WARNING CONCERNING: 'NEPHICODE.COM'

by Don R. Hender


     It is sad when someone writes a critical review 'evaluation' without having their 'facts straight.' Whether to make a name for themselves or to feed their ego and stir the pot, 'pretending' to know everything at the expense of others or just to throw unfounded wrenches, who knows? Such I found at NEPHICODE.COM. Almost 2 years ago they wrote it, today I just found their dirty work. People come to my Website, if they like what they find they stay, if not they go. NOT SO WITH NEPHICODE, they dig for dirt. I'll just 'answer' the first quote the 'evaluated' of mine. And you can judge what what their 'business' is! That all the time I have for them.

The short warning: DO NOT believe what all is in print, particularly on the internet, just because it is there. Use your brain, think and figure for yourself.


What I Found Posted At NEPHICODE:

SUGGEST: Book of Mormon Geography 101


~ REBUTTAL ~

This NEPHICODE 'evaluation' is wrong!

This 'evaluator' never properly cites anything. The URL for the website in question is not given. The 'article' URL nor its 'title' is given. You can't even go to the article to check it. If you did find the website there are hundreds of articles and pages there. The Book of Mormon reference, which they propose to be an authority on, is not given. You 'ASSuME' they know because they say so?

Mormon abridged and/or copied from the large plates of Nephi much of our Book of Mormon including the book of Alma. Mormon lived from 311 to over 385 A.D. The land description in Alma 22:27-34 was written about how the land 'WAS' back about 90 B.C., NOT as from 350 to 380 A.D. In about 350 A.D. Mormon's treaty gave the Lamanites from Desolation south was the Lamanites' land including all of Zarahemla.

Mormon's discription in Alma 22:27-34 'WAS' of that period's conditions and of those people who lived about 90 B.C. Whether copied, abridge or otherwise deduced, it 'WAS' a 'period piece discription' of the land of 90 B.C. Don R. Hender's [me] article truthfully discloses that fact and 45 to 100+ miles is possible. Read the source notes & verses yourself below.

MY EVALUATION OF NEPHICODE

The 'NEPHICODE.COM is a great disapointment for what potential there could have been of the sharing and melting of ideas. A critical contentuous 'rag' in the area of Book of Mormon mapping, where no official recognized map by the LDS Chruch exists, leaving only 'possible theories' is no place for a contentuous 'rag' that evaluates such from any one's subjective biased perspective. I've only responded to this one segment and the evaluator's 'personal' biased conclusions continue on and on after making a 'first' incorrect self stylized subjective evaluation of Alma 22:27-34 and arriving at non supported factual conclusions.

For those who look to learn something, continue to read below from the scriptures and facts below and maybe learn something you did not know. - drh


Below is the text and context of the matter of concern from the Book of Mormon:

27 And it came to pass that the king sent a proclamation throughout all the land, amongst all his people who were in all his land, who were in all the regions round about, which was bordering even to the sea, on the east and on the west, and which was divided from the land of Zarahemla by a narrow strip of wilderness, which ran from the sea east even to the sea west, and round about on the borders of the seashore, and the borders of the wilderness which was on the north by the land of Zarahemla, through the borders of Manti, by the head of the river Sidon, running from the east towards the west—and thus were the Lamanites and the Nephites divided.
28 Now, the more idle part of the Lamanites lived in the wilderness, and dwelt in tents; and they were spread through the wilderness on the west, in the land of Nephi; yea, and also on the west of the land of Zarahemla, in the borders by the seashore, and on the west in the land of Nephi, in the place of their fathers' first inheritance, and thus bordering along by the seashorea.
29 And also there were many Lamanites on the east by the seashore, whither the Nephites had driven them. And thus the Nephites were nearly surrounded by the Lamanites; nevertheless the Nephites had taken possession of all the northern parts of the land bordering on the wilderness, at the head of the river Sidon, from the east to the westa, round about on the wilderness side; on the north, even until they came to the land which they called Bountiful.
30 And it bordered upon the land which they called Desolation, it being so far northward that it came into the land which had been peopled and been destroyed, of whose bones we have spoken, which was discovered by the people of Zarahemla, it being the place of their firsta landing.
31 And they came from there up into the south wilderness. Thus the land on the northward was called Desolation, and the land on the southward was called Bountiful, it being the wilderness which is filled with all manner of wild animals of every kind, a part of which had come from the land northward for food.
32 And now, it was only the distance of a day and a half's journey for a Nephite, on the line Bountiful and the land Desolation, from the east to the west sea; and thus the land of Nephi and the land of Zarahemla were nearly surrounded by water, there being a small neck of land between the land northward and the land southward.
33 And it came to pass that the Nephites had inhabited the land Bountiful, even from the east unto the west sea, and thus the Nephites in their wisdom, with their guards and their armies, had hemmed in the Lamanites on the south, that thereby they should have no more possession on the north, that they might not overrun the land northward.
34 Therefore the Lamanites could have no more possessions only in the land of Nephi, and the wilderness round about. Now this was wisdom in the Nephites—as the Lamanites were an enemy to them, they would not suffer their afflictions on every hand, and also that they might have a country whither they might flee, according to their desires.
35 And now I, after having said this, return again to the account of Ammon and Aaron, Omner and Himni, and their brethren.
  ~ Book of Mormon | Alma 22:27-35

