4 Nephi 1

The Golden Age Begins

By the 34th year—and then the 35th—Jesus' followers had established churches of Christ throughout the land. Anyone who came to them with genuine remorse for their wrongs was baptized in Jesus' name and received the Holy Spirit.

In the 36th year, something remarkable happened: everyone turned to the Lord—every single person in the land, Nephites and Lamanites alike. The fighting stopped. The arguments ended. People treated each other with justice and fairness. They shared everything they had. There were no class divisions—no rich or poor, no slaves or free people. Everyone was free, all of them sharing in heaven’s gift. The 37th year passed, and peace continued to blanket the land.

Jesus' disciples performed stunning miracles. They healed the sick, raised the dead, made the paralyzed walk, gave sight to the blind, and hearing to the deaf. Every kind of miracle happened through them—always in Jesus' name, never their own. Year after year slipped by—the 38th, 39th, 41st, 42nd, all the way through the 49th year, then the 51st and 52nd, until 59 years had passed since Christ’s coming. The Lord blessed them richly. They thrived in the land, rebuilding cities where destruction had left only ashes. They even rebuilt the great city of Zarahemla. But some cities couldn’t be restored—those that had sunk into the earth, now covered by water.

The Nephite people grew strong. Their population exploded. They became a strikingly beautiful and blessed people. They married and raised families, experiencing all the blessings the Lord had promised them. They no longer followed the old law of Moses with its rituals and ceremonies. Instead, they lived by the teachings they’d received from their Lord and God—fasting, praying, gathering regularly to worship and hear God’s word. Conflict simply didn’t exist anywhere in the land. But powerful miracles kept happening through Jesus' disciples.

A Century of Peace

The years rolled on—71st, 72nd, all the way to the 79th, and then a full century had passed. The disciples Jesus had chosen had all entered God’s paradise, except for the three who would remain. New disciples were ordained to take their places, and many from that first generation had died. Still no conflict in the land. God’s love had taken root deep in people’s hearts. No jealousy. No fighting. No riots. No sexual immorality. No lying. No murder. No depraved behavior of any kind. You couldn’t find a happier people anywhere on earth. No thieves. No murderers. The old tribal divisions—Lamanites and all the rest—had vanished. They were one people now, children of Christ, heirs to God’s kingdom. How blessed they were! The Lord’s favor rested on everything they did. They flourished for 110 years. The first generation after Christ had passed away, and still—no conflict anywhere.

Nephi, who’d been keeping these records on the plates, died. His son Amos took over, continuing the record on the same plates. Amos kept the record for 84 years. Peace still reigned, though a small group broke away from the church and started calling themselves Lamanites. So the old division crept back into the land. Amos died—194 years after Christ’s coming. His son, also named Amos, became the record keeper, continuing to write on the plates of Nephi. This is the book you’re reading now. Two hundred years had passed. Almost everyone from the second generation had died.

The Seeds of Pride

Now I, Mormon, want you to understand what happened next. The population had grown enormously, spreading across the entire land. They’d become incredibly wealthy because of how well they’d done in Christ. In the 201st year, pride began to surface. People started showing off—expensive clothes, rare pearls, all the luxury items the world had to offer. From that point on, they stopped sharing their possessions. They split into social classes. They started building churches for profit, turning their backs on Christ’s true church.

Corruption Spreads

By the 210th year, churches had multiplied everywhere. Many claimed to know Christ but rejected most of his gospel. They embraced wickedness and allowed unworthy people to perform sacred ordinances. These churches grew rapidly, fueled by sin and Satan’s grip on people’s hearts. Another church emerged that denied Christ altogether. They persecuted Christ’s true followers, mocking their humility and faith, despising the miracles that happened among them. They used their power to oppress the disciples of Jesus who remained in the land, throwing them into prison. But God’s word was alive in these disciples—the prison walls split apart, and they walked out performing mighty miracles.

Yet despite all these miracles, people hardened their hearts. They tried to kill the disciples, just as the Jews in Jerusalem had tried to kill Jesus. They threw them into blazing furnaces. The disciples walked out unharmed. They threw them into caves with wild animals. The disciples played with the beasts like children playing with lambs, and walked out without a scratch. Still, people’s hearts stayed hard. Corrupt priests and false prophets led them to build more churches and sink deeper into evil. They attacked Jesus' followers, but those followers never fought back. And so unbelief and wickedness spread year after year, until 230 years had passed.

The Great Divide

In the 231st year, a great split tore through the people. That year, a group emerged who called themselves Nephites—genuine believers in Christ. Among them were people the Lamanites called Jacobites, Josephites, and Zoramites. So all the true believers and worshipers of Christ—including the three disciples who would never die—went by these names: Nephites, Jacobites, Josephites, and Zoramites. Those who rejected the gospel became known as Lamanites, Lemuelites, and Ishmaelites. They didn’t gradually drift away—they deliberately rebelled against Christ’s gospel, teaching their children to reject the faith just as their ancestors had slowly lost theirs generations ago. It came from their ancestors' wickedness and abominations, repeating old patterns. They were taught to hate God’s people, just as the ancient Lamanites had been taught to hate Nephi’s descendants.

Wickedness Prevails

By year 244, the situation had deteriorated. The wicked faction had grown powerful and vastly outnumbered God’s people. They kept building their own churches, decorating them with expensive treasures. Years 250 and 260 came and went. The wicked revived the old secret oaths and criminal networks of Gadianton. Even the Nephites fell into pride, their wealth making them vain like their enemies, the Lamanites. From this point on, the disciples of Jesus began to grieve over the world’s sins.

By year 300, both Nephites and Lamanites had become equally corrupt—no difference between them. Gadianton’s robbers spread like a plague across the land. Only Jesus' disciples remained righteous. The wicked hoarded gold and silver and built vast trading empires.

Hiding the Sacred Records

After 305 years—the people still drowning in wickedness—Amos died. His brother Ammaron took over the record. When 320 years had passed, the Holy Spirit compelled Ammaron to hide the sacred records—all the sacred writings that had been passed down through the generations since Christ’s coming. He hid them for the Lord’s purposes, so they would one day return to the remnant of Jacob’s family, just as the Lord had prophesied and promised. And here Ammaron’s record ends.