Doctrine of the Promised Land Personified as Land of Adam
~ Adam-ondi-Ahman ~
(America ~ Land of Liberty, Land of Promise,
A Key to the Book of Mormon Geography)
by Don R. Hender
Near the center of the United States is a place we Mormons call
Adam-ondi-Ahman. It is located at Spring Hill, Davis County, Missouri. This
is near were Adam, after being expelled from the Garden of Eden, built an
altar and offered prayer and sacrifice unto the Lord.(see
details) Three years before his
death, Adam called his righteous posterity before him at this site and
blessed them and the Lord appeared unto them.(D&C 107:53-57) This site
has been called the 'Valley of God, where Adam dwelt.'(JD 18:343) This is the
central lands of Father Adam and his people. Now this land that God gave to
man and Adam was given on the premise of worshipping God and living
righteously, doing as God commanded. It has always been God's intention to
not allow man to defile his own spirit beyond the point were man has
completely rejected God the father of spirits, and has fully ripened in their
state of wickedness. It has ever been so upon the face of this land, this
promised land of Father Adam, this promised land of America.
The Fate of the Wicked Children of Adam
The first great annihilation of wickedness upon this Promised Land was that of the wicked children of Adam. In the days of Noah, the descendants of Adam had ripped in their sins to a state of awful wickedness. They had violated the law of the land of righteousness and they needed to be destroyed from off of the face of this land. At that date and time, the Lord brought the destruction upon the people by the universal flood that destroyed all that was living upon the face of the land. And the wickedness was removed as they were drowned upon the land of Adam which in that day was all one land. The ark came to rest, as is believed today, on Mt. Ararat on the eastern Turkey border with Russia as pictured at the left. Perhaps half way around the world, perhaps not as the land had yet to be divided.
The Fate of the Jaredites
After the flood and in the days of Peleg, the Lord effected a division of
the land so that the central lands of Adams and the lands of promise might be
removed from the rest of the world. Later during the time of the Tower of
Babel, God once again brought the people of Jared to the promised lands of
Adam, America. The Jaredite history is in the Book of Mormon in the Book of
Ether. Listen to the narative of that record as it speaks of the Promised
Land as the Jaredites are brought to America from Ether chapter 2:7-11:
7 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 [this America], which was [and is] choice above all other
lands, which the Lord God had preserved for a righteous people [even down to
the restoration of His gospel in the last days and in preparation for His
Second Coming and the meeting at Adam-ondi-Ahman].
8 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 [even like unto the people in the days of Noah], should serve him, the true and only God, or they should be swept off when the fulness of his wrath should come upon them.
9 And now, we can behold the decrees of God concerning this land [this America], that it is a land of promise; and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall serve God [as In God We Trust] , or they shall be swept off when the fulness of his wrath shall come upon them. And the fulness of his wrath cometh upon them when they are ripened in iniquity.
10 For behold, this is a land which is choice above all other lands; wherefore he that doth possess it shall serve God or shall be swept off; for it is the everlasting decree of God. And it is not until the fulness of iniquity among the children of the land, that they are swept off.
11 And this cometh unto you, O ye Gentiles, that ye may know the decrees of
God--that ye may repent, and not continue in your iniquities until the
fulness come, that ye may not bring down the fulness of the wrath of God upon
you as the inhabitants of the land have hitherto done.
12 Behold, this is a choice land, and 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,
who hath been manifested by the things which we have written.
The Jaredites had prophets and knew of the ways of God, yet as time
passed over the centuries they too did ripen in their sins and came to the
level of being wiped from the face of the earth upon the hills east of the
central land of Adam. Not by flood this time, but by their own hand where
they annihilated from off of the face of the earth and the Jaredite nation
become extinct due to their wickedness upon God's promised land. And the
Hills of Ramah or Cumorah ran with the blood of the wicked as all where
destroyed. Ramah is the name of the Hill Cumorah given by the Jaredites, and
it is upon the same hill which the Nephites called Cumorah, that this took
place. According to the early leaders of the Church, including Joseph Smith,
this was the same Hill Cumorah in Palmyra, New York, as starred on the
previous map, where the Angel Moroni entrusted Joseph Smith with the Golden
Plates as the Words of God where to come forth from the dust of the dead. (2
Nephi 3:19-20; 26:15-18)
"The Curse" - Live Righteous or Be Destroyed!
Now, it is understood and stated that the Promised Land is considered to
be all of the Americas, North, South and Central America. The people of Lehi
where led to the land south and they were likewise told of this Promises land.
1 Nephi 2:20 And inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments, ye shall prosper, and
shall be led to a land of promise; yea, even a land which I have prepared
for you; yea, a land which is choice above all other lands.