 28a The question of the location of the land of first inheritance is here settles as being on the west of the land of Nephi along the seashore and implied as being of the 'settled' lands rather than the wilderness lands of the Lamanites. And further for those who will accept the reference in the Teaching of the Prophet Joseph Smith, page 267, that Lehi landed a little south of the Isthmus of Darien, if further give the diffinition of coures of the 'journeyings' mentioned in 1 Nephi 18:25 and explained in 1 Nephi 19:1-2 as being given a fuller account of upon he large plates of Nephi so they were not on the small plates of Nephi. That qualifying information of what was recorded on the large plates and what was not followed immediately after the brief statement of the journeying for the gathering of animals and of that of finding ore of ever kind before the chapter divisions made by Orson Pratt.
 29a For those who seek hints of where the Sidon river did flow into which sea, here is a statement that the Sidon River outlet was a part of Bountiful and such was from the 'east to the west' possibly indirectly implying that the Sidon River did empty into the east sea since it is mentioned first after the Sidon river stipulation. This is somewhat roughly shown in the provided map.
 30a The Book of Mormon states that the 'FIRST LANDING' of he Mulekites was where it bordered the land called Desolation and elsewhere it states that Mulek was brought to the land north and Lehi to the land south (Hel. 6:10). Also it speaks that Mulek's party 'came up into the south wilderness (Alma 22:31) which evokes discussion but NOT conclusion. Further where there is a 'first landing' stipulated it generally implies at least one subsequent landing as well. Rather than to travel the Isthmus land route to the land southward or into the south wilderness from the land of Desolation, it would be quite convenient to take sail again after finding the 'city of Jaredite commerce' completely destoryed and bones all over on the ground, not to mention the likely pick up of Coriantumr as well. This is just as much decerning what Mormon's writings were reporting as supposed done by John Soreson in compiling 'Mormon's Map'. Some argue, some condemn, and some communicate and understand.


The Map, given here is a rough map that may be deduced from this discription given when the sons of Mosiah were living as missionaries in the land of the Lamanites, the land of Nephi, and when Alma the younger had been going about delivering his messages of reconversion to the various regional lands of the seven regional churches of the national lands of Zarahemla (in green). And note that at this time the 'more idle part of the Lamanites had began to move up into the coastal regions of the land colored yellow as mentioned in verse 28 and thus the conclusion becomes that the land of Zarahemla was nearly surrounded by the Lamanites except for the land of Bountiful, which guarded and protected the way into the land of desolation, which at this point in time [90-82 B.C.] still left Desolate empty for neither the Lamanites nor the Nephites had yet entered into the land north of the narrow neck to live. Thus Bountiful, which did reach up into the narrow neck did act as the 'cork' in the bottle of the inhabited lands at this time. Most everyone worth their salt who attempts to make a mapping of the Book of Mormon lands recognizes Alma 22:27-34 as being a relative wealth of information about the land at the 90 B.C. time frame.
Note: The suggested period datings of Alma 22 is of 90-77 B.C. from George Reynolds' deduced dating as adopted by James E. Talmage and used by the LDS Book of Mormon even today. And Mormon's entire detailed description of the land here in Alma 22:27-34 is that of the land at the time that the King did send a proclamation throughout the land in the time of the sons of Mosiah and Mormon the abrider proceeded to stipulate the borders and conditions of the land at the time of the sons of Mosiah and the Nephites and the Lamanites when the Lamanite King made his proclamation as how to treat the sons of Mosiah. It is a 'period discription of the land' at that time which was about 90 B.C. and well before the visitation of Christ, and long before Mormon himself did live, though it was Mormon who would eventually abridge and write his abridged record of the Nephites' records.

Note 2: Concerning the truth of distances traveled in limited time, canoeing down river on their return journey Lewis and Clark reported they could make 75+ miles per day. Now this seemingly poor 'evaluator' has also taken the 'liberty' to make the subjective 'presumption' that this regarded time and distance of travel measure of what a 'Nephite could walk' in a day and a half's time. No where in the Book of Mormon is this stipulated to be a walking distance. It could have been any common form of travel, walking, running, riding a horse, or even canoeing down a river, 'particularly east to west' as so stipulated here in verse 32, for there are such rivers in the Darien that flowed from the east to the west sea. Futher as related in the commentary referenced below, it speaks to the fact that in the late 1600s in the book of William Dampier, he did stipulate there that an Indian could cross the Isthmus of the Darien in 'a day and a half's time'. Now that 'Indian' could have been a descendant of Nephi, but I do not think that was of any matter to William Dampier who reported the fact in his book, A New Voyage Around the World.


References:
Alma 22:32 Scriptural Comentary
The Narrow Passage

ver. 18 November 2015