In what might be quite the coincidence, the apostasy amongst the people of the Book of Mormon (BoM), specifically the Nephite people, happened in the same year as the formulation of the Nicene Creed.
Before we discuss reasons as to why this is a curious coincidence, let’s first address how one would arrive at the date of the Nephite apostasy.
3rd Nephi 2: 7-8 informs us that in or before the year 9CE, the Nephites started counting their years from the time that the signs had been given that Christ had been born—indicating that from that time forward, the counting of years in the world of the BoM corresponded to the chronology of the old world.
Mormon (for whom the BoM is named; the primary editor/compiler of the book) tells us that in 326AD he is in his 16th year (Mormon 2:2). So in the BoM narrative, he was born about 310CE.
At the age of 16, Mormon begins an on again/off again role as leader of the Nephite armies (Mormon 2, 1-2), lasting until 384CE (Mormon 2-6: 5). Under Mormon’s leadership, the entire Nephite nation is wiped out in a war with the Lamanites (Mormon 6: 1-5), after which, survivors are hunted and killed (Mormon 8: 2, 3, 7). According to his son Moroni, Mormon is killed, presumably in either one of the final battles or in the ensuing hunt (Mormon 8: 3).
And why were the Nephites wiped out? The BoM is clear that it was the judgments of God (Mormon 4: 5) due to their unwillingness to repent (Mormon 3: 14-15). In other words, the good Lord destroyed an entire race of His children for apostasy.
A few decades ago, a young gung-ho missionary version of myself was struck by the fact that, due to the careful dating included in Mormon, it is possible to pinpoint, to within about a year, when the Nephite apostasy happened.
First, here is the description of the apostasy as found in Mormon, Chapter 1.
13 But
wickedness did prevail upon the face of the whole land, insomuch that the Lord
did take away his beloved disciples, and the work of miracles and of healing
did cease because of the iniquity of the people.
14 And
there were no gifts from the Lord, and the Holy Ghost did not come upon any,
because of their wickedness and unbelief.
16 And
I [Mormon] did endeavor to preach unto this people, but my mouth was shut, and
I was forbidden that I should preach unto them; for behold they had wilfully [sic]
rebelled against their God; and the beloved disciples were taken away out of
the land, because of their iniquity.
17 But
I did remain among them, but I was forbidden to preach unto them, because of
the hardness of their hearts; and because of the hardness of their hearts the
land was cursed for their sake.
Of course “apostasy” is a process, but if miracles and healings cease, the land becomes cursed, the Holy Ghost and gifts of the spirit are withdrawn, God shuts the mouths of the righteous forbidding them to preach, and the disciples[i] are taken away, and it all happens at the same time, never to return, it appears to be a bit of a tipping point, a point of no return in the apostasy process.
The dating of this point of no return is found in the middle of the above verses, in Mormon 1: 15.
15 And
I, being fifteen years of age and being somewhat of a sober mind, therefore I
was visited of the Lord, and tasted and knew of the goodness of Jesus. (Grammar
in original)
Mormon was born around 310CE, and took lead of the military at 16 in 326CE (Mormon 2:2); the apostasy occurred when Mormon was 15 (Mormon 1:15). The year before he took lead of the Nephite armies would have been about 325CE.
In the verses cited there is a small amount of potentially unclear language (“the 326th year had passed away” as opposed to “the year 326; “in my 16th year,” instead of “I was 16.”), but even if the muddy language adds or subtracts a year here or there, the time frame for the Nephite apostasy is still within, at most, about a year of 325CE.
Anyone with even a passing familiarity with Christian history will recognize that the year 325CE is the year of the formulation and adoption of the Nicene Creed.
The Nicene Creed is a statement of belief adopted after the Council of Nicaea in the summer of 325CE, the first in a series of ecumenical councils that were intended to resolve issues of theology and practice. The Roman Emperor Constantine (studying Christianity in preparation for baptism), concerned over divisions in the faith (and probably about their effect on the empire) convened and presided over an ecumenical council at Nicaea (in modern day Turkey) to settle a number of questions, most noticeably the question of whether Christ was (i) created out of nothing at some point in time, and therefore not co-equal and co-eternal with God the Father, or (ii) begotten by God the Father from His own being, and therefore co-eternal and one substance with the Father. The matter was settled by majority in favor of (ii), with the resulting statement, The Nicene Creed, intended as a unified statement of belief for all Christendom.[ii]
What is the significance of this correspondence between the dates of the Nephite apostasy and the Nicene Creed? Possibly nothing, it might just be a coincidence, and I might be drawing a connection where none exists.
