Is The Book of Mormon a Story of Real People? or Is It Just Another Fairy Tale?
(And Examination of Joseph Smith’s Hill Cumorah Purchased for the Mormon Church by Wilford C. Wood)
View PDF Tract / The Older The Bolder – Marshall Almarode
Book of Mormon Account of the Dead
Mormon 6:10-15
“And it came to pass that my men were hewn down, yea, even my ten thousand who were with me, and I fell wounded in the midst; and they passed by me that they did not put an end to my life. And when they had gone through and hewn down all my people save it were twenty and four of us, (among whom was my son Moroni) and we having survived the dead of our people, did behold on the morrow, when the Lamanites had returned unto their camps, from the top of the hill Cumorah, the ten thousand of my people who were hewn down, being led in the front by me. And we also beheld the ten thousand of my people who were led by my son Moroni. And behold, the ten thousand of Gidgiddonah had fallen, and he also in the midst. And Lamah had fallen with his ten thousand; and Gilgal had fallen with his ten thousand; and Limhah had fallen with his ten thousand; and Jeneum had fallen with his ten thousand; and Cumenihah, and Moronihah, and Antionum, and Shiblom, and Shem, and Josh, had fallen with their ten thousand each. And it came to pass that there were ten more who did fall by the sword, with their ten thousand each; yea, even all my people, save it were those twenty and four who were with me, and also a few who had escaped into the south countries, and a few who had deserted over unto the Lamanites, had fallen; and their flesh, and bones, and blood lay upon the face of the earth, being left by the hands of those who slew them to molder upon the land, and to crumble and to return to their mother earth.”
Since the Book of Mormon is so against polygamy, let’s assume that all the men from both sides were monogamous (only one wife). Let’s also assume only four children. Just how do the numbers add up?
Mormon 10,000 fighting men
Moroni 10,000 fighting men
Gidgiddonah 10,000 fighting men
Lamah 10,000 fighting men
Gilgal 10,000 fighting men
Limhah 10,000 fighting men
Jeneum 10,000 fighting men
Cumenihah 10,000 fighting men
Moronihah 10,000 fighting men
Antionum 10,000 fighting men
Shiblom 10,000 fighting men
Shem 10,000 fighting men
Josh 10,000 fighting men
ten more 10 X 10,000 fighting men
Sub-total 23 X 10,000 = 230,000 men
Add women + 230,000
Add children + 920,000
Grand total 1.38 million Nephites
How many Lamanites died there? It is true that those shooting arrows downhill would have a longer range than those shooting uphill. It is also true that those attacking a fortified installation lose more than those who are entrenched or fortified and defending. For these reasons, it seems logical to assume that more Lamanites would be killed than Nephites. With these disadvantages, we could easily estimate two or three times as many. Almost one and a half million Nephites and say, three million Lamanites is somewhere around four to five million total.
Nephites and Lamanites who died on Cumorah:
1.4 million Nephites + 3 million Lamanites =
4.4 million people.
But, what about the Jaridites? How many Jaridites died on and around this hill?
Ether 14:17 – “Now the name of the brother of Lib was called Shiz. And it came to pass that Shiz pursued after Coriantumr, and he did overthrow many cities, and he did slay both women and children, and he did burn the cities.”
Ether 14:21 – “And so great and lasting had been the war, and so long had been the scene of bloodshed and carnage, that the whole face of the land was covered with the bodies of the dead.”
Ether 15:2 – “He saw that there had been slain by the sword already nearly two millions of his people, and he began to sorrow in his heart; yea, there had been slain two millions of mighty men, and also their wives and their children.”
Ether 15:11 – “And it came to pass that the army of Coriantumr 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, which were sacred.”
What we learn from these verses is that toward the end of the war, two million of Coriantumr’s men, and also their wives and children had been slain (Ether 15:2). Considering Shiz should have lost at least the same number of people, we have a total of twenty-four million Jeridites who died in this war. Add this to the number of Nephites and Lamanites who died, and you have a total of twenty-eight point four million dead people with all their money (coins), jewelry, weapons of war, and private possessions.
Adding up the numbers for the Jeridites:
Coriantumr’s men 2 million men
Coriantumr’s women 2 million women
Coriantumr’s children 8 million children
Simi-total 12 million people Shiz’s people 12 million people
Total Jeridites dead 24 million people
Total number of dead at the hill Cumorah:
24 million Jeridites + 4.4 million Nephites =
28.4 million dead people
Archeology substantiates the fact that a civilization really existed. When we consider the fact that almost every civilization mentioned in the Bible has been verified archeologically through artifacts discovered in the dirt, it gives the stories in the Bible a sense of factual genuineness, such as finding the walls and the city of Jericho. This is not the case with the Book of Mormon. No one has found even one scrap of evidence in the dirt to verify any Nephite, Lamanite or Jeridite record. Since these two wars were waged on and over the neighborhood of the hill Cumorah, we should not only find artifacts on the hill Cumorah, but in the dirt around the whole countryside of the hill (Ether 14:21). Absolutely no artifacts have been found in all the diggings that Joseph Smith and his money digger friends did in that vicinity. This lack of archeological evidence is devastating to the Mormon cause. Today, the Mormon Church will not let any archeological organization dig in the dirt of the hill Cumorah. The Mormon Church originally took a strong stand supporting Joseph Smith’s story. They believed that he told the truth when he told them the account of discovering the gold plates and translating the Book of Mormon. Apostle Orson Pratt, who learned directly from Joseph Smith himself, was commissioned and sanctioned by Brigham Young and John Taylor to revise the Book of Mormon with verses and footnotes. In 1879, he finished the fifth edition of the Book of Mormon. The following quotes from the footnotes of that edition officially identify some of actual geological locations for places mentioned in the Book of Mormon. “The land Nephi is supposed to have been in or near Ecuador, South America” (page 155). “South America being called Lehi, and North America, Mulek” (page 303). “The hill Cumorah is in Manchester, Ontario Co., N. York” (page 559). In 1920, James Talmage removed all the geological references from the sixth version of the Book of Mormon. Today, the Mormon Church refuses to take any stand on any geographical locations mentioned in the Book of Mormon, including Joseph Smith’s hill Cumorah. Could the reason for this be that there is no evidence for the stories and the peoples mentioned in the book? If the Book of Mormon is not really a true history of the people who lived here on the American Continent, I believe the book would have been more honest had it started like this:
Once upon a time, in a land far, far away …