Shulem Cracked the Book of Mormon Code, the Land of Nephi is now revealed! See for yourself! The Golden Key!

[Shulem]

For Dummies

• North don't mean North

• South don't mean South

• West don't mean West

• East don't mean East

• Width don't mean Width

• Length don't mean Length

[Philo Sofee]

For Dummies

• North don't mean North

• South don't mean South

• West don't mean West

• East don't mean East

• Width don't mean Width

• Length don't mean Length

[Philo Sofee]

I'm just glad you took the time to ask me to do a picture or diagram. I didn't realize it would have such an impact because it's all been burned into my own mind's eye in a very vivid way and everything I've expressed in this thread is pictured within the visualization of my imagination. If only I had done those pictures earlier then it may have made a difference. It goes to show that written language is not enough. Truly, a picture tells a thousands words and in this case it tells a million.

This thread has been a ride. There are a lot of views and I wonder if people are actually reading this stuff or just click away and go read something stupid instead. This thread is the BOMB! I feel totally armed to the teeth, locked and loaded, bring the apologists before me and I'll wipe them all out single-handedly with my hands tied behind my back and blindfolded. I'm absolutely empowered! Besides, I got Joseph Smith on my side and that makes me invincible. And with Philo on my side taking shots it's a turkey shoot.

Let's hunt apologists!

I think as you move forward with your theory, it’d be helpful for viewers to see it more as a presentation. Perhaps treat it like a TEDTalk with visual aids. Most people don’t read beyond a sentence or two, or perhaps a quick skim if you’re lucky - especially considering this topic is more academic than entertaining. This is why pictures and videos are so successful, because people do better seeing and watching. I know when I’d do a presentation in the Army I’d always have a slide up, and then I’d bring them into the slide, help them navigate the slide, and then discuss the material in a manner that’d bring us to the next visual aid. If you can keep the visual aids simple and sequential it makes a world of difference. Books and lectures are for academics, but in order to educate the masses it’s about paring the information down, and then baby stepping them through the material with pictures. It is what it is.

- Doc

You make an excellent point Doc. And this subject is exactly needed to have visuals. It wouldn't be that hard to put it all together either.

[Physics Guy]

If you Google “Delmarva Nephi” you get at least two earlier proposals of the Delmarva Peninsula as the lands of Nephi and Zarahemla, with some counter-arguments pointing out apparent discrepancies between some Book of Mormon details and the Delmarva geography.

[Moksha]

If you Google “Delmarva Nephi” you get at least two earlier proposals of the Delmarva Peninsula as the lands of Nephi and Zarahemla, with some counter-arguments pointing out apparent discrepancies between some Book of Mormon details and the Delmarva geography.

Even the best find to date must cope with the limitations of an author who had never visited the site of his story.



Making tracks on the Delmarva beach shore.

[Physics Guy]

The earlier Delmarva discussions seem to have been from faithful Mormons looking for a perfect fit with the entire Book of Mormon text. Shulem, in contrast, is just trying to identify a model used by Smith, perhaps only roughly. For a faithful Mormon, even a single verse might demolish the Delmarva theory. Shulem’s theory, however, would even expect a few discrepancies, if Smith was careless or tried to disguise his source.

I don’t really see Smith being super careful about his geography. He did make a point of having his Nephite narrators specify some distances and directions, so he likely did have some concrete model in mind, but he probably wanted to convey an impression of realism while leaving open many possibilities.

This, by the way, may be another of those trying-too-hard tells of fraud. The Book of Mormon writers weren’t writing reports back to the King of Spain or anything. So why are they mentioning basic geographical facts about their own homeland? The geographical details in the Book of Mormon seem too sparse for any real effort at conveying geography, but too many for mere casual mention.

[Shulem]

One glance at the many interesting hand drawn models of Book of Mormon lands make the all important point of the narrow neck and attempt to keep it as narrow as possible. I've already included several such models in this thread. This abstract model at Book of Mormon Central is an excellent example that shows how scholars take key elements from the story and put them to proportion in order to line things up to give proper orientation and size, especially with the narrow neck. Note that the lands of Bountiful, Zarahemla, Nephi, and Lehi's First inheritance are given in proper order south of the narrow neck. Well done except for the fact that there is NOTHING south of Lehi's inheritance other than coastline and ocean, thus the artist is afraid to draw the tip of a true peninsula. Nobody went south of Lehi's landing, ever, not ever! Everything in the entire Book of Mormon geography heads north because that is the only way/place to go.

• Land of Desolation

• Narrow Neck

• Bountiful

• Land of Zarahemla

• Land of Nephi

• Lehi's first inheritance

• South Sea

Now with that said, allow me to point out that the narrow neck is the keystone to Book of Mormon geography like the Book of Mormon is the keystone to the Mormon religion! Likewise, Lehi's first inheritance is the key to understanding the land truly was a peninsula because NOTHING is south of that point. It's the southernmost point in the entire Book of Mormon whereby all that exists south of Lehi's landing is the South Sea -- ocean water -- the great brine.

A keystone is what holds the columns of an arch in place and completes the structure. The northern narrow neck of the peninsula is the keystone to Book of Mormon geography! Remove that narrow neck and everything crashes.

Do you see my point? Anyone?

[Shulem]

The earlier Delmarva discussions seem to have been from faithful Mormons looking for a perfect fit with the entire Book of Mormon text. Shulem, in contrast, is just trying to identify a model used by Smith, perhaps only roughly. For a faithful Mormon, even a single verse might demolish the Delmarva theory. Shulem’s theory, however, would even expect a few discrepancies, if Smith was careless or tried to disguise his source.

I think all your points you made were spot on. Smith needed a basic backdrop in which to built his story. He saw a great place on the map to begin that story and he went with it and creatively used his genius to build an amazing story. But it's fiction, ALL OF IT, entirely based on a novel that pretends to be historical scripture.

*IF* Joseph Smith really though that his story was historical he would have led an expedition to the land of Nephi himself in search of remnants of Nephi's temple. Joseph Smith was very much interested in treasures and historical things as demonstrated from his search for treasure in Salem. Smith made the trek to the east coast to look for hidden treasures but never did he suggest looking for treasures in Book of Mormon lands. No, he durst not try that! Why? Because there would be nothing to find and he knew it.

[Shulem]

What to do about Shulem over at Discuss Mormonism? He's destroying the Book of Mormon. Shirts is even following him now. And Peterson won't answer the phone.

[Doctor CamNC4Me]

And it came to pass that Hagoth, he being an exceedingly curious man, therefore he went forth and built him an exceedingly large ship, on the borders of the land Bountiful, by the land Desolation, and launched it forth into the west sea, by the narrow neck which led into the land northward.

I think Joseph Smith pictured Hagoth heading up the Susquehanna river.

Also, this is the key phrase which Shulem nailed, and I want to reiterate also:

And thus the land of Nephi and the land of Zarahemla were nearly surrounded by water there being a SMALL NECK OF LAND between the land northward and the land southward.

So, the area described is surrounded by water, save the small neck of land which Shulem details in earlier posts. There is literally no geographic region in the Americas that matches the description, save the delmarva peninsula. If Joseph Smith was plagiarizing the Late War (shout out to Dan Peterson), there simply isn’t any other explanation for this description to be included in the Book of Mormon. In poker, this is a tell. Joseph Smith gives his hand away, his plagiarism of the Late War by including these relatively unnecessary literary details.

- Doc