Social: The first set of apostasies listed were those who remained Christian, but left the purity of the gospel. This verse tells us of the second set, which are the more expected “churches” which deny the Christ. These are the same kinds of churches that have been the bane of Nephite religion throughout its history. We would expect that these are even more heavily influenced by the outside pagan world. Their denial of the Christ would come from having been completely outside of the sphere of influence of that monumental visit that the Savior made to his people. Those far from that influence retained the older religions, and it would be logical to assume that they were reasserting themselves in Nephite culture at this time.
Mormon indicates that religious persecution is heating up at this time. We must continually remember that religion and politics were tightly interwoven, and that religious persecution from Mormon’s standpoint might be seen as political stress from an historian’s perspective. Mormon is telling us that there are intense pressures beginning to be placed on Nephite culture, and that they are pointed towards the religio-political entity that professes Christianty/Nephite-polity. This statement becomes the foreshadowing of all out war.