1And now I, Mormon, being about to deliver up the record which I have been making into the hands of my son Moroni, behold I have witnessed almost all the destruction of my people, the Nephites.
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God is not the author of confusion 1 Corinthians 14:33
All contradictions in The Mormon Scriptures
1And now I, Mormon, being about to deliver up the record which I have been making into the hands of my son Moroni, behold I have witnessed almost all the destruction of my people, the Nephites.
I, Mormon, am about to deliver the record I've been making to my son, Moroni. [1]
I've seen almost all the destruction of my people, the Nephites.
2 And it is many hundred years after the coming of Christ that I deliver these records into the hands of my son; and it supposeth me that he will witness the entire destruction of my people. But may God grant that he may survive them, that he may write somewhat concerning them, and somewhat concerning Christ, that perhaps some day it may profit them.
It's been many hundreds of hears after the coming of Christ [2], and I suppose my son will see the complete destruction of my people.
But I hope he'll survive to write something about Christ, so others may profit from it.
3 And now, I speak somewhat concerning that which I have written; for after I had made an abridgment from the plates of Nephi, down to the reign of this king Benjamin, of whom Amaleki spake, I searched among the records which had been delivered into my hands, and I found these plates, which contained this small account of the prophets, from Jacob down to the reign of this king Benjamin, and also many of the words of Nephi.
I found the plates of Nephi and have abridged them. [3]
It includes an account from Jacob to the reign of King Benjamin, and also some of the words of Nephi.
4 And the things which are upon these plates pleasing me, because of the prophecies of the coming of Christ; and my fathers knowing that many of them have been fulfilled; yea, and I also know that as many things as have been prophesied concerning us down to this day have been fulfilled, and as many as go beyond this day must surely come to pass --
5 Wherefore, I chose these things, to finish my record upon them, which remainder of my record I shall take from the plates of Nephi; and I cannot write the hundredth part of the things of my people.
6 But behold, I shall take these plates, which contain these prophesyings and revelations, and put them with the remainder of my record, for they are choice unto me; and I know they will be choice unto my brethren.
I'm pleased with these plates, though they include less than one percent of the story of my people.
7 And I do this for a wise purpose; for thus it whispereth me, according to the workings of the Spirit of the Lord which is in me. And now, I do not know all things; but the Lord knoweth all things which are to come; wherefore, he worketh in me to do according to his will.
It was whispered to me by the Spirit of the Lord.
8 And my prayer to God is concerning my brethren, that they may once again come to the knowledge of God, yea, the redemption of Christ; that they may once again be a delightsome people.
9 And now I, Mormon, proceed to finish out my record, which I take from the plates of Nephi; and I make it according to the knowledge and the understanding which God has given me.
I pray that my people will once again be a delightsome people.
10 Wherefore, it came to pass that after Amaleki had delivered up these plates into the hands of king Benjamin, he took them and put them with the other plates, which contained records which had been handed down by the kings, from generation to generation until the days of king Benjamin.
11 And they were handed down from king Benjamin, from generation to generation until they have fallen into my hands. And I, Mormon, pray to God that they may be preserved from this time henceforth. And I know that they will be preserved; for there are great things written upon them, out of which my people and their brethren shall be judged at the great and last day, according to the word of God which is written.
Amaleki delivered these plates to King Benjamin, who put them with the other plates and handed them down from generation to generation, until they fell into my hands.
12 And now, concerning this king Benjamin -- he had somewhat of contentions among his own people.
13And it came to pass also that the armies of the Lamanites came down out of the land of Nephi, to battle against his people. But behold, king Benjamin gathered together his armies, and he did stand against them; and he did fight with the strength of his own arm, with the sword of Laban.
14 And in the strength of the Lord they did contend against their enemies, until they had slain many thousands of the Lamanites. And it came to pass that they did contend against the Lamanites until they had driven them out of all the lands of their inheritance.
King Benjamin fought against the Lamanites using the sword of Laban [3], killing many thousands and driving them out of the land.
15And it came to pass that after there had been false Christs, and their mouths had been shut, and they punished according to their crimes;
16 And after there had been false prophets, and false preachers and teachers among the people, and all these having been punished according to their crimes; and after there having been much contention and many dissensions away unto the Lamanites, behold, it came to pass that king Benjamin, with the assistance of the holy prophets who were among his people --
There were false Christs, prophets, and teachers whose mouths were shut and who were punished. [5]
17 For behold, king Benjamin was a holy man, and he did reign over his people in righteousness; and there were many holy men in the land, and they did speak the word of God with power and with authority; and they did use much sharpness because of the stiffneckedness of the people --
18 Wherefore, with the help of these, king Benjamin, by laboring with all the might of his body and the faculty of his whole soul, and also the prophets, did once more establish peace in the land.
King Benjamin and other holy men established peace in the land by using much sharpness on the stiff-necked people,
Notes
"The Words of Mormon" is a single-chapter, 18-verse "book" in the Book of Mormon.
It was engraved on golden plates by a Mormon prophet named Mormon (whose father was also named Mormon)
Although Mormon says he wrote "The Words of Mormon" many hundreds of years after the coming of Christ, the LDS church says he wrote them in about 385 CE. That's because Mormon himself said in Mormon 6:5 that he wrote 384 years after Jesus was born.
Mormon Jr. entrusted the golden plates to his son Moroni, who buried them on a hill in what is now Wayne County, New York. 1443 years later, after being resurrected as an angel, Moroni delivered the golden plates to Joseph Smith.
Mormon finds and abridges the plates of Nephi, which were written over a period of about 1000 years. He wrote down less than one percent of what was written, for which we should all be grateful.
What he wrote he thinks is choice; he wrote it with a wise purpose while the spirit of the Lord whispered to him.
He prays that the Nephites will once again become a delightsome people.
God helped King Benjamin slaughter "many thousands" of evil, dark-skinned Lamanites using the sword of Laban -- which is the sword with which the Spirit commanded Nephi to chop off Laban's head. (1 Nephi 4:10-18)
But not all the Nephites were delightsome; there were lots of false Christs, false prophets and teachers, whose mouths had to be shut and who were punished according to their crimes. (Were they executed as required by Deuteronomy 18:20?)