The apostasy of the Nephites continues. False priests and
prophets built up churches and the members committed all manner of iniquity. “And
many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many” (Matthew 24:11).
“They profess that they know God; but in works they deny
him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate [GR
unfit, worthless]” (Titus 1:16).
“But there were false prophets also among the people, even
as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable
heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves
swift destruction.
“And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of
whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of” (2 Peter 2:1-2).
“These apostates rejected God, his leaders, and his gospel,
and sought to destroy his people. Their intent seems to have been to take over
the church of Christ through the use of force. This was hubris pure and simple.
Apostates became filled with the heady power associated with dictating the
moral standards of the community. The wicked people ‘were led by many priests
and false prophets to build up many churches, and to do all manner of iniquity’
(4 Nephi 1:34). Thus a frenzy of church building took place as the apostasy
became ever more complete.”[1]
By 230 AD, the Nephites had become a divided people once
again. We see them coming together as “tribes.” We see the same divisions that
occurred early in Nephite history. “Now the people which were not Lamanites
were Nephites; nevertheless, they were called Nephites, Jacobites, Josephites,
Zoramites, Lamanites, Lemuelites, and Ishmaelites” (Jacob 1:15).
“During the previous one hundred and fifty years [from
Mormon’s time], [Nephite] society had existed as a coalition of tribal/lineage
groups consisting primarily of Nephites, Jacobites, Josephites, and Zoramites,
while the Lamanites were a combination of three additional lineage groups — the
Lamanites, Lemuelites, and Ishmaelites (see 4 Nephi 1:3638; Mormon 1:8).”[2]
“These designations were so important that hundreds of years
later the people continued to identify themselves as members of these clans
(see 4 Nephi 1:36).”[3]
Those who rejected the gospel were called Lamanites,
Lemuelites, and Ishmaelites. “They did
not dwindle in unbelief, but they did wilfully rebel against the gospel of
Christ” (4 Nephi 1:38). “But that ye must turn away this day from following the
Lord? and it will be, seeing ye rebel to day against the Lord, that to morrow
he will be wroth with the whole congregation of Israel” (Joshua 22:18).
“And I did endeavor to preach unto this people, but my mouth
was shut, and I was forbidden that I should preach unto them; for behold they
had wilfully rebelled against their God; and the beloved disciples were taken
away out of the land, because of their iniquity” (Mormon 1:16).
They began teaching the traditions of their fathers to
children. The old divisions reappear. “And thus they have taught their children
that they should hate them, and that they should murder them, and that they
should rob and plunder them, and do all they could to destroy them; therefore
they have an eternal hatred towards the children of Nephi” (Mosiah 10:17).
“Of the 231st year of the Christian era, we read that there
were people among the Nephites whom the Lamanites termed Jacobites, Josephites,
and Zoramites (see 4 Nephi 1:35-37). Those who rejected the gospel, we are
told, were called Lamanites and Lemuelites and Ishmaelites (see 4 Nephi 1:38). ‘They
were taught to hate the children of God, even as the Lamanites were taught to
hate the children of Nephi from the beginning’ (4 Nephi 1:39). The old enmities
followed the reemphasis of tribal affiliation.”[4]
[1] Hubris
and Atē: A Latter-day Warning from the Book of Mormon, Richard D. Draper,
Maxwell Institute website
[2] Nephite
Captains and Armies, A. Brent Merrill, Maxwell Institute website.
[3] The
Zoramite Separation: A Sociological Perspective, Sherrie Mills Johnson, Journal of Book of Mormon Studies,
Volume 14, number 1, 2005: 79.
[4] Book of
Mormon Tribal Affiliation and Military Castes, John A. Tvedtnes, Maxwell
Institute website.
No comments:
Post a Comment