BOM: Geography Speculation

[Moksha]

Here is a video I ran across that seems interesting about the Book of Mormon place locations.

YouTube - Video 1: The Book of Mormon in a North American setting.

What do you think?

[hethathathears]

Thank your for sharing the video with me. In the past I have also had a real passion for the Book of Mormon and the Lands of the Book of Mormon. In my humble opinion the good brother who came up with the video missed the mark. In my humble opinion, the Book of Mormon lands were in MesoAmerica which includes Mexico, Veracruz, Chiapas, Guatemala... The reason for this belief is that during book of Mormon time, 90% of all Archaeological buildings were in MesoAmerica. Less that 10% of Archaeological building were located in south America, while only 1% of the Archaeological building and stuff came from where this video is saying the Book of Mormon lands were. In other words, you can't have millions of people living in an area for two thousand years without any buildings... The other 3 indicators that make me think that the Book of Mormon Lands were in MesoAmerica is -

Language- MesoAmerica was the only place were a written Phonetic language has been discovered.

Tradition- There are many writings from the Natives back in the 1500's that exactly mirror the Book of Mormon.

Geography- It has the cities that date back to that time. It is where Lehi's tree of life stone was found. They have found Glyph's that mean- and it came to pass. They found the cities of Tikal, Becan, coba, and El Mirador that all have Moroni's earth works surrounding the cities. Although the timber has long since rotted away, the 30 foot mounds of dirt and the motes still surround the abandoned cities.

All this comes from a book, "Exploring the Lands fo the Bood of Mormon," by Joseph L. Allen, Ph.D. He gave book of Mormon toors down there for many years. It is a truely impressive book. But of course, that is only my humble opinion.

Edited June 11, 2008 by hethathathears

[Hemidakota]

I cannot see the "YOU TUBE' from the office but if you go to Google's Map and zoom in around southern Mexico to Central America, type in the name Zarahemla in the search box, there are several people left what they believe are the cities based on the continuous studies in this field.

[justamere10]

Here is a video I ran across that seems interesting about the Book of Mormon place locations.

YouTube - Video 1: The Book of Mormon in a North American setting.

What do you think?

There is a huge amount of information about the MesoAmerican theory of Book of Mormon geography at Mormon Sites. You can also interact with Dr. Jerry L. Ainsworth, author of "The Lives and Travels of Mormon and Moroni" on their forum.

Mormon Sites - rising from the dust...

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[Snow]

Have you all seen this?

Hill Cumorah Expedition Team Home Page

There are a group of RLDS (Community of Christ) folks that are pretty certain they've discovered the Book of Mormon lands.

One of them posted here on the board with us for a while.

[skalenfehl]

Lehi's trail along the Red Sea to Bountiful:

Our Film Clips

[justamere10]

Have you all seen this?

Hill Cumorah Expedition Team Home Page

There are a group of RLDS (Community of Christ) folks that are pretty certain they've discovered the Book of Mormon lands.

One of them posted here on the board with us for a while.

I didn't read the whole website but what I did read is an interesting novel, a whole bunch of conclusions and not (so far at least) a single shred of evidence presented for them.

I pulled out one paragraph from a quick skim of a page:

"While traveling the group took a detour and went to see Cerro

Rabon, a mountain near Jalapa de Diaz that many Book of Mormon

archaeologists have reason to believe is the Hill Cumorah where ancient

records are buried."

Must be a different world I guess, but then they are not members of the LDS Church so they walk in their own circles. I don't know of ANY "Book of Mormon archaeologists" who believe Cerro Rabon is the Hill Cumorah. But then I'm often proven ignorant.

I'll run this website by Jerry Ainsworth. He's in Mexico right now but I heard from him tonight. Maybe he'll respond on the Mormon Sites forum when he gets back.

Dr. Ainsworth is almost certain that he has found Cumorah of the Final Battles, and it's not what this group has found. PROVING anything scientifically is the big problem. Jerry is hoping to dig up some bones from around his Cumorah and see if they date to about 385 A.D. when the final Nephite battles occurred. If that happens it might get the pros interested enough to have a good look.

I'll try to get Dr. Ainsworth to respond at the following link when he has time:

Ask a Mormon - LDS Cyber Missionaries Meet Here • Index page

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Edited June 12, 2008 by justamere10

[justamere10]

Have you all seen this?

Hill Cumorah Expedition Team Home Page

There are a group of RLDS (Community of Christ) folks that are pretty certain they've discovered the Book of Mormon lands.

