I believe we have been given ample revelation, prophecy, and council to fully understand we are in the last days. However, we remember that is the same thing the saints said during Joseph Smith’s time as well. Truly we understand we are in the Dispensation of the Fullness of Times. What can we learn today that may help us more fully understand these end days? I believe great council has come from great people of all ages and of all creeds and colors. I especially love to hear from our dear Native America friends and brothers and sisters. You will hear from present day and ancient leaders who have loved us enough to warn us.
From Joseph Smith we Learned the Gaihwiio of the Native Americans
Moroni, the Link between Ancient and Latter-day Prophets “It is significant that Moroni trained Joseph Smith by teaching him from the scriptures. It may be that the Prophet’s great love for the Bible was a by-product of this experience, because for the rest of his life he taught others by using the scriptures. It is also worthy of note that with the exception of Paul’s phrase that the weak would confound the wise (1 Cor. 1:27–29)—which Moroni cited to introduce the topic of Joseph Smith’s work—all of the other scriptures quoted by Moroni come from the Old Testament. In using the words of ancient Israel’s prophets to instruct the messenger to modern Israel, Moroni symbolically tied the gospel dispensations together—the actual realization of which is a major goal of the Restoration. Moroni, an Israelite prophet, was the first emissary to provide the link between ancient dispensations and the dispensation of the fulness of times.
The visitation of Moroni to Joseph Smith holds an important place in our church history. With Moroni’s appearance, the process of restoring lost truths and educating the Prophet gained great impetus. Under the care and instruction of that great prophet of ancient America, the Prophet Joseph Smith received training and guidance that ultimately will lead to the restoration of all things. To all this Moroni’s first visits were a prelude—an instructional session from which Joseph Smith and all of us have learned the course that we are to pursue as we continue in the Lord’s service.” Moroni’s Message to Joseph Smith By Kent P. Jackson.
Joseph Smith during his lifetime more than likely knew about many of the Indian Chiefs below, who were from the same vicinity as him. Some lived at the same time as Joseph Smith and he may have also spent time with many of them. I share some unique articles below that you may find interesting in understanding young Joseph and his opportunities to learn from Native Americans. “Use of Ganargua Creek dates back to pre-colonial times. It was a primary stopover point for the Iroquois on their trade routes. Mormonism founder Joseph Smith also had an interest in the creek after hearing a speech from Seneca Indian Chief Red Jacket at Palmyra in 1822. Before the Erie Canal was constructed in 1817, Ganargua Creek originally met the Canandaigua Outlet in Lyons to form the Clyde River.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganargua_Creek
Our Prophets and Apostles have taught Gaihwiio
“It is now time that we each implement extraordinary measures — perhaps measures we have never taken before — to strengthen our personal spiritual foundations. Unprecedented times call for unprecedented measures.”Oct 3, 2021 President Russell M. NelsonPurchase
“He is not an absentee master; of that you can be assured. Yes, you young people are privileged to live in this choice land—a land of Zion—a land reserved for the second coming of our Lord and Savior, and the Lord’s base of operations today. When all these events are finished and written, we will look back and not be astonished to see that the prophecies, ancient and modern, about this land and these events were but our history in reverse. For that is what prophecy is. May God bless us all to be faithful and true to this vision and to uphold, sustain, and defend this nation, its founders, and the kingdom of God, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.” The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson.
“Now my beloved brethren and sisters everywhere, both members of the Church and nonmembers, I bear you my personal witness that I know that the things I have presented to you today are true—both those pertaining to past events and those pertaining to events yet to come. The issue we face is clear and well defined. The choice is ours. The question is: Shall we of this dispensation repent and obey the laws of the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ, or shall we continue to defy them until we ripen in iniquity? That we will repent and obey and thereby qualify to receive the blessings promised to the righteous in this land, I humbly pray in the name of Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. Amen.” America’s Destiny Marion G. Romney Oct 1975.
“God has sent forth his warning message in the midst of this nation, but they have rejected it and treated his servants with contempt. The Lord has gathered out his people from their midst, and has planted them here in the mountains; and he will speedily fulfill the prophecy in relation to the overthrow of this nation and their destruction. We shall be obliged to have a government to preserve ourselves in unity and peace; for they, through being wasted away, will not have power to govern; for state will be divided against state, city against city, town against town, and the whole country will be in terror and confusion; mobocracy will prevail and there will be no security through this great Republic, for the lives or property of the people.
When the time shall arrive, we shall necessarily want to carry out the principles of out great Constitution and, as the people of God, we shall want to see those principles magnified, according to the order of union and oneness which prevails among the people of God. We can magnify it, and all be united without having Democrats or Republicans and all kinds of religions. When the time shall come that the Lord shall waste away this nation, he will give commandment to this people to return …. to Missouri….and when we do we shall begin to carry out, in all its fullness, the celestial law in regard to consecration. Then this people will be united and then will be fulfilled that prayer ‘Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Prophecy by Orson Pratt September 26 1875
“WE CAN HAVE PEACE THIS SECOND, IF WE SURRENDER.”
“AND this was the faith of Moroni, and his heart did glory in it, not in the shedding of blood, but in doing good: in preserving his people, yea, in keeping the commandments of God, yea, and resisting iniquity. Yea, verily, verily I say unto you, if all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever, yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men. Behold, he was a man like unto Ammon, the son of Mosiah, yea, and even the other sons of Mosiah, yea, and also Alma and his sons, for they were all men of God.” (Alma 48:16-18).
What do Moroni, George Washington, Joseph Smith, Russell M Nelson, Native American Prophets, and may others offer the World? A Free Nation, a World of Liberty, the Spirit of Christ, Confidence and Honor, and with those desires and traits they inspire us to stand up for our God and put down all that is evil, for what we as a world are facing today in June 2022 is a World War. It is not a war between the black and the white, nor country against country. It is not a war by means of a normal war with marked armies on both sides. It is not a war between Liberal and Conservative, nor against tradition and progression, but is is a war of right vs wrong, good vs evil and above all it is a war between Jesus Christ the Savior of the world, and Satan, the fallen angel. This may not be the second coming, but surely if not, then it is a precursor to His final reign.
Is it a “Second Harvest”, meaning an opportunity to share the gospel in other lands who don’t have the gospel yet? What if the evil governments of the world are brought to judgement before His glorious coming? What side are we on? The side that will win is the righteousness of the Lord God. Are we on his side? Let us listen to the words of some of today’s and yesterday’s hero’s. Can we hear the similarity between each? Yes it is a cry for freedom vs tyranny and love vs hate and indeed the evil of Satan and the glorious goodness of God.
“If all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni”
Lamanites learn the Gaihwiio from Hopi Elder Thomas Banyacya
Hopi Elder Thomas Banyacya (1909-1999) was selected as spokesman for traditional leaders in 1948, after atom bombs triggered Hopi awareness that the prophesized “gourd full of ashes” had finally appeared. We worked with Thomas from 1977 through 1999 and were fortunate to film him at Chaco Canyon, in Washington DC, and at sacred migration sites around the Four Corners area. His humor, good spirit and wisdom will be long remembered. In June 2011, Santa Clara elder José Lucero and Onondaga Chief Oren Lyons organized a memorial gathering to celebrate Thomas at the foot of Navajo Mountains and they asked us to put together a short film remembrance of Thomas. This film is the result, published here for the first time in September 2017.” https://sacredland.org/hopi-messenger-thomas-banyacya/
Apocalypse Prophecies: Native End of the World Teachings
A look at Native American end of the world teachings or prophecies across history and today that are just as relevant in 2017.
“In the Hopi teachings,” he began, “we are told that toward the end of the world, Spider Woman will come back and she will weave her web across the landscape. Everywhere you will see her web. That’s how we will know that we are coming to the end of this world, when we see her web everywhere. I believe I have just seen her web.”
Thomas Banyacya
That was Thomas Banyacya reaction to seeing the Robert Moses Niagara Power Plant, which sends electricity from the Niagara Falls generating plant throughout Western New York. Banyacya is a Hopi traditionalist interpreter and that passage is from Thinking In Indian: A John Mohawk Reader (Fulcrum 2010). The world was crying Mayan apocalypse on December 21, 2012, so it seemed prudent to explore other end of the world teachings. Even though the Mayans weren’t actually predicting the end of the world, we’d play along anyway. Some of those teachings are just as relevant in 2017 as they were in 2012. Other Hopi teachings refer to the nine signs. The first sign said the white-skinned men would come, the second said: “Our lands will see the coming of spinning wheels filled with voices. In his youth, my father saw this prophecy come true with his eyes—the white men bringing their families in wagons across the prairies.”
The rest of the signs are typically listed as follows:
“This is the Third Sign: A strange beast like a buffalo but with great long horns, will overrun the land in large numbers. These White Feather saw with his eyes—the coming of the white men’s cattle. “This is the Fourth Sign: The land will be crossed by snakes of iron. “This is the Fifth Sign: The land shall be criss-crossed by a giant spider’s web. “This is the Sixth Sign: The land shall be criss-crossed with rivers of stone that make pictures in the sun. “This is the Seventh Sign: You will hear of the sea turning black, and many living things dying because of it. “This is the Eighth Sign: You will see many youth, who wear their hair long like my people, come and join the tribal nations, to learn their ways and wisdom. “And this is the Ninth and Last Sign: You will hear of a dwelling-place in the heavens, above the earth, that shall fall with a great crash. It will appear as a blue star. Very soon after this, the ceremonies of my people will cease.”
The Hopi aren’t alone when it comes to prophecies about how the world will end either.
Abenaki storyteller Joseph Bruchac pointed to Handsome Lake, a 19th century Seneca prophet whose predictions are presented by anthropologist Arthur Parker in The Code of Handsome Lake, the Seneca Prophet, published in 1913. Handsome Lake predicted the world would end by fire in the year 2100. “Now we think that when the end comes the earth will be destroyed by fire and not one upon it will escape for all the earth will be enveloped in flames and all those who refuse to believe in Gai’wiio’ will be in it,” reads section 77 from The Code of Handsome Lake. He also predicted the destruction of the environment, famines and war. One of his predictions, in section 93 of Parker’s book, even seems to predict the destruction of the ozone layer: So then they proceeded on their journey but had not gone far when they stopped.Then the messengers said, ‘Watch,’ and pointed to a certain spot toward the setting sun.So he watched and saw a large object revolving. It was white and moving slowly.Then said the four messengers, ‘What did you see?’He answered, ‘I saw a large object revolving. It was white and moving slowly.’Then said the messengers, ‘It is true. The thing is that which regulates the air over the earth. It is that which we call the Odä’eo (the veil over all). It is said that it would bring great calamity should it revolve too fast. Should it turn faster it would injure mankind. Now we are the regulators and watchers of the veil over all.’
Wovoka
“Among our Abenaki nations it is often said that after Gluskonba (or Gluskabe or Glooskap) left the people and went to an island far out in the Big Water,” Bruchac told ICMN. “There he sits in his wigwam, making arrowheads. And when his lodge is filled with them, he will return and make use of them to destroy the enemies of the Native people.” The Northern Paiute had Wovoka, a religious leader who was born around 1856 and predicted the coming of a new world. He was also the leader of the Ghost Dance movement, which was danced to help prepare for the new world. “We don’t know exactly how he imagined the new world would occur but it’s clear that he taught that it would occur through some kind of cataclysmic event…maybe through a kind of earthquake…some sources suggest a great snow,” said Jeffrey Ostler, a historian at the University of Oregon who has written about Wovoka’s prophecies, during a show on Back Story Radio. “It [cataclysmic event] would destroy or remove European Americans and then after that there would be a renewed world where game would return, ancestors who had died would return to life and Indian people would be able to live well again.”
Ostler explained on the show titled, Apocalypse Now & Then: A History of End-Times, how during the Ghost Dance people would lose consciousness and have visions of the new world. “You can read some of these visions, they’re quite remarkable where somebody says ‘I died or I lost consciousness and I was on horseback and the world was green and not like this dead world that I’m now living in, then I rode up over a hill and saw a figure coming toward me and it was my sister who had died recently,’” Ostler said on the show. Part of the Ghost Dance movement was a belief that ancestors would return from the spirit world once the new world began. The Cherokee also had their own prophecies, visions and Ghost Dance movement, which was written about in The American Indian Quarterly by Michelene E. Pesantubbee in 1993.
One of those visions occurred in 1811 when a group of Indians appeared to Charlie, who was half Cherokee, and two women near Rocky Mountain in northwest Georgia. The leader of the group said: Don’t be afraid; we are your brothers and have been sent by God to speak with you. God is dissatisfied that you are receiving the white people in your land without any distinction. You yourselves see that your hunting is gone-you are planting the corn of the white people—go and sell that back to them and plant Indian corn and pound it in the manner of your forefathers; do away with the mills. The Mother of the Nation has forsaken you because all her bones are being broken through the grinding. She will return to you, however, if you put the white people out of the land and return to your former manner of life. Some believed Charlie and the women, others did not. According to Cherokee Ghost Dance: Essays on the Southeastern Indians, 1789-1861 by William G. McLoughlin.
Moravian missionaries recorded the first prophecy about “imminent destruction” on February 23, 1812. “Only a few details of this prophecy are given in the diary, but the missionaries said that the residents of one Cherokee town had heard a prediction that ‘hail stones the size of half bushels’ would fall ‘on a certain day,’ and when that day came they all fled to the nearby hills and hid themselves in caves or under stones,” McLoughlin, who was a historian at Brown University, wrote in his book of essays. Another prophecy, recounted by McLoughlin, was recorded on March 8, 1812. This one told of an eclipse that would last for three days, “during which all the white people would be snatched away as well as all Indians who had any clothing or household articles of the white man’s kind, together with all their cattle.” When the prophecy would happen wasn’t mentioned, but the prophet did tell the Cherokee to “put aside everything that is similar to the white people and that which they had learned from them, so that in the darkness God might not mistake them and snatch them away with the former. Dave Courchene, Anishnaabe elder and the founder of Turtle Lodge, an institution that maintains the fires of traditional knowledge in Manitoba, Canada, says prophecies aren’t always negative. He told ICMN that prophecies, to his people, offer hope and direction. “We were given instructions on how to live and how to behave and we’ve strayed away from those original instructions,” he said. “What we’re finding in the world today, through the signs that nature is offering us is that we need to reflect on our behavior—on how we’re treating life and how we’re treating each other as human beings. It’s really parallel to the Mayan calendar when they talk of the new cycle that’s coming and then you hear so much talk about the end of the world.” But he doesn’t see the end of the world as an ending, Courchene sees it as a beginning. “The end of the world can also be understood that we’re being given an opportunity to put an end to our negative behaviors,” he said, noting that this new cycle will mean a return to indigenous values. “These changes are going to be somewhat difficult for those that have lived the materialistic life because this new life the elders are talking about is a return to laying down values and principles that whatever we create in our life must be grounded with those values,” he said. “The principles of our understanding, of the survival of the people have always been based on peace, harmony and respect for all of life.” This story was originally published December 20, 2012. https://indiancountrytoday.com/archive/apocalypse-prophecies-native-end-of-the-world-teachings
I am proposing a possible location of the Jaredite record which was found by the people of Limhi. [200 B.C. MOSIAH 8:8-9] We believe near Tallahassee FL is where Lehi Landed. Nephi escaped up the Chattahoochee River to Tennessee. We also have an understanding that the City Lehi-Nephi was at Chattanooga, TN. From there in about 329 BC Mosiah left and went down the Tennessee’s River which connects with the Ohio and Mississippi which west directly north to Zarahemla. Read Blog here:
Nephi’s Route
“And after we had journeyed for the space of many days we did pitch our tents.” 2 Nephi 5:7 (Apalachicola, FL to Unicoi Gap, GA is about 400 miles or 8-10 days journey for a Nephite on the river). To escape his brothers, Nephi traveled up the Chattahoochee River to its head at Unicoi Gap, GA. Just 1,700 feet from that head, is also the head of the Hiawasee River which flows north west right to the Tennessee River and on to Chattanooga, TN.
Mosiah’s Route
From Chattanooga, TN Mosiah would travel downstream the Tennessee River which heads east and then takes a sharp curve north, then to the Ohio River and then take the Ohio west to the Head of River Sidon, (Confluence of Ohio and Mississippi rivers), then travel north upstream on the Mississippi to Zarahemla.
The Land of Zarahemla is a lower elevation than the Land Nephi. “Nephites and Lamanites are always traveling up from the land of Zarahemla to the land of Nephi, and down from the land of Nephi to the land of Zarahemla… When you read the text, think of the geography from Alma 22; i.e., the Sidon is the upper Mississippi River, and it flows south. To go from the land of Zarahemla to the land of Nephi, you travel east up the Ohio River and then south upstream on the Tennessee River.” Moroni’s America page 45
Limhi’s Lost Route Trying to Find Zarahemla
Did they end up in West Virginia? I believe, yes!Presumably, Limhi’s 43 knew Zarahemla was on the west bank of the river Sidon. From Chattanooga to Zarahemla would require traveling up-river or north on the Tennessee River. When the Tennessee meets the Ohio River, Limhi probably went upstream on the Ohio, instead of downstream on the Ohio where it meets the Mississippi River at the Head of River Sidon. The error they made was turning west instead of continuing about 40 miles until they reached the river Sidon [Mississippi], and then continue north to Zarahemla. See Map above.
By traveling up stream on the Ohio, they may have stopped at the first major city which showed Jaredite destruction on the Ohio/Allegheny River between about Moundsville WV to possibly even Pittsburg, PA where the Allegheny and Ohio confluence is. We are confident that the battles of the Jaredites probably went all along the Ohio River from West Virginia through Pennsylvania to New York where it ended at hill Ramah (Same hill the Nephites called Cumorah). See Ether 15:11
It is interesting to know that Limhi’s 43 were People of Zarahemla or Mulekites, as was Ammon. This is why they wanted to find their blood brothers back in Zarahemla.
Ammon a Mulekite (Hebrew)
“And it came to pass that on the morrow they started to go up, having with them one Ammon, he being a strong and mighty man, and a descendant of Zarahemla; and he was also their leader.” Mosiah 7:3
Limhi a Mulekite (Hebrew)
“And he said unto them: Behold, I am Limhi, the son of Noah, who was the son of Zeniff, who came up out of the land of Zarahemla to inherit this land, which was the land of their fathers, who was made a king by the voice of the people.” Mosiah 7:9
MOSIAH 8:7 LIMHI’S 43 LOST EXPLORERS FOUND JAREDITE RECORD IN WV? Review the map above to better help in understanding.
Known Mounds Today in West Virginia
Meadowcroft Rockshelter may be the oldest known site of human habitation in North America, The artifacts uncovered in these areas give evidence of a village society with a tribal trade system culture that included limited cold worked copper. As of 2009, over 12,500 archaeological sites have been documented in West Virginia.” Extract from ”Catalogue of prehistoric works east of the Rocky Mountains by Cyrus Thomas 1891
Large Yellow Dots on Map shows Important geological areas of Jaredite and Nephite lands. Rivers, Gaps, Confluences, Ridges, Divides, etc.
Now let’s look at two specific mounds that remain today in West Virginia that were, according to scientists, built from about 250-150 BC. This was the exact time of Limhi’s travels.
“The Criel Mound, also known as the South Charleston Mound, is a Native American burial mound located in South Charleston, West Virginia. It is one of the few surviving mounds of the Kanawha Valley Mounds that were probably built in the Woodland period after 500 B.C. The mound was built by the Adena culture, probably around 250–150 BC, and lay equidistant between two “sacred circles”, earthwork enclosures each 556 feet (169 m) in diameter. It was originally 33 feet (10 m) high and 173 feet (53 m) in diameter at the base, making it the second-largest such burial mound in the state of West Virginia. (The Grave Creek Mound in Moundsville is the largest.) This archaeological site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.”
Map below see the many Mounds on and around the Ohio River in West Virginia. Most Mounds are wherever the rivers are. You can see for example from the Gulf of Mexico to Tennessee there are very few mounds. This is most likely a transit area of migration rather than a permanent settlement area.
Wikipedia continues, “The Criel Mound is part of the second-largest known concentration of Adena mounds and circular enclosures which Cyrus Thomas called the “Kanawha Valley Mounds”. This area extends for eight miles (13 km) along the upper terraces of the Kanawha River floodplain, in the vicinity of present-day Charleston. In 1894, Cyrus Thomas reported 50 mounds in this area, ranging from 3’ to 35’ in height and from 35’ to 200’ in diameter. He also reported finding eight to ten circular earthworks, enclosing from 1 to 30 acres (120,000 m2). Stone mounds dotted the bluffs above the floodplain.
While many of the original Adena mounds were destroyed during later development of the area, a few remain. The Wilson Mound is in a private cemetery in South Charleston. A recreation of the original Shawnee Reservation Mound exists in Institute, West Virginia.” Wikepedia
The Grave Creek Mound
(See the art as the featured image above) “The Grave Creek Mound in the Ohio River Valley in West Virginia is one of the largest conical-type burial mounds in the United States, now standing 62 feet (19 m) high and 240 feet (73 m) in diameter. The builders of the site, members of the Adena culture, moved more than 60,000 tons of dirt to create it about 250–150 BC.
Present-day Moundsville has developed around it near the banks of the Ohio River. The first recorded excavation of the mound took place in 1838, and was conducted by local amateurs Abelard Tomlinson and Thomas Biggs. The largest surviving mound among those built by the Adena, this was designated a National Historic Landmark in the mid-20th century.
Grave Creek Mound is the largest conical type of any of the mound builder structures. Construction of the earthwork mound took place in successive stages from about 250–150 B.C., as indicated by the multiple burials at different levels within the structures. In 1838, road engineers measured its height at 69 feet (21 m) and its base as 292 feet (89 m).” Wikipedia
West Virginia Archives and History
Mounds & Mound Builders
The Adena people were the first Native Americans to build ceremonial mounds. In other parts of the world, ceremonial burials had occurred much earlier. The Egyptian pyramids date to 2700 BCE; in England, stone chambers called barrows were used as early as 2000 BCE; between 1700 and 1400 BCE, keirgans were used in central Siberia; and the burial mounds of the Choo Dynasty in northern China date to 1000 BCE.
Grave Creek Mound Moundsville, WV
We know little about how or why the mounds were built. Historian Otis Rice suggests these early Americans “built mounds over the remains of chiefs, shamans, priests, and other honored dead.” For their “common folk,” the Adenas cremated the dead bodies, placing the remains in small log tombs on the surface of the ground. Virtually all of these graves have been destroyed by nature and later settlement. Therefore, the more substantial mounds are our only physical records of Adena burials.
The Grave Creek Mound in Moundsville (Marshall County) is the largest conical type burial mound in the United States, approached in size by only the Miamisburg, Ohio mound. The mound, 62 feet high and 240 feet in diameter, contains approximately 57,000 tons of dirt and originally stood nearly 70 feet high. The digging of so much earth left a sizeable moat or ditch surrounding the mound, no longer in existence. By testing the soil, archaeologists estimate the mound was built between 250 and 150 BCE by the Adena culture, which occupied the area from about 1000 BCE to 200 CE. The mound and two forts were the essential features of an Adena village in the shape of a triangle. “The mound construction probably began with the death of a very important person. There is no way to know who this person was — great warrior, chieftain or religious leader. We know that 25-30 years later another important personage died and his remains were placed in an 8 by 12 foot vault on the top of the mound when it was approximately 35 feet high. The natives then covered this with dirt until the mound reached its maximum height.”1
The first person of European descent to discover the mound was early settler Joseph Tomlinson, who literally stumbled off the top while hunting in 1770. In 1838, descendants Jesse and Abelard Tomlinson, and Thomas Briggs gutted the mound, destroying much of the archaeological evidence provided by the scientific study of other mounds. Tunneling from the side and top, the two men discovered a burial chamber in the center containing two skeletons and large amount of jewelry and another room with one skeleton and jewelry. Tomlinson opened the center chamber as a museum, charging 25 cents admission. Five years later, Henry Rowe Schoolcraft mapped the area. In 1909, the state acquired possession of the mound, placing it under the care of West Virginia Penitentiary warden M. S. White. In 1975, Dr. E. Thomas Hemmings of the West Virginia Geological and Economic Survey conducted the first scientific excavation of the area, locating among other items the previous existence of a moat. During the last two hundred years, the top of the mound has been home to a saloon, dance platform, and artillery pieces during the Civil War. Today, the state operates the Grave Creek Mound State Park and Delf Norona Museum and Culture Center, featuring numerous Native American artifacts from the mound and region.2
Criel Mound, W. Virginia
The Criel Mound in South Charleston is the largest of approximately fifty conical type mounds of the Adena culture in an area west of Charleston extending to Institute. The precise age of the Criel Mound is unknown, but archaeologists believe it dates to the time of the Grave Creek Mound in Moundsville, probably built between 250 and 150 BCE. It was the burial ground for an Indian village located on the site of the city of South Charleston some 2,000 years ago. It is unknown when the village disappeared, although some have suggested it remained until as late as 1650 CE In West Virginia, the 35-foot high and 175-foot diameter Criel Mound is exceeded in size only by the Grave Creek Mound.3
The Criel Mound was first excavated by Professor P. W. Norris of the Smithsonian Institute in 1883 and 1884. Tunneling from the top down, the archaeologists discovered the following:
At the depth of 3 feet, in the center of the shaft, some human bones were discovered, doubtless parts of a skeleton said to have been dug up before or at the time of the construction of the judges’ stand. At the depth of 4 feet, in a bed of hard earth composed of mixed clay and ashes, were two skeletons, both lying extended on their backs, heads south, and feet near the center of the shaft. Near the heads lay two celts, two stone hoes, one lance head, and two disks.4
As they dug to a depth of 31 feet, numerous other skeletons were found, including a burial vault containing the remains of eleven Native Americans thought to have been killed in battle. There was also evidence that some may have been buried alive. As was the custom, various jewelry and weapons were placed in the buried vaults. Today, all the artifacts and skeleton remains are maintained at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. 5″ West Virginia Archives and History
Notes
1. History of Marshall County West Virginia 1984 (Marshall County Historical Society, 1984), 6.
2. History of Marshall County West Virginia 1984, 6-7; Phil Conley and William Thomas Doherty, West Virginia History (Charleston: Education Foundation, Inc., 1974), 51-52.
3. Stephen B. Preston, “An Introduction to the Mound Builders and the Criel Mound, `D’ Street, South Charleston,” in J. Alfred Poe and Albert Giles, “The History of South Charleston, West Virginia, Volume I,” (hereafter Preston, “Mound Builders”), 16, 18.
4. “Ancient Works Near Charleston,” U. S. Bureau of Ethnology, Twelfth Annual Report, 1890-91 (Washington, D.C.), as quoted in Preston, “Mound Builders,” 14.
5. Phil Conley and William Thomas Doherty, West Virginia History (Charleston: Education Foundation, Inc., 1974), 52-53; Otis K. Rice, West Virginia: A History (Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 1985), 5-6.
Truth is amazing. It is so important to ask questions and research. Truth is everywhere. Today our governments, politicians, corporate heads, Big Pharma, Big Tech, social media and main street media, continue to lie to us to maintain power and create a slave state. Even this amazing geography information has been kept from us. Thanks to Rod Meldrum, Wayne May, and Dean Sessions for being brave enough to share truth at the expense of all the evil that try’s and keep us bound. And thank to all those who read this and share it with family and friends.
What Year did we First Know the Name Cumorah? This seems like an easy answer with all the history we have especially in the Joseph Smith Papers. Unfortunately the Meso guys just don’t want to consider this information. I received an email from our friend Stephen Reed who has an amazing website here: and I have several of his blogs on my site here: The Origin of the Two Cumorah Mesoamerica Geography Theory for The Book of Mormon
Jonathan Neville was inspired today as well to also utilize Stephen’s information. On Jonathan’s blog today the question about, What Year did we First Know the Name Cumorah?, struck me once again. Why do Mesoamericanists not believe the quotes that we provide for them? Are they in a “Bubble of No Return?”
Abstract
I will share briefly some of Jonathan’s blog today. I will also let you hear directly from Book of Mormon Central and how they answer my question. Then I will let you begin to dive into just 3 of 21 parts of our Geography Packet of information, which shows important quotes from leaders and others who will definitely answer two questions.
1- How many Cumorah’s are there?, and
2- What Year did we First Know the Name Cumorah?
I can’t help you with the third question of, Are they in a “Bubble of No Return?”
“This latest gem was recently brought to my attention.
Our historians are at it again, changing Church history to accommodate M2C.
[This is a quote from today’s Church Website]. ‘In the 1820s, the hill did not have a name. It later became known as the Hill Cumorah because Moroni, the Book of Mormon’s final author and the angel who met with Joseph Smith, wrote that he had hidden the golden plates in a hill called Cumorah (see Mormon 6:6).’ https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/learn/historic-sites/new-york/hill-cumorah?lang=eng
Jonathan continues, “To make the declarative statement that “the hill did not have a name,” the historians have to ignore the accounts we have, or assume they are false and thus unworthy of consideration. They also have to assume that the absence of contemporaneous records from the 1820s means that anything we don’t have a contemporaneous record of didn’t happen.
By this logic, the First Vision didn’t happen, because that was also not reported until after the 1820s.
Notice that the historians don’t bother to state their assumptions. They certainly don’t link to the actual historical accounts.
This latest website compounds that error by inventing a fake explanation for the name Cumorah. The historians claim the hill was later named Cumorah because of Mormon 6:6, which is a flat contradiction to the historical record. But because this is what our M2C scholars want people to believe, their peers in the Church History Department have accommodated them.” Jonathan Neville blog. Read his complete blog here:
Now we will read about the claims of the Mesoamerican and the Heartland theories about when the name Cumorah was actually used.
Phelps’s identification was later followed by Oliver Cowdery in 1835.5 Probably due to the popularity and influence of these two early leaders’ writings, the identification of the hill in New York as the same hill Cumorah mentioned by Mormon in Book of Mormon became commonplace amongst early Latter-day Saints.6
As far as can be determined, the Prophet Joseph Smith himself only associated the hill in New York with the Cumorah in the Book of Mormon towards the end of his life. In an 1842 epistle the Prophet spoke of hearing “Glad tidings from Cumorah! Moroni, an angel from heaven, declaring the fulfilment of the prophets—the book to be revealed” (Doctrine and Covenants 128:20).7 Before then, Joseph left the name of the New York hill where Moroni gave him the plates unnamed in his accounts of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon.8 Whether the Prophet arrived at this conclusion about the location of Cumorah by revelation, by conforming to usage that had become common among the early members of the Church about Book of Mormon geography, or in some other way is historically unknown.9
In the decades after Joseph Smith’s death, other prominent early Latter-day Saints, including Lucy Mack Smith,10 Parley P. Pratt,11 and David Whitmer,12 recounted earlier incidents in which the New York hill was identified as Cumorah by the angel Moroni and by Joseph Smith. Since these statements are somewhat late recollections, coming after the identity of Cumorah as a hill near Palmyra, New York, had become widespread, they should be used cautiously.13 https://knowhy.bookofmormoncentral.org/content/where-is-the-location-of-the-hill-cumorah#footnote10_aoi58wq Post contributed by BMC Team November 29, 2018 KnoWhy #489
The Heartland has five quotes before the time that Book of Mormon Central’s first claim is made. Before we share three of those, here is a little bit about the Geography Packet.
BYU-CES Packet for Book of Mormon Classes by Jonathan Neville
When the issues of evolution and the origin of man generated controversy at BYU, the administration developed an “Evolution packet” in 1992, titled “Evolution and the Origin of Man.” See http://ndbf.net/010.pdf
The explanation included this statement: “the selection of material for such a packet could not depend on the content of the statements. The goal is not to achieve some kind of “balance” among the views that have been expressed, but to give students the full range of official views so that they can judge the different positions they encounter. The full range of official views should provide the basis for the evaluation of other views that have been expressed but that do not have the status of official Church positions.
Now that the issue of Book of Mormon geography has generated similar controversy, this packet of statements by Church leaders is intended to achieve a similar purpose.
Guidance accompanying the “Evolution packet” is equally relevant to the “Geography Packet.”
“None of us involved in preparing this packet for Board review anticipate that professors will be limited from distributing other materials to their students. It is only requested that BYU faculty members refer students to the materials in this specific packet along with the other items they may choose to distribute. When other items are distributed, they should be clearly separated and given as a supplement to this material and include a fair sampling of the diverse viewpoints among LDS leaders. For example, if one included statements by LDS apostles in a handout on evolution, the range of views would include some statements against evolution, some sympathetic to evolution and several shades of opinion in between. We want to avoid the implication that a greater sense of unanimity or resolution of this topic exists than is actually the case, and we are eager to avoid contention. The university has also suggested that faculty members limit supplemental LDS material on the subject of evolution and the origin of man to published documents, avoiding private letters or other private material.
This packet contains, as far as could be found, all statements issued by members of the First Presidency and official publications of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on the subject of the hill Cumorah and the geography of the Book of Mormon.
These statements evince a sharp distinction between two separate but related teachings by Church leaders that have often been commingled or conflated; i.e.,
The Hill Cumorah of Mormon 6:6 is in western New York, near Palmyra.
We don’t know where the other events of the Book of Mormon took place, but there are many possibilities.” Jonathan Neville
Heartland Geography CLAIM 1823
1. In 1823 Lucy Mack Smith’s Journal
According to Lucy, when Moroni first appeared to Joseph Smith in 1823, he identified the hill as Cumorah:
“[Moroni, after telling Joseph about the record, said] but you cannot get it until you learn to keep the commandments of God For it is not to get gain. But it is to bring forth that light and intelligence which has been long lost in the Earth.
Now Joseph beware or when you go to get the plates your mind will be filled with darkness and all manner of evil will rush into your mind. To prevent you from keeping the commandments of God that you may not succeed in doing his work and you must tell your father of this for he will believe every word you say.
2. Early 1827– Joseph Smith (Quoted by his mother Lucy Mack Smith)
[In January 1827, Joseph] returned with his wife, in good health and fine spirits. Not long after this his father had occasion to send him to Manchester on business. <And,> as he started quite early in the morning, we expected him home, at the outside, by 6. o clock in the evening. But when 6. came he did not arrive.— we always had a peculiar anxiety about him whenever he was absent from us; for, it seemed as if something was always taking place to jeopardize his life. But to return, he did not get home till the night was far spent. On coming in, threw himself into a chair, apparently much exhausted. My husband did not observe his appearance, and immediately exclaimed, “Joseph, why have you staid so late? has anything happened you? we have been much distressed about you these three hours. As Joseph made no reply, he continued his interrogations until I finally said: now, father, (as that was the manner in which I commonly addressed him) let him rest a moment— dont touble him now— you see he is home safe, and he is very tired; so pray wait a little.
The fact is, I had learned to be a little cautious about matters with regard to Joseph; for I was accustomed to see him look as he did on that occasion, and could not easily mistake the cause thereof. Presently he smiled, and said in a very calm tone, “I have taken the severest chastisement, that I have ever had in my life”. My husband, supposing it was from some of the neighbors, was quite angry; and observed, “I would would like to know what business any body has to find fault with you.”
“Stop, father, Stop.” said Joseph, “it was the angel of the Lord— as I passed by the hill of Cumorah, where the plates are, the angel of the Lord met me and said, that I had not been engaged enough in the work of the Lord; that the time had come for the record to <be> brought forth; and, that I must be up and doing, and set myself about the things which God had commanded me to do: but, Father,’ continued he, ‘give yourself no uneasiness concerning the reprimand that I have received; for I now know the course that I am to pursue; so all will be well.”
3.In 1829 David Whitmer, Oliver Cowdery, and Joseph Smith hear a messenger from their wagon while traveling to Fayette say, “No, I am going to Cumorah.’
David Whitmer remembered the first time he heard about Cumorah, which was in early June 1829 when he picked up Joseph and Oliver from Harmony. Before leaving Harmony, Joseph had given the plates to a divine messenger. On the way back to Fayette, they encountered the messenger along the road.
Art by Val Chadwick Bagley
“When I was returning to Fayette with Joseph and Oliver all of us riding in the wagon, Oliver and I on an old fashioned wooden spring seat and Joseph behind us, while traveling along in a clear open place, a very pleasant, nice-looking old man suddenly appeared by the side of our wagon who saluted us with, “good morning, it is very warm,” at the same time wiping his face or forehead with his hand. We returned the salutation, and by a sign from Joseph I invited him to ride if he was going our way. But he said very pleasantly, “No, I am going to Cumorah.’ This name was something new to me, I did not know what Cumorah meant. We all gazed at him and at each other, and as I looked round enquiringly of Joseph the old man instantly disappeared, so that I did not see him again.” REPORT OF ELDERS ORSON PRATT AND JOSEPH F. SMITH to President John Taylor and Council of the Twelve. http://www.lettervii.com/p/trip-to-fayette-references.html
There are 18 other quotes at my blog here that show that the hill named Cumorah is indeed that hill in New York.
As you read this outstanding information about Sir Isaac Newton, you will learn that this great man was also a devout Christian and has many of the same beliefs as the Prophet Joseph Smith. As you read about Daniel’s Prophecies you will be quick to understand how this Prophecy may be happening today in our world. You will understand nations, people, wars, and other end days prophecies.
You will see that the great destruction of Rome has a lot to compare about things that are happening today. This is some amazing and sometimes deep information that will require patience and research if you want to fully understand the contents. I share this in hopes that you may better understand the Lord’s plan and prepare for His wonderful Second Coming. None of us know when or how that may be, but we must just continue to repent daily and strengthen our faith in the Savior..
We read below from John Pratt an amazing Rocket Scientist and expert of reading Ancient Calendars, who unfortunately passed away about a year ago. He did a wonderful movie with our Heartland Research friend John Lefgren PhD. called “Oh How Lovely was the Morning”, which is the true story about two people who were on the same search for important dates associated with the History of the Church. Little did they know that their paths would come together many years later in such an important way. The event of the First Vision and the appearance of the Father and the Son to the Prophet Joseph Smith, stands alone as the pivotal event from the Lord in these last days! John Lefgren and John Pratt conclude the date of The First Vision and you can purchase it here:
You will also read from Steven E. Jones a former BYU Professor and active member of the Church who now lives in Missouri. Jones earned his bachelor’s degree in physics, magna cum laude, from Brigham Young University in 1973, and his Ph.D. in physics from Vanderbilt University in 1978. From 1974 to 1977, Jones conducted his PhD research at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC), and post-doctoral research at Cornell University and the Los Alamos Meson Physics Facility.[1]
Quotes about Newton from Dr. Steven E. Jones
“Just how did Newton apply his scientific approach in his religious studies? A prime example comes from his studies of the nature of God, which he based on the scriptures combined with the teachings of the early writers of the Christian church. Newton saw two major flaws in the Christian doctrine of the Trinity:it was unsupported from the scriptures and it was illogical. Newton used scriptural passages to demonstrate that the Trinitarian doctrine was incorrect, and that the scriptures instead taught that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are separate and distinct beings, three members of the Godhead.”
“Newton was certainly heavily influenced by Jesus Christ and the early Christian writers, for he quoted them abundantly in his writings. He took exception with some of the later Christian writers, after about AD 200. Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, Kepler, and Galileo appeared on the scene just before Newton and paved the way for his research. Newton was born on the same day in 1642 that Galileo passed away, and he used many of Galileo’s findings in developing his famous laws of motion. Isaac Newton died in 1727.” Steven E. Jones(Read more from Dr. Jones below at about note 25)
“Newton’s study of the scriptures brought him to the conclusion that just as there had been a falling away, there would also be a restoration of the true church of Jesus Christ. He quoted Malachi 3 and other scriptures in his commentary that are standard scriptural passages used by Latter-day Saints in discussing the restoration.” Steven E. Jones(Read more from Dr. Jones below at about note 40)
“Experiments, careful observations, and measurements form the basis of the scientific method, and anyone can use it, Mormon or Muslim, Baptist or Buddhist. The scientific method works in repeatable fashion, independent of one’s beliefs. Repeatability is the core strength of the scientific method.” Steven E. Jones
Quotes by Sir Isaac Newton
“Let me therefore beg of thee not to trust to the opinion of any man concerning these things, for so it is great odds but thou shalt be deceived… but search the scriptures thyself .” Sir Isaac Newton
“Newton saw two major flaws in the Christian doctrine of the Trinity: it was unsupported from the scriptures and it was illogical.” Michael White, Isaac Newton: The Last Sorcerer (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1997), 152.
“Apostasy was to begin by corrupting the truth about the relation of the Son to the Father in putting them equal.” Sir Isaac Newton
“For the prophets and apostles have foretold that as Israel often revolted and brake the covenant, and upon repentance renewed it, so there should be a falling away among the Christians, soon after the days of the Apostles, and that in the latter days God would destroy the impenitent revolters, and make a new covenant with his people. And the giving ear to the prophets is a fundamental character of the true church.” Isaac Newton, The Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse, (Hyderabad, India: Printland Publishers, 1998) being a reprint of Observations on the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. John, (London: Darby & Browne, 1733).
Our great friend and scientist David W. Allan has taught me so much about the gospel and science and how they are compatible with each other. Truth is truth. David is an incredible man who loves the Lord above all else. Please read his amazing book called “Its About Time” here: He has a new book coming out from digital legend Press called, Time and Eternity: The End-Times Revealed and Beyond” You can pre order it today.
As my friend and associate Rod Meldrum always says, If science and scriptures don’t agree, always believe scriptures first.
TIME AND ETERNITY: THE END-TIMES REVEALED AND BEYOND
David W. Allan is known as Mr. TIME around the world—his mathematical formula (Allen Variance) is critical for setting atomic clocks and for official time-keeping in the world. His first book Its About Time formed the launchpad for this latest book, Time and Eternity, written in laymen’s language with intriguing insights from a scientist and devout Christian. He brings HOPE to a confused spiraling-down world. In this book, he shares the difference between human time and God’s time and where we are in God’s TIME.
