http://mybookofmormonpodcast.com/2015/05/25/episode-81-moroni-10-the-final-chapter/

He was skeptical, but so sincere I almost feared he might actually get an answer.

Great first impressions of the book of Mormon's last chapter, too.

"ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true"

"God, are these things not true?"

"Yes, these things are not true."

"No, these things are not true."

Either way, it's not true. I think Joseph Smith was having a little fun with us there.

Mind=blown

When Mormons have asked me if I've taken Moroni's challenge, my reply has been that the Book of Mormon and the LDS Church makes certain claims about the book -- for instance, that it is an accurate history of real peoples, etc. I can't evaluate such a claim simply based on feelings allegedly imparted by a Ghost.

There are many reasons that I think it is close to impossible that the Book of Mormon is anything more than a work of fiction. (One of the many reasons is that it contains all sorts of New Testament language, allusions, paraphrases, and concepts being used by characters that are supposed to have lived before the New Testament era.)

Common Gentile

Used car salesman: "Just look at that pretty red convertible and tell me it's not the nicest ride you've ever seen."

You: "Yes, it's not the nicest."

Your wife: "No, it's not the nicest."

Used car salesman: "Uhhhh....I think you folks may have missed the semitic subtlety in my question..."

I don't have time to listen right now, but even without listening, I'm pretty sure the person in question didn't qualify for Moroni's Promise.

Moroni's Promise is found in Moroni 10: 3-5. It makes frequent mention of "you" and "ye." Who is the you/ye to whom he is making these statements?

In Verse 1 he tells us: "Now I, Moroni, write somewhat as seemeth me good; and I write unto my brethren, the Lamanites..."

Perhaps he is speaking to the Lamanites *and* non Lamanites at the same time?

Well, no. In verse 19 he is still speaking to "my Brethren" and verse 23 refers to "our Fathers."

But in verse 24 there is an indications that from that point on he is no longer speaking solely to his Lamanite Brethren. For the final few verses of Moroni chapter 10 he is speaking to Lamanites and everybody else: "And now I speak unto all the ends of the earth..."

Moroni's Promise (verses 3-5) is contained in a section directed solely to Lamanites (Moroni 10:1-23).

THERE IS NO MORONI'S PROMISE TO NON LAMANITES.

Anybody to accepts or teaches or tries Moroni's Promise is extrapolating something that isn't warranted by the Book of Mormon.

And as we all know, the Church has backed off of the claim that the Natives of the Americas are Lamanites. Essentially, Lamanites have ceased to exist.

So unless the person in the podcast has some reason to believe that he is a Lamanite, he did not qualify for Moroni's Challenge.

I'm a little rusty on my KJV style speechifyin', but isn't Moroni 10 one of those BoM cases where JS & Co. screwed the pooch on proper Elizabethan/Jacobean pronoun usage? Or did they actually get it right?

It also seems a bit suspicious that he writes "to his Lamanite brothers" (who at this point are genocide-happy savages, and then *buries* (hides) the plates, as he self-prophesises that the Mound Builders will find them, although the BoM says that JS will. My head hurts and I need to go to bed....

http://josephsmithpapers.org/paperSummary/history-1838-1856-volume-a-1-23-december-1805-30-august-1834#!/paperSummary/history-1838-1856-volume-a-1-23-december-1805-30-august-1834&p=5

"When I first looked upon him I was afraid, but the fear soon left me. He called me by name and said unto me that he was a messenger sent from the presence of God to me and that his name was Nephi"