Dear Readers,
I just finished reading Prophecies & Promises: The Book of Mormon & The United States of America by Bruce H. Porter and Rod L. Meldrum. It's a book about the setting of The Book of Mormon. The geographic theory explained in Porter and Meldrum's book has been dubbed, "The Heartland Model."
After reading the book, I am now convinced that the ancient setting for the Book of Mormon was not Central America, as many LDS scholars claim, but was in fact North America. This goes against the grain of what a lot of latter-day-saints think, but hear me out:
Lehi, Nephi, Mormon, Moroni and other prophets of the Book of Mormon talk about the prophecies of "this land," "this Promised Land", etc. The demonstrative "this" makes it seem likely that the ancient prophets are referring to the land underneath their feet, not a land far distant. Nephi sees in prophetic vision the arrival of Christopher Columbus, the colonization of the Puritans and other pilgrims, the Revolutionary War, the founding of the United States, the establishment of the government, the coming forth of the Book of Mormon and the LDS Church... all on "this land." Sooo... "this land" = North America, where the USA is.
Want more reasons? Here they are:
Joseph Smith mentioned in the Wentworth Letter, and in a letter to Emma Smith, that the Book of Mormon's setting was in North America. I mean, Joseph Smith's words aren't 100% clear, but I'd say they're 90 % clear.
Joseph Smith found the skeleton of Zelph, and prophetically stated that Zelph was a Lamanite known from the Rocky Mountains to the eastern sea. A lot of other men saw Zelph and wrote about it in their journals.
Nephi wrote in 1 Nephi 11:8 "the whiteness thereof [the tree of life] did exceed the whiteness of the driven snow." Now how would Nephi have known what snow was, if he only lived in Jerusalem, where it never snows, and in Central America, where it also never snows? It's very possible that Nephi lived in a place where it did snow, say the lands currently known as Iowa or New York.
Joseph Smith found the golden plates in the Hill Cumorah, in New York, right where Moroni buried them. Now, those who believe that the Book of Mormon happened in Central America think that Moroni must have traveled all the way from Panama or Guatemala or wherever to New York to bury the plates. Well, those golden plates were pretty heavy. Plus there's the breastplate, the Urim and Thummin, the sword of Laban, I think, and those things were probably pretty heavy too. Can you imagine carrying them all that way? Moroni would have needed a wheelbarrow, at least, to get those things all the way across a continent.
But if you believe the account that there are actually "wagon-loads" of golden plates inside the Hill Cumorah, and if you also believe that the Book of Mormon happened in Central America, then you would have to believe that Moroni somehow moved all those wagon-loads of plates from Central America to the New York area. How did he get them there? Did he put them on the back of a curelom? And remember, all this time, Moroni had to hide from the murderous Lamanites. Some have suggested that Moroni could have moved the golden plates and other things after he died and/or got translated, when he was the Angel Moroni. Well, that's possible, but uh... I don't think God operates that way very much.
So... I think it's more likely that the Hill Cumorah spoken of in the Book of Mormon text is the same Hill Cumorah in modern day New York. Which brings up the obvious question: Why hasn't anybody excavated that whole hill to find the secret cave with all the golden plates? Probably because if they went poking around the holy Hill Cumorah, they'd get electrocuted by angels.
There's a lot more interesting stuff in the book... um...
A lot of LDS scholars are disappointed with Porter and Meldrum's convincing research, because Book of Mormon geography is their bread and butter, you know? There are books and movies galore about the MesoAmerican model for the setting of the Book of Mormon. There are even companies that take Mormon tourists on trips down to Guatemala and say, "And if you look to your right, you'll see the site where Gideon might have chased the wicked king Noah up a tower. Maybe."
This is a breakthrough! And you know what? I think Rod Meldrum and Bruce Porter are right. And I think their ideas are going to spread over the Church. Right now, I'll bet that if you took a survey of Mormons and asked them where they thought the Book of Mormon happened, the vast majority would say it happened in Central America, maybe in Panama, or the Yucatan Peninsula, or Guatemala or somewhere down south down there. But I think that in 20 years or so, if you were to ask 10 Mormons where they think the Book of Mormon happened, 9 of them will say, "North America."
