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Mormon 1–6 — I Would That I Could Persuade All … to Repent

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tagsscripture-study, come-follow-me, book-of-mormon, mormon, repentance, discipleship, peacemaking
aliasesI Would That I Could Persuade All … to Repent, I Would That I Could Persuade All to Repent, Mormon 1–6, Mormon 1-6, October 28–November 3 Book of Mormon 2024

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Mormon 1–6 — “I Would That I Could Persuade All … to Repent”

Come, Follow Me — October 28–November 3, 2024
Official lesson: “I Would That I Could Persuade All … to Repent.” — Mormon 1–6. The manual asks how Mormon remained a disciple when almost everyone around him chose otherwise, how godly sorrow differs from merely suffering consequences, why recognizing God’s hand matters, and what it means that Jesus Christ still stands “with open arms” to receive the sinner.1

← Previous: 3 Nephi 27–4 Nephi — There Could Not Be a Happier People | Next: Mormon 7–9 — I Speak unto You as If Ye Were Present →

Mormon lives inside the wreckage of the happiness described in 4 Nephi. Miracles cease, trust collapses, violence becomes both habit and entertainment, victories become fuel for boasting, and sorrow turns into resentment instead of repentance. Yet the remarkable fact is not simply that a civilization falls. It is that one disciple refuses to let the civilization choose the shape of his soul.

He observes without becoming numb, commands armies without learning to delight in blood, grieves without surrendering his hope in Christ, sets a boundary against vengeance without ceasing to love, and preserves a witness when his spoken preaching no longer has an audience. Mormon cannot compel his people to repent. He can still remain faithful, love them “according to the love of God,” and write to a future reader who can choose differently.

That is why these six chapters belong together. Mormon 1 forms a disciple in darkness; Mormon 2 distinguishes transforming sorrow from despair; Mormon 3 turns failed preaching into a worldwide written witness; Mormon 4 exposes vengeance as self-destruction; Mormon 5 preserves covenant hope for the remnant; and Mormon 6 places a grieving prophet before the open arms of Christ. The history is tragic, but the invitation is not: while a reader can still hear Mormon’s voice, the day of grace has not passed for that reader.

What to Watch for While Reading

  • The traits Ammaron recognizes in a ten-year-old: sober and quick to observe.
  • Verbs of spiritual perception: observe, taste, know, realize, remember, see, and witness.
  • The contrast between what disappears from society and what remains in Mormon: disciples, miracles, gifts, the Holy Ghost—and then a solitary witness who still knows Christ.
  • Every kind of sorrow: lamentation, “the sorrowing of the damned,” Mormon’s lifelong grief, and his final soul-rending anguish.
  • The missing movement in false sorrow: the people suffer, but they do not come unto Jesus with broken hearts.
  • The difference between defensive courage and a campaign of boasting and vengeance.
  • Mormon’s linked statements: “I had loved them,” “my soul had been poured out in prayer,” and “without faith” in their willingness to respond.
  • The audience shift in Mormon 3:16–22 and 5:9–15—from people who will not hear to readers at “all the ends of the earth.”
  • Images of spiritual direction in Mormon 5: Christ the Shepherd, chaff before wind, and a vessel without sail, anchor, or steering.
  • The final contrast: a fallen people and Jesus still standing “with open arms to receive” them.

Historical and Literary Context

At last, the editor steps into his own history

Mormon has been present throughout much of the book that bears his name. He selected records, summarized generations, preserved sermons and letters, marked sources, and periodically interrupted the narrative with phrases such as “thus we see.” In Mormon 1–6, the editor becomes the principal character. Richard Neitzel Holzapfel describes him as record keeper and abridger, general, disciple and prophet, father, and bridge between his ancient people and modern readers.2

That combination matters. Mormon does not write about war as a spectator. He has led armies since youth. He does not write about the records as an antiquarian. He carried, hid, selected, and engraved them. He does not write about Christ as a distant theological idea. At fifteen he “tasted and knew of the goodness of Jesus” (Mormon 1:15). His history is disciplined and selective, but it is not emotionally neutral.

Holzapfel notes Mormon’s care in distinguishing source documents, quoted speech, summary, and editorial comment. He sees in that method both honesty and humility: Mormon tries not to let the messenger obscure the message.2 The awful scenes he omits are therefore as meaningful as those he includes. He refuses voyeurism, but he records enough for future readers to recognize the path to destruction.

A compressed life under accumulating responsibility

StagePassageResponsibility or crisisMormon’s response
About age tenMormon 1:2–4Ammaron entrusts him with a future record-keeping commissionHe observes and remembers
Age elevenMormon 1:6–12He sees population, war, retreat, and a brief Nephite victoryHe begins learning the world he must record
Age fifteenMormon 1:13–17Disciples, miracles, gifts, and the Holy Ghost withdraw from an unbelieving societyHe is visited by the Lord, tastes Christ’s goodness, and remains
His sixteenth yearMormon 2:1–9He receives command of the Nephite armiesHe serves amid fear, retreat, and social collapse
At the hill ShimMormon 2:16–18He fulfills Ammaron’s record commissionHe keeps a fuller history but limits the awful material placed in this abridgment
Ten years of respiteMormon 3:1–3He prepares defenses and receives a renewed command to preachHe cries repentance, baptism, and rebuilding Christ’s Church
After vows of vengeanceMormon 3:9–16The Nephites boast and choose offensive revengeHe refuses command yet continues to love and pray
The final retreatMormon 5–6He resumes command, safeguards the records, and witnesses national destructionHe writes to the remnant and commends the dead to God’s justice and mercy