Yet is one portion of the Promised Land viewed
as having the greater 'curse' of destruction upon it? Lachoneous, a prophet
leader of the Nephites in the days they had to withstand their greatest
threat from within, the Gadianton Robbers, appears to have believed so. For
when he gathered in the Nephites to withstand the robbers, he selected the
land south, Zarahemla, to make his stand of survival upon rather than to do
so upon the lands of desolation of the north land. "Now Lachoneous did cause
that they should gather themselves together in the land southward, because of
the great curse which was upon the land northward." (3 Nephi 3:24) Lechoneous
felt they had a better chance of survival by not going upon the land where
the children of Adam had been destroyed, where the Jaredites had been
destroyed, where the Nephites where prophesied to eventually be destroyed on.
Could this be a reason why the Nephites took so long
to inhabit the land north?
The Fate of the Wicked of Lehi's descendants
As the Jaredites were in their final battles upon the hills of Ramah of Adam's promised land, the Lord again brought another people to dwell in this land. According to The Teaching of the Prophet Joseph Smith, page 267, they landed a little south of the Isthmus of Darien as starred on the earlier map. And though the promise was still made to these as in the days of Adam and in the days of Jared, this people would not be completely wiped from the face of the earth. Ignorance was to be the key of sparing a remnant while they who had access to the full word of God would be completely destroyed. Thus the Nephites with the records and word of God where destroyed and those who where called Lamanites where used by the Lord to once again wipe the earth clean of those whose wickedness had ripened full. And again upon the hills of Cumorah of the central Land of Adam was the wicked destroyed. (Of an interesting note, it was when the Nephites where moved into the land north that a real urgency of the promise of destruction was stated.
The Fate of the Wicked Gentiles Upon the Land
Now a fourth time has the hand of the Lord brought a people to this
Promised Land of America.(1 Nephi 13:10-42) Listen to just one verse, verse
30:
30 Nevertheless, thou beholdest that the Gentiles who have gone forth out
of captivity, and have been lifted up by the power of God above all other
nations [America stands at the head of all Nations by the power of God], upon
the face of the land which is choice above all other lands, which is the land
that the Lord God hath covenanted with thy father that his seed should have
for the land of their inheritance; wherefore, thou seest that the Lord God
will not suffer that the Gentiles will utterly destroy the mixture of thy
seed, which are among thy brethren.
Seeking God and religious freedom
they came. And God restored the word of his gospel unto them and established
his church and kingdom amongst them, again calling apostles and prophets.
Thus his word is at their disposal and they again are able to accept or
reject God's word. Yet all those who rebel against God and become ripened in
their sins will once again be swept from off the land. This will occur as
part of Christ's Second Coming. And the hills of the lands of Adams will this
time be swept with the fire of the Lord and only the righteous will remain.
And the lands will be turned back and again become one land, the Promised
Land of the central land of Adam, the land of the Covenant to that other land
of the Covenant of Abraham and they shall be one land.
At the Very Last
The city of Enoch will be restored to this central land. The final great
gathering of the seed of Adam will occur at this site of Adam-ondi-Ahman. And
all of God's promises will be fulfilled that were promised. Then again at the
very last the armies of Adam and the righteous will wage one last battle with
those that follow Satan. And the wicked will be destroyed being cast into the
pit to remain there for ever and ever as they are wiped from off God's
creation.
Now you tell me, where is the promised lands of the Fathers, including
Adam, and Enoch, and Noah, and Joseph, and of Ephraim and Mannaseh, and of
Lehi and Nephi, and of Joseph Smith and of us today? True, Israel is a land of
promise given to the House of Israel and is the sight of the Old Jerusalem
where Christ suffered for the sins of the world. But where is the New
Jerusalem, the land of the fulfilling of Joseph of Egypt's blessings not of
Judah's blessings? Where? Where
is the promised lands of the Jaredites? Where is the lands of
the great 'curse' of the Nephites. Where was the gospel restored for this
last time. Where is this land of Promise? Where have the wicked who have not
lived righteously been destroyed? Where is it that total destructions of the
wicked happens, of those who do not comply with the doctrine of righteous?
Does it not occur upon the face of this Promised Land, this promised America?
Is it not the doctrine of the promised land that the destruction of the
wicked will be carried out upon it if they do not repent? To the wicked this
is a curse, the great curse that was and is upon this Land of Promise. New
York is where the Hill Ramah or Cumorah is. New York is where the Church and
the promise was restored. What does the promise of the Promised Land tell you
about the geography of the Book of Mormon? Do the Book of Mormon lands have to do
with North America the central land of Father Adam or not? Is this not a key
to the geography of the Book of Mormon? It certainly should make it known
that the lands of the Book of Mormon where the Americas and no where else.
It seems to make it very plain that North America is a part of the lands of
the Book of Mormon. And in my opionion any theory of the geography of the
Book of Mormon which does not put the promised lands of Father Adam, the
lands of North America where all will culminate fulfilling the promises of
Joseph of Egypt, as part of these Book of Mormon lands, needs to be looked at
long and hard to see why they do not.