Book of Mormon Evidence

Book of Mormon Evidence Faithfully exploring Latter-Day Topics of our Times.

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What does Scripture Central and FAIR Mormon say about the final battles of the Nephites not being able to have enough ro...
06/24/2026

What does Scripture Central and FAIR Mormon say about the final battles of the Nephites not being able to have enough room on this hill Cumorah in NY to hold a battle?

Both apologists argue that the New York Hill Cumorah (a glacial drumlin near Palmyra) doesn’t match the text’s description and couldn’t have hosted the scale of battle described.

Scripture Central notes that many Church leaders have simply and accurately said that the geography of the Book of Mormon is not revealed, and several LDS scholars have questioned whether the New York hill could feasibly be the Cumorah described in the text. Some scholars instead place the final battle in modern-day Mexico, just northwest of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. https://scripturecentral.org/knowhy/where-is-the-location-of-the-hill-cumorah

FAIR says the New York drumlin was given the name “Cumorah” due to a misreading by early Latter-day Saints, even though it isn’t the Cumorah described in the text. FAIR also documents that the “New York Cumorah” assumption has historically been challenged even by figures who initially held it, like Sidney B. Sperry, who initially supported the New York Cumorah view but began questioning it during the 1960s.

It is the view of Heartlanders that the final battles were not held "ON" the hill, but "ALL AROUND" the land of the hill Cumorah in NY. Joseph and Oliver described it in more detail in the attached map and here: https://bookofmormonevidence.org/on-cumorah-vs-land-of-cumorah/

Ohio is the Land of Bountiful?James Talmadge said, “Parallels of the Hopewell Culture as described by William C. Mills, ...
06/23/2026

Ohio is the Land of Bountiful?

James Talmadge said, “Parallels of the Hopewell Culture as described by William C. Mills, Chief Archaeologist of Ohio, with the Book of Mormon. [May 20, 1917; Sunday]

"Attended Sunday School and afternoon service in Hawthorne Hall, and was a speaker at each assembly. Evening meetings here, as also in Brooklyn, have been discontinued for the summer. The attendance both at Sunday School and afternoon meeting was surprisingly large in view of the fact that many of the Utah college students have left for the vacation period.

This evening at the hotel I had a long and profitable consultation with Professor Wm. C. Mills, State Archaeologist of Ohio. He is continuing his splendid work of exploration in the Ohio mounds, and I went over with him again the remarkable agreement between his deductions and the Book of Mormon story. He has reached the following (10) conclusions:

The area now included within the political boundaries defining the State of Ohio was once inhabited by two distinct peoples, representing two cultures, a higher and a lower. These two classes were contemporaries; in other words, the higher and the lower culture represented distinct phases of development existing at one time and in contiguous sections, and furnish in no sense an instance of evolution by which the lower culture was developed into the higher. These two cultural types or distinct peoples were generally in a state of hostility one toward the other, the lower culture being more commonly the aggressor and the higher the defender. During limited periods, however, the two types, classes, or cultures, lived in a state of neutrality, amounting in fact to friendly in*******se. The numerous exhumations of human bones demonstrate that the people of the lower type, if not indeed both cultures, were very generally affected by syphilis, indicating a prevalent condition of lasciviousness. There (are) two peoples or cultures…the lower culture was most commonly the assailing party, while the people of the higher type defended as best they could but in general fled. As a further consequence of this belligerent status they buried their dead, with or without previous cremation, in such condition as to admit of expeditious covering up of the cemeteries by the heaping of earth over the sepulchers [sic], in which hurried work the least skilled laborers and even children could be employed. From a careful collating of data it is demonstrated that the general course of migration through the area now defined as the State of Ohio was inward from the west and outward toward the east. Professor Mills states that no definite data as to the age of these peoples have as yet been found, but that the mounds may date back a few hundred years or even fifteen hundred or more. Several years ago I placed a Book of Mormon in the hands of Professor Mills and, while he is reticent as to the parallelism of his discoveries and the Book of Mormon account, he is impressed by the agreement.” James E. Talmage 20 May 1917 https://bookofmormonevidence.org/ohio-is-the-land-bountiful-2/

Before we answer the question about how the Maya Civilization of Mexico links to Ancient India, let’s ask another relate...
06/22/2026

Before we answer the question about how the Maya Civilization of Mexico links to Ancient India, let’s ask another related question. Were the Mayans & Aztecs Scattered by the Gentiles? The simple answer is No! However the Native American Lamanite in the USA was SMITTEN and SCATTERED during the “Trail of Tears.”

