One of the interesting things about the war between Amalackiah and Captain Moroni in the book of Mormon is that while Moroni was fighting a defensive war, he was always proactive and never reactive. Moroni was not interested in waiting to see what the enemy did or in doing things the way they had always been done. Warfare used to be fought with basically no personal protection? Well, we’re going to give all of the soldiers armor. The enemies have armor now, too? That’s nice. We’ve moved onto moats and walls and fortifications. Now the enemies have forts of their own? We’re not going to fight yesterday’s battle and attack them in their fort. We’ll use trickery and subterfuge to draw them out. They won’t do a prisoner exchange? We’ll just break in and arm all of our captured people. Oh, and we’ll free all of our own prisoners and convert them to our religion so we don’t have to keep feeding them. Moroni’s enemies were constantly caught flat-footed and playing catch up because Moroni was not one to sit and rest on his laurels. Moroni knew that he was facing off against a cunning foe with superior numbers. Whatever tactic he tried one day would be used against him the next. Moroni understood that the best defense is a good offense. “Yea, verily, verily I say unto you, if all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men.” (Alma 48:17). The reason that the powers of hell would be shaken forever if we were all like unto Moroni is simple. Satan and all of the forces of Hell, including his servant Amalackiah, were so flummoxed by Moroni because they had to keep throwing out the playbook on how to deal with him every other day. Satan loves the standard definition of insanity - doing the same thing every day and expecting different results - because if he can get us to act in this insane way, then he knows how to tempt and trip us up every time, because we keep doing the same thing. Although all of us are engaged in a constant and deadly battle between the forces of heaven and hell with infinite stakes, and despite the fact that we are minute by minute in the thick of it and getting wounded all of the time, nevertheless, we spend a lot of our time acting like noncombatant refugees. We don’t try to arm and armor ourselves. We don’t even try to take cover. We just walk naked through the middle of no man’s land in a straight line with our head down and with no support or back up and then beat ourselves up for being terrible soldiers when we inevitably get taken out by a shell or a bullet. How would the forces of evil fare against us if we took a leaf out of Captain Moroni’s book? Would we always find ourselves surrounded by sins that easily beset us if we studied the battlefield and chose the most favorable position and dug in and filled in our ranks with fellow soldiers and posted lookouts and sent out scouting parties and called in air support? If we took a proactive approach to resisting Satan and his temptations, identifying his tactics and our own weaknesses, brainstorming and consulting with the Lord for innovative strategies and techniques, and best of all, refusing to march blindly into a battlefield that has been engineered to guarantee our failure but rather preparing a battlefield of our own that is engineered to guarantee our success, then we would truly shake the powers of hell. We might not want to have to put in the effort day in and day out to change up our approach and strategy and tactics, we might not want to be in a battle all of the time, but Satan is still going to try and destroy our souls whether we prepare for it or not. Christ is the Lord of Hosts. He led the forces of good in the War in Heaven and He leads them still. And He would sure appreciate it if we stopped acting so much like cannon fodder or like lambs running cheerfully to the slaughter and instead, like Captain Moroni, showed a little initiative and cunning and laid the foundation for the best defense by developing a good offense. I know if we will work with the Savior then Satan will have no power over us.
