The Lord Dictated to Moses

Joseph Allen, in his book, Exploring the Lands of the Book of Mormon, makes numerous comments that are nothing short of disingenuous. On page 15, he states:

“Ten generations are mentioned in the Bible from Adam to Noah. Ten generations are also mentioned in the Bible from Noah to Abraham. The life span recorded in years prior to the flood is much longer than those recorded after the flood. If we allow Noah to be the chronological midpoint between Adam and Abraham, place Adam at the traditional 4000 BC mark, and have Abraham living around 2000 BC, then the flood (Noah) midpoint is approximately 3000 BC.”

It is interesting that he uses the genealogy stated in Genesis that agrees with his Mesoamerican model, but not the dates Moses gave for the birth of these people, nor the event that disagree with him. After all, Moses was shown a vision by the Lord in which he “beheld the world and the ends thereof, and all the children of men which are and which were created” (Moses 1:7-8), and in a second vision, he was shown the earth, yea, “even all of it; and there was not a particle of it which he did not behold...and he beheld the inhabitants thereof, and there was not a soul which he beheld not” (Moses 1:27-28). He was given a particular revelation, “only an account of this earth and the inhabitants thereof give I unto you,” the Lord told him (Moses 1:33,35). Finally, the Lord told Moses, “I will speak unto thee concerning the earth upon which thou standest; and thou shalt write the things which I shall speak” (Moses 1:40). With that preparation, the Lord spoke to Moses of the period of time that we find recorded in the Biblical Book of Genesis.

Though scholars may disagree with these conflicting dates, Genesis was actually dictated to Moses by the Lord. He told him the dates, times, sequences, and periods as Moses wrote them down. It can hardly be intimated that Moses made an error in giving those living before the flood longer lifespans than those living after the flood. That's the way the Lord told it to him and that is the way Moses wrote it down. Thus, the dates shown in the Bible and Pearl of Great Price are correct, and Noah did not appear chronologically in the middle (time wise) of those 20 generations as Allen suggests, but in the chronological time frame the Lord told Moses. The Flood was not at the midpoint or 3000 BC, but occurred in 2344 BC as stated in the scriptures.

Further, Allen states on page 20, “If we look at Ixtlilxochitl's dating, which also is not totally reliable because of inconsistencies, we arrive at the following.”

The Mesoamerican Theorist, never satisfied with scripture when it disagrees with their model, looks to use the writings of man that may well be unreliable, but the dating in scripture—especially the Pearl of Great Price—is not in question and certainly cannot be considered, “also not totally reliable” as Allen intimates. Yet, interestingly enough, Ixtilxochitl's dating puts the Flood at 1716 years after the creation of the world, and Moses who stated the time as 1656 years—only 60 years different. However, Ixtlilxochitl does not agree with Allen’s dating, so he has to discredit it since he obtained his information from ancient records, stories handed down from generation to generation, and from earlier Mayan legends and myths. The date of 1716 years from the creation to the flood came from ancient Tolteca history, but cannot be used because it disagrees with Allen’s mid-point dating.

So, after introducing Ixtlilxochitl, Allen then says on Page 20, “Bruce Warren, coauthor of the “Messiah in Ancient America,” discovered that Ixtlilxochitl made an error in calculation that placed the creation of the earth 4825 BC and the flood date at 3109 BC. For the sake of this study, I will place the 3114 BC date as representative of the flood.”

Thus, Allen tells us that Genesis and the Book of Moses in the Pearl of Great Price are wrong, that Ixtlilxochitl’s writings, which he introduced, that closely agrees with Moses, is also wrong, and decides to use a current author with whom he had a personal conversation, though we know not what was said in that conversation, for a basis of his dates of the Flood, because they agree with his Mesoamerican model.

Such are the disingenuous tactics used by Mesoamerican Theorists to show that the scripture is wrong when it disagrees with their model, and whatever agrees with their model is correct, no matter the source.