Note the effect that the prayers of the righteous had upon a nation. The prayers of the righteous also kept the Nephites from being destroyed later during the days of Captain Moroni and Samuel the Lamanite (see Alma 62:40; Helaman 13:12–14).
President Spencer W. Kimball (1895–1985) said the following about prayers offered in our day: “There are many many upright and faithful who live all the commandments and whose lives and prayers keep the world from destruction” (in Conference Report, Apr. 1971, 7; or Ensign, June 1971, 16). Once the righteous were destroyed or removed from Ammonihah, the prayers of the righteous ceased to protect the city and “every living soul of the Ammonihahites was destroyed” (Alma 16:9).