Fulfillment of Prophecies of the Book of Mormon Concerning the Land of America

The peopling of the great continent of America is now, and has been for years, a very interesting subject. In the absence of the Book of Mormon, all other histories fail to give any reliable information respecting the aborigines of that land. The sacred penman, Moses, gives a very brief account, in Gen. xi, of how the people were once united in building a city and a tower whose top should reach to heaven; and the Lord, to restrain them in accomplishing their desires, confounded their language that they might not understand each other's speech, “And the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth.” It evidently was not the design of the sacred historian to give a detailed account of the peopling of the nations, but he says, “The Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth.” Were it not for the writings of Ether, a Prophet who lived on the continent of America, we could not be informed where a portion of this people went to. But the Prophet Ether, whose abridged record is bound up in the Book of Mormon, 517th page, states that a man of strong faith, who was at the building of the Tower of Babel, was persuaded by his brother Jared to call upon the Lord that their language might not be confounded; and the Lord heard him and told him to gather up every kind of seed, and every kind of his flocks, and all his relatives, and the Lord gave directions whither they should travel. “And it came to pass that they did travel in the wilderness, and did build barges, in which they did cross many waters, being directed continually by the hand of the Lord. And the Lord would not suffer that they should stop beyond the sea in the wilderness, but he would that they should come forth even unto the land of promise, which was choice above all other lands, which the Lord God had preserved for a righteous people; and he had sworn in his wrath unto the brother of Jared, that whoso should possess this land of promise, from that time henceforth and forever, should serve Him, the true and only God, or they should be swept off when the fulness of his wrath should come upon them. And now we can behold the decrees of God concerning this land, that it is a land of promise, “and whatsoever nation shall possess it, shall serve God, or they shall be swept off when the fulness of his wrath shall come upon them.” The subsequent portion of the book of Ether reveals that as nations multiplied upon the face of the land of promise, they became exceedingly wicked and brought themselves under the condemnation which the Lord had said to the brother of Jared should come to pass; for the people had entered into secret combinations to obtain power and gain unjustly, and wars had covered the land, and so fierce were they for battle that they did not stay to bury their slain; and they forgot the conditions which the Lord had said, to the brother of Jared, must be observed for a people to be permitted to enjoy a land so choice, even the land of promise on the American continent. Thus, the Lord permitted Satan to stir them up to anger until they were all slain, even many millions of them, for they fought each other until every soul was slain save two kings, and then they fought single-handed and both fell, leaving only the Prophet Ether to make a record of their cruel wars which he had beheld. Thus were the words of the Lord fulfilled, that, on the land of promise, whatsoever nation sinned should be cut off.

A very similar inference may be drawn that the purposes of the Lord were the same concerning the promised land upon the European continent, for we read that the rebellious Jews were cut off while travelling to the promised land of Canaan, (now called Palestine and possessed by the Turks) for only Joshua the Prophet and Caleb the son of Nun, and those born on the way there who had not rebelled, reached the promised land. This appears a decree of the Lord that the best people should possess the best portions of the earth—Canaan being spoken of by the Prophets as a land flowing with milk and honey, both these promised lands abounding in wealth for the comfort of the people, and also full of materials for building cities and temples. The old ruins of cities and forts found in Central America are ample proofs of the abundance of material which the country afforded, and also of the genius of the people to use it. But few could travel across the continent of America without being struck that they were in “a choice land, above every other land.”

The Book of Mormon opens with an interesting account that the Lord requested a man named Lehi, with his family, to leave Jerusalem and cross the big waters, in a manner very similar to what he had commanded Jared and his family to do, that they might also go to the promised and choice land of America. The nations formed of the families of the brother of Jared had failed to be sufficiently righteous to be allowed to live on so good a land. At this time it would seem the Lord was about to try the descendants of Lehi, who was of the tribe of Manasseh the son of Joseph who was sold into Egypt; but history shows that this portion of the family of Joseph only remained righteous for a few generations, after which they also fell into many of the error of the descendants of Jared, became corrupt and murderous, proud and dishonest. These people subsequently enjoyed the personal administration of our Savior. He went to the land of promise in America, selected twelve Apostles, and established the Gospel among them, in a similar manner to what he had done at Jerusalem; but the descendants of Lehi, like the Christian churches on the European continent, fell into apostacy, and so bitter were their wars that all the children of Nephi fell by the hands of the Lamanites, their brethren, on the field of battle. The survivors were the children of Laman, whose descendants had displeased the Lord and their skins had been cursed with darkness in consequence, and they are now known as the red-skins of America. Thus, the nations that were of the families of Lehi, who came from Jerusalem, failed to be sufficiently righteous for the Lord to permit them to enjoy that land, which is said to be choice above every other land,—viz, the continent of America—because the Lord had passed the decree that “whatsoever nation should possess it should serve God, or they should be swept off when the fulness of his wrath should come upon them.”

It would appear that after a few centuries had passed away, the Lord, still willing that this choice land should be inhabited, inspired Christopher Columbus, while living in Genoa in Italy, with the idea that there must be a land beyond the Atlantic Ocean. Columbus obtained a vessel and outfit from Ferdinand and Isabella, the King and Queen of Spain, and in the year 1492 discovered the continent of America. On his return to his countrymen he communicated the joyful tidings of the new land to them; a steady stream of emigration set in from Europe to America, and again, in time, a mighty nation, like the Jaredites and like the Lamanites and Nephites, covered the promised land on the western continent. This people, unfortunately, not believing in the records of Ether, failed to be sufficiently righteous for the Lord to permit them to peaceably enjoy the promised land. They, like the other nations that had preceded them, fell into wickedness, rejected the counsel of the last Prophet, Joseph Smith, whom the Lord had raised up, and consequently they are falling, like the other nations who preceded them through their unbelief and wickedness. The news of the present day furnishes abundant evidence of the truth of this statement.

The fulfilment of another of Ether’s prophecies—namely, that “whatsoever nation should possess it shall be free from bondage,” has also been abundantly exemplified. The history of the struggle of the American people with their parent country, their declaration of independence in the year 1776, and their final success in establishing their nationality, is a strong argument that the Lord remembered his promise that the nation which should possess it should be free from bondage, if they kept His commandments. The discovery of General Arnold's treachery to the American cause, in his intrigue with General Clinton and Major Andre, in the year 1780, which would, perhaps, if successful. have overthrown the American cause, is also another proof that the prophecy of Ether was a true one, and that the decree of the Lord that “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.” The time is near when the Latter-day Saints will dwell on all the face of that choice land, and they have only to continue the virtuous and holy course they have observed since the truth was revealed to them by the administration of holy angels, to secure to themselves the promise of the Lord, made to the former inhabitants of that land, that whatsoever nation shall possess it in righteousness shall be free from bondage and captivity.

The administration of angels from heaven, the fellowship of holy Prophets, the communion of Saints, the gift of the Holy Ghost, and the possession of a choice land abounding in the luxuries and elegancies of life, are incentives for the Saints in these lands, while dwelling with the wicked, to maintain their integrity to the cause of the Lord that these blessings may be theirs to enjoy.