The Jaredites, who the Lord led “into that quarter where there never had man been” (Ether 2:5), which was “into a land which is choice above all the lands of the earth” (Ether 1:42), were granted the Land Northward in the Land of Promise. The Jaredites reached this land via submersible (Ether 2:24-25) barges they built that moved before “a furious wind that blew upon the face of the waters, towards the promised land, and thus they were tossed upon the waves of the sea before the wind” (Ether 6:5) and “were many times buried in the depths of the sea, because of the mountain waves which broke upon them, and terrible tempests which were caused by the fierceness of the wind” (Ether 6:6). One cannot claim these waters, or this furious wind or mountainous waves that would move a non-sailing vessel (on or below the surface) through the sea currents, would be along a river inland for hundreds of miles to reach the Great Lakes region.
The description in Ether suggests a wide expanse of water (ocean) where mountainous waves and huge tempests would exist and which would propel eight such vessels across great distances to the Land of Promise. Keep in mind that this is the same Land of Promise the Nephites were led to where Nephi’s sailing ship was brought over “many waters” to land along the West Sea. Again, to claim this West Sea was an inland body of water (Lake Erie) hundreds of miles from an ocean, is ludicruous.In Moroni’s abridgement of Ether’s account, originally written in the last 50 years or so existence of the Jaredite nation, we find that Moroni injects a general understanding of this Land of Promise Ether wrote about in Chapter 13 regarding this land the Jaredites inherited, that is, the entire Land of Promise (for the Land Southward, which they never occupied but knew about and used as an animal preserve), was a choice land that “after the waters had receded from off the face of this land it became a choice land above all other lands, a chosen land of the Lord,” a land that “was the place of the New Jerusalem, which should come down out of heaven, and the holy sanctuary of the Lord,” and the land that “Lehi should come,” and that after the old city of Jerusalem should be destroyed, a “New Jerusalem should be built upon this land unto the remnant of the seed of Joseph” (Ether 13:2-6). This land, the Western Hemisphere of North, Central and South America, was a chosen land from the time the waters recedec from the Great Flood, and only those the Lord brought here, came to inhabit this Land of Promise.
Thus, this “choice land above all others” would be the entire Western Hemisphere, kept hidden by the Lord until he led the Jaredites, then the Nephites to it. The southern portion of this entire hemisphere was given to Lehi, for the Lord brought him into the Land South (Helaman 6:10) and gave that land to him for an inheritance forever (1 Nephi 5:5; 2 Nephi 1:5). The northern portion of this Hemisphere was given to a “remnant of the house of Joseph” and “shall be a land of their inheritance” and “shall build up a holy city unto the Lord, like unto the Jerusalem of old” and they shall keep this land “until the end come when the earth shall pass away” (Ether 13:8).
The H38 Virus tries to separate the Land Northward from the Land Southward in its importance, and the promises of each the Lord gave in the Book of Mormon. To consider anything else is purely an individual interpretation not supported by the basic reading and understanding of the scriptures, and the enormous amount of talks given by General Authorities as to the blessings the Lord gave to both the North and South American continents.
After all, it was Joseph Smith who said “the whole of America is Zion itself from north to south” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 362) -- that is, North America, Central America and South America "the whole of it" is Zion -- or the Land of Promise.
(See the next post: The So-Called H38 Virus – Part III, for more information about the scriptural makeup of the Land of Promise)
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