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

In 2010 we took a Book of Mormon tour with Rod Meldrum, and it changed our lives. Keith Merrill — the writer and director of Legacy and The Testaments — had taken the same tour with Rod earlier. He also had a change of heart, from the Mesoamerica model to the Heartland model. He was wishing that he could redo The Testaments to the Heartland model for Book of Mormon geography.

In Part 1 of this series, I shared my three criteria for knowing truth, the first of which is: if God says it, then I know. In Part 2, we read what God has said through His prophets. Now, in this final article, let us look at the physical evidence itself.

The DNA Evidence

Rod Meldrum discovered that a DNA pattern found in the Native Americans of North America — mitochondrial haplogroup X2 — is also found in the Holy Land, but not in Siberia or East and Central Asia, where standard migration theory would require it to be. That is a Middle East genetic marker sitting in the heartland of North America, in the very region where Joseph Smith placed the Nephites.

Stones with the Ten Commandments

The Ten-Commandment inscriptions also show up in stone in North America. There are three distinct examples I know of. One is in New Mexico, where Edna’s cousin James Saline made an imprint of the Ten Commandments stone found near Los Lunas. He got permission from the landowner and showed me the photos. Then we have the famous Newark Holy Stones in Ohio: the Keystone inscription reads in block Hebrew: “Holy of Holies,” “King of the Earth,” “The Law of God,” “The Word of the Lord.” The black Decalogue Stone, carved with Moses and a complete rendition of the Ten Commandments are also in an ancient block-Hebrew script. They were found in a sandstone box in a burial mound in 1860. We visited the Johnson-Humrick house Museum in Coshocton, Ohio, where they are on display.

Duane Erickson, a deceased friend of ours, learned of me going to Russian. He drove all the way from Evanston, WY, to let me take with me a stone that Russell Burrows had given him from a cave in Indiana. Some say the Burrows cave is a hoax, but my good friend Brian Nettles did a personal interview with Burrows authenticating his findings. Shown below are both sides of the stone. I presented the stone to my colleagues at the conference in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Wayne May shared with me that he knows of some eighty such stones. Apparently,  when the Savior appeared to the Nephites at Bountiful they made these stones in remembrance of that sacred experience.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Note: On the front of the stone, the mystic symbol at the top: Native North American word for their Creator “Jehovah.” At the bottom is symbol for Son of my Right Hand.”

On the Back of the stone, the Nail Marks in the hand and in the wrist.

Then we have the following remarkable stone Russell Burrows gave to Wayne May describing the atonement from the cave in Indiana.

We see the mystic symbol denoting the name of their Creator at the top. We see the mark in the hand and the wrist, the Savior on the cross, the three days in the tomb and in paradise, then His glorious resurrection is depicted with His arms outstretched. Under His right arm is the symbol of son of left hand, which is Satan. He has overcome death and hell. We see the indication of the eleven disciples, and on the right the betrayal by Judas Iscariot. The writing to the left authenticates the stone as well. Wayne shared this image with me to do a blog article: Two Hundred names for Jesus. What a jewel this stone is.

The Mounds and Earthworks

Map of Hopewell NetworkThe evidence of the mounds is overwhelming. When the pioneers first arrived, there were an estimated 200,000 mounds across North America; only about 1,000 remain, most destroyed so the land could be farmed. What kind of society could build 200,000 mounds? According to Dr. Roger Kennedy of the Smithsonian Institution, the great City of Cahokia — across from present-day St. Louis — was more populous in its era than London or Rome. (Cahokia Mounds, UNESCO World Heritage list.)

Then there is the world view of the Great Octagon near Newark, Ohio. It was part of a 4.5-square-mile complex that precisely records the 18.6-year cycle of the moon.

My research, thanks to Wayne May and others, now tells me that these were built by the Jaredites and refined by the Nephites, as they share with the world God’s perfect plan of happiness.  The earthworks map out God’s plan from premortal to celestial realms of glory. We have been there; it is so AWESOME. As I share in my book, THE INFINITE ATONEMENT OF JESUS THE CHRIST, AND ITS’ SIGNIFICANCE IN THE LAST DAYS, they new the time and date of the Savior’s birth, and a lunar alignment with the great octagon–denoting the millennium–and the celestial kingdom at 51.8 degrees, which denotes the divine ration, occurred astronomically at that Divine moment in time.

The Newark Earthworks are now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, described by the Ohio History Connection as “part cathedral, part cemetery, and part astronomical observatory” — “the largest set of geometric earthen enclosures in the world.” (See the Octagon Earthworks historical marker.)

Most remarkable of all: Amberli Peterson has documented that structures like these correlate in detail with the Plan of Salvation — some 25 correlations.

In her account, a 30-acre circle maps to the womb, with a “birth canal” between it and the 20-acre square enclosure representing the telestial world — also called the Land Bountiful,  — and the ratio between the two enclosures mirrors the “third part” who chose to come to earth to get a body. One-third were denied that privilege, and were cast out into the Earth with Satan. Earthworks as a temple: is the plan of God, written in the land itself.

The Conclusion of the Whole Matter

Put it together:

• The prophets, from Joseph Smith to Russell M. Nelson, place Cumorah, the plains of the Nephites, Zarahemla, and the promised land in North America.
• The DNA traces a Middle East lineage in the Native peoples of that region.
• Stones in that region bear the Ten Commandments in ancient Hebrew.
• The earthworks of that region match the Book of Mormon in scale, in timing, and even in the Plan of Salvation.

Is it any wonder that I rejoice in knowing these things? The Lord is continually reaching out to us to repent and come unto Him. As King Benjamin testified, there is no other way. The quicker we accept this promised-land truth — and repent — the sooner we can be blessed as a people. “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me (John 14:6).”

David W. Allan

End of the series. Begin with Part 1: “Where Did The Book Of Mormon Really Take Place?”

Related reading:

• Part 1: Where Did The Book Of Mormon Really Take Place?
• America’s Greatest Need: Repentance — https://itsabouttimebook.com/americasgreatestneedrepentance/
• The Infinite Atonement of Jesus Christ — https://itsabouttimebook.com/the-infinite-atonement-of-jesus-christ/