Over the next ten years, the disbelief continued to grow among the people: Thus, in the space of less than fifteen years from the sign of Christ’s birth, the land went from a state of peace, where “the more part of the people did believe” (3 Nephi 1:22–23), to “a state of many afflictions,” where the people faced destruction because of their iniquity and disbelief (3 Nephi 2:19).
Book of Mormon Central, “Why Were Many Nephites So Quick to Disbelieve the Signs of Christ’s Coming? (3 Nephi 2:3),” KnoWhy 189 (September 16, 2016).
John W. Welch, “Seeing Third Nephi as the Holy of Holies of the Book of Mormon,” Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 19, no. 1, (2010): 36–55. “These years witnessed gross errors, robbers, secret oaths, anti-establishment rituals, taunting, slaughter, fear, blood, execution, iniquity, murder, conspiracy, and assassination, even to the point of stoning the prophets and casting them out from among them.”