Where Do We Find Accurate Dates? – Part III

Continuing with Joseph L. Allen’s descriptive information in his book Exploring the Lands of the Book of Mormon, that poses as Land of Promise discussion but really is meant to solidify his Mesoamerican model.

Based on archaeology of Mesoamerica, what is called the Classic Period is an archaeological label used to denote the quality and quantity of buildings and monuments that were built during a period. Whereas Postclassic is represented by a decline in both quality and quantity of construction. and Preclassic consists of the foundation of settlements before extensive building. It is applied in the Mesoamerica model to the Nephites to suggest their most vigorous building period. According to Allen, “The Classic Period is so named because of both the quality and quantity of buildings and monuments that were built during the time period 200 AD to 900 AD.”
    According to Book of Mormon dates, by the beginning of Mesoamerica Classic Period (200 A.D.), the Nephites were in the last 100 years of their building period.  By just after 300 A.D., they were likely through and within 22 years, were embroiled in wars that would last until they were annihilated in 385 A.D. Thus, we should recap the height of Nephite building and construction to show that their most impressive period was long before that of Mesoamerica.
• This was the period of time just after Nephi  and “those who would go with him” resettled in what they called the Land of Nephi, sometime around 570 B.C., in which Nephi taught his people to build buildings, and to work in all manner of wood, and of iron and of copper, and of brass, and of steel, and of gold, and of silver, and of precious ores, which were in great abundance (2 Nephi 5:15).
• Another period of time was around 399 B.C., when  Jarom reported that the Nephites had multiplied exceedingly, and spread upon the face of the land, and became exceeding rich in gold, and in silver, and in precious things, and in fine workmanship of wood, in buildings, and in machinery, and also in iron, and copper, and brass and steel (Jarom 1:8).

• Another period was when Mosiah discovered the People of Zarahemla (Mulekites) and

the settlement grew into the nation’s capital with extensive building just after 200 B.C. Around 100 B.C. it is noted the Nephites were spreading all over the land, including moving into the Land Northward during that century to inherit the land, many believe as a result of over-crowding in the area of Zarahemla. “The people began to be very numerous, and began to scatter abroad upon the face of the earth, yea, on the north and on the south, on the east and on the west, building large cities and villages in all quarters of the land (Mosiah 27:6).

About 30 to 50 years later, immigrants began flooding into the Land Northward (Helaman 3:5), and after a time they received building materials from those in the Land Southward, and began building many cities, both of wood and of cement (Helaman 3:11), and the records of the Nephites included their building of ships, and their building of temples, and of synagogues and their sanctuaries (Helaman 3:14). 
    In 34 AD numerous cities were destroyed (3 Nerphi 9:2-10), but were rebuilt over the next 30 years (4 Nephi 1:7), though some of the destroyed cities were sunk into the earth, etc., and could not be rebuilt (4 Nephi 1:9).  By 200 AD, the Nephites were filling up the land once again in such numbers (4 Nephi 1:23) that obviously building was going on to accommodate them. 
    Then, for the first time in over three hundred years, wars broke out between the Nephites and Lamanites once again (Mormon 1:11), and from that time forward, until 385 AD, when the Nephites were entirely wiped out (Mormon 6:15) and not one Nephite was left other than Moroni (Mormon 8:7), there would have been no building going on. And certainly following this period, the Lamanites were embroiled in a bloody civil war that lasted for at least 36 years, and no doubt much longer according to what Moroni wrote, so the idea that the Classic Period of Nephite development being from 200 A.D. to 900 A.D. is absolutely fallacious and cannot be considered—if that was a building period in Mesoamerica, it certainly was not the Nephites of the scriptural record in the Land of Promise given to Lehi.
    Consequently, any Classic period, showing the height of Nephite building quality and quantity would not have continued beyond about 300 A.D., and was begun around 570 B.C., when Nephi showed his people how to build with great workmanship, including a temple to rival Solomon's (2 Nephi 5:15-16).  As a result, while Mesoamerica may show a building peak in the 200 B.C. to 900 A.D. period, the Land of Promise would not. There, on Lehi's Isle of Promise, building began in 570 B.C. and reached its height in the first century B.C. and continued on until sometime after 200 A.D., coming to a complete standstill around 300 to 330 A.D.
    This should show ever Mesoamericanist how archaeology’s pre-determined dating periods do not apply to the Nephite record; however, Allen goes on to say: “Book of  Mormon history occurred throughout the Preclassic Period (2500 BC-200 AD) and during the first half of the Classic Period (200 AD to 900 AD).”
    However, as has been shown, based on Biblical dates, the period from 2500 to about 2100, there would have been no one in the Land of Promise. The Jaredites could not possibly have arrived prior to about 2100, and before that, Moroni tells us “after the waters had receded from off the face of this land it became a choice land above all other lands, a chosen land of the Lord; wherefore the Lord would have that all men should serve him who dwell upon the face thereof” (Ether 13:2). The first people we know of that the Lord blessed to come to this choice land were the Jaredites. And according to Moses' dates shown above, that means the Jaredites did not arrive much before 2100 B.C. This date is shown by the Biblical time period which the Lord dictated to Moses for his writing in Genesis and the Pearl of Great Price. 

