Mormon notes the irony of a people who prosper based on the promise of the land, and then when they become prosperous, quickly turn from the principles upon which they gained their prosperity. The implication of Mormon’s statement that “they do not desire that the Lord their God, who created them, should rule and reign over them” is that they have selected something else to rule and reign over them. They turn from the principles and laws of God that have produced their prosperity, and narrow their vision to the more worldly processes that have led them there. They believe that they have become prosperous on their own and, therefore, do not need the God, whom they cannot directly see, but who was behind their prosperity. Prosperity becomes their god.