I mean, the Heartland Model is just so persuasive, and it makes so much sense. Reasonable people are bound to accept it.
But hey, if you don't accept the Heartland Model, it's not that big of a deal. It's not essential to salvation. And maybe the Heartland Model is wrong. It's all just speculation and theories anyway. It's not like we're talking about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Anyway, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has no official position on the real-world setting of the Book of Mormon. So, you (and by "you" I mean "faithful latter-day saints") can think whatever you want, within reason, about Book of Mormon geography, and that's just dandy.
Go to BookofMormonevidence.org for more totally awesome information!
Uh-oh! It looks like not everyone feels the same way that I do about Rod Meldrum's research! In fact, some Latter-Day Saints are downright mad about it. The people at FAIR, for example, would like to see Meldrum reprimanded by Church leaders. Look what's on FAIR's website:
[T]he core of Rod Meldrum's presentation is not Book of Mormon geography or DNA. Instead, it is a challenge to core issues of LDS doctrine, belief and practice, which have been entrusted by the Lord to the sole province of the leaders of the Church. The core claim Rod Meldrum makes is that he must "proclaim anew" some revelations of Joseph Smith. From that claim the obvious and unmistakable conclusion is that he is telling his audience, in effect, that the Church and its leaders have not been, and are not now, proclaiming the Prophet fully or with faith—or, of course, Rod Meldrum would not be proclaiming him "anew." The seriousness of this can hardly be overstated.
I usually like FAIR, but I think they're totally off base here. Meldrum is not claiming to receive new revelation, or to be a prophet. He's just asking LDS scholars interested in Book of Mormon geography to take Joseph Smith's words a little more seriously. Meldrum is not challenging people's faith. I think he's increasing it, actually.
Sincerely,
Telemoonfa
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8 comments:
"But hey, if you don't accept the Heartland Model, it's not that big of a deal. It's not essential to salvation. And maybe the Heartland Model is wrong."
Maybe the Book of Mormon is not a record of a people that ever actually existed. Is that a possibility?
The Boid
The Book of Mormon is real history. The only thing Meldrom's geography model could possible prove is that the Book of Mormon is not history. There is absolutely no way to force fit it all into North America. And Mormon revealed its historic location in Central America (Alma 22), the only place in the world the geographic record actually fits. Do we have all the answers? No. Neither does Biblical historic geography.
Joseph Smith never placed Book of Mormon history in any specific location until 1842 when he identified the land of Zarehemla in Central America in his Oct. 1Times and Seasons editorial. And please don't give me this c - - p about Joseph not being responsible for that editorial. Virtually everything in the socalled "heart land" theory is post-Book of Mormon migration influences into the land northward from Central America. Get real people, and get informed. -Anonomous No. 2 edit
The ancient prophets of the Book of Mormon were desperately trying to warn a latter-day nation not to allow "secret combinations" to overtake them, as they had done to the two former civilizations on the same "Promised Lands." While where it happened may not be essential to someone’s salvation, it was certainly considered of sufficient importance to use a lot of space on the plates by the ancient prophets. It then becomes critical to understand who would be living in the nation they were trying to warn.
