If anyone asked you who wrote The Book of Mormon, what would you say? After some thought you would have to answer, Mormon, because he did. Why is it that we usually have to stop to think about this answer? This question is largely confusing because when we read the Book of Mormon, apart from the occasional editorial commentary, the voice we hear is not the voice of Mormon, but the voice of God. How did Mormon successfully accomplish this? Mormon's ability to allow God's voice to be heard throughout the Book of Mormon was not due to his writing skills but to a quality of character he developed from his youth. In describing himself as a 15 year old with a sober mind he says he was "visited of the Lord and tasted and knew of the goodness of Jesus" (Mormon 1:15).
Mormon lived during the most evil period of American history and witnessed the destruction of the entire Nephite civilization. At the tender age of 16 he became the leader of the Nephite armies (Mormon 2:1,2), an appointment which began his valiant ministry among the Nephites with firm hopes of circumventing inevitable doom. His frantic and heart wrenching calls to repentance despite his better judgment were for one purpose only - to bring salvation to others. Likewise, his purpose in writing and compiling The Book of Mormon was not to distinguish himself as a writer but to have us, in our day, "come unto Christ" (Mormon 8:35). When the Saviour lived among men He had a pure motive to save us without a hidden agenda for his own advancement. It is because of this purity of motive "which seeketh not her own" that we call His love "the pure love of Christ" (Moroni 7:45,46). Mormon had no wish to further himself in his work among his fellowman, only "to declare His word among His people, that they might have everlasting life" (3 Nephi 5:13). It is his purity of motive that enabled him to give Christ the voice throughout The Book of Mormon and that guided him to write:
"And behold I am called Mormon.....and I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God..."
(3 Nephi 5:12,13).
