"Moroni's America" – The North American Setting for the Book of Mormon
The Book of Mormon in North America
"Moroni's America" – The North American Setting for the Book of Mormon
The Book of Mormon in North America
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| Joseph interprets Pharaoh’s dream |
Tissot is one of my favorite artists. The BYU MOA has an exhibition of Tissot’s Old Testament paintings right now. You can see it online here:
https://moa.byu.edu/prophets-priests-and-queens/
Source: Book of Mormon Concensus
Last year, plans to change the infrastructure at the Hill Cumorah near Palmyra, New York, were announced. By now they’ve done much of the restoration work at the Hill Cumorah, but there is still a lot of work to be done.
One significant development is the new historical marker, which clearly establishes that in D&C 128:20 (“Glad tidings from Cumorah!”), Joseph Smith was referring to the Hill Cumorah in New York.
While this should be obvious from the context of D&C 128, some M2C* scholars have been trying to persuade people that Joseph was referring to a hill in Mesoamerica, or that he had inexplicably adopted a false tradition about the hill in New York being the actual Hill Cumorah of Mormon 6:6.
Those familiar with Church history, however, know that Joseph learned the name of the hill Cumorah from Moroni the first time they met, as his mother Lucy Mack Smith related.
And, of course, we can all read right in Joseph’s own history that it is a fact that the hill in New York is the scene of the final battles of the Jaredites and the Nephites, as Joseph’s contemporaries and successors reaffirmed many times.
http://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1834-1836/90
The changes to the site make it more natural. Most importantly, no longer will they construct a ridiculous Mayan temple in western New York! (They used to build one for the pageant.)
So far, the historical markers still omit the relevant information about Cumorah that anyone can read in the Joseph Smith Papers. We can hope that, eventually, visitors to the Hill Cumorah in New York will be fully informed about actual Church history.
Source: Letter VII
Six years ago, I discussed an error in the editorial content in the Joseph Smith Papers.
Here’s the gist. In his 1840 pamphlet, Orson Pratt speculated about a Mesoamerican setting for the Book of Mormon.
In the Wentworth letter, Joseph adopted much of Orson’s explanation, but he specifically deleted Orson’s speculation about Central America.
Instead, Joseph explained that, contrary to what Orson wrote, “The remnant are the Indians that now inhabit this country.”
Most Latter-day Saints today don’t know that Joseph wrote that in the Wentworth letter because that passage was deleted from the lesson manual Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith.
It was also omitted from the Saints book and other curriculum.
As I’ve pointed out before, when Joseph wrote the Wentworth letter, he started by writing “As Mr. Bastow has taken the proper steps to obtain correct information all that I shall ask at his hands, is, that he publish the account entire, ungarnished, and without misrepresentation.”
It turns out, Joseph didn’t need to worry about Mr. Bastow.
It is the Curriculum Department, the Correlation Department, and the Church History Department that have refused to “publish the account entire, ungarnished and without misrepresentation.”
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Here was my original post:
https://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2016/08/error-in-joseph-smith-papers.html
When I wrote that comment, I cited the printed book. Here’s a link to the online comment now, which retains the errors I discussed:
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Two years ago I visited Benjamin Winchester’s grave in Iowa. I wrote about it here:
https://www.bookofmormoncentralamerica.com/2020/05/visit-to-benjamin-winchesters-grave.html
Winchester’s legacy endures.
We’d all be better off if our M2C scholars would bury M2C…
Source: About Central America
Nice thread from Naval:
https://twitter.com/naval/status/1524651911344889856
Summarized here (click to enlarge):
Source: Book of Mormon Concensus
This reminded me of our LDS intellectuals who teach M2C and SITH.
Source: About Central America
The excellent Mormon Book Reviews channel on youtube is doing a book giveaway contest tonight.
This is an awesome channel for many reasons, and a contest is yet another reason to watch!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hN3H2j9JpzI
Source: Letter VII
This is a uniquely wonderful book: The Spiritual Physics of Light : how we see, feel, and know truth by Aaron D. Franklin.
“This book explores the connections between what scientists know about light empirically and what members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have learned about light doctrinally. Each chapter contains discussions on how we see, feel, and know truth (which is light) by relating and connecting physical principles of electromagnetic radiation to gospel truths about light”–
(Provided by publisher)
I’m particularly interested in this topic because of work I’m doing with some world-renowned physicists, but Brother Franklin has some tremendous insights into how spiritual light operates. His explanation of physical light expands our understanding of spiritual light.
Here’s an excerpt:
Now that we have explored how spiritual matter–when combined with bodies to create souls–may enable more profound interactions with spiritual light, let us consider what it means to sense or detect spiritual light. To set the stage for the present discussion, I will return to a quote from President David O. McKay cited earlier in the book:
Every person is a recipient of radiation. The Savior was conscious of that. Whenever he came into the presence of an individual, he sensed that radiation… He was conscious of the radiation from the individual. And to a degree so are you, and so am I. It is what we are and what we radiate that affects the people around us.