Anonymous No. 2. Your statement demonstrates your near complete lack of knowledge of the Heartland Model. 1. There is not "forcing" of a fit that simply works beautifully; 2. please provide the verse in Alma 22 that states the location was in Central America - no such verse exists; 3. Mesoamerica provides nearly no real evidences for the Book of Mormon; 4. Joseph Smith declared North America and North American Indians to be the lands and the peoples of the Book of Mormon on numerous occasions which are historically verified, unlike your proposed Times and Seasons articles which were unsigned and legitimate Church Historians have publicly stated that no one knows who the authors were. Joseph Smith wrote the Wentworth Letter, the American Revivalist account, a letter to Emma while on Zion's camp all which support a North American geography, not to mention the Zelph accounts and many other Times and Seasons accounts. Anonomous (sic) No. 2, you should try getting at least a couple of your facts straight before bloviating your opinions and embarrassing yourself further with your nonsense. Oh, I suppose that is why you chose to remain "Anonomous" (sic)! Your utter lack of knowledge about the Heartland Model is further evidenced by your uninformed comment that everything in America's Heartland was post Book of Mormon influences from Central America. Such utter nonsense is laughable to anyone who has completed even a rudimentary google search on the Mound Builders. They didn't come from Central America at all, there is no evidence during Book of Mormon time frames for any influence whatsoever among the Hopewell...only later during the Mississippian culture was there any Meso influence. Get real Anonomous (sic) and get informed by someone other than the Mesoamerican promotion organizations of FAIR, FARMS and BMAF. Try watching the videos with an objective look at the research before spouting off your false indictments.
Here are a few more models to chew on:
Lehi’s Trek to China and North America
and
King Noah and the Redemption of Zion
Both of these support a North American location.
Couldn't it be a little of both? There are other church leaders who have stated the the promised land is both North and South America. Couldn't they have landed in Central America, the Lamanites migrating and population Southern and the Nephites the Northern? It sure was a lot of years they were here and a whole lot of time. It even says in the BOM, they filled the entire face of the land and that was just the people AFTER Christ came. There were still others (not of this fold) down in the South America he could've appeared to them as well. (White bearded God) Anyway, I have no doubt that one day some of these things will be made clear, but for now, I'm completely content to think it was both North and South America to begin with then pushing the "Christian" Nephites up Norward toward New York Cumorah where the final battle took place.
Sorry, but it snows in Jerusalem. They had heavy snow in Noevember/December 2013. It shut the city down for a few days.
First, I believe the Book of Mormon is true. Second, I think, that much like knowing where Jesus lived and ministered to the people in the land of Jerusalem helps our understanding of the New Testament, knowing where Jesus ministered to the people of the Book of Mormon would help our understanding of that book - and other scriptures as well. Third, Meldrum, with his research on DNA, has helped us look to the right area of the Western Hemisphere and he, with Mays and Porter, have done much good. Finally, although Meldrum is pointing to the right area, the Meldrum/Porter/Mays map does not match the scriptures found in the Book of Mormon. I have a manuscript currently under review by Deseret Book, which is in harmony with the Book of Mormon and identifies; the river Sidon, that flows northward and to the west, the narrow strip of wilderness that runs from the sea on the east to the sea on the west, the small (narrow) neck of land, the narrow pass, by a sea on the west and on the east, the land of Nephi, the land of Zarahemla, the land Bountiful, which is north of the land of Zarahemla, the land Desolation and the land of Cumorah. Rather than using DNA or archeology, I use prophecies to qualify and disqualify certain parts of the Americas, and yes, by fulfilled prophecy, Central America is disqualified for consideration.
Here's the experience I had on this subject. While traveling through the midwest in the summer of 2014, I visited several mound builder sites and talked with experienced, non-LDS archeologists working at visitors centers associated with these sites. These archealogists were professional scientists, published, with 25 or 30 years of experience in their fields. Among several questions that I asked, were: 1) how much DNA analysis have you performed on skeletal remains that you have found here? 2) When did you do this analysis?, and 3) what have you learned from that analysis? What they told me supports the notion espoused by the proponents of the Heartland theory, namely that DNA analysis points to the X haplogroup, and specifically X2, that is associated with the Holy Land and Europe, not Asia or Siberia. I asked them what they thought of these findings. They used the words "puzzled, surprised, confused". In fact, they were re-running the DNA tests, in this case strontium analysis from DNA derived from teeth, to see if they could replicated the X2 haplogroup results. They said these results and analysis would emerge in 6-12 months. I don't claim to be an expert in DNA research but it does seem that there is an anomaly here that is surprising non-LDS scientists and disrupting long-held assumptions on the origins of native peoples in North America. I think it warrants further analysis, but at this point it does support the heartland narrative from the DNA perspective.
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