Where did the Book of Mormon Take Place?

[InCognitus]

On 5/27/2026 at 8:12 AM, theplains said:

I would reword it slightly.

"The official position of the church now is that the location of the hills Cumorah and
Ramah is unknown. But it was taught as truth in the past by our prominent leaders".

Of course you would reword it, but an official position of "the church" would truly need to be made official.  

[theplains]

On 5/27/2026 at 3:50 PM, Calm said:

You asked for eyewitness descriptions, which would be Mormon and Moroni and possibly other descriptions in the text, not LDS leaders who didn’t live in BoM times when the Hill Cumorah became a repository.

New York State fits the descriptions.

[theplains]

On 5/31/2026 at 5:38 PM, InCognitus said:

No.  A God who was once a man as Joseph Smith taught (and no thinking Christian today believes in a God who was once a man, right?), the same as Jesus Christ was once a man.  And he "became" our God when we accepted his plan for us in the beginning.

I was more focused not on when he (Heavenly Father) is taught to have become our God but rather 
that he supposedly progressed and became a God (with his wife or wives) before they eventually
started having spirit children as heavenly parents.  That would mean Heavenly Mother became a
God before Jesus was born to her.

Edited Wednesday at 07:08 PM by theplains

[theplains]

On 5/31/2026 at 7:03 PM, InCognitus said:

Of course you would reword it, but an official position of "the church" would truly need to be made official.  

Rather than throw previous leaders under the bus and accuse them of teaching falsely,
they resort to "we don't know".

[theplains]

On 5/27/2026 at 4:54 PM, Kevin Christensen said:

That is, he notices verse in Mormon 6:6 that describes the plates as being taken from the Nephite Cumorah, but never states exactly where they were buried, and they notice the location must make sense relative to the story

Early Latter-day Saints generally understood the Book of Mormon to describe events occurring across 
much of the Americas. Under this older "hemispheric" model, the narrow neck of land was often 
identified with the Isthmus of Panama, and Nephite and Lamanite civilizations were thought to have 
occupied large regions of North and South America. In that framework, the final battle at Cumorah 
simply took place much farther north.

It's worth noting that the phrase "many waters, rivers, and fountains" comes from Ether 15:8–11 
and related Jaredite passages, particularly the broader geographical descriptions found throughout 
Ether 2–10. These passages describe the Jaredite homeland as a region rich in water.

The direct textual connection between Ramah and Cumorah is found here:

Ether 15:11 states that the Jaredites "did pitch their tents by the hill Ramah; and it was that 
same hill where my father Mormon did hide up the records unto the Lord."

Mormon 6:2 then refers to the land of Cumorah as the location of the Nephites' final gathering.

Taken together, the text itself identifies Ramah (the Jaredite name) and Cumorah (the Nephite name) 
as the same hill.

The "many waters, rivers, and fountains" description is not specifically attached to Cumorah in 
the text but comes from the broader Jaredite geographical setting described in Ether.

Those who identify the New York Hill Cumorah with the Book of Mormon hill generally reason as follows:

1. Ether describes a Jaredite land characterized by abundant water.
2. Ramah/Cumorah is located within that Jaredite setting.
3. Western New York contains numerous lakes, rivers, wetlands, and the Finger Lakes region.

For that reason, many early LDS leaders concluded that the hill mentioned in the Book of Mormon 
was the same hill located in New York. Whether one accepts that conclusion or not, that is the 
basic logic behind the traditional identification.

[Calm]

36 minutes ago, theplains said:

New York State fits the descriptions.

Yeah, only if you are clueless about what a good defensive position is in an attack or want your people to have a quick death.
 

Plus Mormon said he buried the rest of the records he had been given in Cumorah, but gave the ones that the BoM came from to his son nor did Moroni say they were buried at Cumorah.

Quote

I, Mormon, began to be old; and knowing it to the last struggle of my people, and having been commanded of the Lord that I should not suffer the records which had been handed down by our fathers, which were sacred, to fall into the hands of the Lamanites, (for the Lamanites would destroy them) therefore I made this record out of the plates of Nephi, and hid up in the hill Cumorah all the records which had been entrusted to me by the hand of the Lord, save it were these few plates which I gave unto my son Moroni (Mormon 6:6).

 

 

Edited Wednesday at 07:29 PM by Calm