War in the Book of Mormon

Mormon’s metaphor uses armed conflict to teach all of us how to return to stand clean before the judgement bar of Jesus Christ (Mormon 3:20-22). That metaphor emphasizes three key parts: preparation, covenants, and unity. This episode discusses each of those parts as a conclusion and then goes on to draw spiritual concluding lessons from Mormon’s three great armed conflict sermons: the Battle of Manti, the Amalickiahite War, and the Gadianton Robber War. The episode ends with my gratitude to all the listeners, Bill Welch for his musical contributions, and Sheri Steed for her unfailing support.

This penultimate episode is a summary of the major military lessons from the previous 47 episodes of this podcast series.

Mormon returned to command the Nephite armies as the fifth and final war raged on. Facing defeat, he invited the Lamanite king to a final battle at the Hill Cumorah. There, in what may have been the largest battle in the history of the western hemisphere, the Nephite state was destroyed for the third and final time. This episode includes Mormon’s final lament and also some key lessons from his most detailed battle of his own experience.

Mormon commanded during four different wars. This episode discusses the first three of those wars. Mormon does not give us much detail as he wanted to emphasize the positive and successful approach to God demonstrated by people like Alma, Moroni, and Lachoneus and not the inevitability of defeat and destruction for those who reject God, which was what the people of his day did. Even with the limited details there is value in understanding what happened and what that can teach us about preparation, covenants, and unity.

Mormon begins his personal story with the return of war after an absence of nearly 300 years. This episode addresses six areas that are unique to Mormon’s time and experience and that can inform each of us about our world and how to better exist in it.

Mormon places two extremes in immediate juxtaposition in the Book of Mormon. In the previous episode, I discussed the Consolidated Settlement – a period of unique and nearly complete physical, organizational, and social unity. In this episode we discuss the collapse of that unity, the near perfect unity resulting from the instruction of Jesus Christ, and the gradual and consistent decline and loss of that unity.

The Nephites and Lamanites unite in a single body to fight a poetically equally united group of Gadianton Robbers. This is the giant showdown where united good fights united evil. Mormon teaches about the power of good the comes from unity and how, for some of us, that may be the best ways that we can survive in the battles that we face. This is the biggest clash of arms in the Book of Mormon record to this point.

The two brothers – Nephi and Lehi – did more as missionaries to the Lamanites to end war, return lost lands, and transform a seemingly intractable opponent than did all of the Nephite armies even though they were led by a prophet-warrior like Moronihah. This is a significant and important story to understand the nature of what I call narrative war.

The single biggest Nephite military loss takes place under the command of Moronihah and the leadership of Nephi IV during the 58th and 59th year of the reign of the judges when the Nephites lose everything south of the land Bountiful. Mormon gives us a compelling story of defeat caused by disunity in the form of two major dissensions occurring two years apart and the struggle to regain that which was lost. This is the first part of a discussion on this war.

Helaman chapter one introduces the reader to the sea change that is coming in a form of foreshadowing. The chapter begins with a story of the creation of the first band of Gadianton Robbers and then ends with fighting between Nephites and a Lamanite army commanded by a man named Coriantumr. As the Book of Mormon moves forward from here, Gadianton Robbers become more and more important to the point that their efforts lead to the near complete destruction of the Nephite state. This chapter is where it all begins.