“Changing circumstances can … affect nearly a whole people’s faith. … ‘There was not a living soul among … the Nephites who did doubt in the least the words of all the holy prophets.’ … (3 Nephi 5:1.)
“Now … ‘There began to be great doubtings and disputations among the people, notwithstanding so many signs had been given.’ (3 Nephi 8:4.)
“As I check the years of these two verses, I note that this decline happened in the space of a mere ten years or less! Circumstances changed from one in which ‘not a living soul’ doubted the prophecies to a time in which there were ‘great doubtings.’ It isn’t very confidence inspiring, is it?” (Maxwell, We Talk of Christ, 64.)