Across this raging deep in darkness: A reading of Ether 6

It is already fairly well established that Moroni, lacking a Genesis for the Book of Mormon, crafts a reverse creation narrative into the Book of Ether, to wit:

Allusion	Reference
The Tower	Rather than confound the language of the Brother of Jared and his people, the Lord preserves it (Ether 1:33, Gen 11:9)
Noah and the Flood	The Lord commands the Brother of Jared to gather flocks, fowl, and bees and put them into boats (it would seem odd to put a focus on water travel here otherwise) (Ether 2:2-3, Gen 6:18-19)
Antidilluvian Wickedness	The Brother of Jared fails to call on the Lord, he discourses on the fallen nature of man (Ether 2:15, Genesis 6:3)
Expulsion	The Jaredites are “driven out” into the wilderness (Ether 3:3, Genesis 3:26)
Laying Hold on Things	Satan provides fruit to Adam and Eve, which they touch and fall (Gen 3:6) The Brother of Jared provides stones to God, which He touches and reverses the Fall (Ether 3:6)
God opens their    eyes, they are afraid, God asks 4 questions	Genesis 3:6-14; Ether 3:9-13
We Enter God's Presence
The Creation	God discusses the creation (“seest thou that yea are created in my image”) Ether 3:15. Genesis 1:27)

Grant Hardy summarizes it thusly: “Step by step, Moroni's account takes us backward toward creation, reversing the effects of the Fall and re-establishing communion between God and man” (Understanding the Book of Mormon 242).

But that is not all. Notice that Moroni places his Creation Story on a mountain (Ether 3:1, Mount Shelem) which evokes the primal mountain strand of creation mythology, rather than the garden strand. And after the Brother of Jared enters the presence of God – that is, he becomes unfallen – Moroni does not stop his project of going backward toward the beginning:

Allusion	Reference
The Pre-Mortal World	“Yea, even all men were created in the beginning after mine own image…Behold, this body, which ye now behold, is the body of my spirit; and man have I created after the body of my spirit”
A view of human history	The Brother of Jared, from this position in God's presence, is provided a preview of all of human history, as would have occurred at the premortal council in heaven (Ether 3: 25)
All are invited to “rend the veil”	Ether 4:13-14

Now to the point of all of this. From our position within the veil, and narratively prior to the fall, Moroni picks up the Jaredites' story. He has the task of getting us back from the premortal world to mortality to resume his epic of the Jaredites. How is he going to do that?

First, he narratively joins the Brother of Jared within the veil, describing the missions given there to the three witnesses and Joseph Smith.

Then, quite cleverly, as Moroni is very clever, he positions the immediately following account of the Jaredite's voyage as both the narrative of an ocean journey, but also as a commentary on each human's decensus from God's presence, into and through mortality, and back to God like this:

Ether 6:2-12

Purport

[2] For it came to pass after the Lord had prepared the stones which the brother of Jared had carried up into the mount, the brother of Jared came down out of the mount, and he did put forth the stones into the vessels which were prepared, one in each end thereof; and behold, they did give light unto the vessels. [3] And thus the Lord caused stones to shine in darkness, to give light unto men, women, and children, that they might not cross the great waters in darkness. [4] And it came to pass that when they had prepared all manner of food, that thereby they might subsist upon the water, and also food for their flocks and herds, and whatsoever beast or animal or fowl that they should carry with them -- and it came to pass that when they had done all these things they got aboard of their vessels or barges, and set forth into the sea, commending themselves unto the Lord their God. [5] And it came to pass that the Lord God caused that there should be a furious wind blow upon the face of the waters, towards the promised land; and thus they were tossed upon the waves of the sea before the wind. [6] And it came to pass that they were many times buried in the depths of the sea, because of the mountain waves which broke upon them, and also the great and terrible tempests which were caused by the fierceness of the wind. [7] And it came to pass that when they were buried in the deep there was no water that could hurt them, their vessels being tight like unto a dish, and also they were tight like unto the ark of Noah; therefore when they were encompassed about by many waters they did cry unto the Lord, and he did bring them forth again upon the top of the waters. [8] And it came to pass that the wind did never cease to blow towards the promised land while they were upon the waters; and thus they were driven forth before the wind. [9] And they did sing praises unto the Lord; yea, the brother of Jared did sing praises unto the Lord, and he did thank and praise the Lord all the day long; and when the night came, they did not cease to praise the Lord. [10] And thus they were driven forth; and no monster of the sea could break them, neither whale that could mar them; and they did have light continually, whether it was above the water or under the water.  [11] And thus they were driven forth, three hundred and forty and four days upon the water. [12] And they did land upon the shore of the promised land. And when they had set their feet upon the shores of the promised land they bowed themselves down upon the face of the land, and did humble themselves before the Lord, and did shed tears of joy before the Lord, because of the multitude of his tender mercies over them.