The book is both history and warning

The BYU Studies lesson index collects scholarship on Mormon as writer, general, survivor, father, and final witness. Its most useful resources emphasize that the narrative is deliberately theological without being careless history: Mormon identifies real choices, causes, consequences, and audiences.3 Jay E. Jensen shows how Mormon’s purpose statements in 3:17–22 and 5:12–15 anticipate Moroni’s title page. Covenant memory, witness that Jesus is the Christ, preparation for judgment, and persuasion to repent are the record’s declared design—not themes imposed later by readers.4

The Narrative in One View

ChapterOuter historyInner spiritual issuePreserved invitation
Mormon 1Gifts withdraw; war returns; Mormon receives a commissionCan a disciple remain receptive in an unreceptive culture?Observe, remember, taste, know, remain
Mormon 2Armies retreat; sorrow spreads; records are recoveredWill pain turn the heart toward Christ or only toward rage and despair?Come with a broken heart and contrite spirit
Mormon 3A respite, renewed preaching, victory, boasting, vengeanceWill the people recognize God’s mercy or claim self-deliverance?Repent, be baptized, rebuild the Church; receive the written witness
Mormon 4Offensive war produces reciprocal atrocities and irreversible lossWhat happens when anger becomes identity and bloodshed becomes delight?Refuse vengeance; recognize that wickedness carries its own punishment
Mormon 5Mormon returns; retreat continues; the record’s latter-day purpose is statedWhere can a person find direction when society rejects its Shepherd?Know Christ, remember the covenant, be clasped in His arms
Mormon 6Records are secured; armies fall at Cumorah; Mormon lamentsWhat remains when consequences can no longer be reversed?Christ’s arms remain open; trust the Father’s justice and mercy

Mormon’s Counterculture of Discipleship

The manual’s first question is not “How bad were the Nephites?” but “How did Mormon follow Christ regardless of what other people did?”1 The text answers through a sequence of durable practices:

  1. He notices. “Quick to observe” includes careful perception and prompt obedience. David A. Bednar teaches that both meanings belong together: spiritual observation is seeing what matters and acting without delay.5
  2. He takes sacred things seriously. “Sober” does not require a joyless personality. In context, Mormon can be trusted with weighty truth and a commission whose fulfillment lies years ahead.
  3. He remembers. Ammaron’s instruction is not fulfilled by a moment of inspiration alone. Mormon carries it across adolescence, migration, battle, and leadership.
  4. He receives his own witness. He does not live forever on Ammaron’s perception or his father’s learning. He tastes and knows Christ’s goodness.
  5. He remains. When preaching is forbidden, “I did remain among them” (1:17). He neither assimilates nor abandons his post.
  6. He preserves moral agency. He serves, warns, withdraws from vengeance, returns to defend, and writes—but never pretends he can repent on another person’s behalf.

Don’t Miss This uses Ammaron’s recognition as a parenting and mentoring lesson: in an age when it would be easy to write off a whole generation, an adult notices a child’s gifts and names a future of sacred responsibility. Its application is devotional, but vivid: tell a young person what heaven may be cultivating in them, not only what the surrounding culture is doing wrong.6

Two Sorrows, Two Directions

Mormon initially rejoices when he sees lamentation. Pain can crack the shell of self-sufficiency and begin repentance. But he soon learns that not every painful feeling turns toward God.

Mormon 2:10–15Godly sorrow“Sorrowing of the damned”
Source of awakeningRecognition of sin in the light of God’s goodnessLoss, fear, humiliation, and blocked access to desired happiness
DirectionComes unto JesusCurses God and wishes to escape
Inner postureBroken heart and contrite spiritHardened heart defending the old self
ActionConfesses, forsakes, repairs, receives graceStruggles to preserve life without surrendering sin
FruitChanged desire and lasting conversionResentment, despair, and continued violence

The distinction is not “good people feel bad; bad people feel worse.” It is directional. Paul says godly sorrow “worketh repentance to salvation,” while worldly sorrow “worketh death” (2 Corinthians 7:9–11). Sorrow becomes redemptive when it moves a person toward Christ, truth, responsibility, repair, and hope.

Jared Halverson calls attention to Mormon’s repeated sorrow as if the prophet is trying to lend his people the brokenheartedness they refuse to feel. Yet sorrow cannot be transferred by force. The people must offer their own broken heart; Mormon cannot offer it for them.7

The Spiritual Disaster of Unrecognized Mercy

After a season of victory, “they did not realize that it was the Lord that had spared them” (Mormon 3:3). Forgetting God’s hand does more than omit a polite thank-you. It corrupts interpretation:

  • Mercy is relabeled strength. A reprieve becomes proof of superiority.
  • Strength becomes boasting. The people claim the outcome as self-generated.
  • Boasting becomes entitlement. Past survival is taken as authorization for future aggression.
  • Entitlement becomes vengeance. They swear by heaven while acting against heaven’s law.

The remedy is not to deny human effort. Mormon fortifies lands and prepares arms. The error is imagining those measures can replace repentance, baptism, covenant belonging, and God’s sustaining power. followHIM guest Larry Nelson summarizes the relationship well: bad spiritual strategy produces bad military strategy; preparation of arms cannot do what coming to Christ can do.8

Loving Without Enabling Vengeance

Mormon 3:11–12 holds together truths that are often pulled apart. Mormon utterly refuses to lead an offensive campaign of revenge, and Mormon has loved the people “according to the love of God” with all his heart.

