Has the Location of the Land of Promise Ever Been Revealed? – Part II

Continuing from the last post regarding whether or not any Prophet, Church Leader, or Apostle, past or present, has ever stated officially, or known by direct comment were the Land of Promise was located. 

Along this line of discussion, it seems paramount that we understand an editorial that appeared in the Times and Seasons, dated 15 July, 1842, signed ED, on “American Antiquities,” in which discussing areas as diverse as Canada, the United States, Florida, the Mississippi, and Guatemala as providing evidence for the Book of Mormon, and specifically mentioned is Stephens and Catherwood's book about Central American ruins.  The final paragraph of the Times and Seasons article reads:
    “If men, in their researches into the history of this country, in noticing the mounds, fortifications, statues, architecture, implements of war, of husbandry, and ornaments of silver, brass, &c. were to examine the Book of Mormon, their conjectures would be removed, and their opinions altered; uncertainty and doubt would be changed into certainty and facts; and they would find that those things that they are anxiously prying into were matters of his would find their conjectures were more than realized -- that a great and a mighty people had inhabited this continent -- that the arts sciences and religion, had prevailed to a very great extent, and that there was as great and mighty cities on this continent as on the continent of Asia. Babylon, Ninevah, nor any of the ruins of the Levant could boast of more perfect sculpture, better architectural designs, and more imperishable ruins, than what are found on this continent. Stephens and Catherwood's researches in Central America abundantly testify of this thing. The stupendous ruins, the elegant sculpture, and the magnificence of the ruins of Guatemala, and other cities, corroborate this statement, and show that a great and mighty people -- men of great minds, clear intellect, bright genius, and comprehensive designs inhabited this continent. Their ruins speak of their greatness; the Book of Mormon unfolds their history.” – ED. ("The Government of God," Times and Seasons Vol 3, No 18, 15 July 1842, pp855-858; then "American Antiquities," 858-860).
    There are certain comments or phrases within this statement that should be fully understood. Let’s start with the easiest one:
1. …better architectural designs, and more imperishable ruins, than what are found on this continent. Stephens and Catherwood's researches in Central America abundantly testify of this thing.

Obviously, as we have been saying for years, the term “this continent” as used by Joseph Smith (and all people of his day) had to do with the entire area of the Americas, as shown by his including both his North America and the area of Mesoamerica or Central America. As we have shown many times from old Atlas’ to the use within Joseph Smith’s time, as well as Moroni’s comment,” this continent” included both North and South America.
2. If men, in their researches into the history of this country realized -- that a great and a mighty people had inhabited this continent.
    Again, the 1842 article relaters both “this country” and “this continent” as the same place, i.e., which shows that in Joseph Smith’s time, the concept of a Land of Promise extended beyond the confines of the United States to include the entire continent. And the word “continent” in 1842, was both North and South America.
3. …in noticing the mounds, fortifications, statues, architecture, implements of war, of husbandry, and ornaments of silver, brass, & were to examine the Book of Mormon, their conjectures would be removed, and their opinions altered…that a great and a mighty people had inhabited this continent.
    This great and mighty people, obviously being referred to in this editorial are the Nephites, who inhabited “this continent” not just “the United States” and that “this continent” refers to the entire Western Hemisphere or both North and South America, as history shows was meant all the way up until just before World War II, as well as even today within the Latin World here in the Americas.
4.  …that a great and a mighty people had inhabited this continent -- that the arts sciences and religion, had prevailed to a very great extent, and that there was as great and mighty cities on this continent as on the continent of Asia.

