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Where Did The Book Of Mormon Really Take Place?

Spirituality, , ,

Where Did  The Book Of Mormon Really Take Place?

Part 1 of 4 in the series “Book of Mormon Geography — And Why It Matters”

Many people say the geography of the Book of Mormon doesn’t matter. I have come to believe it matters a great deal — and I would like to share why.
Let Us Start With What We Know
Hill Cumorah, New York, where Moroni deposited the records

The prophets have taught that:

  1. Hill Cumorah is in New York. Jonathan Neville has put together what he calls a “BYU Packet” of the prophets’ statements regarding Hill Cumorah being in New York
  2. We don’t know where all the other events took place — not because there is no evidence, but because there is too much evidence.
  3. From the Prophet Joseph we know that Zelph’s mound is real, and that the statements about it were received by revelation (see the Annotated Edition of the Book of Mormon).
  4. Joseph also identified the Nephi altar at Adam-ondi-Ahman as real.
  5. Joseph named the City of Manti and its location in Missouri.
  6. By revelation, the Lord gave the name Zarahemla to the city across from Nauvoo (see D&C 125:3). Jonathan Neville’s book The Lost City of Zarahemla discusses this important topic well.
Why Geography Matters
A chosen land, and the land of liberty – (Alma 46:17)

Moroni, who saw our day, recorded the Lord’s everlasting decree for this land of North America:

“For behold, this is a land which is choice above all other lands; wherefore he that doth possess it shall serve God or shall be swept off; for it is the everlasting decree of God.” (Ether 2:10)

Elder L. Tom Perry proclaimed that the United States is the promised land foretold in the Book of Mormon — a land the Lord prepared so that liberty and religious freedom would make the Restoration possible. “It was no coincidence,” he taught, “that the First Vision came just decades after the birth of the United States.”

If Elder Perry is right — and I believe he is — then it is critical that the people of the United States repent and serve God, or be “swept off.” How much more clear can it be? Yet many say Book of Mormon geography doesn’t matter.

How I Came to the Heartland Model

In my early years in the Church, I believed, like most members, that Mesoamerica explained Book of Mormon geography. Decades ago, our son Sterling first woke me up to the possibility that it could be otherwise, and that the Great Lakes area had a large number of artifacts consistent with the Book of Mormon.

Since then, I have gotten to know many researchers who have opened my eyes to the Heartland model — Wayne May, Rod Meldrum, Amberli Peterson, Jonathan Neville, Timothy Ballard, Ryan Fisher, Steve Smoot, Richard Moats, and many others. Much of what I share here comes from their research, and I am extremely grateful to them. Their work shows the consistency of the Heartland model, while giving evidence that the Mesoamerica model doesn’t match the history, geography, or archaeology of the Book of Mormon message.

Heartland Model by Wayne May
How Can You Know Something Is True?

As a scientist, and as a devout member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I have three criteria I use in my search for TRUTH. I have studied the evidence around Elder Perry’s statement using these three criteria:

  1. If God says it, then I know.
  2. You cannot prove a theory or hypothesis true. We don’t know enough; only God knows enough. If something agrees with our paradigm, that does not validate it. Correlation does not provide validation.
  3. If you have reliable data proving a theory or hypothesis false, then you know it is false. Then you can move away from it and go on in your search for TRUTH.

I capitalize TRUTH because God’s TRUTHs never change. There is so much of relativism in the world that Satan uses to deceive people from knowing the TRUTHs of God.

The Lord Himself taught the first of these: “If anyone chooses to do God’s will, he will “know” whether the teaching comes from God (John 7:17). And “if ye continue in my word… ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31–32).

These criteria reach far beyond geography. Most scientists today believe the theory of evolution and the big-bang theory to be true; There is reliable data proving both false — and by the third criterion, we can know it and move on. This is really important because most of the people of the world believe otherwise leading them down satanic distorted paths.

The Lord also gave a sure promise to those who treasure up His word: “And whoso treasureth up my word, shall not be deceived, for the Son of Man shall come, and he shall send his angels before him with the great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together the remainder of his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” (Joseph Smith—Matthew 1:37). He is the Word (John 1:1).

We live in a world where credentials seem to be more important than inspiration. Well did Jacob counsel: “When they are learned they think they are wise, and they hearken not unto the counsel of God… But to be learned is good if they hearken unto the counsels of God” (2 Nephi 9:28–29). Learning is a God given opportunity He has given us. But learning that sets aside the counsel of God can be deceiving.