His boundary is not hatred. His love is not approval.

“My soul had been poured out in prayer unto my God all the day long for them; nevertheless, it was without faith, because of the hardness of their hearts.”

The missing faith is not disbelief in God. It is the sober recognition that the people will not exercise their agency to respond. Halverson’s devotional reading is helpful: faith and hope for an immediate outcome may fail, but charity need not fail. Mormon cannot honestly predict repentance, yet he can still love with God’s love, pray, warn, and refuse participation in evil.7

Gospel Talktrine frames the Nephites’ vengeance as a counterfeit redemption: rather than receive Christ’s power to redeem, forgive, and restore, they appoint themselves avengers and use sacred language to justify aggression. Mark Holt explicitly presents this as a devotional interpretation, not as an official definition of the passage. Its safest insight is ethical rather than philological: when people use God’s name to sanctify revenge, they reject the character of the Redeemer they claim to defend.9

From an Unhearing Audience to “All the Ends of the Earth”

Mormon 3:16–22 is the great pivot. He stands as an “idle witness” among people who will not hear, but he is not idle in the ordinary sense. He turns to the plates:

“Therefore I write unto you, Gentiles, and also unto you, house of Israel. … Yea, behold, I write unto all the ends of the earth.”

His stated purposes are exact:

  • every member of Adam’s family must stand before Christ;
  • readers may believe the gospel already among them;
  • the covenant people may receive another witness that Jesus is the Christ and God;
  • all may repent and prepare for judgment.

Jensen shows that Mormon repeats this design in 5:12–15 and that Moroni carries it into the title page.4 Mormon’s immediate preaching appears fruitless, but his ministry is not measured only by the response of the nearest audience. The record in your hands is the delayed fruit of a witness preserved under apparently hopeless conditions.

Halverson compares the plates to a message in a bottle sent from a sinking civilization toward a more receptive shore.7 The image clarifies scheduled spiritual labor whose audience may be unknown: a parent’s journal, a carefully taught lesson, a preserved testimony, an honest family history, or a quiet act of integrity may become useful long after the original moment.

Violence, Vengeance, and the Loss of Moral Feeling

Mormon 4 does not glorify war. It describes a feedback loop:

  1. the Nephites attack in vengeance;
  2. violence produces counterviolence;
  3. atrocity is used to justify further atrocity;
  4. hearts harden until bloodshed becomes a delight;
  5. the people lose land, family, freedom, and finally civilization.

Larry Nelson argues that Mormon’s concern is literal before it is metaphorical: a lifetime of war teaches him what violence and vengeance do to bodies, families, memory, and spirit. He distinguishes reluctant defense from delight in bloodshed and invites readers to examine the violence they consume, rehearse, celebrate, or deploy through angry speech.8 This is devotional and educational application, not a claim that all military service or every depiction of conflict is morally identical. The scriptural test is the heart: What do I delight in, and what is my response to injury making me become?

President Russell M. Nelson’s teaching on peacemaking gives a latter-day answer: Christ’s disciples “build, lift, encourage, persuade, and inspire,” lay aside bitterness and verbal weapons, and refuse to make others live in fear of their anger.10

The Shepherd, the Vessel, and the Open Arms

Mormon 5 stacks images of lost relationship and direction. The people once had Christ for their Shepherd. Now they are “without Christ and God in the world,” driven like chaff, and tossed like a vessel with neither sail nor anchor nor steering.

Missing imageSpiritual functionWhat its loss looks like
ShepherdA trusted voice, covenant belonging, direction, rescueScattered movement with no one recognized as rightful guide
SailPower to move toward a worthy destinationNo forward covenant purpose
AnchorRestraint and stability when wind and current pull awayNo settled commitments capable of holding the soul
Helm or means of steeringResponsive moral agency and course correctionBeing acted upon by appetite, fear, grievance, and crowd

Yet the chapter’s deepest image is not abandonment: those who repent “might have been clasped in the arms of Jesus” (5:11). Mormon 6 intensifies it. Jesus “stood with open arms to receive” them (6:17). The Savior’s posture was open even as the people’s posture became closed.

The manual applies this directly to the repentant reader: Christ’s arms are not reserved for those who have never fallen. They are extended precisely because sinners need somewhere to return.1 Repentance is therefore not crawling back to a reluctant Christ. It is turning toward the One already standing ready to receive.

Verse-by-Verse Commentary

Mormon 1

Mormon 1:1–5 — A Child Trusted with a Long Memory

“I perceive that thou art a sober child, and art quick to observe.”

Ammaron does not hand all the records to a ten-year-old. He gives a precise future charge: observe the people, remember the hill Shim, retrieve the plates of Nephi when the time comes, and record what he has seen. Calling and preparation are separated by years. Mormon’s first prophetic work is therefore not public speech but attentive formation.

The command also requires restraint. Mormon is to take the plates of Nephi while leaving the other sacred records. Stewardship means handling the right record at the right time rather than grasping everything sacred at once.

Bednar’s twofold reading of “observe”—to notice and to obey—fits the narrative. Mormon sees accurately and follows through faithfully.5

Come, Follow Me connection: Treat observation as covenant work. Notice a person, prompting, pattern, or responsibility, then act while the impression is still clear.