One of them posted here on the board with us for a while.

Someone should bring this to the attention of Larry Poulsen, I'm sure he'd be interested in looking at the site and responding on this forum.

[Snow]

I didn't read the whole website but what I did read is an interesting novel, a whole bunch of conclusions and not (so far at least) a single shred of evidence presented for them.

I pulled out one paragraph from a quick skim of a page:

"While traveling the group took a detour and went to see Cerro

Rabon, a mountain near Jalapa de Diaz that many Book of Mormon

archaeologists have reason to believe is the Hill Cumorah where ancient

records are buried."

Must be a different world I guess, but then they are not members of the LDS Church so they walk in their own circles. I don't know of ANY "Book of Mormon archaeologists" who believe Cerro Rabon is the Hill Cumorah. But then I'm often proven ignorant.

I'll run this website by Jerry Ainsworth. He's in Mexico right now but I heard from him tonight. Maybe he'll respond on the Mormon Sites forum when he gets back.

Dr. Ainsworth is almost certain that he has found Cumorah of the Final Battles, and it's not what this group has found. PROVING anything scientifically is the big problem. Jerry is hoping to dig up some bones from around his Cumorah and see if they date to about 385 A.D. when the final Nephite battles occurred. If that happens it might get the pros interested enough to have a good look.

I'll try to get Dr. Ainsworth to respond at the following link when he has time:

Ask a Mormon - LDS Cyber Missionaries Meet Here • Index page

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Personally I don't belief the Cumorah Expedition team has found anything like what they claim to have found but I'd also be skeptical of anyone who claims to have found the Cumorah of the Final Battles.

[poulsenll]

Unfortunately, their location is nowhere near a seashore to the east as described in Ether for the Hill Ramah, later known as Cumorah. Nice try but no blue ribbon. It is about the same distance from the Gulf as Cerro Bernal but in the wrong direction.

Nice try though.

Larry P

[justamere10]

Personally I don't belief the Cumorah Expedition team has found anything like what they claim to have found but I'd also be skeptical of anyone who claims to have found the Cumorah of the Final Battles.

Skepticism is healthy, but it's smart to keep one's eyes and ears open. Stay tuned, more records are scheduled for delivery sometime before the Millennium as I understand it, at least the sealed portion of the plates Joseph Smith had, and my guess is the entire Nephite library.

The first time I saw Jerry's Cumorah my hair almost stood on end. It's an awesome place, a very high mountain that stands by itself more than twenty miles from any other mountain. It would have been known possibly for hundreds of miles around if it was close to a trade route. When Mormon cut the deal with the Lamanite leader to meet at Cumorah for the final battle they both obviously knew the place.

It was made known very clearly to Jerry and Esteban that now (twenty years ago) was not the time to be on that mountain. They both almost lost their lives and Jerry was injured for life. It even snowed (probably never has before?) when they were on the mountain. I got them to go as close as they'd dare go, past the armed Mexican guards, but they would not go any further, they'd learned their lesson! Stay tuned...

But you can read a whole lot at at Mormon Sites, it's a fascinating study though nothing's been proven:

Mormon Sites - rising from the dust...

Edited June 12, 2008 by justamere10

[justamere10]

Unfortunately, their location is nowhere near a seashore to the east as described in Ether for the Hill Ramah, later known as Cumorah. Nice try but no blue ribbon. It is about the same distance from the Gulf as Cerro Bernal but in the wrong direction.

Nice try though.

Larry P

I'm not a player, just an observer, but it was fascinating for me to become aware of Dr. Ainsworth an eminent Book of Mormon scholar out in the field exploring Mayan ruins, fighting off snakes, and dangling from cliffs. Then later compare what he is doing with Dr. Poulsen, another eminent Book of Mormon scholar who was 'FLYING' over the jungles and mountains with his Google gear. :-)

In my opinion they are both, each in their own way, along with many others, contributing in a major way to the newly emerging study of Mesoamerican Book of Mormon geography. Garth Norman too has dangled from the cliffs of Jerry's Cumorah, though he's apparently working in Utah now, or was a short time ago.

Of course, just to keep us obsevers on the edge of our seats there are others such as George Potter who are coming up with even more 'evidences' for South America!

Don't put away that popcorn just yet. :-)

Keep your eye on Mormon Sites - rising from the dust... it's often a good place to read all about it.

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