4 Nephi: The Book Of Mormon

One of the most beautiful parts of the Book of Mormon is found in 4 Nephi, which tells the story of the peoples in America after the coming of the resurrected Christ. It truly reflects Elder Holland’s words: “After an encounter with the living Son of the living God, nothing is ever again to be as it was before” (1). Throughout the land, the people were all so fully converted to the Lord that there were no poor among them and no contentions. They were a delightsome people who prospered in the land and worked many miracles. The pride cycle that so continually plagued the peoples of the Book of Mormon seemed to stall in this time of prosperity and peace, as the people lived in righteousness. But as always, at the end of 4 Nephi and after nearly
300 years of righteousness, the people finally began to be lifted up in pride, and to seek to destroy the believers. Gadianton robbers again entered the land and wickedness grew until the people were swallowed up in iniquity once more. Thus, the narrative of 4 Nephi falls from one of the most glorious righteousness to one of the darkest wickedness. With this setting in mind, Mormon 1-7 is best described as an account of the consequences that come after such a fall. It tells of the hell-like state of a people who once knew an almost heavenly existence but then rejected God completely. Mormon, the author of this book, is truly one of the great heroes of the Book of Mormon.
As Elder Spencer J. Condie of the Seventy wrote, “If ever there lived a person who resisted and withstood the evil influence of a depraved world to become a worthy servant of the Lord, this person was Mormon” (2). At a very young age, Mormon was entrusted with the plates and he later became the prophet and record keeper of the Nephites. He was visited by the Lord himself, and also called to lead the people in a military capacity while he was just a young man. Mormon was described as being “large in stature,” but it was the size of his faith, love, and obedience that made him one of Christ’s choicest
disciples. The people of Mormon’s time lived in a state of apostasy. Mormon tried again and again to share his testimony with the Nephites, but they hardened their hearts against the truth. Through all this, Mormon never stopped loving and caring about his hopelessly degenerate Nephite people. He felt impressed to resign when they refused to repent, yet his compassion drew him back to them as a leader in their time of need, even though he knew of the inevitable demise that awaited the Nephites because of their wickedness. At many times in his life, Mormon must have felt frustrated, afraid, alone, and hopeless as he served a people who rejected the truth, yet he always continued to do the will of the Lord faithfully. He is one of my favorite examples in the Book of Mormon, of someone who truly lived as Christ did—a life of thankless service and unconditional love. A principle of the gospel that is exposed by this story is that when we delay repentance, it only becomes more and more difficult to repent. Mormon describes the lamentation and mourning that occurs among his people as they experience the consequences of their wickedness. Yet to Mormon’s disbelief, the people do not sorrow unto repentance, despite his testimony that the Lord “would be merciful unto them that they would again become a righteous people” (2:12). Rather, he says they are choosing the “sorrowing of the damned, because the Lord would not always suffer them to take happiness in sin” (2:13). Later, when the Lord spares the Nephites to give them another chance to repent, they harden their hearts again (3:2-3). Over and over, Mormon goes among them crying repentance, but he says “I was without hope” because he knows that the people will not repent and be saved (5:1-2). It is important to understand that one of the tenets of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, is that repentance is always available, and that we can never sink beyond the reach of our Savior’s infinite Atonement. But we have been given agency as a most precious gift, and so must choose to use that Atonement when we have wronged. Sin is habit-forming, and as the sinner moves deeper into his wrongdoing, his will and ability to change are weakened until he his hopeless and no longer has the power to climb back up. This principle struck my heart as I thought about all the little habits I’ve developed in my life that keep me from drawing nearer to my Savior. Spending time on social media or TV isn’t necessarily a sin, so it is easy for me to justify such behavior and delay changing it. It is something that almost everyone does, including some of the greatest people I know! But as I spend more and more time on things of such little importance, I am denying myself the chance to come to know Jesus Christ better and to do his will. I need to spend less time plugged into technology, and more time plugged into the Spirit so that the Lord can guide me to do his will and bless my life as well as the lives of others. In this case, the bad example set forth by the Nephites and Lamanites—who delayed their repentance, thinking they could change in some later day—has allowed the Spirit to bless me with the inspiration to change these idle behaviors now, before I loose the willpower and agency to do so. My goal is to turn each urge to check my phone into a reminder to serve someone around me in some small way. As my life is filled with service instead of selfish time spent alone, I know from experience that the Spirit will fill me with joy. A second principle that this story teaches is one echoed throughout the Book of Mormon: if we rely on our own strength, we will ultimately fail, but if we rely on the Lord we will be blessed and preserved.
