[5] In the book's narrative, God tells a man named Lehi, along with his family, to leave Jerusalem to avoid the Babylonian captivity.

[6] The family goes to the Americas where they establish a society and live as what Terryl Givens calls "pre-Christian Christians"[7] which eventually splits into two peoples, Nephites and Lamanites.

The majority of the book is framed as the retrospective work of its narrators, including Nephi and Mormon, who self-reflexively describe their own creation of the text as a record etched onto metal plates.

[13] The Book of Mormon narrates that Zenock taught that Jesus would be the Son of God,[14] and would die as part of the Christian atonement.

[24] The Book of Mormon narrator Nephi quotes Zenock along with other nonbiblical and biblical prophets as part of a transition of topic and tone in the record he describes himself keeping.

These citations produce what Frederick W. Axelgard calls an "intense prophetic aspect" of the writing, and after citing Zenock and others, Nephi narrates having a spiritual experience.

[16] By quoting Zenock, Alma sets up his companion Amulek's central message calling for the Zoramites to maintain faith in Christ despite their limited circumstances.

[30] Most adherents of the Latter Day Saint movement believe—contrary to the findings of archaeology, history, and science—that the Book of Mormon is an ancient text and describes actual historical people and events.

[31] Orson Pratt, a member of Mormonism's first Quorum of the Twelve Apostles,[32] expressed his belief that more prophecies from Zenock were contained in additional ancient plates hidden in the hill Cumorah to someday be recovered and revealed by what he believed would be the will of God.

[37] Embaye Melekin, an Eritrean baptized into the LDS Church in 2006, considers Zenock evidence that the Book of Mormon was anciently set not in the Americas but in the Horn of Africa.