In 2024, we will be studying the Book of Mormon. Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll have a couple of different perspectives on it. Which way did Nephi’s voyage come to the new world? Was it the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean? George Potter is a proponent of a South American geography theory for the Book of Mormon, and he’ll answer. He thinks it would have been too hard for them to travel around both capes of S American and Africa, so he’s going with a Pacific crossing.
George Potter makes the case that Lehi landed in modern-day Chile in South America. We’ll discuss his reasons for making the case, and anachronisms. Of course, Joseph Smith said Lehi landed 30 degrees South Latitude, so they’ve got that going for them. Have you heard of a South American model before?
Are Inca Temples in Chile & Peru remnants of Nephite/Jaredite civilization? George Potter says Yes! What do you think of his claims?
In the final part of our conversation with George Potter, we’ll talk about the sticky topic of Book of Mormon DNA. How does George respond to that question? We’ll also discuss Hagoth and Thor Hyerdahl. What do they have in common? The claim is that both travelled between the Polynesian islands and South America. Check out our conversation.
What do you make of George Potter’s claims?
Wheat & Tares 
The topic of where the Jaredites and Lehites landed continues to be a topic I am exploring right now as well.
As of now, I have arrived at both groups landing on a place that is not part of our present Earth as the answer that seems to make the most sense. Meaning, essentially, they travelled through space to arrive on a different world. So, obviously a bit of a different take than that of George Potter.
I continue to chase this thread in some very recent and highly speculative, exploration-type posts as part of a larger effort in thinking through some things:
https://coatofskins.blogspot.com/2023/12/the-promised-land-landing-jaredites-and.html
https://coatofskins.blogspot.com/2023/12/chasing-thread-people-leaving-earth-and.html
William: Good as any.
MM: Maybe, maybe not. I don’t know. We will see.
After listening to some of Mr. Potter’s reasons for placing things in South America, I think it actually takes less imagination to envision the Jaredites and Lehites on another world than trying to make Inca ruins have anything to do with the Book of Mormon.
William,
Being the quasi-mystic that I am–I’m actually open to the idea that crossing the “great deep” may be a symbolic representation of journeying to other worlds. In fact, I’ve wondered if–in some cases–the shift from one world to another might be so subtle that the folks making the journey would never notice the transition between oceans. Of course, the stars would be different–at least that’s my assumption–but even so, the folks on the ship might assume that they’ve journeyed such a great distance that that would account for the change in the sidereal heavens.
That said, what keeps me from going too far in that line of thinking is that I believe there’s enough good evidence for the Book of Mormon in Mesoamerica to keep me looking in that direction.
What is that evidence, Jack?
I find the work of Sorenson, Gardner, and others quite compelling. It doesn’t constitute absolute proof–but it works so well (for me) that I think of that region as the de facto lands of the Book of Mormon. That said, I might learn one day that Sorenson got the whole thing wrong–and I’d be OK with that. As far as I’m concerned the BoM might’ve taken place on Mars and it’d still be true.
(ahem!)