Lamanite Curse See APOSTASY, BOOK OF MORMON, NEPHITES AND LAMANITES, RACES OF MEN, SPIRITUAL DEATH. Because they rebelled against the truth, a twofold curse came upon the Lamanites:

1. They were cut off from the presence of the Lord and thus died spiritually. Scales of darkness covered their eyes because they did not accept the saving principles of the gospel. They became apostates and the descendants of apostates. (1 Ne. 2:21-24; 2 Ne. 4:4-6; Alma 9:13-14.)

2. "After they had dwindled in unbelief," that is, after they had forsaken the Church and the gospel, "they became a dark, and loathsome, and a filthy people, full of idleness and all manner of abominations." (1 Ne. 12:23.) So that they "might not be enticing" unto the Nephites, "the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them." (2 Ne. 5:20-25; Alma 3:14-16.)

During Book of Mormon times the curse fell upon Laman, Lemuel, the sons of Ishmael, the Ishmaelitish women, the descendants of all these, and upon all who were "led away by the Lamanites," and who mingled their seed with the seed of that people. (Alma 3:6-10.) Then near the close of the 4th century after Christ, Mormon prophesied of yet greater curses to come upon the seed of the then warring nations. "This people shall be scattered, and shall become a dark, a filthy, and a loathsome people, beyond the description of that which ever hath been amongst us, yea, even that which hath been among the Lamanites, and this because of their unbelief and idolatry." (Morm. 5:15; D. & C. 3:16-20.)

During periods of great righteousness, when groups of Lamanites accepted the gospel and turned to the Lord, the curse was removed from them. Thousands of Lamanites were converted "and the curse of God did no more follow them" in the days of Aaron and Ammon and their brethren. (Alma 23:5-9, 17-18.) Some 20 years before the personal ministry of Christ among them, the curse was removed from a group of Lamanite converts and they became white like the Nephites. (3 Ne. 2:15-16.) From the time of Christ's ministry among them until nearly 200 A.D. there were no Lamanites for all had become "the children of Christ, and heirs to the kingdom of God." (4 Ne. 17-20, 38.)

When the gospel is taken to the Lamanites in our day and they come to a knowledge of Christ and of their fathers, then the "scales of darkness" shall fall from their eyes; "and many generations shall not pass away among them, save they shall be a white and delightsome people." (2 Ne. 30:6.) Finally, before the judgment bar of God, all who have been righteous, Lamanites and Nephites alike, will be free from the curse of spiritual death and the skin of darkness. (Jac. 3:5-9.)