We begin in God's presence being prepared (the Heavenly Mount of pre-mortal existence). The Brother of Jared repeats this request of God three times: “suffer not that they shall go forth across this raging deep in darkness”. He has obtained light for his people. Now, the people are going to get into vessels, but these vessels will have lights. The raging deep is mortality. Of course. The vessels are the mortal body. The lights are the pre-existent human soul and the light of Christ, which will illuminate these vessels. Notice here that the stones do not give light to the Jaredites, they give light to “men, women, and children”- everyone. The great waters are, of course, mortality. The "darkness" is an interesting thing, unregenerate human souls are "darkness", look it up. Everything is prepared for them prior to the journey “that they may subsist upon the water”. Notice that “living on the water” neatly evokes the ancient near eastern image of “waters” equaling the waters of chaos. It also reminds us that mortality occurs outside of God's territory (Belial is the god of storms and water) but we are prepared. Going on this journey requires great faith in God. We leave God's presence and enter mortality. They are not left to drift in mortality, God “sends a furious wind” to drive us through the chaos of mortality “toward the promised land”. Mortality contains ups and downs, right? Despite adversity, they have a measure of protection, and can cry to the Lord for relief… This is probably a wise way to spend probation. The Monster and the Whale are authentic ancient images of the power of evil to destroy, see Job It would be interesting to know what the numerological significance of this 344 is...some hebrew numerologist somewhere could tell me… And finally they reach the end of mortality, having survived by faith in God, and His mercy.

What is it That Ye Shall Hope For?

What is it That Ye Shall Hope For?

1.       The Book of Mormon is at play with the ideas of life and death.

2.       This play does the serious theological work of relating death to hope, and tying hope to the resurrection. And making of the resurrection, grace.

3.       The hopeful dying are alive. And the hopeless living are dead.

4.       Several examples of persons who seem dead, but are actually alive, and others who are seem alive but are dead, populate the text.

5.       On the very edge of death himself, Lehi gathers his children to give his final blessing. In chapter 2, he repeatedly talks to his young and very much apparently alive sons about how they are, in fact, dead. He beseeches them to “arise from the dust” thrice, and tells them to “awake from the sleep [of death]” and “break the bands [of death]”.

6.       At the same time, Lehi, who is in the very act of dying, talks about himself as if he actually were ever living: “the Lord has redeemed my soul from hell…I have beheld His glory and am encircled about eternally in the arms of His love.”

7.       500 and some years later, Samuel the Lamanite says “all mankind, by the fall of Adam being cut off from the presence of the Lord, are considered as dead, both as to things temporal and to things spiritual [Helaman 14:16].” “Temporal” and “spiritual” must mean, at a minimum, “totally dead in all the ways one can be dead”.  “All mankind” equals a lot of people who think they are alive, but are, from the text’s perspective, somehow dead.

8.       Alma the Younger, the Lamanite King Lamoni are instances of people who seem dead but are really alive. The three Nephites are, too.  So is the Angel Moroni who brings the Book.

9.       Apparently, the Book of Mormon wants to problematize the seemingly straightforward ideas of what it is to live, and what it is to die.

10.   Observe that – with the exception of some divine miracle - the dead are those who cannot hope to live, because they are dead.

11.   Observe that – with the exception of some divine miracle- the living must die, and so they cannot hope to live either. At the very best, the living are merely dying.

12.   What is it that we, the dying, shall hope for?

13.   “Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise [Moroni 7:41].”.

14.   We hope to be raised.

15.   We who are dying, we who are dead, are, by hope, oriented toward a life that is already gifted to us by God.  A “life of hope” is “death oriented toward the life of Christ”.

16.   Hope is dying in the light of the Resurrection, which means we are not dead, and cannot die.

17.   “Hopelessness” is living without the Resurrection; oriented toward the inexorability of death. It is “living death.”  It is life oriented toward death.

18.   The hopeless hope to save their lives and thereby lose them. The hopeful hope to lose their lives in Christ and thereby save them. He said that.

19.   The Resurrection must be a gift. Hope must be a gift. The dead cannot bring themselves to life.

20.   Therefore, the only thing that we, the dying, can give in order to receive the gift is to die.

21.   We, the hopeful dead, who are dying oriented toward the life of Christ, live by His gift. Our lives do not belong to us because we know we are dead.

22.   “Salvation” is the name of the life that is gifted to us when we die to ourselves.

23.    The only human act necessary to receive the gift is to be willing to receive it.

24.   That is to say, the only thing humans can offer God is to be willing to die. We only have our will. We only have our lives. We are only asked to give what we have.

25.   The Book of Mormon formulates thusly:

Jacob in 2 Nephi 10:24: “…reconcile yourselves to the will of God, and not to the will of the devil and the flesh; and remember, after ye are reconciled unto God, that it is only in and through the grace of God that ye are saved.”

Nephi, his brother, in 2 Nephi 25:23: “For we labor diligently to…persuade our children…to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.”

26.   Taken together (as they are surely intended to be) these statements remind us that “all we can do” is to be willing to be reconciled to the will of God.

27.   Our will is to surrender to God.

28.   His will is that we, though dead, receive life. That life is His gift. That life is grace.   

29.   And “all we” – the dead –“can do” is to be willing to die. Humans cannot “do” more than that. We can only give what we have: our lives and our will.

30.   Faith is to be willing.

31.   Therefore: we, the willing dead, are saved by faith through grace. We then live in hope of the Resurrection.  

32.   We, the hopeful dying, are alive.