Allen introduces the reader to “three gospels:” the gospel of the good earth, the gospel of the Bible, and the fullness of the gospel revealed in the latter-day Restoration. His focus is on how to avoid the pollutions that have crept into the gospel of the good earth for optimum health for body, mind, and spirit. How to detect and avoid the pollutions and materialistic bent of the world. He imagines a society with no dentists, doctors, or hospitals because they are not needed. People are super strong and physically healthy—as they fully live the gospel of the good earth, Allen then teaches us how to achieve the same.
Sir Isaac Newton, the author of classical physics and a devout Christian, interpreted the Book of Daniel, providing insights which are still profound today.
Sir Isaac Newton, upon whose work nearly all of classical physics is built, was a deeply religious Christian, who saw the hand of God in all things. To him, all of the great laws of physics which he discovered, were the laws of God that testify of his design. He would have been appalled to know that centuries later, atheists would be claiming that he had really discovered self-existent laws, which explain the universe so well that God is no longer needed in the equation.
Newton wrote an entire book interpreting the prophecies of the Biblical books of Daniel and the Revelation of John (also called “The Apocalypse”). His insights vary in several respects from the “standard” modern Christian interpretations, and his perspicacity might well be vindicated as the rest of these prophecies are yet fulfilled. Besides his immense intellect, he provides a huge contribution which few can supply even today. He had a wealth of knowledge of ancient history, obtained by reading mountains of documents in the original Greek, Latin and Hebrew, in which he saw many of those prophecies literally fulfilled long after they had been revealed. To him, it was a proof of the foreknowledge of God, which was his purpose in writing the book.
His work, Observations on the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. John, published in 1733 (six years after his death and the year after George Washington’s birth), has recently been reprinted.[1] This article is essentially a review of that book, focusing especially on the new contributions he made to the study of the first two visions of Daniel, in identifying exactly what kingdoms of the world are indicated.
Figure 2. The Ten Nations born of the Roman Empire. By John Pratt.com
Notice on the map (above) how neatly the Rhine and Danube Rivers divide the continent of Europe into two pieces. These rivers today still form large parts of the borders between countries. As stated above, the Roman Empire only extended to the Danube. The ten nations which Newton identified are the ten with names in underlined italics on the map in Figure 2. All ten are south of the Danube and west of Greece, in the area of the Western Roman Empire.
The exact date of the Fall of Rome may be important for understanding this vision, especially because three of the nations were said to have been subsequently uprooted. The nations really seemed to play “musical chairs” during the centuries after Rome fell. That is, they not only did not combine into one big empire, they also did not stay in one place. They each grabbed up what they could of the empire, and then had wars to try to hold onto what they had. So the map in Figure 2 is only a “snapshot” of the empire in AD 425 when nations were still on the move.
Newton’s Contributions
Without going through a detailed analysis of all that Newton said, let me summarize what appear to be his main contributions to the subject.
The five visions of Daniel and the Book of Revelation are to be read as one coherent set using the same imagery.
Each vision adds more details to the earlier, so that the final picture can be pieced together like a jigsaw puzzle.
Each horn is an entire kingdom, as well as at least one principal king, such as Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon or Alexander of Greece.
Each of the four beasts represents non-overlapping countries which endure until the Ancient of Days comes in judgment.
Divine imagery uses fixed rules, so any true understanding must involve a self-consistent interpretation derived from a set of precepts. He derived the laws of physics believing God follows set laws, and he assumes the revelations from God also follow set laws.
Some of the revelations may find a dual fulfillment in both the first and second coming of Jesus Christ.
The three and a half times of the little horn of the fourth beast are to be reckoned as 1,260 years, rather than three and a half years (1,260 days), the more common modern interpretation.
There is one more huge point which Newton contributed which to me is worth an entire article on its own. It is his understanding of the most precise prophecy of the timing of the first coming of the Messiah. Next month’s article will show how Newton provided the key to understanding Daniel’s prophecy of the seventy weeks (Dan. 9:24-27) in a manner so precise that it should silence all critics. Source: and complete article.
A Brief Survey of Sir Isaac Newton’s Views on Religion in Converging Paths to Truth,
“Newton was certainly one of the greatest scientists who ever lived. He laid out the three laws of motion in his extraordinary Principia Mathematica. He discovered the law of universal gravitation, the famous inverse-distance-squared law. He wrote much about light and optics after performing his own original experiments on light. He invented calculus. He rejected the authority of the Greek philosopher Aristotle and promoted experiment-based science.
But it is not commonly known that Newton was also a devout Christian who wrote extensively about Christianity. We learn from his writings that he deeply studied the Bible along with writings of early Christian leaders. Notably, Newton concluded that the dogma of a Triune god was false doctrine and therefore refused ordination in the Anglican Church, a most unpopular decision that almost cost him his position at Cambridge University. Newton also believed that a general apostasy from Christ’s doctrines occurred early on in the history of the Christian church, and he wrote that a restoration of the Lord’s church would come at some future time.
Although none of Newton’s religious writings were published during his lifetime, after his death in 1727, John Conduitt, executor of Newton’s will, [1] published some of his theological manuscripts. Eventually the remainder came forth when the manuscripts were auctioned off in 1936. [2] In this paper we will examine some of Newton’s copious writings on religion.
Introductory Thought Experiment
Let us consider a quick thought experiment to get us thinking along Newtonian lines. Imagine a puck held by a string on a central peg so that it travels in a circular path on a “frictionless” air table like those used in air hockey games.
Suddenly, at point P at the bottom the string breaks. Approximately which way will the puck go—path number 1, 2, 3, or 4? When I have put this question to groups of people, the answers have included 1, 2, 3, and 4, with many not being at all sure what will happen.
But we do not do science by voting. We perform an experiment. And when we actually perform the experiment, we find that the moving puck follows path 2. It does not travel outward or continue in a circle.
Newton generalized the results of many such experiments in his famous three Laws of Motion. Newton’s first law of motion can be expressed this way: An object at rest tends to stay at rest, and an object in motion tends to stay in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. Initially the hockey puck was constrained by the unbalanced force of the string to move in a circle. However, at the moment the string broke, it was moving in the direction of 2, and Newton’s first law says that it will continue moving in that direction; this result has been confirmed by numerous actual experiments.
Experiments, careful observations, and measurements form the basis of the scientific method, and anyone can use it, Mormon or Muslim, Baptist or Buddhist. The scientific method works in repeatable fashion, independent of one’s beliefs. Repeatability is the core strength of the scientific method.
During the Middle Ages, people would often answer questions by an appeal to authority. They would use the Latin term ipse dixit, “he himself said it,” meaning that some recognized authority—Aristotle, Ptolemy, or one of the church fathers such as Augustine or Thomas Aquinas—had said it. This appeal to authority was the end of the discussion for many. Newton, however, rejected this appeal to authority and instead advocated the use of experiments and careful observations to find out what is true, which is the basis of the modern scientific method. [3] Aristotle maintained that the motion of the sun, moon, stars, and planets was circular. [4] However, Johannes Kepler, using the careful observations by Tycho Brahe, showed that they were in fact elliptical and derived equations that described their motion. A hundred years later, Newton showed that these elliptical orbits were the result of the gravitational force of the sun that could accurately be calculated using his famous law of gravity: Every point mass attracts every other point mass by a force pointing along the line intersecting both points. The force is directly proportional to the product of the two masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the point masses—in equation form: F = G((m1m2)/(r²)).
We have important issues today that are of general concern for society. For example, is global warming real? Is it man-caused or the result of natural fluctuations in temperature? We can get the answer by repeated, careful experiments, observations, and measurements rather than by dogmatic or political statements.
A true scientist requires analysis based on experiments and observational evidence—it is not a matter of popular opinion or what some authority figure states. Questions important to society can be addressed by the scientific method, using experiments, then published in refereed journals. This system of review by knowledgeable peers was worked out during Newton’s lifetime by the British Royal Academy of Sciences. It is generally considered a major step in a nascent field of science when results are finally published in established peer-reviewed venues and journals. The scientific method has served us well for about 350 years.
Newton in Historical Context
The following time line places Newton in historical context with other notables.
Aristotle and Plato lived about four hundred years before Christ and their impact on Western culture has been considerable. Newton was certainly heavily influenced by Jesus Christ and the early Christian writers, for he quoted them abundantly in his writings. He took exception with some of the later Christian writers, after about AD 200. Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, Kepler, and Galileo appeared on the scene just before Newton and paved the way for his research. Newton was born on the same day in 1642 that Galileo passed away, and he used many of Galileo’s findings in developing his famous laws of motion. Isaac Newton died in 1727.
A Meshing of Science and Faith in God
Newton was both a scientist and a believer in God. He wrote Optics, a study of light. In this scientific treatise, he paused to ask: “Whence is it that Nature doth nothing in vain? And whence arises all that order and beauty which we see in the world? . . . Was the eye contrived without skill in optics? And the ear without knowledge of sounds?” [5] Then, in case the reader is not getting his point, he states plainly: “Does it not appear from phenomena that there is a Being incorporeal, living, intelligent, omnipresent, who in infinite space . . . sees the things themselves intimately, and thoroughly perceives them, and comprehends them wholly.”[6]
In his famous Principia, Newton wrote: “This Being governs all things, not as the soul of the world, but as Lord over all. . . . The Supreme God is a Being eternal, infinite, absolutely perfect . . . and from his true dominion it follows that the true God is a living, intelligent, and powerful Being. . . . He is not eternity and infinity, but eternal and infinite; he is not duration or space, but he endures and is present.” [7]
Newton also wrote, “When I wrote my treatise about our system I had an eye upon such principles as might work with considering men for the belief of a Deity; and nothing can rejoice me more than to find it useful for that purpose.” [8] In other words, Newton hoped his scientific writings would lead people to think about and believe in God.
“In human affairs the father of a family or house is frequently taken for the common father of a kindred: here the whole creation is considered as one kindred or family so named from God, the common father of all.” [9] Thus, for Newton, there was a natural meshing of science and belief in God.
In the Book of Mormon, Alma speaks of performing an individual “experiment” (he uses the same term later used by Newton) in order to learn about religious principles:
Awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith. . . .
Now, we will compare the word unto a seed. Now, if ye give place that a seed may be planted in your heart, behold, if it be a true seed, or a good seed, if ye do not cast it out by your unbelief, that ye will resist the Spirit of the Lord, behold, it will begin to swell within your breasts; and when you feel these swelling motions, ye will begin to say within yourselves—It must needs be that this is a good seed, or that the word is good, for it beginneth to enlarge my soul; yea, it beginneth to enlighten my understanding, yea, it beginneth to be delicious to me. . . .
And now, behold, because ye have tried the experiment, and planted the seed, and it swelleth and sprouteth, and beginneth to grow, ye must needs know that the seed is good. (Alma 32: 28, 33)
Now compare this advice of Alma regarding an experiment on the word of God with this advice from Newton regarding the scriptures:
Let me therefore beg of thee not to trust to the opinion of any man concerning these things, for so it is great odds but thou shalt be deceived. Much less oughtest thou to rely upon the judgment of the multitude, for so thou shalt certainly be deceived. But search the scriptures thyself and that by frequent reading and constant meditation upon what thou readest, and earnest prayer to God to enlighten thine understanding if thou desirest to find the truth. Which if thou shalt at length attain thou wilt value above all other treasures in the world by reason of the assurance and vigour it will add to thy faith, and steady satisfaction to thy mind which he only can know how to estimate who shall experience it. [10]
It seems evident that Newton is sharing his own experience of studying the scriptures and the assurance and satisfaction the word of God brought to him, just as Alma shared his experience based on planting the word of God in his heart.
Newton’s Key to Correctly Understanding Scripture
With the foundation that Newton had obtained by reading the Bible and earnest meditation and prayer, how did he proceed to resolve other questions about religion? There were so many differing interpretations of scripture—how could one make progress in finding out the meaning intended in the Bible? Newton answers: “The first Principles of the Christian religion are founded, not on disputable conclusions, opinions, or conjectures, or on human sanctions, but on the express words of Christ and his Apostles; and we are to hold fast the form of sound words. 2 Tim. 1:13. And further, it is not enough that a proposition be true or in the express words of scripture: it must also appear to have been taught in the days of the Apostles.”[11] And again: “The first Principles of the Christian religion depend not on disputable conclusions. . . . Every truth, every sentence in scripture is not a fundamental article. It must be delivered in the express words of the first teachers, and appear to have been an article taught from the beginning.”[12] So here is Newton’s approach for understanding the Bible—read the “express words of scripture” and what was “taught in the days of the Apostles.”
At Cambridge University, where Newton studied, he had the writings of Ignatius, Irenaeus, Polycarp, and others of the earliest Christian writings, and he read their words in the original Latin and Greek. He quoted frequently from them and made a distinction between doctrines taught by those who lived during or soon after the Apostles and doctrines that appeared later in history.[13]
In 1661, Newton was admitted to Trinity College in Cambridge, England. [14] At that time, the college’s teachings were based largely on the teachings of Aristotle and other philosophers, but Newton preferred to study the experimentalists Galileo, Copernicus, and Kepler, and he came to challenge Aristotle’s teachings. [15] Shortly after he obtained his degree in April 1665, Newton left the university and for the next two years, during the pandemic known as the Great Plague, applied himself to the study of optics, gravitation, and mathematics at his mother’s home in Woolsthorpe, England. [16]
Newton returned to Cambridge in 1667 to continue his studies and obtain a Master of Arts degree, which he obtained the following year. [17] In 1669, he was named to the Lucasian Professorship of Mathematics, an elevated position at Trinity College in the Cambridge University system. [18] Already, at age twenty-six, his talents and contributions were recognized. In Newton’s day, any fellow of Cambridge or Oxford had to be an ordained priest in the Anglican Church. [19] When he accepted the position, Newton promised to take holy orders in the near future but kept postponing it for several years because his personal beliefs were in disagreement with Anglican doctrine.[20] However, the pressure to take holy orders increased, and Newton considered giving up his position rather than be ordained.[21] In March 1675 he applied to King Charles for a special dispensation, and to everyone’s surprise, within a month the king granted that the Lucasian Professor and all subsequent holders of the chair be exempt from holy orders. [22] Newton had expected a fight and had spent the preceding four years in preparation for it by immersing himself in the scriptures and other ancient texts including the earliest Christian writers. [23] He filled his notebooks with scriptural quotes, from both the Old and New Testament as well as from the earliest Christian writers. [24]
Newton on the Nature of the Godhead
Just how did Newton apply his scientific approach in his religious studies? A prime example comes from his studies of the nature of God, which he based on the scriptures combined with the teachings of the early writers of the Christian church. Newton saw two major flaws in the Christian doctrine of the Trinity:it was unsupported from the scriptures and it was illogical. [25] Newton used scriptural passages to demonstrate that the Trinitarian doctrine was incorrect, and that the scriptures instead taught that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are separate and distinct beings, three members of the Godhead. For example, the Son confessed that the Father was greater than him [26] and called him his God. [27] The Son also acknowledged the original prescience of all future things to be in the Father only. [28] Newton especially took exception to the Athanasian Creed, which was the first creed in which the equality of the three persons of the Trinity was explicitly stated. It is now generally accepted by scholars that Athanasius was not its author and that it most likely dates from the late fifth or even early sixth century AD—at least one hundred years after Athanasius. [29] The text of the Athanasian Creed follows:
Whosover will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholic Faith. Which Faith except everyone do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly. . . . The Father Uncreate, the Son Uncreate, and the Holy Ghost Uncreate. The Father Incomprehensible, the Son Incomprehensible, and the Holy Ghost Incomprehensible. The Father Eternal, the Son Eternal, and the Holy Ghost Eternal and yet they are not Three Eternals but One Eternal. As also there are not Three Uncreated, nor Three Incomprehensibles, but One Uncreated, and One Uncomprehensible. . . . So there is one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three Sons; one Holy Ghost, not three Holy Ghosts. And in this Trinity none is afore or after Other, None is greater or less than Another, but the whole Three Persons are Co-eternal together, and co-equal. So that in all things, as is aforesaid, the Unity in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity is to be worshipped. He therefore that will be saved, must thus think of the Trinity. [30]
For Newton this was simply not logical. He wrote, “Let them make good sense of it who are able; for my part, I can make none.” [31]
Newton Rejects 1 John 5:7
Newton wrote a long article about the passage found in 1 John 5:7 in the King James Version, which indeed sounds a bit like the Athanasian Creed: “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one” (1 John 5:7). Not satisfied with this passage, Newton went back and read the text of the Vulgate as well as the original Greek. He showed that the words “in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one” did not appear in the original Greek manuscripts. He wrote that the phrase “was neither in the ancient Versions nor in the Greek but was wholly unknown to the first churches, is most certain by an argument hinted above; namely that in all that vehement, universal, and lasting controversy about the Trinity in Jerome’s time, and both before and long enough after it, this text of the Three in Heaven was never thought of. It is now in everybody’s mouth and accounted the main text for the business [of supporting the Trinitarian dogma].” [32]Newton concluded, based on early texts of the Bible, that 1 John 5:7 was a later addition. He also wrote, “That apostasy was to begin by corrupting the truth about the relation of the Son to the Father in putting them equal.” [33]
Scholars today agree that 1 John 5:7 is indeed spurious based on the same arguments that Newton used. The passage is not found in any early Greek manuscript, and it is not quoted by Greek Fathers, who, if they had known it, would certainly have used it in the Trinitarian controversies of the fourth century AD. [34]
Newton’s Views of a General Apostasy
Newton concluded a lengthy treatise on the Book of Revelation by saying: “If you now compare all with the Apocalyptic Visions, and particularly with the flight of the woman into the wilderness and the reign of the whore of Babylon, they will very much illustrate one another: for these visions are as plain as if it had been expressly said, that the true Church shall disappear, and in her stead an idolatrous church reign in the world.” [35]It is interesting to compare this with Doctrine and Covenants 86, where the Lord explains the meaning of the parable of the wheat and the tares:
Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you my servants, concerning the parable of the wheat and the tares:
Behold, verily I say, the field was the world, and the apostles were the sowers of the seed; And after they have fallen asleep the great persecutor of the church, the apostate, the whore, even Babylon, that maketh all nations to drink of her cup, in whose hearts the enemy, even Satan, sitteth to reign—behold he soweth the tares; wherefore, the tares choke the wheat and drive the church into the wilderness. (D&C 86:1–3)
Newton insisted that this was a “general Apostacy,” [36] and used such scriptures as 1 Timothy 1 and 2 [37] and in particular 2 Thessalonians 2:3, which Newton translates as: “The day of the Lord shall not come except the Apostacy come first & that man of sin be revealed the Son of perdition.” [38] These, of course, are scriptures the Latter-day Saints also use to support the idea of a general apostasy.
Newton also remarked:
Now though the unity of the Church depended upon the unity of the faith and therefore the rule of faith was unalterable, yet before the end of the second century some of the Latin churches in opposition to heretics began to add new articles to it. And after they had, by adding some articles in the language of the scriptures, made precedents for creating to themselves a creed-making authority: they began to add articles in other language than that of the scripture till they lost the primitive Apostolic rule of faith, and by the loss of it brought all into confusion. [39]
On his deathbed, Newton openly disclosed his rejection of apostate Christianity by refusing to accept the last rites of the Anglican Church. [40]
Newton Predicts a Restoration of the True Gospel
Newton’s study of the scriptures brought him to the conclusion that just as there had been a falling away, there would also be a restoration of the true church of Jesus Christ. He quoted Malachi 3 and other scriptures in his commentary that are standard scriptural passages used by Latter-day Saints in discussing the restoration:
Behold I will send my messenger & he shall prepare the way before me & the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple—But who may abide the day of his coming? & who shall stand when he appeareth. Malachi 3.1, 2. [41]
And there appeared unto them Moses & Elias & they were talking with Jesus—And (the disciples) asked him saying why say the Scribes that Elias must first come And he answered & told them Elias verily cometh first & restoreth all things. . . . Mark 9.4, 11[–]13. . . . Jesus said unto them (his disciples) Elias shall first come & restore all things. . . . Matth 17.11. [42]
Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. Acts 3.21. [43]
I will lay the Land most desolate & the pomp of her strength shall cease, & the Mountains (i.e. Cities) of Israel shall be desolate. Ezek 33.28. [44]
Jerusalem shall become heaps, & the Mountain of the house as the high-places of the Forest: But in the last days it shall come to pass that the Mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the Mountains & it shall be exalted above the hills &c i.e. above all other temples. Mica 3.12. [45]
So in Dan 2 The new Jerusalem extending its dominion over the earth is represented by a great mountain which filled the whole Earth. [46]
Newton found multiple examples throughout history of reformations by God:
The worship which is due to this God we are to give to no other nor to ascribe anything absurd or contradictious to his nature or actions lest we be found to blaspheme him or to deny him or to make a step towards atheism or irreligion. . . . For as often as mankind has swerved from them, God has made a reformation. When the sons of Adam erred and the thoughts of their heart became evil continually, God selected Noah to people a new world. And when the posterity of Noah transgressed and began to invoke dead men, God selected Abraham and his posterity. And when they transgressed in Egypt God reformed them by Moses. And when they relapsed to idolatry and immorality, God sent Prophets to reform them and punished them by the Babylonian captivity. And when they that returned from captivity, mixed human inventions with the law of Moses under the name of traditions, and laid the stress of religion not upon the acts of the mind, but upon outward acts and ceremonies, God sent Christ to reform them. And when the nation received him not, God called the Gentiles. And now the Gentiles have corrupted themselves, we may expect that God in due time will make a new reformation. And in all the reformations of religion hitherto made, the religion in respect of God and our neighbor is one and the same religion . . . so that this is the oldest religion in the world.[47]
Newton argued that it was the same religion that was restored from time to time by God because men deviated from this true religion. He concluded: “So then the mystery of this restitution of all things is to be found in all the Prophets: which makes me wonder with great admiration that so few Christians of our age can find it there.” [48]
Conclusion
Newton died on March 20, 1727, and was buried in Westminster Abby on April 4. His coffin was carried by “the Lord High Chancellor, the Dukes of Montrose and Roxborough, and the Earls of Pembroke, Sussex and Macclesfield.” [49] Other great scientists buried near him include James Clerk Maxwell and Michael Faraday.
Isaac Newton was one of the world’s greatest scientists. He utilized his great genius and powers of reasoning to produce his famous scientific discoveries including his laws of motion, the law of universal gravitation, studies in optics, and the invention of calculus. But he was also a devout Christian, and he brought this same intellectual genius to bear in his analysis of Christianity, and he based his beliefs on his own studies of the Bible along with the earliest Christian writers. Based on his studies he rejected the doctrine of the Trinity and proved that it was unbiblical. He also concluded from that there had been an apostasy from the true Church of Christ, and that at some future time there would be a restoration.”
By Steven E. Jones ed. Michael D. Rhodes and J. Ward Moody (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, Salt Lake City, 2011), 61–78.
“Steven Earl Jones (born March 25, 1949) is an American physicist. Among scientists, Jones became known for his research into muon-catalyzed fusion and geo-fusion. Jones is also known for his association with 9/11 conspiracy theories. Jones has claimed that mere airplane crashes and fires could not have resulted in so rapid and complete a fall of the World Trade Center Towers and 7 World Trade Center, suggesting controlled demolition instead. In late 2006, some time after Brigham Young University (BYU) officials placed him on paid leave, he elected to retire in an agreement with BYU.[8] Jones continued research and writing following his early retirement from BYU, including a paper published in Europhysics News in August 2016.” Wikipedia
Notes
The author acknowledges Professor Michael D. Rhodes for a careful reading of this paper and numerous useful suggestions.
[1] Michael White, Isaac Newton: The Last Sorcerer (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1997), 360. [2] White, Isaac Newton, 346. [3] Isaac Newton, The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, trans. Andrew Motte (Berkley University of California Press, 1946), Rule 4 in Book III, 400. [4] Aristotle, On the Heavens, 1.9. [5] Isaac Newton, Opticks, 4th ed. (London: William Innys, 1730), 344; spelling and punctuation modernized. [6] Isaac Newton, Opticks, 345; spelling and punctuation modernized. [7] Isaac Newton, Principia, ed. Stephen Hawking (Philadelphia: Running Press, 2002), 426–27. [8] Isaac Newton, Original letter from Isaac Newton to Richard Bentley, 189.R.4.47, ff. 4A-5, Trinity College Library, Cambridge, UK; found on the Newton Project website: http://www.newtonproject.sussex.ac.uk/view/texts/normalized/ THEM00254; spelling and punctuation modernized. [9] Isaac Newton, Two Notable Corruptions of Scripture (part 4: ff. 70–83), ms. 361(4), f. 94, New College Library, Oxford, http://www.newtonproject.sussex.ac.uk/view/texts/normalized/THEM00263; spelling and punctuation modernized. [10] Isaac Newton, Untitled Treatise on Revelation (section 1.1), Yahuda Ms. 1.1, 1r–2r. Jewish National and University Library, Jerusalem, http://www.newtonproject.sussex.ac.uk/view/texts/normalized/THEM00135; spelling and punctuation modernized. [11] Isaac Newton, Irenicum, Keynes Ms. 3, King’s College, Cambridge, 13, http://www.newtonproject.sussex.ac.uk/view/texts/normalized/THEM00003; spelling and punctuation modernized, emphasis added. [12] Newton, Irenicum, 25; spelling and punctuation modernized, emphasis added. [13] For example, see Isaac Newton, Drafts on the History of the Church (Section 6), Yahuda Ms. 15.6, National Library of Israel, Jerusalem, http://www.newtonproject.sussex.ac.uk/view/texts/normalized/THEM00223; Isaac Newton, Paradoxical Questions concerning the morals & actions of Athanasius & his followers, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, Los Angeles, http://www.newtonproject.sussex.ac.uk/view/texts/normalized/THEM00117. [14] White, Isaac Newton, 46, 55. [15] White, Isaac Newton, 53. [16] White, Isaac Newton, 58. [17] White, Isaac Newton, 94–95. [18] White, Isaac Newton, 103. [19] White, Isaac Newton, 150. [20] White, Isaac Newton, 150. [21] White, Isaac Newton, 150. [22] White, Isaac Newton, 151. [23] White, Isaac Newton, 151–52. [24] See footnotes 8–10. [25] White, Isaac Newton, 152. [26]Drafts on the history of the Church (Section 3), Yahuda Ms. 15.3, 47v., National Library of Israel, Jerusalem, http://www.newtonproject.sussex.ac.uk/view/texts/normalized/THEM00220. [27] Isaac Newton, Drafts on the history of the Church(Section 7), Yahuda Ms. 15.7, 154r, National Library of Israel, Jerusalem, http://www.newtonproject.sussex.ac.uk/view/texts/normalized/THEM00237. [28] Isaac Newton, Drafts on the history of the Church(Section 3), Yahuda Ms. 15.3, 66r. [29] Frederick W. Norris, “Athanasian Creed,” in Encyclopedia of Early Christianity, 2nd ed., ed. Everett Fergusen (New York: Garland, 1997); Michael O’Carroll, “Athanasian Creed,” in Trinitas (Wilmington, DE: Michael Glazier, 1987); Concordia Triglotta (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1921), 13. [30] Charles G. Herbermann and others, eds., The Catholic Encyclopedia (New York: The Universal Knowledge Foundation, 1907), s.v. Athanasian Creed. [31] Isaac Newton, Two Notable Corruptions of the Scriptures (part 1: ff. 1–41), ms. 361(4). [32] Isaac Newton, Two Notable Corruptions of Scripture (part 1: ff. 1–41), ms 361(4), f. 7. [33] Isaac Newton, Untitled Treatise on Revelation (section 1.4), Yahuda Ms. 1.4, 158r, Jewish National and University Library, Jerusalem, http://www.newtonproject.sussex.ac.uk/view/texts/normalized/THEM00182; spelling modernized. [34] Bruce M. Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, 2nd ed. (Stuttgart: German Bible Society, 1994), 647–49. [35] Isaac Newton, Untitled Treatise on Revelation (section 1.2), Yahuda Ms. 1.2, 27v, National Library of Israel, Jerusalem, http://www.newtonproject.sussex.ac.uk/view/texts/normalized/THEM00137; spelling and punctuation modernized. [36] Isaac Newton, Untitled Treatise on Revelation (section 1.2), Yahuda Ms. 1.2, 24r. [37] Isaac Newton, Untitled Treatise on Revelation (section 1.2), Yahuda Ms. 1.2, 24r. [38] Isaac Newton, Untitled Treatise on Revelation (section 1.2), Yahuda Ms. 1.2, 24v. [39] Isaac Newton, Drafts on the history of the Church (Section 5), Yahuda Ms. 15.5, 92v, Jewish National and University Library, Jerusalem, http://www.newtonproject.sussex.ac.uk/view/texts/normalized/THEM00222; spelling and punctuation modernized. [40] White, Isaac Newton, 360 [41] Isaac Newton, Prophesies concerning Christs 2d coming,ASC Ms. N47 HER, James White Library, Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan, USA, 8, http://www.newtonproject.sussex.ac.uk/view/texts/normalized/THEM00088; spelling modernized [42] Isaac Newton, Prophesies concerning Christs 2d coming, ASC Ms. N47 HER; spelling modernized. [43] Isaac Newton, Prophesies concerning Christs 2d coming, ASC Ms. N47 HER; spelling modernized. [44] Isaac Newton, Untitled Treatise on Revelation (section 1.1a), Yahuda Ms. 1.1a, 3v, Jewish National and University Library, Jerusalem, http://www.newtonproject.sussex.ac.uk/view/texts/normalized/THEM00136. [45] Isaac Newton, Untitled Treatise on Revelation (section 1.1a), Yahuda Ms. 1.1a, 4r; spelling modernized. [46] Isaac Newton, Untitled Treatise on Revelation (section 1.1a), Yahuda Ms. 1.1a, 3r; spelling modernized. [47] Isaac Newton, Irenicum, 35; spelling and punctuation modernized. [48] Yahuda MS 6, folio 12, cited in Frank E. Manuel, The Religion of Isaac Newton (Oxford: Clarendon, 1974), 126.[49] White, Isaac Newton, 360.
“I personally believe Dr. Jones very much about what he said about 9-11. For over 20 years I believed the same politically correct narrative that the government and main stream media insisted us to hear, that Jihadi hijackers brought down the buildings. In the past few years I have studied and researched for many hours, and I believe the Deep State or Cabal is fully behind many of the wars and problems of today.” (June 2022)
On the map above from John Pratt called The Ten Nations born of the Roman Empire pay particular attention to the area of the “Huns.” I believe this part of Asia today is an area of division and conquest today in many parts.
Newton calls these the 10 Nations: 1. The Vandals 2. The Suevians 3. The Visigoths 4. The Alans 5. The Burgundians 6. The Franks 7. The Britons 8. The Huns 9. The Lombards 10. Ravenna
Some of these nations and forces may be called more recently the following: Azov’s, Khazarians, Frankist’s, Nazi’s, Bolsheviks, Communists, Stalinist, Mao’s, Leninist’s, Rothchild’s, Mason’s, Rosicrucian’s, Deep State, Cabal and many other names.” Rian Nelson [This is not the opinion of FIRM Foundation or any of its employees or officers but my opinion alone. I will leave it up to you to study and pray about it.]
“So Newton appeared to believe that there were intermediary divine beings in the universe between us and the “Supreme being,” or something like that. We have to keep in mind what a radical cosmic shift it was to go from the Ptolemaic system to the Copernican and Newtonian ones: the universe became massively larger. In radical monotheism there could only be one God, so He was simply moved to the top of this much larger universe, even though this universe was not described anywhere in the Bible. Andrew Michael Ramsay reported, “We must accept the opinion of Sir Isaac Newton and other theologians, that several books on the creation by pre-Mosaic Patriarchs have been lost, and that Genesis is only a very brief summary of these.”[5] With this new universe, Newton seemed to feel that information was missing from the Bible.
Joseph Smith, not worried about adhering to orthodoxy and radical monotheism, said similar things.[6]“
Newton and Joseph Smith had a lot of similar ideas about God
[5] Quoted in D. P. Walker, The Ancient Theology: Studies in Christian Platonism from the Fifteenth to the Eighteenth Century (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1972), 243. Newton’s Chronology of Ancient Kingdom’s Amended, (1728) sought to understand the religion of Noah “partly maintained by the Jews, but debased elsewhere into paganism.” Paul Kleber Monod, Solomon’s Secret Arts: The Occult in the Age of Enlightenment (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013), 165.
[6] Newton had a number of other ideas similar to Smith’s including their views on the Trinity. See Thomas C. Pfizenmaier, The Trinitarian Theology of Dr. Samuel Clarke (1675-1729): Context, Sources, and Controversy (Leiden: Brill, 1997).
The United States of America is “the only land where His work could be commenced or the feet of his people find rest. No other land had such liberal institutions, had adopted so broad a platform upon which all men might stand.” Orson Whitney, 1885
Thomas S. Monson
“Our Heavenly Father inspired Christopher Columbus in his discovery of America. Our Heavenly Father inspired the leaders of the renaissance period. Our Heavenly Father inspired men and caused that they would dream dreams and see visions and discover marvelous instruments and inventions which would enable them to set forth upon the oceans and to be led to the place where our Father in Heaven would have them led. Our Heavenly Father inspired the man who invented movable type, that His holy word, as found in the Bible, could be printed and disseminated widely to the people. Our Heavenly Father inspired the leaders of . . . the United States of America, that they might together, under His direction, having been raised up by God for the purpose, establish the Constitution of this country and . . . Bill of Rights, that . . . by the year of our Lord 1805 [there would be] a climate where our Heavenly Father could send into this period of mortality a choice spirit who would be known as Joseph Smith, Jr. His life’s mission would alter the course of all future events. Thus, came Joseph into the world.” Teachings of Thomas S Monson 2011 (Twenty-First Annual Joseph Smith Memorial Sermon, December 11, 1963)
“In culmination of the grand scheme of schemes, this great nation, the Republic of the United States, might be established upon this land as an asylum for the oppressed; a resting place, it might be said, for the Ark of the covenant, where the temple of our God might be built; where the plan of salvation might be introduced and practiced in freedom, and not a dog would wag his tongue in opposition to the purposes of the Almighty. We believe that this was His object in creating the Republic of the United States; the only land where his work could be commenced or the feet of his people find rest. No other land had such liberal institutions, had adopted so broad a platform upon which all men might stand. We give glory to those patriots for the noble work they did; but we give the first glory to God, our Father and their Father, who inspired them. We take them by the hand as brothers. We believe they did nobly their work, even as we would fain do ours, faithfully and well, that we might not be recreant in the eyes of God, for failing to perform the mission to which He has appointed us.” Bishop Orson F. Whitney, delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, April 19, 1885. Reported by John Irvine. Journal Discourses Volume 26 Page 201
Mark E. Petersen said: “You from other lands don’t need to become jealous of America. Who is jealous of Palestine, where Jesus was born? We are not jealous of the country; we merely recognize the hand of God in sending him there. We must also recognize the hand of God in sending the gospel to this land. We learn to love America because it is God’s land!
The Promised Land Covenant 4-Hours, 2-Discs Just $5 each here!
The Heartland Model about the geography of the Book of Mormon is important to me in the love of the land of America and my love of the Book of Mormon. As Elder Perry said, “The United States is the promised land foretold in the Book of Mormon—a place where divine guidance directed inspired men to create the conditions necessary for the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ.” Elder L. Tom Perry Ensign Dec. 2012
This amazing DVD by Rod Meldrum is four hours and two discs of fascinating scriptural and physical evidence about the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, and the Heartland being the Promised Land that God chose for the restoration of the gospel. This DVD should be an important part of your library and a wonderful gift to share with friends. Share with others as they may not have knowledge that this land of America is indeed the Land spoken of in the Book of Mormon.
Hinterland vs. Heartland
The Book of Mormon events started somewhere, and I have studied and prayed and feel North America is the most likely place. That belief is a wonderful part of my testimony. Moroni said I may know the truth of all things and that’s why, when the Church is neutral on Geography, Evolution, DNA, etc., I have studied and prayed and received answers to help myself and my family. I follow the Prophet on all doctrine and revelation and love them and this wonderful Church. I claim no revelation and I never speak on behalf of the Church. I’m just a guy with much desire to know truth and I continue to search for it.
Hinterlands
I believe there are great Lamanites and children of Lehi in all of the Americas. I however believe the events of the Book of Mormon started in North America, probably Florida (Blog Here), and through migration, intermarriage, ocean voyage, and open borders, descendants of Lehi and Nephi are all over the world. See my blog here for additional understanding of what we call the “Hinterlands” and see the map above right.
“Hinterlands is defined here as meaning the unknown area of North and South America that are not within the scope of the writings of the Book of Mormon. In other words, since we believe main events of the Book of Mormon happened in a limited area of North America around the Great Lakes in the east, and Ohio, Indiana, Iowa and Missouri to the west, and south in Tennessee, West Virginia, Georgia, and Florida, all other areas will be discussed as “The Hinterlands”.
Many Beautiful Lands and Nations
“In the last few weeks, I have had the glorious privilege of visiting eleven of our Latin American countries… I found they like to be referred to as Americans… I found they were very happy to learn that to the Latter-day Saints the Promised Land, the land of Zion, includes all of North and South America.” President Ezra Taft Benson April 1955 General Conference
I think it is awesome the Latin Americans like to be called Americans. We members in North America are also happy to refer to them as wonderful people who have a promised land of their own. The only difference is no city in Latin America has been chosen by the Lord to be the Garden of Eden, New Jerusalem, Cumorah, Zarahemla, Plains of the Nephites, headquarters of the Church, Manti, Kirtland, Nauvoo, etc.
Latin America was chosen to be a beautiful land for a beautiful people, just as any other country was. I hear Greenland is beautiful and so is Ontario, China, and Chile, but they weren’t chosen for the Lord’s purpose for an inspired Constitution, or to gather the Saints, or to reveal the gold plates. Those things happened in cities in the United States of America. Just understand we in the USA are not better than anyone, we were only allowed to live in the USA where the covenant was made as the Promised Land of the Book of Mormon.
Many Beautiful Lands in the World.
Why is America Called America?
This blog will address many names for and of, the word America, that you may not ever heard about. It is a fascinating story and continues to be scrutinized.
If you ask a historian today why the continent of America is so called, the chances are they will tell you that it is named after the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci. And they may well be right. There is, however, a lesser known candidate for the accolade, and although it seems unlikely that documentary evidence will emerge to settle the matter one way or the other, I thought it might be a worthwhile exercise to have a look at the basis of both assertions. Source:
Understanding the name AMERICA!
Amerigo Vespucci Richard Amerike Christopher Columbus John Cabot Amalric Himmelreich Ommerike Oh-ma-reeg-eh Pilgrims Mayflower Compact Language of the Vikings Lands beyond Greenland Amteric, or the Land of (Leif) Eric
I am fascinated at the many varying degrees of information about this blessed country we call America. Each of the names above can be researched for ever to help determine such a quest of knowing where the name America really came from. To me the entire world is the “Kingdom of God” on the earth, yet it is still Satan’s world until the Lord comes. We are in a battle in June 2022 of good vs. evil and I believe the world will win in what I call a “Second Harvest”, which will be a time I believe where we as members of Christ’s true church may share the gospel in Israel, Arabia, Iraq, and Iran, and China, and all other lands that have not received the gospel. I believe we may have 10 or 20 years before the great coming of the Lord the second time, but we never know for sure. We should prepare and repent daily as if the Lord’s coming is imminent. May we prepare our selves and our world to prepare for this so-called 3rd World War to be won against Satan.
Good vs Evil Today
“This work will fill the Rocky Mountains with tens of thousands of Latter-day Saints, and there will be joined with them the Lamanites who dwell in those mountains who will receive the gospel of Christ from the elders of Israel, and they will be united with the Church and the kingdom of God, and bring forth much good” (Discourses of Wilford Woodruff, p. 30).
“Upon the land of North America, four hundred years after the birth of our Savior and Master, there stood at least one man who knew the Lord God Almighty as a distinct personality, a Being capable of communicating Himself to man. That man was Moroni, the son of Mormon, whose testimony abides now and must abide through all the ages to come.”—George Q. Cannon, Life of Joseph Smith, p. 21.
“While the Reformation and the surge for freedom were gaining momentum in Europe and England, events were transpiring that led to the rediscovery of the land of America, for God touched the heart of a mariner by the name of Christopher Columbus, who eventually pioneered a passageway to the promised land in 1492. But neither Columbus, the Nephites, nor the Jaredites were its original discoverers, nor did they establish the purpose of America’s destiny. This had already been established in the infancy of earth’s habitation. In these migrations they were but directed to the land of man’s beginning upon the earth…. In the course of time from the creation, in the days of Peleg (Gen. 10:16 (JST)), or about the year 2200 B.C., Just prior to the confusion of the languages, the single continent of land that had continued from creation was divided to produce the hemispheres as we now know them. But notwithstanding this, the geographic location of the Garden of Eden was made known to the Prophet Joseph Smith by revelation as here in the land of America, in Jackson County, Missouri, with Independence as the center place.” The Destiny of America by President Alvin R. Dyer October 1968
AMERICA (Look Unto the Rock Whence Ye are Hewn!) By Reverend Ken Kemble
“Hearken unto me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the LORD: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged. Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone and blessed him, and increased him.’ – (ISAIAH 51:1-2)
IT is generally assumed and taught that America is named
after the explorer Americus Vespucci (1451-1512). Others claim that America is
named after Richard Ameryke, enthusiastic supporter and financier of the
explorer John Cabot (1450-1498).
Thus, America (amalric, himmelreich) literally means Kingdom of Heaven.” Reverend Ken Kemble
Amerigo Vespucci
Amerigo Vespucci
The name America, however, is actually much older, and has been attached to this great land since the time of the Vikings and before, hundreds of years before the time of Columbus, Cabot or Vespucci.
