Moroni Built Walls of Rock

It is critically important, in deciding where a Land of Promise was located anciently in the Western Hemisphere, to follow all the descriptions Mormon and other prophets left us in their writings. It is also critically important to remember that these prophets all lived at the time and in the areas they describe. And lastly, it is also critically important to keep mind that all these prophets knew they were writing to a future people, and Mormon knew this future people would be far in the distant future.

Thus, it should be concluded that any present location claimed to be the Land of Promise, must contain all the things they described, either now or in the time frame Mormon and the others wrote.

In previous posts on this site, we have shown time and again that of all the areas mentioned in the scriptural record describing the Land of Promise, the people, their accomplishments, and the geography of the land on which they lived, only one place in the entire Western Hemisphere agrees with every single one of these prophets and Mormon’s descriptive points—and that is the Andean area of South America.
These two comparison charts have been shown before, but one covers 15 major points that are described within the scriptural record, with all 15 found connected with the Andean area, and two and possibly three with Mesoamerica (tall mountains really do not qualify in Mesoamerica, but the area does have a few mountains that reach 14,000 feet), and none at all of the eastern United States, heartland, or Great Lakes area. The second shows the Mediterranean Climate of Jerusalem and its equivalent in other areas where the Land of Promise has been claimed.

While these should be significant, it seems to have no bearing on a single Theorist and their sometimes obscure reasoning as to the placement of the Land of Promise elsewhere. Great Lakes and Western New York theorists hanging their hat on there being only one Hill Cumorah, heartland theorists about this area being the only place where buffalo are found, Malaysia theorists on certain animals found there, and both Malaysia and Baja California theorists on these areas being a peninsula.

Obviously, there are areas that satisfy a few of the requirements, like Mesoamerica with their ancient buildings, temples, palaces, etc., and the Great Lakes with their so-called defensive berms and old wooden-walled forts. However, when you get right down to all the clues or descriptions of the Land of Promise, none of these areas, no matter where and decided upon by whom, meet the descriptions in the scriptural record, either at the present time, or shown to exist in the past.

We have covered in numerous previous posts the reasons why none of these areas meet the full requirements of the scriptural record, and specifically the reasons why these areas must be disqualified. As one Great Lakes enthusiast posted on this site a while back: “It is unconscionable how anyone could espouse a model outside the Western New York or Colonial America with all the fulfilled land prophecies there.”

However, what this person, who identifies himself as BOMG (Book of Mormon Geography?), and almost all those espousing the eastern area of the U.S., is that this area does not meet scripture—those descriptions of the land left for us to know and understand by Mormon. Obviously, there can be no doubt that the eastern U.S. or Colonial America meets many prophecies listed in scripture of our day—in fact, Nephi himself, given a vision of the future of the Land of Promise, describes several things, including the horrible treatment of the Spaniards of the Indians (Lamanites) in Mexico, Central and South America—a treatment far worse than that suffered by the Indians of the U.S. Nephi also wrote about the future arrival of Columbus—a man who never set foot on North American soil but did land on Central America and South America. Nephi also described the wars that would take place between those in the Western Hemisphere with England, Spain, France, etc., until colonial people here threw off the yoke of their parent countries—while this is mostly viewed as the United States (an accurate assumption), it does include the rest of the Western Hemisphere. No kings have sat on any part of this land, Canada, United States, Mexico, Central or South America, though each of these areas, at one time, were subject to kings.

One last thought on this matter. The Great Lakes people talk about finding wooden forts of antiquity along the southern shores of the great lakes extending for a hundred miles. While this is contestable regarding their age, the point is, Mormon describes the fact that STONE walls were built throughout the Land of Zarahemla and Land of Bountiful since Moroni and Moronihah had these defensive walls built to keep the Lamanites from breaking through to the north. No defensive berm, like those claimed to be found in the Great Lakes, and no temples and palaces, no matter how significant, like those found in Mesoamerica, are going to satisfy the purpose and description of these walls, since Moroni had been “erecting small forts or places of resort…and also building walls of stone to encircle them about, round about their cities and the borders of their lands, yea, all round about the land” (Alma 48:8) and he “built forts of security for every city in all the land round about” (Alma 49:13)

These walls of stone, built totally for defense, and dating to around the time of the Nephites, are found throughout the Andean area of South America, and nowhere else in the Western Hemisphere.

(See the next post, covering the Great Lakes area and the findings there)