In its descriptions of the problems of today’s society, [the Book of Mormon] is as current as the morning newspaper and much more definitive, inspired, and inspiring concerning the solutions of those problems.

—Elder Gordon B. Hinckley[1]

The overarching historiographical theme of Mormon’s record, as we have seen, is the failure of the Nephite nation. The book is not a random collection of events from Nephite history—not even of spiritual and moral events—but a coherent account of how the behavior of the Nephites eventually led to their tragic end. Concomitant with the telling of that story, Mormon emphasizes a number of specific, interrelated themes, as we discussed in chapter 11. Note that because the following analysis emphasizes the historical narrative and broad historiographical themes of Mormon’s account, I will touch on theological passages only insofar as they are relevant to historical developments.

Books of Enos, Jarom, and Omni

I will begin the historical survey of Mormon’s record by making a few initial remarks about the books of Enos, Jarom and Omni. These are clearly not part of Mormon’s record, but a few observations may be helpful in providing a clearer historical context for the early part of Mormon’s account.

Enos, in his brief contribution to the small plates, describes the spiritual state of the Nephites during his life. They were, he said, an extremely “stiffnecked” people that were hurtling toward destruction. The only bulwark against this fate, he says, was “exceeding harshness, preaching and prophesying of wars, and contentions, and destructions, . . . stirring them up continually to keep them in the fear of the Lord” (see Enos 1:22–23).

Things did not improve thereafter. We should note in passing that the main purpose of Nephi’s “small plates” seems to have been lost sight of after the book of Enos. Nephi had said specifically that this set of plates was specifically not meant to cover the reigns of kings and wars but was designed to contain matters relating to “the ministry” (1 Nephi 9:3), such as preaching, revelation, and prophecy (1 Nephi 19:3; Jacob 1:4). He had also specifically commanded his brother Jacob not to deal with the history of his people, except very briefly. Rather, he should summarize as fully as possible any “preaching which was sacred, or revelation which was great, or prophesying” (Jacob 1:3–4).

Yet Jarom, in the second verse of his record, states bluntly that “I shall not write the things of my prophesying, nor of my revelations.” He thus suggests that while he has received revelations and prophesied, for some reason he is not interested in recording them in these plates. What his predecessors have written, he says, “sufficeth me” (Jarom 1:2). Instead, he provides a brief survey of the moral and spiritual state of his people and some broad historical notes. He notes specifically that while there were still many people who received revelations, the majority of the population had hard hearts, deaf ears, and stiff necks and no longer harkened much to the preachings of the prophets and teachers, who were teaching the doctrine of a coming Messiah (vv. 3, 11). He declares that it was only because of God’s mercy that he had “not as yet swept them off from the face of the land” (v. 3), indicating his familiarity with the prophecies of the ultimate destruction of the Nephites (2 Nephi 26:9–11; Enos 1:13).

Jarom tells us that “the laws of the land were exceedingly strict” (Jarom 1:5), suggesting that it had been necessary for the kings to begin ruling more strictly to keep the people from getting out of control (and thus hastening their destruction). As a result, he believes, they were blessed to be able to withstand the attacks of the Lamanites, and they were blessed with prosperity: they became “exceedingly rich in gold, and in silver, and in precious things, and in fine workmanship of wood, in buildings, and in machinery, and also in iron and copper, and brass and steel,” and in the manufacture of weaponry (v. 8). Because their kings and leaders were “mighty men in the faith of the Lord, and they taught the people the ways of the Lord” (v. 7), and they did “prick [the] hearts [of the people] with the word, continually stirring them up unto repentance,” they kept the people from being utterly “destroyed upon the face of the land” (v. 12).

The book of Omni has even less to do with the designated purpose of the “small plates”; it mentions next to nothing regarding prophecies, revelation, or even preaching. By this time, however, there seems to have been an almost complete absence of such divine manifestations. Abinadom states explicitly that he is not aware of any type of revelation or prophecy beyond what had already been recorded (Omni 1:11). Instead, we are given a quick résumé of historical events, particularly mentioning wars and destructions. There were “many seasons of serious war and bloodshed” (v. 3), and “the more wicked part of the Nephites were destroyed” (v. 5). Why? Because the Lord “would not suffer that the words should not be verified, which he spake unto our fathers, saying that: Inasmuch as ye will not keep my commandments ye shall not prosper in the land” (v. 6). The righteous, he insists, were delivered from the hands of their enemies.

The wars between the Nephites and Lamanites became increasingly fierce, and at some point Mosiah was given a specific divine warning to abandon the land of Nephi (Omni 1:12) with as many as were willing to accompany him into the wilderness. The specific reason for the Lord’s command is not given, though doubtless it was explained in the missing Book of Lehi.[2] If we read this command in light of the available historical context, however, it is plausible to conclude that the Nephites (presumably because of their wickedness) were being conquered by the Lamanites and the Lord wanted to preserve a remnant of the Nephites—ultimately by combining them with the people of Zarahemla, thereby saving both nations simultaneously.

Mosiah left the land of Nephi with all those who were willing to “hearken unto the voice of the Lord”; they were preserved only by being “led by many preachings and prophesyings” (which were not preserved for us in the plates) and by being “admonished continually by the word of God.” They were led through the wilderness “by the power of [God’s] arm” until they arrived at the land of Zarahemla (Omni 1:13).

The people of Zarahemla, in contrast, were significantly more numerous than the arriving Nephites, even though they, too, had suffered from “many wars and serious contentions” (Omni 1:17) over the years. As no external enemies are mentioned, we can presume that these wars and contentions were internal ones, which is indicative of what is to come in the future.

The two peoples then united together but as two separate nations, with a single king over both groups (see Mosiah 25:4, 12–13). The people of Zarahemla seem surprisingly willing not only to accept the immigrants as equal citizens, but also to adopt the Nephite language (their languages clearly had a common Hebrew origin), and even to accept their leader, Mosiah, as their king (Omni 1:19). Perhaps they had been sufficiently chastised by the Lord and come to the realization of the desperate straits they were in politically and culturally. Lacking any kind of written records, they were undoubtedly illiterate, and they had lost their religious beliefs as well.

Benjamin, the son of Mosiah, succeeded to the kingship. Although the Nephites had emigrated in order to escape from the Lamanites, somehow the Lamanites also made their way to Zarahemla, and there was “a serious war and much bloodshed between the Nephites and the Lamanites” (Omni 1:24), but Benjamin was able to lead his army to victory and the Lamanites were driven out of the land.

Apparently a certain number of Nephites experienced sorrow for having abandoned the lands of their inheritance, and during Benjamin’s reign two sizable groups departed from Zarahemla with the intent to reclaim their lands in the land of Nephi. The first attempt resulted in total disaster, as yet another huge contention arose among the members of the group and all were killed apart from fifty who returned to Zarahemla. The second group, which was led by Zeniff and presumably included the fifty survivors, departed not long afterward, and they disappeared for many years, with no contact with Zarahemla.

The Words of Mormon

In the meantime, Mormon tells us, Benjamin struggled during the first part of his reign with both internal contentions and external warfare against the Lamanites (Words of Mormon 1:12–13). It is not clear to what extent the contentions might have been between the Nephites and the people of Zarahemla, but even after the Lamanites had been driven out of the land, there was much domestic contention, even to the point that many of the people of Benjamin became dissenters and left to join up with the Lamanites (v. 16). This is a pattern that begins early and continues throughout Mormon’s history. Nevertheless, with immense effort on the part of the king (who enforced the laws with strictness) and various holy men (who spoke the word of the Lord with power and “much sharpness”), they finally succeeded in again establishing peace in the land. King Benjamin, Mormon tells us, had to “[labor] with all the might of his body and the faculty of his whole soul, and also the prophets” (vv. 17–18).

The Book of Mosiah

That peace was maintained by Benjamin throughout the rest of his reign, but, again, it was only by establishing a very strict rule. Benjamin states that he did not permit the people to “commit any manner of wickedness” (Mosiah 2:13). In addition, while there were “false Christs” in the land, “their mouths had been shut,” Mormon tells us, and they were “punished according to their crimes” (Words of Mormon 1:15–16).

As he approached the end of his life, Benjamin decided not only to designate a successor but actually to confer the rule on one of his sons before his death (three years before his death, as it turned out; Mosiah 1:9–10; 6:5).[3] There were probably several reasons he took this step. He mentions that he had grown very weak and that the Lord commanded him to consecrate his son in his stead (2:30). In addition, it is not unreasonable to suppose that he was concerned, as Mosiah would be in his turn, with continuity of rule and wanted to head off the likelihood that a rebellion might break out after his death between the supporters of two or more of his sons (29:7). History is littered with accounts of violent interregnums, and maintaining continuity has always been a major concern to monarchs throughout the millennia. Benjamin hints at this concern when, immediately after announcing that Mosiah is going to be made the new king, he says, “But, O my people, beware lest there shall arise contentions among you, and ye list to obey the evil spirit, which was spoken of by my father Mosiah. For behold, there is a wo pronounced upon him who listeth to obey that spirit” (2:32–33).[4]

Following this kingship ceremony, in which Benjamin persuaded the people to take upon themselves the name of Christ and make a formal covenant with God “to do his will, and to be obedient to his commandments in all things that he shall command us” (Mosiah 5:5–8), Mosiah was consecrated as “ruler and . . . king” (6:3) and continued the strict rule of his father, so that “there was no contention among all his people for the space of three years” (v. 7).

One peculiarity of Mormon as a historian, as already mentioned, is that he was not very interested in discussing the “happy times” of the Nephites. Although he mentions them, he treats them summarily, while his primary focus is on the conflicts and wars of the people. Accordingly, he immediately switches our attention away from the Nephites in Zarahemla to Ammon’s expedition to learn the fate of the second group that had left to reclaim its heritage in the land of Nephi. We are not told in the book of Omni whether there had been any overt civil conflict that led to either of those groups choosing to depart from Zarahemla. However, Mormon makes it clear that the king was reluctant to let a third party leave for the land of Nephi, but finally conceded after they “wearied him with their teasings” (Mosiah 7:1). Oddly, the leader of the group was Ammon, a descendant of Zarahemla. Presumably the people interested in the lands of Nephi were descendants of Nephi rather than the people of Zarahemla, raising the question whether Ammon was merely hired on as the leader of the expedition because he was a “strong and mighty man” (v. 3), or whether he had other reasons for wanting to leave Zarahemla.

In any case, we learn that Zeniff, the leader of the expedition to recover the lands, had been “over-zealous to inherit the land of his fathers” (Mosiah 7:21). Zeniff, in his own record, acknowledges the same (9:3) and also relates briefly the intense civil conflict that arose in the first expedition between him and the leader of the expedition. That “austere and blood-thirsty” man wanted to slaughter the Lamanites occupying the Nephites’ old lands, while Zeniff wanted to make a treaty with them because, he says, “I saw that which was good among them.” The conflict between the two men intensified to the point that the leader sought to have Zeniff killed, and the latter’s life was saved only at the cost of “the shedding of much blood.” A massive internal conflict ensued in which “father fought against father, and brother against brother” until nearly the entire expeditionary force was destroyed. The survivors then returned in humiliation to Zarahemla to tell the shameful tale “to their wives and children” (vv. 1–2).

Despite the utter disaster of the first expedition, Zeniff and others refused to give up hope of recovering their ancestral lands and set out once again with another force, Zeniff now acting as leader. When they approached the king of the Lamanites in that area, they received permission to settle peacefully, and the king even required the current Lamanite inhabitants to abandon their lands in favor of the Nephite settlers.

They dwelt in peace for twelve years (about which are told almost nothing!), only to discover afterward that the Lamanite king’s generosity had a dark side: he was waiting for the Nephite settlers to develop the agriculture in the area with the intent of taking them into bondage and appropriating their crops and their flocks. When the king began to be concerned that the settlers were becoming too strong to dominate, he began to attack them. Zeniff and his people, however, cried mightily to the Lord and were delivered out of their hands, “for we were awakened to a remembrance of the deliverance of our fathers” (Mosiah 9:17), but only at the cost of many lives. This victory was sufficient for another period of time: “we did have continual peace in the land for the space of twenty and two years” (10:5). However, when the Lamanite king’s son succeeded to the rule, they attacked once again, requiring Zeniff and many others to fight in their old age, but because they did “go up in the strength of the Lord to battle,” they were victorious and succeeded in driving the enemy out of their lands (vv. 10, 20).

Zeniff conferred the kingdom upon one of his sons, Noah, who “did not walk in the ways of his father” but instead “did cause his people to commit sin” (Mosiah 11:1–2). According to the doctrine of sacral kingship in antiquity discussed in chapter 1 herein, the king bore the primary responsibility for the behavior of his people. The king acted as a kind of semi-deity on earth, and his behavior had a massive impact on the prosperity or failure of his people. According to an Old Testament scholar, “In the ultimate, therefore, the righteousness of the nation is dependent on the righteousness of the king.”[5] Noah imposed a tax of 20 percent on the population, and with that revenue he built a large number of buildings in the land, including “many elegant and spacious buildings” richly decorated with wood and precious metals, among which was a large palace for himself (vv. 8–13). However, he also deposed all the priests of his father and consecrated his own, men who were “lifted up in the pride of their hearts” and who lived off the taxes imposed on the people and thus were “supported in their laziness, and in their idolatry, and in their whoredoms” (vv. 5–6). One of these priests was Alma the Elder.

Gross sins were not limited to the king and his ministers, however. During this period of relative prosperity, the Lamanites attacked again, and Noah was able to muster his forces and drive them back “for a time” (Mosiah 11:18), causing them to be “lifted up in the pride of their own hearts, boasting of their success and delighting in the shedding of blood. Among the people of Zeniff was a man named Abinadi, who began to prophesy and call the king and his attendants to repentance. He insisted that despite their temporary successes against the Lamanites, the Lord would “deliver them into the hands of their enemies” and they would be “brought into bondage” unless they repented “in sackcloth and ashes” (vv. 21, 25). After the passage of two years, the Lord called Abinadi to preach the message of repentance again—“for they have hardened their hearts against my words; they have repented not of their evil doings.” Indeed, their suffering for their sins was to be harsh: they would be afflicted with famine and pestilence to the point that they would “howl all the day long.” Like the Egyptians in the time of Moses, they would be afflicted with hail, insects to destroy their crops, and pestilence—and they would even be utterly destroyed “from off the face of the earth” unless they repented. Nevertheless, a record of their “abominations” would be kept for other nations to witness (12:1–8).

Eventually Abinadi’s bluntness became too much for the king, and he was arrested, interrogated, and ultimately executed by fire, but not before Abinadi prophesied that the king and his followers would also suffer a fiery death. Alma, who had been pricked in his heart by Abinadi’s words, tried to defend the prophet but to no avail. Instead, Alma found himself in opposition to the king and had to flee to the wilderness where he could hide himself and his followers from the king’s men. What is particularly curious about Alma in this situation is that he began baptizing his followers into the “fold of God,” and they in turn entered a covenant to serve God throughout the rest of their lives.

This group came to be known as “the church of God” or “church of Christ.” Mormon emphasizes the fundamental idea of “unity” among this people—“there should be no contention one with another, but . . . they should look forward with one eye, having one faith and one baptism, having their hearts knit together in unity and in love one towards another” (Mosiah 18:21). Note that Mormon repeats this command in 23:15, where Alma reiterates to his people that “every man should love his neighbor as himself, that there should be no contention among them.”

