Wednesday, January 31, 2024

This Land

 A previous blog article explored the likely meaning of the terms "this continent" and "this country" in Joseph Smith's day. Both could refer to the New World, the Western Hemisphere, all of North and South America. 

What did people from Joseph Smith's era mean when they used the phrase "this land?" Orson Hyde (1805-1878) gave a Fourth of July speech in Salt Lake City in 1853. His remarks are reported in Latter-day Saints Millennial Star Vol. 15 (29 October 1853) page 706. "This land" the Apostle said, "means both North and South America." 

John Taylor (1808-1887) preached a sermon in Salt Lake City on January 12, 1873 while Brigham Young was still alive. This is recorded in Journal of Discourses Vol. 15, page 279. Elder Taylor said:

"This land, North and South America, is the land of Zion, it is a choice land — the land that was given by promise from old father Jacob to his grandson and his descendants, the land on which the Zion of God should be established in the latter days."

As with "this continent" and "this country," "this land" among contemporaries of Joseph Smith could mean the entire New World.

John Taylor in Journal of Discourses

Taylor's thoughts coincide with the prophet Joseph's. Joseph Smith on July 19, 1840 said: "speaking of the land of Zion, it consists of all North and South America." See BYU Studies Vol. 19 No. 3 (Spring 1979) p. 392.

Nephi uses the phrase "this land" in an expansive, hemispheric context when he says "do ye suppose that the children of this land, which were in the land of promise, which were driven out by our fathers, do ye suppose that they were righteous?" 1 Nephi 17:33.
Nephi's Use of "This Land" in 1 Ne 17:33
Nephi was probably in modern Oman referring to modern Israel, locations that are 2,500 air kilometers distant.

In 1 Nephi 22:7 a mighty nation is referenced. That mighty nation is Spain. See the blog articles Prophecy Fulfilled 016 and Mighty Nation = Spain. "This land" in this context refers to all of Spanish America, both North and South America.

In 2 Nephi 1:1-11 Lehi prophesies about his seed in "this land" and others from multiple nations who will also be brought to "this land." The implication is "this land" refers to territory more extensive than a single modern nation. For context behind the phrase "land of liberty" in 2 Nephi 1:7 and 2 Nephi 10:11 see the blog article "Free Nations."

Sunday, January 21, 2024

This Continent and This Country

Some people in the Church cite Joseph Smith in an attempt to locate Book of Mormon lands in what is today the United States of America. In his 1838 history, Joseph describes his initial visit with the Angel Moroni and recites what Moroni told him: "He 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." "This continent," some students claim, means North America.

Noah Webster's 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language says otherwise. In Joseph Smith's day, all of the Americas were considered a single continent, the "Western continent." This was a perpetuation of the idea expressed by Ephraim Chambers in his 1727 Cyclopaedia that there were two grand continents, "the Old and the New." Emanuel Bowen in his 1752 atlas repeated this idea that Europe, Asia, and Africa were a single continent "as America is another." So, to Joseph Smith in 1838, "this continent" likely meant the Americas, the Western hemisphere.

Beginning about 1850 some atlases published in the US began separating North America and South America into two different continents, joined by the Isthmus of Darien known today as Panama. The 1850 Webster's Dictionary, published after the great lexicographer's death, continued to reference the "Western continent" and the "Eastern continent." Almost all European atlases published in the 19th century identified the Americas as a single continent, although some of them began separating Europe, Asia, and Africa into three different continents. Some American atlases published as late as the 1920's continued to show a single American continent. By the 1950's, geographers worldwide decided that North America and South America were two different continents and that modern notion continues today. See the blog article entitled "North America."

A dubious line of reasoning continues that Joseph Smith's "this continent" in 1838 was refined to "this country" in his Wentworth Letter first published on March 1, 1842. This famous letter, that contains the original Articles of Faith, says "I was also informed concerning the aboriginal inhabitants of this country and shown who they were and from whence they came..." 

1838 this continent = North America, 1842 this country = United States of America. Voila, the Book of Mormon happened in the good ol' US of A, or so some people claim.

Except that one of Joseph Smith's close associates published a book in 1839 and used the phrase "this country" to refer to Mexico and Guatemala in addition to the US. This is what Parley P. Pratt said in the 1839 second edition of his widely-circulated A Voice of Warning: "We might fill a volume with accounts of American Antiquities, all going to show that this country has been peopled with a people, who possessed a knowledge of the arts and sciences; who built cities, cultivated the earth, and who were in possession of a written language." Pratt's star "antiquity" was the ancient Maya site known today as Palenque which is located in Chiapas, Mexico. For Pratt, Palenque was in "this country." So as to leave no doubt, Pratt refers to "North and South America" three sentences later in his treatise. This makes it likely that Joseph's use of "this country" in 1842 was intended to convey the same meaning as his use of "this continent" in 1838 and Pratt's use of "this country" in 1839.