“In the book The Conquest of the Maya by J. Leslie Mitchell, he explains that the basis of the old Maya empire was not of the work of the ancestors of the present day Maya, but was an import from the same foreigners that built the palaces and temples of the Chams and Khmers in Cambodia, and the temples in Java.

“The Mayan people, also known as technicians, were no doubt named as such because of being connected with this person named Maya or Mayasura and Maya Danava. They were a part of his clan or tribe. They had fallen away from the Vedic way of life and were sent or escaped to the region of Central America. They also carried with them much of the science of astronomy and navigation for which this Mayasura was known…

“South American pyramids are of course related to Egyptian pyramids. If the Mayans have much in common with the Egyptians, then they must share a common origin… Dr. Ganapati Sthapati of Chennai, a foremost expert on Vastu shatra, the ancient Hindu architecture, has visited the Mayan structures in Central America and found many similarities between the design and construction methods of the Mayans and that of the ancient Hindus.” Mayan Origins in Ancient Southern India Posted by Bhaktivedanta Ashram

We believe the Lamanites and Jews (who were one in the same mixed race), were smitten and scattered for their unbelief. The Jews have been scattered all over the world. The Native Americans were pushed and scattered to lands west of the Mississippi. Who has smitten and scattered these groups? The Gentiles or the Europeans and others who were non-Jewish.

There are two specific archaeological discoveries pertaining to 761 AD, about which most Mexican historians are silent, that attract our attention as possible links of Maya civilization to ancient India. The first one is a wall panel (Panel No. 3 of Temple 0-13, at Piedras Negras, Guatemala; reproduced as Plate 69, page 343 of ‘The Ancient Maya’ by S.G. Morley) belonging to the Later Classic Stage of Mexican history, associated with the peaking of Maya architecture and sculpture. Mexican historians have not given any interpretation of this panel. It appears that the scene depicted in the panel relates to the great Indian epic ‘Ramayana’.https://bookofmormonevidence.org/maya-civilization-of-mexico-baffling-links-with-ancient-india/

“Cumorah which must become as famous among the Latter-day Saints, as Sinai was among the former day Saints…Cumorah, the ...
06/21/2026

“Cumorah which must become as famous among the Latter-day Saints, as Sinai was among the former day Saints…Cumorah, the artificial hill of North America, is well calculated to stand in this generation, as a monument of marvelous works and wonders.” WW Phelps Letter 12
What is the difference between an Artificial hill and a Natural hill?
Hill Cumorah is not a “natural” hill, but is defined as a drumlin.
“Drumlin, oval or elongated hill believed to have been formed by the streamlined movement of glacial ice sheets across rock debris, or till. The name is derived from the Gaelic word druim (“rounded hill,” or “mound”) and first appeared in 1833.” Britannica.com
Below, W.W. Phelps calls Cumorah an “artificial” hill. What would he mean by the name, artificial hill? One that is obviously different than a typical dirt hill, or rock hill as we usually think? In other words natural or typical hills naturally formed would have natural caves within. The Hill Cumorah was not a typical hill such as we normally understand, i.e. mountain, or mount etc. Hill Cumorah was a drumlin which many people don’t know the difference between that and a natural hill. Webster’s current dictionary says, “Definition of drumlin: an elongate or oval hill of glacial drift… First Known Use of drumlin 1812, in the meaning defined above.” So a drumlin was formed from glacial drift unlike many hills we usually think of.https://bookofmormonevidence.org/letter-12-cumorah-is-a.../

I sincerely believe Joseph Smith used the items he found in the stone box for translation. Namely the plates with a brea...
06/20/2026

I sincerely believe Joseph Smith used the items he found in the stone box for translation. Namely the plates with a breastplate and the spectacles to translate those plates. Together the spectacles and breastplate are called the Interpreters as the Book of Mormon states. I realize some very good members of the church believe Joseph used a stone in a hat to translate, or a combination of both. It doesn’t ultimately matter which version you believe, but I believe Joseph did not use a stone in a hat. However, as Moromi said, “ye may know the truth of all things.” You may decide on your own of course.
Some will watch this video below that President Nelson did a few years ago, and think our Prophet was telling us exactly how Joseph translated the plates and with what instruments. I agree that our Prophet is suggesting that using a stone in a hat may be a way that he feels Joseph could have possibly translated. But our Prophet says the stone in a hat process is only one of “a lot of suggestions” as you listen to this video. What our Prophet said is not a revelation nor doctrine. He shared his thoughts about translation but it was just his opinion. That theory may have come from a historian or other person.
At the link below you see one of my personal “suggestions” how I envision Joseph translating with Emma. Emma didn’t see any of the translation items as Joseph was commanded to not let others see. It seems many historians insist there was a hat used in translation. I have a suggestion below that indicated a different way of using a hat. Not a top hat but likely a farmers hat. https://bookofmormonevidence.org/stone-in-a-hat-from.../

