Millet and McConkie wrote, “In this sermon Nephi seeks to establish himself as a servant of God in the prophetic tradition. If the people believed that God granted miraculous power to Moses and the ancient prophets, why should they think the Almighty unable to do so in their own time? If Moses could prophesy of the Messiah, why could not he, Nephi, prophesy impending judgment if the people would not repent?” (McConkie and Millet, Doctrinal Commentary on the Book of Mormon, vol. 3, p. 374) But the Nephites are like any people. They are more willing to believe in dead prophets than living ones. With the passage of time, the traditions and history surrounding any prophet make him all the more canonized and venerated and all the less mortal. Strangely, the more distant the prophet is, the more believable the message.
Christ faced just this phenomenon among the Jews. They were more than willing to believe in Moses and Abraham, but they were not willing to believe in the God of Moses and the God of Abraham. Jesus said, ‘I know that ye are Abraham’s seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you…They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham. But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God; this did not Abraham…Art thou greater than our father Abraham, which is dead and the prophets are dead: whom makest thou thyself?’ (Jn 8:37-53)