IN 1943
CUMORAH IS CUMORAH

THE LAND OF THE SALVATION OF ALL
THE LIVING AND THE DEAD
FROM THE DUST OF DEAD OF THE EARTH

In the mist of the War to End All Wars, World War II, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints sent out to their members in the armed forces a pocket edition of the Book of Mormon and a companion volume entitled 'Principles of the Gospel.' As I read through those two compact volumes, once my father's, the most correct book of earth and the principles as presented under the signature of the First Presidency of the Church, I do not take lightly what is to be found therein. And therein I find that Cumorah is Cumorah where it always has been except for those who would be wiser than their precursors and more cognizant of the precepts of men than that of their anointed leaders.

If one is to follow the wisdom of the world, there would be no Godly creation of the earth and universe. There would be no ark and Flood of Noah. There would be no dividing of the earth in the days of Peleg. The children of Israel would not have walked through the mist of the Red Sea upon dry land. There would be no Jonah in the belly of the whale. There would be no Jaredite barges, no Nephite sailing ship, and no ancient horses in America. There would be no First Vision, Book of Mormon or Restoration. There would be no Son of God and the Atonement. And the world would be cursed and wasted, born of primates and evolved from the single cell rather than being a son or daughter of God.

And as I learn and experience more of life, I find that life is not always what the logic of science would make it to be. Life is living and it is full of surprises and the unexpected. Life is stranger than fiction, yet it is the very essences of reality. If all where what the theories of science would make them be, then mortal men would rule the universe. And with that mortality's end! And then the end to reason and purpose and our very existence would NOT, and be Null and Void. What logic this? There is none without God, and faith, and the Light and Life and Word he gives through the most non-conforming feat of reality that there is in the Son of God. What contrived scientific theory born of the dissections of man could conceive such as He? He is my reality not they of worldly stuff.

A COMPENDIUM OF THE DOCTRINES OF THE GOSPEL
Franklin D. Richards

Franklin D. Richards and James A. Little, Compendium of the Doctrines of the Gospel [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1925], .)

Page 312

"The Book of Mormon is the name of a record which was engraved upon plates of gold, about 400 years after the crucifixion of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, by a celebrated prophet named Mormon These plates were deposited by his son, Moroni, in a stone box, in a hill in the western part of the State of New York, called by the Nephites, Cumorah . . . . "

Principles of the Gospel

Prepared by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
Office of the First Presidency
~ Heber J. Grant ~
~ J. Reuben Clark ~
~ David O. McKay ~
1943

Page 92 (The Book of Mormon)

As stated, the 'Principles of the Gospel' was largely based upon the 'Compendium' by Richards-Little. It is also stated that the body of the work is largely a reprint, with some revisions. of the 'Compendium' by Franklin D. Richards and James A. Little. Some things should be noted. In the revision under the signatures of the First Presidency, much was just reprinted as accepted to be essentially correct in stating the matters of Gospel Doctrine. And while the jest of the statement taken from the Conpendium regarding the hill of Cumorah is plainly and essentially saying the same thing, there is evidence that it was not just copying the concept. It was purposefully rewritten, indicating full agreement with what was now a revised statement. The basic revision was that Moroni last hid the record in the hill in 420 A.D. Now in Mormon chapter 8 where Moroni is completing his father's record, Moroni first hides the record in the hill in 400 A.D. Later Moroni returns and hids up with the record his abridged translation of the record of the Jaredites and his own short book under his own name. The point of the matter is this, after revising the statement concerning Cumorah, the First Presidency published and signed their names to this volume of Gospel Principles wherein it is clearly stated that per the view of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Moroni hid the record in the exact same hill anciently called by the Nephites, Cumorah located in the western part of the State of New York. That is the First Presidency's word on the matter in the year of 1943 under the names of President Heber J. Grant, J. Ruben Clark, and David O. McKay.

What is quite interesting as well as disconcerting, is that those who love to tout that the Church by the statement of George Q. Cannon makes it clear that it does not officially sanction any detailed suggestive map to the Book of Mormon Geography, yet they would also reject the one and only fixed starting point upon which any such geography can reliably begin at the site of the hill of Cumorah in New York. As a child, I would do children's maze puzzles such as, help Bugs Bunny find his way to his rabbit whole. I always found that the maze worked easiest if one began at the end of the maze, the rabbit whole, and worked your way back to the beginning, Bugs Bunny. Cumorah is Cumorah. While the Church has not given us a detailed official map to the Book of Mormon Geography, it has given us the fixed ending site. Oh how readily those who request something reject the answer given. 'Give us a map.' The Lord does not work that way. He gives us line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little. But if we reject the first concept with which we may begin to work it out in our own minds ourselves, can we hardly expect him to just hand it all to us on a silver platter? So many just muddle around, being tossed to and guided and blown about only by the precepts and dissections of men upon the matter, reject the single simple word of God. So was Oliver Cowdery's failed attempt at translations. He did not put forth the required faith and works in order to be able to translate. So it is with those who reject the first line of the fixed starting point of the geography of the Book of Mormon being Cumorah. And thus by the lack of their exercise in faith and the works of faith and inspiration, they cast aside what the Lord would give them if only their efforts where correct before him and not according to the precepts of men.

In short, it all begins with Cumorah. And to paraphrase and adopt a principle, 'And the first shall be last and the last shall be first.' The last site of the Nephite and Jaredite end will be what the Lords gives to us to begin our discovery of the geography of the Book of Mormon. That last death site of Cumorah, Ramah, and the lands of Adam where those souls from the dust of the earth shall come forth by the power of the atonement and resurrection of the Lord unto immortality and salvation is the beginning site of the restoration. It is from there that it is taken in its fullness of the Gospel to all the earth both living and dead, that the earth may not be cursed and wasted at His Coming. Poetic, Romantic, Picturesque and all so fitting and proper in the harmony with the Plan of Salvation from the very foundation of the earth to the end thereof.

And one last thought of irony, that the First Presidency would give it to us, as a matter of Gospel Principle, in the midst of another great world at war and death, World War II. And while they who died the deaths of innocence, horror and even in guilt during that very time do too now look to that restoration that took place in the land of death Cumorah, in Western New York State where the fullness of the gospel was returned to provide for the salvation of all mankind as the gift of God through his Son Jesus Christ.