Firm Foundation supports Mark E. Petersen’s quote here. “I do not believe that the classrooms or the pulpits of our Church are for laboratory purposes in which to experiment with new doctrines and speculative notions. They are exclusively for the use of those who are willing to convert men and women and boys and girls to the truth. . . . I do not believe we should give credence to the highly speculative theories about Book of Mormon geography. I do not believe that there were two Hill Cumorahs, one in Central America and the other one up in New York, for the convenience of the Prophet Joseph Smith, so that the poor boy would not have to walk clear to Central America to get the gold plates. I do not believe we can be good Latter-day Saints and question the integrity of Joseph Smith. I do not believe we can be good Latter-day Saints and question the testimony of the eleven witnesses of the Book of Mormon. I do not believe you have a testimony of the truth if you question the accuracy of the translation of the Book of Mormon.” Mark E. Petersen LDS Conference Reports, Sunday afternoon, April 5, 1953
We support Heartland Research with the same belief as Firm Foundation, that there is a one and only Hill Cumorah in New York, and we also believe Joseph Smith’s revelation in D&C 125, showing the very city of Zarahemla in the Book of Mormon was indeed near Nauvoo in Montrose, Iowa.
In our friends Heartland Research blog below, you will find credible and plausible signs of ancient archaeology in Jerusalem and in Montrose Iowa. Of course all things are done in a desire to discover truths of the Bible and Book of Mormon. Both groups also love and support the many years of research done by Wayne May.
Since few in the world have ever looked specifically for evidence in the Heartland for ancient evidence of the Book of Mormon city of Zarahemla, Heartland Research continues to explore with passion and desire to help others understand physical evidence of the Book of Mormon. The Heartland Research team all have a spiritual witness that the Book of Mormon is true, and they move forward on words from an Apostle, Jeffrey R. Holland who said, ”
“…Truly rock-ribbed faith and uncompromised conviction comes with its most complete power when it engages our head as well as our heart… Truth borne by the Holy Spirit comes with, in effect, two manifestations, two witnesses if you will—the force of fact as well as the force of feeling… I believe God intends us to find and use the evidence He has given—reasons, if you will—which affirm the truthfulness of His work… Evidence is still evidence even if it is not immediately observable… “My testimony to you tonight is that the gospel is infallibly true and that a variety of infallible proofs supporting that assertion will continue to come until Jesus descends as the ultimate infallible truth of all. Our testimonies aren’t dependent on evidence—we still need that spiritual confirmation in the heart of which we have spoken—but not to seek for and not to acknowledge intellectual, documentable support for our belief when it is available is to needlessly limit an otherwise incomparably strong theological position and deny us a unique, persuasive vocabulary in the latter-day arena of religious investigation and sectarian debate. Thus armed with so much evidence of the kind we have celebrated here tonight, we ought to be more assertive than we sometimes are in defending our testimony of truth… Farrer [English cleric Austin Farrer] said: “Though argument does not create conviction, lack of it destroys belief. What seems to be proved may not be embraced; but what no one shows the ability to defend is quickly abandoned. Rational argument does not create belief, but it maintains a climate in which belief may flourish.”… May our Father in Heaven bless us and an ever-larger cadre of young scholars around the Church to do more and more to discover and delineate and declare the reasons for the hope that is in us, that like those converted Lamanites, we may with bold conviction hold up to a world that desperately needs it “the greatness of the evidences which [we have] received,” especially of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, the keystone of our religion. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.” The Greatness of the Evidence By Elder Jeffrey R. Holland August 16, 2017
“Individual members are encouraged to independently strive to receive their own spiritual confirmation of the truthfulness of Church doctrine. Moreover, the Church exhorts all people to approach the gospel not only intellectually but with the intellect and the spirit, a process in which reason and faith work together.” LDS Newsroom http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/approaching-mormon-doctrine
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Ash and Soot in Zarahemla.
The Old Testament states that Nebuchadnezzar II, the King of Babylon, burned the Temple of Jerusalem when he conquered Jerusalem in 586 BC. The time of the burning of the First Temple and the destruction of Jerusalem corresponds to the history of the Phoenicia Ship Replica that is now in Zarahemla.
In Jerusalem scientists are searching for destruction layers and burnt materials from 2,600 years ago, when the Babylonians took the Jews into captivity. During this time Prince Mulek escaped from Jerusalem to Zarahemla.
Due to religious and political sensitivities, archaeological excavations of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem are limited to surface surveys. There is, however, an active search for evidence from a dig near the First Temple. This dig has gone down forty feet and in recent years archaeologists have found ash that is 2,600 years old from the Babylonian burning of the First Temple. These reports are on the internet and can be found at the website of The Times of Israel.
Most of what we know about Zarahemla today comes from an ancient record that more than ten million people accept as the Word of God. Our analysis of Alma Chapter 2 confirms that Zarahemla is located in Montrose, Iowa, on the west bank of the Mississippi River. Click here and look at this video for our report.
In our search for Zarahemla, we have already spent considerable effort on four expeditions. SENSYS is one of the world’s most experienced and advanced companies for magnetometers and electromagnetic surveys. Three years ago, we scanned 200 acres using the best equipment from SENSYS to identify magnetic signatures of soils and rocks that were altered thousands of years ago by ancient fires. The magnetometer detected hundreds of firepits within a 200-acre area. We concluded from these initial results that Zarahemla’s population 2,000 years ago was greater than today’s population in the same area.
We are now interested in confirming Zarahemla’s location by using a new approach for the discovery of ash and soot from the city’s burning.
We read from 3 Nephi Chapter 9:
2 Wo, wo, wo unto this people; wo unto the inhabitants of the whole earth except they shall repent; for the devil laugheth, and his angels rejoice, because of the slain of the fair sons and daughters of my people; and it is because of their iniquity and abominations that they are fallen!
3 Behold, that great city Zarahemla have I burned with fire, and the inhabitants thereof.
According to scripture, at the time of Christ’s death ancient America’s largest city was destroyed by fire.
The burning of Zarahemla two thousand years ago caused tons of ash and soot some of which would have floated and collected in pools of water on layers of clay.
After the burning, ash and soot would have gathered in pools in low areas with clay being the holding layer in core samples.
At the time of Christ’s death, Zarahemla burned. During the Nephite evacuation of AD 320, the city likely burned. These burnings of the city produced soot and ash. Surface water from rain and melting snow concentrated the carbon-based materials into pools.
We want to begin a concerted effort to find the locations for these materials in the ground of Zarahemla. We believe that the discovery can be accomplished through an analysis of terrain features and the drilling of cores. We think that we will need to drill down five feet and more. We expect that the layers of ash and soot will be found on top of a layer of clay that would have held the collected ash and soot.
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Nebuchadnezzar II and Jerusalem 586 BC. Same time as when Prince Mulek escaped from Jerusalem to Zarahemla.
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Core Drilling in Zarahemla.
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Ash Showing Destruction of First Temple 586 BC.
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Ash Showing Destruction of First Temple 586 BC.
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Archaeological Dig Near First Temple.
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Layer of Ash and Soot Represented in Black.
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Again Elder Jeffrey R. Holland said, “but not to seek for and not to acknowledge intellectual, documentable support for our belief when it is available is to needlessly limit an otherwise incomparably strong theological position…”
“If you live into the next century you will see evidence for the Book of Mormon come forth in droves.” Truman G. Madsen, speaking of what the Prophet Joseph Smith said to a colleague, in the opening statement of the 2005 video, “Journey of Faith.”
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