Sunday, May 24, 2020

“Destruction in the Land of Promise – Part I

Almost anywhere in the world could be shown to fit a description of ancient natural disasters when one limits the impact of those disasters to his own pre-determined intensity.
From the Black Ridge to Entrada, the ground is covered with rock

The entire area of Southern Utah, for instance, is honeycombed with volcanic rock, ancient eruptions, cracks, seams, floods, and signs of tumultuous destruction.
    John L. Sorenson claims that as a result of the destruction at the time of the crucifixion listed in 3 Nephi was not as bad as many people think. He writes “the fundamental features of the landscape were not transformed…we need to use restraint in the picture we allow our minds to construct of the totality of the destruction” (John L. Sorenson, An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon, Deseret Book, SLC, 1984, pp318,319-320). In addition, he adds, “The wide geographical extent of the catastrophe and the drama of the violence notwithstanding, it was mainly the “face of the land” that was affected.“ Again, in an effort to limit the results of this destruction, Sorenson writes: “We should not go beyond what the text declares with measured care.”
    Sorenson, working with Mesoamerica as a model, where similar major disaster like that of the time of the crucifixion in the Land of Promise, soft-pedals the occurrences in his writing for it to be consistent to that which had occurred in Mesoamerica. However, while Sorenson talks of mud slides and deep ash fallout, Samuel wrote something quite different.
Samuel the Lamanite preaching from the temple wall to the Nephites

First of all, this destruction is foretold in two locations, with Nephi speaking from a vision and Samuel the Lamanite speaking in prophesy, with extreme conditions outlined—ones that had never been recorded anywhere in the world, that changed the entire topography of the Land of Promise.
    According to Nephi, in his vision, he saw this destruction and wrote: “I saw the earth and the rocks, that they rent; and I saw mountains tumbling into pieces; and I saw the plains of the earth, that they were broken up, and I saw many cities that they were sunk; and I saw many that they were burned with fire; and I saw many that did tumble to the earth …” (1 Nephi 12:4, emphasis added).
    Of this same event, Samuel, who said the Lord put the words in his mouth, stated: “there shall be many mountains laid low, like unto a valley, and there shall be many places which are now called valleys which shall become mountains, whose height is great” (Helaman 14:23, emphasis added). To make sure the Nephites would know what was coming, Samuel said, “at the time that he shall yield up the ghost there shall be thunderings and lightnings for the space of many hours, and the earth shall shake and tremble; and the rocks which are upon the face of this earth, which are both above the earth and beneath, which ye know at this time are solid, or the more part of it is one solid mass, shall be broken up; Yea, they shall be rent in twain, and shall ever after be found in seams and in cracks, and in broken fragments upon the face of the whole earth, yea, both above the earth and beneath” (Helaman 14:21-22).
Seams and cracks throughout the land, both above and below the surface

While Sorenson states: “We should not go beyond what the text declares,” we say that “one should not lessen what the text declares.”
    While some theorists may try to make a claim to the contrary, the scriptural record is accurate and self-explanatory. In fact, the one thing we do know is that the destruction suggested in the scriptural record was extensive. The possibilities to consider are:
    The two locations indicated by scholars that fall within areas of great seismic activity are:
• the Mesocamerican lands of southern Mexico through Guatemala, or
• the Andes area of Ecuador, Peru and Chile. 
    First, let's take a look at the Mesocamerican model which scholars have listed 9 points (However, these 9 points are not supported completely by scripture):
The face of the land was changed by mountains falling and valleys becoming tall mountains with seams and cracks through out the land

1.  Only the "face of the land" was affected.
The scriptural record says:  The whole face of the land was changed (3 Nephi 8:12); the face of the whole earth was deformed (3 Nephi 8:17); hills and valleys were made in the place where cities had been (3 Nephi 9:8); mountains became valleys and valleys became great mountains (Helaman 14:23); roads were destroyed (Helaman 14:24) and smooth places made rough (3 Nephi 8:13); rocks were rent, broken up, fragmented, with seams and cracks appearing upon the face of the whole earth, and upon all the face of the land (3 Nephi 8:18).
    Any earthquake that shook the whole earth, accompanied by thunderstorms (hurricanes) and whirlwinds (tornadoes) that lasts for 3 solid hours would so deform the land that it would be unrecognizable in many, if not most areas.  After all, the intensity of all this destroyed numerous cities, raised mountains (1 Nephi 9:11) from level plains, sunk mountains into valleys, opened the earth (1 Nephi 9:11), formed lakes and inland seas, split the earth in seams, and ruptured the mountains into cracks that formed canyons, rifts and deep gorges.  Thus, contrary to Mesoamerican theorists of just being "cosmetic alterations" on the face of the land, we find in Helaman that these changes were both above and below the earth (Helaman 14:21-22).
2.  Mormon describes that basic geographical reference points, such as the narrow neck and pass, Hill Cumorah/Ramah, and the river Sidon continued unchanged.                       
Mormon's abridgment of these events were seen by him about 300 years after this great destruction.  Whatever changes to the land that took place, would have been well understood and accepted through three full centuries. 
    Throughout the record both Mormon and Moroni continually try to tie in places and events when they feel the reader might not make the correct connection on his own.  As a result, what the narrow neck of land, the hill Cumorah, and the narrow pass, all looked like before and after the destruction is not stated.  Only that each was still there, though each could have been drastically altered.  As an example, prior to the destruction, the term "narrow neck" is used, after the destruction, the term "narrow pass" is used.  But whatever the changes were, all were identifiable to Mormon in the 4th century AD—more than that we know little concerning them.  As an example, Cumorah could have been taller, shorter, larger or smaller before or after the described destruction. All we know is that it existed in both time frames.  The same can be said for the narrow pass, the narrow neck of land, and other points.
3.  It was the intensity of nature's rampage that impressed the Nephite recorder, not the novelty of the phenomena (3 Nephi 8:5, 7).   
While the storm was intense, the Nephites would have seen other severe storms that rampage across the globe       

