Repent and Prepare to Stand Before the Judgment-seat of Christ

Mormon 3 (en español)

Mormón niega ser caudillo de los Nefitas. Las razones por lo cual él llega a esta decisión son los siguientes:

  • Muchas veces él había dirigido hacia la batalla
  • los había amado con todo su corazón, de acuerdo con el amor de Dios que había en él.
  • –y todo el día se había derramado mi alma en oración a Dios a favor de ellos;–
  • a pesar de estos esfuerzos, Mormón concluye que ha sido sin fe, por causa de la dureza de sus corozones.
  • Últimamente, es cuando Mormón escucha la voz del Señor que dijo: –Mía es la venganza, y yo pagaré; y porque este pueblo no se arrepintió después que lo hube librado, he aquí, será destruido de sobre la faz de la tierra.–

( vease vs. 12-15 )

Los Nefitas estaban viviendo como si no hubiera hecho una expiación a favor de ellos. Y ahora dice el Señor que venganza es suya. Mormón estaría luchando contra Dios si continuaba como caudillo de los ejércitos de los Nefitas.


In verses 2 & 3, we read that the Lord afforded Mormon a brief period of missionary work where he was instructed to cry repentance unto the people. His teaching was in vain, for said he:

…they did not realize that it was the Lord that had spared them, and granted unto them a chance for repentance.

Verse 3 (emphasis added)

Consider the timeline of events in this chapter and how it was at first the Nephites assumed that they had won of their own strengthen and then took false confidence in their own abilities to destroy the Lamanites. Mormon cried repentance unto them, they rejected this, and yet they still won the battle subsequently. But it was for the last time. The Lord does delay his promises, but they are sure.


The second half of this chapter shifts gears away from current events in Mormon’s day, to discuss his role as “an idle witness.” (see verse 16) In his capacity as a witness for Christ, he is heavily reliant upon impression of the Spirit to discern future events and circumstances and even audience. All this that the future reader, me, would “repent and prepare to stand before the judgment-seat of Christ.”(vs. 22)

There is some significant instruction here about the final judgment and the need to prepare for that judgment. Here we learn what was revealed to Mormon about this final judgment, some of its logistics. Curious it is that the power of judgement is delegated to the disciple of Christ, both the twelve from Jerusalem and also the twelve from the Americas.

Something that I am also sitting with is the nature of and the characteristics of that final judgment. From what I’m reading both in Mormon and in the referenced footnotes (see Matthew 19:28 or Doctrine and Covenants 29:12, for example), this isn’t a condemnation sentencing sort of.


There is one final note that I feel to make on this chapter. The workings of the Spirit that compelled Mormon to write about the final judgment also brought him to witness that Jesus was the very Christ, or in other words, the true Christ and the true God. (This is how it is translated into Spanish.) His hope was that the reader would be brought to believe the gospel of Jesus Christ, thus being prepared to stand before that judgment bar, ready and worthy to enter into a far greater weight of glory.


(There is more here, connecting verse 17 to 2 Nephi 30, and learning more about judgment, etc. To be continued… )

The Judgment-seat of Christ

What this IS and what this is perceived to be are two completely different things. There is a final judgment. It is well-known fact in Christian theology that at the end of times there will be a final judgement. The nature of this judgment and the knee-jerk response to being brought before a judge, which is unfortunately a by-product, or a result of our current criminal justice system, reinforces erroneous thoughts and understanding concerning the true nature of judgments and justice. Christ’s judgment is not one of condemnation, scorn, punishment, nor shame.

1 Samuel 2:1-10 is a prayer that Hannah (the mother of the Old Testament prophet Samuel) offers. This resonates very similar in spirit to the words of Mary in the house of her cousin, Elizabeth. “My soul doth magnify the Lord…” (See Luke 1:46-55) Both detail the judgments of the Lord.


Jesus Christ – Judge

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