Mormon 1:6–12 — A Child’s First View of a Crowded and Violent World

“The whole face of the land had become covered with buildings, and the people were as numerous almost, as it were the sand of the sea.”

Mormon’s father carries him southward, and the child sees an urban, populous civilization entering war. The enormous crowd at Zarahemla is not evidence of spiritual health. Numbers, construction, and political strength can coexist with covenant collapse.

The Nephites briefly rally and force a retreat, producing several years without open war. The pause is mercy and opportunity, but not yet conversion. This pattern recurs throughout the chapters: reprieve should become repentance, yet the people interpret it as ordinary strategy or self-generated strength.

Come, Follow Me connection: Do not confuse visible scale, activity, or temporary calm with spiritual wholeness. Ask what a season of respite makes possible.

Mormon 1:13–15 — Gifts Withdraw, but Christ Visits One Receptive Disciple

“I was visited of the Lord, and tasted and knew of the goodness of Jesus.”

Wickedness prevails; the beloved disciples are taken away; miracles and healing cease; gifts disappear; the Holy Ghost does not come upon an unbelieving people. The language does not portray a capricious God shutting down sincere seekers. It portrays people who refuse the Giver and willfully close themselves to His gifts.

Then the camera narrows from the whole land to one fifteen-year-old. Mormon’s “taste” echoes the experiential language of Lehi’s fruit and Alma’s seed. He does not merely know propositions about Christ; goodness becomes personally encountered reality. followHIM notices that the scriptural vocabulary Mormon has absorbed becomes the vocabulary by which he understands his own encounter.8

Restoration parallel: Spiritual gifts operate according to faith and the will of God; they are not proof of spectacle or personal status (Moroni 10:8–25).

Come, Follow Me connection: A dark spiritual environment can make discipleship harder, but it cannot make a personal encounter with Christ impossible.

Mormon 1:16–19 — A Closed Mouth and a Remaining Witness

“I did endeavor to preach unto this people, but my mouth was shut.”

Mormon’s first instinct after tasting Christ’s goodness is to share it. Yet the Lord forbids the attempt because the people have willfully rebelled. This is not a general permission to give up on difficult people. It is a specific prophetic boundary in a society that has rejected repeated light.

“I did remain among them” is the quiet center. Mormon cannot preach, but he can remain unassimilated, observant, faithful, and ready. Meanwhile curses, treasure-slippage, sorceries, and fear expose a society unable to trust God, neighbor, or even possession.

Come, Follow Me connection: When one form of service is closed, ask what faithful presence still requires. Silence can be obedience without becoming indifference.

Mormon 2

Mormon 2:1–9 — A Sixteen-Year-Old Commands a Frightened People

“I was large in stature; therefore the people of Nephi appointed me that I should be their leader.”

The text states the appointment but does not explain every political or military mechanism behind it. Mormon’s stature may help explain why he is noticed, but the prior chapter has already shown the inward formation that physical size cannot supply.

The armies retreat from hill to city and from city to wilderness. Fear becomes contagious: one army’s advance sends another fleeing, civilians are swept into mass movement, and social stability collapses. Mormon can organize soldiers, but command authority cannot create faith in people who refuse God.

Come, Follow Me connection: Leadership skill can limit harm, but no leader can substitute external coordination for another person’s inner conversion.

Mormon 2:10–15 — Pain Is Not Yet Repentance

“Their sorrowing was not unto repentance, because of the goodness of God.”

Mourning initially makes Mormon’s heart rejoice because he knows God is merciful and longsuffering. Then he sees the direction of the sorrow. The people do not come to Jesus. They curse God, wish to die, and continue fighting without yielding their hearts.

“Because the Lord would not always suffer them to take happiness in sin” does not mean God resents joy. It means sin cannot permanently deliver what it promises. Reality eventually exposes the counterfeit. At that moment sorrow can become a doorway to Christ or a grievance against Him.

The phrase “day of grace was passed” describes this people’s entrenched historical condition, not a reason for a living reader to despair. The manual’s invitation to examine and redirect sorrow assumes that readers still can come to Christ.1

Come, Follow Me connection: Ask not only “Do I regret the outcome?” but “Am I willing to come to Jesus, tell the truth, forsake the sin, repair harm, and receive a changed heart?”

Mormon 2:16–19 — The Record Keeper Refuses to Exploit Horror

“Upon these plates I did forbear to make a full account of their wickedness and abominations.”

Mormon retrieves the plates and records a full account elsewhere, but he limits what enters this abridgment. He is not hiding the moral truth; he gives enough to warn. He is also not feeding curiosity with every atrocity.

His heart has been filled with sorrow “because of their wickedness” throughout his days, yet he can say, “I know that I shall be lifted up at the last day.” Don’t Miss This highlights the coexistence: sorrow and hope can both be true.6 Christian hope does not require pretending the present is painless.

Come, Follow Me connection: Tell hard truth without turning suffering into spectacle. Preserve hope without editing away grief.

Mormon 2:20–29 — Courage Without Divine Strength Cannot Save a Nation

“We were left to ourselves, that the Spirit of the Lord did not abide in us; therefore we had become weak like unto our brethren.”

Mormon calls the people to stand boldly for family and home, echoing the record of Captain Moroni. They rally and achieve surprising victories. But the text denies the conclusion they later draw: courage and tactical success are not evidence that God endorses their spiritual condition.

“Weak like unto our brethren” removes ethnic superiority. Without God, Nephites possess no inherent covenant advantage over Lamanites. Covenant privilege is relationship and responsibility, not magical immunity.

