Moroni: Ancient Prophet, Modern Messenger

By H. Donl Peterson

Reviewed by Andrew Hamilton
On 3/21/2008

Cedar Fort, 1983/2008 Softcover:
211 pages
ISBN-10: 1-59955-141-1
ISBN-13: 978-1-59955-141-8 Price: 14.99

The “Angel Moroni” is one of the best known symbols of Mormonism. In 1935 a statue was erected in his honor on the Hill Cumorah in New York. Along with this statue there are “Angel Moroni” statues on all but a handful of the LDS Church’s 125 operating temples. His image has appeared on various editions of the Book of Mormon, it can be found on jewelry, it was used on a marker that could be placed on the graves of LDS servicemen, it was seen during the 2002 Winter Olympics, and this is just the beginning of such a list, etc. This is just the beginning of a lengthy list. While serving on my mission in Oklahoma I even saw “anti-Moroni” bumper stickers.

Since the image of Moroni has such a prominent place in Mormonism some might ask the question, why hasn’t more been written about him? The question could also be asked, since almost all of the information we have on Moroni is already in the Book of Mormon, is it really necessary to write an entire book about him?

The second of these questions is answered in H Donl Peterson’s “almost” a biography Moroni: Ancient Prophet, Modern Messenger. I say “almost” for several reasons. First, as mentioned above, the Book of Mormon contains almost all of the existing information we have on Moroni. The few other things we know about him come mostly from a few statements by Joseph Smith and other early LDS leaders. Peterson has done an admirable job of bringing these together; more on this in a moment.

Second, of the twelve chapters in this book, only a few of them could be said to be “biographical” in nature. The first four chapters are mainly commentaries on the last three books in the “Book of Mormon.” Chapters six and nine are mostly about Joseph Smith. Chapter ten is a commentary on the scripture verses Moroni quoted to Joseph Smith. Chapter twelve quotes and discusses scriptural prophecies and speculative ideas about Moroni’s role in the millennial future.

It’s the remaining chapters and their insights that make this book worth reading. Chapter five, “The Interim,” discusses six events in Moroni’s life that took place between the end of the Book of Mormon and his appearance to Joseph Smith in 1823. They are (1) receiving the keys of the Stick of Ephraim, (2) he dedicated several temple sites between Utah and New York, (3) he sealed up the plates, (4) his death, (5) his resurrection, and (6) his service as the “guardian angel of America.” To support these ideas Peterson compiles and quotes numerous sources, some well known, others obscure.

Chapter seven, “Insights from Oliver Cowdrey,” quotes Cowdrey’s account of Joseph’s 1823 experience with Moroni that was originally published in The Messenger and Advocate in 1835. Chapter eight, “Moroni, Joseph’s Teacher,” gives additional insight on Moroni’s visits with Joseph Smith as shared by his friends and family. Chapter eleven, “Moroni’s Appearances to Others,” gives the experiences of fifteen others besides Joseph Smith to whom Peterson believes Moroni appeared. Some of these are a bit speculative as the person being quoted never mentions Moroni by name, but merely gives a description that fits Moroni; the description may fit other angels for all we know.

Peterson also makes a mistake in relation to one of these accounts. He quotes a statement made in 1859 by Brigham Young where Brigham says that “one of the Quorum of the Twelve” saw Moroni but later apostatized and that he “has continued to contend against this work.” Peterson claims that Young was speaking of Luke Johnson. Johnson did leave the Church in 1837, but was rebaptized in 1846, traveled to Utah in the 1847 pioneer company with Brigham Young, and later helped settle Tooele valley where he was serving as a Bishop at the time of Brigham’s remarks. It seems unlikely that Brigham would describe an active Bishop as one contending “against this work.”

One interesting doctrinal note worth mentioning, especially with the recent change in the introduction to the Book of Mormon, is that Peterson uses some quotes that support the idea that Nephites and Lamanites besides Moroni traveled through North America.

Peterson makes a number of statements in the first four chapters of the book that bothered me. When speaking of Book of Mormon doctrines, history, and teachings that involve Moroni he says things like, “it is believed that,” “it is thought that,” “it is estimated that,” etc. However, most of these ideas are ones that I have personally never heard taught before. Perhaps others have, my knowledge is admittedly limited. If the ideas in this book have been taught by others it would be nice to see citations and references that back up Peterson’s point of view. If the ideas originated with him it would have been nice if he said, “I believe that,” “I think that,” etc.

I also have a few problems with this particular edition of the book. First, it would be nice if somewhere in the book there was an indication that this is the third edition and that it has been revised. This information is available on Cedar Fort’s website. Second, there is no biographical information on the author. Many readers, especially those who are under the impression that this is a new book. might not even realize that the author is dead! Third, I have a number of these Cedar Fort soft bound books now and I wish that they held up better. Fourth, there are too many typos and editorial errors or inconsistencies in this book. There are several misspelled words, most of which look like computer scanning/recognition errors, for example, the word “the” shows up in a few places in the book as “lie” or “die.” In one place the phrase “Oh Israel!” shows up as “Oh Israeli.”

The editorial inconsistencies are mainly related to the footnotes. In the first edition all quotes were cited in the footnotes. In this edition, most of the scriptural quotations are cited parenthetically, and everything else is in the footnotes, but a few times this isn’t followed. In several chapters Peterson quotes The History of the Prophet Joseph Smith by His Mother. (ed., Preston Nibley, Bookcraft, Salt Lake City, 1958) Most of the references in this edition have been switched to The Revised and Enhanced History of Joseph Smith by His Mother, (ed. Scot Facer Proctor and Maurine Jensen Proctor, Bookcraft, 1996) but every now and again the editors cite the Nibley version.

There are some fun moments in this book. Appendix B is a compilation of LDS Hymns, past and present that are about Moroni. One of them, from the 1927 hymnal, is called “I Have No Home, Where Shall I Go.” It contains lyrics that in all likelihood would not be sung in an LDS service today: “I see my people lying round,/all lifeless on the gory ground…With axe and bow they fell upon/Our weakened nation, sparing none,/And left them welt’ring in their gore./Alas! I ne’er shall see them more. (Lucy Smith and George Careless).

So is this book necessary? Maybe not, and it is longer than it needs to be. Peterson actually wrote a fascinating essay on Moroni that appeared in The Book of Mormon: Fourth Nephi Through Moroni - From Zion to Destruction, that accomplishes in fifteen pages most of what this book does in 211. Is this book worth getting and reading? For me, yes. Even though much of its information is already available, Moroni is one of my great heroes and the chance to learn more about him made the book worth reading. The information in chapter five is particularly interesting and will be valued by all who love and are inspired by this great prophet.


Copyright 2008