06/19/2026

Plates Buried and Final Battle Same Hill

“As the fighting neared its end, Mormon gathered the remnant of his forces about a hill which they called Cumorah, located in what is now the western part of the state of New York.... When finished with the record, Moroni was to hide it up in that same Hill Cumorah which was their battlefield. It would come forth in modern times as the Book of Mormon, named after Moroni’s father, the historian who compiled it... His people were Americans, too. His words constituted a people-to-people message, ancient Americans speaking to modern Americans.” Mark E. Petersen https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1978/10/the-last-words-of-moroni?lang=eng

Why haven’t archaeologists found ancient horse bones in the lands of the Book of Mormon?They have! Archaeologists have f...
06/19/2026

Why haven’t archaeologists found ancient horse bones in the lands of the Book of Mormon?

They have! Archaeologists have found many ancient horse bones dated before Columbus in North America. The Book of Mormon talks about horses. “There were beasts in the forests of every kind, both the cow and the ox, and the ass and the horse, and the goat and the wild goat, and all manner of wild animals…”(1 Nephi 18:25). Here are just a few articles confirming the horse in North America:

“The first paleontological site in North America was probably at Big Bone Lick, which is now Big Bone Lick State Park near the Ohio River in Union, Kentucky. A French commander organized a dig there in 1739. Bones retrieved by him were sent to the Natural History Museum in Paris, France. In the 1960’s, the University of Nebraska conducted another dig and several mammal fossils were recovered including: possible wolf and black bear, modern bison, ancient bison, two types of musk ox, American moose, wapiti elk, common Virginia deer, extinct stag moose, caribou, flatheaded peccary, extinct North American horse, possible tapir, American mastodon, woolly mammoth, and two types of giant ground sloth. The most common fossil found at the Big Bone Lick dig was the modern bison.“

“The greater portion, both of the entire skeletons or extinct animals, and the separate bones, have been taken up from black mud [in Big Bone Lick, Kentucky], about twelve feet below the level of the creek. It is supposed that the bones of mastodons found here could not have belonged to less than one hundred distinct individuals, those of the fossil elephant (E. primigenius), to twenty, besides which, a few bones of a stag, horse, megalonyx, and bison, are stated to have been obtained….In regard to the horse, it may probably have differed from our Equus caballus as much as the zebra or wild ass, in the same manner as that found at Newberne in North Carolina appears to have done” – Charles Lyell, Travels in North America in the Years 1841-1842, New York: Charles E. Merrill [1909], 139-144. https://bookofmormonevidence.org/book-of-mormon-horses-in-ancient-north-america/

As you see in the map from The Archaeology of New York, you can see 109 ancient sites dated from about 2400 BC (Lamoka) ...
06/18/2026

As you see in the map from The Archaeology of New York, you can see 109 ancient sites dated from about 2400 BC (Lamoka) to 1600 AD in New York State, and many near Cumorah. I ask you to look between the green line and the pink like in the map, as you see an absence of mound sites. Could that be indicative that after the final battles at Cumorah, the people chose not to live in those particular areas of Cumorah?

"Various cultures of Native American tribes inhabited the Lewiston (NY) area for thousands of years, with the earliest known artifacts dating to 5000 B.C. By the 14th century, Iroquoian-speaking peoples inhabited the area. Before the mid-17th century, they had coalesced into the Five Nations, the historic Iroquois tribes of the Haudenosaunee based in present-day New York...

The Hopewell site (Lewiston Mound) is located on the grounds of the Earl W. Brydges Artpark. The Hopewell site dates back to the year 200 AD. The Marker can be reached from South 4th Street south of Tuscarora Street. On the grounds of Artpark, the Hopewell sight is found in a wooded section of the land, in between two parking lots. The inscription on the mound of the Hopewell site says that there are “Thousands of similar mounds are located in the Ohio River Valley where the Hopewell lived in small scattered settlements from about 200 B.C. to A.D. 500.” https://bookofmormonevidence.org/lewiston-ny-mound-200-bc-to-500-ad/

I asked Claude June 15, 2026 the following: According to Scripture Central and Fair Mormon when did Joseph Smith first c...
06/17/2026

I asked Claude June 15, 2026 the following: According to Scripture Central and Fair Mormon when did Joseph Smith first call the hill in NY Cumorah?

