And Then Nephi became Moroni

11 October

Jude 4; “For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.”

By and large, members of the LDS Church today believe Moroni was the angel who showed up one night telling Joseph Smith about the golden plates buried in the earth near his home.

“He called me by name and said…that his name was Moroni…”

Today when members read Joseph Smith’s History in the Pearl of Great PriceDoctrine and Covenants 128:20, the narrative tells them Moroni visited Joseph Smith. They also read the same thing in History of the Church 1:11. See image.

However…

What the majority hasn’t heard is how things were originally presented when Smith announced he had been visited by an angel sent from God.

“He called me by name and said…that his name was Nephi…”

Each of the narratives from Millennial Star, and Times and Seasons, as well as the 1851 Pearl of Great Price (p.41), all say the angel’s name was Nephi. The Millennial Star was published in Great Britain as a news portal for Saints overseas who didn’t have access to papers stateside.

You’ll want to take notice of the publication dates for the Millennial Star and Times and Seasons. They were published in Joseph Smith’s lifetime, and he never corrected any so-called mistake.

Apparently, it was Nephi who showed up, not Moroni.

Times and Seasons, Vol. 3, No. 12, April 15, 1842, p. 753 See image.

Pearl of Great Price, p. 41,1851 ed See image.

Millennial Star, Vol. 3, No. 4, August 1842, p. 53  See image.

The name of Nephi is also used further into the latter volume while describing how Nephi would open a new dispensation.

Millennial Star, Vol. 3, No. 4, August 1842, p. 71 “Again, when we read  the history of our beloved brother, Joseph Smith, and of the glorious ministry and message of the angel Nephi, which has finally opened a new dispensation to man…”

The angel Nephi eventually became Moroni by the hand of Orson Pratt who happened to be the editor of the Millennial Star in the 1870’s. Original manuscripts of the Pearl of Great Price reveal he scratched out Nephi, and replaced it with Moroni. For more info see Changes in the Book of Moses and Their Implications upon a Concept of Revelation James R. Harris.

Each time I see things like this my heart is broken anew. Part of the shock is how they publish papers about the deceit, and yet carry on as if nothing’s amiss. We’re praying members would take Jude 4 to heart, and come out of the darkness!

With Love in Christ;

Michelle

1 Cor 1:18

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One Response to “And Then Nephi became Moroni”

  1. rekcap May 27, 2019 at 6:39 pm #

    This is what you get upset about? If you are christian and are upset about this, then you need to open your bible and see three different accounts of your Jesus suffering. To your point here only one says there was an angel and the account of Luke is decades after the fact and at least 5th had from an author that was not there to witness the facts. The only person that was there didn’t write about it. That is the intro sentence to one problem of one story. Your bible can’t get the genealogy of Jesus consistent And you are worried about the name of an angel? Joseph Smith’s account of this angel is more believable than your christian accounts of Jesus.

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