Another Attempt to Discredit Frederick G. Williams – Part II

Continued from the previous post, regarding the overall Land of Promise the Lord kept from those sight of man during the period after the Flood until the Europeans arrived in the Western Hemisphere in the 15^th century. We are covering the last of the comments made by a Reader trying to minimize Frederick G. Williams’ written comment about Lehi’s landing, and cause dissension for not upholding Joseph Smith’s claimed statements about North America.
• Reader: “Didn't Joseph Smith state during Zions Camp they were traveling across the "plains of the Nephites. "Didn't Joseph Smith state the mounds and bones they encountered were "proof"?”

Route of Zion’s Camp, from New Portage, Ohio, just south of Kirtland, to Liberty, Missouri—a distance of about 900 miles

Response: First, regarding the Plains of the Nephites, Joseph did not say this; secondly, he did not discuss this to our knowledge with anyone at Zion’s Camp. He wrote this in a reminiscing letter to his wife, Emma, in which he stated in part: “The whole of our journey…wandering over the plains of the Nephites, recounting occasionally the history of the Book of Mormon, roving over the mounds of that once beloved people of the Lord, picking up their skulls and their bones, as a proof of its divine authenticity.”
    First of all, this “proof” was the proof of the divinity of the Book of Mormon, not where Lehi landed, or where Lehi lived, etc. He also during Zion’s Camp stated verbally a vision he had of who Zelph was—a white Lamanite who served under the Prophet Onandagus, etc. They saw a Lamanite’s remains, heard Joseph state that this had been where Nephites had roamed, etc.
    Now, one should keep in mind, which the reader seems to neglect to do, that in 55 BC, Hagoth built extremely large ships in which many Nephites and some Lamanites set sail for “a land which was northward,” many of which were never heard from again. Consequently, according to Mormon’s abridgement, there were Nephites and Lamanites that went northward and were lost to the knowledge of the Nephites in the Land of Promise (Lehi’s “isle” of promise). Their destination was northward—north of Andean South America is Central America, Mesoamerica, and North America, all of which had descendants of the Lamanites within those borders by the time the Europeans arrived.

Map showing Lehi’s landing site at Coquimbo Bay/La Serena, Chile, at 30º South Latitude; Nephi’s fleeing north to escape his brothers, the major events taking place between 600 BC and 421 AD; and Hagoth’s ships (yellow arrow) sailing northward

• Reader: “The Prophet Joseph Smith stated these things were "proof" of the divine authenticity of the Book of Mormon, and you set the geography of Book of Mormon in Ecuador. All based on the unimpeachable character of Frederick G. Williams?”
    Response: First, Andean South America covers not only Ecuador, but Peru, central to northern Chile, and western Bolivia. Second, surely you are aware that Jacob, speaking to the Nephites in the Temple during a two-day conference, stating:
1. That they were on an island (2 Nephi 10:20);
2. There were others of the House of Israel on other islands or locations (2 Nephi 10:21);
3. These were of the House of Israel whom God had led away from time to time (2 Nephi 10:22).
    The point is, as stated by several prophets of the Church, and some during their Temple dedicatory prayers in these distant lands, that the entire Western Hemisphere is the land of promise. Thus, starting in the south with the landing, and moving northward through Central and Mesoamerica, and into North America, we find that Nephites and Lamanites occupied all these areas, making all of Joseph Smith’s comments about Nephites in South America, Central America, and North America, accurate.
    There is no impugning anyone’s character.
• Reader: “I also believe Frederick G. Williams character is unimpeachable. I have no proof otherwise. But it doesn't mean he could have written something down incorrectly from his memory.”

Cafeteria style views, i.e., picking and choosing which things are correct and which are not

Response: As the saying goes, anything is possible. However, since Joseph’s scribes are not known for misquoting him and writing down the things he said incorrectly in official Church assignments, etc., one has to be reaching pretty far to decide this one particular sentence was copied down wrong. If we do that, cafeteria-style picking and choosing what we accept and what we do not, we then are free to pick and choose what doctrines we think are accurate and God-inspired and what doctrines we believe have been misquote and mis-written.
    That is not a path we care to trod, nor do we recommend it to anyone.
• Reader: “That doesn't make his character unimpeachable. So what do you believe?”
Response: We believe, as Joseph Smith stated, that men are human and are subject to the frailties of temporal life. Some are better than others, and those the Lord calls, He calls to do a job in which the vast majority serve and complete their callings admirably. We also believe it is not up to us or any member to pick and choose what someone officially says or writes in those positions we decide to accept and what we decide not to accept.
• Reader: “Do you think the Prophet Joseph Smith was wrong? That he made stuff up about mounds and bones just to keep his men together? That he lied? I certainly hope not.”
Response: We believe all that Joseph Smith stated was true when speaking as a prophet. We also believe that Joseph Smith, like all of us, had opinions, and sometimes speculated on matters when stating his personal views, as all Church members and leaders have always done. Joseph even made statements about that, as we have recorded numerous times. We also accept the comment made by Frederick G. Williams which he wrote down. We also believe these two issues are not contradictory nor exclusive. They merely point out what so many other Church leaders have said over the years, North, Central and South America are all the promised land. And as far as we read the scriptural record, it bears this out.
• Reader: “Yet, you take a written statement from Williams…”

Kirtland Temple, where an angel attended the Dedicatory Prayer

Response: You muse not know that Williams never said, nor did he imply at any time, that the information written on the piece of paper was something Joseph Smith told or dictated to him. He never claimed it was a revelation to the Church or that it came from Joseph Smith. He did say, however, that the written statement came to him via a statement received from an angel that appeared in the Kirtland Temple during the dedicatory meeting and prayer and sat down between himself and Joseph Smith Sr. That several others recorded seeing the angel, including leaders of the time, suggests the event happened. It was even announced from the pulpit at this meeting after the angel left the temple.
• Reader: “…while ignoring numerous statements from Joseph Smith, then you dedicate hours and hours trying to prove to everyone that the Book of Mormon occurred in present day Northern South America. Whatever!”
Response: We do not claim that Lehi’s “isle of promise” was in northern South America. That would limit the area to Colombia and Ecuador. The location of the Land of Promise Lehi inherited was in West central South America, referred to as Andean South America, which includes Ecuador, Peru, western Bolivia and central to northern Chile. The fact that you want to make these events mutually exclusive is what creates the difficulty and the lack of understanding.
    When you put together all that has been said and written about the subject, it all makes sense and the entire Western Hemisphere was the area where Nephites and Lamanites later roamed; however, the written record in the Book of Mormon is about the specific part of the Land of Promise given to first the Jaredites (northern part) and then to Lehi (the southern part), and was only a portion of the overall lands that were kept “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).
    It might be of interest to keep this in mind in understanding the overall promised land mentioned by Moroni regarding the land “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). In fact, there are in this sense many finite lands of promise in the larger land of promise. This is why the prophet Jacob can speak of the house of Israel in the latter days being “restored to the true church and fold of God; when they shall be gathered home to the lands of their inheritance, and shall be established in all their lands of promise” (2 Nephi 9:2). The covenant the Lord made with Israel concerns their “restoration to the lands of their inheritance” (2 Nephi 6:11; 3 Nephi 29:1). Each part of the land of promise is both the land and a land since they are parts of the whole.
    Thus, that portion of the Land of Promise given to Lehi, was only a small part of the overall land dedicated by the Lord for His purposes, namely the entire North and South American continents, or the Western Hemisphere.