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It Happened During the First Days of the Year

"And it came to pass in the thirty and fourth year, in the first month, on the fourth day of the month, there arose a great storm, such an one as never had been known in all the land."   (3 Nephi 8:5)  34 AD
"And there was a great and terrible destruction in the land..."  (3 Nephi 8:11)  34 AD

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The date of the "terrible destruction in the land" was passed down from generation to generation.

The Nephites readjusted their measurement of time at the time of the signs of Christ's birth.  According to the Book of Mormon, Christ lived thirty-three years and four days, being crucified on the fourth day of the first month of their year.  Or in other words Christ was crucified in "the first days of the year"

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An Indian prince named Ixtlilxochitle who lived near the city of Mexico and wrote his book in 1600 AD, gave this significant statement concerning the events that took place and the date of the destruction previous to the coming of the resurrected Jesus Christ to the Nephites:

". . . the sun and the moon eclipsed, and the earth trembled, and the rocks broke, and many other things and signs took place . . . This happened . . . at the same time when Christ our Lord suffered, and they say it happened during the first days of the year" (Works of Ixtlilxochitl, cited in Milton R. Hunter and Thomas Stuart Ferguson, Ancient America and the Book of Mormon, p. 190)