Amerigo Vespucci March 9, 1454 – February 22, 1512) was an Italian explorer, financier, navigator, and cartographer who was born in the Republic of Florence. Sailing for Portugal around 1501–1502, Vespucci demonstrated that Brazil and the West Indies were not Asia’s eastern outskirts (as initially conjectured from Columbus’ voyages) but a separate, unexplored land mass colloquially known as the New World. In 1507, the new continent was named America after the Latin version of Vespucci’s first name. Vespucci became a citizen of the Crown of Castile and died in Seville (1512). Wikipedia
Richard Amerike (or Ameryk)
Richard Amerike
“Richard ap Meryk, anglicised to Richard Amerike (or Ameryk) (c. 1440–1503) was an Anglo-Welsh merchant, royal customs officer and, at the end of his life, sheriff of Bristol. Several claims have been made for Amerike by popular writers of the late twentieth century. One was that he was the major funder of the voyage of exploration launched from Bristol by the Venetian John Cabot in 1497, and that Amerike was the owner of Cabot’s ship, the Matthew. The other claim revived a theory first proposed in 1908 by a Bristolian scholar and amateur historian, Alfred Hudd. Hudd’s theory, greatly elaborated by later writers, suggested that the continental name America was derived from Amerike’s surname in gratitude for his sponsorship of Cabot’s successful discovery expedition to the ‘New World’. However, neither claim is backed up by hard evidence, and the consensus view is that America is named after Amerigo Vespucci, the Italian explorer.” Wikipedia
John Cabot
Aalric or Amalaric
Amalric or Amalaric (also Americ, Almerich, Emeric, Emerick and other variations) is a personal name derived from the tribal name Amal (referring to the Gothic Amali) and ric (Gothic reiks) meaning “ruler, prince”.
Equivalents in different languages include: French: Amaury (surname/given name), Amalric (surname), Amaurich (surname), Maury (surname) German: Amalrich, Emmerich Italian: Amerigo, Arrigo Hungarian: Imre Latin: Amalricus, Americus, Almericus, Emericus Greek: Emerikos Polish: Amalaryk, Amalryk, Emeryk Dutch: Emmerik, Amerik, Hamelink Portuguese: Amauri, Américo, América Spanish: Américo Serbo-Croatian: Mirko Wikipedia
Himmelsreich
Alternative forms Reich der Himmel (“kingdom of the heavens; literal translation from Koine Greek: βασιλεία τῶν οὐρανῶν (Matthew 20:1)”)
German to English: Himmelreich: kingdom of Heaven Wiktionary
Reverend Ken Kemblen continues, “A marvelous appellation,’ wrote Miskovsky, ‘and calculated to make us thoughtful.’ Indeed, one might almost believe that this name, apparently given to our land by mere accident, was in reality prophetic, looking forward to a bright day to come.
America … Kingdom of Heaven! God’s country!
Ommerike’ (oh-meh- ric-eh)
It has been suggested that ‘America’ is derived from the old Norse word ‘Ommerike’ (oh-meh- ric-eh), that was evidently in common use among the North Atlantic sailing fraternity from around the beginning of the 11th century.
Voyages of Christopher Columbus
Omme means ‘out there,’ ‘final,’ or
‘ultimate’ Rike (spelled a number of ways in ancient Norse manuscripts such as
rige, rega, rike, rikja, and reykja) means ‘great land’, ‘kingdom’, ’empire’.
It is the equivalent of the Gaelic ‘righ’ and the German ‘reich’.
The old Norse ommerike, however, is simply a slightly corrupted form of the still more ancient Visigothic term amalric.(2)
Kingdom of Heaven?
In fact, Professor Louis Miskovsky of Oberlin College wrote in the 1920’s that America is ‘simply another form of the old Gothic Amalric’. Amal means ‘heaven’; and ric means ‘Kingdom’, just as in the old Norse rike. We find the same old word handed down to us today in the modern German term ‘Himmelreich’, used for, the Biblical ‘Kingdom of Heaven.’ (3)
Throughout our history men and women have fought all manner
of trouble to come to this great land. It was a new mysterious ‘Promised Land’;
a land flowing with milk and honey, prepared for us by the Hand of the
Almighty. They came usually at risk of life, and sometimes lost it. But in their hearts was a righteous fervor. They
wanted not only to be free, but to establish a place where they could live for
God unfettered by the chains of religious persecution!
Pilgrims Mayflower Compact
The Pilgrims were Separatists (a dirty word nowadays, but highly scriptural – II Corinthians 6:17). They settled here in the early 1600’s and established a ‘Civil body Politick’, and it is made very clear in the Mayflower Compact that they did so under God, referring to God and the Christian Faith repeatedly throughout the Compact. The Compact even begins with the words ‘In the name of God, Amen.’ They lived their lives according to the Word of God, and to them this was truly America, the Kingdom of Heaven.
Pilgrims Landing
By the early 19th century, the United States of America was a marvel and a wonder to all the world. Our God had placed us above all the other nations of the earth, just as He had promised to do if we were obedient (Deuteronomy 28: 1). We were so blessed of God and so full of strength, liberty and bounty that one almost had to come to America and see it to believe it. And that they did; by the hundreds.
Alexis de Tocqueville
One of those who curiously came over for a visit to see this
great new wonder called the United States of America was a French historian and
researcher named Alexis de
Tocqueville. He came to see what made America ‘tick’. In 1826, after he
had been here for a tirne, he came to a conclusion. He said: ‘I sought for the greatness and genius of
America in her commodious harbours and her ample rivers, and it was not there;
in her fertile land and boundless prairies, and it was not there. Not until I
went to the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness
did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America
is great because she is good, and if America ceases to be good America will
cease to be great.’
Back in those days, there were indeed many mighty men of God in the pulpits across America. Men like Jonathan Mayhew, Samuel West and countless others stirred their congregations on to holy living. They preached righteousness. They preached obedience to God. They preached the Kingdom of Heaven. The pulpits of America were, as de Tocqueville states from firsthand experience, aflame!
Sadly, I see a totally different America when I look around
me and when I listen to the news on the radio. Lawlessness abounds in the land
of the free and home of the brave. In fact, it becomes more and more evident if we take an honest look at life in
America today that we are neither free nor brave. We are in bondage. A
bondage of our own making. The bondage that results from turning away from God.
Matthew 24:12, in speaking of our present day, says: And
because of the abundance of lawlessness (rebellion against God’s Law), the love
of many shall become cold.’
We have
indeed become cold, and have lost our first love. We have become a
wicked and adulterous generation, calling evil good and good evil. We accept all manner of wickedness in the name of tolerance,
and are called ‘un-christian’ if we don’t. Forgiveness of the wicked seems to be the
principal concern, while the cries for the re-establishment of righteousness in
the land are made out to be the ravings of an ogre.
We have brazenly turned our back on God and despised the inestimable
treasure of His Holy Word. We have become a nation of infidels, reprobates and
debauchees. We allow our unborn to be slaughtered without the blink of an eye,
and talk about it as though it were merely some trivial political issue. We
accept decadent sexual perverts as normal and castigate anyone who dares
suggest that they are what they are; wicked
Our nation’s Capitol is filled, even
at it’s highest levels, with sexual deviants, liars and felons; and nobody even
seems to care.
More and more, the lovers of righteousness and those that
love God’s Holy Word are called ‘hate mongers’ and the wicked are smothered
with sympathy and called simply ‘human’ or even ‘good!’
Righteousness is more and more becoming a relic of the
distant past. It is now an undesirable trait. It simply doesn’t fit in to the
communistic New World Order that everyone seems to want.
Jesus and Barabbas
Just as the angry mob so long ago shouted ‘Give us Barabbas’ and ‘Crucify Jesus’, we have said ‘Away with Christ’, ‘Away with His Word’, ‘Away with Christian ideals’, and we have welcomed Barabbas with open arms! Just as in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, we have married strange wives and have begotten a whole new order, both in our society and in our churches, that is contrary to the Divine order! Just as the mighty Samson, we have laid our head in the lap of Delilah, and have been lulled to sleep by the constant subtle stroking of the world upon our mind. We have lost our vision and our strength.
America, look around. You have ceased being good; and whether you realize it or not, you are no longer great; not like you once were. And you have only yourselves to blame. De Tocqueville’s prophetic words loom ominously overhead. Your demise is sure if you do not repent with a humble and contrite heart, and look unto the Rock whence ye are hewn for grace and mercy.
The God of Heaven is the God of your fathers as far back as the history of the faith goes. He is the Lord your God, and He is a jealous God. He will not tolerate this wanton rebellion and harlotry! Submit yourselves under the Mighty Hand of God! Forsake all of this foul wickedness! Turn back to your God (‘In God We Trust!) and obey His Commandments and Statutes. Serve Him with your whole heart. Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you! Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will, once again, lift us up!
For He hath said: ‘If My people, which are called by My Name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My Face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.’(II Chronicles 7:14)
Amen, Lord! Let It be! May America be truly America, Kingdom of Heaven, once again!” Reverend Ken Kemblen
Did The Vikings Name America? by Dick Wicken
A number of theories regarding the origin of the name “America” have been advanced, but none have been proved true.
First, and most generally accepted, is that the name “America” is derived from the first name of Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian mapmaker and self-promoter who explored the seacoasts of North America in the decade following Christopher Columbus’ “discovery” of the New World for her most Catholic majesty, Isabella of Spain.
However, there has been no substantiation that this derivation of the name “America” is correct: and there is other evidence indicating that Amerigo Vespucci was not above turning to personal advantage an odd coincidence of phonetics in the sound of his first name and a composite word of ancient Norse invention, evidently in very current use by the North Atlantic sailing fraternity from about the year 1000 until well past the times of Columbus, Cabot and Vespucci.
The claim that the name of the entire continent, North and South, was derived from a given name is odd in itself, for common practice at the time would indicate using a man’s family name to derive an identity for a locality.
Secondly, and less generally accepted, is a theory emanating from Bristol, England, submitting that the name “America” was derived from name of one Richard Ameryke, a tax collector for King Henry VII as well as the city’s leading lumber merchant. Ameryke was an enthusiastic supporter and financial backer of the Italian navigator, John Cabot. Under letters-patent from Henry VII, dated 5 March 1496, Cabot set sail from Bristol in 1497, accompanied by his three sons.
Richard Ameryke
On 24 June 1497 he sighted Cape Breton Island and Nova Scotia, thus “discovering” the mainland of North America – about 600 years after the Vikings had done so.
There is no more factual substantiation of the Bristol theory of the origin of the name “America” than the highly questionable claims of Amerigo Vespucci.
Thirdly, the theory has been advanced that America was named for a Spanish sailor bearing the ancient Visigothic name of “Amalrick”.
Since these unproved – and quite possibly, unprovable – claims and theories are being advanced and accepted, it seems only right to submit a fourth unproven, equally logical and far more possible theory of the origin of the name “America”.
Therefore, it is herewith submitted that the word “America” is simply a phonetic derivation of an ancient Norse compound word “omme-rike“. In its simplest translation from the largely four-letter language of the Viking discoverers of the New World, it means “the remotest land”. The various parts of the New World were referred to in the Icelandic Sagas as Helluland (Stoneland), Markland (Woodland) and Vineland (Wineland). “Omme-rike” would have been the logical name to apply to the great land mass as a whole.
Norsemen
In support of this submission the following facts are listed for consideration:
The long-used and familiar name occurring in classic writings, “Ultima Thule,” designating a mysterious distant land. The meaning of these two words is singularly interesting in itself. Ultima means “the end,” “remotest,” and Thule is derived from, not Latin, but from the old Norse word “Thyle,” which means to “speak”. It is safe to assume that when the Norse word meaning speech is used, the speech being referred to is Norse. The simplest translation of “Ultima Thule” is “the farthest out land where Norse is spoken”. The obvious conclusion is simply that “Ultima Thyle” means what it says.
The analysis of the word in question, “America,”as to its possible meaning in old Norse, the language of the Vikings, still current in a slightly changed form in Iceland and in isolated parts of Norway.In old Norse, the word “America” strongly suggests two separate words, “omme” and “rike”. “Omme” means “over,” “out,” “out there,” “the end,” “final,” “furthest out,” “most remote,” “very last,” or “ultimate” Rike” appears in lively existence today both in contemporary Norse, and its use by the Vikings to designate large land masses is amply attested to today in the names of places in the areas of Viking operations. Sometimes the word is slightly modified, but its presence is as easily recognized as its meaning. In old Norse it is pronounced rica as in America, It is spelled in a number of ways, but always pronounced the same: rige, rega, rike, rikja, reykja. In German it appears as “reich”. It always means the same thing: country, land, kingdom empire. Examples of the use of this ancient Norse word can be found in the following:
Norege, pronounced nor-reeg-eh, meaning Norway. Sverige, pronounced sver-reeg-eh, meaning Sweden. Frankrike, pronounced frankr-reeg-eh, meaning France. Osterike, pronounced oste-reeg-eh, meaning Austria.
The above should be sufficient to prove that it was common practice for Vikings to use this word to designate countries.
Combined, the old Norse words “omme” and rike” would be pronounced “Oh-ma-reeg-eh” – virtually identical to “America” – and would translate into an almost identical meaning with the oft repeated classic term “Ultima Thule (Thyle)” when one considers that Norse was a spoken, not a written, tongue, and that Latin was the only written language of the time; additional inferences are obvious.
On one of Verrazzano’s maps, the coast of New England is oddly named “Norumbega”. Naturally, one cannot expect a “segener” like Verrazzano to pronounce Norse words correctly, much less spell or understand them. Basic study on the possible Norse origin of the word “Norumbega,” bastardized by an ignorant Latin, suggests much support for the idea advanced: “Norum” is nothing else than the Norse word “naerom,” meaning “near under” (and contains the stem word “om” from “omme”) and “bega” is merely a misspelled-and-mispronounced Italian version of the Norse word “rege” or “rike”. I believe it is obvious that “Norumbega” is an Italianized version of the Norse word “Naerom-rega,” “Naeromrike,” or, possibly, “Naerom-vikja” which would translate into the meaning of “the near-under regions” or “the near-under-harbor”. But its real meaning is even clearer: It is only a slightly modified version of “omme-rike”.
Finn Magnussen has established that Columbus did visit Iceland at least once in 1477, fifteen years before undertaking his first voyage to the New World. He could have easily heard of Ommerike and could even have visited there in a Norse ship.
Previous to the great plague, Iceland and Greenland – and the lands beyond – are believed to have supported a population numbering into the hundreds of thousands. One of the major ports doing business in this area was Bristol, England. It was the home base for John Cabot and source of the Bristol Theory of the origin of the name “America”. The first White man to see America was Bjarne Herulfssen, wind-blown upon it while bringing a cargo of wood (reader please make note of the cargo) from Norway to Iceland, 600 miles across open seas. It is rather naive to assume that what happened to Bjarne Herulfssen did not happen to others, Bristol traders as well as Norsemen. It is, I believe, quite safe to assume that Bristol ships had sailed the Ommerike coast long before John Cabot – if only by accident – and referred to the place by its Norse name.
The key to the main reason that the Icelanders and Greenland Norse would never have abandoned contact with Ommerike can be found in the cargo of Bjarne Herulfssen’s ship. As there are no forests on either Iceland or Greenland and wood was needed to sustain life (both to keep warm in the rigorous winter and as building material for shelter for humans and livestock as well as for building and repairing ships), a source of supply of lumber had to be maintained. It had to come either from Europe or Ommerike. Europe meant a six hundred mile voyage across the open seas, with plenty of chance of disaster from the elements, desertion of the crews on arrival and payment of some kind to secure lumber; while a voyage to Ommerike meant a two hundred and fifty mile open sea voyage from Iceland to Greenland with landfall almost certain, another two hundred and fifty miles to certain landfall on the Ommerike coast, and from there on a cold but relatively safe coastal voyage to endless forests that were free for the taking – with little chance that the crew would desert or refuse to return to Iceland. Any present Icelander, given a similar choice of voyages, would set his sails for Ommerike, not Europe.
Vatican records in Rome are reported to establish that a Bishop Eric Gnuptson (probably Knutssen), Bishop of Greenland and neighboring regions, arrived in Ommerike in the last year of Pope Pashal II, stayed for at least one year and then returned to Rome via Greenland and Iceland. His ministry is said to have included seventeen parishes. There is also a reported Norwegian record granting the King’s authority to one George Knutsen to recruit the sons of leading Norwegian families to go to the lands beyond Greenland to search out and induce to return to the fold those colonists that had drifted off to live with the natives.
The Vatican could well have had very real practical reasons to be reluctant to place too great an importance to the Norse adventures in the New World or to publicize them. The Church’s authority always diminished in direct proportion to the northward distance from Rome. The grip on the countries around the Norwegian sea was always precarious, and any real hold in Iceland or Greenland was virtually non-existent.
Undoubtedly it seemed – and proved to be – to the Vatican’s advantage that the discovery and all ensuing “rights” to the New World be credited to the enterprise and operation of nations ruled by devout Christians.
Columbus
The name of this wondrous land, Ommerike, was so well established, so totally known and accepted, such common knowledge that none of the Italian navigators, not Cabot, Vespucci or even Columbus himself, ever thought of calling the place by any other name but the already long established Ommerike – America. The political expedients employed in this great delusion worked very well indeed, for both the nations of Spain and Portugal and for the Catholic Church. However, the days of such reasoning and shenanigans are long past and no reason remains, except indifference, to continue to deny that someplace in forgotten archives of the Vatican exist maps and written reports of Bishop Erie Knutssen and many others who visited the New World long before Columbus, voyaging over the Icelandic-Greenland route, and perhaps even as far as the islands of the Gulf of Mexico or even Mexico itself.
Bit by bit, in unexpected ways, the truth of the discovery of the New World surfaces, the last example of which is the authenticated Yale University Vinland map. There will be many more such scholastic breakthroughs and it is safe to predict that in some future rediscovered map or written report predating both the Italian Amerigo Vespucci and the Englishman Richard Ameryke, a name for the new lands will appear very close to “Ommerike”.
As stated before, these submissions are mere theories, with no more substantiation than the theories of other origins of the name “America”. Proof of them must be left to better and more thorough scholars than the writer. But the meaning of the word “omme-rike” in ancient Norse is sound, and should provide a new and different source to explore in searching out and authenticating a page of human history replete with all the ingredients of enchantment and subterfuge of a mystery novel.” Did The Vikings Name America? by Dick Wicken http://www.orange-street-church.org/text/viking.htm
Moundbuilders-Not from the Bering Strait!
One Man’s Opinion
I think it is important to get many ideas from many people including Mr. Cohen below, to help us form our personal opinion especially based on research and prayer.
“Traditional history lessons about the discovery of America also raise questions about the meaning of discovery itself. It is now universally recognized that neither Vespucci nor Columbus “discovered” America. They were of course preceded by the pre-historic Asian forebears of Native Americans, who migrated across some ice-bridge in the Bering Straits [Of course I don’t believe this, Lehi Landed in Florida in my opinion] or over the stepping stones of the Aleutian Islands. A black African discovery of America, it has been argued, took place around 3,000 years ago, and influenced the development of Mayan, Aztec, and Inca civilizations.
The records of Scandinavian expeditions to America are found in sagas — their historic cores encrusted with additions made by every storyteller who had ever repeated them. The Icelandic Saga of Eric the Red, the settler of Greenland, which tells how Eric’s son Leif came to Vinland, was first written down in the second half of the 13th century, 250 years after Leif found a western land full of “wheatfields and vines”; from this history emerged a fanciful theory in 1930 that the origin of “America” is Scandinavian: Amt meaning “district” plus Eric, to form Amteric, or the Land of (Leif) Eric.” THE NAMING OF AMERICA: FRAGMENTS WE’VE SHORED AGAINST OURSELVES BY JONATHAN COHEN
“President Brigham Young admonished Karl G. Maeser not to teach even the times table without the Spirit of the Lord. How much more essential is that Spirit in the research, the writing, and the teaching of Church history.” The Mantle Is Far, Far Greater Than the Intellect Elder Boyd K. Packer
I haven’t ever believed the customary title of, “BYU is the Lord’s University.” Actually it is not. It is a Wonderful University with the mission to do teach correct principles that has a great mission and great intentions, but when a leader, teacher, professor, or intellect teaches incorrect principles, it becomes “Satan’s University.” I am a long standing active member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and I know it is the Lord’s Church on the earth. I also know it is made up of people who make mistakes, and also some who purposely teach false doctrine. It is our personal responsibility to determine which is which. It is not the job of our dear Prophet and Apostles to tell us what decisions to make, as they are to direct us in maintaining the pure doctrine of Christ. Always seek personal revelation, which I feel I have done when discussing several teachings below that I abhor.
False Doctrine
I believe Critical Race Theory (CRT), the 1619 Project, Woke-ism, Equity, are all being taught at nearly all Universities including BYU. If Professors could teach what ideology is being utilized in the world that is fine. We should know there is Religion and its values and we should know there is CRT and what it teaches as well. BUT, professors have no right to persuade or to cram down students throats their personal ideology. Teach and let the student decide. Sadly that does not exist in our Great and Spacious Universities any more. It is the Progressive ideology that is told to our students to believe. That is evil.
In my opinion (CRT) is an evil theory and so is the term “Equity.” (Yes Evil!) We are fighting Satan and CRT and Equity is from Satan. CRT states that every white person is an oppressor and every black person is a victim. That is racist in and of itself. The Progressives in the world today and the “Woke” society want race to divide us like it did in our early history. “Equity to me means, we should all have the same amount of stuff or privledge, who cares if it is fair.
Equity not Equality?
The Progressives also speak about “Equity”, but to them it has an evil meaning in my opinion. Equity is defined as: “The term “equity” refers to fairness and justice and is distinguished from equality: Whereas equality means providing the same to all, equity means recognizing that we do not all start from the same place and must acknowledge and make adjustments to imbalances. The process is ongoing, requiring us to identify and overcome intentional and unintentional barriers arising from bias or systemic structures.” Source
Critical Race Theory
Dictionaries define, “critical race theory (CRT), intellectual and social movement and loosely organized framework of legal analysis based on the premise that race is not a natural, biologically grounded feature of physically distinct subgroups of human beings but a socially constructed (culturally invented) category that is used to oppress and exploit people of color. Critical race theorists hold that racism is inherent in the law and legal institutions of the United States insofar as they function to create and maintain social, economic, and political inequalities between whites and nonwhites, especially African Americans. Critical race theorists are generally dedicated to applying their understanding of the institutional or structural nature of racism to the concrete (if distant) goal of eliminating all race-based and other unjust hierarchies.” Britannica.com
I say we re all created equal as far as opportunity has it. We don’t all have equal outcomes, but we were never promised that. What someone does with an opportunity that is available to all and does something great with that opportunity, and another does something perhaps less great with the same opportunity, it is a matter of this one fact. We were all created by God and He loves us equally. We were all blessed with the “Light of Christ” and we know good from evil. Whether we make wise choices using this Light or whether we work hard and take advantage of any opportunity is our personal responsibility. As part of our responsibility we should love one another, and help the downtrodden and those who have less than us, but we should not and cannot force an equal outcome on others. That takes away Free Agency which is a blessing to each of us. Should we give all the good and productive jobs to the lazy and give all the low paying jobs to those who need to show their empathy for others? How many of you ever worked for another person who didn’t have money? If someone offers us a job and we take it, what is stopping us from eventually starting our own competing business and hire people just like our boss did? It’s called Equality, not “Equity.”
We are all blessed with the God given ability to take what we have been given and expand on it. What about the Parable of Talents? Should God give us all an equal amount of talents without earning them? No!. To some He gives 1 to another 5 and to another 20. What we do with what we have is our freedom to act and choose. Remember Christ has given us all a free gift, His Life and Resurrection. “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” 1 Corinthians 15:22.
Christ is not going to give us all equal worldly things, as that removes freedom, hard work, motivation, and teaches us nothing. Nothing is free, but we all have rights from God in Life Liberty and Property. Those cannot be taken away by God. Only Man who creates unjust and evil laws can take them away from us. Put your trust not in the arm of flesh.
The Lord said, “And there are many churches built up which cause envyings, and strifes, and malice. And there are also secret combinations, even as in times of old, according to the combinations of the devil, for he is the founder of all these things; yea, the founder of murder, and works of darkness; yea, and he leadeth them by the neck with a flaxen cord, until he bindeth them with his strong cords forever. For behold, my beloved brethren, I say unto you that the Lord God worketh not in darkness… For none of these iniquities come of the Lord; for he doeth that which is good among the children of men; and he doeth nothing save it be plain unto the children of men; and he inviteth them all to come unto him and partake of his goodness; and he denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female; and he remembereth the heathen; and all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile.” 2 Nephi 26:21-23, 33
“The mission of Brigham Young University — founded, supported, and guided by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — is to assist individuals in their quest for perfection and eternal life. That assistance should provide a period of intensive learning in a stimulating setting where a commitment to excellence is expected and the full realization of human potential is pursued.” https://aims.byu.edu/byu-mission-statement
Brigham Young University Undergraduate
“The mission of Brigham Young University — founded, supported, and guided by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — is to assist individuals in their quest for perfection and eternal life… A BYU education should be spiritually strengthening, intellectually enlarging, and character building, leading to lifelong learning and service… General Information BYU has established a committee on Race, Equity, and Belonging. The committee aims to “understand both the subtle and overt ways that racism may impact individual thought and interactions, organizational units, processes, policies, practices, procedures, and operations.” The committee is now submitting its recommendation to the university president to promote equity. No mandatory Critical Race Training sessions are yet required of students. However, see developments below.” CriticalRace.org is a resource for parents and students concerned about how Critical Race Theory, and implementation of Critical Race Training, impacts education. We have compiled the most comprehensive database to empower parents and students. Source
“Given the full embrace of CRT-related concepts by BYU and USHE, as well as BYU’s recent professor hires, it seems inevitable that more divisive lessons about whiteness will appear on campus. Will BYU be more apt to rein in activist professors, or activist students?” Source Here is the crux of the CRT issue. To teach our children or students that CRT exists and is part of day to day conversation. We should teach what is says, and then allow children and students to access for them selves whether they believe it or not. Freedom of choice and thought. BYU teaches evolution as a theory, but more and more Professors teach it at truth today and make students believe their so called truth or they alter their grade. BYU and most all other universities teach that Einstein’s Theory is truth. It is not, it is simply a theory, just like the age of dinosaurs being millions of years old, and many other things.
Sad State of Affairs at BYU
Students Who Blew Whistle On BYU ‘Revealing Whiteness’ Assignment Threatened With Discipline. Surprise! Utah is a hotbed of CRT activism and mandates in higher education.
“A professor at Brigham Young University (BYU), in Provo, Utah, recently assigned a Revealing Whiteness assignment to a 100-level Sociology course. The resulting controversy has pitted conservative students against activist academic staff. One professor has threatened the students that posted the lesson to social media with severe punishment under BYU’s student conduct rules.
While this type of controversy over wokeness in reliably red Utah may come as a surprise to some, the state’s higher education system has begun to mandate lessons based in Critical Race Theory (CRT) for all colleges and universities operating in the state.
A professor at Brigham Young University (BYU) allegedly assigned a classroom exercise titled “Revealing Whiteness Activity.”
Professor Jane Lopez assigned the activity as homework and instructed students to photograph three representations of “Whiteness” on campus.
According to the assignment instructions, “Whiteness is defined as:
“(1) a location of structural advantage or ‘race privilege'[;] (2) a ‘standpoint’ or place from which White people look at themselves, at others, and at society, and (3) a set of cultural practices that are usually unmarked and unnamed.” Continued at the full article here;
Will You Allow Satan to Deceive the Very Elect?
“If the Book of Mormon is true, then America is a choice land, but if it is to remain such the inhabitants of the land must worship the God of the land, the Lord Jesus Christ. The histories of two great nations, told with warning in this sacred volume, indicate that while we must have science, while we must have education, while we must have arms, we also must have righteousness if we are to merit the protection of God.” Gordon B. Hinckley The Power of the Book of Mormon Ensign June 1988
To the Academics, Intellectuals, Scholars and Students
Several years ago President Ezra Taft Benson spoke to you and said: “It has come to our attention that some of our teachers, particularly in our university programs, are purchasing writings from known apostates … in an effort to become informed about certain points of view or to glean from their research. You must realize that when you purchase their writings or subscribe to their periodicals, you help sustain their cause. We would hope that their writings not be on your seminary or institute or personal bookshelves. We are entrusting you to represent the Lord and the First Presidency to your students, not the views of the detractors of the Church” (The Gospel Teacher and His Message [address delivered to Church Educational System personnel, 17 Sept. 1976], p. 12.) The Mantle Is Far, Far Greater Than the Intellect Elder Boyd K. Packer
Do not yield your faith in payment for an advanced degree or for the recognition and acclaim of the world. Do not turn away from the Lord nor from his Church nor from his servants. You are needed—oh, how you are needed! It may be that you will lay your scholarly reputation and the acclaim of your colleagues in the world as a sacrifice upon the altar of service. They may never understand the things of the Spirit as you have a right to do. They may not regard you as an authority or as a scholar. Just remember, when the test came to Abraham, he didn’t really have to sacrifice Isaac. He just had to be willing to. The Mantle Is Far, Far Greater Than the Intellect Elder Boyd K. Packer
“There is no need to learn about communism [CRT, Equity, etc.] in order to avoid it,” Some argue. But this counsel can help keep our people in ignorance and apparently flies in the face of the inspired counsel of President McKay who said,
“I believe that only through a truly educated citizenry can the ideals that inspired the Founding Fathers of our nation be preserved and perpetuated.” (“Church News,” March 13, 1954; quoted in Newquist, op. cit., p. 178.)
And then President McKay said that one of the “four fundamental elements in such an education” was the “open and forcible teaching of the facts regarding communism as an enemy to God and to individual freedom.” (“Church News,” March 13, 1954; quoted in Newquist, op. cit., p. 181.)
Do we teach people to avoid alcohol and tobacco by pointing out its evil effects? Of course we do. Should we then avoid telling people about the evil nature and devious designs of communism – the greatest satanical threat to the spread of God’s work?
When Communism is used in the past there are other words that mean the same thing. Do a search online for each word and your mind will be open to all the evil of Satan. Of course Satan is in all things good and he makes all things bad look good. There is much evil in our CIA, FBI, UN, NATO, CFR, Justice Dept., NASA, DC Govt, etc.
Cultural and Theological Content from a Latter-day Saint Perspective
I have enjoy watching these CWIC Podcasts. He has a lot of great information. I share below his video that speaks about this BYU Professor Bybee problem, about the Whiteness topic I have discussed above.
“Our Cwic Study Group is a global group made up mostly of Latter-day Saints. They range from the ‘garden variety’ to more scholarly participants. We focus on the Come Follow Me program and its assigned chapters, along with a review of one Cwic Interpreter each week. Subscribers (Members) can just sit and watch/listen or can comment, ask questions and raise their hands in an interactive environment. The longer you are in the group, the more you will feel a part of a community with specific, shared knowledge of the gospel.” Qwic Media
I believe many LDS and Non-LDS academics love the idea that Joseph was an ignorant farm boy. It allows them to bring up ideas that seem more intellectual than Joseph, as they sometimes show our Prophets weaknesses in order to allow their theories to be more plausible. Joseph Smith was taught by angels many times, and I believe I will take his words over any of the intellects of today.
How Many Personages Visited Joseph?
It is not unrealistic to believe that Joseph Smith was visited over 50, maybe 75 times by special witnesses from God. The list here shows over 35 different visits. I am fairly sure that Joseph had to be taught with Spiritual Eyes, and in a non physical way perhaps. I am confident that when Spirit teaches Spirit, it is far more effective than Spirit teaching flesh. Joseph had to be one of the most intelligent beings in the history of the World. He was literally taught by Gods and Angels.
God the Father (1,2,3,?)
Jesus Christ (Many)
Moroni 20+
John the Baptist
Peter
James
John
Moses
Elias
Elijah
Adam (Michael)
Noah (Gabriel)
Raphael
Lehi
Nephi
Mormon
“Divers angels”
See a more complete chart of visits and historical references and many other details at my blog called “Moroni, Tutor of Joseph Smith”
“It is impossible to determine the number of “interviews” Joseph had with Moroni, but twenty-two visits are often identified.” “Moroni—Joseph Smith’s Tutor” By H. Donl Peterson
It is not unrealistic to believe that Joseph Smith was visited over 50, maybe 75 times by special witnesses from God. The list here shows over 35 different visits. I am fairly sure that Joseph had to be taught with Spiritual Eyes, and in a non physical way perhaps. I am confident that when Spirit teaches Spirit, it is far more effective than Spirit teaching flesh. Joseph had to be one of the most intelligent beings in the history of the World. He was literally taught by Gods and Angels.
Joseph’s Mistaken Folk View?
What amazed me is the often found idea from many Mesoamerican Theorists and BYU Professors they describe Joseph Smith as Sorensen does below regarding Joseph’s knowledge of specific geography of the Book of Mormon by saying, “[Joseph Smith] he did not understand or was ambiguous.”
I am however confident that John Sorensen and the other intellects I speak about are good and faithful members of the Church, I just don’t agree with some of their teachings. What disrespect in my opinion.
Mr. Sorensen also said, “What may startle some about this situation is that most of what Joseph Smith said or implied about geography indicates that he did not understand or was ambiguous about the fact, as it turns out, that Mesoamerica was the particular setting for Nephite history.
Until he encountered the Stephens’s book, Joseph gave no hint that he was aware that such a limited area with a distinctive civilized culture even existed in the Americas. Even with Stephens’s material in mind, he made no more than a passing attempt to relate the Book of Mormon’s story to the newly-found ruins. And in the long run, the little blip on the Latter-day Saints’ mental screen caused by the explorer’s book faded as the mistaken folk view reasserted its dominance.” John Sorenson Mormon’s Codex Jonathan Neville said, “Here, Brother Sorenson characterizes the teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah as a “mistaken folk view.” This degree of derision for the prophets definitely “may startle some” members of the Church who accept what the prophets teach.”
You cansee many of the available Newspapers in the Palmyra, Ontario County, Geneva, Lyons and other cities close to where the Prophet lived. He had access to may papers and he was known to go weekly to Palmyra to get books and papers for his father. The Book of Mormon was definitely influenced by the learning and reading of the Prophet Joseph Smith.” Jonathan Neville
Disrespect of Joseph?
In Hannah and James Stoddard’s Faith Crisis Volume 1Book in a section titled, Hofmann: Magic & Treasure Digging, I quote them below:
“Richard L. Bushman, progressive historian and author of Rough Stone Rolling, would later echo this argument, adding that Joseph was “involved in magic,” had “treasure-seeking greed,” and that magic was a “preparatory gospel” in training the young man as a prophet of God. However, Bushman argued that “all sorts of treasure seekers were also serious Christians,” so to him, it just wasn’t a big deal:
‘It was no more scandalous than say gambling, playing poker today. A little bit discredited and slightly morally disreputable but not really evil. And when it was found that all sorts of treasure seekers were also serious Christians, why not the Smiths too? So, instead of being a puzzle or a contradiction, it was just one aspect of Smith family culture and not really anything to be worried about.’ Richard Bushman
Stoddard’s continue, “Contrary to Bushman’s claims, when Mormonism Unvailed was published in 1834, accusing the Smith family of involvement in magic, treasure digging, etc. the public was incensed! The First Presidency reported that Hurlbut’s claims “fired the minds of the people with much indignation” against Joseph Smith and the Church. No good Christian in Joseph Smith’s day heard Hurlbut and thought, “Those Smiths are kind of weird but no big deal.”
The accusations of magic and treasure digging Hurlbut & Howe conjured up carried grave implications for early 19th century Americans, and they published them with the specific intent of destroying Joseph Smith’s character. Just as his enemies had hoped, the publication resulted in increased and intense persecution. When “serious Christians” in Joseph Smith’s day—and this is true as well for serious Christians in our day—heard that Joseph Smith was “expert in the arts of necromancy” and that he had spent his boyhood “digging into the hills and mountains” searching for gold, the slanders destroyed his credibility and impeded interest in the ongoing work of the Restoration of the Gospel. Viewed as “blots” on the character of the young Prophet, most of the persecution leveled against the Church in 1834 was rooted firmly in these scandalous tales.” James and Hannah Stoddard
Was Joseph a Money Digger? NO!
“In an attempt to amalgamate Joseph’s religious interests and his occasional dig, Ronald Walker created the term “village seer” to describe him. He hoped that this term would represent Joseph as something more than just a scryer or diviner and also develop a role that was more likely to naturally transition into a Judeo-Christian prophet. He depicted Joseph as growing to understand his divine role as he matured. Richard Bushman accepted Joseph as a money digger, arguing that the gold plates were originally seen as treasure by Joseph, which required the angel Moroni to reorient him in a more religious manner. From this perspective, Joseph then transitioned away from magic culture to become a prophet. However, it is clear that in this transition, Joseph did not leave the seer stones and the supernatural behind but rather molded these tools to fit his Christian religion.” Joseph Smith’s Seer Stones/ Michael Hubbard MacKay and Nicholas J. Frederick. BYU Religious Studies Center, 2016.
Once again I have a difficult time listening to people like John Sorensen, Richard Bushman and many others, especially BYU and Church Education Teachers, who speak at times so unfavorably about Joseph Smith.
Elder Packer sums it up best by saying,“Some of our scholars establish for themselves a posture of neutrality. They call it “sympathetic detachment.” Historians are particularly wont to do that. If they make a complimentary statement about the Church, they seem to have to counter it with something that is uncomplimentary.
Some of them, since they are members of the Church, are quite embarrassed with the thought that they might be accused of being partial. They care very much what the world thinks and are very careful to include in their writings criticism of the Church leaders of the past.”The Mantle Is Far, Far Greater Than the Intellect Elder Boyd K. Packer
I Have a Question!
Some scholars have implied that the Book of Mormon and LDS theology are products of Joseph Smith’s environment. To what extent did Joseph Smith’s environment influence the theological developments of the Church?
Answer by Larry C. Porter, professor of Church history and doctrine, Brigham Young University. It is true that some critics of the Book of Mormon have claimed that Joseph Smith used historical, philosophical, literary, and religious ideas circulating during his lifetime to create the Book of Mormon—making it merely a reflection of western New York culture in the early nineteenth century.
By examining the various ideas that supposedly influenced the Book of Mormon, however, we can see that many of these ideas weren’t readily available to Joseph Smith and many others were only superficially similar to LDS theology and scripture. Still others simply involved topics of universal concern to all men and women, not only in Joseph Smith’s time but in our own as well. Since the Book of Mormon is directed to all of God’s children, we would expect to find these concerns addressed in that sacred volume.” Larry C. Porter
The Indian Influence
Click to Purchase
“Some critics argue that various publications dealing with the Indians and their Israelite-like origins were available to Joseph Smith and influenced his work on the Book of Mormon. A wide variety of books, periodicals, and newspaper articles describing aspects of Native American life did circulate during Joseph Smith’s era. Of particular interest were the prospective origins and customs of the mound-builders of northeastern America. Their style of burial sometimes included stone boxes; their fortifications might have been picketed; and they used metal implements. This information was available to the public.
Theoretically, Joseph Smith would have had access to such publications if they were available in the local libraries in Palmyra and Manchester or among the private libraries of individuals he knew. From 1825 to 1829, he frequented the environs of Susquehanna, Broome, Chenango, and Seneca counties, and conceivably could have been exposed to materials in those localities as well. He also would have been exposed to the local folklore concerning the Indian habitation in the region.
But although a multiplicity of sources on Indian lore existed in the eastern United States during Joseph Smith’s era, it does not necessarily mean that local repositories had any or all of these resources among their holdings. Nor does it mean that Joseph even read them. His education was restricted because of demands placed on his time by farm work. There is no reason to question Joseph’s declaration that his only resource for translating the Book of Mormon was “the gift and power of God.”
Philosophical and Historical Influences
Some writers have attempted to draw parallels between teachings of the Book of Mormon and philosophical and historical ideas extant in Joseph’s day. The idea that America was a destined and promised land was a popular one in the early nineteenth century. It is an idea taught many places in the Book of Mormon as well. Critics point to Nephi’s vision in 1 Nephi 11–14 and claim that Joseph Smith simply reiterated events that had already transpired to appeal to his fellow Americans’ sense of destiny. Historical sequences such as the coming of Columbus, the arrival of the early colonists, the Revolutionary War, and the introduction of the Bible among the Indians are all recognizable themes in the Book of Mormon.
To such an argument we have the convincing testimony of the Spirit that the Book of Mormon is what it declares itself to be—a revelation to an ancient prophet of future events in America. The Lord obviously knew that such information would be of value to readers of the book in modern times. Moroni plainly said of contemporary civilizations, “Behold, I speak unto you as if ye were present, and yet ye are not. But behold, Jesus Christ hath shown you unto me, and I know your doing.” (Morm. 8:35.) President Ezra Taft Benson has reiterated that “the Book of Mormon was written for us today.”
Through the Book of Mormon, the Lord offers inspired direction on key subjects of import not only in Joseph Smith’s time, but in our time. It is relevant to current issues of many decades, and obviously touches on some of the concerns of the early nineteenth century, as well as on our concerns today.
Literary Influences
At one time, it was popular among critics to contend that a literary work of Joseph Smith’s day, a manuscript authored by the Reverend Solomon Spalding (also spelled Spaulding), influenced the plot of the Book of Mormon. Spalding died in 1816, but his manuscript survived and was used by Eber D. Howe to advance a “Spalding theory” in the first anti-Mormon work of note, Mormonism Unvailed, (Painesville: E. D. Howe, 1834; original spelling preserved.) Howe held that Sidney Rigdon had been responsible for taking Spalding’s manuscript from a printing establishment in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and later making it available for publication through Joseph Smith.
Examination of the only Spalding manuscript known to exist shows it to have little resemblance to the Book of Mormon. It proves to be a narrative history of a band of Romans living in the time of Constantine. They are blown off course while on a voyage to “Britain” and reach the eastern coast of North America. The manuscript bears such little resemblance to the Book of Mormon in themes, episodes, or characters that some have insisted that a second manuscript, which did correspond to the Book of Mormon, must have existed. Such a manuscript has never been found, and the whole theory is generally discounted.
Oliver Cowdery responded to accusations of outside authorship by bearing a solemn witness: “[The Book of Mormon] is true. Sidney Rigdon did not write it. Mr. Spaulding did not write it. I wrote it myself as it fell from the lips of the prophet.”
