Chapter Thirteen - The Final Collapse

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

The Final Collapse

4 NEPHI – MORMON – Moroni

The peace was real.
For two hundred years.

No war.
No rich or poor.
No division.
No crime.
Just faith, family, and unity.

They built cities.
They lived long lives.
They passed the records down.

Then it changed.

Some grew rich.
They wore fine clothes.
They built up pride.

They made themselves “Nephites” and “Lamanites” again.

The old names returned.
So did the old hatred.

Secret societies reappeared.
The Gadianton robbers came back, worse than ever.

The church broke apart.
Miracles stopped.
Prophets were silenced.

Within a few generations, the entire civilization fractured.

Mormon is born into the chaos.

A brilliant child.
Chosen at ten years old to keep the plates.

By fifteen, he sees Jesus.
But the people are too wicked for miracles.

He becomes a general.
He fights hopeless wars.
He leads a broken army.

He pleads with the people to repent.

They don’t.

They swear vengeance.
They delight in blood.
They lose battle after battle.

Mormon watches his people fall.
He refuses to lead.
Then leads again out of pity.

He sees 230,000 Nephites die at Cumorah, the final battle.

He’s wounded.
He survives.
Just long enough to pass the record to his son.

Moroni finishes the book.

Alone.
Hunted.
No family.
No people.
Just plates and faith.

He writes the last words.
Seals the record.
Buries it in the earth.

He writes to the future.

To anyone who will read.

He warns of pride.
Of false churches.
Of secret combinations.
Of forgetting God.

He invites all to come to Christ.
To repent.
To believe.
To be perfected in Him.

He ends with a promise:

“If you receive these things, ask God if they are not true.
He will manifest the truth by the power of the Holy Ghost.”

And then:

“I bid farewell.
Until we meet before the judgment seat of Christ.”