“Transgressing the Laws of God”

Brant Gardner

Moroni charges Pahoran with transgressing Yahweh’s laws which require him to sustain the egalitarian ideal and, therefore, to provision his armies. By ignoring the Nephite ideals, he allows, even facilitates, a Lamanite take-over. Moroni continues to hammer away at his main point: withholding supplies and reinforcements is simply a symptom of a much greater sin—that of accepting the Lamanite worldview.

He also once again threatens to depose and possibly execute Pahoran and his supporters, this time claiming a revelation as his authority. He has not mentioned this revelation before. While this might suggest that he received the revelation during the dictation of the letter, I suspect that his angry state was anathema to such spiritual communication. I believe that this was a principle that had been revealed to him and upon which he made his decisions, including the decision to send this quite vitriolic letter.

Second Witness: Analytical & Contextual Commentary on the Book of Mormon, Vol. 4

References