Hello! I’m Danny. I was once an active Latter-day Saint for 60 years.
This video is going to be a short one, but I hope you find it interesting.
You might already know that the Book of Mormon is made up of several smaller books named after Book of Mormon characters. The last one is written by Moroni, whose father was Mormon. According to the Book of Mormon, the time-period for Moroni’s record is around 400 to 421 AD. At this point in the end of the book’s narrative - one group of people (the dark-skinned Lamanites) had completely, destroyed the other group of people (the light-skinned Nephites) during their last great battle at a hill called Cumorah. The lone survivor of the Nephites was Moroni. Moroni had taken the gold plates which the Book of Mormon was engraved on and buried them in that same Hill Cumorah for them to be given to Joseph Smith some 1,400 years later.
Let me read his own account, Moroni 1:1-3 “NOW I, Moroni, after having made an end of abridging the account of the people of Jared, I had supposed not to have written more, but I have not as yet perished; and I make not myself known to the Lamanites lest they should destroy me. For behold, their wars are exceedingly fierce among themselves; and because of their hatred they put to death every Nephite that will not deny the Christ. And I, Moroni, will not deny the Christ; wherefore, I wander whithersoever I can for the safety of mine own life.”
When Moroni states that “I wander withersoever, I can,” did you know that he “wandered” all the way from Cumorah presently located in the New York area to what is now, Utah? Moroni did so specifically for one reason - to dedicate the site where the future LDS Manti Temple would be built. This event was not recorded by Moroni on the golden plates, since he supposedly had already buried them.
Then, how do we know about this event?
We learn about it from an account given in the book, Life of Heber C. Kimball (who served as President and Prophet of the LDS Church). On page 436 it reads, “At a conference held in Ephraim Sanpete County Utah, June 25th, 1875, nearly all the speakers expressed their feelings to have a temple built in Sanpete County, and gave their views as to what point and where to build it… President Brigham Young said: ‘The Temple should be built on Manti stone quarry.’ Early on the morning of April 25th, 1877, President Brigham Young asked Brother Warren S. Snow to go with him to the Temple hill. Brother Snow says: ‘We two were alone: President Young took me to the spot where the Temple was to stand; we went to the southeast corner, and President Young said: ‘Here is the spot where the prophet Moroni stood and dedicated this piece of land for a Temple site, and that is the reason why the location is made here, and we can’t move it from this spot; and if you and I are the only persons that come here at high noon today, we will dedicate this ground.’” That is quite incredible!
Is it reasonable for us to believe that Moroni – in 421 AD - walked over 2,000 miles across North American and over the Rocky Mountains just to dedicate a piece of farmland? Or was this just Brigham Youngs’ way of exciting and encouraging the pioneer Latter-day Saints to build a temple in the late 1800s?
Picture this man – a war refugee - walking probably in sandals for an estimated distance of 2085 miles from New York to Utah – And back, possibly! He’d have to hunt for food along the way and build shelter from the extreme weather conditions while fighting off Lamanite enemies.
Now, I realize Moroni could have already died and as an angel sent by God, he could have just appeared in Utah to dedicate the future Manti temple site.
Perhaps Moroni didn’t make such an improbable trek across the continent by foot. However, LDS folklore and traditions are replete with stories like this one. If not Moroni, it might as well have been one of the three Nephites who were still roaming the earth looking for something to do.
Regardless, you would think that for such a monumental effort Moroni would at least get a statue of him put on top of the temple when it was built. But interestingly enough - the Manti Temple is one of the few LDS temples in Utah that does not have a golden idol of Angel Moroni adorning its top. So, You have, to feel kind of bummed for Moroni.
Well, if you know anything about Mormonism – you realize its history is full of fantastical stories like this one that are faith-promoting and believable to many of the Latter-day Saints. What do you think?!
Thank you for watching. You will find more on You Tube and at TalkingtoMormons.com.
Until next time, God Bless!