Lehi's not Ether's Land of Promise – Part IV

Coming back once again to the H38 Virus website, which claims to have the “True Book of Mormon Geography,” we find that author claiming that Helaman 3:8 has to do only with the Land Northward. However, besides the other several reasons we have stated in these posts to the contrary, the scriptural language itself suggests otherwise.

Take, for example, Mormon’s writing in Helaman 3:8 which describes: “And it came to pass that they did multiply and spread and did go forth from the land southward to the Land Northward and did spread insomuch that they began to cover the face of the whole earth, from the Sea South to the Sea North, from the Sea West to the Sea East” (Helaman 3:8)

In this case, the term “face of the whole earth,” refers to an area larger than the Land Northward, since in the entire record of Ether, the term “face of the whole earth,” is never used. In Ether, since the Jaredites were restricted to the Land Northward, their comments were to that land only. To show this, they used the term “face of the land” 20 times; “all the land” 7 times; “face of this land” 4 times,; “in the land” 2 times; and one each for the phrases “this land,” “in the land,” “upon the land,” “of the land,” and “the land.”

Obviously, the term “face of the land” referred only to the Land Northward, as is shown in “And the whole face of the land northward” (Ether 10:21). And when referring to the entire Land Northward, the term “And there began to be an exceedingly great war in all the land (Ether 11:4), “And there was great calamity in all the land” (Ether 11:6).

However, once again when the term in Helaman 3:8 is used: “the face of the whole earth,” a much larger area than the Land Northward is implied. Even using that author’s example for a lesser area found in Helaman 11:20 “And thus it did come to pass that the people of Nephi began to prosper again in the land, and began to build up their waste places, and began to multiply and spread, even until they did cover the whole face of the land, both on the northward and on the southward, from the sea west to the sea east.” The author then claims that there was no mention of a Sea South or Sea North, showing these did not apply to the Land Southward.

However, Mormon is consistent in his wordage. In this case, the record has to do with Nephi who lived in Zarahemla (Helaman 7:10) when a crowd gathered and Nephi began to preach to them (Helaman 8:10), during which he exposes the murders of the chief judge (Helaman 9:38) which took him into the city, and on his way back to his house God spoke to him (Helaman 10:6) and Nephi turns back and preaches to the people in the city (Helaman 10:12). Because of the wickedness of the people and Nephi’s tender heart, he prays for a famine rather than see wars destroy the people (Halaman 11:4). The famine continues for 3 years and the people finally repent (Helaman 11:8), and Nephi pleads with God to remove the famine (Helaman 11:9-16), and the Lord finally ends the famine (Helaman 11:17), and then Helaman ends this sequence of events in the Land Southward with the comment:

“And thus it did come to pass that the people of Nephi began to prosper again in the land, and began to build up their waste places, and began to multiply and spread, even until they did cover the whole face of the land, both on the northward and on the southward, from the sea west to the sea east” (Nephi 11:20). Obviously no wordage of Sea South or Sea North is included, since this event has to do with the Land of Zarahemla where Nephi lived, and where these events took place. And as the scriptural record shows, the Land of Zarahemla was bordered on the south by the Land of Nephi and on the north by the Land of Bountiful—thus, no mention of a south or north sea would be appropriate.

Thus, there is no proof of anything here in this scripture as the H38 Virus author tries to claim, other than a consistent usage of wordage by Mormon in his writing. And just as obvious, the wordage used in Helaman indicated the entire Land Southward and Land Northward (the much larger area) with is wordage of “cover the whole face of the earth,” rather than just mentioning the land of the Jaredites or Land Northward.

Again, we see support for the entire Land of Promise, including the Land Southward and the Land Northward, being an island and surrounded by water, with a Sea North, Sea South, Sea East and a Sea West.

(See the next post, “Lehi's not Ether's Land of Promise – Part V,” to see how erroneous the H38 Virus is in trying to limit the meaning of the scriptural record)