Mormon — Chapter 3
1 The Lamanites did not fight with us for ten years after that. I kept busy making my people get their lands and weapons ready to fight another war.
2 The Lord said to me: “Tell the Nephites: ‘Repent and come to me, and be baptized, and build my church again, and you will not be destroyed.’”
3 I told this to the Nephites, but they would not listen to me. They did not understand that it was the Lord who had saved them before, and who was giving them another chance to repent. They hardened their hearts against the Lord their God.
4 After the tenth year had gone by (three hundred sixty years after Christ’s coming), the Lamanite king wrote me a letter to tell me that they were getting ready to come fight against us again.
5 So I made my people gather together in the land of Desolation at a city near the narrow part of land leading to the south lands.
6 We put our armies there to try to stop the Lamanites from taking any of our lands. We did everything we could to make that place strong so we could stop them there.
7 During the three hundred sixty-first year, the Lamanites came to the city of Desolation to fight us. We defeated them, so they went back to their own lands.
8 Then in the three hundred sixty-second year, they fought us again. We defeated them again, and killed many of them, and threw their bodies into the sea.
9 Now, because my people, the Nephites, had won these two wars, they began to boast that they were strong enough to defeat the Lamanites all the time. They began promising to get even with the Lamanites for killing so many of their brothers and sisters.
10 They promised by the heavens and by God’s throne that they would fight their enemies and kill all of them in the land.
11 So I, Mormon, refused to be their leader anymore because of their great wickedness.
12 I had led them many times in war despite their wickedness, and I had loved them with all of my heart because of the love of God in me. I had prayed to God for them many times all day long, but I had no faith that they would change because they were so very wicked.
13 Three times I saved them from the Lamanites, but they would not repent of their sins.
14 But when they promised to do everything that Jesus Christ had told them not to do — that is, to begin a war to get even, the Lord said to me:
15 “I will take care of getting even. I will pay back. This people will be destroyed for not repenting after I saved them from their enemies.”
16 So I would not lead them against the Lamanites, but did what the Lord commanded me. I was a witness to the world of what I saw and heard, and to what the Spirit told me was going to happen.
17 I am writing to you, O Gentiles, and to you, O House of Israel, so you will know that when you receive this record, it is almost time for you to go back to your ancestors’ lands.
18 Yes, I am writing to everyone on earth–to you, the twelve tribes of Israel, who will be judged by your works by the apostles Jesus chose in the land of Jerusalem.
19 And I am writing to the rest of the Nephites, who will be judged by the twelve Jesus chose in this land. (The twelve in this land will be judged by the twelve Jesus chose in the land of Jerusalem.)
20 This is what the Spirit has shown me, so I am writing about it for all of you. I am writing this so you will know that you will all stand before Christ and be judged by him. Yes, all the family of Adam and Eve will be judged by their good or bad works.
21 I am also writing this so you will believe the gospel of Jesus Christ, which you will have; and, too, so the Jews will have another witness to tell them that Jesus, whom they killed, was the true Messiah and God.
22 I wish I could make everyone on earth understand and repent and prepare to be judged by Jesus Christ.
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