The Influence of Contemporary Religious Thought
Some have questioned why various religious doctrines debated during Joseph Smith’s era appear (though clarified) in the Book of Mormon. The answer is quite simple. The Book of Mormon itself declares that one of its purposes is to verify and clarify the teachings of the Bible. Doctrines like the Fall and the Atonement, repentance, infant baptism, the first and second comings of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the gifts of the Spirit were all biblical doctrines debated by various sectarian bodies in Joseph’s time. But that was nothing new. These and other issues had been problematical for Christians for generations. It is only natural that some of the same questions that had stirred religious controversy for centuries would be addressed in the Book of Mormon, which was a book prepared for our time.
Through the pages of the Book of Mormon, the Lord sought to rectify erroneous concepts and to restore certain standard truths from ancient Christianity that had been lost.
The Influence of the Holy Ghost
Ultimately, the only convincing answer to charges made by critics of the Book of Mormon is the witness of the Holy Ghost. Those who want to know the truth about the Book of Mormon can obtain it from no other source.
President Benson has said, “We are not required to prove that the Book of Mormon is true or is an authentic record through external evidences—though there are many. … God has built in his own proof system of the Book of Mormon as found in Moroni, chapter 10 [Moro. 10], and in the testimonies of the Three and the Eight Witnesses and in various sections of the Doctrine and Covenants. We each need to get our own testimony of the Book of Mormon through the Holy Ghost.”
God continues to administer to his children through the distinctive means of revelation to his authorized servants. This fundamental, identifying feature of Mormonism allowed Joseph Smith to restore new truths long withheld from men on earth. The Book of Mormon and other contemporary scriptures were an integral part of that revelatory process.” Larry C. Porter, Professor of Church History and Doctrine, Brigham Young University.Full Article Here:
Not Divine Dictation
I have studied and prayed mightily about how Joseph Smith’s method of translation transpired. It is important to me. I don’t believe Joseph used a rock in a hat, as I don’t believe Joseph simply quoted text from the rock, and gave it to his scribe without even looking at the plates. This is the theory of many of the intellectuals I have spoken about in this blog. Here is a quote I like a lot from two BYU educators.
“According to David Whitmer’s account of how the Book of Mormon was translated, Joseph Smith was the instrument of transmission, while translation rested solely with the Lord. This is simply a reflection of the notion of divine dictation, which holds that every word of scripture comes from God himself. If David Whitmer’s account is to be accepted, revelation also includes spelling and punctuation. This notion is at odds with the explanation found in Doctrine and Covenants 8 and 9, which details how revelation comes. In this respect, Richard Anderson observed that Whitmer “after decades of reflection outside of the Church, concluded that no modification could possibly be made in any revelation. This highly rigid view of these revelations matched his highly rigid view of the origin of the Book of Mormon” (“By the Gift and Power of God,” 84).” The Process of Translating the Book of Mormon by Joseph Fielding McConkie (Professor of Ancient Scripture, BYU) and Craig J. Ostler (Assistant Professor of Church History and Doctrine, BYU)
Early Modern English by Jonathan Neville
“I’m among those few remaining Latter-day Saints who still believe Joseph Smith translated the Nephite plates with the Urim and Thummim. Some claim that makes me a “fundamentalist” or even a heretic, but I think there is strong extrinsic evidence to support what Joseph and Oliver claimed.
Nevertheless, the trend in the Church is toward embracing the new narrative that Joseph Smith didn’t translate the Book of Mormon.
For example, this week Dan the Interpreter is going to interview Stanford Carmack. Carmack and Royal Skousen have worked together to create the “Early Modern English theory,” or EMET.
I don’t know how many ordinary people are interested in this topic, but it’s not as difficult or complex as it is made out to be. Because it has important implications, I think Church members need to become familiar with EMET.
We have great respect for scholars such as Stanford, Royal, Dan, etc., even though they promote M2C, SITH, EMET, etc. They are all fine people, faithful Church members, etc. They make important contributions in many ways. But that doesn’t mean we agree with everything they teach.” Jonathan Neville Blog Here
Book of Mormon Translation and Early Modern English Video
“Since July of 2020 when Wayne May brought to my attention the Spotted Beebalm plant growing all over the Zarahemla temple site (see featured picture), Dana Young (President of Be Young Total Health) and I have been telling people that this plant possesses some of the most powerful medicinal qualities of any plant in the world. We have been telling you that it has 56 compounds and among these compounds are two well known chemicals that have been recently reported by a Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry to be a cure for cancer. These two compounds are thymol and carvacrol. The professor found the compounds in the herb thyme.
Beautiful and Medicinal Bee Balm Plant Sprouted. Zarahemla, Iowa
Based on scientific literature, we have been telling you that the compounds in Spotted beebalm can be used to treat bacteria infections, viruses, fungal infections, parasites, and that it is a pain killer, inflammatory and much more. I have jokingly said it is Snake Oil that actually works.
Finding a Living Nephite Artifact on the Zarahemla Temple Site
Dr. Price continues, “Yesterday while attending an event held at the warehouse housing the Phoenicia ship parts which is across the street from the Zarahemla Temple Site, David Hocking walked up to me with two 4-inch plant pots in his hands containing Spotted beebalm. He said he went over to the Zarahemla Temple Site to the place last August we had left about 200 pots with Spotted beebalm plants grown for us by Richard Hancock. Of the hundreds of plants he gave us, we took as many as we could get in our vehicles and told others to come and get as many plants as they wanted. After everyone had taken as many as they wanted, there remained dozens of pots of unclaimed plants. They were left under a tree in early August of 2021 so they have been uncared for by humans for over 10 months. They were exposed to the heat, very cold Iowa winter, and yet to my total surprise, yesterday David Hocking found the plants alive. See the picture below.
Finally, Thyme, Oregano, and Spotted beebalm are all in the mint family and have similar chemical compounds. Unfortunately, we cannot eat enough thyme or oregano to be of medicinal value, but when their compounds are concentrated as in essential oils that are off the charts in terms of their medicinal values.
Late night, the YouTube video (Video below) popped up, and it confirms ALL Dana and I have been saying about Spotted beebalm, but Spotted beebalm is much more powerful than oregano and thyme. When Dana created the Zara thyme blend, he took the medicinal values of Spotted beebalm way off the charts.
For those who believe the Book of Mormon is an inspired book, you can read what Alma thought of this plant in Alma 46:40.” Dr. Kevin Price
To help the Heartland Research please donate $11 and Dr. Price will send you some Bee Balm Seeds. Contact Dr. Kevin Price [email protected]
“I just got off of a phone call with Dr. Price, Wed June 8, 2022 as he has been in Iowa and Illinois with over 20 others at their conference about the Phoenicia Ship and the Bee Balm.
Kevin Price tells me that 5 or 6 of these conference attendees, including Blaine Skousen, and Philip Beale, the Captain of the previous Phoenicia Expeditions, were on a short boat cruise on the Mississippi. Captain Beale said he had all the symptoms of food poisoning and didn’t feel good. Almost instantly Blaine Skousen pulled out his Bee Balm Tincture and gave him a spoonful. Within about 15 minutes Captain Beale was amazingly feeling wonderful. This Bee Balm plant seems to be an amazing discovery that the Lord has made us aware of from the heart of Zarahemla in Montrose, Iowa.” Rian Nelson
“There remain Latter-day Saints who insist that the final destruction of the Nephites took place in New York, but any such idea is manifestly absurd. Hundreds of thousands of Nephites traipsing across the Mississippi Valley to New York, pursued (why?) by hundreds of thousands of Lamanites, is a scenario worthy only of a witless sci-fi movie, not of history.” John L. Sorenson, Mormon’s Codex (Deseret Book, 2013), p. 688.
Talmage and McConkie Heartland Model of Geography
“The final struggles between Nephites and Lamanites were waged in the vicinity of the Hill Cumorah, in what is now the State of New York, resulting in the destruction of the Nephites as a nation, about 400 A.D. The last Nephite representative was Moroni, who, wandering for safety from place to place, daily expecting death from the victorious Lamanites, wrote the concluding parts of the Book of Mormon, and hid the record in Cumorah. It was this same Moroni who, as a resurrected being, gave the records into the hands of Joseph Smith in the present dispensation.” James Talmage Articles of Faith
“For many decades the Nephites retreated before their aggressive foes, making their way north-eastward through what is now the United States. About 400 A.D. the last great battle was fought near the hill Cumorah; and the Nephite nation became extinct. The degenerate remnant of Lehi’s posterity, the Lamanites or American Indians, have continued until this day. Moroni, the last of the Nephite prophets, hid away the record of his people in the hill Cumorah, whence it has been brought forth by divine direction in the current dispensation. That record is now before the world translated through the gift and power of God, and published to the edification of all nations, as the BOOK OF MORMON.” Jesus the Christ, p. 743
ANNOTATED EDITION OF THE BOOK OF MORMON – MORONI’S AMERICA MAPS
Click to Enlarge
“At the onset, we stipulate that the spiritual messages of the Book of Mormon are more important than its geography. And yet the historicity—the historical accuracy—of the book is also important. The Book of Mormon could not accomplish its objective if it was not a true history of real people. As a restored history, it is a tangible symbol of the restored gospel. The book’s very existence is a manifestation of the reality of divine revelation in our day.
When we read the Book of Mormon under the light Joseph and Oliver provided, we see it in a completely new way. We come to realize that the Gospel was restored where it was lost. The light of the Gospel was extinguished in the Old World when the Apostles were killed and the Church fell into apostasy, but that light endured in the New World until the Nephite civilization was finally destroyed in New York around 400 A.D. What better place for the restoration of the Gospel than the scene of its disappearance? And from the New World, the gospel is taken back to the Old World.
We come to realize that the early history of the Church paralleled Nephite history, in reverse. The Nephites were destroyed in New York, so the Church was established there. The Nephites had been driven from Zarahemla and diminished on their way to Cumorah, so the Church grew on its way to Zarahemla from Cumorah. Joseph Smith was eventually buried in an ancient Nephite cemetery in Nauvoo—across the river from Zarahemla.
Finally, we come to realize that just as the Gospel was once taken from the entire Earth, now it is spreading to the entire Earth. And the Book of Mormon is the means for making that possible…
My objective in writing the book Moroni’s America, including the maps (see p. 523), was not to persuade or convince anyone of anything. I have simply assembled and organized information that I think everyone interested in the Book of Mormon should be aware of. While I think the geography I present is consistent with the text and makes more sense than alternatives I’ve read, the most important consideration is whether a given map corroborates and supports what Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery taught about the Hill Cumorah in New York, including their specific teachings in Letter VII.
The New York Cumorah doesn’t answer other questions about Book of Mormon geography, but it is a firm “pin in the map” (see p. 523) given to us by Joseph and Oliver, who knew Cumorah was in New York because they personally visited Mormon’s depository there (Mormon 6:6). Every prophet and apostle who has commented about Cumorah since then, including members of the First Presidency speaking in General Conference, have affirmed what Joseph and Oliver taught. In my view, no legitimate geography can reject what they said was a fact.
Over the years, people have made so-called ‘abstract’ maps based on their subjective interpretation of the text. While these may be helpful for envisioning a general relationship among named locations, such efforts cannot possibly derive a definite real-world setting because the information in the text is too vague. However, when we start with Cumorah in New York and think of Mormon and Moroni describing things from their earth-bound perspective, the hundreds of geography-related passages make sense in the real world. Joseph Smith specifically rejected a hemispheric geography when he wrote the Wentworth letter and he rejected a limited model based solely in New York when he wrote his letter to Emma during Zion’s Camp. For these and other reasons I’ve explained in my books and blogs, I suggest we consider the North American setting for the Book of Mormon.
Each element is framed as a proposal or plausible interpretation, always subject to revision with more
information. Feel free to agree or disagree. Each of us makes our own decisions about what to believe, and I recognize how complex that process is. And yet, well informed decisions tend to be better than uninformed decisions—especially uniformed decisions that reject what the prophets have taught about the New York Cumorah.” Jonathan Neville The Annotated Book of Mormon by David Hocking and Rod Meldrum page 522
“Moroni fortifies the lands of the Nephites” by Clark Kelley Price
“I was first taught and inspired about the North American Model by Rod Meldrum. The Works of Joseph maps included in this Annotated Edition of the Book of Mormon were created after being inspired while reading the book Moroni’s America by Jonathan Neville. However, I want others to know that the spiritual messages of the Book of Mormon are far more important than the geography. But I also believe the historical accuracy is critical to my full comprehension of the ‘most correct book’ (Joseph Smith Jr.) on the earth. Many Latter-day Saints agree that the Garden of Eden, Adam-ondi-Ahman, and Cumorah are located in North America, and most know that the New Jerusalem will be built upon the American Continent (Articles of Faith #10, Doctrine and Covenants 84:1-4). It just makes sense to me that the Book of Mormon history primarily occurred in the United States of America, as other sacred events did.
The maps have been created based on Joseph Smith’s writings that the Hill Cumorah is in Manchester, New York (Letter VII), that Joseph did have a vision of Zelph who was a Book of Mormon Chieftain in Illinois (Joseph Smith Papers), and Joseph did write a letter to Emma June 4, 1834 telling her that he was ‘wandering over the plains of the Nephites,’ in Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. (Joseph Smith Papers). I also believe the Promised Land spoken of in the Book of Mormon is indeed the choice land of the United States. I desire that these visual representations of Book of Mormon events will inspire you and teach you more about the spiritual message of The Book of Mormon, Another Testament of Jesus Christ.” Rian Nelson The Annotated Book of Mormon by David Hocking and Rod Meldrum page 522
Rivers are the Highways of the Nephites
As you study the maps here, you will begin understanding the significance of the Geology and Geography of the Lamanites and Nephites. Understanding that rivers are the highways of the Nephites. Where a river begins or ends, what direction is it traveling, which water basin it is from, and knowing the location of a river to be used for defense, escape, or finding food becomes critical.
SCRIPTURES ABOUT NEPHITE GEOLOGY
MORMON 3:5 “And it came to pass that I did cause my people that they should gather themselves together at the land Desolation, to a city which was in the borders, by the narrow pass which led into the land southward.”
ALMA 50:34 “And it came to pass that they did not head them until they had come to the borders of the land Desolation; and there they did head them, by the narrow pass which led by the sea into the land northward, yea, by the sea, on the west and on the east.”
ALMA 52:9 “And he also sent orders unto him that he should fortify the land Bountiful, and secure the narrow pass which led into the land northward, lest the Lamanites should obtain that point and should have power to harass them on every side.”
MORMON 2:29 “And the Lamanites did give unto us the land northward, yea, even to the narrow passage which led into the land southward. And we did give unto the Lamanites all the land southward.”
ALMA 63:5 “And it came to pass that Hagoth, he being an exceedingly curious man, therefore he went forth and built him an exceedingly large ship, on the borders of the land Bountiful, by the land Desolation, and launched it forth into the west sea, by the narrow neck which led into the land northward.”
ETHER 10:20 “And they built a great city by the narrow neck of land, by the place where the sea divides the land.”
ALMA 22:27 “And it came to pass that the king sent a proclamation throughout all the land, amongst all his people who were in all his land, who were in all the regions round about, which was bordering even to the sea, on the east and on the west, and which was divided from the land of Zarahemla by a narrow strip of wilderness, which ran from the sea east even to the sea west, and round about on the borders of the seashore, and the borders of the wilderness which was on the north by the land of Zarahemla, through the borders of Manti, by the head of the river Sidon, running from the east towards the west—and thus were the Lamanites and the Nephites divided.”
ALMA 22:32 “And now, it was only the distance of a day and a half’s journey for a Nephite, on the line Bountiful and the land Desolation, from the east to the west sea; 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.”
HELAMAN 4:7 “And there they did fortify against the Lamanites, from the west sea, even unto the east; it being a day’s journey for a Nephite, on the line which they had fortified and stationed their armies to defend their north country.”
ALMA 50:11 “And thus he cut off all the strongholds of the Lamanites in the east wilderness, yea, and also on the west, fortifying the line between the Nephites and the Lamanites, between the land of Zarahemla and the land of Nephi, from the west sea, running by the head of the river Sidon—the Nephites possessing all the land northward, yea, even all the land which was northward of the land Bountiful, according to their pleasure.”
3 NEPHI 3:23 “And the land which was appointed was the land of Zarahemla, and the land which was between the land Zarahemla and the land Bountiful, yea, to the line which was between the land Bountiful and the land Desolation.”
UNDERSTANDING NECKS, LINES, PASSAGES, STRIPS,
AND THE NARROW NECK OF LAND (Refer to Maps Above)
NARROW PASS- This could be described in many areas in the Heartland of America, as the geography has changed over the years. We know the Great Lakes have receded since ancient times. Passes could include: The land pass between Lake St. Clair and Lake Huron (St. Clair River), or Land between Lake St Clair and Lake Erie. (Detroit River), or E-W pass between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario near Niagara Falls. The best choice is the land E-W between the south side of Lake Erie and the Allegheny River, from Irving, NY to Salamanca, NY. Lake Erie was larger anciently and is bordered on the south by the St Lawrence Divide.
Mormon 3:5 (Near Buffalo, NY by the Narrow Neck of Land)
Alma 50:34. (Line Desolation between Lake Erie and the Allegheny River.)
Alma 52:9 (Line Bountiful is an E/W Continental Divide of 30 miles between Warsaw, IN, and Auburn, IN.
NARROW PASSAGE- Begins on the south side of Lake Erie at Irving NY, following the Cattaraugus Creek south through Zoar Valley on the Little Valley Creek, ending at the Allegheny River which is where the land southward begins. A day’s journey for a Nephite of 44 miles. “On the south side of Lake Erie, there is a series of old fortifications, running from the Cattaraugus creek to the Pennsylvania line, a distance of fifty miles; some are two, three, and four miles apart, and some within half a mile.” Clinton, De Witt. A Memoir On The Antiquities Of The Western Parts Of The State Of New-York. Mormon 2:29
NARROW NECK- Where Hagoth built his ships. On Lake Michigan lower east side following Lake Michigan’s coast along the St Lawrence Continental Divide to the St. Joe River. Anciently the Grand Kankakee Marsh extended south of Lake Michigan and the Great Black Swamp extended west of Lake Erie. The neck running E/W was 30 miles between Warsaw, IN and Merriam IN. Alma 63:5
NARROW NECK OF LAND- Lake Ontario divides the land at Hamilton, OT Canada, and Lake Erie divides the land at Buffalo, NY, and at Toledo, OH. In Central America the ”land divides the sea”. (Isthmus of Tehuantepec) Lake Ontario and Lake Erie are seas, where the “sea divides the land” as quoted in Ether. Ether 10:20. The N/S distance from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario is only about 24 miles wide.
SMALL NECK OF LAND- Allegheny, Susquehanna, and Genesee head-river gaps. (Triple Divide) Only 6 miles between each of these three river heads, where the two Continental Divides meet. (St Lawrence and Eastern Divide) Anciently this location was called the Forbidden Path, and was a strategic defensive location, hunting area, and buffer zone for the Native Americans to protect their south land. “Leading directly into the heart of the central New York Iroquois heartland, the Forbidden Path stood at a strategic transportation break linking river systems ultimately flowing into Chesapeake Bay, the Great Lakes, and the Ohio Valley.” (Journey on the Forbidden Path: Volume 89, Part 2 By Christian Frederick Post, John Hays) Alma 22:32. This is the gate of the Narrow Strip of Wilderness and the place which is the “Nearly” in “nearly surrounded by water.” Don’t confuse this location with the more well known, “Narrow Neck of Land.” (3 “NECKS” see # 3,4,5).
NARROW STRIP OF WILDERNESS- The Allegheny, Ohio, Mississippi, and Missouri Rivers act as a west to east fence, across the United States. This is the main border between the Nephites and Lamanites from about Independence MO to Hill Cumorah . The gate of the fence is the Small Neck of Land which is why the Nephites and Lamanites were “nearly” surrounded by water. Alma 22:27. Rivers are well known as a type of wilderness where there are marshes, weeds, and unusable space along both banks of rivers, thus creating a wilderness area where people don’t live, especially if the river bed is low or dry.
LINE BETWEEN/LINE FORTIFIED- Journey for a Nephite from the “Great City” at Buffalo, NY in a
straight line to the Allegheny River near Salamanca, NY. Remember everything south of the Allegheny River is the land southward. (66 miles or about a day and a half for a Nephite). North of this line is Desolation and south is the Land Bountiful.
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Line Fortified Helaman 4:7
Line Between Alma 50:11
LINE DESOLATION/BOUNTIFUL- The Great Black Swamp anciently went from the west end of Lake Erie to Fort Wayne, Indiana. It occupied what was formerly the southwestern part of proglacial Lake Maumee, a Holocene precursor to Lake Erie. Grand Kankakee Marsh anciently surrounded the south of Lake Michigan. These swamps almost connected W/E along the St Lawrence Divide. The northern Lake Michigan water basin and the southern Mississippi water basin create a line along the St Lawrence Divide of about 30 miles. From about Warsaw, IN to Auburn, IN, is the 30 mile long E/W line the Nephites would have to of defended. 3 Nephi 3:23
There are 3 unique mentions in the Book of Mormon
about NECKS!
NARROW NECK OF LAND Ether 10:20
NARROW NECK Alma 63:5
SMALL NECK OF LAND Alma 22:32
These three unique mentions of NECK are all in different locations in North America. THE NARROW NECK OF LAND is defined below:
Lake Ontario (a sea) divides the land at Hamilton, OT Canada, and Lake Erie (s sea) divides the land at Buffalo, NY.
In Central America, the ”land divides the sea”. (Isthmus of Tehuantepec) which is opposite of what the scripture says about the “sea divides” the land.
Lake Ontario and Lake Erie are seas, where the “sea divides the land” as quoted in Ether. Ether 10:20. The N/S distance from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario is only about 24 miles wide and in Central America it is 140 miles, which doesn’t sound very narrow to me. In the Book of Mormon the Narrow Neck of Land is only described in the Book of Ether, so the Jaredites used it, not the Nephites. There is archaeological verification at the Niagara Peninsula that dates from 800 BC to 3000 BC which is the time of the Jaredites.
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New England of North America, Rivals Stonehenge in England
Turtle Effigy Mound Sacrifice Stone Andover, MA. One of the most curious relics at America’s Stonehenge, this slab of granite, weighing over four tons, has a groove scored into its perimeter to collect liquid and drain it off the side. Did an ancient people perform sacrificial rites here? Or was this simply a colonial device, used to press fruit or make lye soap?
I’m sure you have heard about Stonehenge in England and its magnificence? How did those 3,000 year old stones get there? What do they signify? Even more incredible is probably that you have NEVER heard about America’s Stonehenge in the USA all over New England? It is awe-inspiring. There are miles and miles and piles and piles of walls, roads, bridges, caverns, trails, formations, and forts built by the Adena and Hopewell people who came from Jerusalem to the Promised Land of North America. Signs of their existence are all over the place. As usual, archaeologists and historians have hidden this information. They don’t want their narrative to be compromised. After all these Historians are much smarter than the Adena and Hopewell and the Lamanite People right? Wrong! If you want proof of the Jaredites, Nephites and Lamanites in North America, you will find it below!
Stonehenge in England
“Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, two miles (3 km) west of Amesbury. It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around 13 feet (4.0 m) high, seven feet (2.1 m) wide, and weighing around 25 tons, topped by connecting horizontal lintel stones. Inside is a ring of smaller bluestones. Inside these are free-standing trilithons, two bulkier vertical Sarsens joined by one lintel. The whole monument, now ruinous, is aligned towards the sunrise on the summer solstice. The stones are set within earthworks in the middle of the densest complex of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments in England, including several hundred tumuli (burial mounds).
Archaeologists believe that Stonehenge was constructed from 3000 BC to 2000 BC. The surrounding circular earth bank and ditch, which constitute the earliest phase of the monument, have been dated to about 3100 BC. Radiocarbon dating suggests that the first bluestones were raised between 2400 and 2200 BC, although they may have been at the site as early as 3000 BC.
One of the most famous landmarks in the United Kingdom, Stonehenge is regarded as a British cultural icon. It has been a legally protected Scheduled Ancient Monument since 1882, when legislation to protect historic monuments was first successfully introduced in Britain. The site and its surroundings were added to UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Sites in 1986. Stonehenge is owned by the Crown and managed by English Heritage; the surrounding land is owned by the National Trust.” Wikipedia
Does North America Have Its Own Stonehenge? Yes!
Turtle Effigy Mound – Andover, MA
“In 1951, Yale archaeologist Frank Glynn studied the massive stone turtle mound in Andover, Mass. The stone mound has two chambers in it and Glynn found charcoal and human bone remains in them that were carbon dated to 2000 B.C. Glynn also found tools and artifacts that he dated to 3000 B.C. Lastly, in 1981 a team of Harvard archaeologists studied and dated an ancient stone wall at the Flagg Swamp rock shelter in Westborough, Mass. to 2700 B.C. This site was later destroyed to make a cloverleaf for the I-495 interstate highway. Putting aside carbon dating evidence for a minute, are we to believe that colonists built these elaborate and time consuming structures and had the means and desire to orient them to predict eclipses and mark equinoxes and solstices? Vieira, a stone mason, researcher, freelance writer and member of the Northeast Antiquities Research Association
James E. Vieira, a stonemason, writer and Northeast Antiquities Research Association member, believes there is ample evidence that Ancient America was a melting pot of races from other lands, noting that other parts of the country have ancient stone ruins. He says the mound builders may be behind stone construction in the Northeast because their skeletal remains with anatomical abnormalities are found here just are like the skeletal remains in other earthen mounds.
Mound builders are believed to have been prehistoric inhabitants of North America who, during a 5,000-year period, constructed various styles of earthen mounds for religious, ceremonial, burial and elite residential purposes.
Turtle Mound Archaeological Site Andover Village, MA
“It’s the most enigmatic earthwork on the planet,” Vieira told an audience who had gathered in Buckland at Mohawk Trail Regional High School for his presentation, “The Search for the Mysterious Stone Builders of New England,” part of Franklin Land Trust’s year-long 25th anniversary celebration.
Vieira has spent thousands of hours researching mounds throughout the world—some geometric earthen constructions 50 acres and larger, and he has been amazed by the mathematical and engineering sophistication used to construct them. Some mounds are shaped like undulating serpents; one in Ohio is a quarter-mile long.
“Monk’s Mound is an earthen pyramid at Cahokia, Ill.; it has a base of 14 acres (one acre larger than the great pyramid) is 100 feet high and is comprised of 22 million cubic yards of earth brought from over a mile away,” he explained. “You find the same mathematics and geometry in the American earthworks like the 51.84 slope angle of the great pyramid and the 187 foot grid pattern found at Teotihuacan in Mexico.”
Some mounds have been opened and in them found artifacts of antiquity: tools, pipes, carvings, tablets and jewelry…
One cairn in Andover contained artifacts like an ax, javelin and hammer that were carbon dated to 2000 B.C., he said…
America’s Stonehenge, Salem, New Hampshire
Researching who these “mound builders” were, Vieira found an 1848 statement from Abraham Lincoln’s meditation on Niagara Falls in 1848: “The eyes of that extinct species of giant, whose bones fill the mounds of America, have gazed on Niagara as our eyes do now.”
These “giants” were seven to 12 feet tall, and Vieira has uncovered more than 2,000 accounts of them, what he called “a forgotten race.” Some accounts—from Smithsonian reports, magazines, newspapers and town histories—reveal the skeletal remains had double rows of teeth or other anatomical abnormalities… James Vieiera
Mesoamerica has “Cut” Stone Buildings, Not “Natural” Stones
By Val Chadwick Bagley. Click for more cartoons.
Is there a difference between “walls of stone” and “stone walls”? Is there a difference between stacked stone and hewn stone?
Stone Altars, not Altars of Stone
After Nephi and his people were driven into the wilderness and found a place to settle, Nephi continued to instruct and serve his people. “And I did teach my people to build buildings, and to work in all manner of wood, and of iron, and of copper, and of brass, and of steel, and of gold, and of silver, and of precious ores, which were in great abundance. And I, Nephi, did build a temple; and I did construct it after the manner of the temple of Solomon save it were not built of many precious things; for they were not to be found upon the land, wherefore, it could not be built like unto Solomon’s temple. But the manner of the construction was like unto the temple of Solomon; and the workmanship thereof was exceedingly fine.” 2 Nephi 5:15-16
By Ken Corbett. Nephi’s Temple on Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga, TN
The temple would be built on the highest point of the Nephite settlement. It would be facing directly east symbolic of the Savior’s coming. If it was to be built similar to Solomon’s, the altars of the temple were made of stacked stone, not hewn stone. “The word in Exodus 20:25 which is translated as ‘tool’ is the Hebrew חרב which most literally means ‘sword’. There explains that a sword is designed to shorten life, while an altar is designed to lengthen life by being used to achieve atonement. It makes sense, therefore, that one should not be used in the formation of the other.” Rashi, Medieval French Rabbi.
The outside of the temple may have been finished with a mortar cement made of limestone which was prevalent in the Promised Land. “Lime mortar is a type of mortar composed of lime and an aggregate such as sand, mixed with water. It is one of the oldest known types of mortar, dating back to the 4th century BC and widely used in Ancient Rome and Greece.” Lucas, A. 2003 Ancient Egyptian Materials and Industries. After processing, products derived from limestone have the unique ability to return quickly to their original chemical form.
“An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me… in all places where I record my name, I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee. And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it. Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar…” Exodus 20:24 – 26
“There is a temple mound situated above the Ohio River near Cincinnati. “Fragments of burnt limestone may still be seen on the top. The mound is a rectangle two hundred and twenty-five feet long by one hundred and twenty feet broad, and seven feet high.” In contrast to the hewn stone buildings and altars of Mexico, the Ohio mound has the right dimensions to have accommodated a timber and burnt lime plaster (“cement”) building of the size and proportions of Solomon’s Temple.” J. P. Maclean, The Mound Builders – Archaeology of Butler County, Ohio, 1904, pp. 222-223.
“Few realize that some of the oldest, largest and most complex structures of ancient archaeology were built of earth, clay, and stone right here in America, in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys. From 6,000 years ago until quite recently, North America was home to some of the most highly advanced and well organized civilizations in the world – complete with cities, roads, and commerce.” Dr. Roger Kennedy, former director of the Smithsonian’s American History Museum
Moroni prepares his people to defend the cause of the Christians
Below is the only scripture in the Book of Mormon that mentions walls of stone, or anything about stone. The building materials of the Nephites were earth and wood, and at times of no trees they used some cement, which is not stone! See my blog here: https://www.bofm.blog/nephite-building-materials-wood-dirt-cement/
“Yea, he had been strengthening the armies of the Nephites, and erecting small forts, or places of resort; throwing up banks of earth round about to enclose his armies, and also building walls of stone to encircle them about, round about their cities and the borders of their lands; yea, all round about the land.” Alma 48:8
What makes most sense to you? Did the Nephites cut stone walls, or stack stone walls? Would the Nephites create magnificent stone carvings, and ornate designed walls for pleasure or beauty, or communicating, or would the Nephites build simple walls for protection and survival? We report you decide as our friend Wayne May would say.
Hugh Nibley Said…
“What most impressed me last summer on my first and only expedition to Central America was the complete lack of definite information about anything. Never was so little known about so much… It is just a fact of life that no one knows much at all about these oft-photographed and much-talked-about ruins…
Counterparts to the great ritual complexes of Central America once dotted the entire eastern United States, the most notable being the Hopewell culture centering in Ohio and spreading out for hundreds of miles along the entire length of the Mississippi River. These are now believed to be definitely related to corresponding centers in Mesoamerica…
The Book of Mormon is a history of a related primitive church, and one may well ask what kind of remains the Nephites would leave us from their more virtuous days. A closer approximation to the Book of Mormon picture of Nephite culture is seen in the earth and palisade structures of the Hopewell and Adena culture areas than in the later stately piles of stone in Mesoamerica.
C. Northcote Parkinson has demonstrated with withering insight how throughout history really ornate, tasteless, and pompous building programs have tended to come as the aftermath of civilization. After the vital powers are spent, then is the time for the super-buildings, the piling of stone upon stone for monuments of staggering mass and proportion. It was after the disciples of the early church decided to give up waiting for the Messiah and to go out for satisfaction here and now that the Christians of the fourth century took to staging festivals and erecting monuments in the grand manner, covering the whole Near East with structures of theatrical magnificence and questionable taste.
How unlike the building program of the Church today which can barely erect enough of our very functional, almost plain chapels to keep abreast of the growing needs of the Latter-day Saints. Though such piles as the great pyramid-temple of Chichén Itzá yield to few buildings in the world in beauty of proportion and grandeur of conception, there is something disturbing about most of these overpowering ruins. Writers describing them through the years have ever confessed to feelings of sadness and oppressionas they contemplate the moldy magnificence—the futility of it all: “They have all gone away from the house on the hill,” and today we don’t even know who they were
. The great monuments do not represent what the Nephites stood for; rather, they stand for what their descendants, “mixed with the blood of their brethren,” descended to. But seen in the newer and wider perspective of comparative religious studies, they suggest to us not only the vanity of mankind and the futility of man’s unaided efforts, but also something nobler; the constant search of men to recapture a time when the powers of heaven were truly at the disposal of a righteous people.” Ancient Temples: What Do They Signify? By Hugh Nibley September 1972
Stacked Stone Walls of North America
Now let’s consider the following information about the incredible stacked stone walls of North America. They were built for protection, hiding, concealment of records, and other practical things. Why don’t we find in North America a grand pyramid, or a gorgeous temple of hewn stone, or a palace of stone, built up to worship some evil king or dictator? The Nephites were disciples of God who lived simply without aggrandizement or pride. They built earthworks for burial, temple worship, or representation of a special mountain or animal. They built works that represented the heavens where the Great Spirit dwelt. They held sacred the moon, sun, and stars as a spiritual way of worship. Remember the Nephites had the true Gospel of Jesus Christ as we do today. Remember also they lost the blessing of this Gospel. Let us learn from their mistakes.
Stonehenge of North America Salem, NH
Sacrificial Table
What is America’s Stonehenge?
Built by a Native American Culture or a migrant European population? No one knows for sure. A maze of man-made chambers, walls and ceremonial meeting places, at over 4,000 years old America’s Stonehenge is most likely the oldest man-made construction in the United States.
Like Stonehenge in England, America’s Stonehenge was built by ancient people well versed in astronomy and stone construction. It has been determined that the site is an accurate astronomical calendar. It was, and still can be, used to determine specific solar and lunar events of the year.
Various inscriptions have been found throughout the site including Ogham, Phoenician and Iberian Punic Script. Dr. Barry Fell of Harvard University did extensive work on the inscriptions found at the site. They are detailed in his book America B.C.” source: https://www.stonehengeusa.com/
Stonehenge Salem, NH
Scattered throughout the woods and fields of New England lie the remains of an ancient civilization. These remnants are enigmatic stone structures that predate European settlement. Standing stone circles, hundreds of impressive and elaborate stone chambers, massive balanced stones, over one million stone cairns, stone animal effigies, solstice and equinox markers and many other unexplained structures litter the landscape. Historical texts, colonial reports, carbon dating, astro-archeological research and Native American oral traditions all support this contention.
The Adena, Hopewell and Mississippian mound building cultures built earthen mounds, pyramids and geometric enclosures that showed an extremely high degree of engineering and mathematical skill. Shell and midden mounds were built from Florida to Maine. Mystery stone walls and forts were built throughout the midwestern states. In the Southwest the Anasazi and Hopi built star cities on the ground that are a perfect reflection of all the major stars in the Orion system. While all this construction and more was happening in ancient America, we are told that in New England there was nothing occurring of note other than scattered native tribes involved in a fairly primitive lifestyle. Archeologists continue to claim that stone chambers are root cellars, elaborate cairns, sometimes up to 9 feet high and conical or in the case of the 25 foot high 200 foot long, Hopkinton, MA cairn, are farmer’s clearing piles and dolmens and balanced rocks are glacial erratics.
The Historical Blackout
It is as if a large circle is drawn around New England which represents a complete absence of pre- colonial construction. This is the conventional wisdom proposed by the Archaeological community, however the evidence does not seem to support this notion. Let us look at several enigmatic stone sites in New England and what they tell us about its mysterious past. America’s Stonehenge in Salem, New Hampshire is probably the most elaborate and controversial site in New England. It has been described by Dr. Edward J. Kealy, professor of History at Holy Cross University as “potentially the most important stone complex in the Northern Hemisphere”. Featured on the History Channel and other programs, this 30 acre complex is a mixture of stone chambers, stone solstice and equinox markers, cairns, chimneys, fireplaces and stone drains. The two largest stones here weigh 45 and 70 tons. The site has been carbon dated to at least 2000 B.C. by scientists at Geochron Labs of Cambridge, Mass after dating 13 different test pits. That dates it’s construction half a millenia before the final construction phase of Stonehenge, and like Stonehenge it possesses many precise astronomical alignments. Stone markers throughout the site provide over 200 alignments with the sun, moon and 45 different stars which have been verified by independent researchers. One alignment wall allows a person to observe the southern most standstill of the moon on its 18.61 year metonic cycle. A period of 18.61 is required to carry the moon to all of its possible positions in respect to the sun. This event is marked at Mystery Hill as the moon passes above the winter solstice stone and then aligns with the terminal of this wall.
Gungywamp
Gungywamp stone circle
In a letter dated November 30, 1654 by John Pynchon (founder of Springfield, Mass.) lends strong support to the idea that many stone structures existed here before the colonists arrived. Here is a portion of his letter. “Honored Sir, Understanding you are now at New Haven and supposing there will be opportunity from Hartford for conveyance thither, I make bold to scribble a few lines to you… Sir, I hear a report of a stonewall and strong fort (chamber) within it, made all of stone, which is newly discovered at or near Pequet (presently known as the Gungywamp Range), I should be glad to know the truth of it from your self, here being many strange reports about it”. Gungywamp in Groton Conn. is another site that has been thoroughly researched and has generated equally perplexing questions. Also featured recently on the History Channel in the special “Who really discovered America”. The complex has stone chambers, precolonial walls, a bird petroglyph, a double concentric ring of 21 large quarried stones and has been carbon dated to 600 A.D. Nearby there are several large standing stones that have been carefully positioned along astronomical site lines. The main chamber has a stone lined shaft that was designed precisely to permit the Equinoctial sunset to fully penetrate the chambers dark interior only on the spring equinox. The high density of the granite in the stones magnifies the intensity of the sunlight entering the chamber. Archeo-astronomers have determined that New England is replete with stone chambers. There are some 105 astronomically aligned chambers in Massachusetts, 51 in New Hampshire, 41 in Vermont, 62 in Connecticut, 12 in Rhode Island and 4 in Maine. Suffice it to say, it is obvious that the alignments found at Gungywamp and America’s Stonehenge are not random. Orthodox archaeologists routinely claim that the chambers are colonial root cellars. At the Pound Ridge Historical Museum in New York exists a faded letter dated July 1742. It is from a priest writing back to a local farmer who had just discovered a stone chamber near his property in the woods. The priest instructed the man to stay away from the chamber because it was the work of the devil and was a place where the devil enters this world. Why would this admonishment take place if it was a colonial root cellar as modern archaeologists insist? These stone chamber sites often have large standing stones, stone animal effigy mounds, wells, cairns and wall complexes associated with them.
Mystery in Vermont
Stone Chambers, Indians and Astronomy: A Critique of Vermont’s Stone Chambers By Byron E. Dix and James W. Mavor, Jr.
James Mavor and Byron Dix led a seven year investigation into stone sites in New England with much of the focus on two sites in Vermont they named Calendar 1 and Calendar 2. Mavor received a masters degree in naval architecture from MIT, taught marine engineering at the U.S. Naval academy and taught mechanical engineering at Northeastern University. As a research specialist in applied physics he was the lead designer of the famous deep sea submersible “Alvin”. Dix was a brilliant optical designer and an expert in archeo-astronomy, surveying, precise measuring and was eminently qualified for the research they undertook measuring the movements of heavenly bodies. Their results were eye opening. The Calendar Two stone chamber was built with the exact 2 to 1 ratio found at many worldwide sacred sites, it’s roof is constructed with nine 14 foot long expertly joined roof stones that weigh over 3 tons apiece. But even more sophisticated, the size of the doorway entrance is such that it’s limits mark the declination angles 18.3 and 28.6 of the moons major and minor standstills, thus providing a means of accurately predicting eclipses. This form of ecliptic prediction requires advanced astronomical, mathematical and engineering knowledge. Down the road at Vermont’s Calendar One site 8 stone chambers, 14 standing stones, 5 cairn groupings and many other stone structures were meticulously and painstakingly excavated, mapped, and studied. There turns out to be 32 astronomical alignments from one single location at the complex. These two Vermont sites are 14 miles apart but they exist on a perfect north/south alignment accurate to within 200 feet. Mavor and Dix concluded, based on their research that the sites were at least several thousand years old .
