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Come Follow Me 2020: Moroni 10

That Ye May Know, by Gary L. Kapp. Image via Church of Jesus Christ.
That Ye May Know, by Gary L. Kapp. Image via Church of Jesus Christ.

Scripture Block

Moroni 10

December 14–20. “Come unto Christ, and Be Perfected in Him”

Recommended Resources

Learn about the Book of Mormon with verse by verse commentaries from renowned Book of Mormon scholars like John W. Welch and Brant A. Gardner in the ScripturePlus app. Read this week's KnoWhy connected with the Come Follow Me curriculum, and watch a video elucidating an insight in this week's scripture reading.

KnoWhys

Reading Plan

Structure your personal scripture study by following a multimedia, day by day plan. Each day's assignment includes the required scripture passages from the Come Follow Me curriculum, as well as suggestions for additional resources to bring context and understanding to your study.

Monday

  • Scripture: Moroni 10:1-5
  • KnoWhy 254: How Will God Manifest the Truth of the Book of Mormon?
  • Quote: “The pattern for seeking answers from God is simple to explain yet much more personal when applied. To begin, we are invited to study in our minds and ponder in our hearts those things that we most desire of Him. This process of reflection brings clarity and inspiration to our souls. We are then instructed to present our thoughts and desires directly to Heavenly Father in humble prayer with the promise that, if we ask Him in the name of Christ, if what we are seeking is right, and if we ‘ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto [us], by the power of the Holy Ghost,’ for it is ‘by the power of the Holy Ghost’ that we ‘know the truth of all things.’”
    Christensen, Craig C. “Seek, and Ye Shall Find,” General Conference April 2003.
  • Quote: “Moroni used this term as he closed his record. ‘Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, … ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, … and ponder it in your hearts.’ By pondering, we give the Spirit an opportunity to impress and direct. Pondering is a powerful link between the heart and the mind. As we read the scriptures, our hearts and minds are touched. If we use the gift to ponder, we can take these eternal truths and realize how we can incorporate them into our daily actions. Today, millions…are reading the Book of Mormon, some for the first time, others as a regular habit. We must remind all that the fruits of this great book are the most beneficial when we ponder as we read.”
    Ashton, Marvin J. “’There Are Many Gifts,’” General Conference October 1987.
  • Quote: “The essential doctrine of agency requires that a testimony of the restored gospel be based on faith rather than just external or scientific proof. Obsessive focus on things not yet fully revealed, such as how the virgin birth or the Resurrection of the Savior could have occurred or exactly how Joseph Smith translated our scriptures, will not be efficacious or yield spiritual progress. These are matters of faith. Ultimately, Moroni’s counsel to read and ponder and then ask God in all sincerity of heart, with real intent, to confirm scriptural truths by the witness of the Spirit is the answer. In addition, when we inculcate into our lives scriptural imperatives and live the gospel, we are blessed with the Spirit and taste of His goodness with feelings of joy, happiness, and especially peace.”
    Cook, Quentin L. “In Tune with the Music of Faith,” General Conference April 2012.

