The God of Jacob

The Israelites, including in the time of Jesus and also including the Nephite branch, often identify themselves as connected with the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  So who is the God of Jacob?

The blessing of Ephram and Manasseh identifies him interestingly.  Jacob's God is one:

• In whose presence a person can walk
• Who is a shepherd (the KJV phrase "which fed me" is better translated "who shepherds me"); compare with Psalm 23; and
• Who is a redeeming angel.

Whilst in This Tabernacle of Clay

Mormon exhorts Moroni to continued labor in shalem imagery.  Life in the body is a tabernacle of clay; faithful workers will rest in the kingdom of God.

Ye Shall Be Brought to See Your Nakedness

The wicked are unprepared to meet God because they are naked.

This must mean that the righteous are clothed.

Ye Would Be More Miserable

After judgment, the righteous shine in the kingdom of God.  The wicked can't, restrained by their consciousness of their own guilt.

It Shall Be Brought out of Darkness Unto Light

The image of a light shining into the darkness comes from the Worship of the Shalems; the temple veil parted, shining light into the darkness of the Hekal where the initiates stood as the high priest / Lord / Melchizedek came from the Holy of Holies to join them.

Isaiah shows us this image.

John uses the image of the light shining into the darkness to identify Jesus as the high priest, i.e., as Melchizedek and Yahweh who was to come.

Lehi exhorts his errant sons to come out of that darkness and into the light.

Moroni uses the light image to describe the coming forth of the BoM.

And Shall Not Condemn It

Those who receive the Book of Mormon will know greater things.  That's because the BoM is all about preserving and communicating the mysteries of the Visionary Men, and the doctrines they teach and embody.

My Father and I Have Seen Them

"Minister" is a temple word.

Did Mormon and Moroni receive their endowments from the three Nephites?

Behold, It Is the Hand of the Lord

Nephite civilization (as Moroni knows it) ends with the wicked punishing the wicked.  Moroni proclaims this to be the "hand" of the Lord.

"Robbers" survive along with "Lamanites."  These robbers might well have thought of themselves as Nephites, but initiates into the false mysteries of the Gadiantons, rather than the true mysteries of the Visionary Men.

Therefore Repent

Mormon's final admonition echoes Nephi's, and the doctrine of Christ.  Repent, be baptized with fire and water, "lay hold upon the gospel of Christ" and follow "the example of our Savior."  Doing what we've seen the Lord do is equivalent to standing in the strait and narrow path and speaking with the tongues of angels in 2 Nephi 31-32.  3 Nephi 27 shows us that the "gospel" is the same thing as the "rock."

So Mormon, at the end, tells us to repent, be baptized, receive the Holy Ghost, and approach the Lord in his temple.

He Hath Brought to Pass the Redemption of the World

Mormon resolves the questions Alma has about the difference between individual and universal judgment by making the judgment day not only the day when the Lord will come out, but also the day that the entire world will become Shalems, dwelling in the kingdom and singing in the heavenly choir.  The two ordinances have always been joined, and symmetrical mirror images; here they are the same thing.

He Bringeth to Pass the Resurrection of the Dead

The resurrection is described in terms of the Worship of the Shalems: going up (one ascended into the temple) to stand before the judgment seat (the throne in the Holy of Holies upon the rock, where the Lord would reject some and admit others).

But universal resurrection happened on the Day of Atonement, Judgment Day.  I think this ambiguity is the source of the speculation Alma refers to, when he says that whether there's one resurrection or more, he doesn't know... notice that he refers to these things as "mysteries."

Know Ye

In addressing future remnants of his people, Mormon alludes to the twin ordinances of the Visionary Men.  You can't wait for salvation -- the Day of Atonement -- you have to "come unto repentance."

O Ye Fair Ones

Mormon's elegiac poem to his people contrasts two possible meetings with Christ.  On the one hand, Christ "stood with open arms to receive them"; in other words, in the imagery of the Worship of the Shalems, he called them to meet him through the strait and narrow gate.  Instead of ascending like Shalems, though, the Nephites fell, out of grace and out of the temple.

It's still the case that their "mortal must put on immortality" (dressing imagery) and they must "stand before the judgment-seat of Christ," but now it won't be as disciples, coming unto the Lord in his house, but as sheep waiting to be assigned to one flock or the other.

We Did Pitch Our Tents Round About

Mormon's description of the Nephites camping around Cumorah is curiously reminiscent of the description of Benjamin's people camped to listen to him: a temple / hill, with "tents [a]round about."

Why would this be?  Is this Mormon writing about his own death in temple terms, like Enos did?  Is he setting up Cumorah as a temple-like place, because he's going to make it the repository of the records?

They Had Christ for their Shepherd

Having Christ as one's shepherd is an image that resonates in both of the great ordinances of the visionary men.

In the Worship of the Shalems, the high priest who emerges from the holy of holies with his staff to provide the feast of bread and wine is Melchizedek and Yahweh, the shepherd with his crook (which is the iron rod, and the one who bears it is the Word of God).

In the Day of Atonement, all the sheep are gathered into two flocks: the flock of the Lord, and the flock of Azazel.

It Was All in Vain

The Lamanites tread the Nephites under their feet.  This is not accidental imagery; being trodden under feet is the punishment prescribed for covenant violators in the Worship of the Shalems.

I Was Without Hope

Mormon has no "hope," because "judgment" is coming and his people haven't "repented."

This is a secular/military application of the doctrine of the spiritual gift of hope, which is confidence of success at the judgment; or, as Alma would have it, hope is the conviction that one day, having been judged worthy, you will rest.

It Is by the Wicked that the Wicked Are Punished

As Mormon watches the destruction of his people, he comments that the wicked punish the wicked.  This is an old idea of the visionary men, dating at least back to Isaiah.

Prepare to Stand Before the Judgment-Seat

On the Day of Atonement, Yahweh comes with universal judgment.

But the image of the individual repenting and preparing to stand before Christ on his judgment-seat is an image from the Worship of the Shalems.  After passing through the strait and narrow gate and seeing the tree with good fruits, the Shalem is in the holy of holies, the place of the throne (the rock).  Here, he is judged by Christ.

They Did Swear by the Heavens

After a major victory, the Nephites swear "by the heavens," "before the heavens," and "by the throne of God" that they will attack their enemies and win.  They are swearing by the parts of the temple: the heavens (that part to reveal mysteries) are the temple veil, and the throne of God is the ark on the foundation stone.  The Nephites are committing themselves to violence on the most sacred symbols of the visionary men.  This oath was specifically forbidden to the Shalems... and Mormon promptly resigns.