Where we are
Moroni 10 is the last chapter of the Book of Mormon, and it is the chapter the whole record has been moving toward. Everything — the thousand years of Nephite history, the Jaredite record, the destruction of two civilizations, the testimonies of the prophets — funnels here, to Moroni's final exhortation and his seal upon the plates. Alone, the last of his people, more than four hundred and twenty years after the sign of Christ's coming (v. 1), Moroni writes to the future reader he has seen in vision (Mormon 8:35) and gives the gifts that close the book: a promise, a list of spiritual gifts, and the supreme invitation. The promise (vv. 3–5) is the most quoted passage in the Book of Mormon — that the honest reader may know the truth of these things by the power of the Holy Ghost. The invitation (vv. 30–33) is the record's final and highest word — come unto Christ, and be perfected in him. The chapter is the deliberate conclusion of the entire work, the last words of the last witness, sealing the record with a promise the reader can test, a list of gifts the reader can claim, and a Christ the reader can come unto and be perfected in.
The chapter moves through Moroni's closing gifts. He exhorts the reader to remember how merciful the Lord hath been and ponder it (v. 3), and gives the promise — ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; 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... by [which] ye may know the truth of all things (vv. 4–5). He exhorts the reader to deny not the gifts of God and names them — wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, the beholding of angels, tongues, interpretation (vv. 8–17) — binding them to faith and to the unchanging Christ (vv. 18–19). He teaches that faith, hope, and charity are necessary to salvation (vv. 20–23); that if the gifts cease it shall be because of unbelief (v. 24); and he calls Israel to awake, and arise from the dust (v. 31). Finally, the supreme invitation — come unto Christ, and be perfected in him... and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness... then is his grace sufficient for you (v. 32) — and the farewell, until... we shall meet... before the pleasing bar of the great Jehovah (v. 34).
The verses that carry the chapter are these. Verses 4–5 are the promise — ask God... 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. Verse 19 binds the gifts to the unchanging Christ — he is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Verse 32 is the supreme invitation — come unto Christ, and be perfected in him... then is his grace sufficient for you. And verse 34 is the farewell — I soon go to rest in the paradise of God, until my spirit and body shall again reunite... to meet you before the pleasing bar of the great Jehovah. The chapter exists to close the Book of Mormon as it was always meant to close — with a promise the reader can test by the Holy Ghost, the gifts of God offered to faith, and the final invitation of the whole record: come unto Christ, be perfected in him, and be made holy by his grace.
The promise (verses 3–5)
And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; 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
This is the most quoted passage in the Book of Mormon, and it is the key Moroni places in every reader's hand. The book makes a claim; here is how to test it. The promise has conditions, and each matters. Ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ — the question is brought to God himself, in prayer, in Christ's name. With a sincere heart — genuinely, not to disprove but to know. With real intent — meaning to act on the answer, not merely curious. Having faith in Christ — the asking is itself an act of the faith Alma and Mormon and Moroni have all taught, the willingness to reach toward the unseen. And the promise is sure: he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost. The witness comes not by argument or evidence but by the Holy Ghost — the same way every spiritual truth is finally known (the trial of your faith preceding the witness, Ether 12:6). And the promise widens beyond the book itself: by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things (v. 5). The method Moroni gives for testing the Book of Mormon is the method for knowing all truth — ask God, sincerely, intending to obey, in faith, and the Holy Ghost will manifest it. This is the book's final gift to the reader: not a demand to be believed but an invitation to ask, and a promise that the asking, rightly made, will be answered.
And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things. And whatsoever thing is good is just and true; wherefore, nothing that is good denieth the Christ, but acknowledgeth that he is. — Moroni 10:5–6
Moroni extends the promise into a principle that governs all knowledge of truth. By the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things — the Holy Ghost is the ultimate witness, the way every truth is finally confirmed to the soul. And he adds a test that ties all truth to Christ: whatsoever thing is good is just and true... nothing that is good denieth the Christ, but acknowledgeth that he is (v. 6). This is the same test Christ gave (Ether 4:12) and Mormon expounded (Moroni 7:13–17) — that all good comes of God and points to Christ. The promise of verse 4 and the principle of verse 5 together give the reader a complete epistemology of the gospel: spiritual truth is known by the Holy Ghost, in answer to sincere, intending, faithful prayer, and all genuine good acknowledges Christ. This is how the reader can know not only that the Book of Mormon is true but the truth of all things — by the witness of the Spirit, sought in faith, testing all things by whether they are good and acknowledge Christ. Moroni hands the reader the means of knowing for themselves, so that the book's truth rests not on Moroni's word but on the reader's own witness from God.
