The Land of Promise Had 4 Seas

Always ready to cloud the simple language of the Book of Mormon when it does not agree with his Mesoamerican model, John L. Sorenson, in his book “Mormon’s Map,” pp 18-20, writes: “The directional trend of the two lands and the neck was generally north-south. The east sea (six references) and the west sea (twelve references) were the primary bodies of water that bounded this promised land. But notice that the key term of reference is not "land north" (only five references) but "land northward" (thirty-one references).

There is, of course, a distinction; "land northward" implies a direction somewhat off from literal north. This implication that the lands are not simply oriented to the cardinal directions is confirmed by reference to the "sea north" and "sea south" (Helaman 3:8). These terms are used only once, in reference to the colonizing of the land northward by the Nephites, but not in connection with the land southward. The only way to have seas north and south on a literal or descriptive basis would be for the two major bodies of land to be oriented at an angle somewhat off true north-south. That would allow part of the ocean to lie toward the south of one and another part of the ocean to lie toward north of the other.

As Sorenson says, there were four seas: Sea West, Sea East, Sea North, and Sea South. And since Jacob claimed they were on an island (2 Nephi 10:20-21), we can conclude that the entire Land of Promise was surrounded by water. We certainly know that the Land Southward was surrounded by water except for a narrow neck of land between it and the Land Northward (Alma 22:32).

Now that we have established, and Sorenson agrees, that there were four seas, let us turn our attention to the words “northward” and “southward” since Sorenson makes an issue out of the fact that the land was not oriented to true north-south. As has been pointed out in previous posts, northward has a particular meaning today as it had in Joseph Smith’s day, and that is within the cardinal degrees of 337.5º and 22.5º, with north being 360º and 0º. In this same concept, southward would be within a degree swing of 202.5º to 157.5º, with due south being 180º. Any simple compass showing degrees will obviously bear this out.

That means that the Land of Promise must run at an angle with the northern most point of the Land Northward no more than 337.5º and the southern terminous of the Land Southward pointing toward 202.5 to 157.5º. On a map, it would look like this:

This is as far to the northwest a "northward" direction can be and is just about the exact compass direction that the island of the Andean area of Peru runs (See “Lehi Never Saw Mesoamerica”).






However, it is quite a bit off from the compass direction of Sorenson’s Mesoamerica:











(See the next post which covers the different between Land North and Land Northward and the Land Which was Northward)