In the 400 years prior to the Jaredite landing, there was no one on the Land of Promise, a land which had been preserved by the Lord for this chosen people (Ether 13:2,8).  Thus, the Jaredites were the first people after the Flood to occupy the Land of Promise, and that started in about 2100 B.C. Then, another people were led here, and the last Jaredite King, Coriantumr, was told by a prophet of the Lord that he would live long enough to see another people inherit the land. These people, the Mulekites, among whom Coriantumr lived the last nine months of his life, arrived in the Land of Promise sometime after 585 B.C.—the last year of Zedekiah’s reign was in 586 B.C. Mulek, his youngest and only surviving son, left Jerusalem at this time and ended up, with those who came with him, in the land of promise. Since it took the Lehi Colony about 10 years before sailing for the Western Hemisphere after leaving Jerusalem, it can safely be assumed that the Mulekites landed in the area of Zarahemla between 585 B.C. and 575 B.C.
    So the Book of Mormon period does not cover very much of Allen's Preclassic period.

In his attempt to lessen the importance of the Biblical dates Moses gives us, Allen states: “The information that is given about the beginning of the Jaredites is associated with the building of the great tower at the time the languages were confounded.  The Bible makes reference to what is undoubtedly the same event, but the date of the Biblical tower is also lacking.”
    First, let's deal with the Flood.  Noah's age is set by following the dates of the birth of each Patriarch and the date of the birth of his son in the Patriarichal Order. Figuring Adam was ejected from the Garden of Eden in 4000 B.C.
• Adam was 130 years old [3870 BC] when Seth was born (Gen 5:3
• Seth was 105 years old [3765 BC] when Enos was born (Gen 5:6)
• Enos was 90 years old [3675 BC] when Cainan was born (Gen 5:9)
• Cainan was 70 years old [3605 BC] when Mahalaleel was born (Gen 5:12)
• Mahalaleel was 65 years old [3540 BC] when Jared was born (Gen 5:15)
• Jared was 162 years old [3378 BC] when Enoch was born (Gen 5:18)
• Enoch was 65 years old [3313 BC] when Methuselah was born (Gen 5:21)
• Methusalah was 187 years old [3126 BC] when Lamech was born (Gen 5:26)
• Lamech was 182 years old [2944 BC] when Noah was born (Gen 5:28-29)
    In this way, we find that Noah was born 1056 years after time began for Adam. Using a 4000 B.C. starting time of life (when Adam was ejected from the Garden of Eden), we find that Noah was born in the year 2944 B.C. Noah was 500 years old when he began the Ark, which would have been 2444, and 600 years old when the rains came (Gen 7:6), which would make it 2344 B.C.
(See the next post, “Where Do We Find Accurate Dates? – Part IV,” for more of Allen’s descriptive information that poses as Book of Mormon discussion but really is meant to solidify his Mesoamerican model)