The gifts of God (verses 8–19)
And again, I exhort you, my brethren, that ye deny not the gifts of God, for they are many; and they come from the same God. And there are different ways that these gifts are administered; but it is the same God who worketh all in all. — Moroni 10:8
Moroni turns to the gifts of the Spirit, and he frames them with an exhortation: deny not the gifts of God, for they are many. He then names them — the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, exceeding great faith, the gifts of healing, the working of miracles, prophecy, the beholding of angels, tongues, the interpretation of tongues (vv. 9–16) — the same catalogue Paul gives (1 Corinthians 12). And he binds them to Christ and to faith: all these gifts come by the Spirit of Christ; and they come unto every man severally, according as he will (v. 17), and every good gift cometh of Christ (v. 18). The gifts are not relics of a past age; Moroni insists, as he did in Mormon 9 and Ether 12, that he is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and... all these gifts... never will be done away... only according to the unbelief of the children of men (v. 19). This is the same argument that runs through Moroni's writing — the unchanging God still gives his gifts, and they cease only through unbelief. The reader is exhorted not to deny the gifts, because to deny them is the unbelief that drives them away. The gifts of God are available to faith in every age, given according as he will by the same Christ who never changes.
Come unto Christ, and be perfected in him (verses 20–34)
Wherefore, there must be faith; and if there must be faith there must also be hope; and if there must be hope there must also be charity. And except ye have charity ye can in nowise be saved in the kingdom of God. — Moroni 10:20–21
Moroni returns one last time to the great triad his father preached — faith, hope, and charity — and binds them to salvation itself: except ye have charity ye can in nowise be saved in the kingdom of God; neither can ye be saved... if ye have not faith; neither can ye if ye have no hope (v. 21). All three are necessary; none can be omitted. And he names the alternative: if ye have no hope ye must needs be in despair; and despair cometh because of iniquity (v. 22). This is a piercing diagnosis — despair is not merely an emotional state but the fruit of iniquity, the absence of the hope that comes through Christ. The way out of despair is the way back to Christ, through faith and hope and charity. Moroni, the last man, who had every earthly reason for despair, knows that despair comes of iniquity and that its cure is the triad his father taught — faith laying hold on Christ, hope in the resurrection, charity the pure love of Christ. He presses them on the reader as the indispensable conditions of salvation, the same three with which the Book of Mormon's teaching on the gospel reaches its summit.
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 10:32
This is the supreme invitation of the entire Book of Mormon, the verse toward which the whole record has been moving — come unto Christ, and be perfected in him. The book's final word is not a doctrine or a warning but an invitation, and the invitation is to Christ himself. To come unto Christ is the summons that has echoed through the whole record — Alma's come and be baptized, the risen Lord's come unto me, and now Moroni's closing plea. And the goal is perfection — not our own perfection but perfected in him, made complete in Christ. The conditions are named: deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength — total renunciation of evil and total love of God. And the means is grace: then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ. This is the same promise the Lord gave Moroni about weakness (Ether 12:27) — my grace is sufficient — now applied to perfection itself. We do not perfect ourselves; we come to Christ, deny ungodliness, love God wholly, and by his grace are made perfect in him. The verse holds the whole gospel in balance: our part (come, deny ungodliness, love God) and his part (grace sufficient to perfect us). And the result is sanctification — sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ... that ye become holy, without spot (v. 33). The Book of Mormon ends where it always pointed: at Christ, who perfects and sanctifies and makes holy all who come to him.
