Were There Surviving Nephites After Cumorah? Part I

In an interesting display of ignoring the scriptural record, John L. Sorenson makes several claims about surviving Nephites:

“Were there Nephites left after that battle? Some, yes. The scripture makes that clear. Only they were no longer called Nephites. Mormon noted that "a few...had escaped into the south countries, and a few...had dissented over unto the Lamanites" (Mormon 6:15). Naturally, large numbers of people of Nephite descent had never consented to flee their lands in the first place (Mormon 2:7-8), but had switched their allegiance rather than move out (Moroni 1:2). Mormon observed to his son that "many of our brethren have dissented over unto the Lamanites" (Mormon 9:24).”

Let’s take these points one at a time:

1. Mormon noted that "a few...had escaped into the south countries.”

This statement is given by Mormon in 384 A.D. after stating that his 23 units of 10,000 each had been destroyed. At this point, just before his death as one of the last 24 Nephites alive. However, around 400 A.D., Moroni tells us that after the last battle had taken place, and he was the last Nephite alive (Mormon 8:3), that those who had escaped into the south countries were hunted down by the Lamanites and killed (Mormon 8:2). This is just another example of Sorenson’s attempt to create survivors in the Land of Promise when there were none as the scriptural record shows.

2. Naturally, large numbers of people of Nephite descent had never consented to flee their lands in the first place (Mormon 2:7-8).

As the Lamanites, with their numberless armies march northward, the Nephites were frightened and ran before them. During this swift retreat, Mormon tells us that “we did gather in our people as fast as it were possible, that we might get them together in one body” (Mormon 2:7). As the retreat toward Cumorah continued, Mormon tells us “whatsoever lands we had passed by, and the inhabitants thereof were not gathered in, were destroyed by the Lamanites, and their towns and villages and cities were burned with fire (Mormon 5:5).

This flight continued each time the Lamanites came down to battle “and we did again take to flight, and those whose flight was swifter than the Lamanites did escape, and those whose flight did not exceed the Lamanites were swept down and destroyed” (Mormon 5:7). The blood and carnage wrought by the Lamanites against all Nephites they encountered was so extensive, that Mormon refused to write more about it (Mormon 5:8-9). There is certainly nothing in the record to suggest that any Nephites “never consented to flee their lands in the first place.” The opposite picture seems quite clear—the Lamanites were bent on destroying all the Nephites, and those who did not escape with Mormon and his army, were killed.

3. but had switched their allegiance rather than move out.

What Sorenson describes as “switching their allegiance,” Moroni describes as “denying the Christ.” Those that did throughout the scriptural record became known as Lamanites and took upon themselves the curse the Lord placed upon the Lamanites from the beginning. However, in the specific case he quotes, this description is an overall statement by Moroni about 421 A.D., about 37 years after the final battle where the last of the Nephites, including his father, had been killed, and about 21 years after his earlier statement that all the Nephites that escaped into the south countries were hunted down by the Lamanites and killed.

At this time, he is surprised that he is still alive (Moroni 1:1), and that he is in hiding knowing the Lamanites would kill him if they found him. Why? Because he would not deny the Christ (Moroni 1:3). In this same vein, Moroni is describing how vicious the Lamanites were, for their wars were exceedingly fierce among themselves” (Moroni 1:2), and because of their age-old hatred toward the Nephites, they had killed all that would not deny the Christ (Moroni 1:2) and join them. There were none left earlier when the last were tracked down. How many denied the Christ earlier in those final days is not known nor even implied. Nor is there any indication that Nephites did this in large numbers rather than leave their towns and villages as Sorenson implies.

(See the next post, “Were There Surviving Nephites After Cumorah? Part II,” for the continuation of these points)