Tuesday

Wednesday

  • Scripture: Moroni 10:8-19
  • KnoWhy 299: How Did the Book of Mormon Help the Early Saints Understand Spiritual Gifts?
  • Quote: “To find the gifts we have been given, we must pray and fast. Often patriarchal blessings tell us the gifts we have received and declare the promise of gifts we can receive if we seek after them. I urge you each to discover your gifts and to seek after those that will bring direction to your life’s work and that will further the work of heaven.
    “During our time here on earth, we have been charged to develop the natural gifts and capabilities Heavenly Father has blessed us with. Then it will be our opportunity to use these gifts to become teachers and leaders of God’s children wherever they may be found on earth. To exercise these gifts, we must develop a purity of heart.”
    Hales, Robert D. “Gifts of the Spirit.” Ensign, February 2002.
  • Quote: “[D]iscover and develop spiritual gifts. Heavenly Father gave us these gifts to help us identify, perform, and enjoy the work He has for us. Some of us wonder, 'Do I have any gifts?' Again, the answer is yes! 'To every man [and woman] is given a gift by the Spirit of God … that all may be profited thereby'. A number of spiritual gifts are documented in scripture but there are many others. Some might include having compassion, expressing hope, relating well with people, organizing effectively, speaking or writing persuasively, teaching clearly, and working hard.
    “So how do we come to know our gifts? We can reference our patriarchal blessing, ask those who know us best, and personally identify what we are naturally good at and enjoy. Most important, we can ask God. He knows our gifts, since He gave them to us.
    “As we discover our gifts, we have a responsibility to develop them. Even Jesus Christ 'received not of the fulness at first, but [developed] from grace to grace.’”
    Pingree, Jr. John C. “’I Have a Work for Thee,’” General Conference October 2017.
  • Quote: “I make my own heartfelt declaration of God our Eternal Father this morning because some in the contemporary world suffer from a distressing misconception of Him. Among these there is a tendency to feel distant from the Father, even estranged from Him, if they believe in Him at all. And if they do believe, many moderns say they might feel comfortable in the arms of Jesus, but they are uneasy contemplating the stern encounter of God. Through a misreading (and surely, in some cases, a mistranslation) of the Bible, these see God the Father and Jesus Christ His Son as operating very differently, this in spite of the fact that in both the Old Testament and the New, the Son of God is one and the same, acting as He always does under the direction of the Father, who is Himself the same ‘yesterday, today, and forever.’
    In reflecting on these misconceptions we realize that one of the remarkable contributions of the Book of Mormon is its seamless, perfectly consistent view of divinity throughout that majestic book. Here there is no Malachi-to-Matthew gap, no pause while we shift theological gears, no misreading the God who is urgently, lovingly, faithfully at work on every page of that record from its Old Testament beginning to its New Testament end. Yes, in an effort to give the world back its Bible and a correct view of Deity with it, what we have in the Book of Mormon is a uniform view of God in all His glory and goodness, all His richness and complexity—including and especially as again demonstrated through a personal appearance of His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ.”
    Holland, Jeffrey R. “The Grandeur of God,” General Conference October 2003.

Thursday

  • Scripture: Moroni 10:20-29
  • Quote: “Faith is rooted in Jesus Christ. Hope centers in his Atonement. Charity is manifest in the 'pure love of Christ.' These three attributes are intertwined like strands in a cable and may not always be precisely distinguished. Together they become our tether to the celestial kingdom.”
    Nelson, Russell M. “‘A More Excellent Hope.’” Ensign, February 1997.
  • Quote: “Admittedly, we have ample reason to be deeply concerned because we see no immediate answers to the seemingly unsolvable problems confronting the human family. But regardless of this dark picture, which will ultimately get worse, we must never allow ourselves to give up hope! Moroni, having seen our day, counseled, ‘Wherefore, there must be faith; and if there must be faith there must also be hope.”
    Ballard, M. Russell. “The Joy of Hope Fulfilled,” General Conference October 1992.
  • KnoWhy 480: Why Is the Book of Mormon’s Historical Authenticity So Important?
  • Quote: “Any group which has access to [the Book of Mormon] is enormously accountable…. The Book of Mormon testifies that God will judge the nations that possess [it]… (2 Nephi 25:22). In fact, Nephi, Jacob, Mormon, and Moroni, the four most prominent writers of the book, all testify in sobering farewell statements that we will stand with them at the judgment bar of God to answer for what we have done with the teachings of the Book of Mormon (see 2 Nephi 33:10-15; Jacob 6:5-13; Mormon 7:5-10; Moroni 10:24-34). These prophets want us to know that part of our judgment will be based on how well we have used their teachings in our lives.”
    Hansen, Gerald. “Preparing for the Judgment.” In The Book of Mormon: Fourth Nephi through Moroni, from Zion to Destruction. Edited by Monte S. Nyman and Charles D. Tate, 98. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1995.

