Exploring the Lands of the Book of Mormon: Introduction

Just do a search on any on-line search engine for “Book of Mormon Lands” and a whole slew of options become available.  There are a lot of opinions out there.  So before I throw my 2 cents worth into the mix, I just want to make one thing perfectly clear.  The location of events of the Book of Mormon don’t matter one bit to me.  Like the Bible, the Book of Mormon is a book of faith.  God’s ways are not man’s ways.  Men want evidence they can hold, measure, taste, touch and see.  God’s ways are ways of the heart.  Truth is a feeling.

What I want to share here is not any proof about where the Book of Mormon lands are.  As I said, that doesn’t matter.  It’s more about my journey through ideas that have come to my attention.  Things that I think are simply interesting.

Let’s start with my earliest recollections and research about the lands and cultures of the Book of Mormon peoples.

I remember as a teenager reading one book that believed the Book of Mormon lands were in South America.  Interestingly enough, years later I read in a book, (this was a couple of decades ago so I don’t remember what book, I’m afraid) that some of the Pre-Columbian inhabitants practiced circumcision.  The scholar who wrote the book was at a loss as to explain how the locals had acquired this practice.  “Hmm,” I thought, “isn’t that an ancient Isrealite practice?”  This same scholar claimed that the peoples of the kingdoms of western South America had a flowering in their culture, a golden era, of advances in agriculture, medicine and art in the first three centuries A.D.  Well, that’s about the right time period.  I found that interesting.

Later, things began to deteriorate.  In the lost desert kingdoms of Peru, thousands of pieces of sculpture have been dug up from the sand.  A lot of it was of portrait mugs, (the artist really caught the personalities in many of them) but most of the sculptures were erotica.  It turned out to be the largest cache of ancient erotica ever unearthed.  I left that book in the car, not daring to bring it into my house.  That kingdom was absolutely wiped off the face of the earth, and is now nothing but a desert.  Nobody lives there anymore.  In fact, all the great civilizations of all the Americas, North, Central and South, are no more.

There is a lot to be learned about the lost civilizations of South America, the land of the Incas and the tribes along the Amazon River.  Hundreds of books have been written, thousands of articles and on-line web pages.  I long ago discarded South America as a possible site for the lands of the Book of Mormon, but I do believe that they were influenced by the scattered remnants.  Why else would the last Inca king call himself the Son of God?

I find those influences particularly interesting.

Next:  More exploring!

Searching for Israel and Finding the Arthurian Legends - Summary

Well, this has been a journey, and I appreciate the opportunity to share these thoughts and ideas.  I’m sure more thoughts will crop up in the future, like ‘What is the Holy Grail?’ and Percival vs. Galahad, will the real finder of the Holy Grail please stand up. 

It’s important to know who you and where you come from.  It’s important to know that God loves His children and keeps His promises.  Researching this material brought out a great excitement in me.  It wasn’t just the excitement of discovery, but the excitement to know:  this is who I am, this is where I came from.  My ancestors came from Scotland, Isle of Man, Wales, and other parts of England.  They also came from Norway, The Netherlands and the northern parts of France where the Bretons had fled to in the aftermath of war with the Saxons.

There was something important going on in those Islands and God really did have dealings with them, though time and history have dimmed the truth. 

Nothing was left to chance.

I’m Israel.   I’m of the house of Israel.  I’m of the house of Ephraim and I don’t think it’s just by adoption.  Sure, there’s a mingling of different lines, but there’s enough that God remembered His promises to His servants, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, that He would bring Israel out of obscurity, renew the covenant and bring His church out of obscurity and into the light. 

The Children of Israel were not chosen to be special and above everyone else.  They were chosen to be the least, the most humble, the servants of all.  They were chosen to bear the gospel to all the world, that all the nations of the earth might be blessed, that all the world would be Israel, the covenant people of the God.

When that happens, there truly will be a thousand years of peace.

Next:  Shall we explore Book of Mormon lands?