Nephi was “born of
goodly parents” (1 Nephi 1:1), his father had been given a great vision (1
Nephi 1:8) and called to prophesy to the disobedient and wicked Jews of his day (1 Nephi
1:18). Nephi learned from his father obedience to the Lord, for though he had a
comfortable life and acquired great wealth, Lehi obeyed the Lord and left
everything behind and went into the wilderness as commanded (1 Nephi 2:4). While
his older brothers murmured against their father (1 Nephi 2:11-12), Nephi was
willing to do whatever his father asked (1 Nephi 3:2, 7), and when he brothers
wanted to give up, he pressed on to obtain the brass plates by himself,
trusting in the Lord (1 Nephi 3:15; 4:1, 6). Despite all the problems,
difficulties, threats, and attempts at his life by his older brothers, Nephi
said of Laman and Lemuel, “For I pray continually for them by day, and mine
eyes water my pillow by night, because of them; and I cry unto my God in faith,
and I know that he will hear my cry” (2 Nephi 33:3).
When the Lord showed
Nephi how to build his ship, and despite the negative attitudes of his older
brothers and not wanting to help (1 Nephi 17:18), he built the ship,
laboring intensely to accomplish something he had never tried before, nor do we
know he had built anything before this time. We only know that he trusted in
the Lord and set about to accomplish what he was commanded (1 Nephi 17:50-51)
with the kind of faith few men have ever possessed (1 Nephi 17:50). He was so
close to the Spirit that the Lord could imbue him with such power that his
brothers could not even touch him, but he could stretch “forth my hand unto my
brethren, and they did not wither before me; but the Lord did shake them, even
according to the word which he had spoken” (1 Nephi 17:48, 54).
Nephi built his ship in the manner in which
the Lord instructed him so that it would withstand the pounding of deep ocean
winds and waves and strong currents to reach the Land of Promise
He built his ship in
a special way, after the manner the Lord had instructed him (1 Nephi 18:1, 3),
working timbers unlike how men worked wood in his day (1 Nephi 18:2), and it
was such a fine job that it impressed even his reluctant and unbelieving
brothers (1 Nephi 18:4). Once on board, they put forth into the Sea (1 Nephi
18:8). Now, at this point, this exceptional man of God, who walked and talked
with God, who was instructed in the ways of building his ship, tells us that
his ship, once into the Sea, “was driven forth before the wind towards the
promised land” (1 Nephi 18:8). He says that again, stating: “And after we had
been driven forth before the wind for the space of many days” (1 Nephi 18:9),
evidently to make certain we understood that his vessel was propelled by the winds
and was carried along on the currents of the sea that the winds created.
To
the “land lubber” that might not mean much, but to anyone who sailed from the
beginning of sail up to around the Age of Discovery, they knew that once in the
water, you sailed where the winds took you. To compensate for going against the
winds, the ships of the Mediterranean could furl their sail and use men at oars
to propel their ship when the winds did not take them where they wanted.
However, long distance sailing was only by wind and waves, by the sea currents
that followed known patterns throughout the entire globe. It should also be
pointed out that when the storm came up, “a
great and terrible tempest, and we were driven back upon the waters for the
space of three days; and they began to be frightened exceedingly lest they
should be drowned in the sea” (1 Nephi 18:13). Now they did not want to be
driven back upon the waters, but the winds of the storm took them where the
winds blew, whether they wanted to go in that direction or not. Then, when the
storm blew itself out, “the storm did cease, and there was a great calm. And it came to pass
that I, Nephi, did guide the ship, that we sailed again towards the promised
land“
(1 Nephi 18:21-22).
Currents and winds move in known and
constant directions, and those of the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean preclude any
movement eastward toward India and the Indonesian islands
As
has often been said in this blog, that if one wants to know the path Nephi’s
ship took, and where it landed, all one has to do is 1) accept Nephi’s words
that his ship was driven forth before the wind, and 2) know where the winds
blew and currents moved from the point Nephi embarked to where he would have
reached the Western Hemisphere. It is not rocket science, nor does one need to
learn it from an academician. All one has to do is look in any atlas or look up waves and currents on the
internet to find out where the winds blew from the Arabian sea coast, and where
they would have taken a weather sailing ship that was “driven forth before the
wind.”
Now
Nephi’s wordage at this point is also very important. In one verse he says, “And it came to pass that I,
Nephi, did guide the ship, that we sailed again towards the promised land” (1
Nephi 18:22), and the very next verse, he
says, “And it came to pass that after we had sailed for the space of many days
we did arrive at the promised land; and we went forth upon the land, and did
pitch our tents; and we did call it the promised land” (1 Nephi 18:23). The
very next verse they landed! Yet, so many Theorists, from Sorenson and the
Mesoamericanists to most other theorists, they want us to believe:
1) That after Nephi got control
of his ship again, he headed toward Indonesia against the winds and currents;
2) They passed thousands of
islands, mostly traveling against winds and currents;
3) They stopped at numerous
islands for supplies without a single noteworthy comment or incident;
4) That Laman and Lemuel and the
sons of Ishmael caused no more trouble as they wound their way around and between
the South Seas island paradises that led to numerous mutinies of seamen during
the Age of Discovery.
Clear water, beautiful lagoons, white beaches, warm weather—all of
which would have been very attractive and tempting to Laman, Lemuel and the sons of Ishmael.
It is hard to imagine that if they went this way, that they would not have
wanted to stop here as opposed to some distant, unknown land
All one has to do is read the
first 18 chapters of 1st Nephi and see where Laman and Lemuel and
the sons of Ishmael caused numerous problems, from wanting to go back to Jerusalem (1 Nephi 7:6-7) to threatening to kill their
father (1 Nephi 16:37). In
all of this, they continued to be rebellious, resenting Lehi and Nephi’s
obedience to the Lord, wanting to kill them both, tying Nephi up in the desert
and on his ship, wanting to throw Nephi into the Ocean from a high cliff, and
numerous other evil intrigues. And all of this Nephi dutifully recorded through
eighteen chapters. Yet, when Laman and Lemuel and the sons of Ishmael would
have had ample opportunity to jump ship for the safety and serenity of paradisiacal
south seas islands, and most certainly would have made some attempts at that,
or taken over the ship and setting in and not continuing along what they thought was a foolish
journey based on the “the foolish imaginations of [Lehi’s] heart (1 Nephi
17:20).
There is another, most important
point to suggest why Nephi’s ship did not island-hop or weave its way through
Indonesia—a point that Nephi makes very clear.
(See the next post, “The
Greatness of Nephi – Part II,” for even more on the greatness of this first
Nephite prophet, and especially why their ship would not have gone where any
islands were located, and especially not stopped off on islands along the way)
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