And now I bid unto all, farewell. I soon go to rest in the paradise of God, until my spirit and body shall again reunite, and I am brought forth triumphant through the air, to meet you before the pleasing bar of the great Jehovah, the Eternal Judge of both quick and dead. Amen. — Moroni 10:34
The Book of Mormon ends with Moroni's farewell, and it is one of the most serene closings in all of scripture. The last man of a destroyed people, alone for decades, hunted, having buried his entire civilization and written its record — bids farewell not in sorrow but in triumph and peace. I soon go to rest in the paradise of God — death is rest, the paradise of God awaiting. Until my spirit and body shall again reunite — the resurrection is sure. And I am brought forth triumphant through the air — not defeated but triumphant, rising to glory. And the appointed meeting: to meet you before the pleasing bar of the great Jehovah, the Eternal Judge of both quick and dead. Moroni, who promised throughout his writing that he would meet the reader at the judgment (Ether 5:6; 12:38; Moroni 10:27), names the meeting one last time — and calls the judgment-bar pleasing, for to the faithful the judgment is not terror but the longed-for reunion with Christ. The phrase the great Jehovah names Christ as the God of the Old Testament, the Eternal Judge. And the final word of the whole Book of Mormon is Amen — so be it, it is firm, it is sealed. The record that began with Lehi leaving Jerusalem ends with Moroni going to the paradise of God, and the last witness lays down his pen in peace, triumphant, with an appointment to meet every reader before the pleasing bar of the great Jehovah. The book is sealed; the promise stands; the invitation remains open: come unto Christ.
How the chapter is built
Moroni 10 is built as the deliberate conclusion of the entire Book of Mormon, gathering the record's great themes and sealing them with a promise, a gift, and an invitation. It is structured as a series of exhortations, each beginning I would exhort you or I exhort you, the last witness pressing his final counsel on the reader: remember God's mercy (v. 3), ask and receive the witness (v. 4), deny not the gifts (v. 8), remember every good gift comes of Christ (v. 18), come unto Christ (v. 30, 32). The architecture is a litany of final pleadings, the urgency of a man with one last chance to reach his reader. And it builds toward the supreme invitation of v. 32 — come unto Christ, and be perfected in him — the verse the whole record has been moving toward. The chapter is constructed so that the Book of Mormon ends not with a summary or a warning but with an invitation and a promise: ask, and know; come, and be perfected. The last word of the last witness is an open door to Christ.
The chapter is also built around the promise of verse 4, which is the structural and spiritual key to the whole book. The Book of Mormon makes an enormous claim — that it is the word of God, that Christ is the Redeemer, that these things are true — and the promise of verse 4 tells the reader exactly how to test that claim: ask God, sincerely, intending to obey, in faith, and the Holy Ghost will witness the truth. The architecture places this promise near the beginning of the final chapter, so that everything that follows — the gifts, the triad, the invitation — is read in the light of a testable promise. The book does not ask to be believed on Moroni's authority; it asks to be tested by the reader's own prayer, and it promises an answer. This is the structural genius of the close: the entire record rests, finally, not on argument but on the reader's own witness from God, available through the prayer of verse 4. Moroni hands the reader the key to verify everything, and then exhorts him to come unto Christ.
And the chapter is built to end the Book of Mormon exactly where it always pointed — at Christ, and at the judgment-bar where reader and witness will meet. The final invitation (v. 32) is to be perfected in Christ by grace; the final sanctification (v. 33) is through the shedding of the blood of Christ; and the final farewell (v. 34) is an appointment before the pleasing bar of the great Jehovah. The architecture brings the whole thousand-page record to rest on the person of Christ — come to him, be perfected in him, be sanctified by his blood, and meet him at the judgment. And it ends on a note of triumph and peace: Moroni goes to rest in the paradise of God, to be brought forth triumphant, to meet the reader before a bar he calls pleasing. The Book of Mormon, which has recorded the destruction of two civilizations and the deepest human darkness, ends in serenity and hope — the last witness at peace, the invitation open, the promise standing, and Christ at the center of it all. The record began with a man leaving a doomed Jerusalem; it ends with a man entering the paradise of God, and between them lies the one message the whole book exists to give: come unto Christ, and be perfected in him. Amen.