No Others Mentioned

Speaking of the Nephites Mormon says, “The spirit of the Lord hath already ceased to strive with their fathers” (Mormon 5:16), and that “they were once a delightsome people (Mormon 5:17) “but now, behold, they are led about by Satan” (Mormon 5:18) and that “the Lord has reserved their blessings, which they might have received in the land, for the Gentiles who shall possess the land” (Mormon 5:19) and that “the Lamanites shall be driven and scattered by the Gentiles (Mormon 5:20).

Notice that the spirit had already ceased—past tense—and that the Gentiles shall—future tense—possess the land and the Gentiles shall—future tense—scatter the Lamanites. Also note that no other people are mentioned regarding the land of promise and being in it even though the past and future are brought together in a single promise.

In other words, the Nephites were past redemption and whatever promises they might have had in the land of promise, if they had remained righteous, would now be given by the Lord to the Gentiles—who had not yet arrived in the land of promise.

These Gentiles that would arrive were the same ones that Nephi saw in his vision where he “beheld a man among the Gentiles, who was separated from the seed of my brethren by the many waters; and I beheld the Spirit of God that it came down and wrought upon the man; and he went forth upon the many waters, even unto the seed of my brethren, who were in the promised land” (1 Nephi 13:12). This man, of course, was Columbus, and those
Spanish conquistadores that would follow who “the Lord God will not suffer that the Gentiles will utterly destroy the mixture of thy seed, which is among thy brethren” (1 Nephi 13:30). Nephi saw no other people in the land of promise, and Columbus was yet to arrive.

Would this not suggest, even to the most prudent reader, that there were only three groups of people in the land of promise—the Nephites, the Lamanites, and the Gentiles who had not yet arrived.

Yet, Mesoamerican Theorists continually try to ram the idea of indigenous people down our throats because their Central American model demands it.