Answer: "According to Scripture Central and FAIR, Joseph Smith himself never used the name “Cumorah” for the New York hill in his personal histories. The first documented person to identify the New York hill as Cumorah appears to have been William W. Phelps in 1833, followed by Oliver Cowdery in 1835. The name Cumorah came into common circulation among Latter-day Saints no earlier than the mid-1830s, and there’s no historical evidence Moroni called the hill “Cumorah” during Joseph’s first encounter with him in 1823." Scripture Central

"The closest thing to Joseph Smith himself using the term is in Doctrine and Covenants 128, where Cumorah is mentioned in connection with the gospel going forth — though this may simply reference the Book of Mormon’s Cumorah generally rather than explicitly naming the New York hill." FAIR

So the short answer: not Joseph Smith directly in the 1820s/early 1830s — the identification traces to Phelps (1833) and Cowdery (1835), which then became standard among Latter-day Saints.” Claude AI

Heartlanders believe the Hill was called Cumorah by Joseph Smith much earlier than 1833. According to Lucy, when Moroni first appeared to Joseph Smith in 1823, he identified the hill as Cumorah: "The record is on a side hill on the Hill of Cumorah 3 miles from this place. Remove the grass and moss and you will find a large flat stone pry that up and you will find the record under it laying on 4 pillars of cement— then the angel left him." Lucy Mack Smith's Journal of 1845

“Stop, father, Stop.” said Joseph, “it was the angel of the Lord— as I passed by the hill of Cumorah, where the plates are, the angel of the Lord met me and said, that I had not been engaged enough in the work of the Lord;" Early 1827– Joseph Smith (Quoted by his mother Lucy Mack Smith) Early 1827.

“This Book, which contained these things, was hid in the earth by Moroni, in a hill called by him, Cumorah, which hill is now in the State of New York, near the village of Palmyra, in Ontario County." Parley P. Pratt. 1830– Oliver Cowdery (quoted by Parley P. Pratt) during the mission to the Lamanites (D&C 28, 30 and 32).

Most Mesoamerican Theorists don't believe the accuracy of Lucy Mack Smith's Journal nor Parley P. Pratt. I do! https://bookofmormonevidence.org/moroni-told-joseph-smith-the-hill-was-called-cumorah/

At first glance the title of this blog, “Did Lehi have Seed who were from the Tribe of Judah”, seems obviously No! Why? ...
06/16/2026

At first glance the title of this blog, “Did Lehi have Seed who were from the Tribe of Judah”, seems obviously No! Why? How could Lehi a descendant of Joseph have children from Judah? Was Sariah his wife from Judah? No. Lehi and Sariah were both regarded as Jews for they lived near Jerusalem, but they had the blood of Joseph, not Judah. Yes both Joseph and Judah are brothers through Israel, but Lehi was from Joseph. Because of the mixing of the Lamanites, Nephites, and Judahites (Mulek), many of the later descendants of Lehi could be from both Joseph and Judah. We will explore this.

As you read below Hugh Nibley said Lehi could be called many heritages.

LEHI’S MANY HERITAGES
“Hugh Nibley said, “The caravans of Egypt and Israel pass each other, guided through the sands by those men of the desert (Arabs) who were the immemorial go-between of the two civilizations.

ARAB: Arab designates a way of life, and was applied by the Jews to their own relatives who remained behind in the wilderness. Manasseh lived furthest out of Jerusalem and had contact with Arabs the most.
ISRAELI: Of Manasseh through Joseph and the 12 tribes of Israel.
EGYPTIAN: Language of Lehi consists of learning of Jews and language of Egyptians: Heritage, culture. Ammon was Manasseh's nearest neighbor and is an Egyptian name.
HEBREW: Lehi means Jaw Bone in Hebrew. From Eber, Jewish because they live near and around Jerusalem. Learning of the Jews. See link about Beit Lehi (House of Lehi) found in Jerusalem
CHRISTIAN: Through Christ, and lived the law of Moses
https://bookofmormonevidence.org/did-lehi-have-seed-who-were-from-the-tribe-of-judah-who-is-zoram/

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