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View this post on Book of Mormon Central.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints recently released a Gospel Topics essay which reiterates the Church’s neutrality on the subject of Book of Mormon geography. “The Church takes no position on the specific geographic location of Book of Mormon events in the ancient Americas,” the essay reads. “Church members are asked not to teach theories about Book of Mormon geography in Church settings but to focus instead on the Book of Mormon’s teachings and testimony of Jesus Christ and His gospel.”
While the Church itself does not have an official position on Book of Mormon geography, individual members and leaders of the Church have explored this matter in their own study and have offered various thoughts about where Book of Mormon events may have transpired. Reid Moon, proprietor of Moon’s Rare Books, recently sat down with Book of Mormon Central to discuss pieces in his collection which shed light on how past prophets have taken an interest in Book of Mormon geography.
As shown in this video, individual readers of the Book of Mormon can look to past and current General Authorities of the Church as examples in their own studies. Without elevating any one particular Book of Mormon geography theory as solely authoritative or divinely revealed, readers can faithfully seek further light and knowledge on this subject “by study and also by faith” (D&C 88:118).
Bruce LloydOctober 9, 2019
The Mesoamerican model is built entirely on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec (narrow neck of land) and the east and west sea. The narrow neck of land and the east and west sea were not mentioned until 500 years after arriving in the promised land. This is because the Lehites landed in the Gulf Coast area and retreated northward to the hill Cumorah and Great Lakes region to escape the Lamanite wrath. It was over 300 years before the Nephites discovered the Mulekites. The east and west sea refer to the Great Lakes. The narrow neck of land is the Isthmus of Niagara. Niagara means "neck of land." It is 21 miles from Lake Ontario to Lake Erie on a line parallel with the Niagara River and the Welland Ship Canal--a very good candidate for a Nephite journey of a day or day and a half. It is 136 miles across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and a 61-hour (7, 8-hour days or 5, 12-hour days) journey (3.3/mph) on the shortest road in the area. Without roads, it could easily take 3 or 4 weeks or more!
Steven ElkinsFebruary 13, 2019
The Bernhisel letter has been shown not to have been written by Joseph Smith and the articles in the times and season where signed NA. I have read the Book of Mormon many times in it it tell us where the Promised land is. The Jaredite and the Nephites told us that the New Jerusalem was to be built on the Promised Land. Joseph Smith was told where the New Jerusalem was to be built. It's pretty obvious where the Promised Land is when the Book of Mormon tell us that the Gentiles would upton that same land and that it would be a Land of Liberty. Also it would be a Nation above all other Nations. Christ being the God of that land. There is only one Hill Cumorah!