It is not at all clear where the idea came from to organize a “church.” No such organization existed among the Nephites, as is clear when Alma and his people arrived in Zarahemla. Although the Nephites had consecrated priests and teachers who served and taught in the temple, those were officials of the state and served the entire people (e.g., 2 Nephi 6:2; Jacob 1:17–18; Mosiah 6:3; 11:4–5). This new organization was only indirectly controlled by the state (Mosiah 25:19), being ruled strictly by the high priest and not the king (26:12). Moreover, membership in the church was limited to those who chose to be baptized, and there were many who did not elect to be baptized (v. 4). It is possible, of course, that Alma had the entire concept of a church and baptism revealed to him by God, but we are not told this. There are numerous seeming parallels, however, between Alma’s church and the people of Qumran who produced the Dead Sea Scrolls, and it is possible that these kinds of practices had cultural roots among the Israelites to a degree that we are not aware of.[6] The emphasis on unity is particularly notable. The “sect” of the Qumranites was called the yahad, or “unity,” which is sometimes translated as “church.”[7] Mormon notes that after Limhi became king, his people also entered into such a covenant, but they refrained from forming a “church” and being baptized because they lacked divine authority (21:31–34).

King Noah was taken captive and put to death by fire, in fulfillment of prophecy. He was succeeded by his son Limhi, who became a tributary monarch to the Lamanites, swearing to pay them one-half of all his people possessed (Mosiah 19:26). The Lamanites harassed them periodically, and to the extent that they suffered under the power of the Lamanites, Mormon emphasized the fulfillment of the prophecy of Abinadi that the people would be “brought into bondage and . . . smitten on the cheek” (12:1–8) because of the refusal to repent. Even when they humbled themselves to the dust and cried mightily to God for deliverance, “the Lord was slow to hear their cry because of their iniquities.” Yet he “began to soften the hearts of the Lamanites that they began to ease their burdens.” Although “the Lord did not see fit to deliver them out of bondage,” “they began to prosper by degrees in the land, and began to raise grain more abundantly, and flocks, and herds, that they did not suffer with a great hunger” (21:14–16).

In a similar way, Mormon observes that the people of Alma, for all their righteousness and devotion to God, were not immediately liberated by the Lord from all difficulties. At first they succeeded in escaping from the armies of King Noah, and the Lord “strengthened them that the people of king Noah could not overtake them to destroy them” (Mosiah 23:2). They settled in a different part of the land where they “did multiply exceedingly” and built a city (v. 20). Nevertheless, they were again brought into bondage when an army of Lamanites came upon their settlement and took possession of it. The people of Alma were placed under the rule of Amulon, the leader of Noah’s priests, who abused them and even forbade them to raise their cries to God, on pain of death. In this dire circumstance, the Lord told them to “lift up your heads and be of good comfort,” and he promised them deliverance (24:14). Although God granted them the strength necessary to “bear up their burdens with ease,” they were not delivered from bondage for a period of time. This might be seen as countering the principle that God prospers those who obey him, but Mormon notes that on occasion “the Lord seeth fit to chasten his people; yea, he trieth their patience and their faith” (23:21).

In the meantime, important developments were taking place among the Lamanites. Amulon was favored by the king of the Lamanites, who appointed members of Amulon’s community as teachers over the Lamanites, “in every land which was possessed by his people.” As a result, the Lamanites became more civilized, learning how to write how to keep written records and to write correspondence; subsequently they “began to increase in riches, and began to trade one with another and wax great. Yet they did not give up their addiction to “all manner of wickedness and plunder” (Mosiah 24:1–7). Mormon does not tell us specifically that the Lamanites began at this point to build and to live in cities; Lamanite cities are not mentioned until Alma 23, which was some twenty-five years later. Previously we were told by Enos that they lived only in tents and ate raw meat (Enos 1:20). Yet it is only reasonable to suppose that there was some correlation between the development of literacy and trade and the growth of urbanization. This is an important development leading up to the later preaching of the Nephites to the Lamanites and their religious conversion.

Mormon explains how the people of Limhi and the followers of Alma made their way back to Zarahemla. As discussed in chapter 3 herein, Mormon did not include any discussion of events that occurred in the land of Zarahemla during the period of the people of Zeniff. It is not clear how many years passed between the departure of Zeniff and Limhi’s return to Zarahemla, but it may have been roughly eighty years (200–121 BC). It appears that while Mormon himself was extremely interested in precise matters of chronology, when dates were available, many of his sources, including the plates of Zeniff and Alma, did not pay much attention to such things.

Once these groups had returned, Mosiah held a grand ceremony uniting the people of Nephi, the people of Zarahemla, the people of Zeniff, and the followers of Alma, along with the children of Amulon and his followers who had renounced the ways of their fathers. The first two groups, who shared a common ruler but still regarded themselves as separate peoples, effected a political union (Mosiah 25:13). The records of the peoples of Zeniff and Alma were read in assembly.

Then, in a very significant move, Mosiah allowed Alma both to baptize those who so wished and, most importantly, to establish the “church of God” in the land, after the practice that Alma had established when he was living in the wilderness with his followers. This church, or sect, was, as we have seen, organized around the concepts of unity, love, and absence of contention. Baptism was a sign that a person had entered into a covenant with God “to serve him and keep his commandments” (Mosiah 18:10). From this perspective, perhaps we should view the covenant that Benjamin’s people had entered into en masse during the kingship ceremony (5:5–9) as preparatory for this more individualized practice of covenanting through baptism. We are not told what percentage of the people were baptized and joined this church, only that “whosoever were desirous to take upon them the name of Christ, or of God, they did join the churches of God” (25:23), leading us to believe that a large number of people did so—perhaps a sizable majority, at least of the older generation.

In contrast to this new emphasis on unity through the creation of the “church,” Mormon tells us that many of the younger generation, who had not been old enough to understand the words of King Benjamin or to join in the making of that covenant, rejected all the principal teachings of the king and of Alma being taught in this new church, including the coming of Christ and the resurrection of the dead. At first, we are told, those who rejected the church were less than a third of the population (Mosiah 26:5), but “because of the dissensions among the brethren they became more numerous.” This theme of dissent becomes an important one in Mormon’s history. The word dissensions is found once in the small plates in reference to the decadence of the people in the days of Jarom (Jarom 1:13). Otherwise, all the references to dissension or dissent or dissenters are found in Mormon’s history, beginning with Words of Mormon 1:16, where we are told that there was “much contention and many dissensions away unto the Lamanites” during the first part of Benjamin’s reign.

These dissenters in turn caused many others to fall away from the church, or at least to commit many sins (Mosiah 26:6). Alma, disturbed in his heart over what should be done about this situation, referred the matter to the king, but Mosiah, apparently thinking that this was not a matter for the government but for the church alone, refused to take part and left the matter to Alma. As a result of intense prayer, Alma received a clear revelation from God, telling him that those who repented of their sins and were baptized would be forgiven of their sins. Those in the church who committed sins were to be judged, but if they sincerely repented, they should be forgiven: the key principle was that “as often as my people repent will I forgive them their trespasses against me” (v. 30). Otherwise their names were to be blotted out from membership. This simple approach was adequate to once again establish peace in the church and allow it to prosper (v. 27).

Nonetheless, the level of conflict between those who adhered to the church and the nonbelievers increased. The unbelievers began persecuting the believers, which required Mosiah to take action. After consultation with his priests,[8] Mosiah sent out a proclamation forbidding such persecution. But interestingly, the king apparently thought it necessary to issue a “strict command” for the churches there should be no persecutions among themselves. In addition, “there should be an equality among all men;[9] that they should let no pride nor haughtiness disturb their peace; that every man should esteem his neighbor as himself, laboring with their own hands for their support,” including the priests and teachers (Mosiah 27:3–5). Rarely are laws and rules established when there is no need for them; therefore we can properly conclude that such matters as internal persecutions, pride, and expectations by priests and teachers to be supported by others had already become serious matters in the church.

These strict rules helped to reestablish peace in the land, and the Lord caused the people as a whole to prosper and to multiply, to the degree that they “became a large and wealthy people” (Mosiah 27:6–7), in accordance with the fundamental promise that obedience would lead to prosperity. But civil dissension never fully ceased. Among the ringleaders of the dissenters were the four sons of the king and the son of Alma, who were “causing much dissension among the people” (v. 9) and attempting to cause the destruction of the church. In a dramatic turn of events, however, the Lord intervened directly and an angel appeared to the five dissenters and converted them to God.

As a result of their conversion, Alma and the sons of Mosiah not only took it upon themselves to publicly disown their previous teachings and try to “repair all the injuries which they had done to the church” (Mosiah 27:35), but the king’s sons resolved to go into the land of Nephi and preach to the Lamanites. Their goal was of course in the first instance spiritual, “to bring them [the Lamanites] to the knowledge of the Lord their God,” but also political:

[to] convince them of the iniquity of their fathers . . . that perhaps they might cure them of their hatred towards the Nephites, that they might also be brought to rejoice in the Lord their God, that they might become friendly to one another, and that there should be no more contentions in all the land. (Mosiah 28:2)

This announcement caused great consternation among the people, in the first instance because it sounded like a suicide mission—and a pointless one at that, given the reputation of the Lamanites as an absolutely “stiffnecked” people “whose hearts delight in the shedding of blood” (see Alma 26:23–25); in the second instance because it would leave the kingdom without a successor to Mosiah. Mosiah confirmed with the Lord that he would protect the missionaries from the Lamanites, and moreover that as a result of their mission “many shall believe on their words” (Mosiah 28:7). When the four men departed, Mormon tells us, Mosiah realized that he had no one on whom to confer the kingdom. Therefore he took all the plates he had custody of and placed them in the hands of the younger Alma. But before that, he translated the gold plates of the Jaredites with the divine translators he also had possession of, “because of the great anxiety of his people; for they were desirous beyond measure to know concerning those people who had been destroyed” (v. 12). The people’s burning curiosity about the fall of the Jaredites was satisfied with the translation (which was no doubt read publicly), but the account caused them “to mourn exceedingly, yea, they were filled with sorrow” (v. 18).

The interesting thing about this translation is the timing. Mosiah had already had the plates of the Jaredites in his possession for twenty-five years or more, since the people under Limhi had arrived in Zarahemla. Why did he wait so many years, then choose to translate them at that point in time? We are not told explicitly, except that the people had an intense desire to know about them. But what might have caused their curiosity to be so intense at that particular moment?

We can infer an answer from the context in which Mormon relates this account. He tells us of the curiosity of the people and Mosiah’s decision in the midst of the account of the succession crisis. Furthermore, he informs us that the translators had been preserved by the Lord, specifically so “that he [the Lord] should discover to every creature who should possess the land the iniquities and abominations of his people (Mosiah 28:15), and that when they heard the account, it caused them “to mourn exceedingly” and to be “filled with sorrow.” As we will see, Mosiah’s principal concern about the succession problem was the possibility of contention and civil war. Is it possible that Mosiah translated the gold plates with the intention, so to speak, of putting the fear of God into the people, as a kind of admonition of what could happen to the Nephites themselves?

With respect to the succession to the kingship, Mosiah interestingly does not simply make a choice himself but asks the people for their preference. The people’s choice was Aaron, who had already departed on the Lamanite mission. In fact, all of Mosiah’s heirs were absent and none would accept the kingship. In the absence of any heir, he chose to make a radical change to the government by abolishing the kingship and instituting a rule of judges.[10] Mosiah took this action in full knowledge of the extreme contentiousness of his people, out of fear that if another candidate was chosen in the place of Aaron to reign, a civil war might break out (Mosiah 29:7). This new form of government, while it bore some features that we might today call “democratic” in nature, was far from a representative democracy in the modern sense. The selection of the chief judge and the lesser judges was somehow based on the “voice of [the] people,” but there was no Congress or Parliament to represent the people in making laws. For the most part, the new government would not make laws at all but merely carry out the current laws of Mosiah, which had been established long ago (v. 25).

Mosiah did not declare that this form of governance was the ideal—kingship was in fact the best government in theory. But since it was nearly impossible to guarantee that successive kings would always be just men—just look at what had happened when Noah succeeded Limhi!—it was preferable to establish a system that had certain checks on the power of the rulers (see Mosiah 29:28–29). Nonetheless, this new system was considered to be a system of “liberty”—by which Mosiah meant not the modern idea of freedom for the “pursuit of happiness,” but rather a system in which the people took responsibility for their own actions. Under a sacral kingship, as we have previously seen, the king bore the primary responsibility before deity for the behavior of his people. Under this system of liberty, “if these people commit sins and iniquities they shall be answered upon their own heads” rather than “upon the heads of their kings” (vv. 30–31).[11] Although this point seems quite strange to our way of thinking, the Nephite people understood it perfectly: “Therefore they relinquished their desires for a king, and became exceedingly anxious that every man should have an equal chance throughout all the land; yea, and every man expressed a willingness to answer for his own sins” (v. 38).

Nevertheless, Mosiah was fully aware, given his insights into the unstable nature of his own people, as well as his knowledge of the relevant prophecies, that the time might well come when “the voice of the people [would] choose iniquity,” at which point they would be visited with the judgments of God, with “great destruction even as he hath hitherto visited this land” (Mosiah 29:27), alluding of course to the fate of the Jaredites.

It is important to mention that Mosiah did not only unify his people politically, establish a church, and completely reorganize the government, but also formally laid down a set of laws (Alma 1:1) that in large part would not have been new laws but rather laws based on established traditions. He also established a formal set of weights and measures—an important part of the responsibility of an ancient ruler—because previously the Nephites had “altered their reckoning and their measure, according to the minds and the circumstances of the people, in every generation” (11:4). Because the new government was based on judges, the administration of justice (a key element of governance in the ancient world, even more than today) required the creation of a class of judges whose pay was closely connected with the monetary reform.

The impact that this radical change of governance had on the people can hardly be exaggerated. This is seen most clearly in the repeated attempts in the coming years to restore the kingship. Only a few years later the Amlicites are the first monarchist party, but later on we see the king-men and several other attempts at restoration. The fact that the leaders of these parties can be seen as demagogues is beside the point. If the people had felt a universal commitment to the judgeship, it would have been difficult for any man to gain broad support by putting himself forward as a king. The fact that Amlici was as successful as he was, to take only one example, clearly shows that there was great ambivalence among the people about the abolition of the kingship.

The Book of Alma

Despite the people’s seemingly enthusiastic embrace of their new government and laws (Mosiah 29:39; Alma 1:1), the first few years of the reign of the judges were not an auspicious beginning. In the very first year of Alma the Younger’s “reign” as chief judge, there arose a figure known as Nehor, who laid the groundwork for massive difficulties in the years to come. Nehor taught doctrines that in essence undermined the church as well as the legal system of government: that “all mankind would be saved at the last day” no matter how they behaved during their lives. He also taught what Alma described as “priestcraft”—“that every priest and teacher ought to become popular; and they ought not to labor with their hands, but that they ought to be supported by the people” (Alma 1:3–5).

