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Fourth Nephi

The Book of Nephi (the son of Nephi), who was one of Christ’s disciples

¹ By the time the thirty-fourth and thirty-fifth years were over, Jesus’ disciples had built up his church in all the land. All the people who came to them and repented were baptized in Jesus’ name and given the Holy Ghost.
² During the thirty-sixth year, all the people in the land, both Lamanites and Nephites, had joined the church, and there were no fights or arguments among them, and everyone was honest with each other.
³ They shared all their things, so there were no rich or poor people, and no slaves or owners. Everyone was free, and everyone enjoyed God’s blessings and salvation.
⁴ There was still peace in the land after the thirty-seventh year was over.
⁵ Jesus’ disciples did many miracles. They healed people and raised the dead. They made lame people walk, and blind people see, and deaf people hear. They did all kinds of miracles among the people, and they did them all in Jesus’ name.
⁶ The thirty-eighth, and thirty-ninth, and forty-first, and forty-second years–all the way to the forty-ninth year–were all like this, as well as the fifty-first and fifty-second, all the way up to the fifty-ninth year.
⁷ The Lord blessed them very much, and they built all of the cities again which had been burned.
⁸ They even built the great city of Zarahemla again.
⁹ But there were many cities which had sunk into the sea, so they could not build them again.
¹⁰ The Nephites became strong, and had many children, and were very beautiful and righteous people.
¹¹ They got married and were blessed with everything the Lord had promised them.
¹² They did not keep the Law of Moses anymore, but kept the commandments Jesus had given to them — fasting, praying always, and meeting together often to learn more about the Lord’s ways.
¹³ There were no fights among any of the people in all the land, and Jesus’ disciples did many miracles.
¹⁴ The seventy-first, and seventy-second years–all the way to the seventy-ninth year–yes, even a hundred years went by, and by then all the disciples Jesus had chosen had died and gone to live with God (along with many who had seen Jesus come), except for the three disciples who were to live until Jesus comes again. Other disciples were chosen to take the places of those who died.
¹⁵ There were no fights in all the land because of the love of God which was in all the people’s hearts.
¹⁶ There was no envy, nor fighting, nor jealousy, nor sexual sins, nor murders, nor any kind of wickedness. Surely these were the happiest people God ever made!
¹⁷ There were no robbers or murderers, and there were no Lamanites (or any kind of “-ites”). They were all Christ’s children, and they all would live with God again.
¹⁸ They were so blessed! The Lord blessed them in every way for one hundred ten years. By then all the people who had seen Christ had died, but there were still no fights in all the land.

¹⁹ The Nephi who kept this record (on the plates of Nephi) died, and his son Amos kept the records on the plates of Nephi.
²⁰ Amos kept the record for eighty-four more years, and there was still peace in the land. But a small group of people left the church and became Lamanites, so there were Lamanites in the land again.
²¹ Amos died one hundred ninety-four years after Christ came. His son, also called Amos, kept the record in the book of Nephi (which is the name of this book).
²² Almost all the second generation after Christ’s coming had died after two hundred years.
²³ Now I, Mormon, want you to know that the people had had so many children that there were people all over the land, and they had gotten very rich because of Christ’s blessings.
²⁴ During the two hundred first year, some of the people began to be proud, and began wearing fancy clothes and many jewels and rich things.
²⁵ From that time on they did not share what they had with other people.
²⁶ The people were divided: some were rich and some were poor. Some began other churches so they could get more money, and they began not to believe in Christ’s true church.
²⁷ After two hundred ten years went by, there were many churches in the land which said they taught about Christ, but they left out many important parts of his gospel. Anyone could belong to those churches and take the sacrament, no matter how wicked they were.

²⁸ This church got stronger and stronger because of people’s wickedness and Satan’s power over their hearts.
²⁹ Then there was a church which taught there was no such thing as Christ. This church persecuted the members of Christ’s true church because they were humble and believed in Jesus. The members of that other church hated them because of all the miracles in Christ’s church.
³⁰ The other church tried to put Christ’s disciples into jail, but the jail was split in two by God’s power, and the disciples did more miracles among the people.
³¹ But even though the disciples did miracles, the wicked people would not believe in Jesus, and tried to kill them like the Jews in Jerusalem had tried to kill Jesus, just as he had said.
³² The wicked people threw the disciples into furnaces, but they came out of the fire without being hurt.
³³ They threw the disciples into the cages of wild animals, but they played with the animals the way a child would play with a lamb. They would come out of the cages without being hurt.
³⁴ But the people still would not believe in them nor in Jesus, because wicked priests and false prophets taught them to build false churches and to do evil things. They hurt Christ’s people, but Christ’s people would not hurt them back. The people became more and more wicked every year, until two hundred thirty years had gone by.
³⁵ Then during the two hundred thirty-first year, the people were divided.
³⁶ There were true believers in Christ, called Nephites (although the Lamanites called some of them Jacobites, Josephites, and Zoramites;

³⁷ So the true believers in Christ, including the three disciples, were called Nephites, Jacobites, Josephites, and Zoramites).
³⁸ Those who did not believe in Christ’s gospel were called Lamanites, Lemuelites, and Ishmaelites. These people were not wicked because of what their ancestors had taught them–they were people who had chosen to be wicked and to fight against Christ and his church. They taught their children not to believe in Christ just as the first Lamanites had done.
³⁹ They were wicked in the same way their ancestors were wicked in the beginning. They taught their children to hate Christ’s people, just as the first Lamanites taught their children to hate the Nephites in the beginning.
⁴⁰ Two hundred forty-four years went by, and this was how the people were. The wicked people got stronger, and there were many more of them than there were of God’s people.
⁴¹ The wicked people built more and more fancy churches. Two hundred fifty, then two hundred sixty years went by.
⁴² The most wicked people began the Gadianton robbers again.
⁴³ Then even the Nephites began to get proud and vain just like the Lamanites, because they were so rich.
⁴⁴ From this time on, Christ’s disciples were sad because of the people’s sins.
⁴⁵ After three hundred years, the Nephites were just as wicked as the Lamanites.

⁴⁶ There were Gadianton robbers all over the land. They had lots of gold and silver, and traded in all kinds of things. The only righteous people were Christ’s disciples.
⁴⁷ The people were still wicked when Amos died three hundred five years after Christ had come. His brother Ammaron kept the records.
⁴⁸ After three hundred twenty years went by, the Holy Ghost told Ammaron to hide all the holy records that had been handed down from generation to generation up to that time.
⁴⁹ He hid them under God’s protection so the rest of the House of Jacob would have them at a time to come, as God promised. This is the end of Ammaron’s record.