Land of Promise Features that Cannot be Ignored—Where are they in Mesoamerica or the Heartland/Great Lakes? Part IV

Continuing with comparing the scriptural record descriptions and consider where these points are in either of the more northern theories claimed by theorists.
• Isle of the Sea
Jacob, a consecrated priest and teacher (2 Nephi 5:26), and future prophet, was assigned by Nephi to speak to the Nephites during a two-day conference of members (2 Nephi 6:1).

Jacob speaking in the Temple to a gathering of the Nephites

During this time, Jacob singled out the subject of how blessed the Nephites were, even though having been driven out of their promised homeland of Jerusalem, but to another, better land, which the Lord had consecrated unto the Nephites (2 Nephi 10:19; Ether 13:2). Part of this land that the Lord held in reserve since the waters of the Flood receded, was to be the location of the New Jerusalem (Ether 13:4,6,10).
    Evidently, the Nephites had been worrying over, or at least asking questions about, being cast out of Jerusalem and if they were still part of the promise the Lord had made to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. Also it seems many were quite concerned about this question, and felt that being cast out into the oceans and dwelling far away from Jerusalem that they might be forgotten by the Lord.
    To this, Jacob said of the Lord, “I will consecrate this land unto thy seed, and them who shall be numbered among thy seed, forever, for the land of their inheritance; for it is a choice land, saith God unto me, above all other lands, wherefore I will have all men that dwell thereon that they shall worship me, saith God” (2 Nephi 10:19). He told the Nephites that those of Jerusalem “who were not destroyed would be scattered among all nations” (2 Nephi 10:6).
    He also told them that at some point in the future, that “They shall be gathered in from their long dispersion, from the isles of the sea, and from the four parts of the earth; and the nations of the Gentiles shall be great in the eyes of me, saith God, in carrying them forth to the lands of their inheritance” (2 Nephi 10:8). Jacob also told them that in the interim, there would be no kings on this land and that it would be a land of liberty:” (2 Nephi 10:11). And that the land upon which they stood would be consecrated to them and their seed forever as a land of their inheritance (2 Nephi 10:19).
   Then Jacob reminds them where they are in trying to ease their minds that the Lord knows their location. “nevertheless, we have been driven out of the land of our inheritance; but we have been led to a better land, for the Lord has made the sea our path, and we are upon an isle of the sea” (2 Nephi 10:20).
    Jacob assured them that while their fathers had been driven out of Jerusalem by the Lord, had not forgotten them, but led them across the sea and settled them on an island in the midst of that sea.

    Then, to reassure the Nephites that they were not the only ones that had been led away from the House of Israel, or Jerusalem, he stated: “Great are the promises of the Lord unto them who are upon the isles of the sea; wherefore as it says isles, there must needs be more than this, and they are inhabited also by our brethren” (2 Nephi 10:21).

The Land of Promise where Lehi landed was an island in the midst of the sea

Now, we need to keep in mind that this information was given to the congregation as a whole regarding their destination and location of the Land of Promise that had been given to Lehi—it was on an island in the midst of the sea.
    This means that the Land of Promise is an island, or was an island at the time of Lehi’s landing and during Nephi and Jacob’s lifetime. The problem is, that there is no way that Mesoamerica can qualify as an island now, nor at anytime in the past. The same can be said of North America. Though the scriptures are quite clear on this, the theorists either ignore this comment or try to obscure it or shrug it off with a convoluted, unsatisfactory answer.
• Sea that Divides the Land
We find that during the time of Ether, Moroni translated or abridged the Ether record that stated quite clearly: “They built a great city by the narrow neck of land, by the place where the sea divides the land” (Ether 10:20). Now this city, which is nameless, but probably the City of Desolation (Mormon 3:5,7), was near the Narrow Neck of Land, which Mormon discussed (Alma 22:32) situated between the Land Northward and the Land Southward, was evidently where Hagoth built his shipyard and the extremely large ships that took many Nephites to the north, “to a land which was northward” (Alma 63:4).

A bay or gulf could cut so far into the land that it created two peninsular areas on each end, and a narrow neck or small neck of land between the land on the one side of the land on the other side

So what kind of sea could divide the land? Certainly a deep gulf, a bay, or a wide river mouth.
Gulf: A sweeping recess in the ocean from the general line of the shore into the land, or a tract of water extending from the ocean or a sea into the land, between two points or promontories;
Bay: A smaller Gulf, the cuts further into the land with less width;
Inlet: A bay or recess in the shore of the sea or of a lake or large river, or between isles. It is more like a wide river mouth opening into the sea.

A bay showing a body of water attached to a sea that cuts into and separates the land

At the northern end of the narrow neck of land, the Jaredites built a city, evidently as a buffer for their southern border, or a lodge that served as a embarkation point into the hunting preserve on the southern end of the narrow neck (2 Nephi 10:21). This hunting preserve or wilderness to the south was the area the Nephites called Bountiful in the Land Southward.
    The narrow neck of land was caused or created by the encroaching sea into the bay that separated the Land Northward form the Land Southward, creating that narrow neck. When Mormon described this land to the south, he wrote: “and thus the land of Nephi and the land of Zarahemla were nearly surrounded by water, there being a small neck of land between the land northward and the land southward” (Alma 22:32)

An example of an island surrounded by water, with two large land masses and a small, narrow neck of land in between, showing a Sea to the North, a Sea to the South, a Sea to the West and a Sea to the East. Thus, the Land Southward was completely surrounded by water except for a narrow neck or extension of land that led between the large Land Southward, and the large Land Northward, and the small and narrow neck connecting the two lands. This obviously gives us at least three seas, a Sea South, a Sea East and a Sea West. The Sea North would not have been in the Land Southward, but the Sea far to the north beyond the Land of Many Waters, rivers and fountains.
    Lakes, by the way, do not as a rule divide land, since there is movement around a lake in all directions. A gulf, a bay, an inlet or a wide river mouth do separate both sides of the land, forcing one into a single bypass of the water. In South America, that is the Bay of Quayaquil that separated what is now Ecuador from Peru, creating a narrow neck of land between the two against the Sea East that covered most of the ancient continent. When the sea rose, or the continent was lifted up, the Andean Uplift formed steep mountains along th eastern area, still maintaining a narrow neck.
    Thus, too the Jaredites, the Gulf of Guayaquil divided their homeland in the north, the area called the Land Northward in the Land of Promise, from the rest of the island, or the land to the south, called the Land Southward. This body of water, or sea as it was called, still exists today and still basically divides the country of Ecuador from the country of Peru.
(See the next post, “Land of Promise Features that Cannot be Ignored—Where are they in Mesoamerica or the Heartland/Great Lakes? Part V,” for more scriptural record descriptions of the land of Promise that do not match  Mesoamerica or the Heartland/Great Lakes)