Again, we have a
question/comment from a reader too extensive, and too important, in its answer
to place in the comments section, so we are devoting an entire post to it.
The comment received
was: “You seem to think that the term
used in the promise to Lehi “a land of promise, a land which
is choice above all other lands” (2 Nephi 1:5), has to do with a land far
larger than the United States, which can only be so described as a land of
liberty, etc.”
David S.
Response: One of the problems we make is thinking the Lord
thinks in the same scope as we do, and that the early history of people covers
the same land masses and concepts we have and think in today. Both thoughts and
approaches are in error. From the time of Noah down to Lehi, a period of about
1700 years, the world only knew of the land masses of Europe, Asia and Africa.
That was the world. Those were the countries of the world, the people of the
world, the governments of the world—nothing else and nowhere else existed in
fact existed to them.
After that point in time, the Lord opened the eyes of some people
through Lehi of an entirely new world existing halfway across the oceans which
he had preserved “after the waters had
receded from off the face of this land, it became a choice land above all other
lands” (Ether 13:2).
Could anyone possibly think that entire phrase and huge land
mass had to do with just a tiny portion of that land? Did the Lord not preserve
all the land in that part of the world? That land, the Western Hemisphere, what
became known as “the Americas” from 1500 until 1940s, was called one continent,
the American Continent, and so labeled on all maps of the Western Hemisphere
until far into the 20th century. This Western Hemisphere, was
unknown to anyone (other than the Jaredites in complete secrecy) and held no
place in the knowledge of all men at the time.
By 1820, its origin and first settlers were still basically
unknown to man, leading Moroni to tell Joseph Smith of a record, “giving
an account of the former inhabitants of this continent, and the source from
whence they sprang” (JS 1:34). That is, ”this continent,” as opposed to the
“old continent,” or old world, or Asia (Middle East), etc. In fact, it was
“this land” as opposed to the “old land,” the land the world had known since
the beginning, the land the Savior walked, the Church was organized in, and the
Apostles traveled.
In 1820, twenty years
before Central American ruins were first seen and drawn, “this land” was the
Americas, the Western Hemisphere, one continent—and it was addressed as such by
Moroni, Joseph Smith, and later Church authorities.
To the Lord, and
obviously to the Angel Moroni, it was not a matter of borders of countries, but
lands themselves that bore a promise. There was no country in the Western
Hemisphere when the Lord promised Lehi that “we have obtained a land of
promise, a land which is choice above all other lands; a land which the Lord
God hath covenanted with me should be a land for the inheritance of my seed.
Yea, the Lord hath covenanted this land unto me, and to my children forever,
and also all those who should be led out of other countries by the hand of the
Lord” (2 Nephi 1:5); and “Wherefore, this
land is consecrated unto him whom he shall bring. And if it so be that they
shall serve him according to the commandments which he hath given, it shall be
a land of liberty unto them; wherefore, they shall never be brought down into
captivity; if so, it shall be because of iniquity; for if iniquity shall abound
cursed shall be the land for their sakes, but unto the righteous it shall be
blessed forever” (2 Nephi 1:7). And finally, “Wherefore, I, Lehi, have obtained a promise, that inasmuch as those
whom the Lord God shall bring out of the land of Jerusalem shall keep his
commandments, they shall prosper upon the face of this land; and they shall be
kept from all other nations, that they may possess this land unto themselves.
And if it so be that they shall keep his commandments they shall be blessed
upon the face of this land, and there shall be none to molest them, nor to take
away the land of their inheritance; and they shall dwell safely forever” (2
Nephi 1:9).
When Lehi spoke to
his sons and grandsons just before his death, he said, “And he also spake unto them concerning the land of promise, which they
had obtained—how merciful the Lord had been in warning us that we should flee
out of the land of Jerusalem” (2 Nephi 1:3). Jerusalem, of course, was a
specific land and had a name; the land just discovered by Lehi and the
Jaredites before him, had no name and was never given a name—only “The Land of
Promise.” How arrogant it is for us Americans (citizens of the United States)
to believe that only our portion of this magnificent promised land is blessed.
Canada is a magnificent land, Mexico is gorgeous as is the southwestern United
States; Central America holds a beauty unparalleled in its scope and appeal;
one would be hard-pressed to find another spot as stunning and commanding as
the jungles of Brazil; the mountains of Peru; high valleys of Ecuador and
Colombia, the coast of Argentina and the islands and cliffs of Chile.
Clearly, those
“Americans” who lay claim to the U.S. as the Land of Promise and nowhere else
have never traveled. The Lord promised the land to Lehi and his posterity—a
portion of land that was blessed from the beginning and held in abeyance after
the flood waters receded and overall part and parcel of a much larger, magnificent
land that encompasses about one-half of the world.
A Land of Promise.
There will come a
time when we realize that the Lord’s promise of a land to his people is much
larger than a small swath of land in the Eastern continents and only a portion
of that land in the western continents. The city on the hill—a phrase from the
parable of Salt and Light in Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:14), where
he tells his listeners: "You are the light of the world. A city that is
set on a hill cannot be hidden."
The
phrase eventually became popular with American politicians, especially with
Ronald Reagan who referred to this language and event on the eve of his
election in 1980: “I
have quoted John Winthrop's words more than once on the campaign trail this
year—for I believe that Americans in 1980 are every bit as committed to that
vision of a shining "city on a hill," as were those long ago
settlers....These visitors to that city on the Potomac do not come as white or
black, red or yellow; they are not Jews or Christians; conservatives or
liberals; or Democrats or Republicans. They are Americans awed by what has gone
before, proud of what for them is still…a shining city on a hill” (Election Eve
Address, “A Vision for America,” The American
Presidency Project, UC Santa Barbara).
It is not
a political statement. It is an understanding among the Lord’s people that his
Church, his doctrine, his gospel is to be held up as a shining light to the
world, and any city or land that is guided by its precepts to be a shining
light to others, to travelers, to people, to the entire world.
The
United States is not the only Christian nation, the Western Hemisphere is full
of Christian nations, in fact “there is no other national religion in this western
hemisphere other than Christian” (University Record, University of Chicago
Press, December 25, 1896, Vol 1 No39, p502).
Nor do
any people live in this land in captivity—not just the U.S., not just North
America, but also South America and the entire Western Hemisphere. Nor are
there kings governing this land. Were there kings here in the Western
Hemisphere? Yes, even in the area of today’s continental United States; are
there today? No. At this time, and for a while, there is no foreign government controlling any
nation in the Americas.
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