According to Nephite reckoning it was thirty years after the birth of Christ in faraway Judea that the events recorded of this period took place. Only a few years of peace had passed since the Gadianton Robbers were exterminated, yet in that short time many Nephites proved that their memories were still shorter. They entirely forgot the Power that had delivered them from the hands of wicked men, and abandoned themselves to their own strength, which, when compared to God's was absolute weakness.
Their wisdom was likewise foolishness, and by it they knew not God. Their learning, which some received because it was the kind that could be bought (verse 12), led them down to depths they could not fathom, and to heights they could not grasp. It was not long until the Church of God, its members enmeshed in the fabric of apostasy, ceased to exist except among a few worthy Lamanites "who were converted to the true faith; and they would not depart from it, for they were firm, and steadfast, and immovable, willing with all diligence to keep the commandments of the Lord." (verse 14)