Parley Parker Pratt
A Voice of Warning
2nd Edition, 1839

People who insist that 19th century phrases such as "this continent" and "this country" must be interpreted with modern meanings are guilty of the logical fallacy of presentism.

Thursday, January 18, 2024

Pacific Winds and Currents

Poorly informed people sometimes claim that the winds and currents in the Pacific Ocean run only from east to west, which would preclude either the Jaredite barges or the Lehite ship crossing the Pacific. This gross oversimplification distorts the truth. 6 major wind-driven currents in the Pacific Ocean flow from west to east, eventually landing a vessel somewhere on the Pacific coast of the Americas:

  1. North Pacific Current
  2. Kuroshio Current
  3. Equatorial Counter Current
  4. East Australia Current
  5. South Pacific Current
  6. Antarctic Circumpolar Current
Map of Major Ocean Currents
K =Kuroshio Current
NP = North Pacific Current
EC = Equatorial Counter Current
ACC = Antarctic Circumpolar Current

Ocean Motion Map from NASA
and the American Meteorological Association

This map shows all 6 of the major west to east currents in the Pacific.

Map from Science Education through Earth Observation (SEOS)

These maps show mean wind-driven current paths. Seasonal variations exist. Patterns are sometimes disrupted in El NiƱo years.

From 1565 to 1815 Spanish traders sailed the "Manila Galleons" from the Philippines to Acapulco, Mexico. Transit time for them averaged about 4 months to cross the Pacific from west to east.

Explaining seasonality, Philip Beale, captain of the remarkable Phoenicia, told me that sailing his replica vessel from Oman he could have gone west to Africa or east to India depending on the season of the year.

For reasons why the Jaredites almost certainly crossed the Pacific, see the blog articles "Tracking the Jaredites" and "Jaredites Crossed the Pacific."

Sunday, January 14, 2024

Christians by Continent and Country

 The Book of Mormon contains a powerful prophecy about the relationship between freedom and religiosity. "Behold, this is a choice land, and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall be free from bondage, and from captivity, and from all other nations under heaven, if they will but serve the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ." Ether 2:12. The 6 inhabited continents vary greatly in their adherence to Christianity:

  1. South America 83%
  2. North America 77%
  3. Oceania 65%
  4. Europe 64%
  5. Africa 49%
  6. Asia 12%


This Christ Statue in Cochabamba, Bolivia
is 40 meters (132 feet) high

The 10 contiguous countries in North America also vary considerably in their adherence to Christianity: 

  1. Mexico 91%
  2. Panama 90%
  3. Guatemala 85%
  4. Honduras 82%
  5. Nicaragua 82%
  6. El Salvador 78%
  7. Belize 73%
  8. Costa Rica 70%
  9. US 68%
  10. Canada 53%

North America

 Many people believe the Book of Mormon took place in North America and they may be right. North America is a continent in the western and northern hemispheres. It is bounded by the Arctic, Pacific, and Atlantic Oceans and the Caribbean Sea.

North America in Orthographic Projection

North America consists of 23 sovereign nations and 23 dependent territories. Modern contiguous countries in North America include (moving in a general north to south direction):

  • Canada
  • United States
  • Mexico
  • Belize
  • Guatemala
  • Honduras
  • El Salvador
  • Nicaragua
  • Costa Rica
  • Panama
Modern island countries in North America include (in alphabetical order):

  • Anguilla
  • Antigua and Barbuda
  • The Bahamas
  • Barbados
  • British Virgin Islands
  • Cayman Islands
  • Cuba
  • Dominica
  • Dominican Republic
  • Greenland
  • Grenada
  • Guadeloupe
  • Haiti
  • Jamaica
  • Martinique
  • Montserrat
  • Puerto Rico
  • Saint Barthelemy
  • Saint Kitts and Nevis
  • Saint Lucia
  • Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  • Saint Martin
  • Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  • Sint Maarten
  • Turks and Caicos Islands
  • US Minor Outlying Islands (8 in the Pacific, 1 in the Caribbean)
  • US Virgin Islands
There are 7 continents on the planet recognized by the International Standards Organization and the International Geographical Union. They are: Asia, Europe, Africa, North America, South America, Oceania, and Antarctica.

North America is the third largest continent with 24.2 million square kilometers which is 16.2% of the land surface of the earth. 

North America is the fourth most populous continent with 600 million inhabitants which is 7.5% of the population of the earth.