Lesson 140 Mormon’s Testimony To the Future Mormon 7 & 8:1-11

230,000 The number of Nephite soldiers who died in the final battle, recorded in Mormon 6 “Don’t you think the Lord has given us these things that we might know and we might prepare ourselves through humility, through repentance, through faith, that we might escape from these dreadful conditions that are portrayed by these ancient prophets?” Elder Joseph Fielding Smith

Mormon 7:1-6 What Must You Know? Knowledge that you are of the house of Israel Knowledge that you must repent or you cannot be saved Knowledge that you must know of the prophets before you Knowledge that you must ‘lay down your weapons of war’ Knowledge and understanding that Jesus is the Son of God and was slain by the Jews and has been resurrected

Mormon 7:7-10 Prerequisite for eternal Happiness Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ Repentance Receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost Baptism by immersion You will be numbered among the people of the first covenant

Mormon 7:7-10 “In a soliloquy of death, Mormon reached across time and space to all, especially to that ‘remnant of the house of Israel’ who would one day read his majestic record. Those of another time and place must learn what those lying before him had forgotten—that all must ‘believe in Jesus Christ, that he is the Son of God,’ that following his crucifixion in Jerusalem he had, ‘by the power of the Father … risen again, whereby he hath gained the victory over the grave; and also in him is the sting of death swallowed up. “‘And he bringeth to pass the resurrection of the dead … [and] the redemption of the world.’ Those who are redeemed may then, because of Christ, enjoy ‘a state of happiness which hath no end.’ [Mormon 7:2, 5–7.] … “To ‘believe in Christ,’ especially when measured against such tragic but avoidable consequences, was Mormon’s last plea and his only hope. It is the ultimate purpose of the entire book that would come to the latter-day world bearing his name” Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

Mormon 8 Moroni Remains Alone Alone to witness and write the destruction of his people He knew that his words would come forth in the last days that give a special meaning to the Lamanites of our day, whom he called “the remnant of this people who are spared,…” The Lamanites of today are descendants of great Book of Mormon leaders. Therefore, they are the house of Israel. Lehi Of the House of Israel Lamanites Nephites The Lord visited the American continent No Lamanites or Nephites; all were called children of Christ (4 Nephi 1:17) AD 34 Great wickedness begins again The Lamanites today are descendants of the people who lived after the appearance of Christ Lamanites Nephites Destroyed in approximately AD 400 AD 201 AD 400 BC 600 AD

Mormon 8:1-3 Challenging Your Faith Even when you are alone you can choose to remain faithful If we are faithful to God in lonely or difficult circumstances, He will help us remain faithful.

Mormon 8:10-11 “As we go about living from day to day, it is almost inevitable that our faith will be challenged. We may at times find ourselves surrounded by others and yet standing in the minority or even standing alone concerning what is acceptable and what is not. Do we have the moral courage to stand firm for our beliefs, even if by so doing we must stand alone? … May we ever be courageous and prepared to stand for what we believe, and if we must stand alone in the process, may we do so courageously, strengthened by the knowledge that in reality we are never alone when we stand with our Father in Heaven” President Thomas S. Monson

What Have We Learned? Who is narrating this account? Who is speaking? Who is receiving the message? What is happening in this account? What has happened before this event? What is the message of this story? What did the writer intend for us to learn from this story? (Doctrine or Principle)

Sources: Suggested Song Dare to Do Right Children’s Songbook 158 Elder Joseph Fielding Smith The Signs of the Times pg Elder Jeffrey R. Holland (Christ and the New Covenant: The Messianic Message of the Book of Mormon [1997], 321–22). President Thomas S. Monson(“Dare to Stand Alone,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2011, 60, 67).

Lehi Of the House of Israel Lamanites Nephites The Lord visited the American continent No Lamanites or Nephites; all were called children of Christ (4 Nephi 1:17) AD 34 Great wickedness begins again The Lamanites today are descendants of the people who lived after the appearance of Christ Lamanites Nephites Destroyed in approximately AD 400 AD 201 AD 400 BC 600

Were There Any Nephite Survivors After Cumorah? "Are there not many Latter-day Saints who will insist that every American of pre-Columbian descent must be a Lamanite because, forsooth, there were once Nephites and Lamanites, and the Nephites were destroyed? Yet the Book of Mormon itself makes such an interpretation impossible. The Nephites were destroyed, we are told, but... what does the Book of Mormon mean by 'destroyed'? The word is to be taken, as are so many other key words in the book, in its primary and original sense: 'to unbuild; to separate violently into its constituent parts; to break up the structure.' To destroy is to wreck the structure, not to annihilate the parts. Thus in 1 Nephi 17:31 we read of Israel in Moses' day that, 'According to his word he did destroy them; and according to his word he did lead them... ' bringing them together after they had been 'destroyed,' i.e., scattered, and needed a leader. 'As one generation hath been destroyed among the Jews,' according to II Nephi 25:9, '... even so they have been destroyed from generation to generation according to their iniquities.' A complete slaughter of anyone generation would of course be the end of their history altogether, but that is not what' destroyed' means.... "Only once in the Book of Mormon do we read of a case of annihilation, when we are specifically told that 'every living soul of the Ammonihahites was destroyed,' (Alma 16:9), where not only the social structure but each individual is undone. In other instances the Lord promises that he will not utterly destroy the descendants of Lehi's youngest son, Joseph (lINe. 3:3), or of Lemuel (id., 4:9), and even Nephi is told that God 'will not suffer that the Gentiles will utterly destroy the mixture of thy seed which are among thy brethren' (I Ne. 13:30), even though the promise and fulfillment were that the Nephites should be 'destroyed' (Eth. 8:21), and even though Moroni can say: 'there is none, save it be Lamanites.' (Ether 4:3.)" (Hugh Nibley, Lehi in the Desert and the World of the Jaredites, pp ) Mormon 8:1-11 Student Manual Religion of the Book of Mormon pg 471 Diagram pg. 469