Does anyone else see
a pattern here?
It is as though so
many of our scriptural record theorists wake up of a morning and say to
themselves: ”Let’s see, what part of the scriptural record shall we
speculate on today?”
Somewhere along the way,
theorists seem to have misplaced the idea that the scriptures are accurate and
the Word of the Lord, with the idea that they are merely ideas written down by
ancient people who, without any guidance or understanding of an overall
picture, jotted down information that we are now struggling with to try and
understand.
Of course, this does not apply
(for the most part) to the doctrinal scriptures, such as faith, repentance,
baptism etc. But it certainly does to those who are reading for additional
information as to where, when, and how, regarding the geographical setting of
the Land of Promise itself. It is as if they say to themselves:
• Let’s see, the Land of Promise
has a hill. It is called “Cumorah.” OK. Let’s see where a hill is that we can
consider the location of the Land of Promise.
• Let’s see, there is a
narrowing of the land—called a “narrow neck” but we need not place too much
emphasis on the word “narrow.” We need to find a place where the land narrows—that’s
the key.
• Let’s see, we need a river.
The direction of flow is not that important—it just needs to be a major river
that runs through where the major land area is located.
• Let’s see, we need two land
masses. While they are called north and south, we need not worry too much about
directions, since we can use the term “Mormon North” or “Nephite North” to make
any adjustments needed.
• Let’s see, it says a land of
many waters, rivers and fountains. We need a place with a lot of lakes and
rivers. Fountains is not all that important. What are they, anyway?
• Let’s see, Jacob says they
were on an island and Helaman says they were surrounded by four seas. We can
fit most any place into that one since there has always been areas with a lot
of water, and if we go far enough, we can find a sea in any direction, or at
least in two directions—that should be enough.
It seems that theorists are so
committed to a certain place or location that their mantra seems to be that
they’ll find a way to fit things in, and if something doesn’t, well, the world
has changed, and also no one seems to know for certain, least of all those who
wrote anciently, since they only saw a very small portion of their land, and
were only interested in a local family and what happened to it, anyway. Let’s
not burden ourselves with too much detail.
Then there is the theorist who
is more involved with what a modern day prophet has said than what an ancient
prophet who lived on the land wrote.
• Let’s see, surely we can find
someone who has said he thinks this area is where Lehi landed.
• In fact, Joseph Smith claims
several areas that could have been the landing site—we can probably use one of
them.
We need to keep in mind that a
living prophet does not supplant the scriptures. As an example, when we get to
3 Nephi 23:6, we see that the Lord asked to see all the scriptures, went
through them, checked them, and said unto the Nephite leaders: “Behold, other scriptures I
would that ye should write, that ye have not”—he was the scriptures, but
he wanted the scriptures to be complete because the scriptures were more
important than knowing what a contemporary prophet had to say on the matter of
the past.
Yet, today, we have many who
want to do away with the scriptures and supplant them with more modern
information, or a more modern way of saying them. We need to keep in mind that
just because we have living prophets, they do not supersede the scriptures—and
they don’t try to. Notice that the prophets cling more to the scriptures than
anyone else.
I turned to a book last night written by one of the theorists and opened it by chance and the first thing I read was: “It seems highly probable that when Lehi and his family
arrived in the Promised Land they found a fairly significant but scattered
people already inhabiting the land. A people without government, without
religion, and perhaps with but minimum language skill. The core of their
culture had been destroyed. While once a great and cultured people, they by the
time of Lehi's arrival had been scattered and divided. Had they by that time
degenerated to a level of mere subsistence? Our record gives us few clues.”
One might expect such
a quote from someone on the fringe of the record, looking for a critic’s
fodder; however, the quote comes from one of the most revered Book of Mormon
supporters—Hugh Nibley.
One can only wonder
at the wordage used here—“It seems highly
probable that when Lehi and his family arrived in the Promised Land they found
a fairly significant but scattered people already inhabiting the land.”
Why would anyone
think someone else already inhabited the land? Moroni, in Chapter 13 of his Ether abridgement, and Lehi, in his blessings and prophesying to his family in 2 Nephi, makes it quite clear that there was no one else!
But Nibley is not
alone. John L. Sorenson has the same belief. He writes in his book (p146), ”The Lamanites in the original immigrant
group became dominant over a native population of folk already scattered on the
land when Lehi arrived.”
Soreonson adds as his
justification, “As far as the Nephites
were concerned, those subject folk would have been treated the same as the
original Lamanites, even if some physical or cultural differences between them
were apparent.” Yet, Nephi wrote: “Cursed
shall be the seed of him that mixeth with their seed: for they shall be cursed
even with the same cursing. And the Lord spake it, and it was done” (2
Nephi 5:23).” Sorenson then adds a concluding statement: “That sounds like historical fact already accomplished more than a mere
warning to future Nephites.”
However, as they
sometimes say about mixing metaphors, Sorenson is mixing time periods and not
missing a beat. The scripture quoted, as is easily seen when read, refers to (left)
his rebellious brothers (2 Nephi 5:19), not an additional group of people that
Sorenson claims. The scripture has to do with the Lamanites that would not
serve Nephi and sought to kill him, and the Lord was reminding Nephi that his
earlier prophesy was being fulfilled as the Lamanites separated themselves from
the Nephites and were “cut off from the Lord’s presence” (2 Nephi 5:20).
As a result of this
separation, the Lord had “caused the cursing to come upon them (the Lamanites),
yea even a sore cursing, because of their iniquity. For behold, they had
hardened their hearts against him, that they had become like unto a flint,
wherefore, as they were white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome, that they
might not be enticing unto my people the Lord
God did cause a skin of blackness
to come upon them” (2 Nephi 5:21).
This was a done deal,
i.e., because Nephi’s brethren had separated themselves from him and the Lord,
the curse was brought upon them. Nephi went on to further explain this new division between
the Nephites (his people) and the Lamanites (his brethren), when he wrote: “And
thus saith the Lord God: I will cause that they shall be loathsome unto thy
people, save they shall repent of their iniquities. And cursed shall be the
seed of him that mixeth with their seed; for they shall be cursed even with the
same cursing. And the Lord spake it, and it was done” (2 Nephi 5:22-23).
(See the next post, “Let’s
See, How Shall We Speculate Today? Part II,” for the continuing process of how
speculation by the Theorists paint a completely inaccurate and misleading
picture of the Nephites and any others in the Land of Promise and, more importantly, discredits the very scriptural record we all hold sacred)
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