Friday

  • Scripture: Moroni 10:30-34
  • Quote: “You can take courage as I do from the example of endurance given us by Moroni. He was alone in his ministry. He knew the end of life was near for him. And yet listen to what he wrote for the sake of people not yet born and the descendants of his mortal enemies: ‘Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ.’
    Moroni gave that witness as the valedictory to his life and ministry. He urged charity, as do the prophets throughout the Book of Mormon. He added his witness of the Savior when death loomed before him. He was a truly converted child of God, as we can be: filled with charity, constant and fearless as a witness of the Savior and His gospel, and determined to endure to the end.”
    Eyring, Henry B. “A Witness,” General Conference October 2011.
  • Quote: “The Church is not just for perfect people, but it is for all to ‘come unto Christ, and be perfected in him.’ The Church is for people like you and me. The Church is a place of welcoming and nurturing, not of separating or criticizing. It is a place where we reach out to encourage, uplift, and sustain one another as we pursue our individual search for divine truth.
    In the end, we are all pilgrims seeking God’s light as we journey on the path of discipleship. We do not condemn others for the amount of light they may or may not have; rather, we nourish and encourage all light until it grows clear, bright, and true.”
    Uchtdorf, Dieter F. “Receiving a Testimony of Light and Truth,” General Conference October 2014.
  • Quote: “Love. Healing. Help. Hope. The power of Christ to counter all troubles in all times—including the end of times. That is the safe harbor God wants for us in personal or public days of despair. That is the message with which the Book of Mormon begins, and that is the message with which it ends, calling all to ‘come unto Christ, and be perfected in him.’ That phrase—taken from Moroni’s final lines of testimony, written 1,000 years after Lehi’s vision—is a dying man’s testimony of the only true way.”
    Holland, Jeffrey R. “Safety for the Soul,” General Conference October 2009.
  • KnoWhy 517: What Does It Mean to Love God with “All Thy Mind”?
  • Quote: “That Day of Judgment will be a day of mercy and love—a day when broken hearts are healed, when tears of grief are replaced with tears of gratitude, when all will be made right.
    Yes, there will be deep sorrow because of sin. Yes, there will be regrets and even anguish because of our mistakes, our foolishness, and our stubbornness that caused us to miss opportunities for a much greater future.
    But I have confidence that we will not only be satisfied with the judgment of God; we will also be astonished and overwhelmed by His infinite grace, mercy, generosity, and love for us, His children. If our desires and works are good, if we have faith in a living God, then we can look forward to what Moroni called ‘the pleasing bar of the great Jehovah, the Eternal Judge.’”
    Uchtdorf, Dieter F. “O How Great the Plan of Our God,” General Conference October 2016.
  • Quote: "The state of peace that comes with redemption; spiritual enjoyment resulting from the power or presence of the Lord... At death righteous spirits enter this state of rest from all trouble, care, and ­sorrow. When the righteous die in battle or at the hands of the wicked, they enter into the rest of the Lord. Moroni bade farewell saying he was going to rest in the paradise of God until the resurrection and the Judgment.”
    Thomas, M. Catherine. “Rest of the Lord.” In Book of Mormon Reference Companion, edited by Dennis L. Largey. Salt Lake City, UT: Deseret Book, 2003, 679.

Saturday

Sunday

Additional Resources (Bibliography)

Moroni 10

Belnap, Daniel. “’We are Not Cut Off’: Separation and Reconciliation through Sacred Covenants.” In Living the Book of Mormon: Abiding by Its Precepts, edited by Gaye Strathearn and Charles Swift, 113–124. Provo, UT/Salt Lake City: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University/Deseret Book, 2007.

Callister, Tad R. “Teaching the Atonement.” Religious Educator 3, no. 1 (2002): 51–64.

Faulconer, James E. “Sealings and Mercies: Moroni’s Final Exhortations in Moroni 10.” Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture 22, no. 1 (2013): 4–19.

Faulconer, James E. Sealings and Mercies: Moroni's Final Exhortation in Moroni 10. Provo, UT: Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, 2013.

Hatch, Gary Layne. “Mormon and Moroni: Father and Son.” In The Book of Mormon: Fourth Nephi Through Moroni, From Zion to Destruction, edited by Monte S. Nyman and Charles D. Tate, Jr., 105–115. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1995.