The Savior also gave us a test for prophets: “Ye shall know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:16). By the Savior’s criterion, Joseph Smith is a prophet of God.

Why the Mesoamerica Model Doesn’t Fit

It only takes one reliable source of data to prove a theory false, but here are several:

  • The DNA of the aboriginal peoples of Mesoamerica is mainly Asian. House of Israel DNA shows up mainly in North America’s Heartland.

    DNA map
  • The Book of Mormon peoples practiced the Law of Moses; the things necessary to observe that law didn’t exist in Mesoamerica.
  • Mesoamerica is not “a choice land… above all other lands” (2 Nephi 10:19), nor has it ever been “a chosen land, and the land of liberty” (Alma 46:17).
  • Mesoamerica did not produce the “mighty nation among the Gentiles” that would scatter Lehi’s seed (1 Nephi 22:7). That was clearly the United States.
  • The New Jerusalem was promised for this land (Ether 13:2–3) — not Mesoamerica.
  • Nephi prophesied that the Bible would be carried to this Gentile nation, and that the Book of Mormon would be “hid up, to come forth unto the Gentiles” (1 Nephi 13:35). That happened at Hill Cumorah — not in Mesoamerica.
What the Prophets Have Said

Joseph Smith, who knew better than anyone where the Book of Mormon took place, wrote to his wife Emma during Zion’s Camp that they were “wandering over the plains of the Nephites, recounting occasionally the history of the Book of Mormon, roving over the mounds of that once beloved people of the Lord.” (Letter to Emma Smith, 4 June 1834). On that same journey, Joseph identified by revelation the skeleton found in a mound as Zelph, a white Lamanite and warrior under the prophet Onandagus, who was known “from the eastern sea to the Rocky Mountains.”

Zelph Mound

President Oliver Cowdery, in Letter VII, described the valley west of Hill Cumorah as the place where “the entire power and national strength of both the Jaredites and Nephites were destroyed,” and where Moroni deposited the records.

President Marion G. Romney bore a personal witness of this in General Conference in 1975, and President Ezra Taft Benson testified that this land was the place of the Garden of Eden, of Adam, of the Jaredites and the Nephites, and of the Restoration itself.

President Russell M. Nelson has taught that Joseph’s inheritance was “a land choice above all others” — choice because it would be the repository of the sacred records from which the Book of Mormon would come, and the land of liberty for those who worship the Lord.

Take the Evidence, Build Our Faith, and Come to Christ

The main purpose of the Book of Mormon is to bring us to Christ — to be, along with the Bible, another witness of Him and His infinite Atonement. Infinite Atonement is mentioned only in the Book of Mormon. But it is the most important event in the history of the world, as I describe in my last book: THE INFINITE ATONEMENT OF JESUS THE CHRIST, AND IT’S SIGNIFICANCE IN THE LAST DAYS.

But we also see the importance of knowing that North America is the Promised Land. The United States is the “Promised Land” spoken of in the Book of Mormon — exactly as Elder Perry stated. Sadly, this Promised Land has turned her back on God, and the everlasting decree is still in place: her people will be “swept off” unless there is massive repentance.

That is why knowing this land is the Promised Land matters — and why sharing the gospel message matters: to bring this people, and all people, back to the God of this land, who is Jesus Christ. To come to know the Father and the Son is eternal life — the greatest of all the gifts of God.

David W. Allan

Next in this series: This article only scratches the surface. In the articles that follow, I will share what Joseph Smith and later prophets actually said about Cumorah and the plains of the Nephites, how the Mesoamerica idea entered the Church, and the stones, DNA, and earthworks that point to the Heartland.

  • In this series — “Book of Mormon Geography — And Why It Matters”:
    Part 1: Where Did The Book Of Mormon Really Take Place?
    Part 2: What Joseph Smith and Other Latter-Day Prophets Actually Said
    Part 3: How the Mesoamerica Idea Entered the Church
    Part 4: Evidence in the Heartland: Stones, DNA, and the Newark Earthworks
Sources — Check Them for Yourself

Every quotation and scripture in this article can be read at its source:

 

Pray For Liberty

Spirituality, , , ,

America is at a crossroads. Join me in prayer for our liberty. With the inauguration of President Trump on the 20th of January 2025, know that the global elite have high-tech plans to disrupt America’s God-given right to LIBERTY. Please join me in praying for liberty and for Satan’s plans to be thwarted.

James 1:25 states: “ But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.” We need God’s blessings more than ever at this challenging time. The global elite are not only planning to disrupt, but also to take away or liberty.