This is a conclusion unsupportable by the record.  That is, storms would obviously have been known as well as thundering and lightning—these are common, necessary meteorological events in weather.  However, why should a storm be labeled "such as one as never had been known in all the land" (3 Nephi 8:5) unless the entire event was unusual.  In this vein, it must always be kept in mind that ancient prophets and scribes were limited in their vocabulary when describing unknown events, such as Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel trying to describe the futuristic weapons of war during the battle of Armageddon.
    Mormon tries to describe such things as tornadoes, hurricanes, underground earth movements, sinkholes, water geysers, fumaroles, and other, earth actions that were obviously unnamed in his day.  Just as obviously, when entire cities sink into the earth and are buried under mountains with water filling sinkholes, there has to be unusual, unexplained earth movements that were both cataclysmic and foreign.  Mormon, and the original writers of the events, simply had a limited vocabulary to express what happened in scientific terms.
(See the next post, “Destruction in the Land of Promise – Part II, got mote regarding the destruction that occurred in the Land of Promise at the time of the crucifixion and its severity)

2 comments:

  1. The cataclysmic events of the Book of Mormon have become something of a fascination to me. The mistake that theorists and readers make is to compare the descriptions they read to events with which we are familiar. We know tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, volcanoes, etc. So we relate what we've seen on TV or around us to the Book of Mormon event. However, we have witnessed absolutely nothing like it and thus have no frame of reference for comparison. We have not seen a hemispheric catastrophe that has wiped out the majority of the people and left areas completely desolate.

    While we may know general atmospheric or geological processes that result in unusually violent conditions, very few grasp the fragility of our planet. Many people assume that nothing truly catastrophic has happened in the age of man.

    While Mormon and Joseph Smith may have had less of a vocabulary to scientifically describe the processes and events of the cataclysm, the more I study, the more I see that ancients like Mormon and Samuel the Lamanite described in very precise fashion what happened, nailing it down with more exactness than most of us give them credit.

    Take Samuel's words as quoted in this blog in Helaman 14:21-22. When he talks about "the more part of it is one solid mass," with a layer above and beneath, it may sound like he's vaguely describing rocks being cracked and broken, as if there weren't cracked and broken rocks before, from the flood event or creation itself. In his "limited vocabulary" he described exactly what happened to the Andean area with the subducted Nazca plate (one solid mass beneath) and the South American plate (one solid mass above) and how their interactions caused them to be "rent in twain."

    Rent in twain = broken in two.

    Using current seismic measurement instruments, geologists can plot where the Nazca plate is underneath the South American plate and see its shape. But they attribute the formations to extremely slow uniformitarian timetables. The Nazca plate is rent in twain underneath the central volcanic zone of the Andes where the plate underneath broke and pushed downward into the mantle, resulting in volcanic activity. The same happened under the Northern Volcanic Zone underneath Ecuador, resulting in volcanic activity. Before then the entire Andean region was a flat slab, meaning that the Nazca and South America plates were stacked one on the other without a break beneath. "... Which ye know at this time are solid, or the more part of it is one solid mass..."

    The area from the Land of Nephi through the Land of Bountiful is currently considered the largest, intact flat slab subduction zone in the world, where the lower plate did not break and dive into the mantle at an acute angle, so there are no volcanoes there. In that area, the breaking of the flat slab pushed upward (rather than diving into the mantle) creating the highest mountains in the Andes. The Cordillera Blanca sits on the Peruvian Flat Slab where the faulting of the double-layer pushed mountains to extreme heights. Likewise, the Pampean Flat Slab in Chile and Argentina has the highest mountain in the western hemisphere, and no volcanoes. From Mormon's vantage point (living on the Peruvian Flat Slab) the destruction to the south and to the north were the most dramatic, because those areas are where the flat slab broke downward and volcanism resulted. The Nephite capital lands saw an upward break, keeping the flat slab intact as the mountains above the fault pushed higher.

    The ancients described it in amazing detail, even without the instruments that have plotted the underlying plate in the last few years. As for the catalyst that would trigger a hemispheric "tempest" to cause plate movement and the winds and fires and unusual lightning, that's a discussion for another day. But no, we have not seen it in our day. Whenever we try to compare it to our experience, we hit a stumbling block, like Sorenson did.

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  2. The rise of the Amazon Basin from a Sea East to a rain forest is most likely when all things are in commotion. Sea East is never mentioned after the time of Christ. See East is mentioned a dozen times before the time of Christ. It is never mentioned after...no, verily, not once.

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