MOSIAH 15:1-5—AN ANCIENT PERSPECTIVE
ON MONOTHEISM
The Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4), a
priestly blessing recited by Jews even today, says, “Hear, O Israel, our Lord
God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart.”
People tend to view the word “one” as meaning only one God numerically—but the
ancient text was understood in terms of there being only one true and
faithful God. It has more to do with exclusive loyalty rather than
numerical counting.
Abinadi replaced the text in Isaiah
52:7, “Thy God reigneth,” with “The Son reigneth” (Mosiah 15:20), and
thereby emphasized that the Son is the Messiah who will come and redeem.
Abinadi explained in what sense Christ is the Son and the Father.
Christ is the Son because He will be born to a human mother in a miraculous
way. However, He will also be the Father, because He is the Creator of heaven
and earth (Mosiah 3:8), and because we are spiritually born again as Christ’s
sons and daughters (Mosiah 5:7). Christ is the very Eternal Father of heaven
and earth, but not of the whole cosmos. That is God the Father. (John W. Welch, Inspiration
and Insights from the Book of Mormon: A Come, Follow Me Commentary [American
Fork, Utah: Covenant Communications, Inc., 2023], 126)