Sherem accused Jacob of "blasphemy" (Jacob 7:7). What does the word "blasphemy" mean? According to Hugh Nibley, it's to treat lightly, not with contempt, but not seriously. It is not to damn something to hell. It is not to say horrible and tremendous things, but to treat lightly. It's much worse to treat the gospel as trivia and laugh it off (you can't reach people like that) than it is to attack it savagely and say, "I'll show you where it is wrong," and really do some studying because then you are in danger. But that's what blasphemy is. We get the impression that when a person speaks blasphemy, he has spoken terrible things. He has denounced and used vile language. That's not it. Blasphemy is treating it lightly, "this is nothing; we'll laugh it off." It's laughing something off, which is the best argument if you want to crush something that you can't answer. You just laugh it off and walk out of the room. They ask plenty of questions about the gospel, but they never wait for the answers. [Hugh W. Nibley, Teachings of the Book of Mormon, Semester 1, p. 406]
“Blasphemy”
An interesting encounter is reported in Jacob 7 between Sherem and Jacob. According to John Welch, in light of the ancient Israelite criminal law that was in force among the Nephites at this time and at least to the reforms of Mosiah (2 Nephi 5:10; Jarom 1:5; Mosiah 17:7-8; Alma 1:17), it is evident that Sherem's accusations were serious allegations. On three accounts in Jacob 7:7, he accused Jacob of offenses punishable by death:
[1] Ye have led away much of this people that they pervert the right way of God, and keep not the law of Moses which is the right way; and convert the law of Moses into the worship of a being which ye say shall come many hundred years hence.
[2] And now behold, I, Sherem, declare unto you that this is blasphemy;
[3] for no man knoweth of such things; for he cannot tell of things to come.
Each of Sherem's three accusations can be traced to specific provisions in preexilic Israelite law:
(1) Causing public apostasy: Leading other people or a city into apostasy--was recognized as a serious infraction under the law of Moses and the Talmud. Deuteronomy 13:1-18 condemns to death any person, whether a prophet, or brother, or son, or wife, who says to the inhabitants of their city, "Let us go and serve other gods, which ye have not known" (Deuteronomy 13:2, 6, 13). "Thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; . . . but thou shalt surely kill him" (Deuteronomy 13:8-9).
Sherem's point was that Jacob had converted the observance of the law of Moses into the worship of an unknown future being ["the Lamb," "the Messiah," "Christ"].
(2) Blasphemy: It was a felony under the law of Moses to blaspheme (Exodus 20:7; Leviticus 24:10-16). Leviticus 24 established that any person who blasphemed, even in a brawl, was to be stoned to death.
(3) False Prophecy: The test for whether a prophet had spoken truly or falsely was usually to see "if the thing follow not, nor come to pass" (Deuteronomy 18:22). First of all, Sherem objected to the fact that Jacob had spoken of things too far distant in the future to be proven. Secondly, Jacob's "preaching . . . the doctrine of Christ" (Jacob 7:6) was characterized by Sherem as a form of speaking "in the name of" another god, for the Nephites had begun worshipping God only in the name of Christ (2 Nephi 25:13-19; Jacob 4:5). Deuteronomy 18:20 requires that a man shall be put to death if he speaks "in the name of other gods." (Note* Welch comments that perhaps Book of Mormon prophets insisted so emphatically that God and his Son were but "one God"--2 Nephi 31:21; Alma 11:28-29, 35--partly to affirm that speaking in the name of one was not to be construed legally as speaking in the name of any other god.)
Thus, Sherem's allegations were not merely vague rhetorical criticisms; they were well-formulated accusations, logically derived from specific provisions of the ancient law. Sherem's words put Jacob's life in jeopardy. If allowed to stand, these accusations would have justified Jacob's execution. But at the same time, Sherem also put his own life on the line. The ancient punishment for a false accuser was to suffer that which "he had thought to have done unto his brother" (Deuteronomy 19:19). Not only does this show that Sherem was deeply committed to his views and dead serious about the charges he raised against his "brother Jacob" (Jacob 7:6), it also explains the sense of legal justice that exists in the fact that, in the end, Sherem was smitten by God and soon died. [John W. Welch, "Sherem's Accusations against Jacob," in FARMS Insights, January 1991, [http://farms.byu.edu/web/insights/archive2/jan_91.asp], pp. 1-2]