However, many BoM readers of have noted there are plenty of parallels between the book and the 19th century setting in which it first appeared. It was, for example, a common belief that the Aboriginal peoples of the Americas were lost Israelites[iii]. The BoM reflects a strong anti-Masonic sentiment that was widespread at the time[iv]. And the BoM provided answers to theological debates that were happening at the time—like infant baptism (Moroni 8: 2-24) and universal salvation (Alma 1, 2nd Nephi 28).
With more than a hint of sarcasm, Alexander Campbell observes, in his 1831 review of the newly published Book of Mormon, that it contains “every error and almost every truth discussed in N. York for the last ten years…[settling] all the great controversies – infant baptism…the trinity[v]…the fall of man, the atonement, transubstantiation…the general resurrection, eternal punishment, who may baptize, and even the question of freemasonry...[vi]
Speaking of Alexander Campbell…
“Restorationism is an indigenous American religious movement that avoids creeds, declaring "no creed but Christ" in the hopes of bringing all Christians into accord with the New Testament pattern described in the book of Acts.”[vii] [viii] Mormon restorationism was part of this larger movement.[ix]
Campbell was a restorationist at around the same time as Joseph Smith. He was a Baptist Minister during what came to be known as the Second Great Awakening, and taught that New Testament Christianity needed to be restored, that dogmas and Creeds were unnecessary and divisive, and as such ought to be avoided.[x]
Early LDS leader Sidney Rigdon was linked Campbell’s movement[xi] for about a decade, from meeting him in 1821, through Rigdons becoming a minister at the First Baptist Church in Pittsburgh (with Campbell’s help), to being driven out of Pittsburgh for being a follower of Campbell.[xii] He was linked to the Campbellite movement until the spring of 1830[xiii], just months before his alleged introduction to Mormonism. One of the significant things that Rigdon adopted from Campbell was the desire to re-establish the ancient order of things[xiv], which, according to Campbell, included “first, the abandonment of everything not in use among the early Christians, as creeds and confessions…”[xv]
One of the theories proposed to explain the creation of the BoM is the Spalding-Rigdon Theory,[xvi] which argues that Sidney Rigdon, not Joseph Smith, is the creator of the BoM, and suggests that he borrowed heavily from an unpublished manuscript by Solomon Spalding, merging the narrative of Spalding with his own vision of what Christianity ought to be.
Well, as a restorationist influenced by Alexander Campbell, if Rigdon were the creator of the BoM, we would expect to find elements of Campbell’s theology in the BoM, or at minimum, the theological ideas that were in the air at the time.
And one of the major themes amongst the restorationists was the return to the original Apostolic Christianity, partially accomplished by discarding of the uninspired and divisive Creeds,[xvii] the first of which, The Nicene Creed, was formulated in 325CE, the same year as the Book of Mormon Nephite apostasy. It may be a coincidence, or Rigdon, a restorationist who rejected the Creeds, may have inserted the date into the BoM as a subtle commentary. Because, perhaps, he considered the formulation of the Nicene Creed a milestone in the process of the Great Apostasy. It might be a coincidence, or it might add weight to the Spalding Rigdon theory of the origin of the Book of Mormon.
The Spalding-Rigdon theory is far from settled. But if the Spalding-Rigdon theory turns out to be false, and that Joseph Smith is the primary author, there is another line of reasoning that suggests that it is more than just a coincidence. Remember that the LDS version of restorationism grew out of the larger restorationist movement, and young Joseph Smith would have been steeped in an environment in which restorationist talk was common.
According to LDS theology, why does the LDS Church exist at all?
Noted Church historian B. H. Roberts: “Nothing less than a complete apostasy from the Christian religion would warrant the establishment of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”[xviii]
Stated another way: “If the alleged apostasy of the primitive church was not a reality, the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is not the divine institution its name proclaims.”—James E. Talmage.[xix]
Or in the words of the good Lord Himself, all other Christian religions “all wrong; and … an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt…” (Joseph Smith History 1:18-20). Later, Jesus again, dictating to Joseph Smith, says that Mormonism is “the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth, with which I, the Lord, am well pleased” (D&C 1:30-31).
