More Comments to be Answered Part IX

Here are some more comments that we’ve received on this website blog.

Comment #1: “Peter Covino says the Land of Promise lay hidden from the world and that was because it did not border any sea and was far inland. He also says your model does not fit that description” Isaac E.

Response: We have written about Covino’s model and comments several times. Though Covino makes a big deal about the Land of promise being hidden from the world, nowhere in the scriptural record does it say the Land of Promise was hidden. When Lehi was blessing his children just before his death, he said, “And behold, 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 Nephi 1:8). Kept from the knowledge of, and being hidden, are not necessarily the same thing. However, the issue is that no Old World nation became aware of the Western Hemisphere for some 2100 years after Lehi sailed other than a small group of Vikings, sailing along the coastal regions of Iceland and Greenland, who ventured across the Labrador Sea, a distance of about 600 miles, to touch on Newfoundland in Canada.

Specifically, Thorvald Asvaldsson was exiled from Norway in 960 A.D. for the crime of manslaughter and sailed 600 miles west with his family and settled in Hornstandir in northwestern Iceland. His son, Erik Thorvaldsson, known as Eric the Red, was banished from Iceland for killings in 982 A.D., and traveled 300 miles further west, settling the first Norse colony in Greenland. His son, Leif (Leifr or Leifur) Erickson, according to the Saga of the Greenlanders, was blown off course in 999 A.D. on a voyage to Greenland and inadvertently crossed the Labrador Sea and landed 600 miles to the west on the eastern most tip of Canada, where he established a settlement he called Leifsbúdir, known as L’Anse aux Meadows, an area in history called Vinland (New Foundland).

Leif Erickson became known as the first European to discover America, however, it was quite by accident, for he was sailing from Norway to Iceland to Greenland and was blown off course to Canada. According to the Saga of Icelanders, this incident was not considered of any great import, though word of it did spread to European seaports, and possibly was known by 25-year-old Columbus when in 1477 he visited Iceland, known at the time as Ultima Thule.

However, though Leif Erickson landed on Vinland 500 years before Columbus reached the Bahamas, nothing ever came of that event. In fact, though the Norse settlements lasted some 500 years in Greenland, the continental North American settlements were small and did not develop into permanent colonies. While voyages, for example to fetch timber, are likely to have occurred for some time, there is no evidence of enduring Norse settlements on mainland North America.

The Vikings traveled from Norge (Norway) to Iceland to Greenland to Canada. They did not travel further south than the area of New Foundland and their settlements in Canada were brief and abandoned not long after settlement

As the Lord promised Lehi, “this land should be kept as yet from the knowledge of other nations.” When the Lord was ready, about 2100 years after Lehi landed in the Western Hemisphere, a European seaman was inspired to discover the current that would take him westward into the Atlantic Ocean.

The point of all this is simply that the Land of Promise did not need to be hidden—it was kept from the knowledge of sailors simply because no ship could sail westward from Europe until the Lord was ready to reveal the way.

As for the Land of Promise being inland and away from the sea, this is in direct opposition to the scriptural record which makes it clear the Land of Promise, where the Lehi Colony landed, was along the seacoast of the West Sea (Alma 22:28), and that this landing site was in the sea over which the colony was led, as clearly stated in Jacob’s remark to the Nephites (2 Nephi 10:20). Covino, like so many Land of Promise Theorists, can make any claim and say whatever he wants, however, it does not change the factual account in the scriptural record. Jacob, who was on the ship Nephi built, knew they sailed across the ocean and was led by the Lord—he said very clearly that Lehi had “been led to a better land, for the Lord has made the sea our path, and we are upon an isle of the sea” (2 Nephi 10:20). He knew the Lord brought them across the sea from the area of Bountiful where Nephi built his ship; he knew that while still upon that sea, they arrived at the Land of Promise; and he knew that the land was an island in the middle of that sea.

It always amazes me that Theorists think they know more than those who wrote in the ancient record, and can make any statement they choose even when it is in opposition to that record.

Comment #2: “I read this on the internet and wondered if it was accurate—‘The Jaredites began to hunt there, and seeing the potential, decided to reserve the area as a hunting preserve. If this followed the royal tradition found in other cultures, this hunting privilege would have been restricted to the royalty and their favored subjects. Perhaps Lib became a great hunter much as Nimrod of biblical fame’" Ionna

Response: The Preserve part is correct. It is not known who hunted there…could have been royalty only. As for Nimrod, he was called a great hunter, but it meant the evil part of that, i.e., he was a hunter of men (a killer, murderer, etc.)

Comment #3: ”In Alma of your Book of Mormon, it describes chariots owned by the king. Chariots are also mentioned elsewhere in the book. However, according to archaeologists, there is no evidence of actual wheeled vehicle usage in the 2,000 BC to 400 AD time frame in Ancient America” J. Scott.

Pharaoh’s army of charioteers are wiped out and drowned as the waters of the Red Sea resume their natural course

Response: One of the major events in the Old Testament is Moses parting the Red Sea. After the Jews crossed on dry land, the Egyptian soldiers in their chariots pursued, but were all drowned when the waters returned. The Egyptian force included the pharaoh and his army, his horsemen and chariots (Exodus 14:9), yet in all the years of archaeological effort to find evidence of this event, not a single chariot has ever been found, despite knowing exactly where this event took place. Contrary to the opinion of laymen, finding the remains of ancient artifacts, even large ones like a chariot, is no simple matter, and few actual examples have ever been found anywhere. As an example, we know of chariots in the past mostly from paintings on walls or pottery, not from finding the actual chariots.