The Sealed Book from the Mormon Plates
WORDS OF MORONI
21-30
21 As for me, Moroni, the Lord made me see when I was projecting the seals for these plates, which should contain two cylindrical metal pieces that would transpose all sealed set of plates. But with two internal heads to contain the remainder of the plates, where there will be another six heads of seal, according to the circumstances that Christ will reveal them in the times designated by Him, after his coming at the temple in Zion. Behold, this, come after this book of which I have spoken, which shall first be revealed to the Gentiles, that they may repent of their abominations and sins, and so shall there be still other records in this set of plates which shall remain united by these two inner heads, and must be sealed again by the one who will write the record of this first part, because not everything will be revealed in his days with the opening of the first seals, in order to preserve its content1 so that he will reveal the rest of the plates when the Lord finds it prudent in the future, when in the end, the children of the covenant, which will come after the translation of this first set to regroup in a single fold under the name given to his chosen ones, for which your church should be known in the last days2.
(1) RLDS 2Nephi 12:79-80 / LDS 2Nephi 30:3 | (2) RLDS 3Nephi 12:79-80 / LDS 3Nephi 27:3-8
22 Then the Lord shall descend from the heavens with sounds of trumpets accompanied by a chariot entourage, and horses and wheels of fire, which shall cover the heavens as the clouds cover the earth and all the nations that have pierced him shall feel ashamed, and the people of the world of mankind, being afraid, shall flee without direction from their dwellings, and as reptiles, shall hide themselves in their slits1, and a storm will sweep the four corners of the earth as if by a strong wind that would fill the four corners of the sky, when finally the Lord comes down in his temple, not to bring peace among the nations, but to annihilate those who ruin the earth2, yea, to set fire to the chaff, bound in bundles, which are churches in the field of the world,
for his wheat shall be sheltered in his vineyard, in the harness of the Lord, in Zion.
(1) RLDS D&C 98:5ª e 5g / LDS D&C 101: 23 e 32; Micah 7: 15-17 | (2) Revelation 11: 18
23 After these days of great uproar among the nations of the earth, the Lord will come to his Temple1 and redeem his church to make it a holy property and give it an eternal name — rescuing what was formerly lost, Church of Christ, and establishing His people perpetually upon His everlasting gospel2.
(1) RLDS D&C 1:6c; D&C 42: 8b, 10c; D&C 108:1a / LDS D&C 1:36; D&C 42:36; D&C 133:2 | (2) Psalms 24: 8-10 - Joseph Smith Inspired Version.
24 I Moroni, I gave continuity in writing and compiling the records given to me by my father Mormon1. It was then, when my father was sixty-five years old, that he found himself tired2 to pursue his record, for how much his hands have lost the vitality and the fingers the sensitivity to carve the characters in the metal sheets, and at night, under the light of the lamp, his eyes weakened with the reflection of the plates. It was then that my father, Mormon, decided to hide the records on Mount Cumora after taking them out of the library of Shim, all records previously compiled by him from this place, except for these few plates that contain a summary made by my father, and the other twenty-four plates found by the people of Limhi in the days of Mosiah in regard to the Jaredite record, and that I have been entrusted to complete their work for inasmuch as the other records assigned to him by the hand of the Lord3, beginning with the plates of Nephi, along with the books that my father examined4, and which constitute the records of the prophets, from Jacob to King Benjamin, among which my father had chosen to finish his resume, together with the records which were sealed by the ancient prophets and preserved by the hand of the Lord for a wise, future purpose.
(1) RLDS Words of Mormon 1:2-3 / LDS Words of Mormon 2 | (2) RLDS Mormon 3:7-8 / LDS Mormon 6:6 | (3) RLDS Mormon 3:7-8 e 1:3-4 e 2:25 /LDS Mormon 6:6 e 1:3 e 4:23 | (4) RSUD Words of Mormon 1:4-7 / SUD Words of Mormon 3 e 4
25 Among the account made by my Father of the plates of Nephi, among them is the record of Lehi, the patriarch who came from Jerusalem; the records of Nephi, the son of Lehi; the record of Jacob, the son of Lehi; the record of Enos, son of Jacob; the record of Jarom, the son of Enos; and the record of Omni, the son of Jarom.
26 From the plates which were selected by my father in which the prophecies concerning the coming of Christ have been fulfilled even to our day, beginning with a brief introduction transcribed as ´The Words of Mormon,' is found condensed in summary the record of Mosiah; the record of Alma; the record of Helaman and other records with the name of Nephi, and three other records which were employed by my father and me as the Book of Mormon; the book of Ether, which contains a record of the Jaredites, extracted by me, Moroni, from the twenty-four plates of the people of Limhi, except the part of the vision of the brother of Jared, which I have transcribed from the rest of the twenty-four plates, but which will not be revealed until the Lord comes to his temple to purify the sons of Levi1, and the book I wrote soon after, which bears my name, as the Book of Moroni.
(1) Malachi 3:1-3; RLDS D&C 1:6c; D&C 108:1a / LDS D&C 1:36; D&C 133:2
27 From the sealed records of the prophets, which were summarized and compiled on this set of plates by my father, Mormon, among them is the sealed book of Moses1, written by the hand of Moses himself in scrolls of hides, and which had been sealed by his signet ring, and which was later compiled on the plates of the people of Nephi which contains the records of the prophets, containing the things he saw concerning
this world and the prophecies concerning the judgments of God that would fall on the inhabited earth, each in their respective dispensations, for how much King Josiah himself did not endure these prophecies, whose record was found together with the
book of the law, when Hilkiah, the high priest in Jerusalem undertook the restoration of the temple, coming to consult Huldah2, the prophetess, to know if any of these terrible events described in this sealed book of Moses would have to fall upon the chosen nation of his days.
(1)RLDS 1Nephi 6:3; D&C 22:24ª-25 / LDS 1Nephi 19:23; Moses 1:40-42; 2 Kings 22:8-20 | (2) 2 Kings 22:14
28 But of all records of Moses, my father Mormon compiled only a summary, leaving aside the prophecies and pointing to a wise, future purpose, the issues related to the Melchizedek priesthood among the covenant people from the beginning to the end of all preconceived times, for how much the remaining content of this book of Moses will be on the plates that will be revealed only when Christ comes to his temple in the last days.
29 Therefore, it was in the care of the family of Lehi, whose name was Elasah1, before the Lord called him, for inasmuch as his father Shaphan, as well as his forefathers before him, was the secretary and scribe of the king of Judah, and with that he was acquainted with the language of his ancestors and also of the Phenicians, as well as of the Chaldeans, from which Abraham proceeded, and also of the Egyptian writing2,
for how much the Hebrews were taken captive by Pharaoh after Joseph perished in Egypt, until Moses delivered them.
(1) Jeremiah 29:1-3 | (2) 2 Kings 22:3; RLDS 1Nephi 1:1 / LDS 1Nephi 1:2
30 Thus, Lehi had been commissioned by the Lord to protect this record of Moses, and directed to cross the great waters soon after returning from Babylon, when in the early days of the reign of Mattaniah, which had been given the name of Zedekiah, he was sent with Gemariah, son of Hilkiah, to Nebuchadnezzar with a message from the king of Judah. It was at this time that Jeremiah the prophet sent to the care of Elasah, that is, by Lehi, a letter to the chief elders of Judah and Jerusalem who were exiled in the land of Babylon.