The Angel Moroni uses the Bible to summarize the purposes of the Restoration -- Part 2

In part 1, we reviewed quotations from Malachi and Isaiah used by Moroni to teach Joseph Smith about the purposes of the restoration.  In this post, we'll look at the rest of what he said.

We begin in the New Testament.

Acts 3:22-23

22 For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you.
23 And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people.

Moroni offered some explanation for these verses:

He said that that prophet was Christ; but the day had not yet come when “they who would not hear his voice should be cut off from among the people,” but soon would come.

The phrases "destroyed from among the people" and "cut off from among the people" seem to refer to the Way of Death, or rejecting the covenant/Gospel of Christ. Thus, in contrast, it seems to me that the saying "him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you" refers to the Way of Life, or accepting the covenant/Gospel of Christ.

Joel 2

Next, Moroni quotes the end of Joel chapter 2, with some obvious references to covenants (see verse 32) and also some obvious references to spiritual gifts (see verses 28-29):

28 ¶ And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:
29 And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.
31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come.
32 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call.

Verse 31 clearly references a coming day of judgment -- the "great and terrible day of the Lord." The purpose of the restoration is to give us what we need in order to withstand that day. We find deliverance through calling upon the name of the Lord in Mount Zion. In other words, the Priesthood, together with its ordinances (including temple ordinances) prepare us to stand clean before God on the day of judgment.

Joseph says the angel mentioned that this prophecy of Joel is "not yet fulfilled, but was soon to be."

Then Joseph says this:

And he further stated that the fulness of the Gentiles was soon to come in. He quoted many other passages of scripture, and offered many explanations which cannot be mentioned here.

We're left to wonder what was quoted and what was said.

We also learn that this divine message was repeated four times over the next few hours.

Conclusion

What I take away from reviewing these scriptures is that the purposes of the restoration have been clear and consistent from the very beginning.  The plan laid out by the voice of the angel echoes the same things we hear President Nelson emphasizing today: Faith, repentance, saving ordinances, Priesthood, and temples. Moroni makes it clear that all of this is designed to offer us a way to withstand the day of judgment and stand clean before God.

In these visits to Joseph Smith, Moroni summarizes the purposes of the restoration using the Bible.  At the very end of the Book of Mormon, he summarizes the purpose of the Book of Mormon (the instrument of the gathering of Israel) using his own words.  Notice the references to judgment, prophecies being fulfilled, spiritual gifts, covenants, the atonement of Jesus Christ, and standing clean before God.

27 And I exhort you to remember these things; for the time speedily cometh that ye shall know that I lie not, for ye shall see me at the bar of God; and the Lord God will say unto you: Did I not declare my words unto you, which were written by this man, like as one crying from the dead, yea, even as one speaking out of the dust?
28 I declare these things unto the fulfilling of the prophecies. And behold, they shall proceed forth out of the mouth of the everlasting God; and his word shall hiss forth from generation to generation.
29 And God shall show unto you, that that which I have written is true.
30 And again I would exhort you that ye would come unto Christ, and lay hold upon every good gift, and touch not the evil gift, nor the unclean thing.
31 And awake, and arise from the dust, O Jerusalem; yea, and put on thy beautiful garments, O daughter of Zion; and strengthen thy stakes and enlarge thy borders forever, that thou mayest no more be confounded, that the covenants of the Eternal Father which he hath made unto thee, O house of Israel, may be fulfilled.
32 Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.
33 And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot.
34 And now I bid unto all, farewell. I soon go to rest in the paradise of God, until my spirit and body shall again reunite, and I am brought forth triumphant through the air, to meet you before the pleasing bar of the great Jehovah, the Eternal Judge of both quick and dead. Amen. (Moroni 10)

The Angel Moroni uses the Bible to summarize the purposes of the Restoration -- Part 1

I'm currently studying the purposes of the restoration. In this post, I pointed out the symbolism of the the Feast of Trumpets and the latter-day restoration.

