Why There Should be No Written Language

There are few items in Mesoamerica that theorists can point to and show that there area is superior to that of any other for the Land of Promise, and that is having a written language. After all, it was the only place in the Americas where written language survived. That the Nephites had a written language is obvious from the scriptural record.

Lamanites burned the Nephite records

“And they brought their wives and children together, and whosoever believed or had been taught to believe in the word of God they caused that they should be cast into the fire, and they also brought forth their records which contained the holy scriptures, and cast them into the fire also, that they might be burned and destroyed by fire.” (Alma 14:8)
    The problem with this is, despite the lack of consistency in the idea of a language and it being a language from either Reformed Egyptian or Hebrew, has never deterred these Mesoamerican theorists from latching on to the language idea and using it as a factor in substantiating their theory and location.
    Thus, it should be kept in mind that the Lamanites were an evil, godless, idol-worshipping people, both before, and after the 200 Years of Peace and Tranquility following the Savior’s advent among the Nephites. Not long after Nephi separated from his brothers and the sons of Ishmael, Jacob’s son, Enos, describes the Lamanites as “their hatred was fixed, and they were led by their evil nature that they became wild, and ferocious, and a bloodthirsty people, full of idolatry and filthiness; feeding upon beasts of prey; dwelling in tents, and wandering about in the wilderness with a short skin girdle about their loins and their heads shaven; and their skill was in the bow, and in the cimeter, and the ax. And many of them did eat nothing save it was raw meat; and they were continually seeking to destroy us” (Enos 1:20).
    As early as the time of Lehi’s grandson around the close of the 5^th century B.C., the Lamanites were desirous of destroying the written records of the Nephites. As Enos said: “For at the present our strugglings were vain in restoring them to the true faith. And they swore in their wrath that, if it were possible, they would destroy our records and us, and also all the traditions of our fathers” (Enos 1:14, emphasis added), and as late as the final battle with the Nephites when Mormon wrote in 385 A.D.: “having been commanded of the Lord that I should not suffer the records which had been handed down by our fathers, which were sacred, to fall into the hands of the Lamanites, (for the Lamanites would destroy them) therefore I made this record out of the plates of Nephi, and hid up in the hill Cumorah all the records which had been entrusted to me by the hand of the Lord, save it were these few plates which I gave unto my son Moroni” (Mormon 6:6, emphasis added).

Records and people were destroyed by the evil people among the Nephites as well as the Lamanites

In fact, it wasn’t just the Lamanites who burned and destroyed all the Nephite records they could lay hands upon, we find also that the evil people among the Nephites, who denied the Christ, also destroyed records. We find this among the people of Ammonihah, a city with a diverse population, a large portion of of which were descendants of Nephi, Zoram, Sam, Jacob, Joseph, Nephi’s sisters, and others who had separated themselves from the Lamanites five hundred years earlier (2 Nephi 5:6). In addition, there were also living among the Nephites in Ammonihah in 82 B.C. were some of the people of Zarahemla—Mulekites who forty years earlier outnumbered the Nephites and could still be distinguished from them (Omni:19; Mosiah 25:2.4). Most of these were angry with Alma because of the plainness of his words and his dealings with Zeezrom and the others and testified plainly against all their wickedness (Alma 14:2-3).
    In a fit of rebellion and satanic frenzy, the people of Ammonihah brought their wives and children together, and whosoever believed or had been taught to believe in the word of God they caused that they should be cast into the fire, including their records which contained the holy scriptures, and cast them into the fire also, that they might be burned and destroyed by fire” (Alma 14:8, emphasis added).
    Six years before the final battle, when Mormon was fleeing with his army through the Land Northward, the Lamanites followed, and “whatsoever lands we had passed by, and the inhabitants thereof were not gathered in, were destroyed by the Lamanites, and their towns, and villages, and cities were burned with fire; and thus three hundred and seventy and nine years passed away” (Mormon 5:5). There was no question in the minds of Mormon or Moroni that the Lamanites would destroy the Nephite writings if they found any, Mormon was even told this by the Lord, and the reason why the records were hid up in the earth (Mormon 6:6), and Moroni stated it as well (Mormon 8:4). But Mormon knew the Lord would preserve their records, and that while the Lamanites would destroy much of their works, the sacred record would be protected: “Behold, I speak unto you as though I spake from the dead; for I know that ye shall have my words” (Mormon 9:30).

Lamanites destroyed Nephite cities as the Lamanite armies drove the Nephites ever northward

There can be no doubt that the Lamanites destroyed all things Nephite, from their records to their cities. Their evil nature knew no bounds. When they captured a Nephite city and took captives, they sacrificed women and children to their idol gods (Mormon 4:14,21), in fact there was such an awful scene of blood and carnage that Mormon refused to even write about it (Mormon 5:9).
    There is no question, that from the very beginning, starting with Laman and Lemuel, there was an anger and animosity between the brothers and Nephi over the role of leadership among them. Laman, the oldest, expected to be his father’s favorite and inherit the leadership of the family upon Lehi’s death under the law of Primogeniture, which dates back to the time of Moses (Deuteronomy 21:15-17), with its widespread institution whose legal, social, and religious features were reflected in the norms of ancient Israelite society.
    Because Biblical legislation gave the firstborn male a special status with respect to inheritance rights and certain cultic regulations as part of a complex of cultic requirements, Laman became angry with Nephi when he believed his youngest brother was trying to usurp the leadership of the family even though he himself was the bekhor (firstborn male) saying: “Our younger brother thinks to rule over us and we have had much trial because of him; wherefore, now let us slay him, that we may not be afflicted more because of his words. For behold, we will not have him to be our ruler; for it belongs unto us, who are the elder brethren, to rule over this people” (2 Nephi 5:3).
    This anger at the Nephites for having stolen the birthright of Laman continued down through the centuries, and was a driving force around 30 B.C. when 300 Lamanites were converted by Lehi and Nephi and “laid down their weapons of war, and also their hatred and the tradition of their fathers” (Helaman 5:51).

Left: Giddianhi, governor of the secret society of Gadianton; Right: Lachoneus, the righteous governor of the Nephites

This is also seen in the letter Giddianhi, the governor of the secret society of Giddianhi, wrote to Lachoneus, the governor of the Nephite lands, when the robber chief said, “that this my people may recover their rights and government, who have dissented away from you because of your wickedness in retaining from them their rights of government, and except ye do this, I will avenge their wrongs” (3 Nephi 3:10).
    After one thousand years, the Lamanites still vehemently maintained that the Nephites had stolen the birthright from them and, as a result, the government of the people, the rights of leadership in the Land of Promise, and therefore the blessings of God. Though they, themselves were godless, they still maintained that the Nephites were the cause of all their problems and injustices that had befallen them, and by the time of Mormon, were so worked up about it, that their avowed driving force was to completely annihilate the Nephites and all things Nephite, including all the records that might show a different view than the one the Lamanites held to be true. Therefore, they had to destroy the scriptures, the sacred records, the Nephite histories, and all things pertaining to the Nephite claims to the land was paramount for the Lamanites to maintain their claims.
    That this was accomplished is evident from the lack of anything written surviving from the period of the Nephites. Nowhere in the Americas is there a written record of anything during the thousand year period, and certainly there is no indication that Hebrew or Reformed Egyptian languages ever existed in the Western Hemisphere that has so far been found. Thus, it should be no surprise that there is no written history in the Peruvian, Ecuadorian, Chilean and Bolivian areas of South America, and the lack of such only shows the correctness of the Book of Mormon and its overall history of the wars among the Nephites and Lamanites.