A treaty divides lands and creates another pause. The interval can become space to repent—or simply time to prepare for the next cycle.

Come, Follow Me connection: Receive success gratefully without turning it into proof that every motive, method, or belief is righteous.

Mormon 3

Mormon 3:1–3 — Fortify the Land and Rebuild the Church

“Repent ye, and come unto me, and be ye baptized, and build up again my church, and ye shall be spared.”

Mormon uses ten years to prepare lands and arms. The Lord adds the decisive preparation: repentance, coming to Christ, baptism, and renewed covenant community. Material readiness and spiritual readiness are not enemies, but only one can reconcile the people to God.

They harden their hearts. When war resumes and the Nephites prevail, they fail to realize that the Lord spared them. Unrecognized mercy becomes the seed of boasting.

Come, Follow Me connection: During a quiet interval, prepare both the walls and the worship—but never imagine the walls can replace Christ.

Mormon 3:4–10 — Three Victories Become a Vow of Vengeance

“They began to boast in their own strength.”

The Lamanite king announces battle in advance, the Nephites gather, and Mormon’s armies repel repeated attacks. The victories are real. Their interpretation is false. Instead of gratitude and repentance, the people swear by heaven and God’s throne that they will avenge the blood of their dead.

The oath uses sacred things to authorize a project of anger. Their own words reveal the inversion: God’s name becomes a tool for enthroning the self.

Come, Follow Me connection: After success, narrate it before God. Gratitude tells the truth about help; boasting turns help into entitlement.

Mormon 3:11–16 — Refusing Command Without Withdrawing Love

“I did utterly refuse from this time forth to be a commander and a leader of this people.”

Mormon obeys the Lord’s prohibition against offensive vengeance. The refusal is costly because he has led, defended, loved, and prayed for these people. Verse 12 prevents a self-righteous reading: he is not delighted to be proven correct. His whole soul has been poured out for them.

The Lord tells Mormon that vengeance belongs to Him. Divine judgment is not permission for disciples to cultivate personal cruelty; it releases them from the role of final judge and avenger.

As “an idle witness,” Mormon watches and records according to the Spirit. He stops one kind of action in order to fulfill another kind of commission.

Come, Follow Me connection: A Christlike boundary may sound like “I will not help do this,” while Christlike charity still says, “I will love, pray, tell the truth, and fulfill every righteous duty that remains.”

Mormon 3:17–22 — The Plates Break the Fourth Wall

“I write unto all the ends of the earth.”

Gentile, Israel, the twelve tribes, the remnant, and “every soul who belongs to the whole human family of Adam” enter Mormon’s audience. The local prophet becomes a global witness through preserved scripture.

Judgment is central, but the Judge is also the Christ whose gospel Mormon wants readers to believe. The warning is therefore persuasive rather than merely threatening: repent now, because Christ is real, His gospel is mercy, and choices matter eternally.

Jensen’s comparison with Mormon 5 and the title page shows how closely judgment, covenant restoration, and witness of Christ are joined.4

Come, Follow Me connection: Read Mormon’s “you” personally. His surviving audience is not an abstraction; it includes the person now deciding what to do with his words.

Mormon 4

Mormon 4:1–5 — Offensive Vengeance Opens the Way to Defeat

“It was because the armies of the Nephites went up unto the Lamanites that they began to be smitten.”

The Nephites attack without Mormon. After repulse and renewed combat, the Lamanites capture Desolation. Mormon’s editorial sentence interprets the turning point: vengeance-driven aggression removes the protection they had presumed upon.

“It is by the wicked that the wicked are punished” does not erase divine judgment. It explains one way judgment operates: destructive desires become social systems that turn upon their makers.

Come, Follow Me connection: Sin is not only punished later; it carries a pattern of punishment within itself. Vengeance trains the heart and community for more vengeance.

Mormon 4:6–12 — Reciprocal Bloodshed Hardens Every Heart

“Every heart was hardened, so that they delighted in the shedding of blood continually.”

Cities change hands. Neither side repents. Mormon refuses a simple national morality play: both Nephites and Lamanites participate in the horror, and he says such wickedness had not been known among Lehi’s children or Israel.

The decisive word is delighted. Grief and reluctance may accompany tragic defense; delight reveals that violence has become desired, identity-forming, and self-justifying. followHIM contrasts this with Captain Moroni’s soldiers, who defended families reluctantly and “did not delight in the shedding of blood” (Alma 48:21–23).8

Come, Follow Me connection: Audit not only direct acts of harm but the habits of imagination that make humiliation, cruelty, or retaliation satisfying.

Mormon 4:13–23 — Atrocity Produces More Atrocity; Records Are Moved

“The Nephites being angry … did go against the Lamanites with exceedingly great anger.”

The sacrifice of women and children is evil. The Nephite response of exceedingly great anger produces a temporary victory, then further slaughter and the sacrifice of more women and children. Anger promises protection but multiplies the thing it claims to avenge.

As Desolation and Teancum fall, Mormon retrieves the records hidden at Shim. The contrast is stark: armies preserve territory briefly; Mormon preserves covenant memory for generations. He cannot save the society by force, but he can keep its warning and witness from disappearing.

Come, Follow Me connection: In a cycle of injury, ask which action actually protects the vulnerable and which merely makes pain contagious.

Mormon 5

Mormon 5:1–7 — One More Attempt, Without False Optimism

“I did repent of the oath which I had made that I would no more assist them.”

