The Case for Mesoamerica

Mormonism is full of urban (and rural) legends. A person's belief leads to action which triggers a reaction on the part of others which can create positive reinforcement for one's belief that starts the perpetual cycle all over again. Untrue beliefs get propagated in Mormon culture because our leadership model is hierarchical (as it must be in a Kingdom D&C 65) and we tend not to question authority. Hugh Nibley's famous quip in his 1983 Commencement address "Leaders and Managers" was, "we do not question things at the BYU."

One Mormon legend is that Lehi landed in what today is the country of Chile. While I was serving my mission in Peru 1972 - 1974 that belief was pervasive among the Saints. Positive reinforcement over the years had come from such authorities as Spencer W. Kimball, Mark E. Peterson, and Bruce R. McConkie who repeated the legend over the pulpit during visits to South America as a means of relating to their local audience. This legend is dubious at best. See the article "Did Lehi Land in Chile?" in the Book of Mormon Central Archive and the blog article "Prophets Human and Inspired."

The missionary copies of the Book of Mormon we sold or gave away in the early 1970's included photos of Machu Picchu (which we now know was constructed ca. AD 1450) and a person we thought was Elder Spencer W. Kimball standing with his wife, Camilla, inside a "baptismal font" in the Pachacamac ruins outside Lima. It turns out the couple was actually former Argentine and Uruguayan Mission President Frederick S. Williams and his wife, Corraine.

Frederick S. & Corraine Williams at Pachacamac, Photo by Elder Milton R. Hunter

On preparation day we missionaries went to Pachacamac and took pictures of ourselves by that same structure that did resemble a modern LDS squarish baptismal font. In 1975 I was in New York City on a research project and a well-educated fellow asked me at Church if I was one of those "naive people who think every hole in the ground is a baptismal font."

A couple of days before Christmas, 1974, I visited John L. Sorenson in the American Fork, UT home he built while I was in the mission field. In about five minutes he convinced me that the New World portions of the Book of Mormon took place in Mesoamerica (southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize). More than forty years later, scientific advances have made his logic even more compelling.

Size.  Book of Mormon travel times, expressed in days, limit how large or small the Nephite known world could possibly have been. Most serious students of the text are comfortable with a Nephite world having a maximum extent in the 1,000 kilometer range. Mesoamerica is right in this sweet spot. The distance from Kaminaljuyú (candidate for the southern city of Nephi) to Teotihuacan (candidate for Jacobugath in the extreme north) is 1,044 air kilometers. As with all images on this blog, click to enlarge.

1,044 Air Kilometers Kaminaljuyú to Teotihuacan

Orientation. Dozens of references in the text describe Book of Mormon lands oriented generally in a northward/southward direction. Plotting the continental divide (in red) from Alaska to Chile shows that the principal landmass in the Western Hemisphere oriented generally northward/southward as opposed to north/south is Middle America.

Middle America Oriented Generally Northward/Southward

 Geography. The text consistently mentions an East Sea and a West Sea in the Land Southward, with a major river running through the center of the land between both coasts and the whole nearly surrounded by water. Mesoamerica explicitly fits this description.

Southern Mesoamerica with the Usumacinta River in Red

 Topography. The Book of Mormon describes mountains, hills, and valleys with significant elevation differences between them. Mesoamerica has highly varied landforms with elevations ranging from sea level to 5,600 meters (18,370 feet).

Climate. The Book of Mormon describes armies going to battle dressed in loin cloths around the new year Alma 43:4, 20. Mesoamerica's tropical climate works well with this narrative.

Geology. Earth scientists who study the Book of Mormon generally conclude that the natural disasters described in the text are best accounted for by a combination of seismic, volcanic, and meteorological activity. Mesoamerica is a land of earthquakes, volcanoes, and hurricanes.

Smithsonian  Database of Volcanoes Active in the Holocene (last 10,000 years)

Demography. The Nephite/Jaredite text  describes dense populations in the millions Ether 15:2. Mesoamerica had  dense populations in the millions during Book of Mormon times. For dramatic recent corroboration, see the blog articles "LiDAR" and "Ground-Truthed LiDAR."

Maize Agriculture. Throughout the Americas, intensive maize (corn) cultivation was essential to large populations. No urbanization existed without it. Zea mays, now the world's most important grain crop, was domesticated in Mesoamerica and is attested throughout Middle and South America in Book of Mormon times. It was conspicuously absent that early in most of North America. 

Civilization. The Book of Mormon unambiguously describes what cultural anthropologists call "state level society" aka high civilization. See the blog article entitled "State Level Society." In the Western Hemisphere, only Mesoamerica achieved this degree of cultural sophistication during Book of Mormon times.