Great and mighty cities on this continent. The only mighty cities Joseph knew about at the time were those in Stephens' book and Catherwood’s drawings of Mesoamerica. We now know of more than that, for the ancient cities of South America are far greater, more extensive, and of even greater design and construction. Thus, the Land of Promise was an area that covered the Americas, where these marvelous cities are found, where fortresses and temples, synagogues and palaces are found.
    For the first ten to twelve years of the Book of Mormon, no one knew of the great and marvelous cities that were yet to be discovered in the Americas. Once they were found, once construction beyond mounds and artifacts has been found, once Stephens’ book was seen, once Catherwood’s drawings had been shown, Joseph and other Church leaders and members realized that there was now proof of such building and construction in the Americas. It was like a revelation—a sign that the Nephites had actually inhabited this continent, i.e., North and South America, and now, for the first time, Joseph Smith was looking at the evidence of what he had been preaching since the publication of the Book of Mormon, and had been talking about to his family for nearly ten years before that.
    What an exciting moment in Joseph’s life; and in the life of his family and those who had believed in him. What an exciting moment in the lives of the Latter-day Saints of 1843 who had a testimony of the fact, but now saw the evidence of that testimony. As Joseph Smith said of this discovery of solid evidence of Nephite existence: “their conjectures would be removed, and their opinions altered; uncertainty and doubt would be changed into certainty and facts; and they would find that those things that they are anxiously prying into were matters of his would find their conjectures were more than realized -- that a great and a mighty people had inhabited this continent.”
5.  …that a great and a mighty people had inhabited this continent -- that the arts sciences and religion, had prevailed to a very great extent, and that there was as great and mighty cities on this continent as on the continent of Asia. Babylon, Ninevah, nor any of the ruins of the Levant could boast of more perfect sculpture, better architectural designs, and more imperishable ruins, than what are found on this continent.
    Note that Joseph didn’t say that Catherwood’s drawings were of Zarahemla, Bountiful, or the City of Nephi, but that they were Nephite! We can learn two things from this: 1) It was not important what location these ruins were, but that their existence proved the existence of the Nephites; and 2) It was not important where the ruins were located, Guatemala, Mexico, United States, or wherever, but that they were on this continent--that is, the Americas! After all, there were ruins on other continents, but not on this one until Catherwood’s drawings and Stephens’ words were seen. Note that “on this continent” is used four times in this one paragraph—four times! This was the importance of what Joseph saw in the Mesoamerican ruins.

Once again, while theorists today want to argue and debate where this city or that lake or a specific place was located, Joseph Smith exulted over the fact that evidence of the Nephites were found on “this continent.” Most likely that is because he understood in some manner, or at some level, that the entire Western Hemsiphere, ”this continent,” was the promised land. And of this entire area, Lehi was promised one portion of it—that area we know along the western lands of South America. Obviously, Nephi saw Columbus coming to America and he surely described his coming to the land where his brethren (the Lamanites) were located, which in his visits to the Caribbean, Central America and South America where they surely were located. But he also saw the promised land of the New Jerusalem, and understood as Moroni did, that this New Jerusalem would be in North America, where Joseph Smith located it among the area of Missouri, at Adam-ondi-Ahman.
    Nephi saw the coming of the Gentiles, both the Spanish that literally destroyed three great civilizations of Lamanites, i.e., the Inca, Aztec, and Mayan, and the coming of the Europeans who settled in the northern lands and created a freedom in the city set on a hill, where this one part of the promised land would guarantee the freedom of the entire land that was promised. After all, Hagoth’s ships went north with large numbers of immigrants, they built as their forefathers had done in the south, and their descendant went further north, also leaving their mark of building in the southwest. By the time Joseph Smith in Zion’s camp came along and discovered Zelph, and learned of Onandagus, the Nephites and Lamanites from Hagoth’s immigrants had settled across the Western Hemisphere. What others came and mixed in with them we are not told. What happened to those Nephites of Hagoth’s immigrants that went north, we are not told, though if Onandagus was one of their much later prophets, we can place him in the eastern United States.
    What happened to the immigrants in Hagoth’s ship that went evidently west and no one knew its destination, would have settled down current and down wind in Polynesia. In such a way, and no doubt with other forces of which we know nothing, the Americas and the South Pacific was settled by members of the House of Israel that had been led off from time to time at the Lord’s good pleasure.