How Can Anyone Defend Mesoamerica as the Land of Promise? – Part IV

Continuing from the previous post with a list of differences between what Nephi, Jacob, Mormon and Moroni told us and just the opposite view held by Sorenson.
• Moroni tells us that the Jaredites never moved south of the narrow neck, keeping the Land Southward for an animal preserve for hunting.
   Sorenson tells us just the opposite saying that his Jaredites (Olmecs) moved south of the narrow neck and occupied a secondary, though significant, area in the Land Southward.
• Nephi tells us that he shed tears over his brothers because of their unrighteousness; Enos tells us that he prayed mightily for the Lamanites, as did the Nephites.
   Sorenson tells us just the opposite saying that “the scripture is clear that the Nephites were prejudiced against the Lamanites.”

Nephites welcome the People of Ammon in the Land of Jershon

• Mormon tells us that the People of Ammon, who had been Lamanites, and converted under Ammon’s preaching, and given the Land of Jershon for an inheritance, were moved during the war to Melek so the Nephite armies could occupy Jershon in battles against the Lamanites and Zoramites, where the People of Ammon provided food and supplies to support the Nephites (Alma 43:13).
   Sorenson tell us just the opposite, saying that this move was to shelter the People of Ammon because they had been a hindrance to the Nephites because they would not take up arms against the Lamanites
• Nephi tells us what happened to subsequent plantings of his seeds, that the following year when he said, “and we did prosper exceedingly; for we did sow seed, and we did reap again in abundance” (2 Nephi 5:11).
   Sorenson, on the other hand, tells us just the opposite, saying: “What happened to their plants from the seeds the Lehi party carried across the ocean in subsequent plantings is not stated.” And then goes on to say that subsequent plantings would not have gone well.
• Nephi tells us exactly how he traveled in his ship “driven forth before the wind,” i.e., on the ocean currents pushed across the sea by the winds, and that where he landed was a large forest, animals of every kind, and ore of every kind, including gold, silver and copper—with only one place along the west coast of the Western Hemisphere that matches that exact information.
   Sorenson tells us just the opposite, saying that Nephi left us no information in the Book of Mormon about the routes nor did he tell us in modern terms where they landed.
• Nephi tell us his father lived all his days at Jerusalem, meaning they lived outside the walls in the farming lands around Jerusalem, and would have grown up being farmers.
   Sorenson tells us just the opposite, saying that the tangle of forest and swamp along the coast itself may have been too hard for Lamanite new comers to farm effectively since they wouldn’t immediately get the knack of cultivation in that local area.
• Mormon tells us that the River Sidon was in the east and ran by the land of Zarahemla.
   Sorenson tells us just the opposite, saying that the City of Zarahemla was on the west bank of the River Sidon.
• Lehi tells us that it is wisdom that this land should be kept as yet from the knowledge of other nations; for behold, many nations would overrun the land, that there would be no place for an inheritance.

Mesoamericanists claim that people were already in the Land of Promise when Lehi landed

Sorenson tells us just the opposite, saying that archaeological and linguistic studies assure us that people were indeed present when Lehi landed.
• Moroni tells us that the Nephites still spoke and were more familiar with the Hebrew language than the Egyptian, even at the time of the end of the Nephite nation.
   Sorenson tell us just the opposite, saying that “a knowledge of spoken Hebrew possibly continued among the Nephite rulers for a time, but that such special elite knowledge lasted down to the time of Cumorah is hard to believe. Still the record’s silence prevents settling the matter”
• Mormon tells us that Mormon died, after giving the lineage record to his son, Moroni, who wrote in it, then hid it up to the Lord.
   Sorenson tell us just the opposite, saying that “With the extinction of the Nephites, lineage records were still kept by others,” who, in Sorenson’s mind, “would, of course, give a very different version of history than the Nephite one.”
• Mormon tells us that the Nephites had the “cow,” “horse,” “ass,” and the “elephant.”
   Sorenson asks the question, “Isn’t it obvious that the “cow” of the Book of Mormon was our familiar bovine, straight out without all this hedging? He answers is own question by writing: “No, it is not at all obvious.” Then goes on to ask another question, “So what might the Nephite term translated by Joseph Smith as cow actually have signified?
• Mormon tells us that the People of Ammon, who had been Lamanites, and covenanted never to take up arms again, were protected by the Nephites, states of them: “And now behold as they never had hitherto been a disadvantage to the Nephites, they became now at this period of time also a great support.”
   Sorenson tell us just the opposite, saying that these People of Ammon soon proved more hindrance than help in Jershon.

Nephites had an “abundance of silk and fine-twined linen, and all manner of good homely cloth" (Alma 1:29)

  

• Mormon says that the Nephites had silk and linen (Mormon 4:6).

   Sorenson tells us just the opposite since neither fabric was found in Mesoamerica at the coming of the Spaniards. He adds that “The problem might be no more than linguistics,” and that they might have meant henequen and rabbit fur instead (as though the spirit guiding Joseph Smith’s translation did not know the difference).
• Nephi tells us his people were white and exceedingly fair and delightsome (2 Nephi 5:21).
   Sorenson tells us “People in Mesoamerica that light reddish-brown or copper-colored (untanned) skins was normal with olive or yellowish-white tints also present in some; and that their hair was shaded black to fully brown, with eyes most often brown, although they could also range into gray, blue and hazel.
• Lehi tells us that the Land of Promise would be kept as yet from the knowledge of other nations (2 Nephi 1:8). Nephi tells us that in a vision he saw a man worked upon by the Holy Spirit coming to the Land of Promise, followed by Gentiles (1 Nephi 13:10-12).
   Sorenson tells us, saying that the Americas could have held millions of people—those referred to by father Lehi when he assured his sons that even in their day other peoples were waiting in the wings, so to speak “many nations would overrun the land,” if they only knew of it—telling us that this could and did happen.
Response: Yet, Nephi shows it would not take place for 2,000 years.
• Nephi tells us that the Gentiles would overrun the Land of Promise after Columbus discovered America, 2000 years in the future (1 Nephi 13:10-12)
   Sorenson tell us, saying that it doesn’t make sense the Lord would wait 1,100 years after Cumorah for the Gentiles to come and destroy the Lamanites.
Response: The Point once again being, how can anyone support Mesoamerica and Sorenson’s many claims about it when the information runs so contrary to what Nephi, Jacob, Mormon and Moroni have continually told us in the scriptural record about the Land of Promise?
(See the next post, “How Can Anyone Defend Mesoamerica as the Land of Promise? – Part V,” for more insights into how far afield this research went in trying to establish Mesoamerica as the Land of Promise, and why it simply is not tenable today)