Making Up His Own Record

John L. Sorenson, ignoring the scriptural record, makes up his own scriptures by inserting his own geographical terrain into the Book of Mormon land northward. He asks and answers his own Mesoamerican question:

“It may seem strange, looking at a map, that the Nephites did not concern themselves with the highland mass constituting the western half of the land northward, which had included the Moron of the Jaredites. The reason is probably simple: few, if any Nephites or allied lineages were located there. Those who did inhabit it would have been mainly unrelated in lineage and probably also in language. We know from linguistic and archaeological study that it was occupied by groups descended in part from Jaredite times.”

First, take a look at these unprecedented, unsupportable, and non-doctrinal speculations:

1. A highland mass covering the western half of the land northward;
2. The Jaredite city was located in a highland mass;
3. Few, if any Nephites dwelled in the land of Moron;
4. There were non-Nephite lineages allied to the Nephites in 350 A.D.;
5. People unrelated to the Nephites lived in the area of Moron;
6. People who spoke a different language than the Nephites lived in the area of Moron;
7. These people living in the area of Moran were descended from the Jaredites.

These are the types of speculative assertions that Sorenson continually makes. There is no scriptural reference to indicate any of these points. Yet, Sorenson writes:

“At least it is quite certain that the Zapotecs and various language relatives of theirs were already established in the highlands, although that point is not settled.”

Sorenson’s double-talk is found throughout his book. How can something be "quite certain" yet "not settled"? This is the kind of language Sorenson uses to try and prove his points. Stated differently, he is telling us that "unsettled points that are quite certain" show that unrelated Nephite languages existed in the land northward around 350 A.D." It can only be assumed from this that Sorenson must belong to a philosophy that "if you tell a falsehood often enough, it becomes a truth."

There is no indication, no record, no reference, not even a hint of suggestion that any indigenous or non-Nephite people, culture or languages, existed in the land of promise during the Book of Mormon record (600 B.C. to about 421 A.D.) Yet, despite this fact, Sorenson has waded through 350 pages, insisting upon the existence of other cultures, languages and peoples who lived there before, during and after the Nephite era. As absurd as this is, Sorenson goes on to insist:

“The retreat the Nephites had been forced to make would obviously be to areas inhabited by their own folk, not by strangers.”

Again, one might ask, “What strangers?” As usual, Sorenson delights in confusing the issue. There are no people mentioned or suggested in the scriptural record that would be classified as "strangers." Such indigenous people exist only in Sorenson's mind and his Mesoamerican model. What is amazing about all this is his unusual approach to what does and what does not exist in the record. When it suits his purpose to invent tens of thousands of indigenous people without one recorded word to suggest such, he can turn around and claim that when something is not in the record, then it must not have existed. Speaking in support of his view that no Nephites lived in the area of Moron, he writes:

“Nowhere in the Nephite record is there any indication that they occupied that zone.”

How can anyone use the argument that something is not in the record, therefore it did not exist, when throughout 350 pages he keeps insisting numerous things that are not in the record as existing. If this were not so serious a matter it would be outright funny. Consider:

1. No mention of Nephites in the land of Moron so he claims they did not exist there;
2. No mention of strangers in the record, but he claims they did exist;
3. No mention of western highlands, but he claims they did exist;
4. No mention of non-Nephite people speaking other languages, but he claims they did exist.

The list of contradictions does not end here, of course, but that should suffice to show the convoluted thinking of Sorenson and to what ends he will go to try and support his Mesoamerican model.