Peter Covino in his True
Book of Mormon Geography website, quotes the following:
“First, we must respect what the
angel said:..an account of the former inhabitants of this continent.
(Joseph Smith History v.34). On them is contained the fullness of the gospel of
Jesus Christ, as it was given to his people on this land.
(Joseph's account as reiterated by Oliver Cowdery to W.W. Phelps in Messenger
& Advocate, October 1835, 2:195-198). In other words, all events
occurred in Western New York, on the land where the record came
forth. Back then, the land was surrounded by water on all sides and
they thought they were on an "isle of the sea." "This
continent" meant their isle, which we will show was Western New York.”
While it is important to respect what angels say,
it is more important to understand what angels mean from understanding their
words. So let’s take a look at what the Angel Moroni was talking about:
In 1823, when Moroni first appeared to Joseph Smith
who was then almost 18 years of age, the only written record and only knowledge
of God and his dealings with His people, was found in the Bible and the area of
the Land of Israel – Jerusalem, was the land in which the Bible took place. No
one knew what is common knowledge today among Latter-day Saints—that the Garden
of Eden was in Missouri, that the New Jerusalem would be built in the United
States, and that any of the House of Israel had anciently lived in the Western
Hemisphere.
To Christians of the day, all Christianity
originated in the Near East, all records emanated from there, and that was the
place of Christ’s birth and death, and the formation of the Christian Church.
It was a message and a concept that was not only
startling, but one no one had ever before considered. To make sure Joseph
understood the significance of his message, Moroni emphasized that this was a
record of the Americas, not the Near East or the Eastern Hemisphere. What the Angel Moroni was telling
Joseph Smith was a blockbuster of an announcement—the plates he was to
eventually find and translate was about a people on this land—NOT THE LAND OF
JERUSALEM.
There is no indication, no suggestion, no comment,
that the Angel Moroni was limiting his remarks to a small portion of land, such
as western New York as Covino wants us to believe in order to support his
model. This land is a very broad term. To the Angel Moroni, this land
was a distinction (as the word indicates) from that land—or the land
where the Christian faith had originally been spawned. He knew, was we know
today, that the Bible represented that land (Jerusalem) and the Book of
Mormon represents this land (the Americas).
We need to keep in mind that Moroni was speaking to
Joseph Smith in 1823. He would have used the language known to Joseph Smith
(for the Lord speaks to us in our own language). Also, in In
1823 there were 24 states in the Union that was only 47 years old. Missouri
became the 24th state when it was admitted on August 10, 1821. Arkansas became
the 25th state when it was admitted 13 years later, in 1836. The United States
controlled only a small portion of the land that at the time did not stretch
beyond the Mississippi River except for Louisiana and Missouri. In Joseph’s
days, there was still attitudes of expanding into Canada and Mexico to broaden
the borders of the United States.
It should also be kept in mind that the
term “America” referred to North, Central and South America, which was
considered one continent at the time. Thus terms like “America is a promised
land,” “this land,” and “the New Jersusalem would be established on this land,”
had a much larger meaning than Covino’s Western
New York. After all, the Church, which was established in Western New York
in 1830, moved to Kirtland, Ohio, the next year, with its headquarters intended to be moved to Jackson
County, Missouri, which was called by Joseph “Zion’s center place.” The
headquarters ended up Far West, Missouri, then in Nauvoo, Illinois in 1839. And
in 1847, the headquarters moved to Salt Lake City, Utah. In all this time,
covering five different states, less than a year was spent in Western New York.
It is hard to imagine, with Moroni
knowing the future events that would occur when he was speaking to Joseph
Smith, that he would limit his meaning of a future world-wide church to just
Western New York as Covino claims.
In addition to all this, Covino
claims “Even Joseph
made the connection when he said:
By it (Book of Mormon) we learn that OUR WESTERN TRIBES OF INDIANS are
descendants from that Joseph which was sold into Egypt, and that the LAND OF AMERICA IS A PROMISED LAND unto
them, and unto it all the tribes of Israel will come, with as many of the
Gentiles as shall comply. (History of the Church 1:315)”
Once again, Covino mistakes “the Land of America” as meaning
his limited area of Western New York, or even its surrounding area. However,
two things are evident here:
1. America, in Joseph Smith’s day, meant “the Americas,”
that is North, Central and South America. They were all called America—only a
direction classification (North, Central and South) separated “America” into
regional areas. Joseph did not use that term—just America, meaning in effect,
the entire Western Hemisphere.
2. Western Tribes of Indians is a general term. In Joseph
Smith’s day, the Indians known at the time were to the west of the civilized areas of New York, Ohio, Illinois, etc. Those
“Western Tribes,” or Indians in general, referred to descendants of the
Lamanites—and that would be true of all indigenous Indian tribes through
America (the Americas). This is verified by the Church today who refers to the
Lamanite descendants of Central and South America, where enormous missionary
work has been accomplished over the years.
Finally, Covino adds: “At the time of Joseph Smith, accounts
were coming in of the former inhabitants of Western New York and South
America. Joseph chose to embrace the more grandiose reports from South
America rather than Western New York. He made several statements
claiming they were Book of Mormon lands. Book of Mormon enthusiasts want to
claim the ruins in Mesoamerica AND the greatness of the United States of
America as their own, but they can't have it both ways. If America is
fulfilling Book of Mormon prophecy then IT is the land where Book of Mormon
events took place, and the land where God made His promises.”
America is fulfilling Book of
Mormon prophecy. America is the Land of Promise. America is the location of the
Book of Mormon Lands. America, all of America, is the ultimate Land of Promise
for the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh.
America! We need not limit America
to just a small area. America, in Joseph Smith’s day, referred to the entire
Western Hemisphere. All early maps showed this. All early writings verify this.
Cartographers understood America was what we now call North, Central and South
America.
(See the next post, “More Covino Comments Answered-Part VI,
for more of Covino’s so-called “errors,” which, in fact, are errors he makes in
the defense of his model)
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