Lands of Appropriate Scale Part IV – Other Peoples in the Land of Promise Part II

Continuing with the subject of whether or not others were in the Land of Promise besides those recorded in the Book of Mormon, the Lord said to Lehi:

1. It is wisdom that this land should be kept as yet from the knowledge of other nations; for behold, many nations would overrun the land, that there would be no place for an inheritance

2. Inasmuch as those whom the Lord God shall bring out of the land of Jerusalem shall keep his commandments, they shall prosper upon the face of this land

3. They shall be kept from all other nations, that they may possess this land unto themselves

4. If they keep his commandments there shall be none to molest them

5. There will be none to take away the land of their inheritance

6 They shall dwell safely (in the Land of Promise) forever.

Note that the promise the Lord made to Lehi is that HIS PEOPLE, that is, Lehi’s descendants (and those brought out of Jerusalem) “shall be kept from all other nations” and that his people “may possess this land unto themselves” and that there shall be “none to molest them” and none to take away the land of their inheritance” and “they shall dwell safely forever.”

This promise is not possible if others already possessed the land, or came to it from elsewhere than out of Jerusalem

So who were those led out of Jerusalem to the Land of Promise besides Lehi? The Mulekites.

Who were the people the Lord referred to “and also all those who should be led out of other countries by the hand of the Lord”?

Nephi saw them in his vision. They were:

1) Columbus’ arrival (1 Nephi 13:12)

2) The Gentiles that would follow and subjugate the Lamanites (1 Nephi 13:12)

3) There came “many multitudes of the Gentiles upon the land of promise” (1 Nephi 13:14)

3) The Gentiles that would come to the United States “did prosper and obtain the land for their inheritance” (1 Nephi 13:15)

4) The battles between other nations for this land (1 Nephi 13:16-17)

5. The victory of the peoples in the land of promise over the European nations (1 Nephi 13:17-19)

Now in these events, which are not limited to just the religious events of the Jaredites and Nephites (as Nibley claims), we understand that other peoples would be led to the land of promise—and specifically, they would come at some point in the future after the Lamanites had dwindled in unbelief. They would come from Portugal, Spain, England, France, Holland, Ireland, Scandinavia, Germany, etc., to which Nephi described them as “they were white, and exceedingly fair and beautiful, like unto my people before they were slain” (1 Nephi 13:15).

Obviously, the scriptural record limits who were in the Land of Promise, who the Lord led here, and the non-existence of others where and when Lehi landed.

(See the next post, “Lands of Appropriate Scale Part V – Other Peoples in the Land of Promise Part III,” to show that Hugh Nibley’s arguments for other people is not consistent with both reason and the scriptural record)