First, are we talking about Nephi or Moroni? According to Times and Seasons Vol. III pp. 749, 753, which Joseph Smith, Jr. edited:
"When I first looked upon him I was afraid, but the fear soon left me. He called me by name, and said unto me that he was a messenger sent from the presence of God to me, and that his name was Nephi. That God has a work for me to do, ... He said there was a book deposited written upon gold plates, giving an account of the former inhabitants of this continent, and the source from whence they sprang."
The digital version of TImes and Seasons has been changed by the LDS Church to read "Moroni" instead of "Nephi." The original printed version edited by Joseph Smith, Jr., is still "Nephi."
The August, 1842, edition of the LDS publication, Millennial Star, printed in England , also published Joseph Smith's story and stated that the angel's name was "Nephi" (see Millennial Star, vol. 3, p.53). On page 71 of the same volume it states that the "...message of the angel Nephi ... opened a new dispensation to man...."
In the 1853 LDS Biographical Sketch (p. 79) of Lucy Mack Smith, the mother of Joseph Smith, Jr., she states that the name of the angel who appeared to Joseph Smith was Nephi.
In both Joseph Smith's handwritten copy of The Pearl of Great Price and the 1851 edition of the same book (page 41) it states:
"He called me by name and said unto me, that he was a messenger sent from the presence of God to me, and that his name was Nephi."
A doctoral candidate at Brigham Young University named Walter L. Whipple wrote a thesis titled "Textual Changes in the Pearl of Great Price." In it he notes that Orson Pratt changed the name from Nephi to Moroni in 1878. Fairmormon.org acknowledges that changes were made to the Pearl of Great Price but leaves a stub link to discuss them eventually.
The 1853 edition of Lucy Mack Smith's "Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith the Prophet and His Progenitors of [for] Many Generations," which refers to the Angel Nephi, was banned by Brigham Young and burned and destroyed, according to the LDS newspaper, The Deseret News, June 21, 1865. It was later republished with the name of Nephi changed to Moroni, among other changes.
So are we talking about Nephi or Moroni?
I'm asking for historical purposes. Because, historically, Joseph Smith, Jr. first identified the angel who appeared to him as Nephi. This is not a theological argument and I respect the rights of all to their religious beliefs. But let's get history straight.
He’s flipped around so many times on who or what he saw or did. There’s three different versions alone on how he “translated” the Book of Mormon.
MORMON history??
Good luck!
The MORMON god can't even get it's MIND straight!