The Land North (Mulekites) Was Not the Land Northward (Jaredites)

Mesoamerican and other Theorists seem to ignore the division of the Land of Promise as illustrated in the scriptures, since there are four lands mentioned, plus a fifth, in the Book of Mormon, not just the two everyone deals with:

First of all, there is the Land Northward and the Land Southward, with which we are all familiar. However, the Land North and the Land South are not the same. These latter two names are actually divisions of the Land Southward as the map shows:

Thus, in the Land Southward, the southern half was called the Land South, which encompassed the Land of Nephi and was the area which the Lord led the Lehi Colony to and where they landed. Later, this landing site was referred to as the Lamanite Land of First Inheritance and was located on the West Sea to the south (Alma 22:28). The northern half of the Land Southward was called the Land North, which encompassed the Land of Zarahemla and the Land of Bountiful, and was the area which the Lord led the Mulekites to land, and where Mosiah found them “and they had dwelt there from that time forth” (Omni 1:16).

When Captain Moroni rent his coat and wrote upon it the “Title of Liberty,” he then “named all the land which was south of the land Desolation, yea, and in fine, all the land, both on the north and on the south—a chosen land, and the land of liberty” (Alma 46:17). In this act, Moroni was referring to all “the land south of the land of Desolation,” that is, all the land in the Land Southward, which he divided into two parts, “all the land, both on the north and on the south.” That is, he referred to the Land Southward as it was then known—for the Nephites had not yet traveled into the Land Northward. Thus, there was, in the Land Southward, two distinct lands, or divisions, referred to variously as the Land North and the Land South.

When Sorenson and other Mesoamerican Theorists miss this vital division of the Land Southward, they mistakenly think to call the Land North and the Land Northward the same area, which it was not. Thus, Mulek was led into the Land North (in the Land Southward) and Lehi into the Land South (in the Land Southward).

Thus, we can see that Alma 22:29-31 does not refer to the Mulekites (or people of Zarahemla) except for their discovery of the Jaredite bones, but, rather, is about the Nephite lands until they came north of the narrow neck, where the Jaredites and their lands were discussed:

“…on the north, even until they (Nephites) came to the land they (Nephites) called Bountiful. And it (Bountiful) bordered upon the land which they (Nephites) called Desolation, it (Desolation) being so far northward that it (Land of Desolation) came into the land which had been peopled and been destroyed (Jaredites), of whose bones we have spoken (earlier discussed [Mosiah 8:8]), which was discovered by the people of Zarahemla (Limhi’s 43 man expeditionary force [Mosiah 8:7-8]), it (this land far to the north) being the place of their (Jaredites) first landing. And they (Jaredites) came from there up into the south wilderness (which they called the Land of Moron [Ether 7:6]). Thus the land on the northward was called Desolation, and the land on the southward was called Bountiful, it being the wilderness which is filled with all manner of wild animals of every kind, a part (of the wild animals) of which had come from the land northward for food (during the Jaredite plague of poisonous snakes [Ether 9:21]).”

To try and claim the Mulekites landed in the Land Northward among the Jaredites, as Mesoamrican Theorists must do to satisfy their Olmec civilization in their model, is completely disingenuous. The Mulekites landed in the land where Mosiah found them (Zarahemla) and “they had dwelt their from that time forth” since their landing (Omni 1:16).

(In the next post, the fifth land mentioned will be discussed)