Mormon’s Interlude

Words of Mormon 1

My name is Mormon. I’m writing hundreds of years after the coming of the Anointed One.

I’m the guy on the title page of this whole book. I’ve watched the crushing of my nation for too long and will soon hand these plates off to my son Moroni. He’ll see the final act. Maybe he’ll survive, maybe write. I hope so.

What I’ve done: I edited Nephi and his descendants’ writings, though some of those descendants didn’t leave me much meat on the bone. What is it with writing these days?

What I liked: all the old-time predictions of Jesus and what would happen to us. Pretty solid. Most of it’s come true. I’ll bet the rest is on the way.

I’m not much of a writer myself. I’m more of an editor. You know what they say, those who can write write, those who can’t, edit. I’m also an archivist. I’m collating information on assorted plates, hoping we can conveniently stash all this stuff for someone to find.

I guess you could say I feel inspired to do this. Some impulse I can’t rationalize away or intellectually justify. But it is, as they say, what it is. Still, I prefer to think that God’s whispering his will into my will.

What I hope: my people will come to know God again even better than I do. That they’ll be delightful again.

So I’m closing out this set of small plates, my digest of earlier source material. After Amaleki gave these plates to King Benjamin, Benjamin stowed them with the ones he had from his own people. That’s where I ran across them.

What I pray: that God won’t let these plates vanish entirely. That someone will find them and translate them. I think they have merit. They have many things you won’t find elsewhere. And, from a religious perspective, they could form the basis for judging my people. I’d appeal to God to include these when he puts the Nephites on his scales.

A few words about King Benjamin: He ruled over a split constituency. Lots of bullies and demagogues. When Lamanites came down from Nephiland, Benjamin fought like a champion against them, even wielding Laban’s sword. He routed the Lamanites.

He would brook no boastful would-be Anointed Ones, of whom we always had plenty. He used severe laws to incarcerate or punish them.

In other words, it was against the law to be the wrong Jesus.

Benjamin, while not proud of this legislation, thought that God allowed it. He hired prophets and scholars to tell him as much. He was a holy man, just on the verge of a holier-than-thou man. Given the propensity for our people to breed prophets, he fit right in. He and they never let up: change your ways. Or else.

Whatever you might think of the means, King Benjamin worked harder than anyone to keep the peace. Consorting with prophets, he did.