Today I noticed something as I studied Joseph Smith's account of the visit of the Angel Moroni in 1823 -- the scriptures quoted by Moroni neatly summarize the most important points of the restoration.  This should come as no surprise, but I find it to be very interesting, because Moroni conveys the message he needs Joseph to understand using words familiar to Joseph -- the King James Bible (with a few variations).

In this post and the next one, I'll lay out precisely what Moroni said and how it summarizes the purposes of the restoration.

What are the purposes of the Restoration?

I've thought a lot about this in light of this statement from President Nelson:

One question we've wrestled with is how to take the gospel in its simple purity and the ordinances with their eternal efficacy to all of God's children without having basketball hoops get in the way.

The "simple purity" of the gospel is a concept I've thought a lot about.  It certainly involves restored doctrines, but above all it reduces down to faith, repentance, baptism, the endowment, and the sealing ordinance, as well as the priesthood by which ordinances can be performed. Everything else, it seems, is an appendage.

Notice then, as we go through the verses quoted by Moroni during his 1823 visit to Joseph Smith, how often the concept of sacred ordinances and the priesthood are mentioned.

Malachi 3

First, Moroni quoted "the first part of the third chapter of Malachi." I don't think he makes it clear exactly how many verses were quoted, so I included the first 7:

1 Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts.
2 But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap:
3 And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.
4 Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days of old, and as in former years.
5 And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the Lord of hosts.
6 For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.
7 ¶ Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return?

Malachi 4 (variant)

Next, he quoted Malachi 4 with some changes, as noted below, and references to the temple and the priesthood in bold:

1 For behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly shall burn as stubble; for they that come shall burn them, saith the Lord of Hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
2 ¶ But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.
3 And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts.
4 ¶ Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.

5 Behold, I will reveal unto you the Priesthood, by the hand of Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.

6 And he shall plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to the fathers, and the hearts of the children shall turn to their fathers. If it were not so, the whole earth would be utterly wasted at his coming.

Isaiah 11

After Malachi, the angel quotes Isaiah chapter 11. For the sake of brevity, I'll note a few verses here which I believe to be most pertinent to the purposes of the restoration:

1 And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:
2 And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord;
...
5 And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins.
...
9 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.
10 ¶ And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious.
11 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, ...
12 And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
13 The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim.
...

In these verses, I see numerous references to the temple, and of course in verses 11-12 we have one of the clearest statements of God's intention to gather Israel in the latter days. The Book of Mormon is the instrument designed by God to accomplish that feat.

Summary

The purposes of the restoration are all about the Priesthood, the saving ordinances, and by extension the temple.  Moroni knew this of course, even if young Joseph did not, and taught him using words he knew well enough to recognize.  This shows us three important truths:

1) All of the prophecies of the prophets will surely come to pass. (This also happens to be a major theme in the Book of Mormon.)

2) The restoration of the gospel, the re-establishment of the everlasting covenant, and the gathering of Israel in the last days were promised to Israel through prophets before the scattering of the ten tribes around 2700 years ago. God remembers His promises. (This is also a major theme of the Book of Mormon.)

3) God desires to teach us His ways, but He will do so according to our own understanding.  For Joseph Smith, that understanding centered on the King James Bible, thus Moroni used that as his guide in teaching the boy prophet.

In part 2, we'll review the rest of Moroni's words to Joseph Smith.

Internal Consistency throughout the Book of Ether

The Book of Ether offers perhaps the most complex example of internal consistency imaginable. In chapter 1, we encounter a list of the lineage of Jared, starting with the final member in that line (Ether) and extending back to Jared himself. 30 names are mentioned.

What follows in the next 15 chapters is a detailed account of the history of the Jaredite nation, complete with war, intrigue, murder, a description of their secret combinations, and finally their utter destruction.  This account is interrupted 5 times (three short and two long interruptions) by Moroni.

