian and the importance of love:
Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen.
Moroni 7:48
It is not in violence, killing, and war that we become true followers of Jesus Christ. It is only in our love of God and others, including the wicked and our enemies, that we become the sons of God, are purified as He is pure, and become like Him. It is in love that we become Christians.
Let us all then be Christians.