Mormon Gives Records to His Son
My name is Mormon. I am about to give the records I have been making to my son Moroni. I have seen almost all of my people, the Nephites, be destroyed. Many hundreds of years have passed since Jesus Christ came. I am giving these records to my son. I think he will see all of our people be destroyed. But I hope God will let him live. Then he can write about our people and about Christ. Maybe this will help people someday.
Mormon Explains What He Wrote
Let me tell you about what I have written. I made a short version of the plates of Nephi. I wrote about everything up to the time of King Benjamin, who Amaleki talked about. I looked through the records that were given to me. I found these plates that tell a short story about the prophets from Jacob to King Benjamin. They also have many of Nephi’s words. I like what is on these plates because they tell about Jesus Christ coming. My fathers knew that many of these prophecies have come true. I also know that everything that has been prophesied about us up to now has happened. And everything that will happen in the future must surely come true. So I chose these things to finish my record. The rest of my record will come from the plates of Nephi. I cannot write even one hundredth of all the things about my people. I will take these plates that have prophecies and revelations. I will put them with the rest of my record. They are very important to me, and I know they will be important to my brothers too.
Mormon’s Purpose and Prayer
I am doing this for a wise reason. The Spirit of the Lord in me whispers that this is right. I do not know everything, but the Lord knows all things that will happen. So He helps me do what He wants. I pray to God for my brothers. I hope they will learn about God again and about Jesus Christ’s power to save them. I hope they will become a good people again. Now I, Mormon, will continue to finish my record. I will take it from the plates of Nephi. I will write according to the knowledge and understanding that God has given me.
The Sacred Records Are Protected
After Amaleki gave these plates to King Benjamin, he took them and put them with the other plates. These other plates had records that the kings had passed down from one generation to the next, all the way to King Benjamin’s time. These plates were passed down from King Benjamin through each generation until they came to me. I, Mormon, pray to God that they will be kept safe from now on. I know they will be protected because great things are written on them. My people and their brothers will be judged by what is written on these plates on the great and last day, according to God’s word.
King Benjamin Fights His Enemies
Now, about King Benjamin: There was some fighting and arguing among his own people. The armies of the Lamanites came down from the land of Nephi to fight his people. But King Benjamin gathered his armies together and fought against them. He fought with his own strength, using the sword of Laban. With the Lord’s strength, they fought their enemies until they had killed many thousands of Lamanites. They kept fighting the Lamanites until they had pushed them out of all their lands.
False Teachers Are Stopped
After there had been false Christs, their mouths were shut and they were punished for their crimes. After there had been false prophets and false preachers and teachers among the people, and all of these were punished for their crimes. After there had been much fighting and many people left to join the Lamanites, King Benjamin got help from the holy prophets among his people. King Benjamin was a holy man who ruled his people in the right way. There were many holy men in the land. They spoke God’s word with power and authority. They had to speak strongly because the people were stubborn.
Peace Comes to the Land
With the help of these holy men, King Benjamin worked with all his strength and all his heart. The prophets helped too. Together they brought peace to the land again.
Influences
- 1:4 — Revelation 10:6 (KJV)And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer:
- 1:4 — Acts 1:16 (KJV)Men and brethren, this scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas, which was guide to them that took Jesus.
- 1:7 — 1 John 3:20 (KJV)For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.
- 1:7 — Philippians 2:13 (KJV)For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
- 1:15 — Matthew 24:24 (KJV)For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
- 1:16 — 2 Peter 3:2 (KJV)That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour:
- 1:17 — Acts 4:31 (KJV)And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.
Notes
- 1:3-7
In 1828, Martin Harris lost 116 pages of the manuscript (History of the Church, vol. 1). These 116 pages, translated by Smith, had come to the point of King Benjamin's reign (130 B.C.). Remarkably, this is precisely the point at which Mormon, the ancient abridger of Nephi’s record, paused to insert Nephi’s small plates, which cover the same time period.
"Strangely enough we find inserted in the middle of the Book of Mormon...[1981 edition, pp. 143-145] a little book entitled the 'Book of Mormon,' or 'Words of Mormon.' It is by the supposed author or compiler of the entire work, the prophet Mormon. He has a book of his own, in its proper place, near the close of the work, recording his own life, and his connection with Nephite history. And this little affair of only two pages, having nothing whatever to do with the thread of the history that is being recorded, is to an ordinary reader of the Book of Mormon, wholly inexplicable. It becomes intelligible, however, when read in connection with a certain untoward event that occurred in connection with the translation of the book [i.e., the theft of the 116 pages]... in due course of time, there appeared a lengthy revelation purporting to come from God, the substance of which... is that Satan has put it into the hearts of the enemies of the truth to alter the words of that stolen manuscript so that should Mr. Smith reproduce them, they would lie about it, and say the two did not agree together...But now, dear reader, after learning all these facts, would you suppose Mr. Smith so far lacking in common sense and good judgment as to give himself completely away in the Book of Mormon itself, by making the old prophet Mormon a party to the fraud? This is precisely what he does by inserting after page 141 [142 of 1981 edition] two pages, entitled the 'Words of Mormon,' at the precise point in the translation where he had arrived when Martin Harris carried away those one hundred and sixteen pages of manuscript!... Singular, isn't, reader, that this old prophet Mormon, fifteen hundred years ago should happen to discover these other plates of Nephi, and thus change the entire first part of his book, at the precise spot in King Benjamin's history where Martin Harris stole the 116 pages of manuscript? And quite as singular is another fact, that from the beginning of the Book of Mormon, in a large number of places, these two sets of plates are carefully distinguished from each other, and very much said about them up to the very same period, the point in the history of King Benjamin where Mr. Harris stole those 116 pages, and from that point onward nothing more is said of a double set of plates, so that Nephi himself, his brother Jacob, and all the writers down to King Benjamin were, as it were, preparing the way for this same great change made necessary by Mr. [Mrs.?] Harris' theft! But although these double sets of plates are so often mentioned in part first of the Book of Mormon, and the specific character of each clearly stated, yet strangely enough the prophet Mormon did not know of the existence of the one set containing 'the more part of the ministry' until he happened to reach that same dangerous point in the history of his nation where Martin Harris' 116 pages ended!... had it not been for the fortunate theft... the whole religious world of to-day would have had palmed upon them, as part first of the Book of Mormon, a very inferior article, losing much of the flavor and sweetness of the gospel, and the most precious prophecies of Christ that the book now, fortunately, contains. Truly Mormon's ways are mysterious, and so are Joseph Smith's!" -M.T. Lamb, The Golden Bible; or The Book of Mormon, Is It From God? (New York: Ward and Drummand, 1887), p. 119.