Continued from the previous post regarding what
several Church Presidents and Leaders have said about the Americas being the
overall location of the Land of Promise.
The prophet Heber J. Grant, the seventh President
of the Church, said in General Conference in 1937, “I am a firm
believer that this country, both North and South America, is the choice land of
the world, a land choice above all other lands, according to the words of the
prophets in the Book of Mormon. I believe in its final destiny. I believe that
there is an over-ruling Providence protecting this country. I believe that this
is the only place in the United States of America where the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints could have been established and continued without
the most terrible persecution, worse than anything we ever had” (Heber J. Grant, Conference
Report, October 1937, p98).
In 1940, J. Reuban Clark, the First Counselor in the First Presidency,
said: "Thus the hemisphere—Zion in its full area—was becoming “a land of
liberty…clearly, if the people of this land,
this whole land of America, all of it, must serve Jesus Christ, ‘the God of the
land,’ or be swept off, and this is the gist of all and every blessing promised
for, and every judgment uttered against this land, the God must so provide that
men in all the Americas could serve him. The era of the Gentiles must be an era
of freedom of worship throughout the Hemisphere else Zion could not be
established. This was God’s plan and must be brought about. Then in the early
decades of the last century, both before and after Joseph’s First Vision, God
moved upon the other peoples, one by one, to assert and win their independence,
and as fast as they won it, they one by one—I am speaking with historical
accuracy—set up their new governmental systems in the framework of our
Constitution, sometimes in the first instance, practically copying it word for
word. Different juridical traditions have led them to develop their
governmental systems along diverging lines from ours, but in great principles
their fundamental document is a replica of our God-given instrument. Thus the
hemisphere –Zion in its full area—was becoming “a land of liberty” (J. Reuben Clark Jr., “America’s
Divine Destiny,” Messages of the First Presidency, ed. James R. Clark,
Vol. 6, Bookcraft, Salt Lake City, 1975, p108)
In October
Conference in 1940, Elder George Albert Smith, then an Apostle and later
President of the Church, stated in speaking of the Book of Mormon: "They will find that it contains, in addition to what
the Bible has told us about the world, what the Lord has said about this
Western Hemisphere—that this should be a land of
liberty unto the Gentiles and that no king should dwell upon this land, but
that He, the God of Heaven, would be our King and would fortify this land
against all the nations, that this should be a land of peace and happiness” (Conference Report, October 1940).
Nearly three years later, David O. McKay, Second Counselor in the First Presidency and later
Prophet, said of the Land of Promise being America: “and this includes Canada and the southern republics, was a choice land
when the Jaredites left the land of Shinar approximately four thousand years
ago. So it was fourteen hundred years later when Lehi and his colony formed the
nucleus of a nation, prospered on the bounty of the country, and after a
thousand years perished because of transgression. America was a great land when
the stately Indian chiefs ruled their tribes, which thrived from the Bering Sea
in the north to the Panama and towering Andes in the South” (David O. McKay, Conference
Report, April 1943, pp17-18.)
This alone
should make it clear that the promised land, that land of which Lehi’s Land of
Promise, was a part, was the entire North and South America, the Western
Hemisphere. To make sure this is understood correctly, we quote another Apostle,
which later became President of the Church:
Ezra Taft Benson in General Conference, said: "The Promised Land,
the land of Zion, includes all of North and South America" I found they [in 11 Latin American nations he had visited] liked to be
referred to as Americans…I found they were happy to learn that to the
Latter-day Saints the Promised Land, the land of Zion, includes all of North
and South America” (Ezra Taft Benson, Conference Report, April 1960, p48). In
addition, he added in the next Conference that “this
choice land of the Americas...” (Ezra Taft Benson, Conference Report,
October 1962, p15).
It is
also of interest to note what Apostle Harold B. Lee, later to become the 11th
President of the Church, said: “...from
the writings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, and of other inspired men, it seems
all are in agreement that the followers of Lehi came to the western shores of
South America....I believe we are [today] not far from the place where the
history of the people of Lehi commenced in western America” (Harold
B. Lee, Quarterly Historical Report for the Andes Mission, 11 November 1959.
Cited in Sorenson, Sourcebook, 390).
From all
of this and others, it seems impossible that theorists want to center the Land
of Promise only in North America, and even others like Rod L. Meldrum and some
other Heartland and Great Lakes theorists want to limit it to only within the
boundaries of the United States. In another comment from Elder Ezra Taft
Benson, while President of the Quorum of the Twelve, we find very different
understanding.
