Mormon 5

Next, I went out and re-upped for the military. I’d have felt guiltier for standing by than for breaking my oath to quit. They put me in command again. But I didn’t think for a minute that God had broken his oath to put them through the ringer. They were looking at massacre in the face and wouldn’t part their lips once to pray.

The Lamanites tried to catch us at Jordan, but we pushed them back. They tried again. No luck. Our men cut them off at every road or pushed them back in every city.

Year 379: Anyone who hadn’t closed ranks inside their cities, towns, and villages, was wiped out or carted off, often burned to death by fires Lamanites started.

Year 380: We fought as best we could, but they just outnumbered us. They jumped and we were their trampoline. We ran when and where we could. But they were like cheetahs, scorching through the fields to snap off our legs.

Now, I don’t want to rake your souls through the grisliness of what I saw and smelled. But I do believe that somewhere, at some time, every secret has to be shouted from the rooftops.

I also know that these plates will get into somebody’s hands before the world ends. Their contents, I believe, will be read by all sorts of people, all around the world. I know my people will be a speck on the lens of history. But if I keep this short, people might read it. And if I keep it clean—and not too sad—people might read it all the way to the end.

I’m writing for whatever will remain of my people. Also for the Gentiles who will take them under their wing. I want you all to know where all good things come from.

That’s right, from Jesus. He would have hugged you to him if you’d only quit defying him.

I don’t know when you’ll get these tales and teachings I’m offering you. But I know you will. Because God wants you to have them, either because you’ve repented or in order to get you to repent. Maybe a little of both.

Even the Jews who’ve scraped Jesus clean out of view might take some interest in my book(s).

Maybe I can persuade them to regard Jesus as their Messiah, the Anointed One they were promised right at the front end of their religion. Because God honestly wants them in any finale he shows the world. He’s never stopped loving them. Just wants to shove them in Jesus’ direction a little. Because he’s part of the original covenant they celebrate and rely on for their collective self-esteem.

Also—and pardon any seeming denigration—the Lamanites need to get on board, finally, just as their progenitor had to do on the boat ride to our land. What’s in store for them from here on? More darkness, more dirtiness, more degradation, more contempt from outsiders. If they’d worship right, that wouldn’t happen. But they won’t and it will.

God had already given up on their ancestors. So he lets them drift like tumbleweed. They had their day once. Totally Christian. Behaviorally sound.

But that’s over. Satan is the godfather of their international gang. They are like Jaredite barges (more on those in the next book), no steering wheels, jerked around by waves—but with no promised land to make it worth the vertigo and nausea.

God will leave their inheritance right here on this continent. The Gentile invaders will snatch it up and maybe share some now and then.

But they won’t be all that nice to our descendants. At some point God will step in and fix the injustices. He’ll also favor Israelites, as he always says he’ll do. That means my people too.

Do you get it, Gentiles? You’re nearly as shameless and sin-enslaved as my people, bordering on the same bloodlust. God will mow over you too. I know you have astronomy and have maybe a better sense than we do of cosmic proportion. But do you really accept that we’re all as dusty as ground flour? One whoosh from God and we’re blown away. This whole world is like a bad novel he’s about to quit reading and toss in the dumpster.

So get a little humility. He could shred you in an instant if he lost his patience. And you really never know with him.