Criticism of the Mesoamerican Geography Model: the Two Cumorahs – Part II

Continuing from the last post about the critique of the Mesoamerican model, the third issue had to do with the Hill Cumorah.

Hampton Sides, an American historian and journalist, the author of bestselling works of narrative history and literary non-fiction, wrote in his work “American: Dispatches from the New Frontier": “As fantastic as it may seem, Sorenson actually argues that there were two Cumorahs: one in Mexico where the great battle took place, and where Moroni buried a longer, unexpurgated version of the golden Nephite records; and one near Palmyra, New York, where Moroni eventually buried a condensed version of the plates after lugging them on an epic trek of several thousand mile.”

It is always interesting that people think something is too hard for the Lord. Nephi, confronting his brothers’ fear of Laban’s guards about obtaining the plates of brass, asks, “for behold he is mightier than all the earth, then why not mightier than Laban and his fifty, yea, or even than his tens of thousands?” Why people want to claim Moroni could not have transported the plates over thousands of miles is beyond imagination. Anything and everything is possible with the Lord. And the reason of transporting is simple—the Lord wanted them in a handy location for when Joseph Smith would be directed to them.

For some reason, people seem to think the Lord’s plans are restricted to a small area of the earth and forget that the entire earth is His and He has planned and organized all of it for his purposes. The House of Israel began in a local area near Mesopotamia, and an area of Canaan was divided among them for their inheritance; however, the Lord then has led away different groups from Israel to the four corners of the earth—some we know about, such as the Nephites and Mulekites, others we do not, but Jacob made it clear that others have been led away, “the Lord God has led away from time to time from the house of Israel, according to his will and pleasure. And now behold, the Lord remembereth all them who have been broken off, wherefore he remembereth us also” (2 Nephi 10:22).

There are some that fanatically want to restrict the Lord and the Land of Promise to the small area of the eastern United States as though this one single area is the only place where the Lord’s work can go forth. While it is true that the United States is the center of the New Jerusalem to be, and the center of the work that is going forth at this moment, the entire Western Hemisphere has been reserved for His purposes and has been designated by Him as the Land of Promise.

In the southern part of this Land of Promise, the Jaredites and the Nephites were given promises for lands of their inheritance. The Gentiles were given a promise that the area further north would be their land of inheritance (all of this dependent upon each being righteous and obeying the Lord).

In that land to the south, the Nephites landed. They were commanded to keep records on plates of ore that Nephi molded out of the earth. Those records, and numerous others (Helaman 3:13) were kept and are now considered to reside in the Hill Cumorah; however, we do not know that is where they are. Brigham Young merely said a vision opened up to him of “wagon loads of records,” which may have been anywhere but projected at that moment into the Hill Cumorah. We know that Joseph Smith did not receive the plates in that underground cave or area Brigham Young saw. Joseph found the plates buried in a stone box near the surface of the ground, under a large rock he had to remove to get to the box.

We do not know if Moroni was the one who transported the plates, nor do we know if he was still mortal at the time if he did, or a “just man made perfect,” such as the Three Nephites or John. But it is foolhardy to think that anything is beyond the Lord and His servants. The idea of the Lord transporting the plates to a location for his future interests and purposes is not “fantastically” unbelievable, nor Moroni’s ability to “lug them on an epic trek of several thousand miles.”

It is more fantastic to think that anyone would believe such would be beyond the Lord’s ability. He who created the Heavens and the Earth cannot arrange to have the plates moved several thousand miles in this little area of His multitude of creations? Come on now!

(See the next post, “Criticism of Mesoamerican Geography: the Two Cumorahs—Part III,” for the last installment of the records, the Hill Cumorah, and their transportation)