President Ezra Taft Benson speaking to
a gathering of the Priesthood
In La
Paz, Bolivia, along the southeastern Peruvian border, Elder Benson said to a
gathering of the Saints: “God raised
up wise leaders among your progenitors which afforded Latin American countries
political freedom and independence. I only mention the names of a few whom God
raised up to accomplish His holy and Sovereign purposes: Jose de San Martin,
Bernardo O’Higgins, and Simon Bolivar. These were some of the ‘founding fathers’
of your continent. I believe it was very significant that when independence
came to the countries of South America, governments were established on
constitutional principles—some patterned after the Constitution of the United
States. I believe this was a very necessary step which preceded the preaching
of the gospel in South America” (Ezra Taft Benson, “The Righteous
Need not Fear,” La Paz, Bolivia, 10-18 January 1979, in Ezra Taft Benson, Teachings
of Ezra Taft Benson, Bookcraft, Salt Lake City,1988, p695).
In Mexico in 1977, Spencer W. Kimball, while
President of the Church, stated: “Columbus discovered America in 1492. After
him came many colonizers and explorers. The Puritans and Pilgrims came from
Europe…For For four hundred years the Lamanites were scattered throughout the
Americas. Cortez came here, and Pizzaro went to South America. They had great
influence upon the people. They scattered them and persecuted them...One of the
first efforts of the Prophet Joseph Smith was to take the gospel to the Lamanites.
Continuing until now, we have preached the gospel to the Lamanites. There are
probably sixty million Lamanites in America. They are happy for the gospel as
it comes to them…In many natural resources, the land of America is rich and
will produce abundantly. This is for you, for us, and for all the good people
who live upon the land of America. Protection against enemies has been
promised. In all the Americas, neither kings nor emperors will combine to take
the land. Great promises are given us, if we live the commandments God has
given us…(Spencer W. Kimball, Official Reports of the Monterrey
Mexico Area Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, held in Monterrey, Mexico February 19 and
20, 1977, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City,
1978), pp2-3).
To
emphasize the oval hemispheric nature of the Land of Promise, we quote again
from Elder Ezra Taft Benson, when he was the President of the Quorum of the
Twelve: “The Lord recognized that
truth will only prosper where religious freedom exists. Religious freedom
cannot be fully enjoyed without a full measure of political freedom. So before
the gospel was restored, wise and inspired men in North, Central, and South
America were raised up who proclaimed the sovereign truth that all men—not just
the privileged, the rich, or the rulers—but all men have divine rights. Among
these rights are life, liberty (which includes our freedom to worship), and
right to property (Ezra Taft Benson, Puerto Rico, 12-17 December 1980).
In
addition, Elder Benson also stated on this matter that “When a Book of Mormon prophet referred to the
nations of the world, this hemisphere was designated as `good’ (Ezra
Taft Benson, Puerto Rico Priesthood Leadership Meeting, 12-17 December 1980;
cited in Ezra Taft Benson, Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, Bookcraft,
Salt Lake City, 1988).
According to Prophets and Church
Leaders, the Land of Promise encompasses the entire Hemisphere of North and
South America
There
simply cannot be any argument about other Land of Promise encompassing the
entire North and South American continents. And from this, we should understand
that Lehi landed in the far south of South America, along the coast of central
Chile, and when Nephi fled from this brothers who sought his life, he settled
in the area of Peru, and the rest of the storyline takes place within Peru, and
later the Land Northward, where the Jaredites once thrived, in Ecuador and the
southern part of Colombia. From this overall land, Hagoth’s ships sailed “to a
land which was northward,” eventually landing in the area of Central and then
Mesoamerica, and from there eventually spread over Mexico and into North
America (U.S. and southern Canada). This is why artifacts of both Nephite and
Lamanite have been found throughout the hemisphere, and where Lehi’s final
descendants, as Lamanites, are found throughout the land, as so stated by the
Church leaders quoted above.
In all of this, the specific land referred to as the Land of
Promise, though consisting of the entire North, Central and South America—that
land referred to by Moroni in Ether “and
that after the waters had receded from off the face of this land it became a
choice land above all other lands, a chosen land of the Lord; wherefore the
Lord would have that all men should serve him who dwell upon the face thereof”
(Ether 13:2)—was the overall Land of Promise. And within that land area, was
the land of the Jaredites, Mulekites, Nephites and Lamanites, as described in
the Book of Mormon.
To state otherwise
seems contrary to all that has said by the brethren over the years.
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