The keys of an electronic piano, Wikimedia
Where Science Meets the Book of Mormon: Come Follow Me Lesson: October 21-27; 3 Nephi 27-4 Nephi
We were told in 2 Nephi 5:21, “And he had caused the cursing to come upon them, yea, even a sore cursing, because of their iniquity. For behold, they had hardened their hearts against him, that they had become like unto a flint; wherefore, as they were white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome, that they might not be enticing unto my people the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them.”
I have addressed this issue of skin color in a much earlier essay this year (February 10, “Skin Color and Body Painting”). Suffice it to say here that I don’t believe natural skin color to be a “curse.”
In 4 Nephi 1:2 and 17, we are told, “And it came to pass in the thirty and sixth year [after the signs of Christ’s birth], the people were all converted unto the Lord, upon all the face of the land, both Nephites and Lamanites, and there were no contentions and disputations among them, and every man did deal justly one with another…There were no robbers, nor murderers, neither were there Lamanites, nor any manner of -ites; but they were in one, the children of Christ, and heirs to the kingdom of God.”
Then we read in 4 Nephi 1:20, 36-38, “And he [Amos] kept it [the record] eighty and four years, and there was still peace in the land, save it were a small part of the people who had revolted from the church and taken upon them the name of Lamanites; therefore there began to be Lamanites again in the land…And it came to pass that in this year there arose a people who were called the Nephites, and they were true believers in Christ; and among them there were those who were called by the Lamanites—Jacobites, and Josephites, and Zoramites; Therefore the true believers in Christ, and the true worshipers of Christ, (among whom were the three disciples of Jesus who should tarry) were called Nephites, and Jacobites, and Josephites, and Zoramites. And it came to pass that they who rejected the gospel were called Lamanites, and Lemuelites, and Ishmaelites; and they did not dwindle in unbelief, but they did wilfully rebel against the gospel of Christ; and they did teach their children that they should not believe, even as their fathers, from the beginning, did dwindle.”
Then in 4 Nephi 1:43-45, “And also the people who were called the people of Nephi began to be proud in their hearts, because of their exceeding riches, and become vain like unto their brethren, the Lamanites. And from this time the disciples began to sorrow for the sins of the world. And it came to pass that when three hundred years had passed away, both the people of Nephi and the Lamanites had become exceedingly wicked one like unto another.”
The events described in 4 Nephi occurred nearly one thousand years after Lehi’s family left Jerusalem. Recent research has shown that after that long of a time, everyone living a thousand years after a certain person (say Nephi or Laman) are all descended from that person. The example given is Charlemagne in Europe — that everyone living in Europe today is a descendant of Charlemagne, and of everyone else who was his contemporary and had children.1 Furthermore, for many years after Christ’s coming to the Americas, the people here, at least those living in the geographic area where the events described in the Book of Mormon took place, had all things in common. Then the division occurred along ideological lines, not ancestral lines, which by this time would have been very muddied anyway.
There seems to be a tendency for members of the Church to envision Nephites as “white” and Lamanites as “dark.” Such was clearly not the case when the division described in 4 Nephi took place. After Christ came, for nearly two hundred years, “…there could not be a happier people among all the people who had been created by the hand of God.”2 There were no class or color distinctions, but the people had all things in common.3 If we are seeking true happiness, we must also be color blind, like the people of the Americas for nearly two hundred years after Christ came. Divisiveness is not happiness.
Trent Dee Stephens, PhD
References
1. Ralph P. and Coop, G, The Geography of Recent Genetic Ancestry across Europe, PLoS Biol 11:e1001555, 2013
2. 4 Nephi 1:16
3. 4 Nephi 1:3
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