2
Ne 3:3 thy seed shall not utterly be destroyed
If the Nephites
were destroyed in 385 AD, how could the desdendents of Joseph, presumably
numbered with the Nephites, have survived this great battle?
It
should be remembered that the division of the people into these two camps, the
Nephites and the Lamanites, is a vast oversimplification. Jacob records, Now the people which were not Lamanites were Nephites;
nevertheless, they were called Nephites, Jacobites, Josephites, Zoramites,
Lamanites, Lemuelites, and Ishmaelites. I, Jacob, shall not hereafter
distinguish them by these names, but I shall call them Lamanites that seek to
destroy the people of Nephi and those who are friendly to Nephi I shall call
Nephites, or the people of Nephi, according to the reigns of the kings (Jacob
1:12-13). The Book of Mormon record states that there were Lamanites among the
Nephites and Nephites among the Lamanites. These had chosen their allegience
based on religious and political lines and not racial lines. Therefore, it
should not be surprising that the promise was given to Joseph that some of his
seed would be preserved even after the final destruction of the Nephites. This
means that some Josephites who had defected to the Lamanite side would merge
with Lamanite society (see Alma 45:13) and the blood of Joseph would be
preserved. DC 3:16-17 explains that the blood
of Joseph, Jacob, Nephi and Zoram was preserved and that the testimony of the
Book of Mormon was to come to their descendants in the last days.