[With apologies to my wife for stealing an idea that she developed with different examples in her 2007 article for the Journal of Book of Mormon Studies]
Every copy of the Book of Mormon contains two books within its covers (which makes it a great buy!). The Nephite record is, most obviously, a primer for judgment. It teaches us how to prepare for the calamities of the last days, the Second Coming of the Lord, and eventually the day when we all will return to the presence of God to be judged. The message is there on nearly every page: believe in Christ, repent of your sins, be baptized, and live your life in accordance with God’s word. Whether we open the book to a story, a sermon, a prophecy, or a poem, it is impossible to miss its constant exhortation to come unto Christ. This is what makes the Book of Mormon such a great missionary tool.
Yet once we have been converted and baptized, what then? When we already know the basic doctrines of the gospel and have received a witness of their truth, of what use is the Book of Mormon? Isn’t its message so clear that you basically get it after one time through? When a person has already come to Christ, does she need to reread the invitation over and over? Wedding announcements may continue to have sentimental value, but once the ceremony has come and gone, they don’t have the same urgency.
At this point, you may recall a key passage from the end of 2 Nephi:
And now, my beloved brethren, after ye have gotten into this strait and narrow path, I would ask if all is done? Behold, I say unto you, Nay . . . Wherefore, ye must press forward with steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward feasting upon the word of Christ and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life. (2 Ne. 31:19-20)
How does re-reading the Book of Mormon help us in this endeavor?
Surely, we can feel the Spirit and receive promptings as we read. And we might be motivated by remembering the courage and sacrifices of saints in ancient times. But it is also possible to feel the Spirit and find motivation in other righteous activities—attending church, fulfilling callings, nurturing family, or giving service. There are some faithful Latter-day Saints who don’t read the Book of Mormon that often, much less study it. What are they missing?
This is where the second book becomes important. In addition to being a primer for judgment, the Book of Mormon is also a handbook for sanctification, a manual for making ordinary people into saints. As the angel told King Benjamin at Mosiah 3:19, salvation is a two-stage process: 1) “putting off the natural man,” or conversion, and 2) “becoming a saint,” that is, sanctification. The narrators of the Book of Mormon wrote on two levels. They wrote for investigators and for new members who need a knowledge of fundamental principles, but they also had things to say to those who were well along the strait and narrow path. The second book, however, is not on the surface; it has to be discovered by reading between the lines, finding patterns, and making connections. And its lessons are usually not found within a single verse or even a single chapter.
Competence vs. Blessedness
Let me give an example, taken from Understanding the Book of Mormon (though I think my wife may have come up with this idea as well, sometime at the dinner table). If we step back and take in the big picture of the books of Mosiah and Alma, an interesting pattern comes into view. There are three pairs of parallel stories. In each case, the two narratives are presented in quick succession, their contents are similar, and the second story is always more miraculous than the first.
First pair of stories:
1) In Mosiah 22 we read of the deliverance of Limhi’s people from their bondage to the Lamanites. You may remember that Gideon, a senior advisor, came up with a plan to get their Lamanite guards drunk, and then escape by “the back pass, through the back wall, on the back side of the city” while the guards were sleeping off their hangovers. The plan worked just fine.
2) Eventually the Lamanites went after Limhi’s people, and in so doing they stumbled upon Alma the Younger’s people and enslaved them.
So two chapters later (Mosiah 24), Alma’s people are also in need of deliverance. In this case, however, there is no clever plan; the Lord simply causes a deep sleep to come upon the guards and Alma leads his people into the wilderness and back to Zarahemla.
Whereas Gideon had been “the king’s captain” (Mosiah 20:17) with considerable experience in military tactics, Alma had been a junior priest, and his people just pray for God’s help, which comes in a miraculous fashion.
Second pair of stories:
1) Near the beginning of the book of Alma, Alma the Younger gives up his position as chief judge and goes on a preaching tour that encompasses chapters 4-16. Alma is a very capable speaker (this was true even before his conversion) and his sermons at Zarahemla and Ammonihah are some of the most powerful in the Book of Mormon. He enjoys reasonable success. We read of the responses of three cities, in a sort of Goldilocks pattern: one is good (Gideon), one is bad (Ammonihah), and one is in-between (Zarahemla). The fact that wicked Ammonihah comes last and takes up several chapters puts something of a damper on the whole section however.
2) Immediately thereafter, we read of the preaching tour of the sons of Mosiah among their enemies the Lamanites (Alma 17-27). They go into much more hostile territory and enjoy miraculous success as kings (and queens!) are converted. Thousands come to Christ, renounce warfare forever, and leave their homeland to join with the Nephites.
