What is Opinion and What is Not? – Part VIII

Continuing from the previous posts regarding what is actually “fact” and not just “opinion” when dealing with the Land of Promise location, in which the first question to be asked and answered should always be “What does the scriptural record actually say?” And also in continuing by listing the 32 scriptural descriptions that match what is found today in Andean, South America, and some only in that area. 
    Take all of these twenty-four scriptures (32 in all counting ones already listed) describing some part of the location of the Land of Promise. Every single one is found in the Andean area of South America, some of them nowhere else in the world.

Here are the 32 items with their scriptural references:
1) The four seas surrounding the Land of Promise [Helaman 3:8]—it was an island in the midst of the sea;
2) Two unknown animals that are for the  benefit of man [Ether 9:19]—found nowhere else (llama and alpaca);
3) Two unknown and important grains [Mosiah 9:9]—found nowhere else (quinoa and kiwicha);
4) Plants that cure killing fevers [Alma 46:40]—found nowhere else (quinine, the only cure and treatment for deadly, killing malaria is found only in Andean Peru);
5) Land of promise as an island [2 Nephi 10:20]—as stated by both Jacob, speaking in the temple, and Nephi, recording it in his record in which he stated: “I do not write anything upon plates save it is that I think it be sacred” (1 Nephi 19:6);
6) All manner of ore [1 Nephi 18:25; Ether 10:23]—ore is not just found anywhere, especially to a non-mining people, and large quantifies;
7) Roads and Highways [3 Nephi 6:8]—which led from city to city, from land to land, and from place to place; the road system in Andean, South America, was second only to Rome in length and quality;
8) Hagoth’s ships went northward where there is additional Nephite style civilization established [Alma 63:4,6]—it is obvious to any student of archaeology that South America, was the parent developer of culture to that of Mesoamerica, which lies to the north;
9) Forts, fortifications and resorts [Alma 48:5,8; 49:13,18; 52:6]—where Mesoamerica’s buildings were not necessarily built for defense, Andean South America buildings were fortresses and citadels as named by the invading Spaniards;
10) Fortified walls of stone [Alma 48:8; 50:5; 62:23]—built around cities and around the land;
11) Narrow neck of land that can be crossed in a day and a half [Alma 22:32; 63:5; Ether 10:20]—a narrowing that is easily seen in the area as the Bay of Guayaquil cuts into the land;
12) Defendable narrow pass [Alma 50:34; 52:9; Mormon 2:29; 3:5]—an extremely important area which frightened the Spaniards in having to pass through it because of its defendability;

13) Sea that divides the land [Ether 10:20]—divides the Land Northward from the Land Southward;
14) All manner of buildings [Mosiah 8:8]—there are literally thousands of buildings and ruins in Andean South America, from Colombia to southern Chile;
15) Great temple tower [Mosiah 8:8; 19:5]—a tower that provided line of sight into the surrounding communities (Shilom and Shemlon) and was still standing when the Spanish arrived;
16) North-South directions of the Land of Promise [Alma 22:27-34]—there is no question of its directions of north and south, yet the term northward would  also apply as the land curves slightly toward the north;
17) All manner of ore [1 Nephi 18:25; Ether 10:23]—including one that was ziff
18) Land of many waters, rivers and fountains [Mormon 6:4]—fountains being where water originates; old maps list the area in Ecuador as the Land of Many Waters;
19) Abundant crop growth [1 Nephi 18:24; 2 Nephi 5:11; Mosiah 9:9,14; 11:15]—the fertileness of Andean South America is well known, and not being a jungle or tropical like Mesoamerica, just about everything grows there;
20) No other people in Land of Promise [2 Nephi 1:6, 8-9]—kept from the knowledge of others unlike Mesoamerica;
21) Use of silks and fine-twined linen [Alma 1:29; 4:6 26; Ether 10:24]—expert rivaling Europe;
22) Metallurgy [Helaman 6:9; Ether 10:23]—expert rivaling Europe;
23) Volcanoes and earthquakes [3 Nephi 8, 9]—part of the Pacific Rim of Fire;
24) Circumcision (Law of Moses)  [2 Nephi 5:10]—only burial (mummy) evidence in Western Hemisphere;
    Plus the other descriptions already mentioned in earlier poslts:

25) Mountains, “whose height is great” [Helaman 14:23]—none greater in height in Western Hemisphere;
26) North-South directions of the Land of Promise [Alma 22:27-34]—where both north and northward make sense;
27) Mediterranean Climate where Lehi’s seeds grew that he brought to the Land of Promise [1 Nephi 18:24]—would have grown nowhere else;
28) Driven before the wind to the promised land, that is, legitimate wind and ocean currents taking Nephi’s ship “driven forth before the wind” directly to the Land of Promise [1 Nephi 18:8-9]—no other course from Arabia to Western Hemisphere for such a vessel as Nephi built and describes;
29) Both Gold and Silver and Copper in single ore [1 Nephi 18:25];
30) Forest adjacent to Lehi’s landing site where both wild and domesticated animals could have been found [1 Nephi 18:25]—2^nd largest rainforet in world;
31) Climate and soils adjacent to Lehi’s landing site where Mediterranean seeds could grow [1 Nephi 18:24]—including soil, soil group, temperature, precipitation and climate;
32) All manner of gold, silver and copper, adjacent to Lehi’s landing site [1 Nephi 18:25]—Chile and Peru are in the top five world producers of gold, silver and copper.
    There is no other model theorized in the Western Hemisphere that can match all of these scriptural references without changing, altering, adding to, or eliminating from, some of the information in the scriptural record. If you eliminate Sorenson’s changes to the scriptural record—he, and his fellow Mesoamericanists claim changing the north-south directions to east-west is not really a change in the scriptural record at all—and the other “opinions” he states that are inconsistent with the intent of the scriptural record, such as claiming Mormon’s description of a day and half journey to cover the width of the narrow neck being 144 miles which is obviously impossible for the average Nephite and Sorenson knew this so he wrote in that a Mohave Indian could cover 100 miles in a day, which clearly defeats Mormon’s purpose in trying to tell us how wide the narrow neck was.

Many other comparisons could be made, which we have done by the hundreds in blog articles and our books in the past—the point is, that no other theory can meet all these specific scriptural references, placing the Land of Promise anywhere other than Andean, South America, when the scriptures are followed as they are written and theorists eliminate their own interpretation of them and stop adding their own ideas, such as Phyllis Carol Olive and her Great Lakes theory placing the hill Cumorah east of the East Sea, having no mountains at all in her entire Land of Promise, and placing the Nephite lands next to Lake Erie, which could not he reached by sea in 600 B.C. under any circumstances.
When one uses the scriptural record, as it was and is written, it is impossible to justify any theory other than Andean South America by what is written in that record. Read our many articles on these matches and see for yourself.