Carbon Dates and Astounding Feats
The stone chambers of New England like all the precolonial stonework are dry laid. When you examine any of these chambers you will see that they were not easy to construct, their design is quite complex. The walls are built using a technique called corbelling. This sophisticated architectural design is used to support arches, parapets and floors. In this case corbelling is used in the walls which are made up of piles of stones arched inward to support the ceiling lintel stones. At the New Salem Mass. chamber, the roof is one stone slab which is 10 ft. x 5 ft, several feet thick and weighs over fifteen thousand pounds. Forgetting about the mathematics and geometry of solar orientations for a moment, the organization, engineering and force required to construct some of these chambers is very impressive. In Upton, Mass. there is an enormous stone chamber which was built completely underground and carved into the side of a hill. A 4 ½ foot high 14 foot long tunnel leads into a 12 foot diameter 11 foot high chamber. The irregular stones were meticulously fitted and many roof stones are ovals weighing over ten thousand pounds apiece. This chamber also possesses many precise astronomical alignments with a focus on the Pleiades. Charcoal remains in a stone chamber in Putney, Vermont have been carbon dated to 492 A.D. by Geochron labs…
The Stone Walls of New England, to the Moon and Back
Let us now examine the stone walls of New England. Again conventional wisdom states that every stone wall you see was built sometime in the last 400 years. This seems like a reasonable claim at first glance, colonials definitely built walls for property boundaries and agricultural uses. Timber eventually became scarce in the colonies and fencing was needed as land was farmed and livestock raised. We are told that the majority of the walls were built in a 75 year window between the revolutionary and civil wars. How many walls did and does New England actually have? An 1872 U.S. Department of Agriculture report estimated there were over 240,000 miles of stone walls east of the Hudson river right after the civil war. This very conservative estimate was done using incomplete data and didn’t account for other areas in the northeast that possess large amounts of stone walls. The actual figure is well over 500,000 miles, many researchers estimate. That is a stone wall that circles the earth 20 times or all the way to the moon and back. Reflect on that staggering reality for a minute. Does it seem likely that a colonial population struggling for survival, involved in several all encompassing wars and working difficult and unforgiving land could have accomplished this feat? The average colonial home burned between 20 and 40 hand cut cords of wood yearly. Processing this amount of wood, among other overwhelming tasks, in a harsh environment with long and difficult winters left little time for activities like wall building which had very little utility. Take the town of Hawley, Mass., an isolated community in the rugged highlands of Western MA, which has an area of 30.9 square miles. First settled in 1770 it has over one thousand miles of stone walls. However, it’s population at the time in question was 539 in 1790, 1089 in 1820 and back down to 600 in 1879. Could this meager population be responsible for such an impressive feat? To build all the walls of New England would have been the most costly and labor intensive undertaking in colonial history. An enormous venture but with little mention in the historical texts other than the assumption that it was done. The total sheer tonnage of New England’s stone walls represents an amount greater than all the worlds pyramids, stone temples, stone complexes and ancient stone structures combined.
Walls without Colonial Purpose
A Maine cairn
An indication of the antiquity of many walls is their seemingly irrational construction and placement. If the only purpose of walls was for agricultural uses such as livestock containment and boundary markers then a massive amount fall into some unknown realm. There are stone walls 12 feet high with 20 foot bases, walls that undulate wildly, tying into glacial erratics, beginning and ending without seeming purpose and defining no boundary. There are walls that are balanced with exact precision and have holes throughout their entire length, walls that have precise geometric shapes such as squares, triangles and rectangles embedded in them. There are walls that have the exact same odd building techniques used from Martha’s Vineyard to Pennsylvania and all around New England. There are walls that enclose huge swamps, climbing up 30 foot cliffs, using precariously perched stones weighing 5 and 10 thousand pounds apiece, boulder walls with stones built off the ground weighing 50 thousand pounds and more. We find walls that consist of quartz that geologists determined had to be brought from miles away because the area in question possessed none, stones actually quarried and used in construction when there is ample stone in close proximity, if the purpose was to clear land or build boundaries. There are walls that end abruptly with serpent and effigy heads, walls that have massive amounts of stone cairns and effigy mounds right next to them that have exactly the same weathering and construction techniques. There are walls over mountains that were never settled or farmed, walls that head straight up such extreme slopes that your lungs burn just to walk them. Many, many walls that use stones weighing tons in total inaccessible areas that could not have been done with the benefit of beasts of burden. Finally, an inordinate amount of walls are located on a path that leads to the setting sun on the solstices. In the northeast the angle of that path is approximately 123 degrees southeast for the winter solstice sunrise and 303 degrees northwest for the summer solstice sunset. Standing along this line, one would see the sun rising on the southeast horizon on the shortest day of the year, the winter solstice and six months later, if you turned around 180 degrees, you would see the sun setting at that point on the horizon, on the longest day of the year, the summer solstice
Underneath the Hudson
Ships and Walls found by Sonar
The following news item is an example of under reporting that takes place when new information arises that doesn’t fit the existing paradigm. On December 18, 2002 the New York Times reported the following. “Scientists mapping the bottom of the Hudson River with sonar say that they have found nearly every single ship that ever foundered in the river over the last 400 years or more. The surveys have also turned up more mysterious structures, including a series of submerged walls more than 900 feet long that scientists say are clearly of human construction. They say the walls are probably 3000 years old because that was the last time the river’s water levels were low enough to have allowed construction on dry land. “I think there are going to be really significant findings”, said Warren Riess, a research associate professor of history and marine science at the University of Maine”. Or maybe there won’t be because no one will hear about this story again. This is how the information filter works, maybe something might rarely slip by once but never twice. Someone who posted a comment online after the article sums up my sentiments, “The heck with the ships, who was building 900 ft. long stone walls in the Northeast North America in 1000 B.C. or earlier”. Shouldn’t this report rewrite the history books, instead of getting scant attention and then disappearing?
The Records Don’t Lie
Nashoba Brook Chamber
If many stone walls already existed in the New World when colonists arrived then there must have been documented evidence. This is most certainly the case and many of the reports are matter of fact, as if this were fairly well known and taken for granted. Let’s look at a few of the reports describing Indian “stone fences” and stone walls. The colonists attributed the stone work to Native Americans because they were the culture present at the time but Native American oral tradition does not include stone wall building. Henry Baker, History of Montville, CT. 1896 p 31. “Owanecco…. afterwards gave them each (two Englishmen who rescued him from drowning) One hundred acres of land, which transaction was afterwards confirmed by the General Court, and ordered to be surveyed and laid out “about a mile or two west northerly of the Ancient Indian Fence”. Stonington, CT Deeds 1664-1714. Book 2; Part 3; 2-79: “and from thence were run north northeast northerly 288 rod where we marked a small walnut tree and marked seven notches on it a little within the Indian fence at Qualquetoye. The above written act of surveyors was entered Jan. 4th 1680. Ancestors and descendant of Johnathan Abell, P.11 (Rehoboth, MA) The 26th of the 12th month 1651, it was agreed that Robert Abell and Richart Bullock should burn the commons round about, from the Indian Fence. The Smithsonian also documented one of the ancient stone wall complexes found in New Hampshire. Here is part of E. G. Squire’s report. Smithsonian Contribution to Knowledge, Vol 2 1851; p 145-146. “when the first settlers discovered the fort, there were oak trees of large size standing within the stone walls. Within the enclosure and in the mound and vicinity were found innumerable ornaments, such as crystals cut into shapes of diamonds, squares, pyramids, etc…” This site had stone blocking mounds and horseshoe shaped stone walls, both Mississippian mound building features but done with stone and not earth. There are numerous accounts in the historical texts of chambers, cairns and other enigmatic creations existing before the colonists arrived. Thomas Jefferson, Yale President Ezra Stiles, Cotton Mather, Roger Williams and countless others described the different structures they saw and theorized about who the builders might be. There is certainly a mystery here and the closer you look, the stranger it gets.
The Queen’s Fort and Queen’s Bed Chamber in Exeter, R.I.
Byron E. Dix, James W. Mavor, Manitou: The Sacred Landscape of New England’s Native Civilization, Inner Traditions International, 1989.
Francis Hutching, Earth Magic, William Morrow and Co. 1977. pp. 151-159
Philip Imbrogno, Marianne Horrigan, Celtic Mysteries: Windows To Another Dimension In America’s Northeast, Llyewllyn Publications. 2000. pp. 10-14, 92-93
Byron E. Dix, James W. Mavor, Heliolithic Ritual Sites In New England, Northeast Antiquities Research Association Journal, Volume 42 #2 Winter 2008. pp. 2-20
Robert Ellis Cahill, New England’s Ancient Mysteries, Old Saltbox Publishing, 1993. pp. 27-30, 37-43
Gregory L. Little, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Native American Mounds And Earthworks, Eagle Wing Books, Inc. 2009. pp. 2-9
Louis H. Everts, History of The Connecticut Valley in Massachusetts, Volume 2, 1879.
Tom Draheim “A Look at Andover Turtle Mound”, Andover Guide Spring 2007.
Six Mysterious Stone Structures of New England
Upton, Massachusetts
Stone Chamber
Everyone knows that stone walls cover the New England landscape like honeycombs. But far fewer people know about the region’s hundreds of mysterious stone structures.
In the 1930s, someone estimated that New England had 250,000 miles of stone walls. In the following decades came inventories of the region’s stone structures, which some believed to be ancient.
A stone chamber in Leverett, Mass.
Some of those ancient stone structures are oriented to the stars and planets. They also stand near megaliths, cairns or dolmens. A few have what are probably stone beds or sacrificial altars.
Speculation now runs rampant about the origins of the mysterious stone structures. Did medieval Irish monks, American Indians or Vikings build them? Or did the English colonists just built them as root cellars?
Most noteworthy, just three Northeast counties account for the majority of stone structures in North America: Putnam County, N.Y.; New London County, Conn.; and Windsor County, Vt.
Massachusetts has the densest concentration of beehive-shaped stone chambers like those built by Culdee monks in Ireland. The state has 105 sites containing stone structures.
Connecticut also has quite a few at 62, New Hampshire has 51 and Vermont has 41. Tiny Rhode Island has only 12 stone structures, but still more than Maine, which has only four.
E. G. Squier, Antiquities of the State of New York, Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, Vol. II, 1851; p. 145-6: “There are . . . some remains in the State of New Hampshire, which, whatever their origin, are entitled to notice. The subjoined plan of one of these is from a sketch made in 1822 by Jacob B. Moore, Esq., late Librarian of the Historical Society of New York, who has also furnished the accompanying description.
‘According to your request, I send the enclosed sketch and memoranda of an ancient fortification, supposed to have been the work of the Penacook Indians, a once powerful tribe, whose chief seat was in the neighborhood of Concord, New Hampshire. . . . Under the name of Penacooks, were probably included all the Indians inhabiting the valley of the Merrimack, from the great falls at the Amoskeag to the Winnepiseogee Lake, and the great carrying-place on the Pemiqewasset. That they were one and the same tribe, is rendered probable from the exact similarity of relics, which have been found at different places, and from the general resemblance of the remains of ancient fortifications, which have been traced near the lower falls of the Winnepiseogee, in Franklin and Sanbornton, and on the table-land known as the Sugar-Ball Plain in Concord. . . . The accompanying sketch was taken in pencil, on a visit to the spot, in company with the Hon. James Clark and several friends in the month of September, 1822. The remains are on the west side of the Winnepiseogee, near the head of Little Bay, in Sanbornton, New Hampshire. The traces of the walls were at that time easily discerned, although most of the stones had been removed to the mill-dam near at hand, on the river. On approaching the site, we called upon a gentleman (James Gibson) who had lived for many years near the spot, and of whom we learnt the following particulars: He had lived in Sanbornton fifty-two years, and had known the fort some time previous to settling in the place. When he came to the town to reside, the walls were two or three feet high, though in some places they had fallen down, and the whole had evidently much diminished in height, since the first erection. They were about three feet in thickness, constructed of stones outwardly, and filled in with clay, shells, gravel, etc., and such as men in a savage state would be supposed to use for such a purpose. They were placed together with much order and regularity, and when of their primitive height, the walls must have been very strong–at least, sufficiently strong for all the purposes of defence against an enemy to whom the use of firearms was unknown. . . . When the first settlers discovered the fort, there were oak trees of large size standing within the walls. Within the enclosure, and in the mound and vicinity, were found innumerable Indian ornaments, such as crystals cut into rude shapes of diamonds, squares, pyramids, etc., with ornamental pipes of stone and clay–coarse pottery ornamented with various figures–arrowheads, hatchets of stone, and other common implements of peace and war. The small [adjacent] island in the bay appears to have been a burial-place, from the great quantity of bones and other remains disclosed by the plough, when settlements were commenced by the whites. Before the island was cultivated, there were several large excavations resembling cellars or wells discovered, for what purpose constructed or used, can of course be only conjectured. . . . After writing thus far, I addressed a note to the Hon. James Clark, of Franklin, New Hampshire, with inquiries as to the present state of these ruins. Mr. Clark was kind enough at once to make a special visit to the site of the ruins, in company with Mr. Bradford, son of one of the settlers. The following is an extract from his reply:
The remains of the walls are in part plainly to be traced; but the ground since our former examination has been several years ploughed and cultivated, so as to now give a very indistinct view of what they were in our previous visit, when the foundation of the whole could be distinctly traced. No mounds or passage-ways can now be traced. . . . The stones used in these walls were obtained on the ground, and were of such size as one man could lift; they were laid as well as our good walls for fences in the north, and very regular; they were about three feet in thickness and breast high when first discovered. The stones have been used to fill in the dam now adjoining. There were no embankments in the interior. The distance between the outer and inner wall was about sixty feet; the distance from the north to the south wall was about 250 feet, and from the west wall to the river about 220 feet. There were two other walls extending south to Little Bay. . . . The remains of a fortification, apparently of similar construction to that above described, were some years since to be seen on the bluffs east of the Merrimack River, in Concord, on what was formerly known as Sugar-Ball Plain. The walls could readily be traced for some distance, though crumbled nearly to the ground, and overgrown with large trees.’ ”
The sketch referenced above can be viewed below. The green arrow indicates a cairn, while the three red arrows point to the blocking mounds opposite the entrances, a common theme in Mississippian architecture, although usually constructed of earth. The horseshoe design is a common Native religious architectural practice as well. It should be noted that some of the walls (both in the horseshoe and the portion south of it) are parallel, common features in Native wall complexes.
Source: http://nativestones.com/walls.htm
Documentation of Native Stone Walls
As reported in late 2002 in the NY Times, high-resolution sonar surveys of the Hudson river revealed ancient stone walls: “The surveys have also turned up more mysterious structures, including a series of submerged walls more than 900 feet long that scientists say are clearly of human construction. They say the walls are probably 3,000 years old because that was the last time the river’s water levels were low enough to have allowed construction on dry land.” Note this is a conservative age estimate, at least one of the researchers believes a 7,000-year-old age is more likely. Scattered accounts of Native stone walls (a.k.a. “fences”) occur in early records, several of which are reproduced below:
Carl Bridenbaugh, editor, The Letters of John Pynchon; Vol. 1, 1984; John Pynchon (founder of Springfield, Massachusetts), in a letter to John Winthrop Jr. (then at New Haven, Connecticut), dated Nov. 30, 1654:
“Sir I heare a report of a stonewall and strong fort in it, made all of Stone, which is newly discovered at or neere Pequot, I should be glad to know the truth of it fro yourselfe, here being many strange reports about it.”
Queen’s “Fort” (a.k.a. Quaipan’s Fort) in Exeter, RI is a massive stone construction of Native American origin, listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1980. The contention that it was a fort makes no sense, it is a religious complex.
I first did an article on the murder of our indigineous Natives of the united State and Canada about a year ago. More deaths continue as the evil Deep States all of the world are busy wanint all but the elites dead. Their are evil Gadianton secrect signs amond this Deep State Cabal of today.
As it says in the pre text of Ether 8, “Secret combinations are of the devil and result in the destruction of nations.”
“Wake Up… People”
“Whenever I hear anyone, including myself say, I know the Book of Mormon is True, I want to exclaim that’s nice but it isn’t enough. We need to feel deep the inmost parts of our hearts that the Book of Mormon is unequivocally the word of God. We must feel it so deeply that we wouldn’t want to live even one day without it. I might paraphrase President Brigham Young in saying, I wish I had the voice of seven thunders to wake up the people to the truth and power of the Book of Mormon.” Elder Russell M. Nelson Sept 30, 2017 General Conference.
I hope and pray President Nelson’s focus on the words of Brigham Young will truly WAKE US UP! There is an entire world of evil before us and we must work even harder to repent as we know the Lord wins this battle. May we assist Him!
3 Nephi CHAPTER 21 Header “Israel will be gathered when the Book of Mormon comes forth—The Gentiles will be established as a free people in America—They will be saved if they believe and obey; otherwise, they will be cut off and destroyed—Israel will build the New Jerusalem, and the lost tribes will return. About A.D. 34.”
[Notice the header of 3 Nephi 21 mentions free people of America. Not of the Americas. I believe the Book of Mormon remnant are the Lamanites who began in North America, though the blood of Father Lehi may be amongst many in the Americas].
Blue text below means Remnant of Jacob or Lamanites
12 And my peoplewho are a remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles, yea, in the midst of them as a lionamong the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocks of sheep, who, if he go through both treadeth down and teareth in pieces, and none can deliver.
13 Their hand shall be lifted up upon their adversaries, and all their enemies shall be cut off.
[Dire Warning to we Gentiles of today, including many politicians Democrats and Republicans, murderers, Gadianton’s, Deep State, evil corporations, Cabal, Satan worshippers, sex traffickers, those who take away our freedom, etc. They are all described in verses 14 to 20. They also are included amongst those evil people who have destroyed the Native Americans in Kamloops, Canada].
14 Yea, wo be unto the Gentiles except they repent; for it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Father, that I will cut off thy horses out of the midst of thee, and I will destroy thy chariots;
15 And I will cut off the cities of thy land, and throw down all thy strongholds;
16 And I will cut off witchcrafts out of thy land, and thou shalt have no more soothsayers;
17 Thy graven images I will also cut off, and thy standing images out of the midst of thee, and thou shalt no more worship the works of thy hands;
18 And I will pluck up thy groves out of the midst of thee; so will I destroy thy cities.
19 And it shall come to pass that all lyings, and deceivings, and envyings, and strifes, and priestcrafts, and whoredoms, shall be done away.
20 For it shall come to pass, saith the Father, that at that day whosoever will not repent and come unto my Beloved Son, them will I cut off from among my people, O house of Israel;
21 And I will execute vengeance and fury upon them, even as upon the heathen, such as they have not heard.
22 But if they will repent and hearken unto my words, and harden not their hearts, I will establish my church among them, and they shall come in unto the covenant and be numbered among this the remnant of Jacob, unto whom I have given this land for their inheritance;
23 And they shall assist my people, the remnant of Jacob, and also as many of the house of Israel as shall come, that they may build a city, which shall be called the New Jerusalem.
24 And then shall they assist my people that they may be gathered in, who are scattered upon all the face of the land, in unto the New Jerusalem.
25 And then shall the power of heaven come down among them; and I also will be in the midst.
26 And then shall the work of the Father commence at that day, even when this gospel shall be preached among the remnant of this people. Verily I say unto you, at that day shall the work of the Father commence among all the dispersed of my people, yea, even the tribes which have been lost, which the Father hath led away out of Jerusalem.” 3 Nephi 21:12-26
Trail of Tears will be followed by the Rise of the Lamanites to build New Jerusalem
The Book of Mormon, which contained Lehi’s prophecies, was published in March, 1830. The infamous “Indian Removal Act” was passed by Congress on May 28, 1830.
In speaking to the Lamanites and others who are disobedient, the Book of Mormon said, “and he will take away from them the lands of their possessions, and he will cause them to be scattered and smitten.” 2 Nephi 1:10-11
At the beginning of the 1830s, nearly 125,000 Native Americans lived on millions of acres of land in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina and Florida–land their ancestors had occupied and cultivated for generations. By the end of the decade, very few natives remained anywhere in the southeastern United States. Working on behalf of white settlers who wanted to grow cotton on the Indians’ land, the federal government forced them to leave their homelands and walk thousands of miles to a specially designated “Indian territory” across the Mississippi River. This difficult and sometimes deadly journey is known as the “Trail of Tears.”
Indian removal took place in the Northern states as well. In Illinois and Wisconsin, for example, the bloody Black Hawk War in 1832 opened to white settlement millions of acres of land that had belonged to the Sauk, Fox and other native nations.
“Wherefore, this land is consecrated unto him whom he shall bring. And if it so be that they shall serve him according to the commandments which he hath given, it shall be a land of liberty unto them; wherefore, they shall never be brought down into captivity; if so, it shall be because of iniquity; for if iniquity shall abound cursed shall be the land for their sakes, but unto the righteous it shall be blessed forever.” 2 Nephi 1:7
Our Stewardship
I truly believe as a blessed nation and free to choose people, we have an obligation to reach out and explore how we can truly fulfill the stewardship the Lord has blessed us with. That includes learning and researching more than just listening to fake news on TV or radio. We must be in tune with many sources all around us and as we study, we must always turn to prayer for guidance. Many things in the information contained here may be not fully accurate, but in my opinion it is very relevant and worthwhile to consider.
Based on the past treatment of Native Americans, and people of various nationalities, I give a lot of credence to believe much of this information is true. Satan has divided us by race, religion, color, politics, gender and by other evil means for many years. Today, it is worse than ever. Many of us have a friend named Tim Ballard, who has told us all types of horror stories of sex trafficking, slavery, murder and child sacrifice, and I am sure it is much worse than Tim can tell us about. We need to know, so we can help. Pray for these children and families of Kamloops and all the others who have been destroyed and especially for their families. I know God is with them all, so I know the evil destruction of these children will only hurt the evil doers. These children are saved in the Kingdom of God, for that I am very grateful.
This blog is my own opinion and does not reflect the opinion of the Firm Foundation, Book of Mormon Evidence or any one else. Rian Nelson
Another Evil Trail of Tears
“Mass grave with remains of 215 children found at Indigenous school in Canada, an ‘unthinkable loss’
Associated Press May 29, 2021
KAMLOOPS, British Columbia — A mass grave containing the remains of 215 children, some as young as 3 years old, has been found on the site of what was once Canada’s largest Indigenous residential school.
The school is one of the institutions that held Indigenous children taken from families across the nation.
Chief Rosanne Casimir of the Tk’emlups te Secwépemc First Nation said in a news release that the remains were confirmed last weekend with the help of ground-penetrating radar.
More bodies may be found because there are more areas to search on the school grounds, Casimir said Friday.
In an earlier release, she called the discovery an “unthinkable loss that was spoken about but never documented at the Kamloops Indian Residential School.” It was the once the site of Canada’s largest residential school.
From the 19th century until the 1970s, more than 150,000 First Nations children were required to attend state-funded Christian schools as part of a program to assimilate them into Canadian society. They were forced to convert to Christianity and not allowed to speak their native languages. Many were beaten and verbally abused, and up to 6,000 are said to have died.
Murder by Decree is an uncensored record of the planned extermination of indigenous children in Canada’s murderous “Indian residential schools”. It is issued as a corrective Counter Report to the miscarriage of justice by Church and State known as the “Truth and Reconciliation Commission” (TRC). Based on eyewitness testimonies and archival documentation deliberately suppressed or ignored by the TRC, Murder by Decree proves that the genocide of indigenous people began as a religion-led campaign and continues to be a deliberate governmental policy in Canada.www.murderbydecree.com
Vatican, Canadian Gov, Pfizer, Bayer, Eli Lilly Genocide of 60,000 Native Children
Wednesday, June 2, 2021
Over 60,000 native children have gone missing from 80 mainly Catholic and Canadian government owned native residential schools across Canada according to Kevin Annett in his book Murder by Decree: www.murderbydecree.com
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?” 3 Nephi 14:15-16
The fruits of these ravening wolves in business and church tell a story of incredible horror below.
“In October 2011 Mohawk Elders and Annett did the first excavation of bodies of tortured children on Indian residential schools. The dig took place in Brantford, Ontario, but after discovering and verifying children’s bones, the team of forensic experts were forbidden to enter the property by Catholic and Canadian authorities.
This is the first in a series of articles about the Canadian Holocaust that killed more than 60,000 children over a century. The below is an excerpt of a talk by Kevin Annett at a Vancouver Tribunal he organized to investigate genocide in Canadian Indian schools in June 1998…
“I first learned of the mass graves of children in Kamloops twenty-three years ago from an eyewitness who had helped bury them. His name was Jessie Jules. Jessie was a frightened man. He had been warned by his own native band council in Kamloops not to speak about what he knew.”
“They told me I’d get thrown out of my home on the reserve if I ever mentioned the dead kids” Jessie said on record to our panel of Tribunal judges. But despite this threat he spoke anyway.
“Jessie told us how his fellow Kamloops students were starved to death in underground chambers at the school and forced to sleep with children dying of tuberculosis after they tried running away. He named Catholic priests like Brother Murphy who sodomized kids with cattle prods and beat a boy named Arnold to death with a club. Jessie saw another priest push a young girl named Patricia out a window to her death. He even drew us a map of where he buried children at night at the order of the priests.
“There were lots of those little bodies” he said. “We ran out of room in the ground, so they started burning them in the school furnace. It was kept going 24-7. They even chucked in there the babies from the girls they’d got pregnant, to get rid of the evidence. I saw the nuns do it.”
“The Kamloops center was a particular house of horrors, even by residential school standards, which is why such an effort has been made by the guilty to hide their atrocities. For many years it was an experimental center where particularly rebellious Indian children were sent for “special treatment”, including involuntary drug testing, sexual sterilizations, and pain threshold studies to see how much torture the mind and body can endure.
“Generations of experimental vaccines were tried out on Indian children at Kamloops by drug companies like Pfizer, Bayer, and Eli Lilly with the help of the Catholic church and the government. Most of the little test subjects died.
“After our Tribunal had catalogued these grisly crimes, in mid-June of 1998, we shared with the world the evidence, including Jessie’s account and that of twenty-eight other survivors with similar stories.
“We included Indian school records from Kamloops and across the country showing a huge death rate of over fifty percent that spanned decades, and evidence that disease was routinely and deliberately spread among children by the staff, and letters confirming the sexual sterilization of native children by church doctors that was funded by the Canadian government.
“We sent this proof of genocide to the world’s media, the Canadian government, the United Nations and to aboriginal groups and band councils across Canada, including the one in Kamloops. And every single one of them ignored us.
“Over the years that followed some of us did not give up. Our campaign to expose our home-grown genocide grew until it threatened the Church and State killers, as lawsuits by survivors escalated thanks to our work. And in retaliation, the RCMP and the blood-soaked Catholic, Anglican, and United churches began attacking us, smearing us to the press and killing our native eyewitnesses. They even dug up and destroyed the graves of children we had identified.” For more information contact: Kevin Annett gives news and updates Sun. at 6pm EST on www.bbsradio.com/herewestand
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Update Nov 28, 2022 about Indigineous Cree/Iroquois Massacres
Trudeau visits First Nation in Saskatchewan rocked by stabbings that killed 11
Publishing date:
Nov 28, 2022
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrives to pay his respects to the victims of a September stabbing spree at the James Smith Cree Nation, Sask., Nov. 28, 2022.PHOTO BY NAYAN STHANKIYA /REUTERS
JAMES SMITH CREE NATION, SASK. — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau walked through blowing snow Monday to lay tobacco on the graves of victims of a mass stabbing before listening to family members who have been grieving for nearly three months
Saskatchewan Rcmp Say One Suspect Killed 11 In Rampage, Including Brother
“I know you are still reeling and still processing what happened and what took place,” Trudeau told a news conference in the James Smith Cree Nation’s school gym.
“I know from the conversations that I had that members from the community are still grappling with it every single day.”
The Sept. 4 stabbings left 11 dead and 18 injured on the James Smith Cree Nation, as well as in the nearby village of Weldon, Sask., northeast of Saskatoon. Myles Sanderson, the 32-year-old suspect in the attacks, later died in police custody.
Trudeau mentioned each of the victims by name.
He talked about how Carol and Thomas Burns were visiting on the First Nation and got swept up in the violence. He talked about Christian and Lana Head, whose family told him their deaths have left holes in their lives. He spoke about Gloria Burns, who went to help others that day and lost her life.
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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pays his respects to the victims of a September stabbing spree at the James Smith Cree Nation, Sask., Nov. 28, 2022.PHOTO BY NAYAN STHANKIYA /REUTERSHUNTER: Don’t blame ‘root causes’ in Saskatchewan massacre
RCMP say suspect in Saskatchewan killings died after arrest
“These are not just names. These are not just part of a number of people in this horrific attack,” he said. “They are all individuals with stories.”
Trudeau, accompanied by Indigenous Services Minister Patty Hajdu, went to Saint Stephen’s Anglican Church, where seven of the victims are buried, and two other locations of graves.
Trudeau made the sign of the cross at each of the graves and took a moment of silence.
John Kelly Burns said he was overwhelmed with grief and struggled to speak with the prime minister. But, he said, it was important to tell the stories of his younger brother, Thomas, and mother, Carol.
1 And now I, Moroni, proceed to finish my record concerning the destruction of the people of whom I have been writing.
2 For behold, they rejected all the words of Ether; for he truly told them of all things, from the beginning of man; and that after the waters had receded from off the face of this land [America] it became a choice land above all other lands, a chosen land of the Lord; wherefore the Lord would have that all men should serve him who dwell upon the face thereof;
3 And that it [America] was the place of the New Jerusalem, which should come down out of heaven, and the holy sanctuary of the Lord.
4 Behold, Ether saw the days of Christ, and he spake concerning a New Jerusalem upon this land.[America]
5 And he spake also concerning the house of Israel, and the Jerusalem from whence Lehi should come—after it should be destroyed it should be built up again, a holy city unto the Lord; wherefore, it could not be a new Jerusalem for it had been in a time of old; but it should be built up again, and become a holy city of the Lord; and it should be built unto the house of Israel—
6 And that a New Jerusalem should be built up upon this land,[America] unto the remnant of the seed of Joseph, for which things there has been a type.
7 For as Joseph brought his father down into the land of Egypt, even so he died there; wherefore, the Lord brought a remnant of the seed of Joseph out of the land of Jerusalem, that he might be merciful unto the seed of Joseph that they should perish not, even as he was merciful unto the father of Joseph that he should perish not.
8 Wherefore, the remnant of the house of Joseph shall be built upon this land;[America] and it shall be a land of their inheritance; and they shall build up a holy city [New Jerusalem] unto the Lord, like unto the Jerusalem of old; and they shall no more be confounded, until the end come when the earth shall pass away.” Ether 13:1-8[Parenthesis Added]
The United States is the promised land foretold in the Book of Mormon—” L. Tom Perry
The Land of Joseph is the United States
The Land of Joseph is the United States of America where the Native American Indians, or Hopewell or Nephites and Lamanites lived. “The United States is the promised land foretold in the Book of Mormon—a place where divine guidance directed inspired men to create the conditions necessary for the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ.” Elder L. Tom Perry Ensign Dec. 2012
“Joseph’s inheritance was to be a land choice above all others”-Pres. Russell M. Nelson
Historians and archaeologists all over the world have known for years about the existence and cultures of Native Americans in North America. See the chart below:
(8-25) Genesis 49:22–26. What Is the Significance of Joseph’s Blessing?
“There are several things to be understood in the prophecy. First, he should become a multitude of nations. We understand what this means. In the second place, his branches should run over the wall. Now what does this mean? The Lord in ancient times had a meaning for everything. It means that his tribe should become so numerous that they would take up more room than one small inheritance in Canaan, that they would spread out and go to some land at a great distance. …
“Joseph’s peculiar blessing, which I have just read to you, was that he should enjoy possessions above Jacob’s progenitors to the utmost bounds of the everlasting hills. This would seem to indicate a very distant land from Palestine.” (Orson Pratt, in Journal of Discourses, 14:9.)
The seed of Joseph came to the land of America at the time Lehi and his family departed from the Mediterranean world. The land of America is specifically designated by the Lord as the land reserved for “a remnant of the house of Joseph” (3 Nephi 15:12).” LDS Old Testament Manual Genesis 37–50: Joseph: The Power of Preparation
Important Similarities Nephite and Hopewell
The Hopewell Culture describes the common aspects of the Native American culture that began in the Florida panhandle in 600 – 500 BC that flourished along rivers in the northeastern and Midwestern United States from 300 BC to 400 AD, in the Middle Woodland period.
As you can see in the map below, and as you read history, the proven historical location and timelines of the Hopewell Culture are facts. Just think about it. If we found a people that had a history following this same beginning and ending pattern in North America and we called it the Book of Mormon, we would have validation that indeed the Hopewell people are the same as the Nephites. So as we surmise, Lehi landed in Florida, Nephi was chased by his brothers into Tennessee, then Mosiah left and went north on the Tennessee River (which by the way, flows north) to Missouri and Illinois where he met up with the Mulekites near the Mississippi River. Remember the Mulekites began their civilization at the same place they were found by Mosiah. (read here) “And they [Mulekites] journeyed in the wilderness, and were brought by the hand of the Lord across the great waters, into the land where Mosiah discovered them; and they had dwelt there from that time forth.” Omni 1:16
Because of being found where they landed, we show a great probability that the Mulekites followed the same path as Lehi to the Gulf of Mexico, with the Mulekites following the Mississippi River all the way up to Montrose Iowa, where the Des Moines river rapids halted their journey, as it restricted boat traffic until the Army Corps of Engineers opened that waterway in the 19th century.
The area of Ohio is known as the Cultural Center of both the Adena and the Hopewell People with the Great Hopewell road running from Chillicothe, OH to Newark OH, the place of the amazing Newark Earthworks.
In the Land Zarahemla (WI, IA, MO, IL), there were many battles as well as in the Land Bountiful, (IN, OH, PA, NY) from Illinois to Indiana to Ohio and finally at Cumorah. What happened near Cumorah historically? Historians have found a sudden end to Hopewell civilization and pottery in that area from about 400-500 AD. We Latter-day Saints know what happened in that time range as the Lamanites destroyed the Nephites.
Serpent Mound, Ohio
“The Hopewell tradition was not a single culture or society, but a widely dispersed set of related populations. They were connected by a network of trade routes, known as the Hopewell Exchange System.At its greatest extent, the Hopewell Exchange System ran from the Southeastern United States as far south as the Crystal River Indian Mounds into the southeastern Canadian shores of Lake Ontario up north. Within this area societies participated in a high degree of exchange with the highest amount of activity along waterways.
The Hopewell Exchange System (Map Above) included copper from the Great Lakes, mica from the Carolinas, obsidian from the Rocky Mountains, and shells from the Gulf Coast. These people then converted the materials into products and exported them through local and regional exchange networks. Although the origins of the Hopewell are still under discussion, the Hopewell culture can also be considered a cultural climax, ending suddenly in about 400 AD. Hopewell populations originated in western New York and moved south into Ohio where they built on top of the local Adena mortuary tradition. Hopewell was also said to have originated in western Illinois and spread by diffusion … to southern Ohio. Similarly, the Havana Hopewell tradition was thought to have spread up the Illinois River and into southwestern Michigan, spawning Goodall Hopewell. The name “Hopewell” was applied by Warren K. Moorehead after his explorations of the Hopewell Mound Group in Ross County, Ohio in 1891 and 1892. The mound group itself was named for the family that owned the earthworks at the time.
The Hopewell location in the Mississippi Valley, plains of Illinois, and Indiana and locations in Ohio match up with the location of the Nephites in the Book of Mormon. The time period also shows a great correlation, especially as both the Hopewell and Nephite civilization abruptly ended in about 400 AD.” Rod Meldrum Exploring the Book of Mormon in America’s Heartland.
The Land of Joseph
In America there is a “multitude of nations,” called by us “Indians.” These Indians evidently sprang from the same source as is indicated by their color, features, customs, dialects, traditions, &c.; that they are of Israelitish origin is also evident from their religious ceremonies, their language, their traditions, and the discovery of Hebrew inscriptions, &c.
If America is not the land given to a branch of Joseph, where, or in what part of the globe shall that tribe receive the fulfillment of Jacob’s prediction? where, if not in America, has a land been peopled by a multitude of the nations of Joseph? Can a multitude of the nations of Joseph be found in Europe, Asia, or Africa, or in any of the adjoining islands? If not, then America seems to be the only place where that great prediction could receive its accomplishment. The Book of Mormon testifies that America is “the land of Joseph,” given to them by promise. Is not this an additional evidence that Mr. Smith was sent of God?
If Mr. Smith was an impostor, how came he to discover that the tribe of Joseph was to be favored so much above all the other tribes of Israel? Perhaps it may be replied, that it was easy to discover that from the scriptures; but, we ask, why did not Swedenborg, Wesley, Irving, or some of the other impostors of former times, make this scriptural discovery, and incorporate it in their pretended dispensations?
It would be, at first, thought far more natural to suppose the American Indians to be the ten lost tribes of Israel; indeed, this is the opinion of many of the learned at the present day. Why did not this modern prophet, if a deceiver, form his deceptive scheme more in accordance with the opinions of the learned? or why should he choose a remnant of the tribe of Joseph to people ancient America?
Out of the twelve tribes of Israel, why did he select only a branch of one tribe to people this vast continent? All can now perceive why the Book of Mormon should profess to be the history of a remnant of one tribe, instead of being the history of the ten tribes.
Orson Pratt
All can see, why America should be represented as a promised land to Joseph, instead of being given to Reuben, Simeon, or any of the other tribes. All can now see, though it was not seen at the first, that if the Book of Mormon was different from what it now is; that is, if it professed to contain a history of the ten lost tribes; or if it had given the great western continent to any other people, or to any other tribe than that of Joseph, that it would have proved itself false–it would not have been the book or record which the prophets predicted should come forth to usher in the great work of the last days. An impostor would be obliged to take into consideration all these minute circumstances, many of which are in direct opposition to the established traditions of the day; yet none of them could be neglected without proving fatal to his scheme. But Mr. Smith, with all the accuracy of a profound mathematician, has combined all the minute elements of both doctrine and prophecy in his grand and wonderful scheme–nothing is wanting. Whatever department of his system is examined it will be found invulnerable. What an invaluable amount of evidence to establish the divine mission of the Prophet Joseph Smith! Divine Authority Or the Question: Was Joseph Smith Sent of God? Orson Pratt
This Land-United States of America
“…in culmination of the grand scheme of schemes, this great nation, the Republic of the United States, might be established upon this land as an asylum for the oppressed; a resting place, it might be said, for the Ark of the covenant, where the temple of our God might be built; where the plan of salvation might be introduced and practiced in freedom, and not a dog would wag his tongue in opposition to the purposes of the Almighty. We believe that this was His object in creating the Republic of the United States; the only land where his work could be commenced or the feet of his people find rest. No other land had such liberal institutions, had adopted so broad a platform upon which all men might stand. We give glory to those patriots for the noble work they did; but we give the first glory to God, our Father and their Father, who inspired them. We take them by the hand as brothers. We believe they did nobly their work, even as we would fain do ours, faithfully and well, that we might not be recreant in the eyes of God, for failing to perform the mission to which He has appointed us.” Bishop Orson F. Whitney, delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Sunday Afternoon, April 19, 1885. Reported by John Irvine. Journal Discourses Volume 26 Page 201
Over 1,000,000 Mounds? Incredible!
America is God’s Land
Mark E. Petersen said: “You from other lands don’t need to become jealous of America. Who is jealous of Palestine, where Jesus was born? We are not jealous of the country; we merely recognize the hand of God in sending him there. We must also recognize the hand of God in sending the gospel to this land. We learn to love America because it is God’s land!
“Choice Because it was Chosen”
“Now, what of the promise of possession of certain lands? Territorial inheritance destined for the sons of Israel provided property in the Holy Land for Reuben, Simeon, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Gad, Asher, Dan, Naphtali, and Benjamin. But where was the inheritance for Joseph? From the Book of Mormon we learn that his inheritance was this land in the American hemisphere (see Ether 13:8)—identified as being choice above all other lands (see Ether 1:42, 10:28, 13:2; D&C 38:20). It was choice, but not necessarily from the standpoint of scenery or wealth. It was choice because it was chosen. America was to serve as the repository of sacred records written on metallic plates. It one day was to become the location for the restoration of the gospel. It was to host headquarters of the Lord’s restored church”. Russell M. Nelson was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when this devotional address was delivered at Brigham Young University on 22 November 1988.
Follow the known archaeological facts about the Hopewell Culture and compare it with the text and the Spirit found in the Book of Mormon and you will gain a greater sense of understanding that as Elder L. Tom Perry said, “The United States is the promised land foretold in the Book of Mormon—a place where divine guidance directed inspired men to create the conditions necessary for the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ.” Elder L. Tom Perry Ensign Dec. 2012
If you want to read more about many of the Native American Tribes of the United States, visit my website below and hover over the tab called “Lamanites”
“Through the ages, some without scriptural understanding have tried to explain our existence by pretentious words such as ex nihilo (out of nothing). Others have deduced that, because of certain similarities between different forms of life, there has been a natural selection of the species, or organic evolution from one form to another. Still others have concluded that man came as a consequence of a “big bang” that resulted in the creation of our planet and life upon it. To me, such theories are unbelievable!”
“We are children of God, created by him and formed in his image. Recently I studied the scriptures simply to find how many times they testify of the divine creation of man. Looking up references that referred either to create or form (or their derivatives) with either man, men, male, or female in the same verse, I found that there are at least fifty-five verses of scripture that attest to our divine creation. So, we can either believe in evolution or the scriptures, not both.” The Magnificence of Man RUSSELL M. NELSON of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles March 29, 1987
Elder Holland said, “You should know,” the writer said, “that some people in the extended community are feeling abandoned and betrayed by BYU. It seems that some professors (at least the vocal ones in the media) are supporting ideas that many of us feel are contradictory to gospel principles, making it appear to be about like any other university our sons and daughters could have attended. Several parents have said they no longer want to send their children here or donate to the school.
“Please don’t think I’m opposed to people thinking differently about policies and ideas,” the writer continued. “I’m not. But I would hope that BYU professors would be bridging those gaps between faith and intellect and would be sending out students who are ready to do the same in loving, intelligent, and articulate ways. Yet I fear that some faculty are not supportive of the Church’s doctrines and policies and choose to criticize them publicly.”The Second Half of the Second Century of Brigham Young University JEFFREY R. HOLLAND of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles August 23, 2021.
In 1910 Horace Cummings, superintendent of Church schools, became concerned because they were “applying the evolutionary theory and other philosophical hypotheses to principles of the gospel and to the teachings of the Church in such a way as to disturb, if not destroy the faith of the pupils,” and he wrote, “Many stake presidents, some of our leading principals and teachers, and leading men who are friends of our schools have expressed deep anxiety to me about this matter.”
Superintendent Cummings reported to the board that:
The teachers were following the “higher criticism”. . . , treating the Bible as “a collection of myths, folk-lore, dramas, literary productions, history and some inspiration.”
They rejected the flood, the confusion of tongues, the miracle of the Red Sea, and the temptation of Christ as real phenomena.
They said John the Revelator was not translated but died in the year A.D. 96.
“The theory of evolution is treated as a demonstrated law and their applications of it to gospel truths give rise to many curious and conflicting explanations of scripture.”
