His rationale goes on to say that the Liahona was used to find the Land of Promise, and goes on to write:
The Liahona had to be used to find them:
12 And it came to pass that after they had bound me insomuch that I could not move the compass which had been prepared of the Lord did cease to work.
21 And it came to pass after they had loosed me behold I took the compass and it did work whither I desired it.
22 And it came to pass that I Nephi did guide the ship that we sailed again towards the promised land. (1 Nephi 18)
The blogger then arrives at the conclusion that:
“The Great Sea does not border Book of Mormon lands.”
How anyone can get from the Liahona to the Great Sea not bordering the Land of Promise (or Book of Mormon lands) is far beyond the pale. But it comes from the belief, as he states, that the Book of Mormon Lands were hidden by the Lord from the eyes of man. The last post dealt with this idea of whether the Lord actually “hides” things from man. But the misunderstanding of such a simple concept leads one to think the Land of Promise had to be far inland, hidden from view of anyone sailing by, etc. But the Land of Promise was not hidden inland. It was right where Jacob said it was. Consider Jacob’s statement as recorded by Nephi:
“The Lord has made the sea our path, and we are upon an isle of the sea” (2 Nephi 10:20).
That this island later became part of a rising continent does not change the fact that at one time it was an island as Jacob said, and as Isaiah foretold (42:4; 49:1). And let us not change the writing of Jacob who said “they came across the sea to land upon an isle of the sea.” Nor change Amaleki’s words when he said the Mulekites “were brought by the hand of the Lord across the great waters, into the land where Mosiah discovered them; and they had dwelt there from that time forth” (Omni 1:16). In neither of these two explanations, We also cannot add a movement that is not mentioned in scripture. As an example, Nephi was very specific about their travels from Jerusalem to Bountiful, the building of the ship, and the leaving on their voyage. He was also quite specific about the danger they faced when his brothers rebelled and tied him up, and that he was later loosed to guide the ship out of danger and to the land of promise. He was also quite specific about what they did when they landed (1 Nephi 18:23-25; 19:1):
1) Pitched their tents
2) Called the land where they landed “the promised land”
3) Prayed and gave thanks
4) Tilled the ground
5) Planted seeds they brought from Jerusalem
6) Journeyed in the wilderness
7) Found animals in the forests’
8) Found precious metals and ore
9) Nephi made plates of ore to write upon
10) Nephi engraved the record of his father
11) Nephi taught his brethren from the brass plates (1 Nephi 19:22-22:31)
12) Lehi preached to his family and blessed them (2 Nephi ch 1-4)
As for the Liahona guiding them beyond their voyage to a “hidden” land—there is no mention. However, in 19:3 we find that Nephi mentioned his people who SHOULD POSSESS the land. That is, his people, including himself and those with him, had not yet possessed the land other than that small area upon which they landed.No further mention of anything happening, including travel, expansion, growth, finding a “hidden” land, or anything else until Nephi is commanded to flee into the wilderness from his brethren and take those who would go with him (2 Nephi 5:5).
It is disingenuous and extremely poor scholarship to claim anything else than the Lehi colony landed on the shore of “an isle of the sea” and remained in that landing area until Nephi fled.
(see next post, Book of Mormon Lands Not Hidden – Part III, for a further explanation of this land of promise and where the Lehi Colony landed)
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