2 Nephi 1

This seems to make it quite clear that the seed of Lehi are to be in the Americas “forever,” but as of now, there is absolutely no evidence of any migration from the house of Israel to the Americas in this time period.

Assuming this verse is true and that the Americas were first populated by immigrants from Asia circa 13,000 to 15,000 years ago, we would have to assume that God brought these ancient Asians to the Americas.

Edited to add: New evidence suggests there were humans in the Americas as early as 23,000 years ago. (see Evidence of humans in North America during the Last Glacial Maximum)

Yet at this time, from what I can tell, there were already millions of individuals living in the Americas.

In “A Promised Land,” Elder Jeffrey Holland taught that the global flood really happened, that shortly after the flood, the Americas were separated from the rest of the world, and that,

“The promised place was set apart. Without habitation it waited for the fulfillment of God’s special purposes. With care and selectivity, the Lord began almost at once to repeople the promised land. The Jaredites came first” (“A Promised Land” by Jeffrey R. Holland).

So according to Elder Holland there was no one in the Americas when the Jaredites arrived in maybe 2,000ish BCE. This is congruent with the language used in this chapter.

However, this flies in the face of the evidence that the Americas were first populated by immigration from Asia beginning about 13,000 or 15,000 years ago and that the ancient ancestors of indigenous Americans came at least predominantly (if not exclusively) from Asia. The evidence for this is overwhelming. The evidence for any pre Columbian migration from the Middle East to the America’s is non-existent.

Edited to add: New evidence suggests there were humans in the Americas as early as 23,000 years ago. (see Evidence of humans in North America during the Last Glacial Maximum )

(See also 1 Ne 13:10)

2 Ne 1:10-11

Let’s put the time line together here.

1. Lehites dwindled in unbelief circa 400 CE.
2. They lived in the land fairly unperturbed for about 1,000 years or so.
3. Then, after a millennium, they were decimated by plague and war and were scattered.

Would an all-loving God really punish a people of millions for dwindling in unbelief even though the dwindling took place more than 1,000 years earlier, so the people in question had no way of knowing anything about the God of Abraham? What about “reproving betimes (early; quickly after the fact) with sharpness” (D&C 121:43)? What about the references in the Book of Mormon that tell us Christ’s “blood atoneth for the sins of those . . . who have died not knowing the will of God concerning them, or who have ignorantly sinned” (Mosiah 3:11 and Moroni 8:22-24)?

According to D&C 19:6-12 the words “endless” and “eternal” do not mean without end when it comes to “endless torment” or “eternal damnation”. These verses in the D&C explain that these words are used because, “it is more express than other scriptures, that it might work upon the hearts of the children of men.” When people read these words in the Book of Mormon, how do they likely understand the words “endless” and “eternal”? Is this honest communication if D&C 19 reveals the actual meaning of these words?

Some critics of the Book of Mormon believe that Joseph borrowed the phrase, “from whence no traveler can return” from Shakespeare’s “from whose bourn no traveler returns” (Hamlet Act III, Scene 1).

I stumbled across something I think just as likely. Seems the Freemasons may have borrowed this from Shakespeare in this excerpt found in their second degree or fellow craft ritual:
“Ever remembering that we are travelling upon that level of time, from whose bourn no traveler returns”
(Illustrations of Masonry, by William Morgan, [1827]).

I think it’s just as likely that Joseph borrowed this from the Freemasons. He was a Freemason, but I don’t think he became one until the 1840s.

P.S. The Freemasonry ritual at the link above is eerily similar in some ways to the LDS temple endowment, especially the endowment version before the 1990 changes.

According to D&C 19:6-12 the words “endless” and “eternal” do not mean without end when it comes to “endless torment” or “eternal damnation”. These verses in the D&C explain that these words are used because, “it is more express than other scriptures, that it might work upon the hearts of the children of men.” When people read these words in the Book of Mormon, how do they likely understand the words “endless” and “eternal”? Is this honest communication if D&C 19 reveals the actual meaning of these words?

This verse contains similarities to 2 Corinthians 13:10 with the phrase "use sharpness" and a mention of "power" from the Lord. Note that the word "sharpness" is unique within the KJV bible. It's odd how so many of these parallels are to New Testament verses even when the speaking is happening circa 588 to 570 B.C..