Questions I Would Like to Ask – Part XXI

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 twenty-first question is directed to Mesoamericanist Joseph L. Allen, who has written extensively about early native cultures in Mesoamerica, the Mayan Calendar, and how their calendar events are more accurate than Moses depiction of the time frame and Flood. See his book Exploring the Lands of the Book of Mormon.
    The question to ask is quite simple and strictly scripturally based:
    21. “What makes you think that a calendar found in the ruins of Mesoamerica claimed to date back to the 5^th century B.C. and which depicts a starting point of 3114 B.C., which you conclude dates Noah’s Flood, is more accurate than Moses writing in Genesis, recording what the Lord told him about the history of the world, and what is verified in the Book of Moses found in the Pearl of Great Price, as to the dates of the Flood being in 2344 B.C.?”
    And the follow up question: 21b. “Since the highly touted end date of December 12, 2012 was suggesting the end of the world in the Maya calendar, and it passed with no significance, what makes you think the start date of 3114 has any significance?”
    First, for want of a better time frame, assuming Adam was ejected from the Garden of Eden in 4000 B.C., then the Flood occurred in 2344 BC. and ended in 2343 B.C.  For the Flood to have occurred in 3114 BC, as Allen suggests, one of two things would have to exist:  1) Adam was evicted from the Garden of Eden in 4770 BC, about 770 years before Earth life was supposed to have begun (if it began then, we would now be well into the Millennial period, with about 230 years left in that 7th Day), or 2) the 1656 years from Adam to Noah entering into the Ark as described in Genesis 5, would have to be incorrect.  Since this latter information was given to Moses directly from the Lord, (and it is supported by the Book of Moses in the Pearl of Great Price) it seems unreasonable to consider this to be in error.
    Second, the Biblical time frame of the Flood is quite specific.  From the dates shown in Abraham, Moses and Genesis, it seems fairly certain that the flood came approximately 1656 years after Adam's ejection from the Garden of Eden. This would place the commencement of the flood in the year 2344 B.C.  The flood lasted 1 year and 3 days (from the time Noah stepped into the Ark until he and his family left it), which means the flood ended in the year 2343 B.C.

Third, the so-called Maya Calendar (left) is a system of calendars used in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, and in many modern communities in highland Guatemala, and in Veracruz, Oaxaca and Chiapas, Mexico. The essentials of the Maya calendar are based upon a system which had been in common use throughout the region, dating back to at least the 5th century B.C. It shares many aspects with calendars employed by other earlier Mesoamerican civilizations, such as the Zapotec and Olmec, and contemporary or later ones such as the Mextec and Aztec calendars. Although the Mesoamerican calendar did not originate with the Maya, their subsequent extensions and refinements of it are considered the most sophisticated. Along with those of the Aztecs, the Maya calendars are the best-documented and most completely understood.
    Fourth, the date August 11, 3114 B.C., is the date given to the beginning or starting-point of the Maya Calendar. Since most Mesoamerican Theorists can place no other event of importance around that date, they have assigned that date and event for a calendar’s beginning with that of Noah’s Flood. Thus, though it disagrees with the account in Genesis and the Book of Moses, and does not come close to the ages of the Patriarchs and the births of their known sons, it is still considered more correct by Mesoamericanists to the dating for the Flood than that of the scriptural record found in the Bible and Pearl of Great Price.

(Image C – A little humor toward the subject. After all, since the Maya Calendar ended on December 12, 2012, for quite some time people were claiming it was the end of the world. Well, we’re still here, suggesting perhaps that these dates on the calendar, like 3114, are meaningless
    Fifth, this article is not intended to raise questions about the accuracy or lack thereof toward the Maya Calendar, only to the fact that Mesoamerican Theorists would rather rely upon this calendar and man’s interpretation of it over that of what the Lord dictated to Moses when he told him about the dates of birth of each Patriarch up to and including Abraham (long after the Flood), and thus use a dating system for the Flood that pushes the Jaredite arrival in the Land of Promise off by 770 years from the scriptural record. It is always amazing to me that men of good conscience regarding the Book of Mormon would still rather accept man’s records over those of the Lord.
    Sixth, as an example of this, Allen states: “To develop a format for reliable Book of Mormon correlations with other cultures, we must be aware of the time periods in which the other cultures were in existence.” The important thing to note is that Allen is assuming the Land of Promise was in Mesoamerica; he is also assuming that claims of ancient records there are both accurate and cover the Nephite time frame, and he is also assuming that those records, if they differ from the Nephite record, are more correct than the Nephite record.
    Seventh, as an example, in his book, Allen states: “Dates are very elusive and, as a result, allow a great degree of flexibility. We run into the same problem (elusive dates) as we attempt to correlate Book of Mormon dates with secular dates of Mesoamerica.” However, the dates in question are not elusive in either the Bible or the Pearl of Great Price or the Book of Mormon, with the first two showing an exact time frame from Adam down to Noah, the Flood, and beyond; and the latter dating the Nephite period dates with amazing accuracy.
    Eighth, in both scriptural accounts, the exact age of each Patriarch is given at the time his son was born, thus providing more than 20 generations of dating that is completely verifiable, requiring no assumptions, and outlying the years between events to such a degree that no error exists when extending the time frame of the Old Testament, the Flood and other events, which has been studied by professionals in the subject for far longer than the Maya Calendar has been known to exist.

Ninth, while there are always those who try to claim otherwise, most ancient scholars accept the fact that the Torah was dictated to Moses by the Lord. As an example, God commands Moses, “Write this, a remembrance..” (Exodus 17:14), “Moses wrote all the words of the Lord” (Exodus 24:4), “And Moses wrote their goings out according to their journeys by the commandment of the Lord” (Numbers 33:2). Rabbinic tradition states that all of the teachings found in the Torah, both written and oral, were given by God to Moses, some on Mount Sinai and others at the Tabernacle, and all the teachings were written down by Moses. So, should we believe what Moses gave us as the time frame of the earth, creation, and the period from Adam down to the Flood, or man’s interpretation of the Maya Calendar?
    So we ask the question again, “What makes you think that a calendar found in the ruins of Mesoamerica claimed to date back to the 5^th century B.C. and which depicts a starting point of 3114 B.C., which you conclude dates Noah’s Flood, is more accurate than Moses writing in Genesis, recording what the Lord told him about the history of the world, and what is verified in the Book of Moses found in the Pearl of Great Price, as to the dates of the Flood being in 2344 B.C.?”
    And the follow up question: “Since the highly touted end date of December 12, 2012 was suggesting the end of the world in the Maya calendar, and it passed with no significance, what makes you think the start date of 3114 has any significance?"