“‘If These Things Are Not True’: Moroni’s Exhortation to Pray,” Liahona, Dec. 2024, United States and Canada Section.
“If These Things Are Not True”: Moroni’s Exhortation to Pray
Believing that the Book of Mormon is true and then asking for a confirmation is different than simply asking if it is true.
Preparing to bury his father’s gold plates to rest for centuries, Moroni closes the Book of Mormon with “a few words by way of exhortation” (Moroni 10:2). There are few words from the Book of Mormon more familiar to us than those that follow. They are among the first we share with people interested in learning about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. They are among the last we read each time we come to the end of the book. They invite us to faithful and intentional action, showing the way for us to receive a divine witness of the Savior and His doctrine as taught throughout the Book of Mormon.
After exhorting us to ponder the Lord’s mercy extended through Christ to humankind from Adam down to us, Moroni famously exhorts us to confirm for ourselves that he and the Nephite prophets before him have told the truth in these pages (see Moroni 10:3–4). He exhorts us to “ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true.” He then adds the conditional promise: “And if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost” (Moroni 10:4).
What might we learn from pondering Moroni’s words more carefully as we prepare to offer such a prayer?
Photograph by Jeremy Hall
“Remember How Merciful the Lord Hath Been”
Before inviting us to seek an answer of God as to the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, Moroni exhorts us to “remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things” (Moroni 10:3).
How can we remember the mercy of the Lord to humankind, from Adam to now? Moroni wants us to remember that Jesus Christ has loved and worked with humankind from the beginning. Book of Mormon prophets testified of the Lord’s “tender mercies” (1 Nephi 1:20; 2 Nephi 1:1–3; Alma 26:16–20; 36:18–20). They taught that the plan of redemption was laid before the foundations of the world (see Alma 12:29–34) and that Christ—His coming to the earth, His Atonement, and His Resurrection—was revealed to Adam and to the prophets, even down to our day (see Alma 7:11–13; 34:5–18; 36:27–29). The mercy of the Lord to all humankind is the redemptive power of the Lamb of God, effective over all time.
These are spiritual ideas, and we need to be willing to plant them in our hearts (see Alma 32:28), think about them and their value to us, and pray about them. This is pondering—sensing the spiritual and emotional aspect of the importance of a Redeemer through all history down to our day, from a living and loving Father in Heaven. We prepare ourselves for revelation by giving these ideas time and attention.
Are These Things Not True?
Moroni then exhorts us to ask “if these things are not true” (Moroni 10:4). Is there a difference between asking “if these things are true” and asking “if these things are not true”? Other questions in the Book of Mormon are constructed like Moroni’s, and they may teach us how to understand his meaning.
For example, the servant in Zenos’s famous allegory of the olive tree asks his master, “Is not this the cause that the trees of thy vineyard have become corrupted?” (Jacob 5:48; emphasis added).
The servant had already explained what he believed was the source of corruption. Expressing his beliefs with a “not” question prompts his master to confirm his conviction.
Similarly, King Lamoni, astonished by his servants’ testimony of Ammon’s feats and believing their report, exclaims, “Surely, this is more than a man. Behold, is not this the Great Spirit?” (Alma 18:2; emphasis added). Lamoni here asks his servants to confirm his recognition that Ammon is more than Lamoni had supposed.
Such passages can help us to better understand the question Moroni exhorts us to address to God, the Eternal Father. We are to bring to Him what we have already come to believe (“these things are true”) and then ask for confirmation (“are they not?”). (See Mormon 9:25.) Following Moroni’s counsel, we come to pray over the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon already believing, desiring to know these things of a surety for ourselves (see Alma 5:46).
Faith in Jesus Christ
Finally, Moroni specifies the manner of prayer appropriate to seeking the truth of the Book of Mormon. He teaches that we should ask “with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ,” and that we should pray “in the name of Christ” (see Moroni 10:4). With these words, Moroni twice draws our attention to the role played by faith in Christ as we pray. It is only by faith in Jesus Christ that we can learn the truth by the power of the Holy Ghost.
Moroni’s exhortation reminds us that we cannot separate the truthfulness of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon from the truthfulness of the Nephite prophets’ teachings and testimonies of Jesus Christ. The truth in the Book of Mormon is the doctrine of Christ. God cannot fully reveal the book’s truth to someone who is indifferent to or rejects its message about the Redeemer.
In this spirit, the Lord Himself taught, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, that this is my doctrine, and I bear record of it from the Father; and whoso believeth in me believeth in the Father also; and unto him will the Father bear record of me, for he will visit him with fire and with the Holy Ghost” (3 Nephi 11:35; emphasis added).
Moroni teaches us to approach God believing the witnesses of Christ we have encountered in the Book of Mormon and seeking divine confirmation. Only in this way can we pray with “faith in Christ” and sincerely ask “in the name of Christ” to know that the scripture’s doctrine of Christ is true. As we offer the kind of prayer Moroni recommends to us so carefully, we can fully anticipate an experience with “the power of the Holy Ghost.” (See Moroni 10:4–5.)
Power and Truth
President Russell M. Nelson has taught that “the full power of the gospel of Jesus Christ is contained in the Book of Mormon. … The truths of the Book of Mormon have the power to heal, comfort, restore, succor, strengthen, console, and cheer our souls.”
It is significant that President Nelson, like Moroni before him, connects the words truth and power in speaking of the Book of Mormon. Moroni teaches us a key way to have the scripture’s truthfulness and the power connected to it brought home to our hearts. If we can bring our developing conviction about the Book of Mormon to God, the Eternal Father, with more faith in Christ, we can expect more of the power of the Holy Ghost in our lives. By that power, can we not know the truth of the Book of Mormon and of all things? (see Moroni 10:5). The answer to this question from all who know of a surety is, “Yes, we can.”
Brother Spencer teaches about the Book of Mormon as an associate professor at Brigham Young University. Brother Vassilaros lives in Idaho and enjoys learning and teaching about the Book of Mormon.