The teachers carried philosophical ideas too far: (1) “They believed sinners should be pitied and enlightened rather than blamed or punished,” (2) and they believed that “we should never agree. God never made two things alike. Only by taking different views of a thing can its real truth be seen.”
The professors taught that “all truths change as we change. Nothing is fixed or reliable.”
They also taught that “Visions and revelations are mental suggestions. The objective reality of the presence of the Father and the Son, in Joseph Smith’s first vision, is questioned.” Full Story: https://speeches.byu.edu/…/boyd-k-packer/snow-white-birds/
Jump forward to 2020 with Tristan Mourier bringing forth a petition exposing the ideologies happening still at the Lord’s University! Enough is Enough!
Is Evolution Real? Christians Should Embrace Darwin’s Theories, Mormon College Professor Says
“An evolutionary biologist who teaches at a college owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said that Mormons should feel comfortable accepting the theory of evolution, the Salt Lake City Tribune reported.
Brigham Young University biologist Steven Peck gave the Eugene England Memorial Lecture at Utah Valley University, a publicly-funded school, on Thursday. At the address, he delved into the rift between science and religion.
Peck does not see science as undermining religion. “The Church has long been interested in education and truth and knowledge,” Peck told Newsweek. “[BYU] itself is a reflection of that interest in gaining knowledge. And from my perspective, evolution is an important part of biology. It’s the foundation of all of biology.” Kate Sheridan, Newsweek
Great and Spacious Building!
Why are many BYU Professors teaching Evolution as a Law and not as a Theory? I believe it has to do their pride in their little liberal bubble. I believe the intellectuals and the Deep State of the world are the Great and Spacious Building!
David Hocking a great friend said, “The term evolution should be abandoned and replaced with adaptation. Thousands of species have been shown to implement adaptation for survival. They are still the same species and their DNA code was designed to provide that mechanism for environmental challenges.
I studied hemoglobins and of the over 1000 structural variants and the varied forms of impaired globin chain assemblies, not one is beneficial. And hemoglobin is one of several thousand proteins that are in the human body.” David Hocking Managing Editor Annotated Book of Mormon
Salt Fake Tribune Religion Reporter Tamarra Kemsley authored the smear piece titled “Who are the Heartlanders and why do they insist the Book of Mormon took place in the U.S.?” In it Kemsley skews the narrative of the Heartland Model, then goes on to cite how academics are appalled, Native Americans are offended, and of course the the leftist hate rag can’t report on anything without “orange man bad” and “white supremacy”
Why target this group? Because they are religious and don’t subscribe to the monopoly of academic rigidity. Simply put they aren’t actively engaged in the neo Marxist agenda put forth by the leftist literati attempting to shape the narrative in the Jello belt
Rather than honestly articulate who they are and what they believe. Kemsley goes to great lengths to smear them as ignorant, conspiratorial, anti-vaxxer racists. The Salt Fake Tribune considers anyone that doesn’t force vaccinations at gunpoint to be anti-vaxxers so…yeah. Kemsley cherry picks the most obnoxious narratives on Book of Mormon critics then blends it with LDS critics of the model. This shapes a rancid narrative to fit the worldview of the average low information Salt Fake Tribune reader.
This shouldn’t be surprising to anyone given Kemsley’s background. A degree from BYU in journalism. BYU is populated with academics who are very aggressive in trying to shoehorn the events of the Book of Mormon into the Yucatan.
I recently met with a friend who had participated in some activities with Book of Mormon Central, a group dedicated to explaining the Book of Mormon in the Yucatan. He explained how frustrated the group was with the Heartlanders. They are a problem for Book of Mormon Central. Heartlanders actively challenge their apologetic model. An activity they usually try to associate with anti Mormons. It gets worse for Book of Mormon Central as the Heartlanders are able to draw parallels between the Hopewell and the Nephites without the abstractions and apologetic gymnastics that academics have spent decades building. Anyone coming out of BYU is likely going to be marinating in these academic constructs that fail so miserably.
Kemsley attributes the founding of the Heartland model to Wayne May. In part this is true, but the real originator of this model as Wayne May points out is Joseph Smith. Since publication of the Book of Mormon the Lamanites have been identified as Native Americans in North America. It’s more than tradition, it’s straight from Joseph Smith and straight from the scriptures. This is important because it highlights the bigotry on display at the Salt Fake Tribune. If this offends you, it’s not the Heartlanders, it’s Restoration Christianity and the 83+ religions that credit Joseph Smith as being their founder and have the Book of Mormon in their sacred texts.
However she makes the claim “although he (Joseph Smith) later expanded that definition to include the inhabitants of Mesoamerica” this is disputed. She doesn’t source this assertion (like the majority of assertions coming out of the Salt Fake Tribune). It’s generally attributed to articles in the Times and Seasons when Joseph Smith was listed as the editor, but there’s nothing to indicate it came from Joseph Smith. Joseph Smith even took action against those in the paper when that was published. These types of assertions are common in the Salt Fake Tribune are indicative of the garbage and slanderous hate machine that it is.
“plates on which were engraven an abridgment of the records of the ancient Prophets that had existed on this continent.”
Joseph Smith – The Wentworth letter
It’s in scripture of The Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints. When Christ reveals to Joseph Smith to go and preach among the Nephites Oliver Cowdery doesn’t go to Central America. He goes to North American Indian tribes.
2 And that which I have appointed unto him is that he shall go with my servants, Oliver Cowdery and Peter Whitmer, Jun., into the wilderness among the Lamanites.
3 And Ziba Peterson also shall go with them; and I myself will go with them and be in their midst; and I am their advocate with the Father, and nothing shall prevail against them
Doctrine and Covenants Section 32
Kemsley’s cherry picking from academia that finds the religious conclusions of various Heartlanders as being offensive. By the standards outlined in the hit piece not only is the Heartlander model offensive but all apologetic models of the Book of Mormon, with the noted exception of the few people who see it as inspired fiction, scripture but not literal.
Why is the religious nature of America so upsetting to academics? Like all things Christian they hate it. Kemsley goes at length framing the view of the covenant nature of America and the critical theory framing of American history to construe the Heartlanders as racists. Not failing leftist sacrament of “orange man bad”. Kemsley links reverence for the United States to Donald Trump. Trump’s ferocious and unequivocal advocacy for the United States syncs well with people that subscribe to the Heartland model, because of this. Donald Trump appeals to tens of millions of Americans with patriotic tendencies. It is a common smear from the Salt Fake Tribune to try and make Trump conservatives to be extremists, all 81 million of us.
Kemsley’s message is clear “Heartlanders are ignorant, racists, who love Trump”
You don’t need a bigoted leftist hate rag like the Salt Fake Tribune run by extremely disturbed critical theory hacks to answer the question “Who are the Heartlanders and why do they insist the Book of Mormon took place in the U.S.?” April 7, 8, and 9 the largest Book of Mormon evidence conference in the world is happening in Layton, Utah. If you want to know who the Heartlanders are and why they have a model for the Book of Mormon I would encourage you to attend.” David Crandall-These opinions are my own and don’t necessarily reflect the opinions of Firm Foundation, or Book of Mormon Evidence
The painting below was created to show the plausibility of the First Nephite Temple built near Chattanooga, Tennessee. In several articles below in the year 1935, an ancient Egyptian Temple actually was found on the Clinch River between Chattanooga and Knoxville Tennessee.
The tools of faith shown in this painting below, were likely utilized by Nephi and subsequent Prophets, and delivered to Joseph Smith in our day. The Lord said through Joseph Smith, “Behold, I say unto you, that you must rely upon my word, which if you do with full purpose of heart, you shall have a view of the plates, and also of the breastplate, the sword of Laban, the Urim and Thummim, which were given to the brother of Jared upon the mount, when he talked with the Lord face to face, and the miraculous directors which were given to Lehi while in the wilderness, on the borders of the Red Sea. And it is by your faith that you shall obtain a view of them, even by that faith which was had by the prophets of old.” D&C 17:1,2
Nephi’s breastplate in the painting represents Nephi’s readiness for the protection of his people and was not necessarily the one that Joseph Smith found at Cumorah. The breastplate at Cumorah was possibly one of those mentioned in Mosiah 8:10, given to Mosiah by Limhi’s explorers. This Jaredite breastplate was handed down to Alma (Mosiah 28:20), and eventually to Moroni to be buried with the other tools of faith at Cumorah. Mosiah (the second) used seer stones or interpreters, to translate the twenty-four Jaredite plates (Mosiah 28:13), as his grandfather Mosiah (the first) interpreted the Jaredite stone record (Omni 1:20). These seer stones are represented in the painting and may have been handed down from Lehi or Nephi. Moses and the Israelites were also blessed with similar tools of faith that physically represented spiritual things. “…The ark of the covenant overlaid roundabout with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant; And over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercy seat; of which we cannot now speak particularly.” Hebrews 9:4-5.
I, Nephi, did build a Temple by Ken Corbett
After Nephi and his people were driven into the wilderness and found a place to settle, Nephi continued to instruct and serve his people. “And I did teach my people to build buildings, and to work in all manner of wood, and of iron, and of copper, and of brass, and of steel, and of gold, and of silver, and of precious ores, which were in great abundance. And I, Nephi, did build a temple; and I did construct it after the manner of the temple of Solomon save it were not built of many precious things; for they were not to be found upon the land, wherefore, it could not be built like unto Solomon’s temple. But the manner of the construction was like unto the temple of Solomon; and the workmanship thereof was exceedingly fine.” 2 Nephi 5:15-16
Beginning around 300 B.C., local people began to live at the Leake site, similar to the numerous other villages that dotted the Etowah Valley at this time. During the next few centuries, the construction of the monumental earthworks began. In particular, we know that the early stages of Mound B and at least a portion of the ditch was constructed. It appears that the ditch was an old channel of the Etowah River that was modified by the occupants. While most of the pottery and other remains from the early occupation represent local products, the minority presence of non-local items indicates that peoples from other parts of the Eastern U.S. were visiting the site and/or that locals were bringing back foreign materials from their journeys. We have identified pottery from the Gulf Coast and northern Mississippi/Alabama, while a small fragment of copper may derive from the Great Lakes region. These materials were recovered from an area near Mound B that is indicative of group/communal activities. Such activities appear to have been focused around the construction of the earthworks and the rituals associated with this. Source
Leake Mounds (9BR2) is an important archaeological site in Bartow County, Georgia built and used by peoples of the Swift Creek Culture. The site is 2 miles (3.2 km) west of the well-known Etowah Mounds on the Etowah River. It predates that site by hundreds of years.
Excavation of nearly 50,000 square feet (4,600 m2) on the site showed that Leake Mounds was one of the most important Middle Woodland period site in this area from around 300 BCE to 650 CE. It was a center with ties throughout the Southeast and Midwest. It was abandoned about 650 CE. It was not occupied again for nearly nine hundred years, until about 1500, by different peoples near the end of the Mississippian culture period.
The site includes at least three major platform mounds and a large semi-circular moat/ditch. While much of the mounds were razed to be used as road fill for the expansion of the Georgia State Route 113 and Georgia State Route 61 in the 1940s, significant portions of the site remain. Several sites on nearby Ladds Mountain were integrally associated with Leake, including Shaw Mound, a stone burial mound; Indian Fort, a stone wall enclosure; and Ladds Cave, a large cave.
Examples of a type of pottery decoration consisting of a diamond-shaped checks found at Leake Mounds are also known from Hopewell sites in Ohio (such as Seip, Rockhold, Harness, and Turner), the Mann Site in southern Indiana. This style has also been found on pottery at other sites in the South, such as the Miner’s Creek site, 9HY98, and Mandeville Site in Georgia, and the Yearwood site in southern Tennessee.
Etowah Indian Mounds in Georgia Mississippian or Fort Ancient Culture1000-1550 with Pottery 200 BC to 600 AD
The Etowah Indian Mounds are located just 78 miles south of Crawfish Springs, GA where we believe may be the Waters of Mormon as describes in the Book of Mormon.
When visiting the Etowah Mounds, guests can view the “borrow pits” (which archaeologists at one time thought were moats), where workers dug earth to construct the three large mounds in the center of the park.
Mound B, seen from Mound A
Etowah Indian Mounds (9BR1) are a 54-acre (220,000 m2) archaeological site in Bartow County, Georgia, south of Cartersville. Built and occupied in three phases, from 1000–1550 AD, the prehistoric site is located on the north shore of the Etowah River… Older pottery found on the site suggest that there was an earlier village (ca. 200 BC–600 AD) associated with the Swift Creek culture. This earlier Middle Woodland period occupation at Etowah may have been related to the major Swift Creek center of Leake Mounds, approximately two miles downstream (west) of Etowah…
Etowah has three main platform mounds and three lesser mounds. The Temple Mound, Mound A, is 63 feet (19 m) high, taller than a six-story building, and covers 3 acres (12,000 m2) at its base. In 2005-2008 ground mapping with magnetometers revealed new information and data, showing that the site was much more complex than had previously been believed. The study team has identified a total of 140 buildings on the site.” Source
Nephites built mainly of wood, and earth as you can see quotes below. At times they waited for trees to grow up and they used cement. Cement is not stone. There is no indication of building with large cut stone as shown in Central America. Hewn or cut stone would be against the Law of Moses. Only one place mentions stone in the Book of Mormon and it says, “Yea, he had been strengthening the armies of the Nephites, and erecting small forts, or places of resort; throwing up banks of earth round about to enclose his armies, and also building walls of stone to encircle them about, round about their cities and the borders of their lands; yea, all round about the land. ” Alma 48:8 Notice it says “walls of stone” not “stone walls” as compared in the cartoon here by Val Chadwick Bagley:
Heleman 3:11 “And thus they did enable the people in the land northward that they might build many cities, both of wood and of cement.”
Jarom 1:8 “And we multiplied exceedingly, and spread upon the face of the land, and became exceedingly rich in gold, and in silver, and in precious things, and in fine workmanship of wood, in buildings, and in machinery, and also in iron and copper, and brass and steel, making all manner of tools of every kind to till the ground, and weapons of war—yea, the sharp pointed arrow, and the quiver, and the dart, and the javelin, and all preparations for war.”
Mosiah 11:8 “And it came to pass that king Noah built many elegant and spacious buildings; and he ornamented them with fine work of wood, and of all manner of precious things, of gold, and of silver, and of iron, and of brass, and of ziff, and of copper;
9 And he also built him a spacious palace, and a throne in the midst thereof, all of which was of fine wood and was ornamented with gold and silver and with precious things.
10 And he also caused that his workmen should work all manner of fine work within the walls of the temple, of fine wood, and of copper, and of brass.”
The most common question that is asked about mounds is, “How many exist?” In the 1800’s the Smithsonian sponsored many expeditions to identify mound sites across America. A map (shown below) was produced by Cyrus Thomas in 1894 [Map Below] in a Bureau of Ethnology book. They found approximately 100,000 mound sites, many with complexes containing 2 to 100 mounds. The figure of 100,000 mounds once existing— based on Cyrus Thomas map revealing 100,000 sites—is often cited by others, but that estimate is far, far too low. After visiting several thousand mounds and reviewing the literature, I am fairly certain that over 1,000,000 mounds once existed and that perhaps 100,000 still exist. Oddly, some new mound sites are discovered each year by archaeological surveys in remote areas. But in truth, a large majority of America’s mounds have been completely destroyed by farming, construction, looting, and deliberate total excavations” – Gregory L. Little, Ed.D., The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Native American Mounds & Earthworks, Eagle Wing Books, Inc., Memphis, TN [2009].
Secrets About ‘Tennessee’s Ancient Egyptian Temple’ Revealed
Dr. Greg Little – AncientPages.com – The background of Tennessee’s ancient “Egyptian Temple” is not a great secret. But it appears to remain enigmatic to many who are interested in alternative archaeology as well as proof to others that ancient America was visited in ancient times by people from the Middle East.
I do believe that ancient America was populated by an astonishing blend of people migrating from many parts of the world over many thousands of years. And it’s possible that some ancient Egyptians made it to America.
I’m sure archaeologists will scoff at that idea, but all I’m saying is that it is possible. But the assertion that this particular site was “Egyptian” is a stretch—a long, long stretch based on just about nothing whatsoever.
The Egyptian Temple assertion was made solely on the speculations of a respected British manuscript curator after he saw a photo of the excavated mound in the “New York Times” in 1934.
The British curator, J. Rendel Harris, was a respected biblical scholar and was 82 years old when he saw the newspaper photo. He was very impressed by the photo he saw in the newspaper article describing a site that had been excavated in Tennessee.
In 1935 he published a brief article about it entitled, “A Temple in Tennessee,” as part of essays he routinely issued.
Much earlier in his life Harris had become convinced that Egyptians visited America well before Columbus. He thought that they initially visited the Bahamas and eventually moved into the Gulf of Mexico and up the Mississippi.
He also speculated that Egyptian traders took copper from the Americas back to the Mediterranean and that they established a large colony in East Tennessee.
The excavation of a building structure under a mound in Tennessee—and the photo from the excavation—was enough to convince him he was correct.
When the photo was published, Harris saw what looked like standing stones forming the perimeter of a square building.
It had been excavated from under what is assumed to be a Hopewell-era mound, but it’s more likely it was Mississippian. There were two large “standing stones” next to each other Harris interpreted as pylons, which was a common feature in Egyptian temples.
That, in essence, is the story of how Tennessee’s Egyptian temple came to be. Over time it has been embellished, altered, and made increasingly mysterious.
It is cited as evidence of a cover-up of ancient Egyptians in America by Tennessee Valley Authority “Irrigationists”!!??
Indeed, the mound sites involved have been covered by water but I’m utterly clueless why anyone would have applied the term “irrigationists.”
In September 2007 an article in “Ancient American” retraced the basics of the story and brought it back to life. However, various internet sources assert that the excavation of the mound was halted when the Egyptian temple was found and that Harris, described as an archaeologist specializing in Egyptian sites, was called in to finish the work.
It is also widely asserted that here were two huge standing stones forming an entranceway into this “temple” and that the walls of the building were stone.
None of this is true, but the story is intriguing. Other internet sources claim that many of the excavated sites near the temple had large standing stones, many in straight rows, associated with them. That is true, depending on what “large” means.
The TVA Mound Excavations—1933-1934
In December 1933 the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) convened a conference in Knoxville, TN with several university representatives and other governmental agencies for the purpose of planning a survey of Native American sites that were to be inundated after the Norris Dam was completed.
The dam on the Clinch River was to be the first hydroelectric dam for the TVA. By August 1933 the survey project was planned and the survey and large excavations were conducted by the Civil Works Administration and later through Federal Emergency Relief Administration funds. The project was done by late 1934. The TVA’s supervising archaeologist was William S. Webb. Webb was then the Chairman of the University of Kentucky’s Department of Anthropology and Archaeology and also the Chairman of the university’s Physics Department. All of the actual excavation work was carried out primarily by students who were guided by a host of supervisors.
The project identified 23 sites in the area that soon became the bottom of a series of lakes created by the dam. There were 29 mounds at the sites: 20 earth mounds, 9 stone mounds, and several village areas. Twelve of the mounds were found to be burial mounds and 17 had prehistoric structures associated with them. A total of 54 wooden structures were identified. The subsequent report on the project related that all of important sites were excavated and all of the artifacts and other archaeologically important materials were preserved. The full report was published by the Smithsonian as “Ethnology Bulletin 118” and was written by Webb. The report contains dozens of intriguing photos of the mounds, excavations, artifacts, and skeletal remains.
One mound, the “Irvin Mound,” had a row of 10 standing stones, most of which were about 2-4 feet in height. Adjacent to the line of standing stones was the remains of a rectangular building formed by cedar posts. Inside this rectangular building was another line of small standing stones.
Oddly, a copper coin, button, and bead were found at a depth of 18 inches inside another structure under a smaller adjacent mound.
The coin was identified as a 1787 coin minted by New Jersey. Still another line of 10 standing stones was found at an adjacent structure uncovered at the same site.
The photograph that so intrigued the British curator was of the Cox Mound located about 9 miles west of Clinton, TN.
It is Plate 108 in the Smithsonian Bulletin. When the Cox Mound was excavated, a series of structures was found to have been built progressively, one of top of another, forming an 8-foot high mound. A total of 49 burials were uncovered during the excavation of the mound.
The photograph (Plate 108 shown at the top of this article) shows the floor of the mound. The nearly square building (that had originally been constructed before the mound was formed over it) was 37.5 feet by 36.5 feet.
The outer walls were formed by upright red cedar posts about 14 inches in diameter embedded from 4 to 30 inches into the soil. This structure had a roof covered with sod. At some point the sod roof collapsed and another structure was built on top of it.
The second structure eventually collapsed and a third structure was erected on the top of the earlier two buildings. However, some of the cedar posts from the original building remained in place and they appear to have been incorporated into the later structures.
When the excavation was done in 1934, the excavators carefully dug around the remaining cedar posts leaving numerous irregularly shaped vertical “cylinders” which appear, at first glance, to be standing stones. Two of these posts were 72 and 82 inches tall, the tallest at the site. The remains of the cedar posts were treated with a liquid that hardened the rotted wood, and the dirt surrounding the cedar posts was later removed.
Inside the building the excavators found 72 limestone and sandstone blocks scattered around. Another pile of 200 “irregular rocks” was found in a different area of the building. These can be seen on the photo at the top of this page and were the only rocks found in this excavated structure.
The Opening of the Mouth ceremony being performed on a mummy before the tomb. Credit: Public Domain
While standing stones were found at other mounds, strangely, none of the features shown in the photo that so impressed Harris were actually standing stones.
All of the vertical features shown in this mound were the remains of excavated cedar posts. A careful review of the pottery and other artifacts found during the excavation are typical Native American objects characteristic of Mississippian villages active in that region in the 1200’s to historic times.
All of the sites that were excavated by the TVA project have now been underwater nearly 80 years.
Out of my own curiosity, all of the measurements of skeletal remains found during the TVA were examined in the Bulletin report.
Several hundred skeletal remains were found during the TVA’s excavations and measurements were made on every bone and skull found.
About 100 skeletons were sufficiently intact to make good measurements. The most consistent measurement of bones was the femur and as a guideline I used the usual estimation formula (2.32 x femur in cm + 65.53 cm). Using this formula, the tallest skeleton found would have been just under 5 feet 10 inches in height. The average size of male skeletons was about 5’ 6”.
In 1950 Webb was involved in the excavation of the Dover Mound in Kentucky. A total of 55 burials were found in the mound, but in a log-lined tomb at the base of the mound, a skeleton 7-feet tall was found. I have no reason to suspect that Webb underreported the size of the skeletons.
In fact, it seems apparent that if he had found unusually tall skeletons, he would have reported them and I also believe that if he had found Egyptian artifacts, he would have reported those as well.”
Written by Dr. Greg Little – AncientPages.com Contributor
About the author – Dr. Greg Little – is author or co-author of nearly 50 books and over a thousand articles. He is part Seneca and is author of The Archetype Experience, People of the Web, and Grand Illusions as well as several other books on ancient history. He has also published numerous articles on America’s mound builder culture and specific mound sites. He has been featured in documentaries on The History Channel, Discovery, The Learning Channel, National Geographic Channel, MSNBC, and SciFi. For more information visit AP Magazine
How Manifest Destiny Destroyed Book of Mormon Evidence
January 12, 2015 by JA Benson
Newspaper photo graph of the Hopewell Temple site on the Clinch River East Tennessee
In 1934, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), was constructing a dam which would flood a portion of the Clinch River in East Tennessee. Because the area to be flooded included a Hopewell Native American mound, a group of archeologists were called in to excavate the site. The archeologists came upon an amazing discovery when they uncovered the ruins of a large stone and wood structure. So unlike any other find found at a Hopewell site, British Egyptologist, James Rendel Harris from the London Museum, was consulted. At the site, Harris identified the structure as an “Egyptian Temple”. A single newspaper article documents this account.
I know! Amazing! An Egyptian temple in East Tennessee of all places, AND why is this fact not widely known??!! I’ll tell you why, Dear Reader, our ignorance of the Egyptian temple ruins in East Tennessee is the consequence of Manifest Destiny.
EPHRAIM GEORGE SQUIER
When European colonists settled North America they found immense earth mounds and earthwork enclosures, larger than Giza in Egypt. Manifest Destiny and all that, it seemed prudent to plow it all under. The vanquished Native inhabitants were deemed ignorant savages. In regards to the Native Americans, consequentialism was the morality of the day, in other words “the ends justify the means”.
JOHN WESLEY POWELL
LEWIS HENRY MORGAN
“The geography of the Book of Mormon has been a complex issue with multiple factors involved. For example, when the book was first published, it was commonly thought that Native American Indians had never achieved the level of “civilization” as defined in the book Ancient Society by Lewis Henry Morgan which had become the handbook of instruction for the US government in dealing with the Indians. Morgan proposed that all human societies evolve through three stages of development, from being ignorant savages (a term he then used to label the Native Americans) to barbarism and finally on towards civilization. John Wesley Powell, Ephraim George Squier and Morgan were three highly influential men in science, politics and Native American affairs, governing such organizations as the AAAS (American Association for Advancement of Science), the Bureau of Ethnology, the Smithsonian Institution, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and were very active politically. Both Powell and Squier’s fathers happened to be Methodist ministers in Palmyra New York in the 1820’s when the Book of Mormon was first published and these men began what non-Mormon scholars have called the “wanton destruction” of the ancient history of the Mound Builder civilization.” -Rod L. Meldrum
Over parts of the eastern half of the United States, farmers put their plows to what they wanted to believe was virgin turf. They uncovered arrowheads by the bucketfuls, clay pots, long metal “knives” and occasional stone boxes with the bones of the dead. Thousands of mounds and earthwork stockades were leveled with shovels. Native American pottery, and other artifacts, and even the bones themselves sometimes made it into private collections. For the most part the metal was melted down and recycled. For a time, bones were ground up into fertilizer, and the unwanted artifacts were thrown into trash piles. European civilization was the victor, and it was in the best interest to promote a Anglo-Saxon version of history. As the immense earthworks were leveled, the North American Native population was completely conquered by wiping away the history and accomplishments of the ancient inhabitants.
Least we frown and waggle our forefingers at our European ancestors with our modern 21st century morality; this conquering business was nothing new to humanity. One group of humans subduing another group of humans seems to me pretty typical human behavior. Conquerors all over the world, throughout recorded history, and across all civilizations, have made it part of their conquering to erase the traces of the previous dynasties.
Battle of Franklin
A perfect example of what occurred in the eastern US, both north and south and including the mid-west, happened where I live. Just south of the town of Franklin Tennessee, on the southern edge of the Eastern flank of the Battle of Franklin where the Army of the Ohio soundly beat the Army of Tennessee on that fateful afternoon of November 30, 1864, is a completely demolished Hopewell Mound Site of the Mississippian period (900-1450AD) identified as the DeGraffenreid Site.
Our house sits on the edge of a ridge just a few yards from a large bend in the Harpeth River, right outside of the approximately 20 acre DeGraffenreid Site in a quiet middle-class subdivision of modest red brick homes. Most people would never guess the rich and varied history of land which has been inhabited by humankind for at least a thousand years. I, in fact did not know about the DeGraffenreid site literally right under us, until very recently, and we have lived here for 22 years.
Harpeth River
To give you a little history lesson, Dear Reader, the first known inhabitants of our little piece of heaven were the Hopewell Natives of the Mississippian period. Later American settlers, most notably a family of moonshiners who spanned several generations, before, during and after the Civil War, who proudly claimed to be the “biggest moonshining outfit in the county” lived on our property situated between a narrow neck of land between the 20 acre DeGraffenreid site and 5 Mile Creek which empties into the Harpeth River. The moonshiners were shut down in the 1930’s by a no-nonsense county sheriff who filled the family car with bullet holes and threatened to do the same to the family if they didn’t cease and desist with the illegal distillery. During the Civil War, several skirmishes happened nearby and a Confederate Calvary regiment commanded by Major General Nathan Bedford Forrest camped on our property after the Battle of Franklin.
The DeGraffenreid mounds, one large and eight significantly smaller, were enclosed by an immense stockade. Farmers in the 1800’s greatly damaged the site by leveling the mounds and the stockade. Amateur archeologists shortly after the Civil War carted off some of the artifacts. At the turn of the last century, an early Monsanto company mined the area for phosphate, so by 1919 all traces of the mounds were gone.
Red dot is where the Benson homestead is probably located
After extensive damage was done, during the late 1960’s, we can thank University of Tennessee-Knoxville archeologist H.C. (Buddy) Brehm who visited the site and conducted a meager salvage of the remaining items and more importantly provided documentation of the DeGraffenreid site. Without Mr Brehm we would know, even less, of the DeGraffenreid site. Unfortunately where these relics are today, cannot be determined. An interesting bit of information from burial mound H1:
“four copper crosses (copper plates embossed with a copper cross design)”. From Potash From Pyramids: Reconstructing Degraffenreid (40WM4)–A MIssissippian Mound Complex in Williamson County Tennessee
I did a little digging to find out more about Buddy Brehm and I came across this forehead slapping tidbit:
SIAS members Bob Ferguson (center) and Buddy Brehm (right) discussing the sabertooth cat find with an unidentified worker, summer 1971. Photo courtesy of Les Leverett.
“During this time there was not a State Archaeologist or antiquities laws in Tennessee, nor were there any universities interested in the archaeology of the region. State laws did not yet protect prehistoric human remains, and when an ancient graveyard was encountered during development, the graves were open to whoever wanted to dig them. My memories from that time include seeing Boy Scout troops digging graves to earn their “Indian Lore” badges, and housewives digging with their kitchen utensils. SIAS members were also present on these sites, though with the intention of recording as much information as possible before graves were bulldozed away. ” John T Dowd
If this all weren’t so tragic, it would be really hilarious in a Keystone Cops kinda way. Think about it, Dear Reader, if this chunk of tantalizing history could exist unknown to me, a person who loves history, right under my nose for two decades….
This brings us to Wayne May and Rod Meldrum. Neither of these gentlemen hold degrees in history or archeology, but instead are Book Of Mormon enthusiasts who are able to think outside the box and have spent many years studying and visiting the Hopewell Civilizations, documenting their discoveries. They maintain that the destruction of other Hopewell sites, similar to the DeGraffinreid site, was repeated over much of the eastern half of the United States, including the mid-west. May and Meldrum believe the North American Hopewell civilizations were the People of Lehi and the Jaredites, and the events described in the Book of Mormon played out not in Mesoamerica, but right here in the United States. May and Meldrum have amassed an amazing amount of data to support their claims.
You can look at the vast evidence they have collected in two presentations available on Youtube. These presentations by Wayne May are long, but well worth your time. We popped a whole lotta popcorn and watched the videos for a couple of Family Home evenings (parent, young adult, high school and elementary age family members). I am happy to report a good time was had by all. Sourcehttps://www.millennialstar.org/tag/degraffenreid-stie/
Prehistoric American Indians in Tennessee
The following essay was sponsored in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities in 2009 and the Tennessee State Museum. For more on Tennessee history visit: http://www.tn4me.orgDownload PDF by Jefferson Chapman, McClung Museum, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville
The state of Tennessee is long and narrow, stretching 432 miles from the high mountains of the Appalachians and the Great Smoky Mountains on the east to the Mississippi River on the west. Moving from east to west, the state is divided into six major physiographic provinces (Figure 1): the Unaka Mountains (Appalachians), the Great Valley, the Cumberland Plateau, the Highland Rim which surrounds the fifth, the Central Basin, and the Gulf Coastal Plain of West Tennessee (Folmsbee, Corlew, and Mitchell 1969). The Tennessee and Cumberland rivers and their tributaries flow through the state and a number of rivers in West Tennessee are tributaries of the Mississippi River. These physiographic provinces and river valleys provide a diversity in natural resources and environments that have affected human settlement and adaptation for millennia. While there are many differences in the prehistoric Indian cultures found in East, Middle, and West Tennessee, there are general characteristics that they shared over time.
Figure 1. Physiographic provinces of Tennessee (Luther 1977).
Our knowledge of the prehistoric Indians of Tennessee is a result of over 150 years of archaeological investigations. Archaeology is the scientific discipline responsible for the recovery and interpretation of the remains of past cultures. Modern archaeology has three basic objectives: first, employing excavations and analysis based on scientific principles, archaeologists seek to develop temporal sequences of past cultures; second, archaeologists seek to reconstruct the lifeways of past human societies; and third, archaeologists address the evolution and operation of cultural systems—topics such as the origins of agriculture and changes in political organization. Places where cultural remains are found are called sites, and these may be as simple as a location where several arrowheads are found and as complex as a ten acre village and mound complex.
Scanty written information about the Indians of Tennessee and the Southeast come from chronicles of the sixteenth-century Spanish (Hudson 1990), seventeenth-century French (Williams 1928), and eighteenth-century British expeditions (King 2007). As Euro-American settlers moved westward across Tennessee in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the many mounds and earthworks they encountered became a focus of speculative interpretation, often based on scripture or comparison to cultures in other parts of the world. The most pervasive was the theory of the Mound Builders which held that the ancient mounds were the remains of an extinct culture, likely the Canaanites and Lost Tribes of Israel (Silverberg 1968).
By the 1870s, antiquarian collecting and speculation were replaced with more systematic excavations in Middle (Jones 1876, Putnam 1878, Thruston 1890) and East (Thomas 1894) Tennessee and these clearly demonstrated that the prehistoric mounds and villages were constructed by the American Indians and that the occupants may have been ancestors of historic tribes of the Southeast. By the 1920s, excavations made it clear that many sites were occupied over time by successive Indian groups (Harrington 1922).
With the creation of the Tennessee Valley Authority in 1933, there began a massive archaeological recovery program using federal relief workers (CWA, WPA) in valleys to be inundated. Between 1934-1942, surveys and excavations were conducted in the Pickwick, Guntersville, Chickamauga, Kentucky, Watts Bar, Douglas, and Fort Loudoun reservoirs. In addition, limited excavations were conducted at the Obion, Link, Pack, and Mound Bottom sites in Middle and West Tennessee. This period saw the establishment of professional archaeology in the state and increased enormously our understanding of the prehistoric Indian occupations locally.
In the 1940s a technique to date organic material (charcoal, wood, bone, shell) from archaeological sites was developed. Called radiocarbon dating (Libby 1955), archaeologists were now able to determine how long ago sites had been occupied—and suddenly the Indian occupation of Tennessee became very long.
The 1960s and 1970s saw a series of state and federal laws enacted that are designed to protect, preserve, and manage archaeological sites (TCA 11-6-101 et seq., The Reservoir Salvage Act of 1960, National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, The Archaeological and Historic Preservation Act of 1974, and the Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979). Among other things, these laws required that for any project on state or federal land, or that is funded by or permitted by state or federal agencies, the project must identify and mitigate the impact on archaeological sites. Consequently, there has been an enormous amount of archaeological work done in Tennessee over the past 40 years ranging from major reservoir projects such as the Tellico, Normandy, and Columbia, to road, bridge, sewer line, and transmission line projects.
Archaeologists divide the time humans have been in eastern Tennessee into periods. These periods are both references to some span of time, and to some stage in a continuum of increasing social complexity.
The result of the past 150 years of archaeological work is that we now know a lot about the prehistoric Indian occupation of Tennessee. Archaeologists divide the time people have been in Tennessee into a series of major periods (Figure 2). These periods are both references to a span of time and to a stage in a continuum of increasing social complexity. Ancient native peoples formed numerous and varied social and political groupings that changed through time during each of the archaeological periods. Although ancestral to native peoples of today, the ethnic and tribal affiliations of these ancient societies are unknown. The prehistoric peoples of Tennessee may well be the ancestors of several southeastern tribes.
The First Tennesseans: The PaleoIndian Period
Figure 3. Clovis type spear points, lengths 5.4 and 4.7 inches. Ernest J. Sims Collection
One of the big issues in American archaeology is the peopling of the New World. The traditional explanation has been that during the last Ice Age, the sea levels were as much as 300 feet lower than today thus exposing a dry land bridge across the Bering Strait from Siberia to Alaska. Around 13,000 years ago, bands of hunters with their families crossed into North America and radiated across the continent, their presence recorded by Clovis points (Figure 3)—a distinctive lanceolate stone spear point with flutes or grooves on each face and named for the Clovis site in New Mexico where they were found in association with extinct mammoths.
In the last two decades evidence has mounted that suggest an earlier, pre-Clovis arrival of people into the New World (Malakoff 2008). Monte Verde, a site in Chile, is dated 14,500YBP (Dillehay 1989, 1997). Human feces from Paisley Caves, Oregon, have been dated 14,300YBP (Curry 2008); and genetic studies comparing modern Native American genes to native Siberians show that the populations diverged 15-20,000 years ago (Goebel et al. 2008). These and other data indicate a date of 15,000+ YBP for the beginning of the PaleoIndian period.
Figure 4. Mastodon molar and bones at the Coats-Hines site.
Evidence for PaleoIndians in Tennessee comes primarily from finds of fluted spear points and other distinctive cutting and scraping stone tools. Over 1,000 fluted points have been found across the state and over 100 sites identified. Concentrations of these artifacts may indicate the location of base camps where a number of activities would have occurred. A particularly good example is the Carson-Conn-Short site in Benton County (Broster and Norton 1993), which contains over forty hearths. The greatest concentration of evidence for PaleoIndian occupation is the western valley of the Tennessee River and the Central Basin particularly along the Cumberland River. This may be due to the high-quality chert resources in the western valley and the availability of mineral-rich soils, springs, and licks in the Central Basin where animals such as the mastodon, an extinct Ice Age elephant, likely congregated (Breitburg and Broster 1994).
Two sites show the direct association of humans with mastodons, At the Coats-Hines site in Williams County, thirty-four stone artifacts were found with the remains of a juvenile male mastodon (Figure 4); stone tool cut marks were present on a vertebra (Breitburg et al. 1996). At the Trull site in Perry County (Norton, Broster, and Breitburg 1998), a modified section of a mastodon tusk was found.
PaleoIndians have been often referred to as big game hunters, focusing on the now-extinct large animals of the last Ice Age (Figure 5). A more accurate description would be to call them generalized foragers who supplemented their diet of plant foods and small game with an occasional opportunistic killing of a mastodon. To understand the cultural organization of the PaleoIndians, archaeologists look at studies of living groups of foragers and construct theoretical models. Thus we believe that PaleoIndians were organized into bands in which several related families occupied and exploited a certain territory. A typical band may have numbered twenty to twenty-five persons and been comprised of a mother and father, their unmarried children, their married sons with their families, a few uncles and aunts, and a grandparent or two (this assumes that the society was organized along male lines; later societies were organized along female lines).
This social group had little political organization except for a nominal leader chosen perhaps for his hunting prowess. The band moved occasionally to take advantage of the seasonal availability of certain plants and animals, but probably also had a base camp where a greater portion of their time was spent. Bands would join with other bands from time to time to hunt game, to exchange items, or for marriage between groups. Religious beliefs probably focused heavily on a respect for and an explanation of various natural forces. Of particular importance would be ceremonies designed to assure success in the hunt and continued abundance of game. In times of sickness or stress, the band looked to a shaman who was thought to have received power from supernatural forces.
Clothing can be assumed to have been sufficient for the environment in which the group lived. Similarly housing would range from simple lean-tos to more elaborate enclosures as the weather and mobility warranted. One must realize that these bands did not wander aimlessly. Their culture was an adaptation to whatever situation they encountered, and although band level society seems “primitive” when compared to later more complex groups, it provided all the physical and spiritual needs of the group.
References
Breitburg, Emmanuel and John B. Broster 1994 Paleoindian Site, Lithic, and Mastodon Remains in Tennessee. Current Research in the Pleistocene 11:9-11.
Broster, John B. and Mark R. Norton 1993 The Carson-Conn-Short Site (40BN190): An Extensive Clovis Habitation in Benton County, Tennessee. Current Research in the Pleistocene 10:3-5.
Curry, Andrew 2008 Ancient Excrement. Archaeology 61(4):42-45.
Folmsbee, Stanley J, Robert Corlew and Enoch L. Mitchell 1969 Tennessee: A Short History. The University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville.
Goebel, Ted, Michael C. Waters, and Dennis H. O’Rourke 2008 The Late Pleistocene Dispersal of Modern Humans in the Americas. Science 319(5869):1497-1502.
Harrington, M.R. 1922 Cherokee and Earlier Remains on Upper Tennessee River. Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, Indian Notes and Monographs, Miscellaneous Series No.24.
Hudson, Charles 1990 The Juan Pardo Expeditions: Exploration of the Carolinas and Tennessee, 1566-1568. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington.
Jones, Joseph 1876 Explorations of the Aboriginal Remains of Tennessee. Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge No. 259. Washington, DC
King, Duane H. (editor) 2007 The Memoirs of Lt. Henry Timberlake: The Story of a Soldier, Adventurer and Emissary to the Cherokees, 1756-1765. Museum of the Cherokee Indian Press, Cherokee, NC.
Libby, Willard 1955 Radiocarbon Dating. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Luther, Edward T. 1977 Our Restless Earth: The Geologic Regions of Tennessee. The University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville.
Malakoff, David 2008 Rethinking the Clovis. American Archaeology 12(4): 26-31.
Morgan, William N. 1999 Precolumbian Architecture in Eastern North America. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.
Norton, Mark R., John B. Broster, Emmanuel Breitburg 1998 The Trull Site (40PY276). Current Research in the Pleistocene 15:50-51.
Putnam, Fredrick W. 1878 Archaeological Explorations in Tennessee. Eleventh Annual Report of the Trustees of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology 2 (2):305-360).
Silverberg, Robert 1968 Mound Builders of Ancient America: The Archaeology of a Myth. New York Graphics Society, Ltd.
Simek, Jan F. and Alan Cressler 2008 On the Backs of Serpents: Prehistoric Cave Art in the Southeastern Woodlands. In David Dye, Cave Archaeology of the Eastern Woodlands: Essays in Honor of Patty Jo Watson, pp. 169-191. The University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville.