Literacy. The Book of Mormon clearly describes widespread literacy Mosiah 2:8 with multiple writing systems. In the Americas, only Mesoamerica had widespread literacy with multiple scripts in use during Book of Mormon times.

Drawing of La Mojarra Stela 1 from Veracruz, Mexico
Original is in the Museo de Antropología, Xalapa
The Inscription Includes the Dates AD 143 and AD 156

Architecture. The Nephites built with stone Alma 48:8 and cement Helaman 3:7, 9, 11, materials that tend to preserve well in archaeological contexts. Stone and cement as building materials are attested in Mesoamerican archaeology. See the blog article "Top 10 Archaeological Evidences for the Book of Mormon."

Chronology. The Book of Mormon chronicles events from ca. 2,300 BC to AD 421. Plausible Mesoamerican settings are attested archaeologically in those time frames. Some of the temporal correspondences are striking as in the blog article "75 BC."

Metallurgy in Book of Mormon times is well attested in the Andean region. Seeds from the Levant or Arabia would thrive in Baja California. Some statements by Joseph Smith and his contemporaries do refer to the young United States of America as it existed in the 1830's and early 1840's. Scattered Book of Mormon passages can be interpreted to lend support to an "intimate" aka small-scale geographic model. Viewed comprehensively, though, the preponderance of contextual clues in the Book of Mormon favor a Mesoamerican setting which is why most LDS scholars today look for correlations in that area.

Kirk Magleby volunteers as Executive Director of Book of Mormon Central, the premiere source for Book of Mormon enrichment material  in English and Spanish. 

Baptist Preacher Lynn Ridenhour

On Wednesday, April 4, 2018, I heard Dr. Lynn Ridenhour give a remarkable presentation in the Salt Lake 21st Ward Meetinghouse at the corner of K Street and 1st Avenue. He was being hosted by my friend, Boyd Tuttle, owner of Digital Legend Press. He was introduced by Dr. Keith J. Wilson of the BYU Ancient Scripture faculty. Pastor Lynn is a natural story teller with a quick wit.

Lynn Ridenhour, Baptist Preacher

Ridenhour was in Utah for the debut of his latest book entitled Sir, That's a Book of Mormon! published by Digital Legend.

Ridenhour's 2018 Book

He also presented at the FIRM Foundation Expo in Layton later that week. Ridenhour came to the attention of Latter-day Saints in a major way when he was featured in the excellent BYUtv documentary A New Day for the Book of Mormon that aired on KSL TV in between General Conference sessions on Sunday, October 5, 2014. I reviewed the documentary in a 2014 blog article entitled "A New Day for the Book of Mormon."

Opening Image from Superb BYUtv Documentary

Ridenhour grew up in Belle, Missouri, studied for the ministry at William Jewell College in Liberty (where Joseph smith was incarcerated in Liberty Jail), and currently resides in Lake Tapawingo, a suburb of Independence. He holds a PhD from the University of Iowa. He was on the faculty of Jerry Falwell's Liberty Baptist College (now Liberty University) in Lynchburg, VA. He has pastored various Baptist churches in Louisiana, Illinois, and Missouri. He currently runs Building Bridges Ministries which is part of Manna Ministries in Blue Springs, Missouri. Ridenhour is an ordained Southern Baptist preacher who considers himself Charismatic Baptist. He has endeared himself to Latter-day Saints because he believes both the Book of Mormon and the Bible to be the inspired word of God.

Ridenhour dined in the Lion House as Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley's guest in 2005. He spoke to the BYU religion faculty in 2008. He has been part of the Book of Mormon in Zion Conference held annually since 2014 in Independence. He gained his testimony of the Book of Mormon in 1985 through a noteworthy series of miraculous events.

Dr. Ridenhour is a student of religious awakenings such as William J. Seymour's 1906 Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles that spawned the modern Pentecostal movement with approximately 300 million adherents worldwide.

April 18, 1906 LA Times Article about the Azusa Street Revival

He himself was part of the Charismatic Renewal that swept through Catholicism and mainline Protestantism in the 1960's and '70's. He likes to remind Protestant audiences that Joseph Smith and his contemporaries experienced significant outpourings of the Spirit in the early days of the Church, signs that God was at work in their lives.

Pastor Lynn has made it his life's work to build bridges of understanding between people of many different faith traditions. He longs for the day when Protestants no longer spew virulent anti-Mormon diatribes from their theological seminaries and counter cult ministries. His favorite Book of Mormon passage is 4 Nephi 1:15-17 that speaks of profound peace and unity through Jesus Christ.