We The People

If “We The People” of this “Land of the free hope to perpetuate and protect our liberty, we all need to turn to the God of this land, who is Jesus Christ. My good friend, Jim Noorlander, has helped me to understand the grand importance of liberty.

Many believe that liberty and freedom are the same; they are not. I will explain. Many say that our founding documents do not address moral law or the gospel of Jesus Christ. John Adams said, “Our Constitution is made only for a moral and religious people.”

Noah Webster is the founding father of American Scholarship and Education, and the author of the famous 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language. He proclaimed that “the principles of republican government have their origin in the Scriptures. God’s word, contained in the Bible, has furnished all necessary rules to direct our conduct.”

 Apostle Paul’s Statement

We have the Apostle Paul’s clarion statement, “… where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” (2 Corinthians 3:17) We see this same message integrated into our founding documents. As we declared our independence from Great Britain, our founders said, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

These rights entitle us, as a nation, to the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle us.

The perfect law of liberty under Nature’s God, as defined above in the Scriptures, is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Inspired by the Scriptures our founders wrote our famous Declaration of Independence and our Constitution and its preamble; the preamble reads: “We the People of the United States, to… secure the Blessings of Liberty… establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

In other words, to secure the blessings of liberty under Nature’s God (Jesus Christ), the Constitution was established so that the perfect law of liberty (the gospel of Jesus Christ) could be had among the people in this free and independent nation. Profoundly, there is no coercion. Moral agency is paramount in Heavenly Father’s perfect plan of happiness and in the abundant life promised by Jesus Christ. (John 10:10)

Can We Qualify For Liberty?

As inferred from our founding documents and the Scriptures, we qualify for the blessings of liberty and our rights from our Creator (Jesus Christ) as we:
1. Keep the Commandments: (Deut. 7:14) .
2. Ask for His guidance in humility; and (2 Chron. 7:14) “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”
3. Strive to do His will. (John 7:17; Hebrews 13:21)
4. And Keep the most important of the commandments, to love God and our neighbor as ourselves. (Matt. 22:37-40)

Noah Webster said that he sought to build an education system embodying “a love of virtue, patriotism, and religion [meaning the Bible].” Specifically, he stated, “…the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government, ought to be instructed… No truth is more evident to my mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people.”

As Jim Noorlander pointed out to me, we are the only nation proclaiming that our liberties and our rights are granted to us by our Creator (Nature’s God), which is the Lord Jesus Christ. How important then it is to learn about the religion of our Creator, which is Christianity as taught by the Savior in the New Testament. (John 1:1-14). This is the religion of our founders.

Others Have Spoken

George Washington
There is no truth more thoroughly established than that there exists in the economy and course of nature an indissoluble union between virtue and happiness.

The foundation of our national policy will be laid in the pure and immutable principles of private morality. No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency.

Ulysses S. Grant

Hold fast to the Bible as the sheet anchor of your liberties; write its precepts on your heart and practice them in your lives. To the influence of this book, we are indebted for the progress made, and to this, we look as our guide in the future.


Woodrow Wilson

“The sum of the whole matter is this, that our civilization cannot survive materially unless it be redeemed spiritually. It can be saved only by becoming permeated with the spirit of Christ and being made free and happy by the practices which spring out of that spirit.”


Two Kinds of Freedom

The false is the freedom to “do our own thing” – to follow the natural man. The Apostle Paul says clearly that the “natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Cor. 2:14) Paul further relates that those following this false freedom path are the unrighteous, fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, effeminate, abusers of themselves with mankind (homosexuals), thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, extortioners, liars, etc. (1 Corinthians 6:9-11)

The truth is the freedom to choose to live our lives consistent with the perfect law of liberty – the Gospel of Jesus Christ – to follow our conscience, which will lead us to Christ, who will help us to overcome the Fall (the natural man), and to “walk in newness of life… through Jesus Christ our Lord.” This freedom (choice) through Christ leads to the greatest joy in this life and a fullness of joy in the life to come. This comes as we (by personal choice) “yield [ourselves to] God.” (Rom. 6:1-13; John 15:11; 16:20-24)

Furthermore, as my good friend, Jim, points out the following very important principle: “We never use [true] freedom to destroy liberty.” If as a nation, we turn from the God of this Land (Jesus Christ), how can we expect the perpetuation of our rights (of life, of liberty, of the pursuit of happiness, and of privately protected property with an adequate defense system – designed to protect the people of this free land.