In addition, during the accounts of various kings and usurpers, approximately 30 additional names are mentioned as either place names or other actors in the narrative.  I call these "mingling names". I am not counting the 12 names associated with the narrative of the first king, nor am I including the 28 names that appear as part of the narrative of the last in the lineage.


Here's a fun set of challenges:

1. See if you can read Ether 1 and then recite back the names in order.  If you succeed, you have a better memory than I do.  
2. Now try it backwards, which is how we encounter them in the text.  
3. If all of that is too easy for you, add in 30 other unusual names in between each member of the list.  
4. Still not challenged? Make sure several of the additional names you include reference parts of the Nephite history.

Name (Reference)	“Mingling” names*	#	Interjections from Moroni
Jared (1:33-6)	“Brother of Jared” Nimrod Moriancumer Shelem Moroni Mosiah Israel John Gilgah Mahah Orihah Pagag	12	(2:9-12); (3:17-20); (3:25-6:1):
Orihah (6:14, 27, 30; 7:1-2)		0
Kib (7:3)	Corihor Nehor Moron Jared Shule	5
Shule (7:7-27; 8:1)	Ephraim Nehor Kib Noah Moron Cohor Nimrod Omer	8
Omer (8:1; 9:1-14)	Jared Heth Esrom Coriantumr “daughter of Jared” Akish Kimnor Cain Shim Ablom Nimrah Emer	12	(8:19-9:1)
Emer (9:14-21)		0
Coriantum (9:21-24)		0
Com (9:25)		0
Heth (9:25-10:1)	Zarahemla	1
Shez (10:1-4)	Shez (his son)	1
Riplakish (10:4-8)		0
Morianton** (10:9-13)		0
Kim (10:13-14)		0
Levi (10:14-16)		0
Corom (10:16-17)		0
Kish (10:17-18)		0
Lib (10:18-29)		0
Hearthom (10:29-30)		0
Heth (10:31)		0
Aaron** (10:31)		0
Amnigaddah (10:31)		0
Coriantum (10:31)		0
Com (10:31-34; 11:1-3)	Amgid	1
Shiblon/m*** (11:4-9)	“Brother of Shiblom”	1
Seth (11:9)		0
Ahah (11:10)		0
Ethem (11:11-14)		0
Moron (11:14-18)	“Descendant of the brother of Jared”	1
Coriantor (11:18-23)		0
Ether** (11:23; 12-15)	Coriantumr Moroni Moses Alma Amulek Nephi Lehi Ammon three disciples “brother of Jared” Zerin Israel Joseph Abraham Cohor Corihor Shared Gilgal Heshlon Akish Moron Lib Agosh Shiz Shurr Comnor Ogath Ramah	28	(12:6-13:13)

* (Names in italics are mentioned within an interjection)

** Chapter 1 states this person was a descendant of the previous name.

** Notice that Ether 1 mentions “Shiblon” and Ether 11 mentions “Shiblom”.

A few notes worth mentioning:

1. The "Shiblon/Shiblom" inconsistency needs to be explained. In the divine model, this seems very clearly to be an error that crept in through handwriting and recopying by someone who was unfamiliar with the earlier reference in Ether 1. In other words, Oliver perhaps didn't reference Ether 1 as he was copying Ether 11. In a naturalistic explanation, you could argue the same thing, I suppose, but it seems like the kind of thing you would notice if you had carefully planned out and/or memorized the text in advance.
2. I do not believe that it is reasonable to conclude that Joseph Smith spontaneously dictated a text as complex as this without either divine power (as he claimed) or careful notes. There is no evidence that he referenced notes during the miraculously rapid dictation of the text. The interjections by Moroni are very different in tone and content than the rest of the narrative account. This is complicated writing. 
3. It seems that Moroni was completing a task that had been started by his father, and could not restrain himself from interjecting doctrine and prophecies. 
4. Unlike most of the rest of the Book of Mormon, the Jaredite account in the Book of Ether has very few references to Jesus Christ. In fact, aside from the interjections by Moroni and the vision of the brother of Jared, there are no references to Jesus Christ in these 15 chapters.