Ludlow, Jared W. “The Powers of the Atonement: Insights from the Book of Mormon.” Religious Educator 9, no. 2 (2008): 21–29.

Peterson, H. Donl. “Moroni, the Last of the Nephite Prophets.” In The Book of Mormon: Fourth Nephi Through Moroni, From Zion to Destruction, edited by Monte S. Nyman and Charles D. Tate, Jr., 235–249. Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1995.

Thomas, Mark D. “Moroni: The Final Voice.” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 12, no. 1 (2003): 88–99, 119-120.

Welch, John W., and Greg Welch. “Who Kept the Records in the Book of Mormon? (By Lineages).” In Charting the Book of Mormon: Visual Aids for Personal Study and Teaching. Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1999, chart 17.

Welch, John W., and Greg Welch. “Writings of Moroni.” In Charting the Book of Mormon: Visual Aids for Personal Study and Teaching. Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1999, chart 21.

Moroni 10:3–5

Andersen, M. Steven. “My Great-Grandmother and the Book of Mormon.” Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel 7, no. 2 (2006): 87–90.

Book of Mormon Central. “How Will God Manifest the Truth of the Book of Mormon? (Moroni 10:4).” KnoWhy 254 (December 16, 2016).

Book of Mormon Central. “How Important Was It to Moroni that We Pray about the Book of Mormon? (Moroni 10:4–5).” KnoWhy 359 (August 30, 2017).

Cook, Gene R. “Moroni’s Promise.” Ensign (April 1994).

Ludlow, Daniel H. “I Have a Question: A friend of mine says he has prayed about the Book of Mormon but has not received a testimony of its truthfulness. Shouldn’t Moroni’s promise always work?” Ensign (March 1986).

Spackman, Ben. “Negative Questions in the Book of Mormon.” Insights: A Window on the Ancient World 26, no. 4 (2006): 2–3.

Welch, John W., and Greg Welch. “Moroni's Promise.” In Charting the Book of Mormon: Visual Aids for Personal Study and Teaching. Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1999, chart 176.

Welch, John W., and Greg Welch. “Elder B. H. Roberts on the Holy Spirit and Scholarly Evidence.” In Charting the Book of Mormon: Visual Aids for Personal Study and Teaching. Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1999, chart 7.

Welch, John W., and Greg Welch. “Austin Farrer on Rational Argument and Belief.” In Charting the Book of Mormon: Visual Aids for Personal Study and Teaching. Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1999, chart 8.

Wilkinson, Greg. “Reading and Receiving: An Interpretation of Moroni’s Promise(s).” Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel 17, no. 1 (2016): 82–91.

Moroni 10:1

Jordan, Benjamin R., and Warren P. Aston. “The Geology of Moroni’s Stone Box: Examining the Setting and Resources of Palmyra.” Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture 30 (2018): 233–252.

Moroni 10:6

Book of Mormon Central. “What Does It Really Mean to Be a Good Person? (Moroni 10:6).” KnoWhy 499 (January 24, 2019).

Moroni 10:8

Book of Mormon Central. “How Did the Book of Mormon Help the Early Saints Understand Spiritual Gifts? (Moroni 10:8).” KnoWhy 299 (April 12, 2017).

Moroni 10:27

Book of Mormon Central. “Why Is the Book of Mormon’s Historical Authenticity So Important? (Moroni 10:27).” KnoWhy 480 (October 30, 2018).

Moroni 10:31

Bowen, Matthew L. “’They Shall No More Be Confounded’: Moroni’s Wordplay on Joseph in Ether 13:1-13 and Moroni 10:31.” Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture 30 (2018): 91–104.

Moroni 10:32

Book of Mormon Central. “What Does It Mean to Love God with “All Thy Mind”? (Moroni 10:32).” KnoWhy 517 (May 23, 2019).

Black, Sharon, Brad Wilcox, and Kyle C. Lyons. “Book of Mormon Citations in General Conference.” Religious Educator 17, no. 3 (2017): 144–169.

Welch, John W., and Greg Welch. “Moroni's Invitation.” In Charting the Book of Mormon: Visual Aids for Personal Study and Teaching. Provo, UT: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1999, chart 177.