Social: After two hundred years, the pressures to fragmentize the religion begin to rip apart the Nephite church, just as it did the early Christian church in the Old World. The time period of uniformity appears to have lasted longer in the New World, but we cannot be completely certain of the timing because of Mormon’s molding of his history into this symbolic division into two sections of two hundred-year blocks.
Both the Old and the New World saw an apostasy from the gospel. We do not have much comparative information, but it appears that in both hemispheres, much of the stress that led to the total apostasy was internal. Mormon indicates that: “there were many churches which professed to know the Christ, and yet they did deny the more parts of his gospel.” Thus the New World had “churches” that were professedly Christian, but which had departed from the gospel. The prophecies in the Old World emphasize that the danger was to come from those who professed to follow the Savior:
Matthew 7:15
15 ¶ Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
The idea that false prophets would come among them became a very real threat, one that was so real that rules were created to discern the true from the false prophets. The Didache (an manual of church operation usually dated to 104-110 AD) gives the following advice:
“While a prophet is making ecstatic utterances, you must not test or examine him. For “every sin will be forgive,” but this sin “will not be forgiven.” However, not everybody making ecstatic utterances is a prophet, but only if he behaves like the Lorde. It is by their conduct that the false prophet and the [true] prophet can be distinguished. For instance, if a prophet marks out a table in the Spirit, he must not eat from it. If he does, he is a false prophet. Again, every prophet who teaches the truth but fails to practice what he preaches is a false prophet. But every attested and genuine prophet who acts with a view to symbolizing the mystery of the Church, and does not teach you to do all he does, must not be judged by yhou. His judgment rests with God. For the ancient prophets too acted in this way. But if someone says in the Spirit, “Give me money, or something else,” you must not heed him. However, if he tells yhou to give for others in need, no one must condemn him.” (“Didache.” Early Christian Fathers. Ed. Cyril C. Richardson. MacMillan Publishing Co., Inc. New York, 1970, p. 176-7).
It is interesting that one of the signals Mormon uses for the fragmentation of the gospel is that those who began to develop many churches “did administer that which was sacred unto him to whom it had been forbidden because of unworthiness.” This has reference to the administration of the sacrament, and was part of the instruction that Jesus gave to the disciples during his visit:
3 Nephi 18:26-29
26 And now it came to pass that when Jesus had spoken these words, he turned his eyes again upon the disciples whom he had chosen, and said unto them:
27 Behold verily, verily, I say unto you, I give unto you another commandment, and then I must go unto my Father that I may fulfil other commandments which he hath given me.
28 And now behold, this is the commandment which I give unto you, that ye shall not suffer any one knowingly to partake of my flesh and blood unworthily, when ye shall minister it;
29 For whoso eateth and drinketh my flesh and blood unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to his soul; therefore if ye know that a man is unworthy to eat and drink of my flesh and blood ye shall forbid him.
Using this example as his indication of apostasy tells us some of what had to have been happening. Just as in the Old World, there were two paths that could be taken for those who were to fall away from the true gospel. The first was to deny the gospel entirely, and to leave it for the pagan religions that were available. In the Old World, both Christianity and Judaism were minority religions in a pagan world, and it was certainly available to any that they would leave Christianity (or Judaism) and accept the pagan religions.
This same option would have been available in the New World. As seen in the past history of the Nephites, the expansion of territory and wealth was concomitant with an expansion of trade. Trade historically brought the Nephites in contact with those who believed differently, and those outside cultures influenced Nephite social development (seen in the pressures for social hierarchies). Since Mormon tells us that these pressures are once again active in Nephite lands because they have begun to differentiate themselves, we might expect that the apostasy was from Christianity to paganism. It wasn’t.
The indication that the sacrament was being given unworthily indicates that the sacrament was being given. Obviously, Mormon had no problems with those who gave the sacrament to the worthy, so his comment must indicate that some of these churches were still administering the sacrament, but that those who followed those new churches were no longer “worthy.” This hint tells us that the social processes during the third hundred years after Christ were similar to those that we have seen in the Old World. As the Nephite people expanded to cover the face of the land they extended their physical distance from one end of the “land” to the other. This geographic spread would have had the same consequences as geographic distribution did in the Old World, leading to divisions and differences in the understanding of the gospel.
Chronological: Two hundred and ten years in the Nephite count would be 204 A.D. in our calendar.