Chapter 7
The chief judge is
murdered, the government is destroyed, and the people divide into tribes—Jacob,
an anti-Christ, becomes king of a secret combination—Nephi preaches repentance
and faith in Christ—Angels minister to him daily, and he raises his brother
from the dead—Many repent and are baptized. About A.D. 30–33.
Mosiah had warned against a king. Instead, he proposed a
Chief Judge. The change was made.
As Mormon begins this chapter, he points out, in the 30th
year after Christ’s birth, the judgement seat was destroyed.
The people became divided. Groups came together and
organized into tribes based on family relationships and friendships. This
destroyed Nephite government. Each group appointed their own leader.
“When pride and hostility entered into the hearts of the
Nephites and Lamanites, they could no longer be governed by laws established by
the voice of the people. Then people became ‘divided one against another; and
they did separate one from another into tribes, every man according to his
family and his kindred and friends, and thus they did destroy the government of
the land’ (3 Nephi 7:2). A modern parallel to the division described in the
Book of Mormon has been the division among nations. When the United Nations was
founded in 1945, the world was organized into 51 countries. This number
increased to 100 in 1960 and to 192 in 1994. Since 1994, the number of national
divisions among countries has continued to increase. If increasing the number
of countries results in trade restrictions between those who were formerly
members of the same country, then we can expect less specialization, reduced
trading opportunities, limited opportunities to choose, and reduced income for
all, especially for those in newly fragmented countries.”[1]
While this was done peacefully, it was done because of sin. Among
the tribes, secret combinations reared their ugly heads. Contentions spread
throughout the lands. There were few
righteous people among them. These tools
of Satan go back to the begging. “And
Satan put it into the heart of the serpent, (for he had drawn away many after
him,) and he sought also to beguile Eve, for he knew not the mind of God,
wherefore he sought to destroy the world” (Moses 4:6).
Paul warned the Romans (and us as well)…
Neither
yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield
yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as
instruments of righteousness unto God.
For
sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under
grace.
What
then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God
forbid [GR may it not be].
Know
ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are
to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
But
God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the
heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.
Being
then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.
I
speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye
have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity;
even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.
For
when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from [GR unrestricted by]
righteousness (Romans 6:13-20).
“The term regulation is found six times in the Book of
Mormon and refers to new institutional principles. While it may refer to both
ecclesiastical and political changes, most of them are political. Captain
Moroni is described as ‘making regulations to prepare for war against the
Lamanites’ (Alma 51:22). Possibly these regulations were meant to be short
term, for following the conclusion of the war led by Captain Moroni, ‘regulations
were made concerning the law. And their judges, and their chief judges were
chosen’ (Alma 62:47). Later, 3 Nephi 7:6 reports that ‘the regulations of the
government were destroyed, because of the secret combination of the friends and
kindreds of those who murdered the prophets.’”[2]
[2] “And
it came to pass . . .”: The Sociopolitical Events in the Book of Mormon Leading
to the Eighteenth Year of the Reign of the Judges, Dan Belnap, Journal of Book of Mormon Studies, 2014,
Volume 23: 114.
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