If young Joseph Smith’s formative years were indeed in an environment in which restorationism was a major theme, it is not surprising to hear him articulating such rhetoric against traditional Christianity. And we ought not be surprised to discover that the LDS rejection of the Creeds dates to the foundations of the Church. The BoM dates the Nephite Apostasy to 325CE, perhaps a indirect jab at Christianity’s reliance on Creeds, and the BoM dates to the very foundation of the Church—published in the month before the first establishment of the Church.
Furthermore, according to the reconstructed official version of the history of the Church, the foundational event in the Church is Joseph Smith’s 1820 First Vision. In the final and authoritative (1838) version of The First Vision, after young Joseph asks the Lord what Church he should join, virtually the first thing Jesus does is reject the Creeds:
I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong;
and the Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an
abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt; that:
“they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they
teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but
they deny the power thereof.”[xx]
Even if Sidney Rigdon had nothing to do with the construction of the Book of Mormon, and if Joseph Smith is the sole author, the 325CE date of the Nephite apostasy is still interesting because, as we learn from the 1838 iteration of the First Vision, Smith was also apparently deeply concerned with rejecting the Creeds.
Although the date of the Nephite apostasy aligning with the date of the Council of Nicaea could—conceivably—be a coincidence, Occam’s Razor suggests that there is likely a more simple explanation. Whether Joseph Smith is the primary or sole author of the BoM, or whether Sidney Rigdon is primarily responsible for its creation, my intuition is the simplest explanation for placing the Nephite apostasy so specifically at 325CE is subtle indirect criticism of Christian reliance on the Creeds, and consequently a minor piece of evidence for the BoM being a product of the 19th century.
[i] BTW, if the
disciples were called at 30 years old, they would have been 355 years old at
this point.
[ii] My treatment of
the Council of Nicaea and the Nicene Creed is brief, but is only incidental to
my point, so I was as concise as I could possibly be.
[iv] Martin Harris
described the BoM as the “Anti-Masonick Bible”
Vogel, D. (1989).
Mormonism's "Anti-Masonick Bible". The John Whitmer Historical Association
Journal, 9, 17-30. Retrieved from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/43200831
[v] The Book of
Mormon, especially as originally published, was not opposed to Trinitarianism. https://unexaminedfaith.blogspot.com/2019/08/on-non-infinity-of-lds-conception-of-god.html
[vi] Campbell’s entire
essay in the Millennial Harbinger, starting on p. 85: http://www.sidneyrigdon.com/dbroadhu/VA/harb1830.htm#020731-093
[viii] Leonard Allen and
Richard T. Hughes, "Discovering Our Roots: The Ancestry of the Churches of
Christ," Abilene Christian University Press, 1988
[ix] C. Leonard Allen
and Richard T. Hughes, "Discovering Our Roots: The Ancestry of the
Churches of Christ," Abilene Christian University Press, 1988
[x] Ron Rhodes, The
Complete Guide to Christian Denominations, Harvest House Publishers, 2005
https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/people/denominationalfounders/alexander-campbell.htmlhttps://www.therestorationmovement.com/_states/wv/acampbell.htm
Campbell,
“Millennium, No. 1,” Millennial Harbinger 1, no. 2 (1 February 1830):
58.
[xiv] https://books.google.ca/books?id=-3UtqrX56rgC&pg=PA653&lpg=PA653&dq=Rigdon+ancient+order+of+things&source=bl&ots=HjWSno8Izj&sig=ACfU3U289MmBNZipW-bE1w48mbFVYiNCIA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjBiLuoqPXoAhUdHjQIHf0lDTgQ6AEwAXoECAoQMg#v=onepage&q=Rigdon%20ancient%20order%20of%20things&f=false
[xv] https://books.google.ca/books?id=YTRGAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PA125&dq=campbell+ancient+order+of+things&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi24JzOqvXoAhXqIDQIHSdGA0EQ6AEIXzAH#v=onepage&q=campbell%20ancient%20order%20of%20things&f=false
[xvii] Encyclopedia
of the Stone-Campbell Movement, ed. Foster et al., s.v. “Eschatology,” 304
[xviii] History of the
Church, vol. 1, p.XLII
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