When Gideon argued strongly against these doctrines, Nehor murdered him, resulting in his being sentenced to death. But his doctrines did not die with him (Alma 1:16). The practice of persecuting members of the church arose again, contrary to the law that Mosiah had declared several years before. As a natural response to such treatment, many church members fought back (contrary to the church’s teachings) in their personal pride, contending “warmly with their adversaries, even unto blows” (v. 22). Many were cast out of the church as a consequence, and many others voluntarily withdrew (v. 24). Still, Mormon tells us, the church as a whole remained steady (v. 29) and the righteous prospered, not only spiritually but economically. The key to this prosperity, Mormon says, was that they did not set their hearts upon riches, and as they became prosperous, they did not keep their wealth to themselves but shared it generously with the naked, hungry, thirsty, and sick among them—whether fellow members of the church or not. And thus, Mormon declares, “they did prosper and become far more wealthy than those who did not belong to their church” (v. 31).

The nonbelievers were a very different story. They did indulge themselves in sorceries and in idolatry or idleness, and in babblings, and in envyings and strife; wearing costly apparel; being lifted up in the pride of their own eyes; persecuting, lying, thieving, robbing, committing whoredoms, and murdering, and all manner of wickedness” (Alma 1:32). When they were prosecuted to the full extent of the law, they became “more still, and durst not commit any wickedness if it were known” (v. 33) and there was peace for the next several years.

In the fifth year of the judges, however, a catastrophic development ensued. A man named Amlici, a former associate of Nehor, arose and led a popular movement to restore the kingship. We know that the Nephites had been tenacious in their desire for kingship ever since Nephi himself (2 Nephi 5:18), and a large number of them decided that they would prefer it to the newfangled form of government under judges. Amlici was a demagogue, “a very cunning man” (Alma 2:1) who was able to draw a large percentage of the people to follow him. He seems to have been intent on destroying the church, perhaps in part following in the footsteps of Alma and the sons of Mosiah. A vote was held to determine whether to revert back to the kingship or maintain the new government decreed by Mosiah, and the monarchists lost. But it’s clear from the very necessity of holding a vote that the followers of Amlici must have been a sizable percentage of the total population—presumably at least 25 to 30 percent, perhaps 40 percent or more. Indeed, Amlici’s followers were so devoted to him and his project that they refused to accept the outcome of the vote and set themselves up as a separate state with Amlici as their king (vv. 8–9).

This split led quickly to a deadly civil war. The Amlicites attacked, but the rest of the Nephites were armed and ready. Alma as chief judge and governor acted also as military leader of the Nephites. He slew Amlici in battle, but the war resulted in tens of thousands of casualties (Alma 2:19; 3:1–3, 26).

An interesting development during this conflict, however, was the relationship between the insurgents and the Lamanites. At some point in the midst of the war, a large group of Lamanites allied themselves with the insurgents and greatly strengthened their numbers (Alma 2:27). Alma, according to Mormon, was able to overcome them only by pleading with the Lord for assistance. How did this Amlicite-Lamanite alliance come about?

Significant hints in the text suggest that relations had shifted considerably between Nephites and Lamanites by this time. Words of Mormon 1:16 states that many from Zarahemla were dissenting “away unto the Lamanites.” In the following years the expedition of Zeniff had led to greater interactions between the two nations. Now it appears that there had been, probably for a number of years, relations between the Lamanites in the borderlands and the followers of Nehor. I have already made this rather complex argument in detail elsewhere, but I will summarize it here.[12]

It is quite surprising that Amlici was so successful that he was able to get a sizable portion of the Nephite population to side with him in only a matter of months. This leads one to believe that he was in part building on a preexisting degree of discontent among certain parts of the Nephite community and perhaps already had many tacit supporters before attempting his major populist campaign. When Mormon tells the story of Aaron’s missionary experiences among the Lamanites, he states that Aaron first went to the region known as Jerusalem, to the “great city” of Jerusalem (see Alma 21:1–2). This took place in the first or second year of the reign of the judges. Many of the city’s inhabitants were not Lamanites but Nephites who had dissented—specifically, Amalekites and Amulonites. The identity of the Amalekites is never made clear, but both these groups are described as being “after the order of the Nehors” (24:28–29). It is likely that the Amlicites are the same as the Amalekites, the difference in name being due merely to variation in spelling during the translation process.[13]

If this is correct, it provides strong evidence that the “order of Nehor” existed in some form before the stories of Nehor and Amlici in Alma 1–2. It was likely a movement that had been developing for several years or even longer during the reign of Mosiah, perhaps centered in the city of Jerusalem in Lamanite territory. In any case, Amlici had had close enough relations with certain Lamanite groups to be able to leverage that relationship and gain their assistance in the field when the civil war broke out. Understood in this context, the comments by Mormon in Alma 3 regarding the relationship between the Amlicites and the Lamanites and the practice of the former to mark themselves in a similar manner as the Lamanites makes much more sense.[14]

The civil war had brought about not only the loss of untold thousands of lives, but also many flocks and herds and crops of the Nephites. It also caused many people to repent: the people “believed that it was the judgments of God sent upon them because of their wickedness and their abominations” (Alma 4:3). About thirty-five hundred people were baptized into the church—a sizable but not a huge number (vv. 4–5). This self-censure did not last long, however. Already in the eighth year of the judges,

the people of the church began to wax proud, because of their exceeding riches and their fine silks, and their fine-twined linen, and because of their many flocks and herds, and their gold and their silver, and all manner of precious things which they had obtained by their industry; and in all these things were they lifted up in the pride of their eyes, for they began to wear very costly apparel. (Alma 4:6)

This pride manifested itself not only in their dress:

The people of the church began to be lifted up in the pride of their eyes, and to set their hearts upon riches and upon the vain things of the world, that they began to be scornful, one towards another, and they began to persecute those that did not believe according to their own will and pleasure. And thus, in this eighth year of the reign of the judges, there began to be great contentions among the people of the church; yea, . . . and malice, and persecutions, and pride, even to exceed the pride of those who did not belong to the church of God. (Alma 4:8–9)

A superficial reading is likely to ignore much of the historical context of this development. Where did all this wealth of the church members come from? To understand the clear significance of this description, it is necessary to look back at the first chapter of Alma. In Alma 1:31 Mormon had observed that the members of the church, because of their righteousness and generosity to the poor and needy, “did prosper and become far more wealthy than those who did not belong to their church.” Now, however, that earlier prosperity had become an albatross around their necks. One should also keep in mind everything that had happened during that period before the war—the persecutions of church members by nonbelievers, which had led to some believers responding in kind and being ultimately cast out of the church. Although Mormon does not clearly tie all these threads together, this was clearly a period of great political, social, and spiritual ferment and contention. It was also closely associated with the change in government, which one can easily imagine was a cause of much confusion and dissatisfaction.

This behavior among the church members was an extremely widespread and serious development, as we can tell from Alma’s behavior. Mormon tells us that

the wickedness of the church was a great stumbling-block to those who did not belong to the church; and thus the church began to fail in its progress. And it came to pass in the commencement of the ninth year, Alma saw the wickedness of the church, and he saw also that the example of the church began to lead those who were unbelievers on from one piece of iniquity to another, thus bringing on the destruction of the people. Yea, he saw great inequality among the people, some lifting themselves up with their pride, despising others, turning their backs upon the needy and the naked and those who were hungry, and those who were athirst, and those who were sick and afflicted. Now this was a great cause for lamentations among the people, while others were abasing themselves, succoring those who stood in need of their succor, such as imparting their substance to the poor and the needy, feeding the hungry, and suffering all manner of afflictions, for Christ’s sake, who should come according to the spirit of prophecy. (Alma 4:10–13)

Indeed, Alma became so deeply distraught about these developments in Nephite society that he took the extreme step of resigning his chief judgeship and dedicating himself fully as the high priest of the church to preaching the word of God and calling the people to repentance, “to stir them up in remembrance of their duty, and that he might pull down, by the word of God, all the pride and craftiness and all the contentions which were among his people” (Alma 4:19).

Mormon has recorded much of Alma’s preaching in the original words, from Alma’s own record. The discourse deserves to be read in its historical context, as it touches on themes closely related to what was going on in the church at the time.

Could ye say, if ye were called to die at this time, within yourselves, that ye have been sufficiently humble? . . . Behold, are ye stripped of pride? . . . Behold, I say, is there one among you who is not stripped of envy? . . . And again I say unto you, is there one among you that doth make a mock of his brother, or that heapeth upon him persecutions? . . . O ye workers of iniquity; ye that are puffed up in the vain things of the world, ye that have professed to have known the ways of righteousness nevertheless have gone astray. . . . Can ye be puffed up in the pride of your hearts; yea, will ye still persist in the wearing of costly apparel and setting your hearts upon the vain things of the world, upon your riches? Yea, will ye persist in supposing that ye are better one than another; yea, will ye persist in the persecution of your brethren . . . —yea, and will you persist in turning your backs upon the poor, and the needy, and in withholding your substance from them? (Alma 5:27–30, 37, 53–55)

Many in Zarahemla were reconverted to the faith as a result of Alma’s efforts; yet many others were expelled from the church (Alma 6:2–3). He continued his preaching in other cities, including Ammonihah. The people in that place were not merely hard-hearted and stiffnecked but were, at least in large part, “of the profession of Nehor” (15:15; see 14:16, 18; 16:11). Possibly the town had become a place of recourse for many of the former Amlicites. We are told that there were many lawyers there, who (having failed to destroy the government by vote or by force of arms) were using their skills “in all the arts and cunning of the people” to “destroy the liberty of [the] people” (8:17; 10:14–15). Amulek made a blunt accusation, that “the foundation of the destruction of this people is beginning to be laid by the unrighteousness of your lawyers and your judges” (10:27).

In his preaching to the Ammonihahites, Alma raises one of the fundamental themes of Mormon’s history: the righteous Lamanites.

Now I would that ye should remember, that inasmuch as the Lamanites have not kept the commandments of God, they have been cut off from the presence of the Lord. Now we see that the word of the Lord has been verified in this thing, and the Lamanites have been cut off from his presence, from the beginning of their transgressions in the land. Nevertheless I say unto you that it shall be more tolerable for them in the day of judgment than for you, if ye remain in your sins, yea, and even more tolerable for them in this life than for you, except ye repent. (Alma 9:14–15)

This was the very first mention of this theme in Mormon’s book (at least the extant portion)—namely, that the Lamanites could repent and become more righteous than the Nephites. Even more, the Lord might preserve the Lamanites while destroying their Nephite brethren.

For he will not suffer you that ye shall live in your iniquities, to destroy his people. I say unto you, Nay; he would rather suffer that the Lamanites might destroy all his people who are called the people of Nephi, if it were possible that they could fall into sins and transgressions, after having had so much light and so much knowledge given unto them of the Lord their God; yea, after having been such a highly favored people of the Lord. . . .

And now behold I say unto you, that if this people, who have received so many blessings from the hand of the Lord, should transgress contrary to the light and knowledge which they do have, I say unto you that if this be the case, that if they should fall into transgression, it would be far more tolerable for the Lamanites than for them. For behold, the promises of the Lord are extended to the Lamanites, but they are not unto you if ye transgress; for has not the Lord expressly promised and firmly decreed, that if ye will rebel against him that ye shall utterly be destroyed from off the face of the earth? (Alma 9:19–20, 23–24)

It is notable that these predictions were made before the great Lamanite conversion as a result of the missionary efforts of the sons of Mosiah or at least before the knowledge of those developments had reached Zarahemla (but see Alma 23:18—the chronology is not entirely clear).

Alma had prophesied the complete destruction of the city of Ammonihah (Alma 9:12), and the prophecy was indeed fulfilled (16:9).[15] Following the account of the utter destruction of Ammonihah (16:9–11), Mormon relates the missionary campaigns among the Lamanites, as a result of which the people in seven Lamanite cities and lands were converted (23:13). We are told that many of the Lamanites still lived in tents in the wilderness (22:28; compare Enos 1:20), but a large number of them had come to live in cities, no doubt at least partly as a result of the closer interactions in recent years with the people of Zeniff and the various groups of Nephite dissenters who had gone over to dwell in Lamanite territories. (We have already seen how, as noted in Mosiah 24:4–6, the Amulonites taught the Lamanites to read and write and to keep records, leading to greater prosperity.)

The converted Lamanites, convinced that their forgiveness by the Lord was contingent upon their never again taking up arms, and having made a solemn oath to this effect, refused to defend themselves when they were attacked by other Lamanites. Interestingly, Mormon specifies that of those Lamanite converts that were slain, all were righteous people (“there was not a wicked man slain among them”)—a clear counter example to Mormon’s general rule that obedience brought prosperity (Alma 24:26–27). Yet it also serves as a counterexample to the later Nephites who took matters of vengeance into their own hands and chose in their anger to destroy the Lamanites off the face of the earth, prompting Mormon to refuse to command their army any longer (see Mormon 3:9–16 and discussion below). Finally, it serves as a clear example of the Lamanites’ potential for conversion and their deep commitment to the covenant. Ammon in particular was stunned by the number of Lamanites that had accepted the truth (Alma 26:3–5), reveling in the power of repentance, both for him and his brothers as well as for the Lamanites.

Shortly thereafter even some of the Lamanites living in the wilderness converted, driven by the excesses of Amulonites (Alma 25:5–8). Many, though not all, of the people of Amulon were themselves victims of Lamanite persecution. Mormon states that the Lamanites began to hunt down the Amulonites. Indeed, it is important to recognize that much of the contention and conflict was being instigated and led not by Lamanites themselves but by the Amulonites and the Amalekites. The latter group, in particular, Mormon tells us, became “exceedingly angry” and stirred up the Lamanites to attack and kill the recent converts (now calling themselves the people of Anti-Nephi-Lehi, 27:1–2). Ammon, still living among them, resolved to lead them away to the land of Zarahemla, where they were generously given a grant of land for their homes—the land of Jershon. This was followed by a massive attack by the Lamanites (more likely than not led by Amalekites), who had followed them to Zarahemla, resulting in a “tremendous slaughter among the people of Nephi” (28:1–3).

This battle concluded the fifteenth year of the reign of the judges. And although there had been several years free from war and bloodshed during this period, Mormon summarizes this period as one of almost continuous bloodshed:

From the first year to the fifteenth has brought to pass the destruction of many thousand lives; yea, it has brought to pass an awful scene of bloodshed. And the bodies of many thousands are laid low in the earth, while the bodies of many thousands are moldering in heaps upon the face of the earth; yea, and many thousands are mourning for the loss of their kindred, because they have reason to fear, according to the promises of the Lord, that they are consigned to a state of endless wo. (Alma 28:10–11)

It is worth pausing here to take note of just how many years of warfare there were in the first fifteen years of the judgeship. The Amlicite civil war took place in a single year, the fifth year of the reign of judges, but according to Mormon tens of thousands were killed (Alma 2:1; 3:26). Thereafter, while Alma was preaching throughout the land, there were contentions and dissensions but no bloodshed until the Lamanites attacked in the eleventh year and destroyed Ammonihah (chapter 16). After that, we are told there were three years of peace (16:12) and that the Lamanites attacked in the fifteenth year, causing the greatest loss of life since the time of Lehi’s arrival (28:2). In the meantime, of course, many thousands of Lamanites who had converted were killed by their brethren in their own land, and even a large number of the apostate Amulonites and Amalekites were killed. So in reality there may have been only three years of warfare during those fifteen years, not counting the Lamanite slaughters among themselves. But nevertheless, Mormon draws our attention to the bloodshed during this period, having said very little about the years of peace except to narrate the extensive preaching that took place as a means of preventing even further bloodshed.

