Were the Olmecs Jaredites?—Part IV

Continuing with the last two posts and John L. Sorenson’s unrealistic and non-scriptural claim that the Olmecs were the Jaredites, and that the Jaredites survived their war of annihilation in such numbers as to mix with “the Mulek group of voyagers from the Mediterranean.” In the last post we covered three of the five comments regarding Sorenson’s claim. We here continue with point number four.

4. Sorenson said, “The Book of Mormon account neither contradicts nor confirms it.”

Of course the scriptural record does not confirm such an outlandish idea—however, it DOES contradict it. First of all, the record of Ether is quite contradictory with its numerous comments about all the Jaredites being killed except for Coriantumr and Ether. Many posts presented here earlier have given extensive comment on each of Ether’s statements that ALL the Jaredites were gathered in for the final battle except Ether, and ALL were killed in that battle except Coriantumr and Ether.

To state that any Jaredites survived other than those two is contrary to numerous scriptures in the Book of Mormon. Secondly, the numerous promises the Lord made to Lehi for a land of his inheritance, free from other peoples, is also quite clear in several places in the Book of Mormon, beginning with 1 Nephi. Even the most cursory reading will show that the Land of Promise was not inhabited by people other than the Jaredites, Lehi’s descendants (Nephites and Lamanites) and the Mulekites. The scriptural record is also quite clear that the “other people” the Lord would bring to the land were the Gentils Nephi saw in a vision, beginning with Columbus and the Gentile nations that followed.

5. Sorenson also wrote: “neither does such continuity pose any particular problems for the scripture, as I read it.”

The continuity problem is simply whether or not one can accept the Lord’s promise as binding or whether one believes that the Lord is capricious in his dealings with man, for surely the Lord’s promise to Lehi and to Nephi was for an unoccupied land for their inheritance that had to be protected from others. Sometime after landing in the Land of Promise, Lehi told his family: “it is wisdom that this land should be kept as yet from the knowledge of other nations” (2 Nephi 1:8). Note the future tense words “should be” and “as yet,” suggesting no others had yet been led to the land, even at the time when the Lehi colony had been in the land for a while.

Lehi also said, “for behold, many nations would overrun the land, that there would be no place for an inheritance” (2 Nephi 1:8). Lehi knew from the Lord’s promise, that the land was reserved for his family and was to be the inheritance of he and his children and their posterity. He knew this would not be possible were there other people in the land.

He also said, again using future tense words, “I, Lehi, have obtained a promise, that inasmuch as those whom the Lord God shall bring out of the land of Jerusalem shall keep his commandments” (2 Nephi 1:9), suggesting that whatever others might be involved in the land of his promise would come out of Jerusalem (evidently the Mulekites), but certainly NOT the Jaredites, for they came from Mesopotamia.

People like Sorenson and other Mesoamericanists can say whatever they want, and claim that it “pose any particular problems for the scripture, as I read it,” but when they make up ideas and try to squeeze scriptural meaning into their pre-conceived ideas and models, it may not pose any problem to them, as they read it, but it certainly poses a problem with accepting what is written in the scriptural record. However, Sorenson and other Mesoamericanists have shown time and again that they are not overly concerned how the scriptural record is written, but how they can manipulate it to agree with their ideas and model (see the book “Inaccuracies of Mesoameridcan and Other Theorists.”)

Nibley and Sorenson can also claim that those who disagree with them and read the scriptural record as it was written, oversimplify their understanding of the scriptural record, yet, it would seem that both try to insert situations and people into the record that does not exist. There is not a single mention, suggestion or indication in all the writing of all the ancient prophets, nor from Mormon who had ALL the Nephite records at his disposal, that any other people, group, party or band ever set foot in the Land of Promise between 2200 B.C. and 421 A.D. other than the Jaredfites, Nephites (including Lamanites) and Mulekites. Nor is there anything that would lead one to believe that Jaredites survived beyond Coriantumr in all the Land of Promise. Yet, Nibley and Sorenson and other Mesoamericanists, all try to suggest that other people were there, mingling with the Nephites, to satisfy their belief that others lived in the area at the same time.

(See the next post, “Were the Olmecs Jaredfites Part IV—What is in a Name?” for the more on this subject)