As a reminder, here’s the setting taken from the Church’s brief intro about this chapter:
“The Nephites separate themselves from the Lamanites, keep the law of Moses, and build a temple—Because of their unbelief, the Lamanites are cut off from the presence of the Lord, are cursed, and become a scourge unto the Nephites. About 588–559 B.C.”
Let’s take a look at what they’ve done!
Contradiction #1 Book of Mormon Metallurgy Problems –
2 Nephi 5:14; “And I, Nephi, did take the sword of Laban, and after the manner of it did make many swords, lest by any means the people who were now called Lamanites should come upon us and destroy us; for I knew their hatred towards me and my children and those who were called my people.”
So we don’t get too bogged down with the enormous archaeology subject, we’re moving on to the next topic. To read about the numerous problems in this category see our article Book of Mormon Artifacts and Metallurgy.
Contradiction #2 Relationship of Laman and Nephi –
As we can see from the text above, the wicked Lamanites hated their righteous Nephite brothers. Keep that in mind for later when Nephi claims they’re a happy people.
Contradiction #3 Nephite Temple v. Solomon’s Temple –
Lest we forget, another major contradiction/controversy exists between vss. 14 and 17, when Nephi also built a temple ‘after the manner of Solomon’. See article in the link provided.
Contradiction #4 Description of the Lamanites’ Behavior –
A few verses later, the text tells us the outcome of God cursing the Lamanites with a dark skin.
2 Nephi 5:24-25; “And because of their cursing which was upon them they did become an idle people, full of mischief and subtlety, and did seek in the wilderness for beasts of prey. 25 And the Lord God said unto me: They shall be a scourge unto thy seed, to stir them up in remembrance of me; and inasmuch as they will not remember me, and hearken unto my words, they shall scourge them even unto destruction.”
So the Lamanites haven’t just turned dark, but now they’re lazy, and out causing great trouble for the Nephites.
How can someone be full of mischief, and be lazy at the same time? If someone’s ‘full of mischief’, you’ve just told us they were filled with the ‘nature of being harmful or evil’ as the dictionary defines it. If they’re being harmful, it doesn’t sound as if they’re lazy.
Contradiction #5 The ‘Happy’ Nephites –
During all the busyness of these two warring clans, we see the last controversy –
2 Nephi 5:27; “And It came to pass that we lived after the manner of happiness.”
How is it the Nephites ‘lived after the manner of happiness’ if all this commotion was taking place?
How is someone happy if they’re at war with their brother?
2 Nephi 5:34; “And it sufficeth me to say that forty years had passed away, and we had already had wars and contentions with our brethren.”
This seems so out of place for a supposedly content and happy person, and/or people.
Furthermore, who would be happy knowing God had cursed your brother?
Would you be happy knowing your brother hates you?
If these are real people, why isn’t Nephi grief stricken?
Why does he seem unattached? Could the reason be that Nephi isn’t a real person? We believe this to be the real story!