Mormon continues his moralizing after the verses just quoted, as follows:

And thus we see how great the inequality of man is because of sin and transgression, and the power of the devil, which comes by the cunning plans which he hath devised to ensnare the hearts of men. And thus we see the great call of diligence of men to labor in the vineyards of the Lord; and thus we see the great reason of sorrow, and also of rejoicing—sorrow because of death and destruction among men, and joy because of the light of Christ unto life. (Alma 28:13–14)

The overwhelming importance of this passage to Mormon’s message is clear from his triple use of the phrase “and thus we see.” But despite the crucial place that war and bloodshed have in that message, leading to great sorrow, we should not ignore the part of the message that leads to joy and rejoicing—specifically “the light of Christ unto life” that comes about through preaching and repentance.

G. Homer Durham once wrote that the Book of Mormon “contains a unique account of the rise and fall of political institutions and a comprehensive social message for the Mormon faith. Institutional transition, and social and political change in general, are explained in terms of a theory of righteous social contentment.”[16] It cannot be emphasized enough that, for Mormon, while the purpose of preaching to save eternal souls is clearly important, the this-worldly impact of preaching is of equal, or at least more immediate, significance. Alma did not step down from the governorship merely to save souls, but also to save the Nephite people from destruction and to keep the newly established church from collapsing due to wickedness of a large percentage of the members.

Peace ensued for several years after that, yet it was an unsettled peace. Korihor came into the land of Zarahemla from parts unknown and began preaching his “anti-Christ” message. He is not described as a follower or Nehor or any dissenting group, and his message seems to be strictly theological and not political. But after Korihor’s death, Mormon immediately moves on to his account of the Zoramites.[17]

The Zoramites are described as “dissenters from the Nephites” (Alma 31:8). They are not identified as being of the order of Nehor, but there are various hints that in fact they were closely associated with the Amalekites. As we will see shortly, when Zerahemnah began his war against the Nephites, he used as his chief captains both Amalekites and Zoramites—and them alone (43:6, 13; 48:5). We are also told that the Nephites were afraid “that the Zoramites would enter into a correspondence with the Lamanites, and that it would be the means of great loss on the part of the Nephites” (31:4). It was for this reason that Alma resolved to travel to the land of Antionum, where they had settled, to preach the word to attempt to convert them. While he was no doubt concerned about the spiritual welfare of all people at all times, his principal reason for focusing on the Zoramites at that time was political—it was, in a peculiar way, a kind of substitute for war, even a means of heading off future wars. Mormon tells us that Alma believed that

the preaching of the word had a great tendency to lead the people to do that which was just—yea, it had had more powerful effect upon the minds of the people than the sword, or anything else . . . —therefore Alma thought it was expedient that they should try the virtue of the word of God. (Alma 31:5)

In other words, his primary concern was to change the Zoramites’ behavior. To have the greatest possible chance of success in this difficult endeavor, he took with him a high-powered group of missionaries, including Amulek and three of the sons of Mosiah.

Alma and his associates had little impact on the upper class of the Zoramites, who violated every aspect of the principle of equality. Not only did they insist (in their prayers!) that they were elected by God as his “holy children” to be saved while “all around us are elected to be cast . . . down to hell,” but they dressed in “costly apparel,” with ringlets, bracelets, and ornaments of gold and many other precious items, and “their hearts were set upon gold and upon silver, and upon all manner of fine goods.” Alma viewed them as “a wicked and perverse people,” even an example of “gross wickedness.” The root of their sin was “their hearts were lifted up unto great boasting, in their pride” (Alma 31:16–17, 24–28).

The poor in their community were a different matter. Alma perceived that they were already humble because they had been humiliated by the aristocrats (e.g., rulers, priests, teachers, Alma 35:5), but he continued to preach to them about the necessity of being humble, an absolute prerequisite to faith. Faith, in turn, is a prerequisite to repentance, and the high point of Amulek’s preaching is the concept of mercy through Christ’s atonement:

And thus he shall bring salvation to all those who shall believe on his name; this being the intent of this last sacrifice, to bring about the bowels of mercy, which overpowereth justice, and bringeth about means to men that they may have faith unto repentance. And thus mercy can satisfy the demands of justice, and encircles them in the arms of safety, while he that exercises no faith unto repentance is exposed to the whole law of the demands of justice; therefore only unto him that has faith unto repentance is brought about the great and eternal plan of redemption. (34:15–16)

After Alma and Amulek preached the word of God to the poor class among the Zoramites, many of those who had been converted came to live in Jershon with the people of Ammon, who received them and gave them food and clothing. This behavior angered the Zoramites, who threatened the people of Ammon if they did not expel the newcomers. When the people of Ammon refused to listen to those threats, the Zoramites went to the Lamanites and “stir[red] them up also to anger against them.” The Lamanites, egged on by the Zoramites, began to prepare for war against the people of Ammon and their Nephite allies (Alma 35:8–10). The people of Ammon left their homes in Jershon and took refuge in a neighboring territory in order to allow the Nephite army to possess Jershon and defend against the attackers. All these political developments with the Zoramites confirm Alma’s fears—that the Zoramites would ally with the Lamanites and cause “great loss” to the Nephites and their friends. Alma’s preaching had been successful in bringing many people to repentance but had done nothing to head off the political crisis that had been the main stimulus for the missionary effort.

Thus, war broke out again after a mere three years of peace (Alma 16:12). It began in the eighteenth year of the judges and would last through the thirty-first year—fourteen years. This was only three years after the completion of the first fifteen years of the judgeship, which Mormon had described as an “awful scene of bloodshed.” How did Alma see the state of the Nephites at this point? In very much the same terms:

Now Alma, being grieved for the iniquity of his people, yea for the wars, and the bloodsheds, and the contentions which were among them; and having been . . . sent to declare the word, among all the people in every city; and seeing that the hearts of the people began to wax hard, and that they began to be offended because of the strictness of the word, his heart was exceedingly sorrowful.” (Alma 35:15)

This context must be kept in mind when considering Mormon’s account of the great war. Alma was not concerned merely with the wickedness of the Zoramites and the Lamanites but also, and more significantly, with the iniquity of his own people. Although Mormon does not state it explicitly, the war was clearly the natural result of the Nephites’ own contentions and bloodsheds, their hardness of heart. And hence Alma’s preaching to his sons (chapters 36–39) was not a mere digression into theological matters but directly related to his concerns about the state of the Nephite people in general (“Therefore, he caused that his sons should be gathered together,” 35:16). His efforts to teach his sons and call them to repentance was in fact part of his overall effort to preach the word to the Nephite people.

This was only ten years after the time when Alma had been so appalled and distressed by the state of Nephite society—particularly among those who belonged to the church—that he had walked away from the chief judgeship and dedicated himself to preaching. Yet for all his efforts, and despite the repentance of many, the conversion of thousands of Lamanites and of the Zoramite poor, and the utter destruction of Ammonihah, which was clearly a hotbed of rebellion, not a great deal seems to have improved among the Nephites as a whole. The Nephite civilization as a whole was still ridden with wickedness, contention, and resistance to the word of God. Thus, for Mormon, the “Great War,” as we will see even more clearly, was not simply imposed on the righteous Nephite by wicked Lamanites and apostates, but was brought upon them by the Lord on account of the widespread iniquity. As Mormon himself states later on, “It is by the wicked that the wicked are punished” (Mormon 4:5).[18]

Although Mormon describes the war as “a war betwixt the Lamanites and the Nephites,” (Alma 35:13; 43:3), this description comes with an important caveat: the Zoramites had officially become Lamanites (43:4), and the Amalekites and the people of Amulon had more or less done the same (43:13, 44). Moreover, Mormon had already made it clear, as we have just seen, that it was the Zoramites who were the real drivers behind this war. It is never made clear whether Zerahemnah, the leader of the attacking Lamanites, was a Lamanite himself or a Nephite dissident, although the close similarity of his name to Zarahemla is a strong clue that he was probably of Nephite descent, or rather a descendant of the Mulekites. In any case, he was clearly in league with the Nephite apostates, because he “appointed chief captains over the Lamanites, and they were all Amalekites and Zoramites” (43:6; see v. 13, 43:44).

Mormon does state that the Nephites were “inspired by a better cause” than their enemies were. Zerahemnah’s scheme was “to usurp great power” over the Lamanites and to “gain power over the Nephites by bringing them into bondage” (Alma 43:8; see vv. 45–46). Mormon constrasts these aims with those of the Nephites, which was merely to preserve their lands and their families together with their “rights and privileges” from Lamanite oppression, but the reader should not conclude from this that the Nephites had suddenly become virtuous and had abandoned the “iniquity” that Alma had lamented that same year (35:15). Mormon tells us quite clearly that that was not the case. He reminds us of the Lord’s admonition to Lehi and argues that events have confirmed, or “verified,” the Lord’s promise:

And thus we see how merciful and just are all the dealings of the Lord, to the fulfilling of all his words unto the children of men; yea, we can behold that his words are verified, even at this time, which he spake unto Lehi, saying: Blessed art thou and thy children; and they shall be blessed, inasmuch as they shall keep my commandments they shall prosper in the land. But remember, inasmuch as they will not keep my commandments they shall be cut off from the presence of the Lord. And we see that these promises have been verified to the people of Nephi; for it has been their quarrelings and their contentions, yea, their murderings, and their plunderings, their idolatry, their whoredoms, and their abominations, which were among themselves, which brought upon them their wars and their destructions. (50:19–21)

And Mormon assures us that the number of the dead on both sides was “exceedingly great” (Alma 44:21). Nonetheless, when the Nephites called upon God to rescue them from potential bondage, they were able to gain the upper hand over the Lamanites to the degree that Moroni had to command his troops to cease shedding the Lamanites’ blood in what had nearly become a one-sided slaughter (43:52–54). Zerahemnah eventually conceded the terms of surrender (44:19–20). Thereafter, the people of Nephi rejoiced at their deliverance and gave thanks to God (45:1).

Yet at this very moment of success for the Nephite cause, Mormon presents the reader with a secret prophecy that Alma disclosed to his son Helaman but forbade him from disclosing to anyone prior to its fulfillment. According to the prophecy, the Nephites would ultimately be destroyed.

Behold, I perceive that this very people, the Nephites, according to the spirit of revelation which is in me, in four hundred years from the time that Jesus Christ shall manifest himself unto them, shall dwindle in unbelief. Yea, and then shall they see wars and pestilence, yea, famines and bloodshed, even until the people of Nephi shall become extinct—yea, and this because they shall dwindle in unbelief and fall into the works of darkness, and lasciviousness, and all manner of iniquities; yea, I say unto you, that because they shall sin against so great light and knowledge, yea, I say unto you, that from that day, even the fourth generation shall not all pass away before this great iniquity shall come. And when that great day cometh, behold, the time very soon cometh that those who are now, or the seed of those who are now numbered among the people of Nephi, shall no more be numbered among the people of Nephi. But whosoever remaineth, and is not destroyed in that great and dreadful day, shall be numbered among the Lamanites and shall become like unto them, all, save it be a few who shall be called the disciples of the Lord; and them shall the Lamanites pursue even until they shall become extinct. And now, because of iniquity, this prophecy shall be fulfilled. (45:10–14)

The reason for the confidential nature of this prophecy seems obvious—it literally predicts the destruction of Nephite civilization. In Alma 9, Alma had prophesied to the people of Ammonihah that the Lord might destroy the Nephites and spare the Lamanites because the Nephites had received greater light and knowledge. Yet here he seems clearly to be prophesying in an absolute sense that the Nephites would be destroyed. This same prophecy is already familiar to the reader of the small plates (2 Nephi 26:10), but it is not clear that it was ever made known to the Nephite nation as a whole.

Following the disappearance of Alma (“as to his death or burial we know not of,” 45:18), Helaman resolves to begin once again to preach to the people “because of their wars with the Lamanites and the many little dissensions and disturbances which had been among the people” (v. 21). Here again Mormon emphasizes the connection between the failure of the Nephites to live righteously and their wars and contentions. The church seems to have essentially declined to the point that it had to be “established” again “in every city throughout all the land,” appointing new priests and teachers (v. 22). And in fact, Helaman’s efforts were unsuccessful; once again “there arose a dissension among them, and they would not give heed to the words of Helaman and his brethren; but they grew proud, being lifted up in their hearts, because of their exceedingly great riches” (vv. 23–24).

By this point in the narrative, the practical result of this pride and contention will be obvious: another war. The war against Zerahemnah took up an entire year. Not long after the beginning of the following year, Amalickiah, who is clearly identified as a Nephite (Alma 49:25), revived the monarchist movement of the Amlicites—aspiring, of course, to be king himself. Mormon helpfully informs us in this instance that he was supported by the lesser judges of the land, who were “seeking for power” (46:4). Amalickiah had promised to make them “rulers over the people” if they enabled him to become king. Once again “there were many in the church who believed in the flattering words of Amalickiah,” so that the nation was in an “exceedingly precarious and dangerous” situation, notwithstanding their recent deliverance by the Lord (v. 7).

When Moroni raised up the “title of liberty” (Alma 46:13), there were still many “true believers” (v. 14) who made a covenant “not to forsake the Lord their God” (v. 21). Amalickiah, seeing that his forces were outnumbered, fled to the land of Nephi with a relatively small number of supporters; the rest of his backers either agreed under duress to make a covenant to support the judgeship or were executed at the command of Moroni, apparently summarily without trial (vv. 33–35). For a very short period, Mormon tells us, peace reigned in the land. We are also told that peace was established in the church for a period of four years (but note that Mormon’s description of this time of peace encompasses a total of four verses, mostly describing those who died in their faith). He later expands this to state that for those four years, because the people as a whole had humbled themselves before the Lord, “they were free from wars and contentions among themselves . . . for the space of four years” (48:20).

Amalickiah, doubtless drawing on the prior relations between the various Nephite dissenters and the Lamanites,[19] persuaded the Lamanite king to support his cause and to require all his people to do the same. Many of the Lamanite soldiers were extremely reluctant to march again against the Nephite armies, but Amalickiah then carried out an elaborate scheme designed to get their support, to assassinate the king of the Lamanites, and to replace him on the throne himself. This accomplished, he appointed Zoramites as his chief captains and marched against the Nephites with the purpose of bringing them into bondage (Alma 48:3–5).

Moroni during this time was busy preparing his forces to defend themselves, while Helaman was preaching and baptizing “all men who would hearken unto their words” (Alma 48:19). The first campaign did not go well for the forces of Amalickiah, owing to Moroni’s innovative use of protective clothing and defensive earthworks around the cities. Even after the withdrawal of the Lamanite forces, Moroni continued to build additional defenses. This respite from actual fighting lasted several years, although Mormon recognized that the war was by no means over (v. 22). This period coincided with a time of domestic tranquility, to the point that Mormon makes the surprising statement that “there never was a happier time among the people of Nephi, than in the days of Moroni” (50:23), despite it being a time of war that was destined to get worse. But he clearly saw Moroni as a powerful force not only for military strength but also for spiritual strength, and this period, though relatively brief, was apparently a much-appreciated respite from the usual round of social and political tensions and contention. For this is the same place where, as we have already seen, Mormon insists in powerful language that the Nephites prospered, multiplied, and waxed strong because of the Lord’s promise that inasmuch as they kept the commandments they would prosper in the land. And the contrary was equally true: “it has been their quarrelings and their contentions . . . which brought upon them their wars and their destructions.” A clearer declaration of the idea of sacral war could hardly be imagined (see 50:17–23).

