Continuing with the previous
posts regarding one of our readers sending us information of a blog and asking
our opinion and comments.
Blog comment: “Proponents of a North America (labeled
Heartland for ease of reference) setting claim the modern name was given by
divine messengers, and Joseph Smith’s mention of Cumorah in D&C 127.”
Response: One divine
messenger was the Angel Moroni, who told Joseph Smith: “there was a book
deposited, written upon gold plates, giving an account “of the former
inhabitants of this continent, and the source from whence they sprang” (Joseph
Smith-History 1:34).
Map showing North and South America as one
continent, a fact of history and geography books up into the mid 20th
century
We have already spent
time on this in this series that the word and term “continent” in the 1820s
(and until World War II) included both North and South Americas. Both were called
the American continent (Gibbes 1850), a fact that existed well into the 19th
century (Martin W. Lewis, Kären E.
Wigen (1997). The Myth of Continents: a Critique of Metageography. Berkeley:
University of California Press. p. 30).
Martin Waldseemuller, a map maker in 1507 wrote: “But now these parts (Europe, Asia and
Africa, the three continents of the Ptolemaic geography) have been extensively
explored and a fourth part has been discovered by Americus Vespuccius, I do not
see what right any one would have to object to calling this part after
Americus, who discovered it and who is a man of intelligence, and so to name it
Amerige, that is, the Land of Americus, or America: since both Europa and Asia
got their names from women.”
In the beginning,
what is now North and South America were simply called America, or the American
continent. When he unveiled his 4’x8’ map, Waldseemuller had the large title
“America” across what is now present day Brazil. In 1538, the famous geographer
Gerard Mercator chose to name the entire north and south parts of America as
one large “America” for the entire Western Hemisphere. And thus it stayed until
around the Second World War, when United States map makers began separating the
name into North America and South America. Even so, most of Latin America,
Mexico, Central America, Caribbean islands, and South America still refer to
both north and south as one continent, the “American Continent,” and call
themselves “Americans.”
Joseph Smith knew the
Western Hemisphere as one continent, and the angel Moroni addressed himself to
Joseph’s level of knowledge and understanding, calling the Land of Promise
residents on “this continent,” meaning both North and South America (and
Central America as well).
Blog comment: [It was
also on] “revelation, based on 1) an
experience related by David Whitmer, 2) Oliver Cowdery's Letter VII that
describes in detail the last battles and declares the setting in New York is a
fact, and 3) Joseph Smith's endorsement of Cowdery's letter.”
Response:
First of all, the Book of Mormon scriptural record tell us only that “And it came to pass that my people, with their wives and their
children, did now behold the armies of the Lamanites marching towards them; and
with that awful fear of death which fills the breasts of all the wicked, did
they await to receive them. And it came to pass that they came to battle
against us, and every soul was filled with terror because of the greatness of
their numbers”
(Mormon 6:6-7); though Mormon chose to use 72 words to describe this moment,
Oliver Cowdery writes 3,738 words to describe what took place in a very
fanciful, poetic manner, choosing to describe attitudes and events of which we
have no specific knowledge. He also takes another 361 words to describe this
area as being the same as that of the Hill Cumorah mentioned in the scriptural
record—4,099 words in all to which he writes completely from his own ideas and
beliefs—none of which are found in the scriptural record, or can be verified by
any other writing. Nor is there any record that Joseph Smith agreed with that
which was written by Oliver Cowdery. Secondly, it must be said that the description
of the battle he spends considerable time writing about is strictly fiction,
i.e., there is no reference to anything he writes in the scriptural record
other than the two verses mentioned above.
His
words are general descriptions of war and the conditions and attitudes,
feelings and fears that would be consistent with the encounter, but not
referenced in any way in the scriptural record other than two general verses.
Nor can his description of the Hill Cumorah in New York meet any criteria of
the hill mentioned in the scriptural record. All that can be said is that Oliver
Cowdery wrote down his own opinion and view of this point.
Third, when the author of the
blog writes: “2)
Oliver Cowdery's Letter VII that describes in detail the last battles and
declares the setting in New York is a fact, and 3) Joseph Smith's endorsement
of Cowdery's letter,” two of his three sources for his
placement of the hill Cumorah in upstate New York, it can only be verified that
Oliver Cowdery’s opinion is merely his opinion without any corroborating evidence
that Joseph Smith agreed or even read what Cowdery had written.
Fourth,
with his third point that of the story told by Peter Whitmer, based on the
earlier comments written above regarding that incident, there is not a single
reference or even suggestion that can be claimed to suggest that the Hill
Cumorah in New York is the Hill Cumorah in the scriptural record beyond one
person’s viewpoint.
Blog comment: “On this point, we should ask what the Three
Witnesses were witnesses of.
They say they were commanded to "bear record of it," meaning
"the work." Oliver's letters to W.W. Phelps, including Letter VII,
were part of his testimony about the early events in Church history, including
the coming forth and the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. (Rejecting his
letters, in my view, is rejecting his testimony).”
Response: Point out
that Oliver Cowdery’s testimony of his opinion that is not based on verifiable revelation
does not mean a rejection of Oliver Cowdery, nor his belief in the things he
saw and did in scribing the translation the Book of Mormon, only his opinion on
this matter of the hill Cumorah. As one reader of this person’s blog regarding
this issue said, “Without some reasonable
evidence that anyone claimed revelation on the matter, all you have is simple
presumption based on your preferred theory.”
It should also be
pointed out that David Whitmer said of Oliver Cowdery (left), who both saw the plates, that upon his death,
which was not in Utah, but in Whitmer’s home on March 3, 1850: “Oliver died
believing as I do today," which included a belief that Joseph was a fallen
prophet, and that the Doctrine and Covenants contained false revelations. His
sister is claimed to have said that Oliver, when at Council Bluffs, previous to
his death, expressed, in her presence his regret and sorrow over the base
doctrines and corrupt practices of the Brighamite leaders. (Tanner 1968, 28)
So when Oliver also
said that his letters, from which this above quote is obtained, is based on
fact. What fact? If he knew something
we do not, other than his mere opinion, he does not say nor imply that he does.
Accepting the fact that he believed the two hills were the same, he simply has
made up his mind from the data he was exposed to, that the hill Cumorah in
upstate New York was the same as the hill Cumorah mentioned in the scriptural
record. That is his opinion and he is free to express it and believe it. In the
early days of the Church, this was not an uncommon thought, since the presence
of the drumlin hill, so named by members of the Church, was the one and only
hill Cumorah.
(See the next post, “America is
the Land of Promise—But Where is America? – Part VII,” for answers as to where
the overall Land of Promise is located and to what land the Prophets have
spoken and the Lord indicated)
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