BYU (Brigham Young University) is operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, often mistakenly called the “Mormon Church.” BYU students take nearly a semester of spiritually uplifting, stimulating religion classes.
In this series (see below), students enrolled in scripture study classes have shared their thoughts, insights, and reflections on the Book of Mormon in the form of letters to someone they know. We invite you to take a look at their epiphanies and discoveries as they delve into the scriptures.
In publishing these, we fulfill their desire to speak to all of us of the relevance, power and beauty of the Book of Mormon, a second witness of Jesus Christ and complement to the Bible. The Book of Mormon includes the religious history of a group of Israelites who settled in ancient America. (The names they use are those of prophets who taught the Book of Mormon peoples to look forward to the coming of Christ—Nephi, Lehi, Alma, Helaman, and other unfamiliar names. We hope those names will become more familiar to you as you read their inspiring words and feel the relevance and divinity of their messages through these letters.)
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This blog post was written by Jacob S., a student at Brigham Young University.
For this week’s blog post I am looking in and around Alma chapters 43-56.
In these chapters the Nephites are at war against the Lamanites. The Nephites do not want to go to war but they are compelled to do so by the recurring attacks by the Lamanites. After many attempts to stop the Lamanites from attacking, through peace talks and other negotiations, the Nephites decide that the best thing to do is to go to war. Enter Captain Moroni. This man is only twenty-five years old, twenty-five, and he is already in charge of all the armies of the people of Nephi. This magnificent, brave man had this job thrust upon him without much say on his part. He knew that God expected it of him and he had a responsibility to obey God and protect his brethren. So he accepted the position.
Mormon outlines Moroni as a type of Christ and it is very apparent throughout all of the war chapters (Alma 43-63). Mormon tells us that Moroni does not like war at all, not even the least bit. He does say however, that Moroni will fight in order to retain his freedoms that God wants him to have. When his army was feeling down after many losses on the battlefield Moroni reminded them why they were fighting with what is called the Title of Liberty.
“And it came to pass that he rent his coat; and he took a piece thereof, and wrote upon it–IN MEMORY OF OUR GOD, OUR RELIGION, AND FREEDOM, AND OUR PEACE, OUR WIVES, AND OUR CHILDREN–and he fastened it upon the end of a pole” (Alma 46:12).
What are we willing to defend with our lives?
Would you protect with your one life, God and religion? Would you fight for freedom and peace? Would you do anything for your family?
Moroni knew the importance of all of these things, and he knew that when you fight for any one of these things God will be on your side. I think that it is important that we each take time to know for ourselves what we are willing to defend. What do we stand for? Where do we draw the line? Those are questions we should be addressing everyday. Fight a good fight, stand for something worth protecting. The Lord God will bless and direct your paths.
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