In the twenty-fourth year of the judgeship, the period of internal peace came to an abrupt end. What Mormon calls a “warm contention” arose among some of the Nephites over territorial claims, so that one party took up arms against the other, “determined by the sword to slay them” (Alma 50:26). When the latter group fled for protection to the camp of Moroni (note that Moroni and his forces were still encamped and under arms), the aggressors, under the leadership of Morianton, feared that Moroni would march against them. Morianton devised a plan of moving his people to take possession of the “land which was northward,” but Moroni discovered the plan and thwarted it ( vv. 25–36). Morianton himself was killed in battle, and his followers made a covenant of peace and returned to their lands.

This domestic peace, however, did not last long. Following the (natural) death of the governor and chief judge Nephihah, his son Pahoran succeeded to the governorship. A certain group sent in a petition to Pahoran asking him to alter “a few particular points of the law.” But when he denied their petition, they became angry with him, and another “warm dispute” that was “not unto bloodshed” arose (Alma 51:2–4). Indeed, they began to seek the removal of Pahoran from the chief judgeship and endeavored to restore the kingship, much as the Amlicites had done some twenty years earlier. As before, this question was resolved by “the voice of the people” in favor of the anti-monarchists (“freemen,” (v. 7). The monarchists (“king-men”) were supported by “those of high birth,” who claimed to be of noble blood and who “sought to be kings,” and “those who sought power and authority over the people” (51:8, 21).

Unlike the occasion of the Amlicite movement, however, this was a particularly “critical time” for such a major contention, since Amalickiah was on the verge of attacking once again. When the monarchists went so far as to refuse to “take up arms to defend their country,” Moroni became furious and requested power from the governor (along with support by “the voice of the people”) to “compel those dissenters to defend their country or to put them to death” (Alma 51:15). A military campaign was launched against them, and many of the king-men were killed, while others were seized and thrown into prison since “there was no time for their trials” at that time (v. 19).

Mormon assures us at this point that Moroni had “put an end to those king-men, that there were not any known by the appellation of king-men” (Alma 51:21), yet it was by no means the end of dissensions and civil conflict among the Nephites. As we will see, domestic affairs became progressively worse during the final years of the war. As a result of these “wars and contentions” related to the king-men among the Nephites (v. 22), Moroni was unprepared to defend the Nephites’ lands against the forces of Amalickiah, and numerous cities were seized by the Lamanites. Shortly thereafter the Nephite captain Teancum secretly assassinated Amalickiah, who was succeeded by his brother Ammoron (52:3). Despite this setback, the Lamanites continued to make progress, and Mormon judged the Nephites to be in “dangerous circumstances at the end of the twenty-sixth year” (v. 14). Many of the leaders of the Lamanites were still Zoramites (vv. 20, 33). Moroni and his captains had numerous successes, yet even so the Nephites were unable to make overall progress in the war “because of iniquity amongst themselves, yea, because of dissensions and intrigue amongst themselves” (vv. 8–9).

This same theme pervades the remaining years of the war against the Zoramites and Lamanites. In his epistle to Moroni, Helaman mentioned that he feared that a faction in the government was preventing the sending of additional forces (Alma 58:36). Moroni, in contrast, accused Pahoran, the chief judge, and the government in general of indolence and even treason in their behavior. He lamented that although many had been killed, it was not because of their wickedness. Rather, “it is to your condemnation; for the Lord suffereth the righteous to be slain that his justice and judgment may come upon the wicked” (60:13).

As it turned out, Helaman was more accurate in his speculations. Pahoran responded that a group of monarchists had risen up and virtually overthrown the government, taking control of the land of Zarahemla and driving out the chief judge and his supporters. Through the use of “great flattery, and they have led away the hearts of many people, which will be the cause of sore affliction among us” (Alma 61:4). They had appointed a king (Pachus) over themselves and even made a pact of alliance with the Lamanites with the stipulation that the king would be allowed to remain in possession of the city of Zarahemla while the Lamanites took control of the rest of the land.

Thereupon Moroni marched on Zarahemla, acquiring as many men along the way as he was able. Pachus had a very strong army, but Moroni’s was even stronger. Pachus was slain in battle; his men were tried under the law and imprisoned and executed “according to the law” (Alma 62:6–11). From that point on the Nephite armies began to prevail. They retook the cities held by the Lamanites, and Teancum assassinated Ammoron as he had Amalickiah, but this time he was overtaken and killed before he could escape.

Mormon summarizes the years of warfare as follows:

And thus they had had wars, and bloodsheds, and famine, and affliction, for the space of many years. And there had been murders, and contentions, and dissensions, and all manner of iniquity among the people of Nephi; nevertheless for the righteous’ sake, yea, because of the prayers of the righteous, they were spared. But behold, because of the exceedingly great length of the war between the Nephites and the Lamanites many had become hardened, because of the exceedingly great length of the war; and many were softened because of their afflictions, insomuch that they did humble themselves before God, even in the depth of humility. (Alma 62:39–41)

Although there were many righteous people at the time, Helaman did not view this time as an occasion to rejoice in the victory of good over evil. Instead, he went throughout the land preaching the word of God, and succeeded in “convincing . . . many people of their wickedness, which did cause them to repent of their sins” (see Alma 62:44–45).

For the next several years, the people of Nephi did indeed prosper in the land—multiplying and gaining wealth. Yet “notwithstanding their riches, or their strength, or their prosperity, they were not lifted up in the pride of their eyes; neither were they slow to remember the Lord their God; but they did humble themselves exceedingly before him” (Alma 62:49).

Once again, now that the conflicts were ended, Mormon nearly loses interest, so to speak, in the history of the Nephites. He skips over three years (years 32–34) without mention, and during the next several years his narrative is mostly limited to the migrations of several groups of Nephites into the lands to the north. In the thirty-ninth year of the judgeship (only eight years after the conclusion of the great war), “some dissenters who had gone forth unto the Lamanites” prodded them into attacking the Nephites, but they were defeated.

The Book of Helaman

The Book of Helaman starts off with an explosive development: a “serious difficulty” (1:1) as Mormon modestly describes it—another civil conflict and the assassination of the younger Pahoran. (Whether these developments are in any way related to the dissenters from the previous year is not clear.) When the elder Pahoran died and was succeeded in the governorship by his younger namesake, many began disputing this choice, specifically two additional brothers, each of whom had his followers. This dispute is reminiscent of precisely the kind of thing that King Mosiah had feared might happen regarding the succession to the kingship and hoped to avoid by abolishing the kingship (Mosiah 29:7–10). One brother, Pacumeni, conceded the outcome of the vote. But the third brother, Paanchi, was “exceedingly wroth” at his loss and began to use the time-honored practice of “flattery” to foment a rebellion. Paanchi was held responsible for this and condemned to death.

Nevertheless, Paanchi’s followers refused to accept that outcome and hired an assassin, Kishkumen, to murder Pahoran. The band that hired Kishkumen entered a covenant of secrecy, “swearing by their everlasting Maker” (Helaman 1:11), thus beginning a “secret combination” among the Nephites.[20] Pacumeni was then appointed chief judge in his brother’s place. The following year the Lamanites attacked again—yet once again, it was not the Lamanites who came up with the idea of attacking, but they were led by a Nephite dissenter named Corinatumr. (The Lamanite king himself, named Tubaloth, was the son of Ammoron and the nephew of Amalickiah, who were both Nephites and dissenters, 1:16.) Appointed by the king of the Lamanites, Coriantumr took advantage of the chaos in the capital and the insufficient guard. He occupied the city of Zarahemla, killing all who opposed him. Even Pacumeni, the newly appointed governor, was cut down by Corinatumr.

Coriantumr supposed at this point that he was in the strongest position in the center of the land. But at the same time he was nearly surrounded on all sides by Nephite forces. One reason there were so few forces in Zarahemla was that Moronihah had assumed the Lamanites would attack the border towns rather than the capital city, and so he had stationed his forces in those border areas. Moronihah was able to take advantage of Coriantumr’s strategic error; Coriantumr was killed in battle, and Nephihah retook Zarahemla.

As there was now no chief judge, a new contention arose. A new vote had to be held, and Helaman son of Helaman was appointed. Kishkumen determined to assassinate Helaman, but in fact Gadianton was more skilled in leadership than Kishkumen and persuaded Kishkumen and his band to place him in the judgment seat. The assassination of Helaman was planned, but somehow Helaman’s servant had infiltrated the band and learned their secret signs. Feigning that he would assist in killing Helaman, the servant instead killed Kishkumen. Gadianton and his band, however, escaped before they could be arrested. Mormon here announces that Gadianton’s acts would “prove the overthrow, yea, almost the entire destruction of the people of Nephi” (Helaman 2:13).

There was no contention for the next three years. However, in the forty-sixth year of the judgeship “there was much contention and many dissensions” leading to the departure of many people from Zarahemla into the land northward “to inherit the land” (Helaman 3:3). Because the timber there had been depleted by the previous inhabitants, the settlers devised a new means of building with some type of cement. They also developed extensive trading networks, particularly to obtain timber from their brethren to the south. Mormon relates that they kept extensive records of these transactions, but also of their wars, contentions, dissensions, preaching, prophecies, and so on (vv. 13–15).

Despite the fact that Helaman “did fill the judgment-seat with justice and equity” and did “that which was right in the sight of God continually,” there were nevertheless great contentions in the land (Helaman 3:19).[21] By the end of the forty-eighth year, however, the wars and contentions began to subside, and the forty-ninth year was peaceful, “all save it were the secret combinations which Gadianton the robber had established in the more settled parts of the land,” which were still at that time unknown to the government (v. 23).

During this window of tranquility, the church entered a period of significant prosperity and growth, with tens of thousands of baptisms, causing the officers of the church to marvel (Helaman 3:24–26, 31–32) and the people to rejoice greatly. But this prosperity lasted only a few years. As Mormon’s record has emphasized since the beginning of the reign of the judges, the prosperity caused the people—particularly those in the church—to become prideful, to persecute their more humble brethren. The pride continued to increase “because of their exceedingly great riches and their prosperity in the land; and it did grow upon them, from day to day” (vv. 33–36).

In the fifty-fourth year, there were “many dissensions in the church” and also “a contention among the people,” leading to bloodshed (Helaman 4:1). A stream of dissenters went to join with the Lamanites, eventually persuading them once again to attack the Nephites. They succeeded in taking the city of Zarahemla and surrounding areas. By once again building defensive works, Moronihah was able to hold back the invaders from the land Bountiful and even regain half of the lands that had been seized.

Mormon here once again reminds the reader of the cause of all this contention, war, and destruction:

Now this great loss of the Nephites, and the great slaughter which was among them, would not have happened had it not been for their wickedness and their abomination which was among them; yea, and it was among those also who professed to belong to the church of God. And it was because of the pride of their hearts, because of their exceeding riches, yea, it was because of their oppression to the poor, withholding their food from the hungry, withholding their clothing from the naked, and smiting their humble brethren upon the cheek, making a mock of that which was sacred, denying the spirit of prophecy and of revelation, murdering, plundering, lying, stealing, committing adultery, rising up in great contentions, and deserting away into the land of Nephi, among the Lamanites—And because of this their great wickedness, and their boastings in their own strength, they were left in their own strength; therefore they did not prosper, but were afflicted and smitten, and driven before the Lamanites, until they had lost possession of almost all their lands. (Helaman 4:11–13)

And although Moronihah and others preached repentance to the people and made prophecies concerning their iniquities, and although many did repent and begin again to prosper in battle, they resolved that it was impossible to retake all their lands. This was because they had become “a stiffnecked people” who had “set at naught the commandments of God.” They had trampled the laws of Mosiah under their feet and had become wicked, “even like unto the Lamanites.” The church “had begun to dwindle,” as church members had begun to “disbelieve in the spirit of prophecy and in the spirit of revelation.” They had “become weak like unto their brethren, the Lamanites,” because “they were wicked even like unto the Lamanites” (Helaman 4:21–24). Being bereft of the added strength of the Lord, they realized that since the Lamanites outnumbered them, they would perish unless they returned to the Lord.

Mormon here adds the following comment:

For as their laws and their governments were established by the voice of the people [i.e., they no longer had a king to serve as their intermediary with God but were themselves held responsible], and they who chose evil were more numerous than they who chose good, therefore they were ripening for destruction, for the laws had become corrupted. (Helaman 5:2)

This is a not-so-subtle reference to King Mosiah’s prophecy:

And if the time comes that the voice of the people doth choose iniquity, then is the time that the judgments of God will come upon you; yea, then is the time he will visit you with great destruction even as he has hitherto visited this land. (Mosiah 29:27; see Alma 10:19)

In these desperate circumstances, the brothers Nephi and Lehi decided to spend all the rest of their days preaching to their fellow Nephites and to the Lamanites; Nephi even followed in the venerable footsteps of Alma by stepping down from the judgment seat. Their preaching was in the Nephite lands, which at this time were filled with Lamanites and Nephite dissenters. And they were remarkably successful. They even succeeded in converting a significant number of Nephite dissenters, who were baptized and returned to the Nephite side and attempted to repair the harm they had caused (Helaman 5:17). They also converted eight thousand Lamanites who were now living in the land of Zarahemla.

They then traveled to the land of Nephi, Lamanite territory, where they were promptly arrested and thrown into prison (Helaman 5:20–21). The Lord then blessed the Lamanite people with a series of miracles. When a group of about three hundred Lamanites (v. 49) came to prison intending to kill the prisoners, Nephi and Lehi were encircled by a pillar of fire, the earth shook several times, and the Lamanites were overshadowed by a cloud of darkness. Three times there came to them a “still voice of perfect mildness,” calling them to repentance. These men began to travel throughout Lamanite lands, proclaiming the miracles they had witnessed. A significant majority of the Lamanite people were converted; they renounced the traditions of their fathers, including their hatred of the Nephites. Quite shockingly, they even “did yield up unto the Nephites the lands of their possession” (v. 52).

As a result of this divine mercy, more than half of the Lamanites “had become a righteous people, insomuch that their righteousness did exceed that of the Nephites, because of the firmness of their faith” (Helaman 6:1). Indeed, at that same time “there were many of the Nephites who had become hardened and impenitent and grossly wicked” (v. 2). Many of the Lamanite converts came into the land of Zarahemla and exhorted them to repentance. Apparently many of the Nephites also repented, and the Lamanites and Nephites began increasingly to live among each other and to interact with each other. They had “free intercourse one with another, to buy and to sell, and to get gain, according to their desire” (v. 8). This remarkable period of harmony between Nephites and Lamanites resulted in—of course—prosperity for both groups.[22]

Yet after only three years had passed, the chief judge Cezoram was assassinated, and within a few months his son and immediate successor was also murdered. And like clockwork, the people themselves reverted to wickedness. The robbers of Gadianton grew in strength, at first particularly among the Lamanites but shortly also among the Nephites, who at this point had been blessed

so long with the riches of the world that they had not been stirred up to anger, to wars, nor to bloodshed; therefore they began to set their hearts upon their riches; yea, began to seek to get gain that they might be lifted up one above another; therefore they began to commit secret murders and to rob and to plunder, that they might get gain. (Helaman 6:17; see vv. 26–30 and Moses 5:31)

It is important to recognize that the band of Gadianton was not limited to a small group of the most incorrigible, but continued to grow in size and importance and had a decadent influence on many others, even those who did not join the band.

