This chapter may represent the best instance of Utopia in history. Surely Enoch and Salem were contenders. I can't help wondering what it was that destroyed the peace and harmony they enjoyed for 200 years. Was it the first generation who outwardly defected from the church or might it have been the previous generation who, if they were like many of us; began to seek to cover their sins and to live hypocritical lives, and began to just go through the motions of righteous living, without the meaning and substance of the gospel as a foundation for their behavior.
If my suspicion is true, then it seems likely that those who drifted from the substance of righteousness to the image of it, also began to manipulate their children in an effort to maintain the image. As the natural consequence of manipulation is first dishonesty and then rebellion, it seems likely that those who defected were not the ones who turned the tide of righteousness and commenced the march to destruction.
How stubborn they became. Even in the sight of miracles performed by the Three Nephites, they still remained in rebellion. Such is the destructive power of manipulation; a problem that remains prevalent in the church today.
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