Thomas, Cyrus 1894 Report on the Mound Explorations of the Bureau of Ethnology. Twelfth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethology, Washington.
Thruston, Gates P. 1897 Antiquities of Tennessee and the Adjacent States. Second Edition. The Robert Clarke Company, Cincinnati.
Williams, Samuel Cole (editor) 1928 Early Travels in the Tennessee Country, 1540-1800. The Watauga Press, Johnson City, Tennessee.
Yarnell, Richard A. 1993 The Importance of Native Crops during the Late Archaic and Woodland Periods. In Foraging and Farming in the Eastern Woodlands, edited by C. Margaret Scarry, pp. 13-26. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.
To me personally this title, “Warrior Up”, means: become stronger in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Be like the Savior is. Be the best I can be as I am created in His image. Become selfless in combatting evil, be strong, and make a difference.
This is the personal opinion of Rian Nelson. I love the Lord Jesus Christ and I commit all judgement unto Him. John 5:22
Like many of you, I was horrified about this last killing of children and teachers in the United States again. Shock and sadness fill my soul each time a senseless tragedy happens. I absolutely know the only person to blame is Satan and the 18 year-old who pulled a trigger. People usually ask, “Why did he do this”? I believe that is the wrong question. We should ask, “What can I personally do to help” or, “How can I turn this tragedy into a better situation for the people affected, so that I may be a better person?” Prayer for the victims family IS IMPORTANT. Many say it isn’t, so what do they do? Get mad and try and find someone to blame. That’s wrong but sometimes it makes some people feel better.
God allows tragedy and evil in the world of free agency. We cannot rid the world of evil, but we can take a personal stand against it, and avoid evil as strongly as we can. When trials and evil happens, we can either become angry, or turn to God for strength to endure and grow in spirit.
We also must understand the Lord’s plan of forgiveness as he said, “And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.” Mark 11:25-26 It’s very hard to forgive, but that is the best answer. Holding onto hate, never helps anyone.
Why should we judge others and why should we only worry about why it happened? Give it to the Lord as he will welcome home each and every victim of this tragedy and all similar events to His Bosom. As the scriptures say, “…Let us appoint judges, to judge this people according to our law; and we will newly arrange the affairs of this people, for we will appoint wise men to be judges, that will judge this people according to the commandments of God. Now it is better that a man should be judged of God than of man, for the judgments of God are always just, but the judgments of man are not always just.” Mosiah 29:11-12
I realize that today, man’s judgement may not be absolutely just, but unless we vote for better people we will get the same evil judges and politicians. So, don’t ask why did this happen, but ask how can I help? What can I do to be a better citizen? How can I help the families of those who suffered? Will I work harder in my own community of making our schools safer? Will I volunteer on a school board and become active in the fight against evil?
You are free to sit around and talk about things that won’t help the situation, such as: blame the gun or the knife, or blame the mental capacity of the boy, or blame the parents for not raising this boy correctly, or lament that we need more control over people and guns. It may however be better if you simply say, What can I personally do to make this situation better? Or, How can I turn this tragedy into something positive? God will judge and you and I should stop worrying on who or what to blame and spend more time on love, forgiveness and repentance. Look inward, not outward! Christ is our ultimate judge and He is perfect in his judgement.
I am blessed to know an amazing warrior and friend, Jason Mow. He has inspired people in his service to State and Country and now he inspires us as men and women by sharing his “Warrior Ethos” message. I am honored that he would share the following article that I may place on this blog for each of your to read. It is powerful and should be summitted to the Ensign. If you love God and hate evil, this article will get you to stand up and cheer, as Jason puts into perspective the importance of the Book of Mormon and our Savior Jesus Christ.
Warrior Up! by Jason Mow
“I am heart sick my friends, heart sick with the news and images of more dead children, the victims of an unthinkable and unspeakable act.
I am grieved to see that, once again, before the crime scene tape has been taken down the taking heads and political gamers are shouting and profiting off the blood of our murdered young ones.
I am heart sick to once again be reminded that pure evil exists and that it has again been given cover by political correctness.
I am heart sick with my own memories bubbling up of all the dead and injured kids from crime, war, and disasters I have dealt with over my last 30 years of uniformed armed service.
I am heart sick with the thoughts of feeling powerless.
I am heart sick, I am tired, I am angry, I am insulted, I am confused, I am overwhelmed with emotions, I am ready to lash out in anger……I am right where evil wants me to be.
This latest school shooting brought me right to the edge of my peaceful convents and I almost forgot who I am and Whom I serve. I was ready to act emotionally and not logically. I was ready to forget the grand design and eternal plan for all of us and follow my carnal heart. But the better angles of my nature walked me back a step and I remembered who I am. I am here, now, intentionally, during this most troublesome time for a purpose. That purpose is to serve the Living God!
So, as I explore my perspective, the next natural question is, how? How do I as a “Christian” serve God and exist…survive…thrive…and bring others to Christ, in this fallen world. How do I function after hearing of yet another tragedy involving children? How do I function knowing evil is walking openly on the earth and that it has infiltrated every part of our daily lives?
I am reminded of two stores in the Book of Mormon, a second witness and ancient spiritual record (like the Bible) of Christians who lived on the American content before during and after the time of Christ.
The first storyis of the great Prophet Alma and his missionary companion Amulek. They were preaching in a wicked city and the local leaders were incensed by the words Alma and Amulek were saying. They were being called out as hypocrites and exposed as evil by the Prophet and in response the leaders put them in prison. Then, the wives and children of all the men who followed the Prophet, were taken to a great fire pit and thrown in as Alma and Amulek were forced to watch.
Are we not now like Alma and Amulek and being forced to watch as our families are being destroyed by pure evil? Are not our children being “tossed” today into metaphorical burning pits by dark hearted men and women who are bent on destroying our families, our freedoms and the church of God? Is this story not relative for our time?
How did Alma the Great and his most worthy companion respond to evil?
Book of Alma Chapter 14 (Book of Mormon)
10 And when Amulek saw the pains of the women and children who were consuming in the fire, he also was pained; and he said unto Alma: How can we witness this awful scene? Therefore let us stretch forth our hands, and exercise the power of God which is in us, and save them from the flames.
11 But Alma said unto him: The Spirit constraineth me that I must not stretch forth mine hand; for behold the Lord receiveth them up unto himself, in glory; and he doth suffer that they may do this thing, or that the people may do this thing unto them, according to the hardness of their hearts, that the judgments which he shall exercise upon them in his wrath may be just; and the blood of the innocent shall stand as a witness against them, yea, and cry mightily against them at the last day.
The second story that comes to mind is of an event involving the Stripling Warriors. The Stripling Warriors were the young sons of a band of Christians who, in response to their paths of forgiveness, vowed to never again take up the sword and spill blood. When war came to their country the young sons, who did not take the oath, vowed to stand in place for their fathers and fight the invading Lamanites.
They were led to war by the Lord’s Prophet of that time whose name was Helaman. These young “Stripling” Warriors knew nothing of war. They were not men at arms, or trained and experienced soldiers. They were simple farmers hands, sheep herders and apprentices.
But when faced with the evil of their time they stood and faced the hordes of invading Lamanites who were bent on murder, plunder and taking slaves.
Book of Alma Chapter 56 ( Book of Mormon)
45 And now I say unto you, my beloved brother Moroni, that never had I seen so greatcourage, nay, not amongst all the Nephites.
46 For as I had ever called them my sons (for they were all of them very young) even so they said unto me: Father, behold our God is with us, and he will not suffer that we should fall; then let us go forth; we would not slay our brethren if they would let us alone; therefore let us go, lest they should overpower the army of Antipus.
47 Now they never had fought, yet they did not fear death; and they did think more upon the liberty of their fathers than they did upon their lives; yea, they had been taught by their mothers, that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them………..
56 But behold, to my great joy, there had not one soul of them fallen to the earth; yea, and they had fought as if with the strength of God; yea, never were men known to have fought with such miraculous strength; and with such mighty power did they fall upon the Lamanites, that they did frighten them; and for this cause did the Lamanites deliver themselves up as prisoners of war.
Two stories from the same sacred book of scripture. Two stores of powerful servants of God who are facing men and women with the evilest of intents. But each of those stories are polar opposites in response to evil. One stood with the power to make it end and save the people, but allowed that horror to happen all the while trusting God’s eternal plan and his enteral judgments. The second story is of young men, risking their very lives by physically standing against evil in armed conflict, also trusting God’s eternal plan and his enteral judgments.
So why the two stories? Why show us two different responses to evil with two different outcomes? Which one is right? Which one do we follow when dealing with today’s manifestation of evil?
I would submit to you my brothers and sisters that they are both right. That if you listen to the stories again and look at them with another perspective, a Warrior’s perspective, you will see the underlined answers. They both followed the Prophet of God, they were guided by the Spirit and regardless of the pain, they never doubted.
So, how are we going to exist… survive…thrive…and bring others to Christ, in this fallen world? Answer….by having a personal relationship with Christ, by having the Holy Ghost as our personal companion and by following the Prophet!
Art by Ken Corbett
Our own Prophet, Russel M. Nelson said during his first general conference as President of the Church.
“In coming days, it will not be possible to survive spiritually without the guiding, directing, comforting
and constant influence of the Holy Ghost,”
This is sage counsel and a prophetic warning for the world.
There is one more story from the Book of Mormon that helps me understand the Warrior perspective and what I can do as a Christian man to be a more useful servant of God.
Book of Alma Chapter 48 (Book of Mormon)
14 Now the Nephites were taught to defend themselves against their enemies, even to the shedding of blood if it were necessary; yea, and they were also taught give an offense, yea, and never to raise the sword except it were against an enemy, except it were to preserve their lives.
15 And this was their faith, that by so doing God would prosper them in the land, or in other words, if they were faithful in keeping the commandments of God that he would prosper them in the land; yea, warn them to flee, or to prepare for war, according to their danger;
16 And also, that God would make it known unto them whither they should go to defend themselves against their enemies, and by so doing, the Lord would deliver them; and this was the faith of Moroni, and his heart did glory in it; not in the shedding of blood but in doing good, in preserving his people, yea, in keeping the commandments of God, yea, and resisting iniquity.
17 Yea, verily, verily I say unto you, if all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men.
We should want to shake the very powers of Hell. We should want to deny the Devil power of the hearts of men….so, instead of getting angry and doing exactly what evil wants me to do.
Here is what I am going to do now.
I will follow the Prophet. If he says hold, I will hold. If he says fight, I will fight. If he says flee, I will flee.
l prepare myself and my family to respond to evil on all four fronts, physical, mental, emotional, spiritual.
I will keep and maintain myself in a manner of worthiness necessary to have the Holy Ghost as a constant companion.
Through continued education, preparation and experiences, I will made myself a blessing not a burden to others.
I will keep an eternal perspective.
I will be of service.
I will have unwavering faith in our Fathers Plan.
I know I will be held accountable before God on what I do now. Stand with me
And be not moved. We are the hope of Israel. Not one more step back!
Jason Mow- Author and Public speaker, Bachelor’s Degree in Education, twice been awarded the Law Enforcement Medal of Honor
Jason is a third generation Arizonan and was born and raised in Mesa. Jason attended Mesa high School where he lettered in three different varsity sports, football, wrestling and track, sang in the acapella choir, was also a member of the high school LDS seminary counsel, an Eagle Scout, and was very active in the community.
After graduating from high school, Jason refused a college scholarship to serve a two year volunteer mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints in the Spokane Washington Mission. After honorably serving as a missionary, Jason returned home and joined the U.S. Army. He served in the army for 8 years as a Paratrooper and Military Police Officer. There he rose through the military ranks as a firearms, hand to hand combat, and (CQB) or close quarters battle instructor.
Jason served on a joint federal counter narcotics taskforce, worked as a personal body guard for foreign heads of state and high ranking military members, and as a combat team leader deployed to hostile areas in support of America’s interest overseas. The culmination of his military career came when he was chosen to be, one of the Team Sergeants for the Army SRT (Special Reaction Team). An elite unit tasked with conducting hostage rescue missions and counter terrorism operations. In 1998 Jason left the Army and moved back to Arizona where he worked as a Police Officer for the City of Chandler Arizona and the Phoenix Police Department where he was medically retired in 2017 after being critically wounded in the line of duty.
During his career as a Police Officer, Jason has worked as a patrol officer, gang detective, narcotics detective, Field Training Officer, and academy instructor certified to teach in firearms, defensive tactics, tactical driving and tactical rifle operations. Jason also spent several years on SWAT where he was the point man and lead instructor. In 2006, Jason was recruited by the U.S. State Dept. to go to Afghanistan and work as a civilian contractor for the International Narcotics and Law enforcement Program. Jason spent 13 months in Afghanistan working with the military as a contactor teaching Afghan soldiers how to be Police Officers, destroying poppy fields, fighting human smuggling, and acting as a body guard for diplomats and government officials. Jason also lived with and worked with the nomadic mountain tribes mentoring tribal village elders and helping them to establish a constitutional form of government.
Purchase Books Below
While in Afghanistan, Jason was inspired to write a series of books based on the life of Capt. Moroni and the War Chapters in the Book of Mormon. His hope is to inspire others and encourage people to read the war chapters in the Book of Mormon again. He wants others to understand the life of those great heroes found in the war chapters and how we can apply their example in our own lives. Jason is the owner of Ethos Productions, a company that produces faith promoting experiences through multimedia. He also works with Hollywood to train and advise actors on how to look, sound, and act like police officers and soldiers. Jason is a professional actor and spokesperson. He has appeared in film projects, on television, social media and the on the radio.
He is also a motivational speaker, mentor, life coach and involved in politics. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Education from Northern Arizona University, and has twice been awarded the Law Enforcement Medal of Honor for gallant bravery in the line of duty. He was recognized as the Community Services Officer of the Year for his department. Jason volunteers his time and skills doing humanitarian work by conducting personal recovery operations, disaster relief, providing medical aid, and security, all in response to natural disasters around the world. He has deployed to assist during such events like Hurricane Katrina and the deadly earthquake in Haiti.
Through faith and determination Jason has overcome learning disabilities, a troubled childhood full of abuse and addictions, a debilitating disease, being critically wounded in the line of duty and tremendous personal tragedies to stand as an example of the power of righteousness and that with God’s help you can overcome any obstacle and do anything you set your mind to.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is God’s true Kingdom of God on the earth. The doctrines are directed by God and shared with us through His Divine Prophets and Apostles. As an active member of this Church for my entire life, I have come to absolutely love all the Doctrines. Even when it is hard to fully comprehend all things, my faith drives me toward personal revelation that strengthens me and confirms the doctrine of the Church to my heart and spirit.
Faith Contains Two Manifestations
There are still many questions I have about doctrine and commandments, but I usually receive an answer in due time. As Elder Neal A. Maxwell said, “Faith in God includes faith in His timing.” We walk in this life by faith and as Elder Holland has 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…” August 2017 Jeffrey R. Holland.
This quote says to me that all doctrine and truth can be found through the heart and the head. This force of fact and the force of feeling as Elder Holland says, has given me the strength to find true answers to prayers in two important ways. I feel the Lord has given me doctrines through our Prophet, but I am still required to study and pray about these doctrines as well as pray about other facts that may not necessarily be Church Doctrine.
In todays world, May 2022, we have a very evil and desperate push by the Luciferian’s on this earth. They want to destroy us. It won’t happen as we hold fast to our Millennial Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes it takes and inordinate amount of faith and patience, but it will be worth it. I believe the Lord has saved our children for this day as they are just the ones we need to go up against this terrible evil. Of course we as parents and grandparents are expected to lead them and be part on this “Covenant Path”, as President Nelson has said. It is now most important to gather the house of Israel. Those spoken of in Revelation 2:9 are the true foe we are battling today. “I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.” Rev. 2:9
“Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews:
And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures,
Opening and alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ.
And some of them believed, and consorted with Paul and Silas; and of the devout Greeks a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few.
But the Jews which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people.”Acts 17:1-5
Through personal revelation, I have received some answers to prayer and study that may not necessarily be Church doctrine, but they are true facts to me personally. I feel the Synagogue of Satan are those in this world who are the biggest deceivers of all, which are the Deep State and Cabal or Gadianton’s of today.
Simon Peter Seership
And so Andrew brought Simon—Simon Peter!—unto Jesus. Jesus said: “Thou art Simon, the son of Jona, thou shah be called Cephas.” This new name—”which is, by interpretation, a seer, or a stone”—forecast what was to be in the life of Andrew’s brother, who was destined to be, under the Lord, the chief officer of the perfected church and kingdom, the foundations of which were then being laid. Peter, the Rock and the Seer, who would yet hold the keys of the kingdom of heaven; Peter, to whom the Lord would one day say that the gates of hell should never prevail against the rock of revelation and the seership of eternal vision—Peter has now come into the fold. The Mortal Messiah : from Bethlehem to Calvary by McConkie, Bruce R page 471
“Joseph Smith a Seer” NOTGazelem, a stone!
“And the Lord said: I will prepare unto my servant Gazelem, a stone, which shall shine forth in darkness unto light, that I may discover unto my people who serve me, that I may discover unto them the works of their brethren, yea, their secret works, their works of darkness, and their wickedness and abominations. And now, my son these interpreters were prepared that the word of God might be fulfilled, which he spake, saying: I will bring forth out of darkness unto light…” Alma 37:23-25
The above scripture as translated by Joseph Smith only seems confusing because someone other than Joseph added a comma between the word Gazelem[,] and a stone. As you will see below the word Gazelem in Alma 37 seems to be a title and refers to Joseph Smith as a Seer.
It should be quoted as saying, “Joseph Smith a Seer” NOTGazelem, a stone!
In the 1835 Edition of D&C See Here, you can see that Joseph Smith was named Gazelam, Newel K. Whitney was called Ahashdah and Sidney Rigdon was called Pelagoram.
Gazelem may also be the name or Title of a Seer or the name Gazelem may be a title meaning “A Stone” like in the name for Peter in the Bible. We read in the Bible, “That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Matthew 16:18 I believe like in Alma 37 a stone could mean, “Revelation”, or Seer, or Reveal, etc. Full Blog about Gazelem is Here
Howard W. Hunter Sunday, October 3 1965 “Thou Art the Christ”
Pentecost
“The Pharisees believed, of course, that the soul is imperishable and the soul of a good person passes into an- other body while the soul of the wicked suffers eternal punishment. “He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?” (Ibid., 16:15.) The Master may have been prompted to ask this question because of their surroundings. Caesarea Philippi is near the grotto and the temples of the Greek god Pan, a center of pagan worship, and he may have wanted his disciples to think about the contrast between pagan gods and the true God. “And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” (Ibid., 16:16.) In answer to this positive testimony of Peter, “. . . Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. “And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (Ibid., 16:17-18.)
“Upon this rock, I will build my Church”
“This is a very significant statement. The Lord in effect said to Peter that this knowledge that Jesus was the Christ did not come to him from mortal men or from the reasoning or learning of men, but by revelation from on high, that is, direct, divine revelation of the divinity of the Master. In answer to the statement ‘Thou art the Christ’ Matt. 16:16 Jesus replied, ‘. . . thou art Peter’ Matt. 16:18 in friendly acknowledgment of his disciple. The Lord then added, ‘. . . and upon this rock I will build my church’ Matt. 16:18Upon what rock? Peter? Upon a man? No, not upon a man, upon the rock of revelation, the thing which they were talking about. He had just said, ‘. . . flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven’ Matt. 16:17 This revelation that Jesus is the Christ is the foundation upon which he would build his Church.” CONFERENCE REPORT, OCTOBER 1965, HOWARD W. HUNTER
JST, John 1:42.
Cephas means “seer” or “stone.”
42 And he brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon, the son of Jona, thou shalt be called Cephas, which is, by interpretation, a seer, or a stone. And they were fishermen. And they straightway left all, and followed Jesus.” JST John 1:42
“And he brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, A stone.” KJV John 1:42
Lucifer has Nothing New
“Lucifer has no new ideas, but merely applies what he already knows to new situations— has been followed in apostate Christendom. When there were no longer apostles and inspired men to give the Lord’s message and word to living men, the world turned to interpreters—to scholars, to doctors of divinity, to theologians, to professors of religion—to set forth what they thought or imagined the divine word of former days meant. In the opening of our dispensation the Lord, after saying that the creeds of Christendom were “an abomination in his sight” (and these creeds were the interpretations and conclusions of the scribes, as it were), then said that “those professors” (meaning all who, like the scribes, had by their interpretations and teachings perverted the truth and made it of none effect) “were all corrupt.” Then he said, paraphrasing Isaiah, “they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power.” The mortal Messiah : from Bethlehem to Calvary by McConkie, Bruce R page 279
Although Lucifer desires seership and to be the only true God, he has NOTHING! Remember we are told that, we can have anything in this world for money. Big Lie! Also remember we will be devastated on earth by Popes and Priests and see wars and evil nations rise up against us. This is all what I now call the False Flags of Satan. In other words, Lucifer makes reality seem fantasy and evil seem good, in order to gain his power over us. It has worked for many years, and now I believe in what I call a “Second Harvest” of the Lord, about to take shape on this earth. May our current Government of the USA repent and come back to it’s true ideals. I believe as the Lord said, “Therefore, it is not right that any man should be in bondage one to another.” D&C 101:79. Are we going into deeper bondage in the world and especially our so-called FREE Nation of America? No! Enough is enough. Let’s repent and pray for our world to be more free.
Government Hanging?
Our entire Government of Republicans, Democrats and Independents have lied to us. There are but FEW good ones left. With illegal immigration at its highest ever, lock-down mandates, forced drugs into our body, travel ID’s, 2nd Amendment assault with false flags, freedom of speech removed, not knowing the difference between a man and a woman (so-called), critical race theory, taking parental rights away from our schools, department of dis-information, sending billions to Ukraine when our schools need to be better protected, funding bio-labs in foreign countries, murder and torture of millions of children and kids through abortion, sacrifices to Satan, and sex trafficking in underground bunkers all over the world, to global warming, to green energy, to fake weather events, to crony capitalism, and many others, need I go on?
Again the Lord said, “And for this purpose have I established the Constitution of this land, by the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose, and redeemed the land by the shedding of blood.” D&C 101:79-80 Where have our statemen and religious politician’s gone? We cry out to the Lord to buoy up the righteous and remove the wicked from our world.Joseph Smith said about our Constitution, “Hence we say, that the Constitution of the United States is a glorious standard; it is founded in the wisdom of God. It is a heavenly banner: it is to all those who are privileged with the sweets of its liberty, like the coaching shades and refreshing waters of a great rock in a thirsty and weary land. It is like a great tree under whose branches men from every clime can be shielded from the burning rays of [oppression’s] son.” Joseph Smith, History of the Church, Vol 3, p. 304
The Prophet Joseph Smith has also said about these last days, “Even this nation will be on the very verge of crumbling to pieces and tumbling to the ground, and when the Constitution is upon the brink of ruin, this people will be the staff upon which the nation shall lean, and they shall bear the Constitution away from the very verge of destruction.
Then shall the Lord say go tell all my servants who are the strength of mine house my young men and middle aged &c come to the Land of my vineyard and fight the battle of the Lord. Then the Kings & Queens shall come then the rulers of the Earth shall come then shall all saints come yea the Foreign saints shall come to fight for the Land of my vineyard for in this thing shall be their safety and they will have no power to choose but will come as a man fleeth from a sudden destruction
But before this the time shall be when these who are now my friends shall become my enemies and shall seek to take my life and there are those now before me who will more furiously pursue me and the more diligently seek my life and be more blood thirsty upon my track than ever were the Missouri Mobbers. You say among yourselves as did them of old time it is I & is it I? But I know these things by the visions of the Almighty.” 19 July 1840, as recorded by Martha Jane Knowlton Coray; ms. in Church Historian’s Office, Salt Lake City; Joseph Smith Papers, LDS Church Historical Archives, Box 1, March 10, 1844, Also: D. Michael Stewart, “I Have a Question,” Ensign, June 1976, 64-65
Second Harvest?
As I said in a previous blog, “I believe in a “Second Harvest” which is possibly yet to come. I believe the leaders of nations may turn towards God and repent for a period of time before the great Coming of the Lord. It could be very soon. I look at the many people of the world who have never heard of the Book of Mormon, and it is a tremendous number. What about those in Israel, Saudi Arabia, China, Iran, Pakistan, Iraq, Antarctica, Greenland, and many Isles of the sea yet to be found? God loves them all, and I believe they will have the opportunity during this possible “Second Harvest”, that could be soon. It may be just what the world needs before the great ushering in of the Lord’s Millennial reign. Our Government is hanging by a thread today (May 30, 2022). Christ will win and Satan will fail at one of his last efforts to enslave us and our dear children. The Deep State, or Cabal of this world will come crashing down and the way will be opened to bring the Book of Mormon to the attention of millions who don’t have it or who have never heard of it. Keep your eyes open for the Lord’s chosen leaders, President Russell M. Nelson and many others chosen to assist. The “Second Harvest” may come in my opinion, and hopefully it will come before that great Second Coming we all look forward to. Are we as Joseph Smith asked, this people who,“will be the staff upon which the nation shall lean, and they shall bear the Constitution away from the very verge of destruction?
Sorcerers, Astrologers, and Magicians
The Cabal or Deep State of today is nothing more that Luciferians who desire to destroy all the non-believers in Satan. Did you know there is a huge set of stones in Ohio called the Georgia Guide Stones? They call for a world population to be reduced from 8 Billion to 500 Million. In other words someone (Cabal, Illuminatti, Deep State?) wants 13 of every 14 people on earth dead. “The Georgia Guide Stones are a granite monument erected in 1980 in Elbert County, Georgia, in the United States. A set of 10 guidelines is inscribed on the structure in eight modern languages and a shorter message is inscribed at the top of the structure in four ancient language scripts.” Wikipedia
Illegitimate Sons of Aaron [Cabal]
Speaking of Illegitimate Sons of Aaron, Elder McConkie said, “It is also worthy of note that they wielded considerable influence; were overly endowed with this world’s goods; received their offices, in some instances, by crime and bribery; and were subject to the mandates and murderous designs of the Great Sanhedrin. They were “high priests by investiture” and not ”high priests by anointing,” as had been their fore- bears; and though they could still simulate and wear the breastplate, the Urim and Thummim that Aaron and his original successors once carried upon their breasts had long since been taken from their ungodly hands, and with the loss of these holy interpreters had gone also, in large measure, the spirit of prophecy and revelation… [We know Joseph Smith had Holy Interpreters but not the same ones as in the Old Testament],
Elder McConkie continues, “They were rigid Predestinarians, believing that all things, in the course of nature and in the life of man, are fixed by fate. When there was no moral freedom, it was idle either to preach or teach, and so they did neither.” They did, however, profess to have the gift of prophecy, and were called in, from time to time, by the Herods and others to interpret dreams and give meaning to various superstitions. “The Essenes came in contact with the people,” Geikie says, “as healers, prophets, dream-interpreters, and exorcists, not as teachers or preachers.” (Geikie, pp. 252-57.) They were, it would seem, not far removed from the sorcerers, astrologers, and magicians of the ancient courts of Babylon and Egypt.” The Mortal Messiah : from Bethlehem to Calvary by McConkie, Bruce R Page -246, 289
Un Holy Priests and interpreters
“People without revelation take the only course open to them: they turn to interpreters, to scribes, to ministers, to theologians, who tell them what the ancient word meant, making their determination on the basis of intellectuality rather than spirituality… After the Jews came back to Jerusalem and their ancient land holdings in Palestine, through the good offices of Cyrus the Persian; after they no longer walked in that heavenly light which rests only upon those who listen to a prophet’s voice and hear the word of God; and feeling the need to apply their ancient law to new conditions—they developed gradually, over the centuries, a whole new (and apostate!) system of religious government. Scribes, who once had been keepers of the records and copiers of the scrolls, became interpreters of the law and teachers of the people. And as uninspired men almost never agree on the meaning of scriptures.” The Mortal Messiah : from Bethlehem to Calvary by McConkie, Bruce R Page Page -304
“We have All that is Needed to Gain the Fulness of Salvation”
We now read from theThe Millennial Messiah, “We have the fulness of the everlasting gospel, meaning that we have all that is needed to gain the fulness of salvation.We have every truth, doctrine, and principle, every rite, power, and ordinance — all that is needed — to gain exaltation in the highest heaven of the celestial world.But we do not know all things; there are doctrines in endless array of which we know next to nothing; indeed, there are more things in the darkness of the unknown than there are in the light of the known. We do not even know what the faithful knew in Enoch’s Zion, nor among the Nephites when they dwelt in righteousness for generations. We do not know what is on the sealed portion of the plates from which the Book of Mormon came. Ours is a day for drinking milk; the day when we, as a people at least, can partake of the meat of the word is in the future. That future is millennial. [I believe the possible “Second Harvest” may be before the Millennial]. In that day, “all things shall become new,” saith the Lord, “that my knowledge and glory may dwell upon all the earth. . . . Yea, verily I say unto you, in that day when the Lord shall come, he shall reveal all things— Things which have passed, and hidden things which no man knew, things of the earth, by which it was made, and the purpose and the end thereof — Things most precious, things that are above, and things that are beneath, things that are in the earth, and upon the earth, and in heaven.” (D&C 101:25, 32-34.) As we ponder these heaven-sent words, we are led to exclaim: Thanks be to him who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, who knows all things and who seeks to pour out his revelations, and all the knowledge of eternity, upon all who will receive them. Ere long the dark veil of ignorance and unbelief that covers the earth and blinds the minds of men shall be pierced. Light and truth will fall from heaven as does rain from the clouds above. [Parenthesis Added]
No more Great Cathedrals of Christendom [Great and Spacious Buildings]
From the Millennial Messiah we read, “The knowledge of God, the knowledge of those Gods whom it is life eternal to know, shall be in every heart. No longer will theologians suppose that God is a spirit essence that fills immensity while he dwells in the human heart. No longer will philosophers pontificate about some great first cause that inexplicably brought order into a chaotic universe. No longer will Babylonish churches place crucifixes in the hands, or the images of Diana of the Ephesians, as it were, and no longer will they worship the works of their own hands in the great cathedrals of Christendom. The knowledge of God, the truth about God, the fact that he is a Holy Man, will come by revelation into every human heart. The knowledge of God will cover the earth. All things are to be revealed in the millennial day. The sealed part of the Book of Mormon will come forth; the brass plates will be translated; the writings of Adam and Enoch and Noah and Abraham and prophets without number will be revealed. We shall learn a thousand times more about the earthly ministry of the Lord Jesus than we now know. We shall learn great mysteries of the kingdom that were not even known to those of old who walked and talked with the Eternal One. We shall learn the details of the creation and the origin of man and what fools mortals are to follow the fads of the evolving evolutionary nonsense that litters the textbooks of academia. Nothing in or on or over the earth will be withheld from human men, for eventually man, if he is to be as his Maker, must know all things.
Our Hope for the Deep State Failure
Hear in this connection these words of Nephi: In that day, “the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Wherefore, the things of all nations shall be made known; yea, all things shall be made known unto the children of men. There is nothing which is secret save it shall be revealed; there is no work of darkness save it shall be made manifest in the light; and there is nothing which is sealed upon the earth save it shall be loosed. Wherefore, all things which have been revealed unto the children of men shall at that day be revealed.” (2 Ne. 30:15-18.) Surely man could not ask for more than this in the way of light and truth and knowledge, and yet expect to remain in the flesh as a mortal and be in process of working out his salvation. Surely this is the day in which the Lord shall fulfill the promise of holy writ that says: “God shall give unto you knowledge by his Holy Spirit, yea, by the unspeakable gift of the Holy Ghost, [knowledge] that has not been revealed since the world was until now; which our forefathers have awaited with anxious expectation to be revealed in the last times, which their minds were pointed to by the angels, as held in reserve for the fulness of their glory; a time to come in the which nothing shall be withheld, whether there be one God or many gods, they shall be manifest.” (D&C 121:26-28.) That this outpouring of divine goodness has already commenced is not open to question. That it will continue, in far greater measure, after our Lord comes again, who can doubt?” (The Millennial Messiah, pp.675-677)
My Conclusion
I have not read a more clear expose’ from anyone as Elder McConkie has described above about our challenge TODAY. We the True Believers in Christ in all the world will be given the help we need to overcome these evil challenges in 2022, and allow old Lucifer to be defeated. This day and age is what the Prophets and Saints have looked forward to all their lives, and you and I are blessed to be part of it. Wow! I feel we will see a great “Second Harvest”, and life on earth will be full of sharing the Book of Mormon to the rest of those good people of this earth in India, China, Iran, Iraq, Israel, and others who will allow us to open up the preaching of the gospel. I feel a deep sense that this may happenand I ask you to pray about it as well. Whether or not you agree with me, we must stay faithful, repent daily, and share with others to not fear in 2022, but rejoice that the Lord is with us. Open our eyes and see the good. The evil Cabal will be defeated now is my hope in great preparation for the Lord’s second coming. I report, but you have to make up your own mind. Please follow the Lord’s anointed President Russell M. Nelson, as I know he is a living prophet and he leads Christ’s true church on this earth today.
Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles 1985
“The woman’s choice for her own body does not validate choice for the body of another.” Elder Nelson 1985
“…As sons and daughters of God, we cherish life as a gift from him.
A heavy toll on life is included among the evils of war. Data from all nations are appalling. For the United States of America, one hundred thousand were killed in World War I; over four hundred thousand died in World War II. In the first two hundred years as a nation, the lives of over one million Americans were lost due to war.
Regrettable as is the loss of loved ones from war, these figures are dwarfed by the toll of a new war that annually claims more casualties than the total number of fatalities from all the wars of this nation.
It is a war on the defenseless—and the voiceless. It is a war on the unborn.
This war, labeled “abortion,” is of epidemic proportion and is waged globally. Over fifty-five million abortions were reported worldwide in the year 1974 alone. Sixty-four percent of the world’s population now live in countries that legally sanction this practice. In the United States of America, over 1.5 million abortions are performed annually. About 25–30 percent of all pregnancies now end in abortion. In some metropolitan areas, there are more abortions performed than live births. Comparable data also come from other nations.”
Total Abortions is a tragedy Worldwide.
Reference Date: 2020 The top ten countries by annual abortions:
Worldwide Abortions since 1980- 1.656 Billion and counting. usabortionclock.org
Elder Nelson continues, “Yet society professes reverence for human life. We weep for those who die, pray and work for those whose lives are in jeopardy. For years I have labored with other doctors here and abroad, struggling to prolong life. It is impossible to describe the grief a physician feels when the life of a patient is lost. Can anyone imagine how we feel when life is destroyed at its roots, as though it were a thing of naught?
What sense of inconsistency can allow people to grieve for their dead, yet be calloused to this baleful war being waged on life at the time of its silent development? What logic would encourage efforts to preserve the life of a critically ill twelve-week-old infant, but countenance the termination of another life twelve weeks after inception? More attention is seemingly focused on the fate of a life at some penitentiary’s death row than on the millions totally deprived of life’s opportunity through such odious carnage before birth.
Art by Ken Corbett
The Lord has repeatedly declared this divine imperative: “Thou shalt not kill.” Recently he added, “Nor do anything like unto it.” (D&C 59:6.) Even before the fulness of the gospel was restored, the enlightened understood the sanctity of life. John Calvin, the sixteenth-century reformer, wrote: “If it seems more horrible to kill a man in his own house than in a field, because a man’s house is his place of most secure refuge, it ought surely to be deemed more atrocious to destroy a fetus in the womb before it has come to light.”
But what impropriety could now legalize that which has been forbidden by the laws of God from the dawn of time? What twisted reasoning has transformed mythical concepts into contorted slogans assenting to a practice which is consummately wrong?
These slogans begin with proper concern for the health of the mother. Infrequently, instances may occur in which the continuation of pregnancy could be life-threatening to the mother. When deemed by competent medical authorities that the life of one must be terminated in order to save the life of the other, many agree that it is better to spare the mother. But these circumstances are rare, particularly where modern medical care is available.
Another sympathetic concern applies to pregnancies resulting from rape or incest. The tragedy of this despoilment is compounded because, in such relationships, freedom of choice is denied the woman who is innocently involved.
But less than 3 percent of all abortions are performed for these two reasons. The other 97 percent are performed for what may be termed “reasons of convenience.”
Some argue for abortion because a malformed child may result. The harmful effects of certain infectious or toxic agents in the first trimester of pregnancy are real.
The experience of a couple whom I shall identify as Brother and Sister Brown (fictitious names) is instructive. Sister Brown was only twenty-one years old at the time, a beautiful woman and a devoted wife. In her first trimester, she contracted the dreaded German measles.
Abortion was advised because the developing baby would almost surely be damaged. Some members of her family, out of loving concern, applied additional pressure for an abortion. “Don’t burden yourself financially with a handicapped child,” they argued. “You are too young and too poor.”
Devotedly Brother and Sister Brown consulted their bishop. He referred them to their stake president, who listened to their serious concern and counseled them not to terminate the life of this baby, even though the child might have a problem. He quoted this scripture:
“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” (Prov. 3:5–6.)
They chose to follow that counsel and permit their child to be born—a beautiful little girl, normal in every respect, except for a hearing loss, that became evident later. After an evaluation at a school for the deaf, Brother and Sister Brown were advised that this child had the intellect of a genius. Now, some twenty years later, she attends a major university on a scholarship.
When recently asked how they felt about their once-weighty decision, the mother quickly responded, “She is one of the great joys of my life! She is such a choice spirit! Though she lost the sense of hearing, she has compensated with augmented ability otherwise. Her eyes are alive with constant attention. She excels in dancing, even though she perceives the sounds of music from vibrations. She has served as an officer in school. But most significant is her guileless spirit, her unconditional love. She has taught us to serve and to share. Her spiritual insights have helped us to know God and his purposes. My husband and I are so grateful that she is one of our children.”
Consider another individual weighing the consequences of her pregnancy. She was beyond the normal age for bearing children. She announced to her doctor that her husband was an alcoholic with a syphilitic infection. One of her children had been born dead. Another child was blind. Another had tuberculosis. Her family had a history of deafness. Finally she confessed that she was living in abject poverty. If this true historical situation were posed today, many would recommend abortion. The child born from that pregnancy became the renowned composer Ludwig van Beethoven.
But the principle involved extends beyond those who may become great. If one is to be deprived of life because of potential for developing physical problems, consistency would dictate that those who already have such deficiencies should likewise be terminated. Continuing, then, those who are either infirm, incompetent, or inconvenient should be eliminated by those in power. Such irreverence for life is unthinkable!
Another contention raised is that a woman is free to choose what she does with her own body. To a certain extent this is true for all of us. We are free to think. We are free to plan. And then we are free to do. But once an action has been taken, we are never free from its consequences. Those considering abortion have already exercised certain choices.
To clarify this concept, we can learn from the astronaut. Any time during the selection process, planning, and preparation, he is free to withdraw. But once the powerful rocket fuel is ignited, he is no longer free to choose. Now he is bound by the consequences of his choice. Even if difficulties develop and he might wish otherwise, the choice made was sealed by action.
So it is with those who would tamper with the God-given power of procreation. They are free to think and plan otherwise, but their choice is sealed by action.
The woman’s choice for her own body does not validate choice for the body of another. The expression “terminate the pregnancy” applies literally only to the woman. The consequence of terminating the fetus therein involves the body and very life of another. These two individuals have separate brains, separate hearts, and separate circulatory systems. To pretend that there is no child and no life there is to deny reality.
It is not a question of when “meaningful life” begins or when the spirit “quickens” the body. In the biological sciences, it is known that life begins when two germ cells unite to become one cell, bringing together twenty-three chromosomes from both the father and from the mother. These chromosomes contain thousands of genes. In a marvelous process involving a combination of genetic coding by which all the basic human characteristics of the unborn person are established, a new DNA complex is formed. A continuum of growth results in a new human being. The onset of life is not a debatable issue, but a fact of science.
Approximately twenty-two days after the two cells have united, a little heart begins to beat. At twenty-six days the circulation of blood begins.
Scripture declares that the “life of the flesh is in the blood.” (Lev. 17:11.) Abortion sheds that innocent blood.
Another excuse some use to justify abortion relates to population control. Many in developing nations unknowingly ascribe their lack of prosperity to overpopulation. While they grovel in ignorance of God and his commandments, they may worship objects of their own creation (or nothing at all), while unsuccessfully attempting to limit their population by the rampant practice of abortion. They live in squalor, oblivious to the divine teaching—stated in the scriptures not once, but thirty-four times—that people will prosper in the land only if they obey the commandments of God.
How can God fulfill his promise to prosper his children in obedience if they worship idols or destroy life created by him—destined to be in his very image?
They will prosper only when their education includes faith in and obedience to the God of this world, who said,
“I, the Lord, … built the earth, my very handiwork; and all things therein are mine. And it is my purpose to provide. … But it must needs be done in mine own way. … For the earth is full, and there is enough and to spare.” (D&C 104:14–17; italics added.)
Now, as a servant of the Lord, I dutifully warn those who advocate and practice abortion that they incur the wrath of Almighty God,who declared, “If men … hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, … he shall be surely punished.” (Ex. 21:22.)
Of those who shed innocent blood, a prophet declared: “The judgments which [God] shall exercise … in his wrath [shall] be just; and the blood of the innocent shall stand as a witness against them, yea, and cry mightily against them at the last day.” (Alma 14:11.)
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has consistently opposed the practice of abortion. One hundred years ago the First Presidency wrote: “And we again take this opportunity of warning the Latter-day Saints against those … practices of foeticide and infanticide.”
Early in his presidency, our beloved President Spencer W. Kimball said, “We decry abortions and ask our people to refrain from this serious transgression.”
Why destroy a life that could bring such joy to others?
Now, is there hope for those who have so sinned without full understanding, who now suffer heartbreak? Yes. So far as is known, the Lord does not regard this transgression as murder. And “as far as has been revealed, a person may repent and be forgiven for the sin of abortion.” Gratefully, we know the Lord will help all who are truly repentant.
Yes, life is precious! No one can cuddle a cherished newborn baby, look into those beautiful eyes, feel the little fingers, and caress that miraculous creation without deepening reverence for life and for our Creator.