He [Satan] had got such great hold upon the hearts of the Nephites; yea, insomuch that they had become exceedingly wicked; yea, the more part of them had turned out of the way of righteousness, and did trample under their feet the commandments of God, and did turn unto their own ways, and did build up under themselves idols of their gold and their silver. And it came to pass that all these iniquities did come unto them in the space of not many years. (Helaman 6:31)

The Nephites dwindled in unbelief, and the Spirit of the Lord began to withdraw from them. The Lamanites, in turn, turned away completely from the Gadiantons, while the Nephites were building them up—indeed, the majority of the righteous had come to believe in the ways of Gadianton (Helaman 6:34–38). So powerful was this movement that

they did obtain the sole management of the government, insomuch that they did trample under their feet and smite and rend and turn their backs upon the poor and the meek, and the humble followers of God. (Helaman 6:39)

In other words, this was not a question of a band of violent “robbers” who had used violence to seize power, but rather an insidious conspiracy whose minions had persuaded the majority of the people to support them and their political philosophy. The Gadiantons were “filling the judgment-seats, having usurped the power and authority of the land” (Helaman 7:4). These judges had rejected the practice of justice and were instead

condemning the righteous because of their righteousness; letting the guilty and the wicked go unpunished because of their money; and moreover to be held in office at the head of government, to rule and do according to their wills, that they might get gain and glory of the world, and, moreover, that they might the more easily commit adultery, and steal, and kill, and do according to their own wills.” (Helaman 7:5)

The presence of the Gadiantons throughout the people of Nephi led to an increase in contentions and wars (Helaman 11:1). Nephi, with his recently received sealing power, asked the Lord to substitute a famine for the wars as a means of persuading people to change their ways. Thousands died as a result, particularly “in the more wicked parts of the land” (v. 6). The strategy was successful in that the people began to remember the Lord while abolishing the Gadianton band to the point of complete extinction (v. 10). After approximately two years, Nephi asked the Lord to terminate the famine and allow it to rain once more upon the land.

At that point the popular attitude changed dramatically: Nephi was esteemed as a great prophet, and the majority of both Nephites and Lamanites joined the church (Helaman 11:21). But almost inevitably, contention began within a year or two. This time, Mormon tells us, it began with “a few contentions concerning . . . points of doctrine” (v. 22). The following year those controversies became much larger, but the dispute was temporarily extinguished. The next year, however, a certain number of dissenters who had previously become Lamanites, together with group of true Lamanites, began a war with the Nephites. They revived the secret plans of the Gadiantons, and the people began to “wax strong in iniquity” and were “ripening again for destruction” (vv. 36–37).

The near monotony of this pattern of on-again, off-again repentance was enough to make Mormon declare:

And thus we can behold how false, and also the unsteadiness of the hearts of the children of men; yea, we can see that the Lord in his great infinite goodness doth bless and prosper those who put their trust in him. . . . [Nevertheless], at the very time when he doth prosper his people, yea, in the increase of their fields, their flocks and their herds, and in gold, and in silver, and in all manner of precious things of every kind and art; sparing their lives, and delivering them out of the hands of their enemies; softening the hearts of their enemies that they should not declare wars against them; yea, and in fine, doing all things for the welfare and happiness of his people; yea, then is the time that they do harden their hearts, and do forget the Lord their God, and do trample under their feet the Holy One – yea, and this because of their ease, and their exceedingly great prosperity. (12:1–2)

As a general rule, the only way that the Lord can get the people to repent even for a short period of time is to “chasten his people with many afflictions, yea, except he doth visit them with death and with terror, and with famine and with all manner of pestilence, they will not remember him” (Helaman 12:3). Therefore, Mormon adds, “Blessed are they who will repent and hearken unto the voice of the Lord their God; for these are they that shall be saved” (v. 23).

Over the next several years, Mormon informs us, as the people grew more and more prideful and iniquitous, the Gadiantons also grew in size and strength, causing “great fear to come unto the people upon all the face of the land.” The Gadiantons killed many and caused much destruction, all because of the iniquity of the people, to the point that the people “were ripening again for destruction” (see Helaman 11:32–37).

At this point Samuel the Lamanite appeared and began to declare his prophecies at a time when “the Nephites did still remain in wickedness, while the Lamanites did observe strictly to keep the commandments of the God” (Helman 13:1). He declared that the Lord had commanded him to declare the dire prophecy that

the sword of justice hangeth over this people; and four hundred years pass not away save the sword of justice falleth upon this people. Yea, heavy destruction awaiteth this people, and it surely cometh unto this people, and nothing can save this people save it be repentance and faith on the Lord Jesus Christ, who surely shall come into this world, and shall suffer many things and shall be slain for his people. (Helaman 13:5–6)

Of course, one can legitimately wonder how large an impact a prophecy had on the people regarding their destruction four centuries hence! But Mormon naturally harps on this prophecy with increasing frequency because this is the fundamental theme of his history. At the same time, Samuel declared that

it is for the righteous’ sake that [the city of Zarahemla] is spared. But behold, the time cometh, saith the Lord, that when ye shall cast out the righteous from among you, then shall ye be ripe for destruction; yea, wo be unto this great city, because of the wickedness and abominations which are in her.” (Helaman 13:14)

Furthermore:

Your days of probation are past; ye have procrastinated the day of your salvation until it is everlastingly too late, and your destruction is made sure.” (v. 38)

Nevertheless:

If ye will repent and return unto the Lord your God I will turn away mine anger, saith the Lord. (v. 11)

Samuel followed this declaration with the famous prophecy that there would be “one day and a night and a day, as if it were one day and there were no night; and this shall be unto you for a sign” (Helaman 14:4). And despite it being “everlastingly too late” for genuine repentance, Samuel continues to preach repentance. The prophecy and various other signs and wonders predicted by Samuel were given to the people for their blessing, but likewise unto their condemnation

to the intent that they might believe that these signs and these wonders should come to pass upon all the face of this land, to the intent that there should be no cause for unbelief among the children of men—and this to the intent that whosoever will believe might be saved, and that whosoever will not believe, a righteous judgment might come upon them; and also if they are condemned they bring upon themselves their own condemnation . . . ; for behold, ye are free; ye are permitted to act for yourselves; for behold, God hath given unto you a knowledge and he hath made you free. (Helaman 14:28–30)

In other words, much as Mosiah had emphasized in setting up the judgeship that the people would be free to accept their own responsibility for their acts, so now after being given these clear overt signs, the Nephites would all be held fully responsible, and without excuse if they chose not to believe.

Furthermore, “the people of Nephi hath [the Lord] loved, [while] the Lamanites hath he hated because their deeds have been evil continually, and this because of the tradition of their fathers” (Helaman 15:3–4). Yet those Lamanites who have converted, as the Nephites themselves have witnessed it, “are firm and steadfast in the faith, and in the thing wherewith they have been made free. . . . And now, because of their steadfastness when they do believe . . . , behold, the Lord shall bless them and prolong their days, notwithstanding their [former] iniquity (vv. 8, 10).

And this was the key:

For behold, had the mighty works been shown unto them which have been shown unto you, yea, unto them who have dwindled in unbelief because of the traditions of their fathers, ye can see of yourselves that they never would again have dwindled in unbelief. Therefore, saith the Lord: I will not utterly destroy them, but I will cause that in the day of my wisdom they shall return again unto me, saith the Lord. And now behold, saith the Lord, concerning the people of the Nephites: If they will not repent, and observe to do my will, I will utterly destroy them, saith the Lord, because of their unbelief notwithstanding the many mighty works which I have done among them; and as surely as the Lord liveth shall these things be, saith the Lord. (Helaman 15:15–17)

Many Nephites accepted the words of Samuel and were baptized, but the majority of the people did not believe, “remaining in their pride and wickedness” (Helaman 16:10).

The Book of 3 Nephi

The signs declared by Samuel clearly had a profound effect on the Nephites. They watched for the fulfillment of the signs, and many declared that the time for their fulfillment according to the words of Samuel was passed, despite there being done among them “greater signs and greater miracles” (3 Nephi 1:4). Even those who clung to their beliefs began to doubt—“to be very sorrowful, lest by any means those things which had been spoken might not come to pass” (v. 7). When the believers were threatened with destruction for their beliefs, Nephi the son of Nephi received a revelation declaring that the great sign of a day and another day without any intervening darkness would be fulfilled the next day. And thus it was.

The majority of the people now began once again to believe (3 Nephi 1:22), and peace again reigned, except for “a few” contentions regarding the need to continue to follow the law of Moses. Nonetheless, the Gadiantons did not disappear, nor the Zoramites, and there were still dissenters who went out to join them. Inevitably, however, after a couple of years “the people began to forget those signs and wonders which they had heard, and . . . began to be hard in their hearts, and blind in their minds, and began to disbelieve all which they had heard and seen” (2:1).

Within a few years the Gadiantons had again become so powerful that the rest of the people, both Nephites and Lamanites, were compelled to “take up arms against them” (3 Nephi 2:11). Mormon here tells us that many Lamanites became Nephites and that “their curse was taken from them, and their skin became white like unto the Nephites” (v. 15). This statement clearly indicates that the references to skin color throughout the Book of Mormon are symbolic, not literal—and certainly not racial—since no one can change his or her skin color or race from one day to the next.[23] In any case, it is clear that by this time there had been considerable mixing of the two groups—many Nephites who had become Lamanites and vice versa.

By the fifteenth year following the great sign, the war with the Gadiantons had become “exceedingly sore” (3 Nephi 2:17). Giddianhi, the Gadianton leader, addressed a letter to Lachoneus, the Nephite governor, inviting him and his people to join with them, so as to spare their lives and their lands. Lachoneus refused to even recognize the receipt of this bold request, but, along with the chief captain Gidgiddoni, made extensive defensive preparations in the land. When the Gadiantons finally attacked, they took possession of the land that had been abandoned as the Nephites gathered themselves together into a central body. In abandoning their lands, the people had collected or destroyed their crops and flocks, so that nothing remained for the Gadiantons to eat.

After much fighting, the Nephite strategy succeeded and the Gadianton leader was captured and executed (3 Nephi 4:28). The Nephites gave overwhelming thanks to God for their deliverance, and at this point, Mormon tell us, “There was not a living soul among all the people of the Nephites who did doubt in the least the words of all the holy prophets who had spoken,” and they “did forsake all their sins, and their abominations, and their whoredoms, and did serve God with all diligence day and night” (5:1, 3).

The Gadiantons who had not been killed were all taken prisoner, but those who chose to “repent of their sins and enter a covenant that they would murder no more” were set at liberty. In the time of peace that ensued, Mormon describes in a bit of detail the prosperity that they enjoyed: cities were built, old cities were repaired, many highways were constructed, and there were many opportunities for education, and many merchants, lawyers and officials (3 Nephi 6:7–11). Yet Mormon is so little interested in times of peace that he wrote this summary description of most of this short period:

And thus had the twenty and second year passed away [since the coming of the sign of Christ’s birth], and the twenty and third year also, and the twenty and fourth, and the twenty and fifth; and thus had twenty and five years passed away. (3 Nephi 5:7)

Despite all this success against the Gadiantons, and the prosperity that followed, peace and equality did not last. Mormon describes how the people began making distinctions, raising themselves up above their fellows because of their rank or status, because of their wealth and particularly their opportunities for education on account of their wealth. The insistence on these social distinctions resulted in “railing and persecution” and a “great inequality,” to the degree that the church was completely destroyed—except for a few Lamanites who were “firm, and steadfast,” and immovable” in their faith! (3 Nephi 6:14).

The fundamental difference in this instance was that the Nephites “did not sin ignorantly, for they knew the will of God concerning them, for it had been taught unto them; therefore they did wilfully rebel against God” (3 Nephi 6:18). Judges began secretly condemning those who testified against these practices, even putting them to death. These officials, including “almost all the lawyers and high priests,” entered again into a secret covenant “to combine against all righteousness” (vv. 23–28). Their covenant included, once again, a conspiracy to assassinate the governor and to establish a king in his place.

The plot against the chief judge was successful, and this time the government completely collapsed. The people became quickly divided into separate “tribes,” which were established on the basis of family, kindred, and friends (3 Nephi 7:2). These tribes, we are told, were extremely large. Doubtless, as John Sorenson has pointed out, these tribes were not some kind of “new-fangled” organization that suddenly sprang into being but were already “deeply grounded in traditional Nephite society or they would not have emerged so universally.” Before the collapse of the national government, they would have exercised limited power.[24] Miraculously, despite the collapse of the government and the divisions of the people, wars did not immediately break out. The secret combination that had assassinated the chief judge appointed a man named Jacob as their king, but they were still a smaller group than those organized into tribes, who were solely united by their hatred of those in the royalist conspiracy (v. 11). The only way they avoided war among the tribes was by establishing “very strict laws that one tribe should not trespass against another” (v. 14).

Many signs that had been foretold were brought to pass—tremendous storms, earthquakes, tornadoes, and volcanic eruptions leading to “thick darkness.”[25] Many lamented their failure to repent, and the voice of Christ was heard condemning their iniquity and abominations. Although the “more righteous” (3 Nephi 10:12) were spared destruction (whom Mormon defines as those who did not stone or otherwise shed the blood of the prophets), they were not without cause to repent. The voice of Christ came to the people, lamenting to them how often he had “nourished” them and attempted to “gather” them and how he would still gather them if they would “repent and return unto me with full purpose of heart”—otherwise, “the places of your dwellings shall become desolate until the time of the fulfilling of the covenant to your fathers” (vv. 4–7).

This effectively concludes the “history” of the core of Mormon’s record. The visit of Jesus Christ, which comprises the remaining twenty chapters of 3 Nephi, consists of doctrinal teachings, which I will not summarize here. But it is certainly worth pointing out the central point with which Christ begins his teachings to the Nephites. After he descends from the heavens and gives the people the opportunity to feel of the tokens of the crucifixion in his hands and feet, he begins speaking to them of baptism. Why?

Undoubtedly the principle of baptism with the proper form and authority is an important doctrine, but it is nevertheless somewhat surprising that he chose that as the way to start his teachings—surprising, that is, until one realizes that the topic of baptism is in great part a way of introducing a concept that is very much tailored to Nephite history—that is, the theme of contention.

And he said unto them: On this wise shall ye baptize; and there shall be no disputations among you. . . . And there shall be no disputations among you, as there have hitherto been; neither shall there be disputations among you concerning the points of my doctrine, as there have hitherto been. For verily, verily I say unto you, he that hath contention is not of me, but is of the devil, who is the father of contention, and he stirreth up the hearts of men to contend with anger, one with another. Behold, this is not my doctrine, to stir up the hearts of men with anger one against another; but this is my doctrine, that such things should be done away. (3 Nephi 11:22, 28–30)

No previous mention of these disputes over baptism and other doctrines had been made by Mormon. But it clearly fits into the numerous accounts of contentions among the people. Apparently Christ determined that the Nephites, with their long, long history of constant disputations leading to contentions and war, needed to hear this teaching above all else.