America’s Crossroads

Thus we see why we are at a crossroads in America. We can choose Christ and enjoy the protection of our rights along with the fruits of the Spirit (peace, love, joy, etc. Galatians 5:22-25) amid the storms and challenges of life. Or, we can choose otherwise and be destroyed with Babylon the Great, which will surely fall (Revelations 17: & 18:).

We are approaching a time of great purging and preparing of a pure people (a true Zion society motivated by the pure love of Christ) to be part of the Bride to meet the Bridegroom at His glorious coming – the Great Day of the Lord. This is the most exciting and opportune time in the history of the earth. Let us choose Him, and He will teach us to love as He loves (even our enemies) and gain a fullness of joy and the greatest of all the gifts of God – Eternal Life. Look to God and live the abundant life He has promised here and hereafter. (John chapters 10 and 14 through 17)

Jesus said, “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (John 8:36) – free individually from sin and free as a nation as we worship Christ as the King of Heaven. Through Christ, we were given this land of the free that the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the perfect law of liberty, may be shared among the people of this great nation. And that furthermore, it may be shared with all the inhabitants of the earth (see Isaiah 2: & 11: and Matt. 28:19-20 & Mark 16:15-16).

Living The Gospel

Living the gospel of Jesus Christ means learning how to love as He loves as we exercise faith in Him and His teachings, to repent of all our sins, and to forgive all that we may be forgiven of all.  As we are filled with His love, we will want to share His love. As the gospel goes to the world and they learn that “God so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life,” (John 3:16) they will sing praises of rejoicing as they also learn that Jesus set the perfect example of love and service before us, and that He is “the way, the truth, and the life…” (John 14:6) In Him is the greatest of joy in this life and a fullness of joy in the world to come. (Psalms 16:11)

The pains that John the Revelator saw that the world would endure, as the wicked destroy the wicked and the Lord brings forth the “man child” called Zion, will be the worst this world has ever seen, but with that birth, we will know not only that it was worth it, but will see the wisdom of the Lord in bringing forth the most glorious era ever (His millennial reign). We will feel to praise Him and to thank Him forever for it. (Rev.12:1-12)

Now Is The Time

Now is the time to hearken to the voice of the Son of God and to stand for and pray for the perfect law of liberty as was originally protected and projected by the sacred documents prepared by our founding fathers. The fullness of the gospel (the good news of Christ’s infinite redemptive powers) is at the heart of it all. Let us help all who will to come to know Him and our Holy Father, who is ever there to hear and answer our prayers. He and Jesus love us with an infinite love. Their promise is sure, that “The Righteous [are] lifted up” at His Coming.

Again, please join me in praying for liberty that this “land of the free” may continue and that Satan’s high-tech plans may be thwarted. They will use fear—worse than with COVID-19. We have a God of peace, love, and joy. And pray that this great gospel of liberty may be shared everywhere.

David W. Allan (6 January 2025)
Photo: Pixabay

Calling Evil Good And Good Evil

Politics, ,

We live in that day when they “call evil good and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness…” (Isa 5:20) If we expose the prideful elite in their chicanery, so that the world can see what they are doing, then they will not be able to do their evil plans to destroy liberty.  “Light and truth forsake the evil one.” (D&C 93:37)  So let us wake up to light and truth and expose them, that they cannot get above us.  Right now they plan to destroy the election process which was given us by our inspired US Constitution with planned riots and ballot manipulation.

Let Them Not Get Above You

Massive numbers of Americans are waking up, praying, repenting, and seeking the Lord’s forgiveness, so that He will “heal our land.” (2 Chronicles 7:14) The Lord hears the prayers of the righteous, and miracles happen as we seek them.  “These signs shall follow them that believe.” (Mark 16:17)

Let us expose their evil plans and not be deceived as they try to call good evil with their myriads of evil tactics to take this great nation down.  She is the bastion of liberty and for the spreading of God’s truths throughout the earth in preparation for the glorious return of His Beloved Son.

For the non-believing millennials and other agnostics and atheist’s, the Lord has now given us proof of the validity of His WORD — in preparation for His coming — Let us move out of fear and into faith, and pray for guidance in electing men and women of God.

We live in the most exciting time in the history of the earth.  Let us bask in God’s truths and light and expose the evil one and all his mercenaries, and not let them get above us.  We have His promise that as we treasure up His word we shall not be deceived, (JS Matt. 37) and know that Christ is the “word,” and His words and infinite atonement are the truth and light that will save the world.  This we know and that we can totally trust in Him.

David W Allan