During the turmoil and internecine strife that had beset the Nephite Republic in the years just passed, thereby destroying its capacity to govern and in like manner disarranging the affairs of the Church, there was one man who above all others was firm and steadfast in believing the words of the Lamanite Prophet, Samuel, concerning the death of the Savior. That man was Nephi, the Presiding High Priest of God's Church. According to the record of those times which he devoutly kept, and which he consecrated to the truth, he vowed that the thirty and third year of Nephite reckoning had passed away since the signs of Christ's birth had been given.
Nephi's record is true, Mormon attests, for Nephi was a "just man," he noted. Of the accuracy of that record, there can be no doubt. As a mark of Nephi's reliability, he was not false in any endeavor, the abridger of his record says. "For he truly did many miracles in the Name of Jesus; and there was not any man who could do a miracle in the Name of Jesus save he were cleansed every whit from his iniquity." (v. 1) So, logically, Mormon concluded that if Nephi made no calculable error, he was right in reckoning "the thirty and third year had passed away." (v. 2)
All the people in pursuit of their own happiness, and each walking in his own path, nevertheless, some fearful, others curious, and still others, in wonderment "began to look with great earnestness for the sign which had been given by the Prophet Samuel, the Lamanite, yea, for the time that there should be darkness for the space of three days over the face of the land." (v. 3)
Notwithstanding the many predictions of the prophets already fulfilled, there was much doubt and uneasiness among the people concerning that which was in the future. They had not long to wait!