Mormon chapter 7 represents the last recorded words of Mormon. Mormon’s voice has been heard intermittently through 515 years of Nephite history, but his last cry, as a voice from the dust, is this exhortation to the descendants of the Lamanites. He has spent his life fighting their forefathers as chief captain among the Nephites, but now he exhorts them to come unto Christ.
“Mormon learned how to evaluate society from experience from abridging the Nephite records, and from heavenly visitants. So he based his historical judgment on the righteousness of the people, not on manifestations of military, political, economic, or cultural success. We discover this interpretation of history everywhere in Mormon’s writings. His concluding message, recorded in Mormon 7, is poignant and direct. It reflects the maturity of his development as prophet-historian and offers his conclusion to the whole matter: the spiritual and cultural lessons future generations should learn from the disintegration of a once flourishing civilization. These lessons are precisely the recurring major motifs of the lengthy account of Nephite history that today bears Mormon’s name.” (Thomas W. Mackay, Book of Mormon Symposium Series, Hel – 3 Nephi 8, edited by PR Cheesman, MS Nyman, and CD Tate, Jr., 1988, p. 73)
Jeffrey R. Holland
“In a soliloquy of death, Mormon reached across time and space to all, especially to that ‘remnant of the house of Israel’ who would one day read his majestic record. Those of another time and place must learn what those lying before him had forgotten—that all must ’believe in Jesus Christ, that he is the Son of God,’…To ’believe in Christ,’ especially when measured against such tragic but avoidable consequences, was Mormon’s last plea and his only hope. It is the ultimate purpose of the entire book that would come to the latter-day world bearing his name.” (Christ and the New Covenant, p. 321-3)