After a time, lineage became irrelevant in the determination of who was Nephite and who was Lamanite. The Lamanites were any who chose to rebel against righteousness, against the things of God. On the other hand, “whosoever would not believe in the tradition of the Lamanites, but believed those records that were brought out of the land of Jerusalem, and also in the tradition of their fathers, which were correct, who believed in the commandments of God and kept them, were called the Nephites, or the people of Nephi” (Alma 3:11).