Mormon changes course and accepts command again. His earlier refusal was principled; his return is compassionate. The text does not say he now endorses vengeance. It says he assists people who think he can deliver them, although he knows they will not call upon their Creator.

Halverson notices the irony that Mormon repents of his oath while the people refuse repentance.7 The application should be careful: this is not permission to violate moral boundaries. It shows that faithful ministry can require reevaluating one’s own prior decision in order to serve without surrendering truth.

Cities fall, populations scatter, and those not gathered are destroyed. Mormon writes enough to show the collapse while continuing to turn the reader toward the only Deliverer the people ignore.

Come, Follow Me connection: Hope in Christ is not the same as optimism about an immediate outcome. Serve honestly without pretending you control the result.

Mormon 5:8–15 — The Record Goes Where the Prophet Cannot

“These things are written unto the remnant of the house of Jacob.”

Mormon withholds the full scene of carnage lest future readers be overwhelmed, yet he writes enough that caring readers will sorrow. That sorrow has a purpose: descendants and Gentiles should know where their blessings come from and help fulfill God’s covenant work.

The record will persuade that Jesus is the Christ, restore covenant knowledge, and help Lehi’s descendants more fully believe the gospel. This is not triumph over a fallen people. It is service to their children.

The phrase “clasped in the arms of Jesus” makes repentance relational. Christ does not merely cancel a penalty at a distance; He gathers the estranged.

Come, Follow Me connection: Let sorrow for another people produce covenant care, humility, and service—not superiority.

Mormon 5:16–24 — No Shepherd, Sail, Anchor, or Helm

“They were once a delightsome people, and they had Christ for their shepherd.”

The Spirit ceases to strive because the people persistently refuse Him. Without Christ they become chaff and an unsteered vessel. Halverson turns the three missing nautical functions into a memorable diagnostic: nothing to move the ship toward a worthy goal, nothing to hold it when currents pull, and nothing to steer a chosen course.7

The chapter nevertheless says they are “in the hands of God.” That image can comfort or sober. God’s hands are powerful enough to judge and merciful enough to preserve the covenant, the record, and a future invitation.

Come, Follow Me connection: Name your sail, anchor, and helm: What gives holy purpose? Which covenants hold? How do revelation and repentance correct course?

Mormon 6

Mormon 6:1–6 — The Last Gathering and the Protected Record

“I made this record out of the plates of Nephi, and hid up in the hill Cumorah all the records.”

Mormon asks the Lamanite king to permit a final gathering at Cumorah. The people take courage from the terrain, but courage without repentance cannot restore the lost covenant strength.

Before battle, Mormon secures the archive. He entrusts the smaller abridgment to Moroni because he knows the destruction is near. The physical preservation of the record embodies faith in an audience he will never meet.

Holzapfel emphasizes that Mormon and Moroni’s work is intergenerational: the father preserves and entrusts; the son finishes, adds, and later carries the witness forward.2

Come, Follow Me connection: Before a crisis consumes attention, secure the testimony, covenant memory, and truthful record the next generation will need.

Mormon 6:7–15 — “That Awful Fear of Death” and the Fallen Ten Thousands

“Every soul was filled with terror because of the greatness of their numbers.”

The people face the Lamanite host with fear of death, not reconciled trust in Christ. The repeated accounting of commanders and their “ten thousand” units slows the narrative into a roll of loss. Named leaders represent families, communities, and a whole national order now gone.

Mormon is wounded; Moroni survives; twenty-four remain on the field before later pursuit. The text does not invite fascination with body counts. It places the reader where Mormon can see the people whose names, history, sins, courage, and possibilities he has carried.

Come, Follow Me connection: Let large-scale tragedy become personal enough to awaken compassion, but not so sensationalized that people become statistics.

Mormon 6:16–22 — The Lament and the Open Arms

“O ye fair ones, how could ye have rejected that Jesus, who stood with open arms to receive you!”

Mormon does not celebrate vindication. His soul is rent. He names sons and daughters, fathers and mothers, husbands and wives. “Fair” remembers what they were and what they might have become. Love sees lost possibility without falsifying responsibility.

Larry Nelson observes that Mormon’s lament does not blame the Lamanites. Mormon names his own people’s departure from Christ and their refusal to repent.8 This is not denial of what enemies did; it is refusal to let another’s wickedness erase one’s own agency.

“My sorrows cannot bring your return” is grief’s boundary. Mormon’s sorrow honors the dead, but cannot change their mortal choice. He commends them to the Father who knows their state and acts in justice and mercy.

The final image belongs to Jesus. The people fell, but not because Christ folded His arms. He stood open. For the living reader, that posture becomes invitation: do not wait until sorrow can no longer alter mortal direction.

Come, Follow Me connection: Picture Christ’s arms before rehearsing your unworthiness. Turn, confess, forsake, repair, covenant, and let yourself be received.

Teaching Illustrations and Object Lessons

1. The two arrows of sorrow

Draw two arrows from the word SORROW. Point one toward Jesus → truth → broken heart → repair → changed life. Point the other toward self-protection → blame → curse → escape → repeated sin. Read Mormon 2:12–15 and 2 Corinthians 7:9–11. Ask: The feeling may be equally painful, but where is it moving me?

