Buoyed up by their successes against the Lamanites, and in spite of the pleading of Mormon to the contrary, the Nephites decided for the first time to "wage" war against the Lamanites. At this time, Mormon "utterly refused" to be their commander (Mormon 3:9-11). For the next 13 years he would "stand as an idle witness" against them (Mormon 3:16, 5:1).
A careful reading of Mormon's comments for this time reveal that Mormon received a command from the Lord to carry a message to the world (Mormon 3:16-22, 5:8-24; 3 Nephi 5:8-18, 26:12). In fact, the first known chronological dating of the Lord's command to write the abridgment is found in Mormon's comments of the year 362 (Mormon 3:14-17). Thus, between 362 and 375 Mormon would use his time away from the military battles along with his knowledge of all the records at his disposal (Helaman 3:13-16; 3 Nephi 5:8-9) to craft a message that would be appropriate for our day (see Title Page). In 3 Nephi 5:11 we have a note by Mormon in which he says that he made the plates (presumably for the abridgment) "with mine own hands." Mormon might have made all of the plates that he would require for his abridgment during this time when he wasn't involved with military matters. [Alan C. Miner, The Chronology and Compilation of the Writings of Mormon and Moroni," p. 3]
“I Did Stand As an Idle Witness”
In talking about Mormon's role in shaping the account of the Book of Mormon, Kevin and Shauna Christensen note a 1984 FARMS paper by Lisa Bolin Hawkins and Gordon Thomasson, "I Only Am Escaped Alone to Tell Thee: Survivor Witnesses in the Book of Mormon." It compares the editors of the Book of Mormon with a profile of those who survived the horrors of the Nazi and Soviet death camps and felt compelled to survive and bear witness. It turns out that Mormon and Moroni fit precisely the profile of a survivor witness. They describe violence because they do not want us to forget. The following is a summary of the similarities they cite between Mormon and Moroni and survivors in general:
1. The will to remember and record anchors the survivor in the moral purpose of bearing witness, thus maintaining his own integrity in conscious contradiction of the savagery around him (Mormon 3:11-16; Moroni 9:6-25).
2. It is instinctively felt, an involuntary outburst, born out of the horror that no one will be left (Mormon 6:17-22; 8:1-3).
3. The task is often carried out despite great risks; often in secret by depositing the record in a secret archive (Mormon 6:6; 8:14).
4. Survivors do not bear witness in order to inflict guilt or to rationalize their own survival. Their mission transcends guilt and their irrepressible urge to witness arises before any thought of guilt surfaces and at their initial stage of adjustment to extremity (Mormon 9:30-31; Moroni 9:3-6).
5. They speak simply to tell, to describe, out of a common care for life and the future, realizing that we all live in a realm of mutual sacrifice (Mormon 4:17-22; 8:37-40; Moroni 7:45-48).
6. Survival in this sense is a collective act; the survivor has pledged to see that the story is told (Mormon 3:16).
7. The survivors speak to the whole world, as a firsthand eyewitness, one whose words cannot be ignored (Mormon 3:16-22; 9:30).
8. They perceive that "out of horror . . . the truth will emerge and be made secure," that "good and evil are only clear in retrospect," for wisdom only comes at a terrible price. Thus, their mission is to display the "objective conditions of evil" Mormon 5:8-9; 9:31; Moroni 9, 10).
[Lisa Bolin Hawkins and Gordon Thomasson, "I Only Am Escaped Alone to Tell Thee: Survivor Witnesses in the Book of Mormon," F.A.R.M.S., 1984, as quoted in Kevin and Shauna Christensen, "Nephite Feminism Revisited: Thoughts on Carol Lynn Pearson's View of Women in the Book of Mormon," in FARMS Review of Books, Volume 10, Number 2, 1998, pp. 31-32].
Mormon 3:18 I [Mormon] write unto the ends of the earth ([Illustration]): Chart: Writings of Mormon. [John W. Welch and Morgan A. Ashton, "Charting the Book of Mormon," Packet 1, F.A.R.M.S.]