These Sought Their Register

It’s important to have your name written in the right places.

After the children of Israel sculpted and worshipped a golden calf, Moses tried to offer himself in their place, saying to God, “Blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written.” God declined the offer, affirming individual accountability using the same imagery: “Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book” (Exodus 32:32-33).

Twice, Moses took a census, recording the number of people in each family, with special treatment of the priests and Levites (see Numbers 1-3; 26), establishing a precedent of record-keeping. Centuries later, when some of the descendants of these people returned from captivity in Babylon, they employed a similar record to reinstitute temple rituals in Jerusalem (see Ezra 2, Nehemiah 7). Their leaders used lists of names to identify descendants of priests and Levites in order to ensure that authorized people performed sacred temple responsibilities. Some who claimed the right to officiate were not found in the official records:

These sought their register among those that were reckoned by genealogy, but they were not found: therefore were they, as polluted, put from the priesthood.

Ezra 2:62; compare Nehemiah 7:64

In the Book of Mormon, King Benjamin initiated a similar practice. Calling his people together at the end of his life to give them a name, which he said “never shall be blotted out, except it be through transgression” (Mosiah 1:12), he preached a sermon that resulted in the people seeking and receiving a remission of their sins (Mosiah 4:1-3) and making a covenant to obey God for the rest of their lives (Mosiah 5:5). Benjamin “thought it was expedient … that he should take the names of all those who had entered into a covenant with God to keep his commandments” (Mosiah 6:1).

A few years later, Alma organized churches among the same people. God instructed him that those who chose not to follow the teachings of the church should not be numbered among the people of the church, and “their names were blotted out” (Mosiah 26:36). Alma’s son, also named Alma, later connected this earthly practice with a heavenly one:

And now I say unto you, all you that are desirous to follow the voice of the good shepherd, come ye out from the wicked, and be ye separate, and touch not their unclean things; and behold, their names shall be blotted out, that the names of the wicked shall not be numbered among the names of the righteous, that the word of God may be fulfilled, which saith: The names of the wicked shall not be mingled with the names of my people;
For the names of the righteous shall be written in the book of life, and unto them will I grant an inheritance at my right hand.

Alma 5:57-58; compare Psalm 69:28

Jesus reaffirmed the importance of this practice. When He visited the descendants of Benjamin’s and Alma’s people, He quoted to them the following words of Malachi (a contemporary of Ezra and Nehemiah):

Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another, and the Lord hearkened and heard; and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name.
And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of Hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.
Then shall ye return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not.

3 Nephi 24:16-18; compare Malachi 3:16-18

The registry of names described in Ezra and Nehemiah prescribes who is permitted to serve God in the temple. But this book of remembrance described by Malachi serves more of the purpose described by Benjamin and Alma: recording who is willing to serve God and who is not. In fact, during the ministry of the younger Alma, some people requested that their names be removed:

The hearts of many were hardened, and their names were blotted out, that they were remembered no more among the people of God. And also many withdrew themselves from among them.

Alma 1:24

At the end of the Book of Mormon, Moroni provides more detail about how this name-keeping worked in practice. When people chose to be baptized, “their names were taken, that they might be remembered and nourished by the good word of God.” If a church member committed iniquity, “and if they repented not, and confessed not, their names were blotted out, and they were not numbered among the people of Christ.” But Moroni adds this important provision: “As oft as they repented and sought forgiveness, with real intent, they were forgiven” (Moroni 6:4, 7-8).

The desirability of being included in the book matches the accounts of Ezra and Nehemiah, but the criterion for being included is more expansive. Instead of proving genealogy, the people had to attest to fidelity. Their inclusion in the book was entirely within their control.

Today I will be grateful to have my name recorded on church membership records. I will strive to live in a way that honors that record, so that my name can be included in a far more important registry in heaven.