2. Ammaron’s long-range trust

Give someone a sealed card marked OPEN IN FOURTEEN YEARS. Discuss the difference between assigning a task and cultivating the kind of person who can remember it. Invite learners to name one gift they see in a younger person and one way to give that gift a faithful future. This adapts Don’t Miss This’s emphasis on Ammaron as a mentor who recognizes possibility when a generation looks lost.6

3. The color-changing flower

Place a white flower in colored water. Over time the environment becomes visible in the petals. followHIM uses this demonstration to ask what repeated exposure to anger, vengeance, and violence is coloring in us.8 Then add Mormon to the discussion: he lived in the color all his life without letting it become his soul because he was also immersed in Christ and the sacred record.

4. Message in a bottle

Put a written testimony in a bottle or sealed container. Mormon cannot make the nearby audience listen, so he sends witness toward another shore. Ask learners to write one sentence they would preserve for a descendant or unknown reader facing spiritual collapse. What truth is worth carrying when immediate results are absent?

5. The boat with three missing controls

Draw a boat and remove three labels: sail, anchor, helm. Let the class supply spiritual equivalents. A sail gives holy purpose and power; an anchor is covenant stability; a helm is revelation-informed agency and repentance. Then read Mormon 5:17–18. Which function is weakest in my life right now?

6. Open arms versus crossed arms

Ask two volunteers to stand—one with arms crossed, one with arms open. Read Mormon 6:17. Which posture does the text assign to Jesus? Invite learners to identify false images of a reluctant Savior that make repentance harder. End by reading 3 Nephi 9:13–14.

7. Catch the stone

Use a soft foam ball to represent an injury. The expected move is to throw it back. Instead, catch and set it down. followHIM, drawing on Elder Dale G. Renlund and Bryan Stevenson, uses “stone catching” to describe refusing to return cruelty and then helping absorb conflict so it does not bruise another person.8 Discuss the difference between stopping retaliation and ignoring accountability.

Covenant Applications

  1. Observe and obey. Keep a short daily record of one thing noticed and one faithful response.
  2. Build a counter-environment. If the surrounding “marinade” is anger, contempt, or fear, immerse more deliberately in scripture, sacrament, prayer, good friendship, beauty, service, and honest work.8
  3. Convert consequence into godly sorrow. Bring the pain to Jesus before turning it into blame. Confess specifically, ask what repair requires, and receive help to change.
  4. Name mercy correctly. Record how God has spared, sustained, warned, or redirected you so that grace does not get rewritten as self-sufficiency.
  5. Set loving boundaries. Refuse participation in vengeance, humiliation, or dishonest group loyalty while continuing to pray, serve, and speak truth.
  6. Lay down verbal weapons. Remove one insult, accusation, contemptuous label, or rehearsed grievance from your arsenal this week.10
  7. Preserve the witness. Write for a reader beyond the room. Immediate rejection does not make faithful testimony useless.
  8. Secure the record before crisis. Preserve family conversion stories, covenants, failures, repairs, and encounters with Christ while they can still be told accurately.
  9. Choose an anchor. Identify the covenant practice that will hold when emotion, media, or crowd pulls hardest.
  10. Repent toward open arms. Do not wait to feel worthy of returning. Return because Christ is worthy of trust.

Questions for Personal Study or Discussion

  1. What might Ammaron have observed in Mormon before speaking to him?
  2. Where do I need to be both perceptive and promptly obedient?
  3. What has helped me “taste and know” Christ’s goodness rather than merely hear about it?
  4. What does “I did remain” look like when I cannot change the culture around me?
  5. Is my present sorrow moving me toward Christ or toward blame, concealment, and escape?
  6. Which mercy am I in danger of relabeling as my own strength?
  7. How can I distinguish courageous defense from delight in winning, humiliating, or avenging?
  8. What loving boundary might Mormon 3:11–12 authorize—and what continuing charity must accompany it?
  9. Who is my larger audience when immediate spiritual labor seems fruitless?
  10. What violence or vengeance have I invited into imagination, entertainment, speech, or politics?
  11. Which “yes, but they” story keeps anger alive? What responsibility belongs in a “yes, but I” response?
  12. What currently functions as sail, anchor, and helm in my discipleship?
  13. What record should I secure for the next generation?
  14. Why does Mormon call the fallen “fair ones”? What does charity still see?
  15. When I picture Jesus responding to my sin, are His arms crossed or open? Which image does scripture authorize?
  16. What would I do today if I truly believed the day of grace remains open?

Assigned chapters

  • Mormon 1 — Ammaron’s commission, gifts withdrawn, and Mormon’s encounter with Christ
  • Mormon 2 — command, false sorrow, record keeping, and strength withdrawn
  • Mormon 3 — renewed call to repent, unrecognized mercy, vengeance, loving refusal, and the worldwide audience
  • Mormon 4 — offensive war, reciprocal atrocities, hardened hearts, and the removal of the records
  • Mormon 5 — Mormon’s return, covenant purpose, Christ the Shepherd, and the anchorless vessel
  • Mormon 6 — Cumorah, preservation of the abridgment, national destruction, and Mormon’s lament

Key Restoration and biblical parallels

← Previous: 3 Nephi 27–4 Nephi — There Could Not Be a Happier People | Next: Mormon 7–9 — I Speak unto You as If Ye Were Present →

