The peace continues for three more years and, presumably, the prosperity as well. Even as Mormon describes peace, he mentions pride. Like earlier instances of the cycle, prosperity is accompanied by an increase in the worldly philosophies/religions that underlie the cultures with which the Nephites trade to achieve this prosperity. Mormon never mentions this external trade, but its results are obvious from the ideological problems that follow prosperity: pressure to create or emphasize social hierarchy and elitism.
Culture: Verse 30 reveals something about Mormon’s concept of “church.” When he comments that “pride… began to enter the church,” he immediately clarifies: “not into the church of God, but into the hearts of the people who professed to belong to the church of God.” This clarification indicates that “church” can mean both the religious entity and its collective members. As already discussed (see commentary accompanying Mosiah 25:19), an innovation of Nephite religious organization was the separation of church and political structures. This separation had a real conceptual distinction; but, in pragmatic terms, the two entities have overlapped from their beginnings to Helaman’s day.
The separation begins with Alma1 and becomes explicit during the reign of Mosiah2, particularly at the shift to the system of judges at the end of Mosiah2’s reign. At this point in the book of Helaman, the division is only about fifty years old, but for Mormon it was more than four hundred years in the past. He therefore sees the church as a separate conceptual and organizational entity which may be referenced with, but separate from, the people who comprise it. Mormon is differentiating between prideful individuals and the church as the gospel’s pure receptacle—therefore, free from pride.