Fatal Faithfulness

Tonight, we read Moroni 1, in which Moroni describes why he was hiding. The Lamanites were putting to death every Nephite they could find who would not deny the Christ, and Moroni refused to deny the Christ, so he hid from the Lamanites to save his life.

This is an amazing amount of faithfulness. In theory, it'd be easy enough to lie to the Lamanites so you could continue to live and worship God in secret, but that's really not the best choice, eternally. Survival is almost meaningless. We are mortal beings, who are doomed to die, regardless of our choices, and we are eternal beings, who will live on long after our deaths. Death means almost nothing to us. Meanwhile, dishonesty and unfaithfulness as sins that would stain our immortal souls. When given the choice between death and denying the faith, those with an eternal perspective would choose death.

So, Moroni chose to be faithful rather than to lie to continue living. It was a bold, insightful choice, motivated by an amazing amount of faith. It just goes to show what kind of man Moroni was. He was prepared to be faithful to the end, even if his faithfulness meant his end. He was willing to die rather than deny his faith, and I'm sure that, when he died, he knew that he had made the right decision.