- 8Now I Moroni will finish my father Mormon’s record. I only have a few things to write, things I was commanded to write by my father. 2After the great and awful battle at Cumorah, any Nephites who escaped to the south were hunted by the Lamanites and all killed. 3They killed my father also. As a result, I’m the only one who remains to write the sad tale of my people’s destruction. They’re gone, and I will follow my father’s commandment. I don’t know whether they’ll kill me. 4Therefore I’ll write and conceal the records in the ground. It doesn’t matter what happens to me. 5My father has made this record, and he has described its purpose. I would also write about it if I had room on the plates, but I don’t. I don’t have any ore, as I’m alone. My father was killed in battle, along with all my relatives. I don’t have any friends or anywhere to go. I don’t know how long the Lord will let me live. 6Four hundred years have come and gone since the coming of our Lord and Savior. 7The Lamanites have hunted down my people the Nephites from city to city and place to place until they’re all dead. Their fall was immense; indeed, the destruction of my people the Nephites is remarkable and astonishing. 8It’s the Lord’s hand that’s done it. The Lamanites are now at war with each other — the whole land is one continual round of murder and killing, and no one knows when the war will end.
- 9Now I won’t describe them further, since there isn’t anyone living now except Lamanites and robbers. 10There isn’t anyone who knows the true God, except for Jesus’ disciples who stayed in the land until the people’s wickedness was so great the Lord wouldn’t let them remain with the people. No one knows where they are. 11But my father and I have seen them, and they’ve ministered to us. 12Whoever receives this record and doesn’t condemn it because of its imperfections will learn of greater things than these. I’m Moroni. If it were possible, I would make all things known to you.
- 13Now I’ll finish writing about this people. I’m Mormon’s son, and my father was a descendant of Nephi. 14I’m the same one who will hide away this record under the Lord’s care. The plates themselves aren’t valuable because of the commandment of the Lord, for He truly said no one will have them for the purpose of getting rich. But the record written on them is very valuable. And the Lord will bless whoever brings it to light. 15No one can have power to bring it to light unless God gives it to him, because God ordains it can only be done with an eye toward His glory or to benefit the Lord’s ancient and long-dispersed covenant people. 16Blessed is the one who brings this thing to light; it will be brought out of darkness to light, according to God’s word. Indeed, it will be brought out of the ground. It will shine out from darkness and come to the knowledge of the people. It will be done by God’s power. 17If there are any errors, they’re human mistakes; but we don’t know of any error. Nevertheless, God knows all things. Therefore any who condemn, let them be careful not to put themselves in danger of hell fire. 18Those who say: Show it to me or I’ll strike you down! Let them be careful not to demand what the Lord forbids. 19Because those who judge rashly will in turn be judged rashly; they’ll be paid according to their works. Therefore, those who strike will in turn be struck by the Lord. 20Take note of what the scripture says: People must not inflict harm or judge. The Lord has said: Judgment is Mine, and vengeance is Mine as well; I will repay. 21Those who, in great anger, fight against the Lord’s work and against the Lord’s covenant people, who are the house of Israel, and say: We will destroy the Lord’s work, and the Lord won’t remember the covenant He’s made to the house of Israel — they’re in danger of being cut down and thrown into the fire. 22Because the Lord’s eternal purposes will roll on until all His promises are fulfilled.
- 23Though I can’t write them, study Isaiah’s prophecies. Indeed, I tell you that those holy ones who have come before me and inhabited this land will cry out to the Lord, even from the dust. As the Lord lives, He will remember the covenant He made with them. 24He knows their prayers on behalf of their fellow brothers and sisters. He knows their faith, because in His name they could remove mountains, and in His name they could make the earth shake; and by the power of His word they made prisons fall to the ground. Not even hot furnaces, wild animals, or venomous snakes could harm them, because of the power of His word. 25Their prayers were also on behalf of him whom the Lord will allow to bring this record to light. 26No one should say that it won’t come forth because it surely will, since the Lord has spoken it. It will come out of the earth by the Lord’s power, and no one can prevent it. It will appear at a time when people will say miracles are over. It will come just as if one had spoken from the dead. 27It will come at a time when the blood of holy ones will cry out to the Lord because of secret conspiracies and works of darkness; 28indeed, at a time when God’s power will be denied and churches will have become polluted and consumed with pride to their very center, when church leaders and teachers will be filled with pride to their very center, to the point of being envied by those who belong to their churches. 29It will come at a time when people will hear of fires, storms, and vapors of smoke in foreign lands. 30And people will hear of wars, reports of wars, and earthquakes in various places. 31It will come at a time when there will be great pollutions on the earth: there will be murders, robbing, lying, deceiving, whoredoms, and all kinds of abominations; when there will be many who will say: Do this or do that, it doesn’t matter; the Lord will defend you on the last day. But woe to such people: they’re bitterly corrupted by sin. 32It will come at a time when there will be churches built up that will say: Come to me, and for your money you’ll be forgiven of your sins.
