Land Filled from Sea to Sea

Original view in the Church of the Land of Promise

As we have written many times, when the Book of Promise was first published, the members reading it readily believed that the Land Northward was North America, the Land Southward was South America, and the Narrow Neck of Land was Central America.
    This general belief continued for many years, from the claim that Lehi landed at 30º South Latitude in Chile, to the belief that the size of the Land of Promise was relatively small and therefore, the entire Land of Promise was in Mesoamerica.
    Through he pages of the Book of Mormon we find that over the years, he Land of Promise was described as filled with Lehi’s descendants on more than one occasion. In fact, the idea of people filling up the land is a constant thread throughout the scriptural record. While it seems like this happened quickly when reading the scriptural record, in actuality, the events described took many years to accomplish.
    After being in the land for about 550 years. Helaman tells us that when the Nephites went into the Land Northward, “they did multiply and spread, and did go forth from the land southward to the land northward, and did spread insomuch that they began to cover the face of the whole earth, from the sea south to the sea north, from the sea west to the sea east” (Helaman 3:8).
    Long before the Nephites, a people called the Jaredites were also an extensive number of people, with two million killed toward the end of their 1500-year existence in the Land of Promise (Ether 15:2). Before that time, the Jaredites, after a war that left only a handful of people in the land (Ether 9:12), multiplied until “the people had spread again over all the face of the land” (Ether 9:26).
    Later, “the people began again to spread over all the face of the land. (Ether 10:4), and still later, “the whole face of the land northward was covered with inhabitants” (Ether 10:21).
    Thus, the entire Land of Promise, from the south where Lehi landed, to the north, where the waters of Ripliancum flowed, the land is described as filled with people. We might even today say that the State of Utah is filled with people, but California is more filled with people, and that the entire United States, from border to border and sea to sea, is filled with people. However, some have interpreted the land of Promise “filled with people” to mean that the entire land was full of people, but this is not the meaning of the phrase.

Crowds of people pack major cities in America today

It does not necessarily mean the land was crowded with people like, New York City is crowded with people. It only means that people were found in every quarter of the land and that there was no significant place where people would not be found.
    After the Jaredites were wiped out to the man, their bones lay on the ground because the battles were so swift and fierce, no one had a chance to stop and bury the dead (Ether 14:22) during the long wars that took place. And after the wars, no one remained alive to go back and bury the bodies. Ether wrote that “the whole face of the land was covered with the bodies of the dead” (Ether 14:21). But this does not mean that every square foot of space had a dead body on it, any more than the smell of the dead “bodies of both men, women, and children strewed upon the face of the land, to become a prey to the worms of the flesh. And the scent thereof went forth upon the face of the land, even upon all the face of the land; wherefore the people became troubled by day and by night, because of the scent thereof” (Ether 14:22-23) was everywhere in the land—though it would have covered much of it, particularly where the people were that were left upon the land after so many had died.
    The point is, theorists who want to limit the land space of the Land Northward, cite these instances to claim that if “dead bodies were strewn all over the land, it must have been a small area,” and the same with the smell.
    But the Land Northward was not small. It was sufficiently large, though not as large as the Land Southward, to house somewhere between 10 to 15 million at one time, based on the numbers Coriantumr cites of the dead in his own army: “there had been slain two millions of mighty men, and also their wives and their children” (Ether 15:1-2). Two million with close to a similar number of wives, and at least two children per couple for a total of 8 million in one army, and probably an equal number in Shiz’ army for 16million.

The Jarediter families listed in the record that show some type of number or quantity of the family size suggest large families

If there were more than two children per family, and the Jaredites had large families, then the numbers could have been upwards of 20 to 25 million. And these numbers were before the events of gathering everyone in the land to their armies for the final battles (Ether 15:14-15,31)
    Thus, to try and limit the size of the Land Northward to conform to a predetermined model is not justified. In Mesoamerica, Guatemala, as their Land Southward, is only 42,000 square miles—about 42% of the size of Nevada, and half the size of Utah. Yet, the populations of both sparsely populated states is just under 5.5 million. If you include the Yucatan, which the theorists’ do in the Land Southward, then there is another 67,000 square miles for a total of 109,000 square miles—which is the size of either Utah or Nevada.
    It also might be stated that 25 million in the Land Northward would be the equivalent of both London and Beijing populations, and would be the 47th largest country in today’s world—larger than Australia, North Korea, or Taiwan, about the same size as all of Scandinavia, including Denmark, combined, and larger than Guatemala and Greece combined, and about the size of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador combined. Or it would be about the population of the five states of: Tennessee, Kentucky, Iowa, Indiana and Missouri combined in an area of 245,000 square miles.
    The point is, 25-million people would take up a considerable land space and certainly does not lend itself to the idea of a limited area as Mesoamerican and Great Lakes theorists try to make it.
    Even if the population was on the low side of 10 to 15 million, that is twice the amount of people as Utah and Nevada combined (6.1 Million) and about the population of Nevada, Utah, Idaho and Colorado 13.7 million). Thus, we might conclude that the area of Mesoamerica would simply not be large enough to satisfy the population number of Nephites and Lamanites.