The Book of 4 Nephi

The immediate impact of the visit of Christ to the Book of Mormon peoples is well known: nearly two centuries of a Zion-like society. Unfortunately, however, unlike the society of Enoch, this community did not end up being translated; instead, the people declined, all too precipitately, to their complete destruction.

In the book of 4 Nephi, Mormon provides a massive exclamation point to his theme of contention in Nephite history. In his description of the Zion-like society that arose following the visit of Christ, he mentions the absence of war, contention, and division among the people no fewer than seven times in the first eighteen verses:

• Verse 2 “there were no contentions and disputations among them”
• Verse 4 “there still continued to be peace in the land”
• Verse 13 “there was no contention among all the people, in all the land”
• Verse 15 “there was no contention in the land”[26]
• Verse 16 “there were no envyings, nor strifes, nor tumults, nor whoredoms, nor lying, nor murders”
• Verse 17 “there were no robbers, nor murderers, neither were there Lamanites, nor any manner of -ites”
• Verse 18 “there was no contention in all the land”

The key verse here, certainly, is verse 17, the absence of Lamanites or “any manner of -ites.” At this point, as we have seen, there were few if any differences between Nephites and Lamanites. Not only were those terms no longer used, but there had been considerable mingling between them for decades; many Nephites had become Lamanites and vice-versa.[27]

The beginning of the end of this contention-free society was the creation of an “-ite”—specifically, the re-creation of a group called Lamanites.

There was still peace in the land, save it were a small part of the people who had revolted from the church and taken upon them the name of Lamanites; therefore there began to be Lamanites again in the land. (4 Nephi 1:20)

It is important to note that this title of “Lamanite” was self-selected—apparently the term had become associated with those historically who had rejected the church, so now those who left the church chose to identify themselves with this label.

This was roughly the year 194 since the birth of Christ, and 160 years since the visit of Christ. In the year 201, Mormon tells us, the cycle of pride began again. Following a period of unprecedented prosperity, “there began to be among them those who were lifted up in pride, such as the wearing of costly apparel, and all manner of fine pearls, and of the fine things of the world” (4 Nephi 1:25). That attitude led to the collapse of the practice of having their goods and substance in common among them, as well as further division into social and economic classes and the rise of priestcraft, building up “churches unto themselves to get gain” (v. 26).

Mormon describes the development of many churches “which professed to know the Christ, and yet they did . . . receive all manner of wickedness, and did administer that which was sacred unto him to whom it had been forbidden because of unworthiness” (4 Nephi 1:27). This type of church grew quickly, and its followers began to persecute the more humble believers in Christ and even threw some of them into prison, harking back to the persecutions that occurred before the Amlicite rebellion. The people “dwindled in unbelief” over a period of decades until, in the year 231, there was “a great division among the people” (vv. 34–35). It is not entirely clear what Mormon means by the phrase “great division.” But the key event that he mentions is telling: once again, it’s all about division into new “-ites” (vv. 36–38).

Apparently this division referred to a clear and decisive splitting of the society into two opposing parties or states. The true believers in Christ were now called Nephites—but also Jacobites, Josephites, and Zoramites. The “Lamanites” also were divided into different groups, including Lemuelites and Ishmaelites. In other words, the traditional divisions mentioned by Jacob in Jacob 1:13 were re-created, although on what basis is not clear. Although the meaning of these divisions is not clear, they are directly related to the fact that the people no longer “dwindle[d] in unbelief, but they did wilfully rebel against the gospel of Christ” (4 Nephi 1:38; see 3 Nephi 6:18). Tragically, this “great division among the people” led directly to the willful rejection of the gospel, even by the true believers.

From that point there was no return:

The more wicked part of the people did wax strong, and became exceedingly more numerous than were the people of God. . . . And . . . the people began again to build up the secret oaths and combinations of Gadianton. And also the people who were called the people of Nephi began to be proud in their hearts, because of their exceeding riches, and become vain like unto their brethren, the Lamanites. (4 Nephi 1:40, 42–43)

Three centuries after the birth of Christ, “both the people of Nephi and the Lamanites had become exceedingly wicked one like unto the other. And . . . the robbers of Gadianton did spread over all the face of the land; and there were none that were righteous.” (4 Nephi 1:45–46).

One of the peculiarities of 4 Nephi is how brief Mormon’s account is. I have repeatedly mentioned his practice of skimming very quickly over periods of peace and righteousness; that was not his interest in writing this history. But why is his history of the final decline of the people almost as brief as the Zion period? There are several possible answers. One is that Mormon may have been running out of time. He may have realized that his own end was near and had to tie up his story as quickly as possible. Another possibility is that there were fewer records. As the people declined, perhaps they failed to keep up the plates of Nephi as they had for many centuries. Or perhaps because he had provided so much detail regarding the decline before the coming of Christ that he felt it unnecessary to narrate everything again in infinite detail, since he saw the history of his people to a great extent in cyclical terms—and the book was already long enough.

The Book of Mormon

By Mormon’s own era, “the whole face of the land had become covered with buildings, and the people were as numerous almost, as it were the sand of the sea” (Mormon 1:7). When Mormon was only eleven, “there began to be a war between the Nephites, who consisted of the Nephites and the Jacobites and the Josephites and the Zoramites; and this war was between the Nephites, and the Lamanites and the Lemuelites and the Ishmaelites” (v. 8). Mormon again stresses the division into political tribes as being fundamental to this great war that began in his youth.

Mormon states that at the age of fifteen he sought to preach to his people, but he was forbidden by God, because “they had wilfully rebelled against their God . . . [and] because of the hardness of their hearts” (1:16–17). Unable to preach to the people, he agreed instead to lead the Nephites in their war against the Lamanites. The land “was filled with robbers and with Lamanites.” Yet despite “the great destruction which hung over my people, they did not repent of their evil doings; therefore there was blood and carnage spread throughout all the face of the land” on both sides (2:7–8).

Although the Nephites began to mourn and lament and even “repent” (2:10), Mormon realized quickly that their “sorrowing was not unto repentance,” based on God’s grace, “but rather it was the sorrowing of the damned, because the Lord would not always suffer them to take happiness in sin” (v. 13). This refusal to repent is the key difference between the former Nephites and those of Mormon’s day (see 5:2, 11). Mormon struggled valiantly to serve his people as their captain for a period, even though “the strength of the Lord was not with us; yea, we were left to ourselves . . . ; therefore we had become weak like unto our brethren” the Lamanites” (2:26).

Mormon finally decided to resign as their chief captain, however, when the Nephites, in a spirit of vengeance, began to “swear by the heavens, and also by the throne of God, that they would go up to battle against their enemies [the Lamanites] and would cut them off from the face of the earth (see 3:9–11). Such extreme notions of vengeance crossed a red line for Mormon, as also for the Lord:

Behold, I had led them, notwithstanding their wickedness I had led them many times to battle, and had loved them, according to the love of God which was in me, with all my heart; . . . [yet] when they had sworn by all that had been forbidden them by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, that they would go up unto their enemies to battle, and avenge themselves of the blood of their brethren, behold the voice of the Lord came unto me, saying: Vengeance is mine, and I will repay; and because this people repented not after I had delivered them, behold, they shall be cut off from the face of the earth. (Mormon 3:12, 14–15)

Here God’s sense of irony is overwhelming: the Nephites swore in their vengeful anger that they would cut the Lamanites off from the face of the earth, and the Lord countered with a resolution to cut the Nephites off from the face of the earth.[28]

Nevertheless, the Lord spared them yet again, granting them one final opportunity to repent; yet they further hardened their hearts and Mormon’s effort was in vain (Mormon 3:2–3). In the year 363, when Mormon was approximately fifty-three years old, the Nephites attacked the Lamanites as the aggressors, which resulted in their being “smitten”—“for were it not for that, the Lamanites could have had no power over them” (4:4). Their hearts became so hardened, Mormon tells us, that “they delighted in the shedding of blood continually.” The Lamanites began offering up their opponents’ women and children as sacrifices to their gods (v. 14). The two sides did not fight continually, but each time they engaged each other there was an “exceedingly great slaughter” (v. 21).

The final great battle took place when Mormon was seventy-four. Mormon himself was wounded but not yet killed (Mormon 6:10), leaving him free to write his powerful laments for his people. Mormon records that tens of thousands of his soldiers were killed, observing that if they had repented this would not have occurred (vv. 17, 22).

Mormon’s record effectively ends there. Moroni attempts to fill out the story a bit, noting the death of his father and all his fellow Nephites (Mormon 8:2–3). He declares that their fall has been “great and marvelous” and that “it is the hand of the Lord which hath done it.” The war by no means ended with the death of the last Nephite, however, for “the Lamanites are at war with one another; and the whole face of this land is one continual round of murder and bloodshed” (vv. 7–8).

The Book of Ether

Because the book of Ether is not part of Mormon’s record, I will deal with it quickly. Mormon had, of course, planned on including an abridgment of the Jaredite gold plates himself—asserting that “it is expedient that all people should know the things which are written in this account” (Mosiah 28:19)—but apparently did not have the opportunity. The reason for that intention, undoubtedly, was because he thought it reinforced the message of his own book—“if they [the Nephites] perish it will be like unto the Jaredites, because of the willfulness of their hearts, seeking for blood and revenge” (Moroni 9:23).

The book of Ether is a tiny summary of the history of the Jaredites. It is thirty-one pages, less than 6 percent of our current Book of Mormon. In reality the historiographical portion of the book of Ether comprises even less than that because it contains Moroni’s own commentaries—a large portion of chapters 4, 5, 12, and several other passages. Moreover, the political history portion of the book relating to the people after they arrive in the promised land doesn’t really begin until the latter half of chapter 6. We don’t have any clear idea of how many years the narrative covers, since it begins with the story of the Tower of Babel and takes us down to some time around 150 BC (Omni 1:21). Presumably this covers a period of two thousand years or even longer.

Much of the book, to the dismay of many readers, seems to consist of little more than a dry litany of one king succeeding another, whose reigns more often than not consisted of violence. Moroni’s principal theme of the book seems to be much the same as that of his father’s record: obedience to the Lord leads to prosperity. Kings are frequently described as righteous or unrighteous. But little detail is given as to what the people did or even what the kings did that should be considered unrighteous. One major difference with Mormon’s “core” history is that Ether is a book almost entirely about kings. This is in keeping with the concept of the sacral kingship, which is quite pronounced in Ether. In 6:22 the record specifically mentions that the kings were anointed (unlike, e.g., the Nephite judges),[29] indicating that they were sacral kings, and as such they were believed to bear the overwhelming responsibility for the behavior of their people before God.[30] Therefore the majority of the spare drama of the book derives from the repeated conflicts in the royal family, son against father and brother against brother rather than the Jaredite people themselves. To be sure, some of the kings were righteous and tried to listen to the prophets, yet many others rebelled against their fathers and even cast them into prison for decades.

Almost immediately following the establishment of a kingdom and the rule of kings, we are confronted with a world of intense royal competition. Although the brother of Jared was opposed to the idea of installing a king by anointing, Jared himself argued in favor of it. Several of their sons refused the honor, but one of the sons of Jared finally accepted it. Immediately, we are told that the people “began to prosper; and they became exceedingly rich” (Ether 6:22–28). For the first couple of generations the kings were righteous and things went fairly well, but in the third generation Corihor is able to get a large percentage of the people to follow him. He succeeds in getting control of the kingdom and placing his father the king in captivity.

The real “evil” of the story, however, clearly begins in chapter 8 with the rise of the secret combination under the direction of Akish. Just as Mormon stressed the links between the combinations of the Nephites and those found in the Jaredite records, Moroni here links the Jaredite conspiracies, with their oaths, to “them of old who also sought power, which has been handed down even from Cain, who was a murderer from the beginning” (Ether 8:15). This combination, Moroni tells us, “is most abominable and wicked above all, in the sight of God; for the Lord worketh not in secret combinations, neither doth he will that man should shed blood, but in all things hath forbidden it, from the beginning of man” (vv. 18–19). He goes on to add that such combinations “have caused the destruction of his people of whom I am now speaking, and also the destruction of the people of Nephi” (v. 21).

After the rise of these combinations, the competitions among royals become even more violent and downright bloody (e.g., Ether 9:6, 27). Yet Moroni provides so little detail that it is much harder to understand the role and impact of these secret combinations among the Jaredites than it was in the case of the Nephites. The main goal in both cases was clearly the same: “Now the people of Akish were desirous for gain, even as Akish was desirous for power” (v. 11). But the influence of the secret societies went beyond the kings and their rivals. Moroni tells us that “this wicked and secret society . . . had corrupted the hearts of all the people.” (v. 6) Accordingly, the Lord repeatedly sent prophets to call the people (not just the kings!) to repentance. And these prophets repeatedly prophesied the destruction of their entire people—down to the last man—if they didn’t repent. On more than one occasion the king supported the prophets against the people who opposed them. (e.g., 7:23–25)

Moroni, like his father before him, clearly believed that the secret combinations came from Satan and were a fundamental cause of the fall and destruction of both the Nephites and the Jaredites. Moroni warns his future readers in great detail that if the same combinations arise in future civilizations, they must repent (Ether 8:21–26). Yet exactly how these groups led to the fall of the Jaredites is not clear, except that they led the people to seek power and wealth (v. 23). Moroni never tells us, for example, that either of the last two Jaredite kings were members of a secret combination.

Instead, the impression we get is that society became increasingly violent and bloody, and the combinations were major contributors to this tendency. At one point, when there is a righteous king, the people prospered greatly:

And they were exceedingly industrious and they did buy and sell and traffic one with another that they might get gain. And they did work in all manner of ore, and they did make gold, and silver, and iron, and brass, and all manner of metals; and they did dig it out of the earth; wherefore, they did cast up mighty heaps of earth to get ore, of gold, and of silver, and of iron, and of copper. And they did work all manner of fine work. And they did have silks, and fine-twined linen; and they did work all manner of cloth, that they might clothe themselves from their nakedness. And they did make all manner of tools to till the earth, both to plow and to sow, to reap and to hoe, and also to thrash. And they did make all manner of tools with which they did work their beasts. And they did make all manner of weapons of war. And they did work all manner of work of exceedingly curious workmanship. And never could be a people more blessed than were they, and more prospered by the hand of the Lord. (Ether 10:22–28)

But the reader of Mormon’s record can already foresee what is going to happen. Because of this great prosperity, “there began again to be robbers in the land” who “adopted the old plans, and administered oaths after the manner of the ancients, and sought again to destroy the kingdom” (Ether 10:33). There arose many prophets who “prophesied of the destruction of that great people except they should repent, and turn unto the Lord, and forsake their murders and wickedness” (11:1). Yet the people rejected the prophets and their message and attempted to kill them. Shortly thereafter, “there began to be an exceedingly great war in all the land.” In spite of the dire predictions of the prophets, “there began to be wars and contentions in all the land, and also many famines and pestilences, insomuch that there was a great destruction, such an one as never had been known upon the face the earth” (v. 7).

The level of violence continued to escalate, yet all was not quite lost. The prophet Ether conveyed the will of the Lord to Coriantumr, that “if he would repent, and all his household, the Lord would give unto him his kingdom and spare the people—otherwise they should be destroyed, and all his household save it were himself (Ether 13:20–21). Coriantumr refused to repent, and “there began to be a war upon all the face of the land, every man with his band fighting for that which he desired (v. 25). And “all the people upon the face of the land were shedding blood, and there was none to restrain them” (v. 31). The whole civilization had, as it were, adopted the way of life of the secret combinations, seeking for power and wealth.

