Helaman 4

In the 54th year of elected judges, dissent within the church, and conflict between the people, grew so great that it resulted in rebellion and bloodshed. The Nephite rebels were killed or driven out of Zarahemla and into the hands of the Lamanites. When the rebels tried to incite the Lamanites to make war upon the Nephites, the Lamanites wouldn’t listen to them at first because the Lamanites had grown to fear the Nephites’ strength. [38 BC]

In the 56th year of elected judges, more Nephite rebels were driven out of Zarahemla. They convinced the Lamanites to go to war, and preparations for battle were begun. [36 BC]

The next round of the Lamanite wars began in the 57th year. In the 58th year the Lamanite army conquered Zarahemla and all the lands near Bountiful. The Nephites and the army of Moronihah were driven back by the conquering Lamanite army. Near Bountiful the Nephites made a fortified line, to defend all their lands to the north. Along this line it was a day’s journey from the shores of the sea to the east to the shores of the sea to the west. An alliance of Lamanites and Nephite rebels succeeded in taking all the Nephite lands south of that line. [34 BC]

In the 60th year of elected judges, the army of Moronihah successfully recaptured many cities and lands that had been lost to the Lamanites. Some of the Nephites professed to belong to the church of God but acted otherwise. The Nephites’ suffered great loss of life and property because of this. These people lost their possessions, lives, and lands because of pride in their hearts, the accumulation of wealth, the oppression of the poor, the way in which they withheld food from the hungry and clothing from the naked, the contempt they held for the truly humble, their mockery of the sacred, their denial of prophecy and revelation, the murdering, the plundering, the lying, the stealing, the fornication, the conflicts, and the desertions to the Lamanites. They had boasted of their great strength but found that when they were left with only that strength, it was not enough to defeat the Lamanites. [32 BC]

Helaman’s sons, Nephi and Lehi, and the captain of the army, Moronihah, preached to the people about their sinfulness and prophesied what would happen if the people didn’t repent. When the people did repent they began to prosper again, and began driving the Lamanites from the Nephites’ lands.

By the 62nd year of elected judges, Moronihah recaptured half of the lands and cities that had been taken, but he could make no further progress against the Lamanites. There were just too many of them. So he abandoned his hopes of recapturing all the taken lands and deployed his army to hold what they had. Because the Lamanite army was so strong, and so close, the Nephites lived in constant fear of being overwhelmed, killed, and destroyed. In their vulnerable situation the people began to remember the prophecies of Alma, and the words of Mosiah. They saw that they’d been stubborn and had not paid sufficient heed to the commandments of God. They saw that they had abused and corrupted the laws of Mosiah. They saw that in many ways they were as wicked as the Lamanites themselves. As their faith in prophecy and revelation weakened, the church declined. The judgment of God stared them in the face. They saw that they had become weak and that the Spirit of God no longer protected them. God wanted nothing to do with unholy people. They realized that when God quit protecting them they were no match for the numerous Lamanites, and that unless they renewed their commitment to God they would be destroyed. [30 BC]