The Reign of Judges Replaced by Other Forms of Government

Daniel H. Ludlow

Between A.D. 26 and 30 the people became very wicked, and "the church was broken up in all the land save it were among a few of the Lamanites who were converted unto the true faith." (3 Nephi 6:10-14.) The "chief judges, and they who had been high priests and lawyers" entered into a covenant to destroy "the people of the Lord" and to "destroy the governor, and to establish a king over the land, that the land should no more be at liberty but should be subject unto kings." (3 Nephi 6:21-30.) This secret society did not succeed in establishing a king over the land; but "they did destroy upon the judgment seat, yea, did murder the chief judge of the land." (3 Nephi 7:1.) The people were so divided they could not agree on a form of centralized government, so "they did separate one from another into tribes, every man according to his family and his kindred and his friends; and thus they did destroy the government of the land." (3 Nephi 7:2.)

A Companion To Your Study of The Book of Mormon

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