The Chosen People

Definition

The chosen people in the Book of Mormon refers to those whom God has selected for a special covenant relationship — but the selection is conditioned on faithfulness, not ethnicity. The Nephites are the chosen people when they obey and worse than the Lamanites when they disobey. The Lamanites are rejected but can be restored; indeed, the text repeatedly promises that a future remnant of Lamanites will come to faith and receive the covenant. The concept oscillates between particularism (this specific people is chosen) and universalism (any people who obey are chosen).

Where It Appears

The chosen people frame is established in the founding narratives: Nephi’s people are the chosen, while Laman’s people are the rejected. But this binary is destabilized throughout the text. Ammon’s mission to the Lamanites produces converts who are more righteous than the Nephites. Samuel the Lamanite explicitly tells the Nephites that the Lamanites are more righteous than they are. Third Nephi describes Christ’s appearance to the Nephites as fulfilling the promise that the covenant extends to “other sheep.” Moroni addresses his final words specifically to the Lamanites, promising them restoration.

Narrative and Theological Function

The concept of the chosen people provides the text’s central identity axis while simultaneously complicating it. The Nephites are the “us” of the narrative — but the narrative frequently turns on them, showing that their election is forfeited through wickedness. The Lamanites are the “them” — but the narrative also shows them becoming “us.” This instability creates a dynamic where the reader is never sure who is truly chosen. The criterion shifts from lineage to righteousness.

Relationship to Other Concepts

The chosen people are constituted by covenant: election is covenantal, not racial. The chosen people receive the promised land as their inheritance — conditionally. The concept is linked to division and identity as a major theme.

In Comparative Context

The biblical concept of chosenness (Israel as God’s elect) is ethnic-covenantal: election runs through Abraham’s lineage, though the prophets insist that circumcision of the heart matters more than physical circumcision. The Book of Mormon radicalizes the conditional aspect: entire peoples can lose their chosen status within a generation, and outsiders (Lamanites) can gain it. The text’s handling of chosenness is deeply ambivalent — it can be read both as reinforcing Nephite superiority and as undermining it.

Further Reading

• Covenant
• The Promised Land
• Major Themes: division and identity