Sunday, November 25, 2012

What is the Basis for the Land of Promise? Part V

Continuing from the last post, where the first nineteen points that have to be the basis of locating the current location of the Book of Mormon Land of Promise were listed, we continue here with the  twentieth and further topics:
20) Temples. After escaping from his two older brothers and the sons of Ishmael, Nephi and his people built a temple in the Land of Nephi. It was like Solomon’s, but did not contain as much finery, but the construction was a high level of quality (2 Nephi 5:16). Since Nephi would have seen and known much or all about Solomon’s Temple, and that it was built out of stone, and has stood for some three thousand years, two things should be self evident: 1) Nephi would have built his temple as much like Solomon’s as he could, which obviously would have included stonework, and 2) After about 2500 years, there should certainly be evidence of its existence today. Lastly, the scriptural record tell us that Nephi’s temple was built in the City of Nephi, that a temple was also built in Zarahemla (Mosiah 1:18), and another in Bountiful (3 Nephi 11:1). In addition to finding many temples throughout the Land of Promise, we might want to consider what were the "precious things" that could not be included in Nephi's temple like unto Solomon's?  Certainly not wood, iron, copper, brass, steel, gold, silver, and precious ores, for Nephi had all of these in abundance and taught his people to work with each of them (2 Nephi 5:15). 
Obviously, as Nephi stated, the temple was a magnificent edifice and though it might have lacked some of the unique items of Solomon's, Nephi's temple was built with all sorts of precious ores and outstanding smithy and construction skills. Thus, the Land of Promise should have some edifices that show such workmanship and use of those precious ores that Nephi described.  And they should be the first temples built in the Western Hemisphere, a land the Lord had saved as a Land of Promise for those He would lead to it (Ether 13:2,8). In addition, the Nephites built many temples (Helaman 3:20) that were obviously scattered throughout the land.
Today, in all of the Western Hemisphere, only two locations show stonework structures of magnificent proportions, construction, engineering and accomplishment—obviously something Nephi would have been proud to build to his God. Those two areas are in the Peruvian area of South America, and also in Mesoamerica. There is no place in all of North America where any such stone structure has ever been found. According to archaeologists the first temples built in the Americas were built in pre-Inca Peru, which became the prototype of the pyramid temples later erected throughout Mexico and Central America. These temples, of course, followed the pattern found in the Old World, such as the temple towers (ziggurats) of Palestine, Mesopotamia, and early Egypt, which are identical in design and purpose to those of the Americas. In all instances the purpose was to furnish a high place for worship. The pyramid structures are truncated at the top to provide space for a temple and the slopes are generally terraced, providing symmetrical design.

The temple grounds that remain of Kalasasaya at Tiahuanaco south of Lake Titicaca covered five acres and was indicative of the magnificent temple structures that once stood along the Peruvian landscape. This temple had a vast sunken courtyard and subterranean rooms. The huge blocks of the actual temple were carted off to build a railroad and individual structures by the Peruvians more than a century ago
The Temple of the Sun in Cuzco, Peru, is built in this manner, with the walls of finely cut blocks laid in courses without cement.  Many of these pre-Inca stones were sheathed in gold and silver, and the rooms and gardens of the temples contained marvels of goldsmith and silversmith art. No doubt, this is the finest mason's work in the world. Incas knew nothing regarding its origins, for the stupendous stonework of Cuzco belongs to a period long before them. These pre-Inca peoples built magnificent temples in the Titicaca basin, and a temple was built around 500 B.C. at Chavin. This temple has remarkable mason work and the walls are alternating courses of large and small dressed stones that were cut with precision.
Top: Huallamarca Pyramid near Pachacamac on the outskirts of Lima, Peru, dates from 200 B.C.; Bottom: ChanChan, a city composed of ten walled citadels which housed ceremonial rooms, burial chambers, temples, reservoirs and some residences. Chan Chan is a triangular city surrounded by walls 50–60 feet high
21) “And there were some who died with fevers, which at some seasons of the year were very frequent in the land -- but not so much so with fevers, because of the excellent qualities of the many plants and roots which God had prepared to remove the cause of diseases, to which men were subject by the nature of the climate” (Alma 46:40). In 200 B.C., there was no name for the deadly fever known to Alma when he wrote that; however, today we call it malaria, which has been the subject of research for medical practitioners from time immemorial. Many ancient texts, especially medical literature, mention various aspects of malaria and even of its possible link with mosquitoes and insects. Early man, confronting the manifestations of malaria, attributed the fevers to supernatural influences, the ancient Chinese believed it to be the work of three demons. The connection between malaria and swamps was known even in antiquity and the evil spirits or malaria gods were believed to live within the marshes. An old script of Babylonia attributed the fever to Nergal, the god of destruction and pestilence, pictured as a double-winged, mosquito-like insect. In 800 B.C., the Indian sage Dhanvantari wrote that bites of mosquitoes could causes diseases, fever, shivering etc. Hippocrates was probably the first malariologist in 400 B.C., when he described the various malaria fevers of man. The Charaka Samhita written about 300 B.C., classified the fevers into five different categories, namely continuous fevers, remittent fevers, quotidian fevers, tertian fevers and quartan fevers. Susruta Samhita, written about 100 B.C., associated fevers with the bites of the insects. Malaria has been with man for millennia; however, in all this time, many thousands of years, there has never been a cure known to man other than what was found in the Andean region of Peru, in a tree called cinchona, whose bark contained what is today called quinine. Nowhere else has this plant ever been found outside of the Andean area until the Dutch stole clippings and planted them in Indonesia in the 1700s. This plant is clearly the cure Alma wrote about, for when the Europeans came, they brought back the bark to Europe where it became a wildly successful cure for not only the fever of malaria, but numerous other maladies and diseases.
These five posts and twenty-one points are not meant to convey the only things that could be used to single out the location of the Land of Promise. There are other things, of course, and some that are not exactly spelled out in the Book of Mormon, such as circumcision, irrigation, etc., that are found in the Andean area of South America and not to that degree anywhere else in the Western Hemisphere—but the 21 items listed in these three posts are taken specifically from the scriptural record and scriptures are used to illustrate them. Many of these items are unique to South America, others are found elsewhere to some degree, but not as they are in the Andean area. Historians, theorists, and others can say whatever they choose about a Land of Promise location, but in all reality, only South America matches ALL the descriptions found in the Book of Mormon. In the following several posts, more of this type of information will be presented, suggesting members might want to compare their ideas, feelings and beliefs about the Land of Promise location with the actual scriptural record. If it isn’t in the Book of Mormon, then that location is not the Land of Promise!

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