As indicated in President McKay’s statement, numerous examples could be given of how the Savior detected the radiation of spiritual light from individuals around him. It was not exclusive to the detection of the strong emission of spiritual light from righteous individuals; rather, it involved the detection of radiation from everyone, including those who were troubled, sad, or deep in sin.
I highly recommend this book!
Source: Book of Mormon Concensus
I’ve often explained that I think everyone involved with Book of Mormon studies has good intentions.
Members of the M2C citation cartel promote M2C because they actually believe it and they want to use their evidence to persuade people to accept the Book of Mormon.
And that’s fine with me.
It’s the same for those who promote all of the multiple working hypotheses, whether it’s Baja, Panama, South America, Heartland, Malaysia, New York, or even the BYU fantasy map. For that matter, many critics are also well-intentioned. It’s easy to be confused by the various claims, particularly when leading LDS scholars explicitly reject the teachings of the prophets.
My problem with the M2C citation cartel is they don’t want Latter-day Saints to make informed decisions. It seems obvious by now that they know most Latter-day Saints prefer to accept the teachings of the prophets about Cumorah.
But because they repudiate those teachings, they don’t like anyone to focus on those teachings. They don’t want Latter-day Saints to even know what the prophets have taught about the New York Cumorah.
Incredibly, the efforts of the M2C citation cartel seeped into the groupthink among many Church historians as well.
For example, see my latest installment of my review of Real vs. Rumor, here:
http://www.ldshistoricalnarratives.com/2022/05/real-vs-rumor-part-4-loyalty-to.html
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I’m one of many who changed my mind about M2C after decades of accepting what the “experts” taught, including specifically Jack Welch (FARMS/Book of Mormon Central), Dan Peterson (FARMS/Interpreter), and Scott Gordon (FairLDS). They’re all great people, faithful Latter-day Saints, etc., but they share a distrust of the ability of Latter-day Saints to make informed decisions.
They don’t want people to make informed decisions. M2C thrives only in an environment of ignorance and control.
In fact, if you reject M2C in favor of the teachings of the prophets, M2Cers will accuse you of apostasy. It’s awesome.
A much simpler, wholesome, and productive approach would be for everyone to lay out all the facts, state assumptions, inferences, and threads, and they explain hypotheses. With multiple working hypotheses, everyone could make informed decisions harmoniously.
There is zero need for or utility in contention over these issues.
But the M2C citation cartel continues to refuse to adopt this model of multiple working hypotheses.
For years, the M2C citation cartel has downplayed the teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah. They consistently refuse to inform Latter-day Saints about the evidence that corroborates those teachings.
Because the “Heartlanders” still believe the teachings of the prophets, the M2C promoters have been trying to persuade people that the “Heartlanders” are motivated by a political agenda.
It’s a ridiculous claim. Everyone who knows the “Heartlander” working hypothesis knows it is based on the teachings of the prophets about Cumorah, not on any political agenda. There are Heartlanders among the Latter-day Saints throughout the world. Non-American Latter-day Saint Heartlanders couldn’t care less about American politics, but the M2C proponents don’t care about that reality.
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At this point, the best we can do is continue to educate ourselves and those around us, encouraging them to make fully informed decisions.
Source: About Central America
According to the law of Moses, altars are supposed to have ramps, not stairs.
26 Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon. (Exodus 20:26)
https://youtu.be/wWlKg9g1IXs?t=860
One key to the discovery was the presence of a ramp, not stairs, leading to the altar.
The divine name YHV from Mount Ebal, written in proto-alphabetic script.
remember in the torah it prescribed that this you could not have steps going up to the altar right it had to be a ramp
right and so a kosher altar had to be a ramp not steps now pagan
altars were always steps right so this is huge it’s huge it’s a ramp up to and
you have ash piles of only kosher animals i mean how much on the nose could you be and then for
so so that was you know it’s it’s a huge discovery but people know people here and i grew up in israel people didn’t talk about this
people didn’t know i mean this is probably one of the biggest discoveries in the land and people don’t
know about it why why people won’t know about this because
there’s so much politics and so much oppression to this and he he speaks about this in his book
first of all uh it was with archaeologists if the if the whole
science of archaeology and and biblical history say that joshua never existed
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One reason scholars are skeptical that Nephites ever lived in Mesoamerica is that Mayan culture used steps, not ramps, for their altars. In North America, at least in Book of Mormon times, the ancient people built ramps.
Source: About Central America
A few random thoughts related to the reason this blog continues to reaffirm the teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah, despite the opposition from the M2C citation cartel.
First, I posted a preliminary version of an article I’m going to post soon on academia.org. It’s another example of how our modern LDS historians distort Church history to accommodate M2C.
Here’s the link:
http://www.ldshistoricalnarratives.com/2022/05/real-vs-rumor-part-3-historians-knowing.html
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Here are some relevant thoughts from Twitter.
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Related to this, there’s a new post about the book Real vs. Rumor here:
Source: About Central America