As Alma travelled from city to city, he retained his office of high priest and thus could speak with some degree of authority and prestige (even if the people of Ammonihah dismissed his jurisdiction over them). By contrast, the sons of Mosiah went from being princes in Zarahemla to the very precarious position of foreigners and servants among the Lamanites. Yet God comes to their aid again and again. These are some of the stories that everyone remembers.
Third pair of stories:
1) In the war chapters that conclude the book of Alma, we see quite a bit of Captain Moroni, a professional soldier who led the Nephites during the Amalickiahite Wars. Moroni had enjoyed some successes in Alma 49-50, but in the next chapter he loses a whole string of fortified cities in the east and then had to retake them one by one with a great deal of bloodshed. He is able to do so, but it is slow, difficult work. Although Moroni is capable and competent, he is severely hampered by political problems back in the capital.
2) At about the same time, Helaman was leading his stripling warriors on the western front. Helaman has no military background (he was a church leader), and his soldiers are very young and inexperienced, but they have extraordinary faith and they are blessed with astounding victories, in which not a single one of those young men was lost, with minimum enemy casualties as well (Alma 56-58).
Once again we see a contrast between faithful competence and miraculous, blessed achievement.
Two Types of Service
The first question someone might ask is, “Are these sets of parallel narratives just coincidental”?
I remember a sacrament meeting talk once where the speaker told a story of going fishing and, somewhat unusually for him, catching a fish within the first fifteen minutes. And then another. And then another. And he realized that there was something going on (it turned out that the stream had been restocked just the day before). How many instances of the same pattern does it take before we say, “It looks like something deliberate is happening here.” There is much more to notice about the ways that Mormon has arranged and told these stories (you can read about them on pages 166-179 of my book), but next question is, “What could Mormon have intended by all this?”
It might be tempting to say that Mormon is showing how putting one’s faith in the Lord is superior to relying on one’s own talents, but that doesn’t seem to be his message. Mormon obviously has great respect for the faithful professionals. Gideon is a thoroughly admirable character, as is Alma the Younger (Mormon’s delight in Alma’s rhetorical skills may be one reason why so many of Alma’s sermons are copied verbatim into his record). And he clearly loves Moroni—he names his son after him, and praises him profusely: “Yea, verily, verily I say unto you, if all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever” (Alma 48:17).
This is the only time in the entire Book of Mormon when anyone other than Christ uses the words “verily, verily I say unto you . . .”
Instead, Mormon’s message seems to be that diligent effort based on personal expertise can be just as acceptable to God as cases when humble people take on responsibilities far beyond their capacities and then pray for guidance and divine assistance. Both types of service are welcome and necessary.
There is a lesson here for a modern church that relies on a lay ministry in which members are sometimes asked to accept callings for which they have no prior experience or formal training. I have seen bishops and relief society presidents, elders quorum and primary presidents, who are able to draw on natural leadership abilities, or a solid Mormon upbringing, or administrative skills that have been honed in the workplace. It is a joy to watch them bring their considerable resources to their callings. We are very grateful in our stake for talented, committed members who are like Gideon, Alma the Younger, and Captain Moroni.
But there are also those who nearly burst into tears when they receive a calling, who have no idea where even to begin, who wonder why the Lord would ever want them in such a position. God honors these faithful servants as well, and sometimes he blesses them with success far beyond what anyone might have expected, much like Alma the Elder, the sons of Mosiah, and Helaman.
In fact, all of us have probably been in both situations. Everyone has some spiritual gift to rely upon, and all of us at times find ourselves facing challenges—whether in callings, family relationships, or crises of one sort or another—where our competencies fail us. There is comfort in knowing that while God expects our best, he also makes up for our deficiencies. “It is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do” (2 Ne. 25:23; cf. Moro. 10:32-33).
Mormon never says “over the next hundred pages I’m going to give you three sets of parallel narratives,” but it looks like he intended his more careful readers to see this repeated pattern. It is part of his second book, the handbook for sanctification. The distinction between competence and blessedness is not exactly a lesson for investigators; it will make more sense to those who are already on the strait and narrow path, who are trying to “press forward with steadfastness in Christ.” But the Book of Mormon was written for them too.
We have to work harder for these types of insights. They come after we already know the basic seminary stories and Sunday school principles, when we are able to re-read more comprehensively and perceptively. But this is one way the book nurtures those who want to “feast upon the word of Christ.” There is much still to be discovered in the Book of Mormon as we come to know the handiwork of Nephi, Mormon, and Moroni more intimately. So share the first Book of Mormon, the primer for judgment, with your friends. But keep reading the second book yourself, the manual for learning not just how come to Christ, but how to become like him.
