We’re going to review all the theories and talk about pros and cons of the promised land from Africa, Asia, North, South, and Central America. I’ll be there are some theories you aren’t familiar with! Check out our conversation….
New World Geography
GT 09:13 Let’s move on to New World geography. The hemispheric model this is probably what if you even ask people, people who don’t come to conferences like this people who aren’t as plugged in as you guys, they probably still think that North America is the land northward South America is the land southward. This is pretty much what early members always thought. The cons: the distance is just don’t match for a continental hemispheric model. We’ve got DNA problems that I’ve mentioned earlier.
GT 09:43 The Baja Theory,[1] number seven. This is a photo of David Rosenthal. I interviewed him, I think it was back in 2016. And he believes that the Baja California peninsula, once again north/south… I know you guys don’t believe in Sorensen’s internal map, but it matches the map quite well. It’s north/south. He says the climate is similar to the Mediterranean. It’s compatible with the Mesoamerican theory. He thinks that they could have migrated to Mexico, possibly. The peninsula matches, distance match, no known anachronisms. Well, I don’t know if I’d agree with that. A lot of his horses and elephants are prehistoric. They talked about the La Brea Tar Pits. The problem is those were 10,000 to 20,000 years ago, so they don’t match Lehi’s time period. It has DNA problems. Once again, how did the plates get to New York? It would have been very hard. You’re going coast to coast. It has some growing support among scholars. But now, Brant Gardner mentioned that the populations mentioned in the Book of Mormon just don’t exist in the Baja Peninsula. So, once again, pros and cons.
GT 11:04 Number eight, the New York Great Lakes Theory. One of the interesting things about this theory, if you look at the Great Lakes, those are huge. I mean, they’re the largest lakes in the world. In Israel, we call the Sea of Galilee, which is way smaller than even the smallest Great Lakes, a sea. And so, if you look at the great lakes as seas, then you can say, well, these are the sea north, the sea south, east and west. KC actually has a little bit better map on his BookofMormon.online for the New York theory. There were some reviews done back in 2008.[2] They’re a little bit dated. I’m just going to jump into the pros and cons. It’s not a north/south Peninsula. There are several candidates for the narrow neck of land in between the Great Lakes. The lakes could reasonably be construed as seas. Limited geography is much more appropriate. It’s very near the Hill Cumorah, so that’s definitely a pro. I know that’s a big deal with Heartlanders. Cons: it has DNA problems just like all of the New World theories. Elephants, horses, and plants are not found there. It’s not scholarly at all. The Iroquois don’t date to the right time period. I know this is an issue with Heartlanders. The Book of Mormon never mentioned snow. That doesn’t bother you, but it bothers a lot of other people. So, the climate doesn’t really seem to match.
GT 12:30 Moving on, this is a new theory I just found out a few months ago, the Delmarva Peninsula.[3] I’ve linked to the website[4] there. I’m not super familiar with this one. But Delmarva stands for Delaware, Maryland, Virginia. You can see that peninsula, right across there from Washington, DC/Baltimore area. So, once again, it’s a peninsula North/South. It works very well if you believe in a limited geography theory. This one actually overlaps with Heartland a little bit. The Land Northward goes into the Ohio/New York area. So, it overlaps a little bit, but they’ve got the Delmarva Peninsula down there. It’s very near the Hill Cumorah. Cons: just like all the American theories, DNA problems, elephants, horses, plants. [It has] a very small circle of proponents. It needs more research. I talked to a woman who likes this theory, and she said it was first proposed in 1994. So it’s relatively new.
GT 13:36 Number 10, the South American Theory.[5] This is actually the first Book of Mormon geography theory that I was ever exposed to. Venice Priddis, back in 1975, and also Arthur Kocherhan’s model, you can see here I’ve got a photo of their book cover. You can see that South America, most of it is completely underwater. If you look at the West Coast, you’ve got a north/south peninsula with a neck of land. The idea with this theory is that the Amazon River, I mean, a lot of that land that’s in blue that you can see, is below sea level. So, it seems very plausible that the Amazon River flooded that whole area. They believe that the Incas were the Lehites. Two people who liked this theory, George Potter and Del Dowdell, although Del just recently passed away. His son has taken over for that. Venice Priddis, she claims that this was underwater, which is true. But it was 18 million years ago. So, your timeline is a little bit off. Okay. So that’s a big problem. [It has a] similar climate to the Mediterranean. They like to say that the seeds that Lehi brought with them grew. I think I’ve mentioned all that stuff. No steel, no iron, are the horses Alpacas? I will say that regarding iron ore, they did use iron ore in paint, but they didn’t use it to make swords in South America. So, that’s interesting.
GT 13:36 The Heartland theory finally. I’m saving the best for, not quite last. Okay, I’m hustling. And so, I’m not going to go over this one because you guys know this one. I am going to talk a little bit about the pros and cons. I’ve talked a little bit about DNA. It’s got elephant problems. This seems to be what Joseph Smith had in mind with the Mound Builder myth. Anyway, you guys know about this one. I’m not going to talk about that one too much.
GT 15:43 Mesoamerican, this is the granddaddy of them all. It’s who everybody measures themselves up against, the Mesoamerican model. There are two main theories. You’ve got the one on the top there, that’s Sorenson’s model.[6] The one on the bottom is Garth Norman’s version. They switched the Grijalva and the Usumacinta River. Sorenson has a couple of books there. You can purchase those.[7] Brant Gardner did a review.[8] You can also purchase the DVD. It’s a really nice DVD. Pros and Cons: I think a lot of you will notice a lot of the pros and cons are the same with a lot of these theories, because they all have the same problems.
GT 16:30 Yucatan Peninsula,[9] this is one I just learned about two weeks ago. I did mention at the beginning, you can see, instead of being down [in] Mesoamerica Guatemala, it’s the Yucatan Peninsula. Joseph Smith did mention that some ruins were Lamanite ruins on the Yucatan. One of the big problems is it’s one of the most seismically stable areas of Central America. So, it’s hard to get a lot of destruction. I’ve mentioned those. I know I’m running out of time.
GT 17:00 Panama. This is one of the newest theories. Once again, I got this from KC Kern. I don’t know much about it. It’s the newest theory I’ve encountered. It’s clearly not a north/south peninsula, so that’s a problem. The same pros and cons apply. And then the least interesting theory. I saved the worst for last: Joseph made it up. So, anyway, that’s my presentation. I went as fast as I could. And I’d be happy to share this, except for the videos, with anybody who’s interested in this. I appreciate Rod for letting me speak.
[1] See https://gospeltangents.com/science/baja/
[2] See https://mormonheretic.org/2008/05/05/book-of-mormon-ny-geography-theory-part-1/
https://mormonheretic.org/2008/05/18/unwelcome-to-ny-geography-theory-part-2/
https://mormonheretic.org/2008/05/22/book-of-mormon-geography-errors-part-3/
https://mormonheretic.org/2008/05/25/amazing-ny-geography-part-4-2/
https://mormonheretic.org/2008/06/03/ny-geography-part-5/
[3] See https://gospeltangents.com/science/delmarva/
[4] See https://bomland.blogspot.com/
[5] See https://gospeltangents.com/science/south-america/
[6] See https://gospeltangents.com/science/mesoamerica/
[7] The books are “Mormon’s Codex” at https://amzn.to/3xG7mOi and “An Ancient American Setting for the Book of Mormon” at https://amzn.to/3eNGxPA
[8] See https://journal.interpreterfoundation.org/john-l-sorensons-complete-legacy-reviewing-mormons-codex/
[9] See https://gospeltangents.com/tag/yucatan/
