When Moroni raised the title of liberty - invoking the memory of our God, religion, freedom, peace and families - he must have struck a heart-felt and emotional chord in the souls of all those who saw and heard him. (See Alma 46:12.)
And today, his words have the same effect on the honest in heart everywhere.
What more can anyone ask than the safety, refuge, peace and joy that come from true liberty and freedom?
That liberty and freedom, of course, come by keeping the commandments and fully partaking of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Moroni, whom the scriptures tell us was a "man with perfect understanding," evidently knew well of the cause-and-effect relationship between "keeping the commandments and resisting iniquity" and having liberty and peace. (See Alma 48.)
Unfortunately, too many others - both then and now - evidently don't understand that relationship.
Because some Book of Mormon peoples failed to realize that righteousness is essential to achieve freedom and liberty, their societies sometimes followed this tragic cycle: Their prosperity led to carnality and subsequent rejection of God. With that rejection, the Lord withdrew His Spirit. Social upheaval resulted. Eventually, if the people were sorrowful and repented, God restored His blessings. If they didn't repent, they suffered the consequences. Too often, of course, they didn't repent.
Our society today may be guilty of similar things - throwing ourselves into the same destructive cycle. To maintain our freedom and liberty, we should learn from the Book of Mormon. And, as the Book of Mormon was written for our day, we should pay particular heed to this lesson.
Two great Book of Mormon prophets Moroni, who raised the title of liberty and was the chief captain of the Nephites; and Nephi, son of Helaman - teach the lesson well. And their examples suggest that external circumstances are irrelevant in determining individual righteousness.
Moroni, for example, labored among a people that was largely righteous, fighting a generally unrighteous enemy. For Nephi, however, it was his own people who presented the unrighteous challenges.
Individually, however, Moroni and Nephi were righteous.
Moroni's "soul did joy in the liberty and freedom of his country." (Alma 48:11) To ensure that he, his family and his countrymen would always have that liberty and freedom, Moroni developed Christlike qualities and drew blessings from God.
Specifically, the scriptures say, he was thankful, had great faith, labored mightily for the welfare of his people, kept the commandments and resisted iniquity. (See Alma 48:11-12, 16.)
In short, he willingly obeyed.
In fact, Moroni had so-aligned his life with that of the Savior that, if all men were like him, "the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever" and the devil, that great destroyer of all that is good, "would never have power over the hearts of the children of men." (Alma 48:17)
