Moroni continues to talk about the coming forth of the Book
of Mormon. The words shall come out of the ground. “Therefore give heed to my
words; write the things which I have told you; and according to the time and
the will of the Father they shall go forth unto the Gentiles” (3 Nephi 23:4).
There will be a time when it will be said the day of
miracles have past. “Yea, and wo unto him that shall say at that day, to get
gain, that there can be no miracle wrought by Jesus Christ; for he that doeth
this shall become like unto the son of perdition, for whom there was no mercy,
according to the word of Christ!” (3 Nephi 29:7).
“Mormon, speaking of our own day, calls it ‘a day when it
shall be said that miracles are done away’ (Mormon 8:26) and he warns those who
set themselves up as critics of God’s ways that they are playing a dangerous
game, ‘for behold, the same that judgeth rashly shall be judged rashly again; .
. . man shall not smite, neither shall he judge’ (Mormon 8:19-20).”[1]
“And now, O all ye that have imagined up unto yourselves a
god who can do no miracles, I would ask of you, have all these things passed,
of which I have spoken? Has the end come yet? Behold I say unto you, Nay; and
God has not ceased to be a God of miracles” (Mormon 9:15).
The words will come from those who speak from the dead. “Yea,
and wo unto him that shall say at that day, to get gain, that there can be no
miracle wrought by Jesus Christ; for he that doeth this shall become like unto
the son of perdition, for whom there was no mercy, according to the word of
Christ!” (3 Nephi 29:7).
“One of the chief ‘marvelous things,’ Moroni is told, is the
record Moroni is involved in writing. It shall come forth ‘out of the earth,’
Moroni says, ‘in a day when it shall be said that miracles are done away; and
it shall come even as if one should speak from the dead’ (Mormon 8:26). The
book thus is ‘betwixt’ and between the dead and the living (Alma 40:6); of
earthly origins, it asserts that it contains the revelations of God; a liminal ‘voice
. . . from the dust’ (2 Nephi 33:13), it speaks today with power and beauty.”[2]
“And now, my beloved brethren, if this be the case that
these things are true which I have spoken unto you, and God will show unto you,
with power and great glory at the last day, that they are true, and if they are
true has the day of miracles ceased?
“Or have angels ceased to appear unto the children of men?
Or has he withheld the power of the Holy Ghost from them? Or will he, so long
as time shall last, or the earth shall stand, or there shall be one man upon
the face thereof to be saved?
“Behold I say unto you, Nay; for it is by faith that
miracles are wrought; and it is by faith that angels appear and minister unto
men; wherefore, if these things have ceased wo be unto the children of men, for
it is because of unbelief, and all is vain” (Moroni 7:35-37).
“After my seed and the seed of my brethren shall have
dwindled in unbelief, and shall have been smitten by the Gentiles; yea, after
the Lord God shall have camped against them round about, and shall have laid
siege against them with a mount, and raised forts against them; and after they
shall have been brought down low in the dust, even that they are not, yet the
words of the righteous shall be written, and the prayers of the faithful shall
be heard, and all those who have dwindled in unbelief shall not be forgotten.
“For those who shall be destroyed shall speak unto them out
of the ground, and their speech shall be low out of the dust, and their voice
shall be as one that hath a familiar spirit; for the Lord God will give unto
him power, that he may whisper concerning them, even as it were out of the
ground; and their speech shall whisper out of the dust” (2 Nephi 26:15-16).
“For the Gentiles, a purpose of the Book of Mormon is to
convince ‘that Jesus is the CHRIST’ (title page). The Book of Mormon would come
forth, Moroni declares prophetically, ‘in a day when it shall be said that
miracles are done away"’(Mormon 8:26). For Gentiles who profess a belief
in Jesus but deny his power (see Mormon 8:28), the Book of Mormon convincingly
testifies of a ‘God of miracles’ (Mormon 9:11). In addition to a spiritual
witness, various elements of design confirm Christ's divinity and power.
“The book itself is a miracle, coming, Moroni says, ‘even as
if one should speak from the dead’ (Mormon 8:26). Its most prominent parts
affirm the miraculous: the repeated exodus theme, including the escape by day
of Alma and his people from their taskmasters (Mosiah 24:19-21); the freeing of
prophets from prison; angelic visitations to Nephi, Alma, Amulek, and others;
and, the most miraculous event of all, the personal visit of the resurrected
Christ to the people.”[3]
[1] An
Approach to the Book of Mormon, The Way of the “Intellectuals,” Hugh Nibley, Maxwell Institute website.
[2] “At the
Judgment-Seat of Christ” – Larger Perspectives, Maxwell Institute website.
[3] The
Book of Mormon, Designed for Our Day, Annual FARMS Lecture, 27 February
1990, Richard Dilworth Rust
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