Eventually the destruction had become so great that “the whole face of the land was covered with the bodies of the dead” (Ether 14:21). Finally, when “the Spirit of the Lord had ceased striving with them, and Satan had full power over the hearts of the people, for they were given up unto the hardness of their hearts, and the blindness of their minds that they might be destroyed,” they fought each other to the point of annihilation (15:19).

* * *

No doubt about it, this is a depressing story, and it was clearly intended to be so. Moroni, in writing it, obviously had one eye on the catastrophic wars that were going on around him among his own people, which likewise were motivated by hatred, anger, and a desire for wealth, power, and vengeance (Moroni 1:2; 9:3–5; see Mormon 8:40–41). Jacob, brother of Nephi, had described his life and that of his people as like unto “a dream, we being a lonesome and a solemn people, wanderers, cast out from Jerusalem, born in tribulation, in a wilderness, and hated of our brethren, which caused wars and contentions; wherefore, we did mourn out our days” (Jacob 7:26). Moroni described his life in similar but even more desperate terms. He declared:

And my father also was killed by them, and I even remain alone to write the sad tale of the destruction of my people. But behold, they are gone, and I fulfill the commandment of my father. And whether they will slay me, I know not . . . ; and whither I go it mattereth not. . . . My father hath been slain in battle, and all my kinsfolk, and I have not friends nor whither to go; and how long the Lord will suffer that I may live I know not. . . . And behold, it is the hand of the Lord which hath done it. And behold also, the Lamanites are at war one with another; and the whole face of this land is one continual round of murder and bloodshed; and no one knoweth the end of the war. (Mormon 8:3–5, 8)

Though there were no grounds for hope in this life, Moroni was nevertheless not without a greater hope. He was doubtless sustained in a very personal way by the Spirit of God and by Christ himself (Ether 12:39), and he testifies of the importance and reality of the gifts of the Spirit. And his final words are about the atonement of Christ. If we seek God with all our hearts, we can be “sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ,” and “soon go to rest in the paradise of God” (Moroni 10:33–34).

Notes

[1] Gordon B. Hinckley, “‘An Angel from on High, the Long, Long Silence Broke,’” Ensign, November 1979, 8.

[2] See the discussion in Don Bradley, The Lost 116 Pages: Reconstructing the Book of Mormon’s Missing Stories (Sandy, UT: Greg Kofford Books, 2019), 242–60.

[3] This seems to mirror what King David did with Solomon when he was in extreme old age (1 Kings 1:33–40; 1 Chronicles 23:1). David specifies that Solomon not only “shall succeed me as king,” but “he shall sit on my throne in my place” (1 Kings 1:30). He then has the priest Zadok and the prophet Nathan anoint Solomon as king, then orders for the trumpet to be blown and the acclamation shouted, “Long live King Solomon!” Solomon then rode on his father’s own royal mule. None of these specific actions (nor any comparable ritual acts) are recorded by Mormon, yet we are told that Benjamin himself “consecrated his son Mosiah to be a ruler and a king over his people, and had given him all the charges concerning the kingdom” (Mosiah 6:3). Benjamin also notes in his speech that he had been consecrated by his father, Mosiah (2:11).

[4] See Stephen D. Ricks, “Kingship, Coronation, and Covenant in Mosiah 1–6,” in King Benjamin’s Speech: “That Ye May Learn Wisdom,” ed. John W. Welch and Stephen D. Ricks (Provo, UT: FARMS, 1998), 251. See also Hugh W. Nibley, “Assembly and Atonement,” in Welch and Ricks, King Benjamin’s Speech, 121–26, for interesting parallels between King Benjamin’s ceremony and the installation ritual of the Jewish exilarch in early medieval Persia.

[5] Keith W. Whitelam, The Just King: Monarchical Judicial Authority in Ancient Israel (Sheffield, UK: JSOT, 1979), 29. See further Gregory Steven Dundas, “Kingship, Democracy and the Message of the Book of Mormon,” BYU Studies Quarterly 56, no. 2 (2017): 9–18, 55–56.

[6] See Hugh Nibley, An Approach to the Book of Mormon (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book; Provo, UT: FARMS, 1988), 183–93; and Nibley, Since Cumorah (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book; Provo, UT: FARMS, 1988), 265–70.

[7] According to the Qumran “Manual of Discipline,” the Instructor was to teach the “Holy Ones . . . to seek God with all their heart and with all their soul to do that which is good and upright before Him; . . . to distance themselves from all evil and to hold fast to all good deeds; to practice truth, justice, and righteousness in the land”; and “to bring the full measure of their knowledge, strength, and wealth into the ‘Yahad.’” Michael Wise, Martin G. Abegg Jr., and Edward M. Cook, The Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2005), 126–27. Initiates into the New Covenant were to take a vow to “act according to all that [God] has commanded and not to backslide because of any fear, terror, or persecution.” They were to “distance themselves from all evil and to hold fast to all good deeds; to practice truth, justice, and righteousness in the land, and to walk no longer in a guilty, willful heart and lustful desires, wherein they did every evil thing. . . . So shall all together comprise a Yahad whose essence is truth, genuine humility, love of charity, and righteous intent, caring for one another after this fashion within the holy society, comrades in an eternal fellowship” (127–28). On washings and baptisms among the Qumranites, see James C. VanderKam, The Dead Sea Scrolls Today, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2010), 208.

[8] Note that these are the priests of the king, not of Alma or of the church. Presumably Alma was one of those priests.

[9] The meaning of the word equality in Mormon’s usage is hard to pin down. See the discussion below.

[10] It is very possible that Mosiah had in mind some kind of “reversion” to the rule of judges in the context of the book of Samuel. In the account found in the book of Judges, the Israelites appear to be under the rule of some sort of “judges” (shophetim), and because of the chaos that more often than not rules in their society, they demand of Samuel (himself the principal “judge” at the time) a king. Samuel is offended, but the Lord tells him to acquiesce to the people’s will. It is conceivable that here Mosiah was following this pattern in reverse. If the kingship succession was problematic, he might have thought of, in essence, going back to the system that preceded the kingship. To be sure, the system of judges that Mosiah conceived of was much more complex than anything we hear about in the book of Judges. Nevertheless, it is clear that Samuel was offended not only for personal reasons but also because he viewed the demand for the kingship to be a kind of renunciation by the people of their responsibility toward God. As we will see in a moment, the institution of kingship meant that the king bore primary responsibility for the righteousness or wickedness of the people, letting the people, so to speak, off the hook. Mosiah reminds the Nephite people that under a judgeship, with no king, they will now bear responsibility before God, and the people understand him perfectly. This theory does not accord with the standard view of the Israelite “judges” as primarily military saviors rather than rulers or judges of any kind. For my argument in support, see Dundas, “Kingship, Democracy,” 35–41.

[11] See a full discussion of these points in Dundas, “Kingship, Democracy,” 36–39.

[12] Gregory Steven Dundas, “Kingship and Democracy,” 46.

[13] See Royal Skousen, Analysis of Textual Variants of the Book of Mormon, Part 3: Mosiah 17–Alma 20 (Provo, UT: FARMS, 2006), 1606–9.

[14] On the question of marking and skin color, see note 22 below.

[15] John Welch has argued that this destruction was in accordance with Deuteronomy 13:12–18. See John W. Welch, “The Destruction of Ammonihah and the Law of Apostate Cities,” in Reexploring the Book of Mormon: A Decade of New Research, ed. John W. Welch (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, Provo, UT: FARMS, 1992), 176–79.

[16] G. Homer Durham, Joseph Smith, Prophet-Statesman: Readings in American Political Thought (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1944), 3.

[17] John Welch argues that Korihor should be seen as an “isolated individual defying the foundation of collective responsibility that undergirded the concepts of justice, ethics, prosperity, and well-being in Nephite and Israelite societies.” See his The Legal Cases in the Book of Mormon (Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press and Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, 2008), 273. Brant Gardner similarly argues that Korihor likely had little or no impact on later Nephite history, unlike Nehor. See his Second Witness, 4:418. In contrast, Daniel Belnap argues at great length that, in Mormon’s view, “Korihor and his doctrine remained and would continue to remain a threat to Nephite civilization.” He contends that the Zoramites are “a people who are in fact actually practicing many of the principles advocated in Korihor’s philosophy.” Yet he never provides a clear link between the two philosophies, nor any clear connection between Korihor’s teachings and what he calls the “intra-societal conflict that would define the Nephite experience for the next forty years.” See his articles “‘And It Came to Pass . . .’: The Sociopolitical Events in the Book of Mormon Leading to the Eighteenth Year of the Reign of the Judges,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 23, no. 1 (2014) and “‘And He Was Anti-Christ’: The Significance of the Eighteenth Year of the Reign of the Judges, Part 2,’” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 28, no. 1 (2019). While I would agree that there were social as well as political conflicts in Nephite society, there is insufficient evidence in the text to support many of Belnap’s specific claims—for example, that Helaman’s “regulation” of the church in Alma 45:21–23 involved a change in priests, which caused the ensuing dissension, and that the newly appointed priests were “of high-ranking Nephite lineage and served as judges” (“Sociopolitical Events,” 110).

[18] See Joshua Madson, “A Non-Violent Reading of the Book of Mormon,” in War & Peace In Our Time: Mormon Perspectives, ed. Patrick Q. Mason, J. David Pulsipher, and Richard L. Bushman (Sandy, UT: Greg Kofford Books, 2012), 21.

[19] Mormon notes that the “Lamanites” were composed of Lamanites, Lemuelites, Ishmaelites, “and all the dissenters of the Nephites, from the reign of Nephi down to the present time” (Alma 47:35).

[20] The term combination was frequently used in early America simply to refer to a conspiracy. See Daniel C. Peterson, “Notes on ‘Gadianton Masonry,” in Warfare in the Book of Mormon, ed. Stephen D. Ricks and William J. Hamblin (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book; Provo, UT: FARMS, 1990), 190–91.

[21] This contrast between the behavior of the governor and that of the people is a demonstration of the difference between the reign of the judges and the old sacral kingship. As previously noted, the sacral king had greater control over the people and was primarily responsible to God for the people as a whole. Under the judges, the people themselves carried the primary responsibility for their own behavior before God. See the discussion of Helaman 5:2 below.

[22] This development fits in with the conclusion arrived at previously that, beginning with the time of the people of Zeniff, relations between Nephites and Lamanites became increasingly close.

[23] This practice of self-marking by the Amlicites after the manner of the Lamanites often raises the question of skin color and even race in today’s environment, but there is good evidence that the Lamanite “skin color” was never meant in a truly literal sense, let alone in a racial sense. William Robertson Smith, the great orientalist of the later nineteenth century, wrote that the Arabs had a common phrase, that “a man’s face becomes black when he disgraces himself by a breach of custom.” By the same token, when a man who had offended another had made the proper atonement for his offense, “the offender’s face is again white.” See Lectures and Essays of William Robertson Smith, ed. John Sutherland Black and George Chrystal (London: Adam and Charles Black, 1912), 580, 583. Victor Turner cites these practices in his lengthy discussion of ritual and symbolic uses of color (specifically white, red, and black) among the Ndembu people of northwestern Zambia in Africa. Among the many things that “white” could symbolize in Ndembu culture were goodness, purity, life, and health. Black, on the other hand, often symbolized such things as badness, evil, bad things, suffering or misfortune, disease, and witchcraft or sorcery (if your liver is black, you can kill a person, you are bad; on the other hand, if your liver is white, you are good). In this connection, Turner mentions having heard “an African storekeeper expostulate, when he was accused by his employer of embezzlement, ‘My liver is white,’ much as an Englishman would say, ‘My conscience is clear,’” even though, of course, livers are red in color. See Victor Turner, “Color Classification in Ndembu Ritual: A Problem in Primitive Classification,” in Victor Turner, The Forest of Symbols: Aspects of Ndembu Ritual (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1967), 59–92. This purely symbolic use of “black” and “white” would help explain, among other passages in the Book of Mormon, Nephi’s statement that “I [God] will cause that they [the Lamanites] shall be loathesome unto thy people, save they shall repent of their iniquities” (2 Nephi 5:22). Similarly, Jacob states, “I fear that unless ye shall repent of your sins that their skins will be whiter than yours, when ye shall be brought with them before the throne of God” (Jacob 3:8). And in fact, when the Lamanites repented of their sins, “their curse was taken from them, and their skin became white like unto the Nephites” (3 Nephi 2:15)—that is, the skin color of specific individuals changed color more or less overnight! Moreover, “white” is used symbolically throughout the Book of Mormon for moral cleanliness and purity, while “black” is used for moral filthiness: see, for example, 1 Nephi 8:11; 11:13; 12:23; 2 Nephi 30:6; Alma 5:21; 24:11–15; 32:42; Mormon 9:5; and Ether 13:10. For a detailed discussion of differing views of this issue, see Brant A. Gardner, Second Witness: Analytical and Contextual Commentary on the Book of Mormon (Sandy, UT: Greg Kofford Books, 2007), 2:110–22. On “white” as a metaphor in the Book of Mormon, see Russell W. Stevenson, “Reckoning with Race in the Book of Mormon: A Review of Literature,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 27 (2018): 131–35. For other useful discussions of this issue, see John A. Tvedtnes, “The Charge of ‘Racism’ in the Book of Mormon,” Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 15, no. 2 (2003): 183–97, https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/msr/vol15/iss2/11; and Brant A. Gardner, Traditions of the Fathers: The Book of Mormon as History (Sandy, UT: Greg Kofford Books, 2015), 159–64.

[24] See John L. Sorenson, Nephite Culture and Society: Collected Papers, ed. Matthew R. Sorenson (Salt Lake City: New Sage Books, 1997), 217–18.

[25] See Nibley, Since Cumorah, 231–38; and the extensive bibliography listed at https://knowhy.bookofmormoncentral.org/knowhy/what-caused-the-darkness-and-destruction-in-the-34th-year#footnote3_occnf52.

[26] Patrick Q. Mason and J. David Pulsipher make the important observation that, according to Mormon, “there was no contention in the land because of the love of God which did dwell in the hearts of the people.” Proclaim Peace: The Restoration’s Answer to an Age of Conflict (Provo, UT: Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, Brigham Young University, 2021), 73. In this regard see their discussion of what they call “the power of assertive love,” 95–124.

[27] Note also that Mormon observes in Moroni 9:24 that “many of our brethren have deserted over unto the Lamanites, and many more will also desert over unto them.”

[28] See the comments of Nibley, Since Cumorah, 340–42: Mormon’s “theme is co-existence. At that time the Lamanites were feeling about the Nephites exactly as the Nephites felt about them, and so the process of polarization had been pushed to its limit, with each side out to exterminate the other, obsessed with the old doctrine of ‘It is either you or us.’ As in the days of Shiz and Coriantumr, everybody was forced to choose either one side or the other, at a time, of course, when there was very little to choose between them, for ‘both the people of Nephi and the Lamanites had become exceeding wicked one like unto another.’”

[29] See also 6:27; 9:14–15, 21, 22; 10:10, 16.

[30] See Dundas, “Kingship, Democracy,” 57–58.