Is spiritual death an event or a process? At what point did this righteous generation begin to turn toward worldliness and wickedness? Verse 20 notes that there was a “small part of the people who had revolted from the church.” Later, verse 38 indicates that things had worsened: “They did not dwindle in unbelief, but they did wilfully rebel.” Two words in those two verses, revolt and rebel, show the gradual and then dramatic process of apostasy among the once-favored people. The Greek term apostasia, which we often think of as a “falling away” (2 Thessalonians 2:3), means a revolt or conscious breaking away; it is an active defection or desertion.
What were the prime indicators of this breaking away in their society? The very first problem mentioned, once the people had become “exceedingly rich, because of their prosperity in Christ,” was pride, manifested, as often specified in the Book of Mormon record, by “the wearing of costly apparel” and pursuing the “fine things of the world.”
“And from that time forth they did have their goods and their substance no more common among them. And they began to be divided into classes; and they began to build up churches unto themselves.” Note that they built up churches “unto themselves,” not to Christ. Thus began in a.d. 201 the great apostasy, rooted in pride, and promoting priestcraft.
It is not just good but critical to be reminded of the nature of pride. President Ezra Taft Benson taught: “Pride is a very misunderstood sin, and many are sinning in ignorance. (See Mosiah 3:11; 3 Ne. 6:18.) In the scriptures there is no such thing as righteous pride—it is always considered a sin. Therefore, no matter how the world uses the term, we must understand how God uses the term so we can understand the language of holy writ and profit thereby. (See 2 Ne. 4:15; Mosiah 1:3–7; Alma 5:61.)
“Most of us think of pride as self-centeredness, conceit, boastfulness, arrogance, or haughtiness. All of these are elements of the sin, but the heart, or core, is still missing.
“The central feature of pride is enmity—enmity toward God and enmity toward our fellowmen. Enmity means ‘hatred toward, hostility to, or a state of opposition.’ It is the power by which Satan wishes to reign over us.”3
Many churches, with more convenient doctrine, dotted the land. They were led by priests and false prophets. They “professed to know the Christ, and yet they did deny the more parts of his gospel.” In addition, apostates were possibly revealing and administering sacred temple ordinances to unworthy people (v. 27), the same kind of thing that has been done in our era.
Verse 30 contains a significant insight. The same emotions and feelings that killed Jesus in Jerusalem were those that now existed in the New World. In other words, these people would have tried to kill Jesus if they had had the chance. This is a sobering lesson.
The latter part of 4 Nephi details the destructive nature of the materialism and pride that caused that civilization to decay and self-destruct. Again, President Ezra Taft Benson gave a somber assessment of the causes and the results as they relate to us today:
“In 1787 Edward Gibbon completed his noble work The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Here is the way he accounted for the fall.
“1. The undermining of the dignity and sanctity of the home, which is the basis of human society.
“2. Higher and higher taxes and the spending of public monies for free bread and circuses for the populace.
“3. The mad craze for pleasure, sports becoming every year more and more exciting and brutal.
“4. The building of gigantic armaments when the real enemy was within the decadence of the people.
“5. The decay of religion—faith fading into mere form, losing touch with life, and becoming impotent to warn and guide the people.
“Is there a parallel for us in America today? Could the same reasons that destroyed Rome destroy America and possibly other countries of the free world? …
“The lessons of history, many of them very sobering, ought to be turned to during this hour of our great achievements, because during the hour of our success is our greatest danger. Even during the hour of our great prosperity, a nation may sow the seeds of its own destruction. History reveals that rarely is a great civilization conquered from without unless it has weakened or destroyed itself within.”4