Excursus: Religion of the Nehors

The book of Alma begins with religious conflict and, by the end, escalates into  military conflict. Mormon saw the later wars as the direct result of the early religious dissensions, which led not just to disagreement but to defection. The worst conflicts with “Lamanites” are not with those had always been Lamanites, but with apostate Nephites who became Lamanites. Mormon saw internal contention and religio-political fission as the cause of the Nephites’ virtual destruction before the Messiah came to Bountiful. Alma2 apparently saw the same problem and attempted to heal the social rifts by religious renewal.