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Book of Mordor
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Date: July 02, 2016 01:18AM
Nelson said, "It is not a record of all former inhabitants of the Western Hemisphere, but only of particular groups of people."
This idea would surprise JS and many other church leaders. It was invented, along with the Limited Geography Theory, only when it became obvious just how ridiculous and indefensible the traditional "empty land" assumption truly was. Even Nelson doesn't have that much faith.
Joseph Smith History 1:34
"[Moroni] said there was a book deposited, written upon gold plates, giving an account of the former inhabitants of this continent, and the source from whence they sprang. He also said that the fulness of the everlasting Gospel was contained in it, as delivered by the Savior to the ancient inhabitants;"
Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, Vol. 3, p. 209:
"INSPIRED NATURE OF BOOK OF MORMON. The Book of Mormon is the sacred history of the ancient inhabitants of the American continent; it contains the predictions of their prophets, the commandments of the Lord to them, and the history and destiny of those ancient peoples…"
Joseph Fielding Smith, The Restoration of All Things, p. 93:
"According to the word of the Lord to Joseph Smith the continent of America was given to Joseph and his posterity as an everlasting inheritance. That is what is meant by the branches running over the wall. The Book of Mormon professes to be the history, in large part, of these children of Joseph who were led out of Jerusalem six hundred years B.C. to this land fulfilling this patriarchal promise."
Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, p. 576:
"The Book of Mormon chronicles the rise and fall of two mighty civilizations in America that failed to give heed to this decree, and thus met with destruction. The Book of Mormon declares that God deliberately kept the American continent hidden until the Holy Roman Empire had broken up and the various nations had established themselves as independent kingdoms. Keeping America hidden until this time was no accident."
Orson Pratt, January 2, 1859, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 7, p. 33:
"…[The Book of Mormon] professes to contain the history of part of the tribe of Joseph, who came out of the land of Jerusalem 600 years before Christ, and colonized the American continent. These Indian tribes are their descendants…"
George Q. Cannon, July 21, 1867, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 19, pp. 202-03:
"…But God, our Heavenly Father, reserved this – the land of promise – for the especial purpose of building up his kingdom in the latter days. As the 'Book of Mormon' informs us, it has been hid from the eyes of the generations of men for this purpose. If it had not been thus hidden the nations of the earth would have overrun the land until there would have been no foothold found for the establishment of the kingdom of God upon it. But the Lord concealed it, from the days of the flood, from the eyes of men, excepting those whom he led hither; as we are informed by the 'Book of Mormon' that no nation after the flood, knew anything about this land…"
Brigham Young, April 24, 1870, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 13, p. 335:
"Here is the Book of Mormon. We believe it contains the history of the Aborigines of our continent, just as the Old Testament contains the history of the Jewish nation…"
Orson Pratt, November 27, 1870, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 14, pp. 298-99:
"…we have something tangible, something contained in the form of a revelation; it is not a mere verbal message by the voice of an angel, but an entire record, a sacred history of the western world, of one half of our globe, detailing the wars of the people of this continent, the same as the Jewish record contains the history of the wars and doings of the Jews of the eastern continent…"
Orson Pratt, November 15, 1874, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 17, p. 274:
"[The Book of Mormon] pretends to be a history of the coming of a small colony, two or three families, from the city of Jerusalem, led by the hand of the Lord. They built a ship by the command of the Lord, and were guided by his hand across the ocean; they landed on the western coast of South America, about six hundred years before Christ; and after that they worked their way up towards the narrow strip of land we call the Isthmus, and founded settlements and, finally, about fifty years before Christ, sent forth their colonies into the north wing of the continent, which we call North America, and in process of time the whole land became peopled and overspread with millions of people…"
George Q. Cannon, Conference Report, April 1898, p. 84:
"…but through the long centuries that elapsed from the confusion of tongues at the Tower of Babel, when the inhabitants of the earth were scattered, until the time that Columbus, inspired of God, went from court to court, pleading with the governments of nations to give him the means to penetrate the ocean and find what he supposed was the Indies – during all that time the knowledge of this land was kept from all the nations of the earth…"
Anthony W. Ivins, Conference Report, April 1904, p. 55:
"…Then came Moroni with the record contained in the Book of Mormon, lifting the veil from off this great continent of ours, and giving to us the key by which the mysteries of these great ruins in Mexico, Central America and Northern South America (many of which I have seen myself) may be unlocked, and by which the hand-dealings of God with the mighty peoples who have occupied the American continent are known…"
Orson F. Whitney, Conference Report, October 1916, p. 52:
"…An angel reveals the hidden past of the American continent – the Book of Mormon, containing the fulness of the gospel, a history of the Americas in prehistoric times, and a prophecy of their wondrous future…"
Spencer W. Kimball, Conference Report, October 1959, pp. 57-58, 60:
"The Lord calls you 'Lamanites,' a name which has a pleasant ring, for many of the grandest people ever to live upon the earth were so called. In a limited sense, the name signifies the descendants of Laman and Lemuel, sons of your first American parent, Lehi; but you undoubtedly possess also the blood of the other sons, Sam, Nephi, and Jacob. And you likely have some Jewish blood from Mulek, son of Zedekiah, king of Judah… When your prophet Lehi led you out of Jerusalem about 600 years B.C., you brought with you the best of the culture of Egypt and Palestine and of the then known world… When Columbus came, your tribes had covered the islands of the Pacific and the Americas from Tierra del Fuego to Point Barrow…"
A. Theodore Tuttle, Conference Report, April 1965, p. 30:
"The Book of Mormon is the word of God and is a record of his ministry among the ancestors of these Indians. Columbus named them Indians. He thought he had discovered the Indies. In reality they are Lamanites… Today these people, whose ancestors saw the Risen Christ, number in the millions. They range from Canada to la Tierra del Fuego. In North America many dwell on reservations. Thousands are scattered throughout Mexico and Central America. In South America they live in the jungle and on the tops of the Andes. The blood of this chosen people flows in the veins of many of those who live south of the Rio Grande."