In chapter 3, pride had crept in and out among members of the church quite rapidly. In Helaman 3:1, we read that there was no contention, “save it were a little pride … which did cause some little dissentions.” This appears to have been resolved by the forty-fourth year. But then, in Helaman 3:3 (just two verses later), dissention rises again, in the forty-sixth year—enough contention that many people emigrated. There was a brief respite during the two jubilee years, but by the fifty-fifth year, pride crept in again, “even to the persecution of many of their brethren” (Helaman 3:34).
Here in chapter 4, even in the first verse, we see that matters had become even more serious: “[I]n the fifty and fourth year there were many dissensions in the church, and there was also a contention among the people, insomuch that there was much bloodshed.” The pride and dissention were bad enough, but the old story popped up again. The dissenters left and joined the Lamanites and succeeded in “stirring them up to anger against the Nephites; and they were all that year preparing for war” (v. 4). The wars began in the fifty-seventh year, at which time the Lamanites, aided by these dissenters, captured the Nephite lands—even Zarahemla.