In Mormon, whenever the Nephites experience a victory over their enemies, or whenever they are spared from destruction, they begin to “boast in their own strength” (3:9). Ever diligent in extending the invitation of Christ to his wayward countrymen, Mormon accounts that he “did cry unto this people, but it was in vain; and they did not realize it was the Lord that had spared them” (3:3). Again and again, the Lord delivered the Nephites from their destruction, and over and over they did not recognize His mercy, but chose to continue in iniquity and to boast of their own strength. Ultimately, the Lord declared unto Mormon that because the people would not repent even after He had delivered them, “behold, they shall be cut off from the face of the earth”
(3:15). All of our blessings, our joys, our strengths, and each of our daily victories comes from God, the giver of all that is good. Without Him we are nothing, but with Christ we can do all, conquer all, and become all that He knows we can be. My testimony has been the masterpiece of a lifetime, and will continue to grow through trials and faith, but it will always be founded on that principle which I learned while in the deepest humility. Ammon captured it perfectly when he said, “I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things” (3). There are countless scriptural evidences that those who turn to the Lord in faith and rely on Him, are blessed with His power. The people of Mormon’s day serve as a reminder that I need to acknowledge and accept the Savior’s help in my life. I am someone who doesn’t like to ask for help, who prefers so struggle alone, and above all else, who hates admitting weakness. But this story in Mormon has taught me to treasure my weaknesses, for they motivate me to turn to my Savior, to seek his Help as I seek to do His will, and to be sustained by Him who hath power over all in heaven and earth. My goal is to better recognize the little tender mercies that the Lord fills my life with by keeping a journal of them. I believe this will bless my life in two ways: first, at the end of the day I can look back and praise my God for his kindness, and second, I can look back in hard times and remember that He is the only strength I need. As another favorite scripture of mine says of the foundation of Christ, “whereon, if men build they cannot fall” (4). I will more diligently build my foundation on Christ by recognizing his hand in my life. The third principle that spoke to me from this section comes in Mormon 7, the last chapter that Mormon wrote before his death. I always pay special attention to the last words of each Book of Mormon author; I imagine that in their final days, they must have written those things they thought would be of greatest importance to our lives, and Mormon 7 is no exception. The principle contained therein is this: the Atonement of Jesus Christ can give us the ability to love even those who wrong us. There is no doubt that Mormon was set a wonderful example of love; he loved and served his hopelessly flawed people all the days of his life. But the ultimate measure of Mormon’s Christlike compassion came not in how he endlessly loved his people, but in his final words which he addressed to the Lamanites. These were the people who he knew would be his killers, who would end the lives of his family, who would wipe out an entire nation! Few men on earth could stand in Mormon’s shoes at that moment, on the eve of such great destruction and suffering, and stay the words of vilest hatred and bitterness from pouring out of them. The effort would be magnanimous, and yet Mormon went beyond that. In one of the purest acts of love aside from the Savior’s atoning sacrifice itself, Mormon extended to the Lamanites an invitation to believe in Christ, to repent, and to be saved (7:8). Without malice, bitterness, or thought of revenge, he actually pleaded with these people to be saved! How could Mormon do such a thing? It was because he had been fully converted to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and had experienced that mighty change of heart (5). Mormon understood that through faithful prayer, Christ’s Atonement has the capacity to fill us with is perfect love for others and change our hearts forever. And because Mormon was able to set aside any malice and instead have charity for the Lamanites, their descendants and all of us have been blessed with a beautiful epistle in the Book of Mormon inviting all who read to come unto Christ, repent, and be saved. In application to my own life, I have often struggled to understand why the Lord requires me to love and forgive those that have wronged me. Elder Bednar taught, “One of the greatest indicators of our own spiritual maturity is revealed in how we respond to the weaknesses, the inexperience, and the potentially offensive actions of others” (6). In short, our eternal destiny is largely determined by how we react to those who mistreat us. But our happiness now is also affected by how we choose to react. President Spencer W. Kimball taught, “It does not injure your enemy so much when you hate a person…but the hate and bitterness canker your unforgiving heart” (7). Our Savior wants us to be happy here and now, in this life as well as in the eternities, and the only true path to happiness is to love and forgive as He and Mormon both did. Mormon’s example here reminded me that because there isn’t anyone the Savior can’t love and forgive, there also isn’t anyone I can’t love and forgive. As long as I rely on Christ’s Atonement to fill me with His perfect charity, I can forgive even as Mormon forgave, and learn to bless my enemies. My goal is to think of someone who I need to forgive or love more perfectly, and then to pray for and serve them for as many days as it takes, until I can feel Christ’s charity for them in my heart. I know from experience that as I pray and serve those who hurt or annoy me, I will come to see them as Christ sees them, and to more fully understand and feel God’s love for them as well as for me. Although Mormon 1-7 is centered rather darkly around the tragic consequences of wickedness, it brings me more hope and light than almost any other portion of the Book of Mormon. For me, it all comes back to my hero Mormon, someone who’s life I feel draws many parallels to ours in the last days. Mormon loved the Savior, and wanted to share His light with all those around Him. I have been blessed to have the Gospel in my life and to be blessed with a desire to share it with others. Mormon always strove to live faithfully, but he often had to stand alone. In a world turning increasingly secular, I have often found myself confronted with standing apart from the crowd. And for much of his life, Mormon fought for what seemed like a loosing cause. Sometimes, amidst the trials and darkness of life, it feels like the light of the Gospel is being swallowed up. But the greatest example Mormon set for me personally was one of eternal perspective. Mormon saw clearly, that although his work seemed futile amidst a people who were ultimately destroyed, that in the scheme of the eternities Christ will always triumph. This knowledge has brought me indescribable peace and strength in many moments of weakness and fear, as I’ve been reminded that whatever challenges we may face, the outcome of the fight has already been decided. Christ will conquer all, and it is only for me to have the faith to stand with Him.