This is Scripture Roundtable 176 from The Interpreter Foundation, in which we discuss the Book of Mormon Gospel Doctrine Lesson #32, They Did Obey-Every Word of Command with Exactness, focusing on scriptures in Alma 53, and 56-68, bringing in various insights to help us better understand the scriptures. These roundtables will generally follow the 2016 Gospel Doctrine schedule of scriptures, a few weeks ahead of time.
Panelists for this roundtable are Stephen Smoot, Martin Tanner, and Bruce Webster.
This roundtable is also available as an audio podcast, and will be included in the podcast feed. You can listen by pressing the play button or download the podcast below:
Podcast: Download (Duration: 54:18 — 18.6MB)
I greatly appreciate the ‘meat and potatoes’ lessons.
I have enjoyed these discussions very much as they provide much additional background and commentary. I like to listen to them a number of times before the lesson is given in my ward. I am concerned that I have not seen any further discussions. Is this going to be discontinued? I hope not.
Waiting as well! Please let me know if you see any additional roundtables posted.
I’m not sure how much feedback you get, but I cannot tell you how much I appreciate these discussions, your personal insights, and thoughtful examination of these lessons. They have meant a great deal to me as I have been compelled to reexamine my own faith and relationship with God. I can only assume it takes a great deal of effort and time to put these together, but please know that there are people out there like me that anxiously look forward to them all.
Waiting on your next one. I need to write my gospel doctrine lesson. 🙂 I appreciate all you do.
Thank you for all of these round tables. Excellent comments.
By the way, Moroni was between 43 and 50 when he died and not in his 30s as stated.
Moroni was appointed chief captain when he was 25 (Alma 43:16-17 Now, the leader of the Nephites, or the man who had been appointed to be the chief captain over the Nephites—now the chief captain took the command of all the armies of the Nephites—and his name was Moroni; And Moroni took all the command, and the government of their wars. And he was only twenty and five years old when he was appointed chief captain over the armies of the Nephites.) This probably happened in the 18th year of the reign of judges (see Alma 43:3 commencement of the 18th year and Alma 44:24 end of the 18th year). However, it is possible he had been appointed prior to the attack on the Nephites by Zerahemnah in the 18th year as described in Alma 43 and 44. Zoram commanded the Nephite armies in the 11th year (see Alma 16), so Moroni would have taken command no earlier than the 11th year and no later than the 18th year for him to be in command when Zerahemnah attacked.
Moroni died in the 36th year (Alma 63:3 And it came to pass that Moroni died also. And thus ended the thirty and sixth year of the reign of the judges.) If he was 25 in the 18th year (25-18 = 7), then he died about 36+7 = 43 years old. He could potentially have been appointed to command before the 18th year, but no more than 7 years earlier.
Still, he died young. But, his son replaced him in command–not at Moroni’s death but at Moroni’s retirement (Alma 62:43 And Moroni yielded up the command of his armies into the hands of his son, whose name was Moronihah; and he retired to his own house that he might spend the remainder of his days in peace) which may have happened as early as the 31st year, which would have meant he was as young as 38 when he retired from being the chief captain. Moronihah may even have been younger than Moroni’s 25 when he took command.
Thank you; my error. 🙂 Working from memory rather than notes, I confused the year he died with his actual age at death.