Moroni traveled from Mexico to New York?
This is a false RLDS Teaching!
by Stephen Reed Mesa, Arizona
There are always members and alleged scholars who belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who enjoy misrepresenting the Church to which they belong, by teaching false doctrine.
One false idea they enjoy promoting is that The Book of Mormon occurred entirely within the confines of Mesoamerica or Central America and Southern Mexico.
They even claim, laughably, that the Prophet Moroni walked with the plates, from Central America to upstate New York after the final Nephite battle, then stumbled upon a hill and buried in it the gold plates. Then 1,400 years later, the Prophet Joseph Smith by chance grew up in a home near that hill.
The idea that there are Two Cumorahs, originated with a member of The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His name was Henry A. Stebbins.
Stebbins wrote an article in The Saints’ Herald, dated March 15, 1911 where he introduced the idea of Two Cumorahs and the Prophet Moroni walking to present-day New York.
It is not a teaching of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Here is an excerpt from Stebbins’ March 15, 1911 article from the RLDS Saints’ Herald publication:
Actually, this is a screenshot of Page 131 from “New Light on American Archaeology” published in 1924, written by another member of the RLDS Church, Louis E. Hills. He was quoting from the earlier March 15, 1911 Saints’ Herald article to justify his Two Cumorah Theory restricted to Mesoamerica.
Here is the link to that page in that book, with the name “Stebbins” in the search query:
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89058377359&view=2up&seq=135&skin=mobile&q1=Stebbins
This is the 1917 map created and copyrighted by Louis E. Hills, showing his false idea that The Book of Mormon was restricted to Mesoamerica, forcing the Prophet Moroni to travel to New York to bury the plates. He justified Moroni walking to New York by quoting an older RLDS Scholar,
Henry A. Stebbins.
In 1835, (before 1911 and 1924), Oliver Cowdery under the direction of Joseph Smith, wrote in his Letter IV:
He [The Angel Moroni] said this history was written and deposited not far from that place, and that it was our brother’s privilege, if obedient to the commandments of the Lord, to obtain and translate the same by the means of the Urim and Thummim, which were deposited for that purpose with the record.
https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1834-1836/68
The history or The Book of Mormon was written and deposited not far from the home of Joseph Smith, in present-day New York, not in Mexico. (And no stone in a hat was used to translate it, as you just read.) Thus, the final Jaredite and Nephite Battles occurred at the Hill Cumorah in New York and The Book of Mormon occurred in North America.
The false Mesoamerica Two Cumorah theory, is an RLDS idea and was plagiarized by LDS Scholars to resell for money. This is because the copyrights belonging to Louis E. Hills on his books and maps, have expired. His books and maps are now in the Public Domain, meaning anyone can resell them.
Hills died in 1925, which was 90 years after Oliver Cowdery wrote his Letter IV.
The next time you hear someone claiming Moroni walked from Mexico to New York, just laugh. Because it’s a false idea which originated over 100 years ago, from members belonging to another Church which didn’t follow Brigham Young to the Salt Lake Valley.
