The Nephites are about to suffer great casualties in a long war. Their mistake was to let the little things turn into big things. What started as little dissensions and disturbances almost destroyed the whole of Nephite society. “’Little sins,’ like tiny acorns, produce massive oaks; out of small things proceeds that which is great. Tares, once small and indistinguishable, eventually choke the wheat.” (McConkie & Millet, Doctrinal Commentary on the Book of Mormon, vol. 1, p. 332) In the words of C.S. Lewis’ famous character, Screwtape, “It does not matter how small the sins are, provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing.” (The Screwtape Letters, p. 48). The Nephites allowed themselves to be drawn away from the Light and out into the Nothing, where the Lamanite armies were waiting for them.