KnoWhy #189 - Why Were Many Nephites So Quick to Disbelieve the Signs of Christ’s Coming? (3 Nephi 2:3)

The great sign marking Christ’s birth, the night with no darkness that accompanied the appearance of the new star, was given to the Book of Mormon people in their 91st year of the reign of the judges.1 By the 95th year, the record relates that “the people began to forget those signs and wonders which they had heard, and began to be less and less astonished at a sign or a wonder from heaven … and began to disbelieve all which they had heard and seen” (3 Nephi 2:1). One of the reasons so many were deceived was because Satan was particularly active in this period preceding the coming of Christ to the Book of Mormon peoples.

The modern day leading up to the second coming of Christ is, similarly, an age in which Satan is on a rampage. Satan tries to confuse through “lyings and deceivings.” The late Elder Neal A. Maxwell drew a comparison between the two time periods when he warned: “How quickly [Satan] moves in even where people have had special spiritual experiences, seeking to get people who have seen signs ‘to disbelieve all which they had heard and seen.’ (3 Nephi 2:1–2).”