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Claim
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Response
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Author's sources
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DVD 2:58
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- Joseph Smith is claimed to have said that he received the information contained in the Wentworth letter "by prophecy, by the spirit"
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DVD 3:55
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- The DVD provides the following quote from the Wentworth Letter, in which Joseph said:
"I was also informed concerning the aboriginal inhabitants of this country, and shown who they were, where they came from, a brief sketch of their origin, their progress, their civilization, their laws, their governments. And all this happened on this continent...The remnant are the Indians that now inhabit this country." (emphasis added)
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- Note that the following text from the Wentworth Letter is ommitted from the presentation:
The remnant are the Indians that now inhabit this country. This book also tells us that our Saviour [Savior] made his appearance upon this continent after his resurrection, that he planted the gospel here in all its fulness [fullness], and richness, and power, and blessing; that they had apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers and evangelists; the same order, the same priesthood, the same ordinances, gifts, powers, and blessing, as was enjoyed on the eastern continent, that the people were cut off in consequence of their transgressions... (emphasis added)
- Note that in the portion of the Wentworth letter that follows the quote given by the presenter, that Joseph refers to "the eastern continent."
- It is claimed that the reference to "this country" refers to the United States of America. One must remember that the United States was much smaller at this time.
- Most of the Native Americans referred to resided in territories which were not part of the United States. Most of the land to the west in the 1830's was designated as "Unorganized Territory" and "Mexican Possessions."
- See FAIR:Reviews of DNA Evidence for Book of Mormon Geography:Joseph Smith
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DVD 4:37
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- Author's quote: I went back and looked in Noah Webster's dictionary of the 1850's, when Joseph Smith was around, and when it said "continent," they're not talking about North and South America. OK? There's a North American continent and a South American continent in Noah Webster's dictionary.
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- Joseph died in 1844, therefore a Webster's Dictionary from the 1850's is meaningless relative to this claim.
- Webster's 1828 dictionary defines a ""continent"" as follows:
1. In geography, a great extent of land, not disjoined or interrupted by a sea; a connected tract of land of great extent; as the Eastern and Western continent. It differs from an isle only in extent. New Holland may be denominated a continent. Britain is called a continent, as opposed to the isle of Anglesey.
- Webster's definition of a "Eastern and Western continent" is equivalent to today's definition of "Eastern and Western hemisphere." Note the 1828 definition of "America" in the same dictionary refers to the entire North and South American landmass as a single continent:
One of the great continents, first discovered by Sebastian Cabot, June 11, O.S. 1498, and by Columbus, or Christoval Colon, Aug. 1, the same year. It extends from the eightieth degree of North, to the fifty-fourth degree of South Latitude; and from the thirty-fifth to the one hundred and fifty-sixth degree of Longitude West from Greenwich, being about nine thousand miles in length. Its breadth at Darien is narrowed to about forty-five miles, but at the northern extremity is nearly four thousand miles. From Darien to the North, the continent is called North America, and to the South, it is called South America.
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DVD 4:58
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- Joseph said in the "American Revivalist" that "The Book of Mormon is a record of the forefathers of our western tribes of Indians."
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DVD 6:22
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- Joseph's mother said that he "would describe the ancient inhabitants of this continent…"
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DVD 8:46
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- Joseph wrote during Zion's Camp that they were "wandering over the plains of the Nephites"
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DVD 13:11
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- The story of Zelph is claimed to prove that the Northeastern United States was the land of the Nephites.
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DVD 16:51
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- "Eight different people" are claimed to have said that they saw "wagon loads" of plates in the Hill Cumorah in New York.
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DVD 17:26
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- Joseph sent missionaries to the Lamanites.
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DVD 21:41
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- Missionaries were sent to the "borders of the Lamanites."
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