Zosimus wrote: ↑Fri Sep 09, 2022 2:11 am
I should make a disclaimer at this point. My approach to the internal geography of the Book of Mormon has been to start with a clean slate.
Nephi distinguished the difference between the lands of earth in which people dwell. Particular mention is given for the promised land in which he dwelt both in his own day as well as in the last days.
2 Nephi 27:1 wrote:But, behold, in the last days, or in the days of the Gentiles—yea, behold all the nations of the Gentiles and also the Jews, both those who shall come upon this land and those who shall be upon other lands, yea, even upon all the lands of the earth, behold, they will be drunken with iniquity and all manner of abominations—
I’ve pointed out previously that
“upon this land” which was the promised land in which Nephi dwelt was the very land in which the Gentiles would come in the last days after the discovery of Columbus. The days of the Gentiles would come and according to prophecy the Europeans would colonize
*that* land and disperse the aborigines (Lamanites). The Book of Mormon narrative and prophecies connect the dots between the very land in which Nephi lived and the same land in the last days. The promised land is always the same land. There was no Asia with regard to the promised land. The land of promise was founded in America and continues in America where the choice seer would be raised up in the last days. Everything Joseph Smith visualized pertaining to geography is contained within this theme.
Central to the theme of the Book of Mormon is the appearance of Christ in America in which Jesus told the Nephites:
“And many great destructions have I caused to come upon this land, and upon this people, because of their wickedness and their abominations.”
Moroni confirms in Ether that the choice land in which Nephi inherited is the same choice land in his own day:
“And thus the Lord did pour out his blessings upon this land, which was choice above all other lands.” Most notably, Moroni confirms the prophecy in Ether of the rise of a New Jerusalem in the last days that would coincide with the choice seer upon the American land of promise:
“And that it was the place of the New Jerusalem, which should come down out of heaven, and the holy sanctuary of the Lord. Behold, Ether saw the days of Christ, and he spake concerning a New Jerusalem upon this land.” All of the dots from Nephi to Ether can be easily connected in showing that the land of promise was one land and it was always in America,
“And that a New Jerusalem should be built up upon this land, unto the remnant of the seed of Joseph, for which things there has been a type.”