- 33O you wicked, perverse, and stubborn people, why have you built up churches to yourselves to get money? Why have you altered God’s holy word so as to bring condemnation on your souls? Look to God’s revelations, because the time is coming when all these things will certainly be fulfilled. 34The Lord has shown me great and awe-inspiring things about what’s going to take place soon after these words appear among you. 35Now, I speak to you as though you were present, yet you are not. But Jesus Christ has shown you to me, and I know the things you do. 36I know you live pridefully. There are none, except for a few, who aren’t lifted up in pride to their very center, to the point of wearing very fine clothing, and to the point of envying and strife, malice, persecution, and all kinds of iniquity. Your congregations and churches — every single one of them — have become polluted because of the pride of your hearts. 37You love money and your material possessions and your fine clothing and decorating your houses of worship more than you love the poor and the needy, the sick and the afflicted. 38You pollutions, hypocrites, and you teachers who sell yourselves for things that will corrode and decay, why have you polluted God’s holy congregation? Why are you ashamed to take upon yourselves the name of Christ? Why don’t you consider that the value of an endless happiness is greater than misery that never dies? Isn’t it because of the world’s praise? 39Why do you adorn yourselves with things that have no life, and yet allow the hungry, the needy, the naked, the sick, and the afflicted to pass you by and not notice them? 40Why do you build up your secret abominations for the purpose of getting rich and cause widows and orphans to mourn before the Lord, and make the blood of their fathers and husbands cry to the Lord from the ground for vengeance on your heads? 41The sword of vengeance hangs over you; and the time is soon coming when He’ll avenge the blood of the holy ones upon you, since He won’t endure their cries any longer.
- 9Now I’ll also speak to those who don’t believe in Christ. 2Will you believe when He returns again? When the Lord comes — indeed, on that great day when the earth is rolled together as a scroll and the material elements melt with intense heat — on that great day when you’re brought to stand before the Lamb of God, will you then claim there’s no God? 3Will you then continue to deny Christ, even when you behold the Lamb of God? Do you think you’ll live with Him under a consciousness of your guilt? Do you think you could be happy living with that holy Being when your souls are tormented with a consciousness of your guilt, that you’ve continually abused His laws? 4I tell you that you would be more miserable living with a holy and righteous God under a consciousness of your filthiness before Him than you would be living with the damned souls in hell. 5Indeed, when you’re brought to see your nakedness before God, as well as the glory of God and the holiness of Jesus Christ, it will light a flame of unquenchable fire in you. 6O then, you who don’t believe, turn to the Lord! Cry powerfully to the Father in Jesus’ name, so perhaps you can be found spotless, pure, beautiful, and white on that great and last day, having been cleansed by the Lamb’s blood.
- 7Again I speak to you that deny God’s revelations and say they’ve ended, that there are no more revelations, prophecies, gifts, healing, speaking in tongues, or the interpretation of tongues. 8I say to you: Those who deny these things don’t know Christ’s gospel. Indeed, they haven’t read the scriptures; if they have, they don’t understand them. 9Don’t we read that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and there’s no variability or hint of changing in Him? 10Now if you’ve pictured to yourselves a god who changes and there’s even a trace of changing in him, then you’ve imagined a god who isn’t a God of miracles. 11But I’ll show you a God of miracles — indeed, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. That same God who created the heavens, the earth, and everything that’s in them. 12He created Adam, and by Adam came the Fall of mankind. And because of the Fall of mankind came Jesus Christ, namely, the Father and the Son. Because of Jesus Christ we receive mankind’s redemption. 13Because of mankind’s redemption, which came by Jesus Christ, they’re brought back into the Lord’s presence. This is how all people are redeemed, because Christ’s death brings about the resurrection, which brings about a redemption from an endless sleep, a sleep from which all people will be awakened by God’s power when the trumpet sounds. They will appear, both small and great, and all will stand at His place of judgment, being redeemed and freed from the eternal chains of death, a temporal death. 14Then the judgment of the Holy One will be imposed upon them. The time will come when those that are filthy will remain filthy, and those that are righteous will remain righteous, and those that are happy will remain happy, and those that are unhappy will remain unhappy.
