Sherem is a prototype for endless varieties of disgruntled and misguided enemies of the truth who emerge in all generations of time only to be confounded by the chosen representatives of the Lord. In the strength of God the righteous can prevail against those who scheme to overthrow the doctrines of Christ. Elder Neal A. Maxwell considers the pitiful plight of all such self-appointed torch bearers:
Just how crucial access is to time-transcending truth may be pondered in the setting in which Sherem, an agnostic, berated a prophet for preaching a Christ to come “many hundred years hence.” Sherem declared that “there should be no Christ.” Indeed, he said, it was even blasphemous for prophets to teach of things to come, for “no man knoweth of such things; for he cannot tell of things to come” (Jacob 7:1–7). The anti-Christ was a “here and now” person who, ironically, put himself forward as if he were the judge of what constituted orthodoxy. So, alas, today—like Sherem, who ostensibly wished to uphold the law of Moses—some denounce modern prophets for telling of plain and precious things yet to come. Provincialism wears many blinders, and each is designed to deflect those fundamental truths which transcend time. How relentlessly the adversary seeks to grind mortals down to a single plane, knowing, as he does, that if mortals can be confined to now, then it is so easy to declare present appetite, instead of Jesus, as king. (Plain and Precious Things [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1983], 58–59)