In 3 Nephi 6, peace, righteousness, and prosperity reign for a time. By verse 10, the twenty-ninth year after the sign of the birth of Christ, “there began to be some disputings among the people; and some were lifted up unto pride and boastings because of their exceedingly great riches, yea, even unto great persecutions.” Within a short time, we find here another very complete but rapid example of the pride cycle: Prosperity, peace, construction, highways “cast up” (as the new LiDAR imaging shows in the lowlands of the Yucatan), travel, boastings, persecutions, professionalizing, social stratification based on wealth and learning, returning “railing for railing” (3 Nephi 6:13), inequality, breaking up (6:14), but some remained “firm, steadfast, and immovable” (6:14; compare 1 Nephi 2:10). Generally, this led to corruption, anger, murder, and setting “at defiance the law and rights of their country” (6:30), all in preparation for the demise and destruction of the wicked.
By 3 Nephi 6:28–29, the government had collapsed to the point where the people reverted to their family tribes, oaths were sworn by secret combinations; and the wicked leaders, including judges, lawyers, and the priests, had entered into a false and wicked covenant. It was a pseudo-covenant that mimicked the covenants of God.
We might wonder where this old covenant from the Devil came from. It is first encountered historically in the book of Ether, among the Jaredites. When the plates of Ether were translated, the Nephite leaders made a big point to prevent people from reading the terms of that covenant, because these secret promises were preserved in that record. Satan promised that he is the God of this world, and he would grant power unto those who worshiped him. The Jaredites bought into those promises, to their ultimate demise.
At the final Jaredite battle, almost all the people were destroyed, but it is possible that some people fled. One of the survivors, Coriantumr, was found towards the end of the Book of Omni. These Jaredite survivors may possibly be the source of the secret combinations that appear so abruptly in 3 Nephi.
Once the sign of the birth had been given, all the people seemed to have been in agreement for a time. However, the opposers regrouped and presented more arguments against it. It appears that within a very short time, the tide swung back, and a group of people were adamantly opposed to recognizing the signs that have been given.