- 15Now, all of you that have pictured to yourselves a god who can’t perform any miracles, I want to ask you: Have all these things I’ve spoken about ended? Has the end come yet? I tell you: No. God hasn’t stopped being a God of miracles. 16Doesn’t everything created by God inspire awe? Who can comprehend God’s miraculous works? 17Who will say it wasn’t a miracle that by His word heaven and earth came into existence, and by the power of His word mankind was created from the dust of the earth, and by the power of His word miracles have been performed? 18Who will say Jesus Christ didn’t do many powerful miracles? And His disciples did many powerful miracles also. 19If miracles were done, then how has God stopped being a God of miracles, and yet is an unchangeable Being? I tell you: He doesn’t change; if so, He would stop being God. And He hasn’t stopped being God and is a God of miracles. 20The reason He stops doing miracles among mankind is because they fall away in unbelief and turn from the right way, and don’t know the God they should trust.
- 21I say to you whoever believes in Christ, without doubting, anything they ask the Father in the name of Christ will be given to them. This promise is for everyone, even the whole earth. 22Now Jesus Christ, the Son of God, instructed His disciples who were to remain, and also to all His disciples, which was overheard by the crowd: You are to go across the world and preach the gospel to everyone. 23Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved, but anyone who doesn’t believe will be damned. 24And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they’ll cast out devils, they’ll speak with new tongues, they’ll handle snakes, and if they drink anything deadly, it won’t hurt them; they’ll lay hands on the sick, and they’ll recover. 25And those who believe in My name, who don’t doubt, to them I’ll confirm all My words, to the farthest reaches of the earth. 26Now who can stand against the Lord’s works? Who can deny His words? Who will rise up against the Lord’s almighty power? Who will treat the Lord’s works with contempt? Who will treat Christ’s children with contempt? Take note, all you that treat the Lord’s works with contempt: you will die and be astonished.
- 27Therefore don’t disregard these things, treat them with contempt, or be astonished by them, but pay attention to the Lord’s words and ask the Father in Jesus’ name for whatever you might need. Don’t doubt, but be believing. Begin as in former times and come to the Lord with your whole heart and work out your own salvation before Him with awe and reverence. 28Be wise in the days of your probation. Rid yourselves of all uncleanliness. Don’t ask in order to satisfy your lusts, but ask with unshaken firmness not to yield to any temptation, and to serve the true and living God. 29Make sure you aren’t baptized unworthily. Make sure you don’t take the sacrament of Christ unworthily. But make sure you do all things in worthiness and do them in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God. If you do this and persevere to the end, you won’t under any circumstances be thrown out. 30I speak to you as though I spoke from the dead because I know you’ll have my words.
- 31Don’t condemn me because of my imperfection, or my father because of his imperfection, or those who have written before him, but rather give thanks to God that He has shown you our imperfections, so you can learn to be wiser than we’ve been. 32We’ve written this record, according to our knowledge, in characters we call reformed Egyptian, handed down and adapted by us to fit our speech. 33If our plates had been large enough, we would have written in Hebrew; but the Hebrew characters have been adapted by us as well. If we could have written in Hebrew, however, there wouldn’t have been any miscommunications in our record. 34But the Lord knows what we’ve written and that no other people understand our language. Because no other people understand our language, He has prepared instruments for its translation. 35These things are written so we can rid our clothes of the blood of our fellow brothers and sisters, who have fallen away in unbelief. 36What we want for them is their restoration to the knowledge of Christ, consistent with the prayers of all the holy ones who have lived in the land. 37May the Lord Jesus Christ let their prayers be answered according to their faith. And may God the Father remember the covenant He’s made with the house of Israel, and may He bless them forever through faith in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Chapter 4