The Zion Society Begins to Crumble and Fall Apart Due to Pride

4 Nephi 1:18 records that “they were blessed and prospered until an hundred and ten years had passed away; and the first generation from Christ had passed away.” Nephi₄ died and gave the records to his son, Amos. Apparently, Amos kept the record for eighty-four more years and recorded that there was still peace in the land; except for a few who had rebelled and called themselves Lamanites (v. 20).

By verse 22, Mormon reported that “two hundred more years had passed away” and most of the second generation of people since the appearance of Christ had also passed away. Mormon then described a deterioration of the Zion society as the people become exceedingly rich. In the two hundred and first year, “there began to be among them those who were lifted up in pride, such as the wearing of costly apparel, and all manner of fine pearls, and of the fine things of the world” (v. 24). That was the end of the people having all their things in common.

There is an opera by Stravinsky called The Rake’s Progress that follows a popular theme. There are many different versions of The Rake’s Progress, each taking a different virtue that starts out as a good thing but rapidly deteriorates into a state of total depravity, then revulsion, and finally self-destruction. The various productions of this opera artistically convey to people that they should not go down the path to destruction—it is no fun and never turns out well. In the beginning, things may look good, but it turns out awful in the end. In 4 Nephi, we see one civilization’s Rake’s Progress.

Hugh Nibley took the words found in 4 Nephi and incisively described the decline of the Zion society of the Nephites and how the people in 4 Nephi went down that path toward destruction. He pointed out that, at first, the people became tired of intellectual integrity and self-control, and opted to give up on the law of consecration and having everything in common. From then on, everything went into a fatal declension, each step of which has been duly marked and described in the Book of Mormon:

First, they became privatized, as they no longer had their goods and substance in common;
Then they became ethnicized, as they taught their children to hate the Nephites or the Lamanites;
Then they became nationalized by serving the careers of ambitious men;
Then they became militarized because of the resulting need for large-scale security when mutual trust gave way to self-interest;
Then they were terrorized as shrewd men saw the advantages of organized violence and crime;
Then they became regionalized as people began to form various combinations for protection and profit, with many entering into business relationships with the criminal society—the Gadiantons—and sharing their profits;
Then they became tribalized as they finally succeeded, at the urging of various powerful interests, in abolishing the central government completely;
Then they became fragmentized into para-military groups, wandering bands, family shelters, and so forth;
Then they became polarized as great armies were formed around competent leaders, using forced recruitment or conquest in order to keep the general disorder and insecurity in check; and
Then they became pulverized as the great armies smashed each other and left the land utterly desolate.
It was left for future generations to take the final step of annihilating the very memory of these people, causing them to become vaporized.

As we stop and think about each of these steps, we can say to ourselves, “This could have been prevented!” The reason that the people lost the connection with earlier generations was simple—one hundred ten years had passed away “and the first generation from Christ had passed away” (v. 18). That’s 110 years from the birth of Christ. Jesus appeared to the Nephite people in AD 34, so AD 110 was 76 years after the appearance of the resurrected Christ. It is significant that after 76 years had passed by, anyone who was old enough to remember what had really happened at the time of Christ’s appearance to the Nephites had died. No one remained who could say, “I was there and I saw and experienced this event.” The impact of eyewitness testimony had waned and so had the tradition.

When did Nephi₃die? The person who wrote the beginning of 4 Nephi was probably the son of Nephi₃, who was the chief disciple at the time of Christ’s appearance in the New World. Interestingly, Nephi₄ never specifically mentioned the death of his own father, but he came close when he recorded that “the disciples of Jesus, whom he had chosen, had all gone to the paradise of God, save it were the three who should tarry” (v. 14). Nephi₄’s father would have been one of those nine other disciples. So, we know that all of that earlier generation was gone by about AD 100, and by the ending of the fourth generation the society was already falling apart.

“Memory loss” was also a strongly contributing factor in 4 Nephi, and we must strive hard to avoid a similar spiritual amnesia as well. In the 1890s, a general call went out throughout the Church for anyone who personally remembered the Prophet Joseph Smith to send in their memoirs, their diary entries, or any other record that preserved the historical reality of what Joseph thought, said and did during his ministry as the prophet of the Restoration. Early church members recognized the need to preserve what people remembered about Joseph. The recollections of hundreds of the early Saints regarding Joseph Smith have been compiled in a book entitled Remembering Joseph. These eye-witness testimonies would not be available today if the concerted effort had not been made to preserve this information. However, we might as well not have the information, if we do not read it.

Further Reading

John W. Welch Notes

References