Annotated Source Guide

  • Official Come, Follow Me manual, lesson 44. Governing official source for the lesson title and central emphases: faithful difference, godly sorrow, recognizing God’s hand, Mormon’s love, and Christ’s open arms.1
  • BYU Studies Come, Follow Me index, lesson 44. Lesson-level map to scholarship on Mormon’s writings, life, purpose statements, final witness, record work, and the destruction narrative. The retained note distinguishes direct resources from more speculative proposals.3
  • Richard Neitzel Holzapfel, “Mormon, the Man and the Message” (1995). Strongest broad scholarly treatment used here. It contributes Mormon’s overlapping roles, editorial method, two audiences, witness of Christ, and father-son preservation work.2
  • Jay E. Jensen, “The Precise Purposes of the Book of Mormon” (2003). Closely compares Mormon 3:17–22, Mormon 5:12–15, Mormon 7, and Moroni’s title page. It clarifies how covenant restoration, Christ-centered witness, and judgment structure the record.4
  • followHIM, episode 44 with Dr. Larry J. Nelson (2024). Proofread local PDF and searchable extraction. Distinctive contributions are the connection between spiritual and military strategy, literal concern about violence, reluctance versus delight in bloodshed, “yes-but-they” versus responsibility, the color-changing-flower and stone-catching illustrations, and family formation in a hostile environment. These are devotional and educational applications.8
  • Unshaken, “Descent into Self-Destruction.” Local transcript. Distinctive contributions include sorrow as directional, love continuing when confidence in an immediate response is gone, the audience pivot as a message in a bottle, and the sail-anchor-helm metaphor.7
  • Don’t Miss This, “Mormon 1–6.” Local 2020 video transcript retained in the Book of Mormon collection. Its strongest contributions are mentoring by naming a child’s gifts, sorrow and hope coexisting, and Mormon drawing strength from prior lonely witnesses. Its applications are devotional.6
  • Gospel Talktrine, S03E42. Local transcript. Its distinctive contribution is the devotional contrast between receiving Christ as Redeemer and using sacred language to justify personal vengeance. The presenter explicitly labels several claims as his interpretation, so the guide does not treat them as official doctrine or settled philology.9
  • David A. Bednar, “Quick to Observe.” Official apostolic teaching used for the twofold meaning of observing—seeing and obeying.5
  • Russell M. Nelson, “Peacemakers Needed.” Official prophetic teaching applying Christlike discipleship to contempt, bitterness, angry speech, and relational weapons.10

Footnotes

Footnotes

  1. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, “October 28–November 3: ‘I Would That I Could Persuade All … to Repent.’ Mormon 1–6,” Come, Follow Me—For Home and Church: Book of Mormon 2024 (2023), official Church curriculum, canonical manual page. The opening title and manual emphases are quoted or paraphrased from this page. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  2. Richard Neitzel Holzapfel, “Mormon, the Man and the Message,” in The Book of Mormon: Fourth Nephi Through Moroni, From Zion to Destruction, ed. Monte S. Nyman and Charles D. Tate Jr. (Provo, Utah: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1995), 117–131, Latter-day Saint historical and literary scholarship, canonical article; retained as local source note. Holzapfel’s identification of Mormon as functioning in an apostolic office is scholarly interpretation; Mormon’s self-identification as Christ’s called disciple is scriptural. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  3. BYU Studies, “I Would That I Could Persuade All … to Repent,” Come, Follow Me Book of Mormon lesson 44, curated scholarly index, live index; retained as local source note. The index is a research map, not an official Church interpretation. ↩ ↩2

  4. Jay E. Jensen, “The Precise Purposes of the Book of Mormon,” Religious Educator 4, no. 1 (2003), Latter-day Saint scripture scholarship, canonical article; retained as local source note. Jensen directly compares Mormon 3:17–22 and 5:12–15 with Moroni’s title page. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  5. David A. Bednar, “Quick to Observe,” Ensign, December 2006, 30–36, official apostolic teaching, Church page. The official lesson manual also recommends this address. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  6. Emily Belle Freeman and David Butler, “Come Follow Me Mormon 1–6,” Don’t Miss This, devotional 2020 video transcript, local transcript, especially lines 179–383 and 424–601. This older Book of Mormon cycle does not use the 2024 calendar dates but directly treats the assigned chapters. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  7. Jared Halverson, “Come Follow Me — Mormon 1–6 — Descent into Self-Destruction,” Unshaken, devotional Book of Mormon video transcript, local transcript, especially lines 49–202, 258–317, 380–505, and 570–789. The message-in-a-bottle, directional sorrow, continuing charity, and sail-anchor-helm readings are Halverson’s teaching metaphors. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  8. Larry J. Nelson with Hank Smith and John Bytheway, “I Would That I Could Persuade All … to Repent,” followHIM Book of Mormon episode 44 (2024), proofread show notes and transcript, searchable local extraction, with retained source PDF. See PDF pages 18–25 for protection, spiritual and military strategy, vengeance, and violence; part 2 pages 10–18 for anger, “yes-but-they,” stone-catching, Mormon’s lament, scriptural formation, and parenting. Nelson’s human-development applications and media discussion are educational/devotional interpretation, not official definitions of Mormon’s text. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9

  9. Mark Holt, “Mormon 1–6,” Gospel Talktrine, S03E42, devotional podcast transcript, local transcript, especially lines 74–286. Holt repeatedly marks key proposals as personal interpretation; the guide therefore uses the ethical contrast while avoiding claims of official status. ↩ ↩2

  10. Russell M. Nelson, “Peacemakers Needed,” April 2023 general conference, official prophetic teaching, Church page. The guide uses his counsel on compassionate treatment, bitterness, verbal weapons, and Christlike peacemaking. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

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