Questions I Would Like to Ask – Part XI

Using strictly the scriptures, I would like to ask the following questions of those many Theorists who claim their pet theories about the location of the Land of Promise are consistent with the scriptural record. 
    This Eleventh question is directed to Rod L. Meldrum, who not only champions the Heartland Theory, but excludes all other land from being the Land of Promise that is outside the United States.
    The question to ask is quite simple and strictly scripturally based:
    11. “What makes you think the Land of Promise is only the United States when Nephi records that he saw ‘a man among the Gentiles, who was separated from the seed of my brethren by the many waters; and I beheld the Spirit of God, that it came down and wrought upon the man; and he went forth upon the many waters, even unto the seed of my brethren, who were in the promised land’?” (1 Nephi 13:12)

Christopher Columbus set sail on his first voyage, which ended with his discovery of the Bahamas (present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic), where he met the Arawaks, Tainos and Lucayans indigenous natives of the islands
    First, the seed of my brethren means the Lamanites. The many waters are those oceans separating Europe from the Western Hemisphere. And most importantly, the man went “even unto the seed of my brethren, who were in the promised land.”
    Second, given the universal accepted understanding that Columbus was “that man,” we have to accept the fact that he visited Lamanites, i.e., descendants of Lehi, who were at the time of Columbus (1100 years after the last of the Nephites) were scattered over a much larger area than contained in the scriptural record but still considered “the land of promise”! If one does not accept this, then one is limited to areas for their Land of Promise to those areas where Columbus landed, i.e., Caribbean Islands, Bahamas Islands, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and South America.
    Third, Columbus, of course, never set foot on what is now the United States (or Mexico or Mesoamerica). His first voyage was to the Bahamas (Haiti and Dominican Republic), and the north shore of Cuba, his second voyage was to the Lesser Antilles, Montserrat, Antigua, Saint Martin, Saint Croix; he saw but did not land on the Virgin Islands, and sailed to the Greater Antilles landing on Puerto Rico.

The only landing Columbus made on what is now considered a continent was that in Venezuela, South America. Here are shown Columbus’ four voyages
    Fourth, on the third voyage, Columbus sailed to Trinidad and then to the Gulf of Paria and the mainland of Venezuela in South America, explored the mainland, including the Orinoco River, then to Tobago and Grenada, describing these lands as belonging to a previously unknown new continent. 
Sixth, his fourth and last voyage was to Santo Domingo, Jamaica, then to Central America, arriving at Guanaja in the Bay islands off the coast of Honduras, then landed at Puerto Castilla near Trujillo, Honduras, exploring the coasts of Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica before sailing to Panama.
    Seventh, while the United States (and all of the Western Hemisphere) is part of the Land of Promise, which extended far beyond the small area of land the Jaredites, Nephites and Lamanites controlled as written in the Book of Mormon period, i.e., about 2100 B.C. through 421 A.D., it was not the location of the Nephite Nation.

Eighth, those thousands of emigrants who went north “to a land which was northward” in Hagoth's ships landed to the north of the Book of Mormon Land of Promise, i.e., Central American, Mesoamerica, etc., and eventually traveled into what is now northern Mexico and finally the United States.
    Ninth, the specific parts of the land that Meldrum loves to point out—the area of the New Jerusalem, will be in what is now North America, in the state of Missouri, which has significance to the Lord since it was the area of the original Garden of Eden.

Tenth, when Moroni told Joseph Smith that the ancient record was about a people who lived “on this continent” anciently, he was referring to the continent of America (North, South and Central America) which was known not only in Joseph’s time as one continent, but all the way up to the Second World War period.
    So the question again is: ““What makes you think the Land of Promise is only the United States when Nephi records that he saw ‘a man among the Gentiles, who was separated from the seed of my brethren by the many waters; and I beheld the Spirit of God, that it came down and wrought upon the man; and he went forth upon the many waters, even unto the seed of my brethren, who were in the promised land’?” (1 Nephi 13:12)