Life comes from life. It is a gift from our Heavenly Father. It is eternal, as he is eternal. Innocent life is not sent by him to be destroyed! This doctrine is not of me, but is that of the living God and of his divine Son, which I testify in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
You can watch the entire address in the video below:
Here is a recent update from Mike and Betty LaFontaine and John Lefgren of the Heartland group’s recent email. Join them in Fort Madison near Montrose, Iowa on June 6th for a program and fund raiser. You can assist in rebuilding the Phoenicia Ship. Email: [email protected]
Lehi’s Voyage
The Phoenicia Ship purchase and voyages are several of the many discoveries of Heartland Research Group and supported by the FIRM Foundation. Native Americans Mike and Betty LaFontaine have been instrumental along with Dr. John Lefgren in obtaining the purchase of the replica 600 BC ship called Phoenicia, which has been sailed over 30,000 nautical miles by Captain Philip Beale, Retired British Navy. Captain Beale took a 2009 voyage from Jerusalem around the Horn of Africa and back to Israel. His goal was to prove the ancient mariner Herodotus could circumvent the African Continent in a trade route. On this voyage the Phoenicia came within 400 miles of Florida and could have easily landed there, where we believe Lehi of the Book of Mormon most likely landed. See
Read Rod Meldrum’s blog all about the importance of the Voyages in relationship to the Book of Mormon Evidence: https://wp.me/p8C4C3-2NJ
On a second voyage in 2020, Captain Beale again set sail in the Phoenicia and traveled from Tunisia to Florida, proving the possibility that Mulek could have traveled the same route to North America. Incidentally, Captain Beale is not a member of our Church and his goals of voyage are very different that we saints. Yet, Captain Beale has assisted us tremendously in his discovery voyages. He is intrigued by our goals and is trying to learn more from us all.
Captain Philip Beale with Mike and Betty after successfully reaching Florida from Tunisia in 2020.
Today Captain Philip Beale is Flying from London to Salt Lake.
Right now Captain Philip Beale is on a direct flight from London to Salt Lake. His American trip is significant for the next phase of the PHOENICIA. He will meet with community leaders and entertainers in Utah, including high-level meetings with people who manage the Sundance Film Festival in Park City.
After Salt Lake, Philip will fly to Los Angeles, where next to Disneyland, he will present in the Bower Theater to the members of the Explorer Club of Southern California. After his live show in California, Philip will travel to Fort Madison, Iowa, where he will meet with the mayor and other civic leaders to discuss the location and building of the PHOENICIA SHIP MUSEUM. At 6:00 p.m., Monday, June 6th, there will be at the Riverfront Pavilion on the Mississippi and Open House, where the public will be able to meet and talk with Philip.
For the last two decades, thousands of people in the Old World have given their enthusiastic support to Philip for the construction of PHOENICIA. This support came from historians, scientists, government ministries, universities, museums, research institutes, and artists. We calculate that the direct financial support for the PHOENICIA since 2000 has been more than $3,000,000.
We are excited that in the first week of June 2022, we will begin the important work of bringing the PHOENICIA back to life on the west bank of the Mississippi River. Anyone who wishes to critique what we are doing will first have to account for the enthusiastic support from the Old World.
We pledge our full support to the rebirth of the PHOENICIA to honor the ancient connection between the people of the Old World and the people of the New World.
Embassy of Lebanon, Washington, D.C.
There are so many people in Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa who know Philip Beale and his crossing of the Atlantic on the PHOENICIA. We are grateful for this international interest.
Yesterday we received an email from the Embassy of Lebanon commenting on an invitation to come to the Open House at Fort Madison.
Here is a quote from the text of the email from the Lebanese Ambassador.
Thank you for your email and for reaching out. Unfortunately, Mr. Wael Hachem will not be able to attend due to previous commitments. He is very sorry to have to miss this important event but he is looking forward to following updates on the future plans for the Phoenician Ship Museum in Fort Madison. Please do not hesitate to reach out, if the embassy can support you in any way in the future. Again, he deeply regrets missing this and wishes you a successful event. Please send us any photos or press following the event.
Armada of PHOENICIA Models as Gifts
Painting by Danielle Eubank of the Phoenicia
Painting by Danielle Eubank of the Phoenicia
Painting by Danielle Eubank of the Phoenicia
Painting by Danielle Eubank of the Phoenicia
In 587 B.C. the walls of Jerusalem came down, the Temple burned, and the Jews went into Babylonian captivity for seventy years.
“Our western tribes of Indians are descendants from that Joseph which was sold into Egypt, and that the land of America is a promised land unto them.” HC 1:301-315. I believe the “blossoming as a rose” has come in the past and continues today in the Spirit world. Read the scripture below very carefully.
“But before the great day of the Lord shall come, Jacob shall flourish in the wilderness, and the Lamanites shall blossom as the rose. Zion shall flourish upon the hills and rejoice upon the mountains, and shall be assembled together unto the place which I have appointed.” D&C 49:24-25
Editors Note: “Before the great day of the Lord”, is when? NOW. When will the Lamanites blossom as the rose? THEY ARE. Have they already blossomed? SOME. Do they continue to blossom? YES! Where are they blossoming? IN THE TEMPLES AND SPIRIT WORLD! Don’t underestimate the Lord and His PROMISE to these great people.
The articles you read below have stories of hundreds of Lamanites blossoming and making baptismal covenants. What have we done in our lives to assist, contribute or bless the lives of our wonderful Lamanite brothers and sisters? Are we still trying to help. Are we still looking? The Lord has not said to “stop helping Him find and convert the Children of Lehi. Remember the Book of Mormon was written for THEM, and we saints of today are to bring it to them.
I believe in a “Second Harvest” which is possibly yet to come. I believe the leaders of nations may turn towards God and repent for a period of time before the great Coming of the Lord. It could be very soon. I look at the many people of the world who have never heard of the Book of Mormon, and it is a tremendous number. What about those in Israel, Saudi Arabia, China, Iran, Pakistan, Iraq, Antarctica, Greenland, and many Isles of the sea yet to be found? God loves them and I believe they will have the opportunity during this possible “Second Harvest”, that could be soon. It may be just what the world needs before the great ushering in of the Lord’s Millennial reign. Our Government is hanging by a thread today (May 27, 2022). Christ will win and Satan will fail at one of his last efforts to enslave us and our dear children. “The Deep State”, or Cabal of this world will come crashing down and the way will be opened to bring the Book of Mormon to the attention of millions who don’t have it or who have never heard of it. Keep your eyes open for the Lord’s chosen leaders, President Russell M. Nelson and many others chosen to assist. The “Blossoming” will continue in my opinion, and hopefully it will come before that great Second Coming we all look forward to.
Continued Blossoming
Rod Meldrum shares his story about how he found the names of 85 Native American’s temple records from 1877. I also believe the 85 Indian Chiefs baptized Aug 29, 1877 at the St. George Temple, one week after the Founding Fathers, opened the door to this blossoming as a rose. Read the Annotated Book of Mormon by David Hocking and Rod Meldrum page 554 or, my detailed story at my blog here: https://www.bofm.blog/85-native-american-chiefs-baptized-at-the-st-george-temple/
“…When…first commanded to testify of these things they [The Three Witness] demurred and told the Lord the people would not believe them for the book concerning which they were to bear record told of a people who were educated and refined, dwelling in large cities; whereas all that was then known of the early inhabitants of this country was the filthy, lazy, degraded and ignorant savages that were roaming over the land. The Lord told us, in reply that he would make it known to the people that the early inhabitants of this land had been just such a people as they were described in the book, and he would lead them to discover the ruins of great cities, and they should have abundant evidence of the truth of that which is written in the book…” – David Whitmer, Interview with James H. Hart (Richmond, Mo., 21 August 1883), as printed in Deseret Evening News, Salt Lake City, Utah
Joseph Sees the Lamanites
“From his early tutoring by Moroni to his personal visits with numerous Native American chiefs, Joseph Smith sought to bring to this chosen people the glad tidings of the restoration.
But what did he see in the way of fulfillment for his efforts? In mortality he saw very little, but in vision he must have seen the Lamanites “blossom as a rose” (D&C 49:24).Byron R. Merrill, “Joseph Smith and the Lamanites,” in Joseph Smith: The Prophet, The Man, ed. Susan Easton Black and Charles D. Tate Jr. (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1993), 187–202
Dedication of Japan by Heber J. Grant
Elder Alma O. Taylor said, “The following is an outline of the prayer, as I remember it… (O) “Spoke of the righteousness of Lehi and of the great faith of Nephi in doing whatsoever the Lord commanded him. Also spoke of those, who, because of iniquity, had been cut off from among the Nephites and cursed with a dark skin, like unto the Lamanites, the blood of Lehi and Nephi had been transmitted unto the people of this land, many of whom have the features and manners of the American Indians. Asked the Lord that if this were true, that he would not forget the integrity of his servants Lehi and Nephi, and would verify the promises made unto them concerning their descendants in the last days, upon this people, for we felt that they were a worthy nation.” Dedication of Japan Temple by Heber J. Grant Journal of Elder Alma O. Taylor, Relief Society Magazine JANUARY, 1921, pg. 199-203
A Wonderful Manifestation – Hundreds of Indians Healed by the Power of God 1879
The Millennial Star Monday June 2, 1879 Volume 41 No.22 Shared with me by a wonderful Native American named Betty “Red Ant” LaFontaine.
Mike and Betty LaFontaine
Several accounts, slightly varying in their details, having become current with regard to the manifestation of God’s power in the healing of several hundred Zuni Indians, under the hands of Elder Llewellyn Harris, President Taylor directed Elder Orson Pratt, the Church Historian, to obtain, direct from Elder Harris, the facts in the case. The following is Brother Harris’ reply to Elder Pratt’s letter of inquiry:
Panguitch, Dec. 15th, 1879. Brother Orson. Pratt,
Dear brother,—Your favor of Nov. 27th, is received, wishing me to give a history of the healing of the Zuni Indians of small-pox, by the laying on of hands, which I will do, as near as I can remember the circumstances. I started from Panguitch on the 5th of November 1877; overtook brother Thayne and company (from Centreville) at Johnson, and traveled with them as far as Woodruff on the Little Colorado. I parted with the company there and traveled alone to the Zuni village; distance from Woodruff about 100 miles. Arrived at the Zuni village January 20th, 1878 and found some sick with the small-pox in nearly every house.
Llewellyn Harris
I put up with a Zuni Indian known as Captain Lochee, who had three children sick with the smallpox. After I had been asleep two or three hours, I was awakened by the cries of the family and some of the neighbors who had come in. I arose and inquired the cause of the crying, and was informed by Captain Lochee that his daughter, a child of about 12 years of age, was dying. I saw she was gasping for breath. I felt like administering to her then, but the Spirit of the Lord prompted me to wait a little longer. I waited until she had done gasping and she did not appear to breathe. The Spirit of the Lord moved upon me very strong to administer to her, which I did; she revived and slept well the remainder of the night. I also administered to the other two who were sick in the same house that night. All was quiet the remainder of the night, and all seemed much better in the morning.
The news of this spread through the town, and the next day I was called to visit about twenty-five families, all of whom had one or more sick with the small-pox. They also wished me to administer to the sick, which I did. I was called upon to visit from ten to twenty families a day for four days after my arrival and administering to their sick. The power of the Lord was made manifest to such a degree that nearly all I administered to recovered. The disease was spreading so rapidly that I was unable to visit all the houses. One morning about eight o’clock one of the Zuni women came for me to go and visit the sick; she took me to a house which had a large room in it, about twenty by forty feet. When I entered the room, I found they had gathered the sick from all parts of the village, till they had completely filled the house. The stench that arose and the horrible sight that met my eves is beyond description. They had a Spaniard there, who understood the Zuni language, for an interpreter, who told me they wanted me to administer to all those who were sick in the room. I being the only elder in the village it seemed to be a great task to administer to so many, but I called on the Lord to strengthen me. I commenced, and as fast as I administered to them they were removed, but other sick ones were continually being brought in. It was late in the afternoon before I could perceive that they began to diminish, in numbers. When I had administered to the last one and went out, the sun had set and it was getting dark. The Spaniard who had stayed there all day asked me if I knew how many I had prayed for. I told him that I did not keep count; he said he had and that it was 406. The next morning my arms were so sore that I could hardly move them.
There was a Presbyterian minister in the village, who became jealous of the influence I was gaining with the Indians. He persuaded two Spaniards, one Navajo Indian, one Albino ‘Zuni, and one of the Zuni medicine men, to circulate lies and frighten the ‘Zunis, telling them that those who were healed were healed by the power of the devil.
I felt weak from the effects of administering so much. And on the second day after administering to the 406. I started for the settlement in Savoia valley. The next day after arriving in Savoia I was taken down with a severe fever, which lasted about a week. I stopped with the family of brother John Hunt, who treated me very kindly. It was about three weeks before I was able to resume my I journey to the Mexican settlements on I the Rio Grande. I spent about four months preaching to the Mexican people in New Mexico. When I arrived at Savoia on my return, I was informed by the brethren that the minister who opposed me at Zuni had passed there and was nearly dead with the consumption. When I arrived at Zuni I was told by some of the most reliable Zunis that all that I had administered to recovered, excepting five or six that the minister gave medicine, and four or five that the medicine man had tried to cure by magic. The medicine man that opposed me had died during my absence, and the Navajo, who opposed me, on returning home, was killed by his people to keep the small-pox from spreading among them.
This is a true statement of the manner in which the power of God was made manifest among the Zunis, and also the judgments of God which followed some of those who opposed it. It seemed that I was, by the providence of God, cast among them; and I felt that I was one of the weakest of my brethren, and to ask the Lord to strengthen me if it was his will to make his power manifest through me. If the Lord had not strengthened me I could not have borne up under what I passed through at Zuni.
Zuni men and the ancient Pueblo Town of Zuni, ca.1868
If you wish a history of my mission to the Mexicans and will make it known, I will be pleased to furnish it to you. No more at present.
From your brother in the Gospel,
Llewellyn Harris.
The foregoing was published in the Deseret News some time since, but, owing probably to the remarkable character of the statements set forth in it, some people expressed doubts as to its veracity. In order to set the matter at rest, pains were taken to obtain information from various other sources. The result of these investigations, we are, by courtesy of Pres. John Taylor, enabled to place before our readers, in the annexed correspondence, which, besides being confirmatory of Brother Harris’s first account, gives further interesting details:
New Mexico, Feb. 20, 1879. Brother L. H. Hatch:
According to your request I hasten to give you an account of the power and blessings of our Heavenly Father through the ministration of Elder Llewellyn Harris, while laboring among the Zunis. And as the Church Historian has requested that it should be sent to him without exaggeration or depreciation, I will, as you earnestly requested me, use the same language used by them, under an inquiry. Upon my return and after you handed me the Apostle Brother Pratt’s letter, I called at the village where Bro. Harris had labored, and in the presence of at least forty Zunis I interrogated one of the principal men, who could talk Spanish, at least good enough to enable me to get a most thorough and positive understanding. Speaking to the crowd, I said: Do any of you remember a ‘Mormon,’ who came to this place and stayed a while, at the time you had the small-pox?
Orson Pratt
After a moment’s talk among themselves, the man of whom I have spoken stepped forward and answered:
“Oh yes, but why do you inquire about him”
“Because I wish to learn if he told the truth, when he said, the Lord heard him by curing them, when he laid his hands upon their heads.”
I very readily perceived from the above question that it aroused their suspicions, and in order to allay this spirit, so as to get at the naked truth, I continued:
“As this is the remedy to which we * Mormons’ appeal, for you all well know that I have always told you, that if we would serve the Great Spirit, he would hear us when we prayed to him.”
By this time those who had been baptized were drawing nearer, with an expression upon their countenances of brotherhood and confidence. However, the old man continued:’
“Yes, it is the truth. There is no doubt.”
This last sentence, when spoken in Spanish, affirms anything in the most positive manner possible, not even allowing any chance for a mistake.
“Do you know how many he cured? (You will remember that the crowd was consulted before answering at each successive question.)
“Oh, lots of them.”
“But about how many?” At the same time holding up my finger, as that is the manner of counting among natives, though these being a little more enlightened, it serves to form an extra impression, or by way of demanding the exact number.
She-we-na (Zuni Pueblo). Kachina doll (Paiyatemu), late 19th century. Brooklyn Museum
“Oh, lots of them! How could yoo tell how many, for there were lot of them cured, though some died after.”
“Which man in this crowd saw and heard this?
“Why, all but me, so they say. He cured them in a large house. He did lay his hands on lots in four houses.”
“Which man’s house, in this crowd, did he do this in?
“That man says he did in his house, and that children were brought into him, and those that were big enough and able to walk, came, and he cured all that he laid his hands on, though some died afterwards.”
This was said in presence of my wife Eliza, and not less than forty Zunis.
Besides, Brother Hatch, it gave me a splendid opportunity to talk to them upon the subject, which I improved, thus endeavoring to awaken in them a love for the truth, and they seemed to drink into the Spirit of it, though they said:
“Numberless stories, in short, everybody seems to be opposed to you; and though we feel good when you are with us, and we cannot help believing what you say. But then why all this opposition.”
However, feeling that a more thorough investigation would give better satisfaction, I drove off and left the crowd, and soon met Brother Ramon Lund, who affirmed, in the most positive manner, what had been stated, and adding, said, that it was true that some died after they had been cured ; but it was because they took the medicine of an American, who was acting as priest and doctor at that place, under the direction of the United States, and when he told me this, he went through the motion, with his hand, of putting something into his mouth. At this instant, I well remembered the crowd of which I have spoken, going through the same gestures to the old man, who was acting as interpreter, but he failed to tell that part, as he did not belong to the Church, though he had never to my knowledge taken any active part either for or against.
Laguna Pueblos
I feel impressed to call your attention to the subject of which we talked about; namely the call of the King of the Zunis, with others of his associates for some of our brethren to assist them this spring in putting in their crops. This is not only a request, but rather bordering on a demand, from the fact of us both having offered to do so. I do not know who to appeal to, and I am not acquainted with President John Taylor, but there should be something done, for they look to me, as you well know, as their father; and it is impossible for me to fill the place at the three Branches. You will please excuse my awkwardness and tedious way of explaining, for I have done the best I could.
Zuni Pottery
Praying God to bless you, and desiring to be remembered in your prayers, I remain, your co-laborer in the latter-day work,
Ammon M. Tenney. Forestdale, Yavapai Co., Arizona, March 3rd, 1879. Brother E. Snow.
Dear brother,—I arrived here on the first of this month in good health. I hope these few lines will find you and family enjoying the same blessing.
The brethren seem to feel satisfied and contented here, with the exception of a few, who do not like to have the Indians move in here. Some twelve families of the Apache Indians want to come into this place, and live with us, and learn to work, and live as we do, and send their children to school I will start out in a few days to preach to some of the Apache Indians, and I feel to pray to the Lord that I may have his Spirit to guide and direct me, that I may be able to do good. Some of the brethren blame me for inducing the Indians to come to this place; but I cannot help that, it is to gain their friendship I am here, and I intend to do so, if possible.
Zuni Indian Man and Northern-Cheyenne Woman
There are also some of the brethren who are trying to show that I have exaggerated on the number of the Zuni Indians administered to, and also the number healed. All I have to say about this is, that I have given a true account, as near as I could, by getting my information from other parties, and what I could see myself; but I will say one thing now, and that is this, that those Indians must have received benefit by the administration when I visited the different houses, or they would not gather all the sick that were in the village for me to administer to, and keep me busy all day. Let the number be more or less than 400, I will say one thing, and that is, that there were silent witnesses whom the Lord had sent to take note of what passed that day. The day will come when those witnesses will give their testimony, and testify that I worked all that day, and did all I could, and no man or men will be able to gainsay it, so I do not care what men may say at present; the Lord knows all things.
No more at present, from
Your brother in the Gospel, Llewellyn Harris.
Woodruff, March 8th, 1879. Elder Orson Pratt.
Dear brother,—I received, some time ago, a letter from the Historian’s Office, wishing me to ascertain a statement of the healing of the Zunis of the small-pox, and in order that I might get a correct understanding it has taken me some time to get the facts. I will give you what information I have on the subject, personally.
While on my way from Utah to my family that were located in New Mexico, while at sunset, Bishop John Hunt, whom I had placed in charge of the Zuni Mission during my absence, told me that the Zunis were dying off rapidly, and that Elder Llewellyn Harris was performing great cures by the laying on of hands and the power of faith. About the 15th of February, 1878, myself, Elders Ammon M. Tenney, Erastus B. Snow, and A. W. Ivins, passed through the main village, and learned through some of our Zuni brethren that there had been from 150 to 200 deaths, but at the time we passed, the disease was abating. About twenty miles distant, at my house in Savoindette, we found Elder Harris, who was quite sick from exposure and the effects of administering to so many sick people. We administered to him, and he was better. He revealed to us his experience in administering to the Zunis and the power of God in healing the sick. I will now give you a copy of a statement made by brother Harris on the 23rd of February, 1879, while at Bagley, on his way to the Apache Indians:
“On the 27th of January, 1878, I administered from 8 a.m. until sun down, and made short ceremonies. A Mexican was present, who was very friendly. He followed me to where the sick came. He told me that I had administered to 406. I kept no count of the number. I had administered to several at a private house, when a Zuni woman came and wished me to go and see some sick persons, and I went to a hall which I judged to be 20 x 40 feet in dimensions. I think that there were about 75 persons in the room. A loathsome sensation came over me, as I beheld their fearful condition. As I commenced administering this feeling left. After administering to them they were taken out, and others were brought in. These were mostly children. Some that were brought appeared to be well. I asked them why they wanted me to administer to them. The Mexican interpreter told me they wanted me to administer to them, so that if they were taken sick the attack might be light, and I blessed all that came. It seemed that there was a holy messenger standing by me. Fathers and mothers, as they brought their children, each seemed anxious to be first. The day passed rapidly, and after I got out into the open air, I felt sick, and the sun had gone down.
“A Presbyterian school-teacher in the employ of the United States Government, named Parmer, when he found what was done, ordered me away, when I went to Savoindette to your house, where you found me.
“Llewellyn Harris.”
This is, in substance, as related ta me one year ago. Brother Harris says, he cannot be positive as to dates, but believes he is about correct. There are some remarkable cases of healing among the Navajos, which I witnessed in connection with Elder L. C. Burnham and Bishop Hunt; about one year ago last June, an account of which I think I forwarded to the Deseret News at the time, also to President John W. Young. I do not remember the dates of those letters referred to. If you should require it, and the letters are not at hand, a statement can hereafter be given, as it might be of value to the Church history.
I shall always be happy to render you all the aid in my power to facilitate your arduous duties.
Your brother in the Gospel, L. H. Hatch.
P. S.—I herewith forward to you a statement of facts, as related by the Zunis themselves to Elder Aramom M. Tenney. L H. H.
“If there are any Nephites on this continent we have found them among the Zunis, Lagunas, and Isletas” Wilford Woodruff
To President John Taylor and Council:
Moqui Snake Dance
DEAR BRETHREN:—I arrived on Saturday night, the 13th inst., all well and in good spirits and found Brother Lake, of Brigham City, and Brother Bates, of Pleasant Valley, very sick. They had been to the Verde, baptizing some and administering to the sick. Brother Lake has been looked upon as dangerous, but was some better yesterday.
The Isletas of which I speak is a village twelve miles below Albuquerque, on the Rio Del Norte, containing 3,000 souls that stand at the head of this class of men that I call the Nephites. They occupy forty villages, containing a population of 32,000, speaking sixteen distinct languages, but nearly all good Spanish scholars. I look upon this as a great field of missionary labor for some forty good, faithful “Mormon” elders, who should be able to speak the Spanish; and I hope next conference will call some of them, at least, into the field. I visited this people, located in their homes in company with Brother Ammon M. Tenney, who had visited most of them before, and I think has done much good in opening doors among them. He had baptized 115 of the Zunis on a former mission.
Moqui Cave
My journey and visit with him was a visit of observation, and I was amply rewarded. In what way, I do not know, but in almost every village I visited, they were looking for me. I can only make a brief outline from my journal of our journey. On the 19th of August, we entered the Zuni village, containing about 3,000 souls. The village stood on a piece of elevated ground; many buildings were three stories high, and the upper stories were entered by ladders at the top.
There had been a heavy struggle in this village between the Catholics and Mormon Zunis. The priests had done all they could to lie about the Mormons and had drawn away {523}a few who had been baptized, but others remained firm. I went through the old Catholic cathedral in the village; it looked as though it were 500 years old. It had two bells hanging in the tower and over the pulpit was some of the finest carved work in wood I ever saw, representing Christ, the apostles, and angels. I went all through the village and, for the first time in my life, I had a view of the white Indians called Albinos. Their hair, face, and limbs were nearly as white as milk, much whiter than any Americans. I met with many who had been baptized and they were very glad to see me. They had 2,000 acres of corn, looking well without irrigation. On the day following, we visited their village at their farm called Fish Springs. I was here introduced to Brother Juan Bautista (John Baptist), the first man baptized in the Zuni nation by A. M. Tenney. His son’s wife was the most handsome woman I ever saw of the Indian race; had a beautiful child, nearly white. I went through their wheat fields, which they were cutting with sickles. We visited several ruins of the ancient inhabitants; some of the outside walls of stone were standing some eight feet high. On Sunday evening, the 25th, we held a meeting in a village of the Lagumas, called Mosita Negra. We had an interesting talk with the Governor of the place (Jose Carido), and the spiritual advisor (Lorenzo Coreo) and both wanted a meeting. They called the people together, men, women, and children. We opened by singing and prayer, and Brother Tenney spoke to them in Spanish thirty minutes. I spoke a short time. Brother Tenney interpreted and we dismissed, thinking we had kept them long enough.
The Hopi are descended from the Ancestral Puebloans
As soon as we dismissed, a Nephite arose, full of the spirit of the Lord, and said: ‘Friends, why do you dismiss us and leave us in this way. This is the first time we have heard of our forefathers and the gospel, and the things we have looked for from the traditions of our fathers. If our wives and children are weary, let them go home; we want to hear more. We want you to talk all night, do not leave us so.’ This speech raised me to my feet and the next hour was one of the best meetings we had. We all felt inspired, missionaries, Nephite men, women, and children. I spoke and Brother Tenney interpreted. I never felt the want of tongues more than on this occasion. I taught the things of the Kingdom of God and found hearts capable of receiving it. All were deeply interested and the seeds we {524}had sown in the hearts of that people will bring forth fruit. At the close of the meeting, the man who spoke in the meeting came to me and said, ‘When you return, drive to my home and all your wants will be supplied,‘ which we did and held another meeting on the Sunday following. We should have baptized him, the Governor, and many others, I think, but the Governor who had followed us, as did the spiritual advisor, some sixty miles to Isletas, had not returned. The people did not wish to take any steps until their Governor was with them. On the following morning, my carriage was surrounded by the Governor and people that we had talked to the night before. Some of them took breakfast with us and I had to talk to them on the principles of the gospel and their record and signs of the times, until I left; and the leading men of the village followed us sixty miles to Isletas and stopped with us most of the time we were there. On the morning of the 26th of August, we drove through Frisco, crossed the Rio Del Norte, which we found very low, and entered Albuquerque, containing about 3,000 inhabitants, Jews, Gentiles, Americans, and Mexicans.
I was introduced to Judge Parks, the U. S. District Judge of that District, from Illinois. I went through the city or town. It is quite a place of business. I went through the Catholic cathedral accompanied by an Italian padre, or priest. He took great pains to show us everything in it, robes of the priests and deacons; some robes woven from pure gold thread that cost $1,000.00. There was much more wealth than I would have looked for in as obscure a place as Albuquerque. We spent the day in the place and left in the evening and camped five miles below on the banks of the river. On the 27th of August, we entered the village of Isletas (Ysleta), being the day before the great annual feast of this people. Brother Ammon M. Tenney had visited this people three years ago and had made friends in the place. We called upon an old patriarch that had received him before. His name was Juan Reylocero (John King). He was glad to receive us. He furnished us with mutton, fruit, and anything we needed. He was one of the leading spirits, was one of the most influential men in the village, and was over eighty years of age; but by his labor and activity he did not appear more than seventy. It should be understood that the Catholic power has had dominion for centuries over most of the American tribes. This is the case with all {525}these tribes, as well as others, and the priests who now occupy their villages are mostly French or Italian. The priests who dwell in Isletas have had a hard contest with the old patriarch, because he had received the Mormons and their religion. He told the priest that he had his own rights and agency and no men should take his rights or religion from him; and they had not spoken to each other for two years. This spirit is manifest through all the tribes when the gospel is preached, and the Lamanites and Nephites throughout all the land are beginning to be weary of the Catholic priests and their religion.
The inhabitants of Isletas stand at the head of these 32,000 Nephites; all the other 40 villages come to them for counsel. They have their own laws, police courts, and judgment seat. They are very rich. The man we stopped with possessed 9,000 sheep, 100 brood mares and horses, 100 mules and asses, 500 cows and oxen, a ranch worth $8,000.00, and $25,000 of other wealth. He rents many houses in the city, and he is a sample of many of the Isletas nation. They allow no white man or Mexican to mix with them in their blood; all their marriages are in their own tribe. Our friend (Reylocero) said the Americans had called them wild men. If they were wild, they were honest and virtuous. It was very seldom that a case of seduction of a wife or daughter was known in their tribes. Whenever such a case did occur, the penalty of death was executed and had been for centuries, until civilization was introduced by Americans, who had introduced seduction and corruption wherever they had a chance, and now, if a man were put to death for seduction, the civilization of the day would kill his slayer. In fact they were so much afraid of white men coming in contact with their women, that Brothers Tenney and Robert H. Smith, of the 15th Ward, Salt Lake City, three years ago, came nearly starving to death before they got thoroughly acquainted with them.
They were not willing for these brethren to go into the presence of their women; but after the old patriarch had reached full confidence in Brother Tenney, he put his grand-daughter (a very handsome young woman) in his charge, as he was going away for a season, and a young Mexican wished to court her, and the old gentleman did not wish him to marry her. And as the people in that village had full confidence in him, on our arrival we were kindly received and entertained by all we {526}called upon.
Governor Edward Paul Torres, Pueblo of Isleta. Isleta, New Mexico; Jan. 2016.
I look upon the Isletas as the most industrious and hard laboring people of any I ever met (the Latter-day Saints not excepted). This Nephite village has a field of corn ten miles in length and one in width. It lies north and south of their village, and is irrigated. The corn is quite as good as any I ever saw in Utah, and perfectly clean; not a weed could be found in a hundred acres. They have also twenty-one vineyards bordering on their city and 1,000 vines to each vineyard, some of them 60 years of age, all kept perfectly clean and loaded with the finest of fruit, and as heavy a crop as I ever saw in St. George. The vines stand from two to four feet in height and, in the fall of the year, each vine has a mound of earth formed around it, until it is covered out of sight. In the spring it is uncovered and the earth leveled. This is an immense work. They have also many apple, pear, and peach orchards, all ripe as well as the grapes. Isletas is occupied only by the Nephites themselves. There are no Mexicans or white men. The houses generally are made of adobe, cement, or concrete, and plastered. The outside walls are as white as snow, and the floors are made of mortar or plaster, very smooth and many of them very neatly carpeted. We saw some as handsome women and girls as could be found in America, barring their dark complexions. There is one practice that exceeds that of any civilized city on the globe that I ever heard of. No man, woman, or child is allowed to sweep a particle of dirt or dust from their floors into the door yards or streets, under penalty of a fine. It all has to be gathered in cloths or baskets and carried to mounds which are located in different parts of the city. The room we occupied was in the center of the town and the mound formed from the sweepings of the floors in that part of the town measured 150 yards at the base and some thirty feet high, which had probably been 100 years in collecting, for they did not appear to cart it away. I found in Isletas and in other villages of the Nephites the same kind of crockery and stone ware painted in all its brilliant colors that we find in the remains of their ancient cities, or in ruins of the ancient inhabitants. All of their water jugs and main crockery are of this material, for they still hold the art of making and painting it. We visited quite a number of the families in the village and were kindly entertained. Among {527}others, we visited Mrs. Pascual Avieta, a Nephite lady, I should judge 50 years of age, a large portly woman, with a large, fine home. Her floors were neatly carpeted, and settees were covered with Navajoe blankets, worth $15 each. She was neatly dressed. I was introduced to her by Brother Tenney and to her daughters and sons. She received me and treated me with all the cordiality that any refined lady could, and presided over her household with all the dignity and grace of a Martha Washington.
Isleta, N. Mexico
When her daughters were introduced to me, after bowing and shaking hands, they very reservedly and modestly retired across the room, sat down upon a settee and listened to what was said in silence. The matron sat down beside me and conversed with great freedom. While the family could speak good Spanish, her son, a fine young man of 20, could speak good English, which was a God send to me, and I thoroughly improved it by preaching the Gospel of Christ and blessings of the Kingdom of God to him, which he gladly received and promised to deliver the same to his father and mother. The matron invited us into her pear, peach, and apple orchard, and grape vineyard where fruit was ripe. We feasted to our satisfaction, and repeated by invitation the same ceremony each day while in Isletas. The feast was on the 27th of August. There were hundreds of Mexicans from all the surrounding country gathered. The Mexican women and girls had their long trails. Most all the drinking, gambling, and fighting, which lasted all night, were done by the Mexicans, while the Isletas were in their homes with doors locked at an early hour. The Governor and leading men of Mosita Negra, where we preached, were with us and did not take part in the Mexican carousal.
Isleta Girl
Wilford Woodruff
Thus, dear brethren, I have given you an outline, merely, of the field of labor which I consider the God of Israel has opened unto us, and which I consider the revelations of God require us to perform. I think there is element sufficient for forty good, faithful elders. There is need for a goodly number of elders who can speak the Spanish language, or who will be able to learn it. I have already sent Brother Taylor a small list of names, including the Indian missionaries that are already in this country, as far as I can remember them, and if there are any in St. George {528}or southern Utah, or northern, who can speak the Spanish, or who will learn it, I would like Brother Taylor to consider them at the October Conference.
I am happy to be able to state that most of the settlements I have visited of the Saints have been blessed with fair crops of grain, notwithstanding the dry season. They were just finishing threshing as I left Snowflake. They will have over 3,000 bushels of grain, mostly wheat, and I am confident they will have over 4,000 bushels of wheat at Sunset.
Isleta Village
I have not written anything for publication concerning my journey to Lamanites or Nephites of late, thinking it would not be wisdom to publish anything about our labors among the American Indians under the present state of excitement on Mormonism. I forwarded a list of names in my other communication, as missionaries. I forward a few more in this communication and those I send from here are mostly persons who have given in their names and are willing to engage in the mission. Some incidents occurred on our mission which were interesting to me and showed that the Lord was at work with and for us, to open the way for the introduction of the gospel among this branch of the house of Israel. But I have already lengthened this communication much more than I intended at the commencement. I learned of the release of the Apostles from prison from the “News,” which has given joy to all the faithful Saints of the land. The devil is making a hard struggle to stop the building of temples, and the work of God, and the wicked are helping him, but, brethren, God reigns and will stand by you to the end. The lawyers, judges, and the nation are hastening to their doom as fast as time will permit, and they are sure of their fate. That God may bless you and give you the victory, is the earnest prayer of
Your brother in the gospel, WILFORD WOODRUFF.
According to Wilford Woodruff
Nephites
Isletas Zunis Lagunas
Lamanites
Navajo Moquis Apaches
A Quote to Remember
A young missionary Spencer W. Kimball poses in the 1920s. Deseret News Archives
“Oliver Cowdery, even in that early day, had found the Navajos in the far Southwest, and he reported it to the brethren, feeling that it was a very important thing. Then Wilford Woodruff said this further, as he went down into the southwest, in New Mexico, and visited among the Indians there. He said: “In my short communication of the second inst., I promised to give a fuller account of my visit to the Isletas which I will now endeavor to do. The Isletas are one of the Pueblo groups down in New Mexico. I view my visit among the Nephites one of the most interesting missions of my life, although short. I say Nephites, because if there are any Nephites on this continent, we have found them among the Zunis, the Lagunas, and the Isletas, for they are a different race of people, altogether, from the Lamanites. I class the Navajo, Moquis (Hopis) and Apaches with the Lamanites, although they are in advance of many Indian tribes of America. I class the Zunis, Lagunas, and Isletas among the Nephites. And then he goes on to say, that as soon as they dismissed this particular meeting among the Isletas, and were going to leave, one of the Nephites arose. . . full of the spirit of the Lord and said, “Friends, why do you dismiss us and leave us this way? This is the first time we have heard of our forefathers and the gospel and the things we have looked for from the traditions of our fathers. If our wives and children are weary, let them go home. We want to hear more. We want you to talk all night. Do not leave us so.” The Work Among the Lamanites Elder Spencer W. Kimball, Conference Report, October 1950, pp. 63-69
Joseph Smith during his lifetime more than likely knew about many of the Indian Chiefs below, who were from the same vicinity as him. Some lived at the same time as Joseph Smith and he may have also spent time with many of them. I share some unique articles below that you may find interesting in understanding young Joseph and his opportunities to learn from Native Americans. “Use of Ganargua Creek dates back to pre-colonial times. It was a primary stopover point for the Iroquois on their trade routes. Mormonism founder Joseph Smith also had an interest in the creek after hearing a speech from Seneca Indian Chief Red Jacket at Palmyra in 1822. Before the Erie Canal was constructed in 1817, Ganargua Creek originally met the Canandaigua Outlet in Lyons to form the Clyde River.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganargua_Creek 
Do not yield your faith in payment for an advanced degree or for the recognition and acclaim of the world
God the Father (1,2,3,?)
Jonathan Neville said, “Here, Brother Sorenson characterizes the teachings of the prophets about the New York Cumorah as a “mistaken folk view.” This degree of derision for the prophets definitely “may startle some” members of the Church who accept what the prophets teach.”
Answer by Larry C. Porter, professor of Church history and doctrine, Brigham Young University. It is true that some critics of the Book of Mormon have claimed that Joseph Smith used historical, philosophical, literary, and religious ideas circulating during his lifetime to create the Book of Mormon—making it merely a reflection of western New York culture in the early nineteenth century.
President Benson has said, “We are not required to prove that the Book of Mormon is true or is an authentic record through external evidences—though there are many. … God has built in his own proof system of the Book of Mormon as found in Moroni, chapter 10 [Moro. 10], and in the testimonies of the Three and the Eight Witnesses and in various sections of the Doctrine and Covenants. We each need to get our own testimony of the Book of Mormon through the Holy Ghost.”
It is as if a large circle is drawn around New England which represents a complete absence of pre- colonial construction. This is the conventional wisdom proposed by the Archaeological community, however the evidence does not seem to support this notion. Let us look at several enigmatic stone sites in New England and what they tell us about its mysterious past. America’s Stonehenge in Salem, New Hampshire is probably the most elaborate and controversial site in New England. It has been described by Dr. Edward J. Kealy, professor of History at Holy Cross University as “potentially the most important stone complex in the Northern Hemisphere”. Featured on the History Channel and other programs, this 30 acre complex is a mixture of stone chambers, stone solstice and equinox markers, cairns, chimneys, fireplaces and stone drains. The two largest stones here weigh 45 and 70 tons. The site has been carbon dated to at least 2000 B.C. by scientists at Geochron Labs of Cambridge, Mass after dating 13 different test pits. That dates it’s construction half a millenia before the final construction phase of Stonehenge, and like Stonehenge it possesses many precise astronomical alignments. Stone markers throughout the site provide over 200 alignments with the sun, moon and 45 different stars which have been verified by independent researchers. One alignment wall allows a person to observe the southern most standstill of the moon on its 18.61 year metonic cycle. A period of 18.61 is required to carry the moon to all of its possible positions in respect to the sun. This event is marked at Mystery Hill as the moon passes above the winter solstice stone and then aligns with the terminal of this wall.
The stone chambers of New England like all the precolonial stonework are dry laid. When you examine any of these chambers you will see that they were not easy to construct, their design is quite complex. 
Let us now examine the stone walls of New England. Again conventional wisdom states that every stone wall you see was built sometime in the last 400 years. This seems like a reasonable claim at first glance, colonials definitely built walls for property boundaries and agricultural uses. Timber eventually became scarce in the colonies and fencing was needed as land was farmed and livestock raised. We are told that the majority of the walls were built in a 75 year window between the revolutionary and civil wars. How many walls did and does New England actually have? An 1872 U.S. Department of Agriculture report estimated there were over 240,000 miles of stone walls east of the Hudson river right after the civil war. This very conservative estimate was done using incomplete data and didn’t account for other areas in the northeast that possess large amounts of stone walls. The actual figure is well over 500,000 miles, many researchers estimate. That is a stone wall that circles the earth 20 times or all the way to the moon and back. Reflect on that staggering reality for a minute. Does it seem likely that a colonial population struggling for survival, involved in several all encompassing wars and working difficult and unforgiving land could have accomplished this feat? The average colonial home burned between 20 and 40 hand cut cords of wood yearly. Processing this amount of wood, among other overwhelming tasks, in a harsh environment with long and difficult winters left little time for activities like wall building which had very little utility. Take the town of Hawley, Mass., an isolated community in the rugged highlands of Western MA, which has an area of 30.9 square miles. First settled in 1770 it has over one thousand miles of stone walls. However, it’s population at the time in question was 539 in 1790, 1089 in 1820 and back down to 600 in 1879. Could this meager population be responsible for such an impressive feat? To build all the walls of New England would have been the most costly and labor intensive undertaking in colonial history. An enormous venture but with little mention in the historical texts other than the assumption that it was done. The total sheer tonnage of New England’s stone walls represents an amount greater than all the worlds pyramids, stone temples, stone complexes and ancient stone structures combined.
“Israel will be gathered
There was a Presbyterian minister in the village, who became jealous of the influence I was gaining with the Indians. He persuaded two Spaniards, one Navajo Indian, one Albino ‘Zuni, and one of the Zuni medicine men, to circulate lies and frighten the ‘Zunis, telling them that those who were healed were healed by the power of the devil.
