Nehor

Nehor's teachings continued to affect the Nephites after his death. In Alma 2 and 3, a man named Amlici is introduced as part of the order of Nehor. He wants to be king but loses the election, so his followers, called Amlicites, elect him as their own king. The Amlicites then ally with the Lamanites, and start a civil war resulting in numberless deaths, but they ultimately retreat.[14]

Another group of Nehor's adherents lived in Ammonihah, where the Chief Judge of the city ordered the burning of sacred books and the massacre of women and children who believed in the church of God[15] and imprisoned the missionaries Alma and Amulek. The city was subsequently destroyed by the Lamanites and called "the Desolation of Nehors" because most of the people killed were followers of Nehor and the land stayed uninhabited afterwards.[16]

Later on, the Book of Mormon talks of a city called Jerusalem, populated by Lamanites and two additional groups of Nephite dissenters, the Amulonites and the Amalekites. Many of these Nephite dissenters are after the order of Nehor, and the Lamanite king allows them to build synagogues according to their beliefs.[17] The king soon converts to the church of God and allows missionaries to teach throughout his lands, but among the Amulonites and Amalekites (followers of Nehor), only one is converted.[18]

Kylie Turley, an English professor at Brigham Young University, suggests that the people of Ammonihah would have been quick to reject Alma if he taught them at all before his conversion. If Alma and Nehor overlapped at all during Alma's time as an unbeliever, the people there may have seen Alma as condemning Nehor for something he himself did in the past.[19]

Turley also says the name Nehor could have been applied beyond his original followers as a label for other nonbelievers of the church of God. In the Book of Mosiah, people with beliefs against the church of God are called unbelievers, but unbelievers in the Book of Alma are always called Nehorites or after the order of Nehor/the order of the Nehors.[20] Based on political problems during the time of the judges in Zarahemla, scholar A. Keith Thompson suggests the order of Nehor was actually a religion of Mulekite ideals named for Nehor because of his commitment and the example he set. [21]

Another scholar, Avram Shannon, suggests instead the need to distinguish the order of Nehor because of multiple other groups. Alma talks of the holy order of God and Shannon postulates the specific wording of the order of Nehor points to other competing orders.[22]

Grant Hardy compares Nehor's teaching that all will be saved at the last day no matter their actions to a common belief from the mid–18th century which was popular during Joseph Smith's lifetime called Universalism, pointing out that almost everywhere else in the Book of Mormon, the belief is that one must obey the commandments and follow Christ to be saved.[5][23]

Talking about the structure of the Book of Alma, Brigham Young University religion professor and philosopher Joseph M. Spencer[24] demonstrates the parallel structure between Nehor's story at the beginning and Korihor's later on. Nehor preaches doctrine against the church of God, dies because of his actions, and a later group adhering to his doctrine joins the Lamanites in war against the Nephites. Korihor preaches similar doctrine against the church of God and Korihor's death leads directly to the introduction and rebellion of the Zoramites and their subsequent joining with the Lamanites. Both stories end in Lamanite defeat and the bodies of the dead being thrown in the River Sidon.[25]