Despite the threat from the Gadianton terrorists, the Nephites continued in their "fall from grace." The prophet, Nephi, describes it thus: the people began to forget those signs and wonders which they had heard, and began to be less and less astonished at a sign or a wonder from heaven, insomuch that they began to be hard in their hearts, and blind in their minds, and began to disbelieve all which they had heard and seen— Imagining up some vain thing in their hearts, that it was wrought by men and by the power of the devil, to lead away and deceive the hearts of the people; and thus did Satan get possession of the hearts of the people again, insomuch that he did blind their eyes and lead them away to believe that the doctrine of Christ was a foolish and a vain thing. And it came to pass that the people began to wax strong in wickedness and abominations; and they did not believe that there should be any more signs or wonders given; and Satan did go about, leading away the hearts of the people, tempting them and causing them that they should do great wickedness in the land. (3 Nephi 2: 1-3)
The believers knew what was coming. When Samuel, the Lamanite prophet, had prepared then with signs of Jesus' birth, he also told them what to expect at the time of Jesus' death. These are a few signs of Jesus’
death prophesied by Samuel:
·
In that day that he shall suffer death the sun
shall be darkened and refuse to give his light unto you; and also the moon and
the stars; and there shall be no light upon the face of this land, even from
the time that he shall suffer death, for the space of three days, to the time
that he shall rise again from the dead (Helaman 14:20).
·
There shall be thundering and lightnings(v 21)
·
The earth shall shake and tremble (v 21)
·
There shall be great tempests (v 23)
The Book of 3rd Nephi
in the Book of Mormon describes the
fulfillment of these prophecies.
The geological and meteorological
events that took place in Central America concurrent with the crucifixion were
even more cataclysmic than the storm that rent the veil of the temple in Jerusalem . Foretold by Samuel, the Lamanite prophet, these events
are chronicled in great detail in 3 Nephi, chapter 8, of the Book of Mormon. They include:
·
A great storm the like of which had never been
seen before (no rain mentioned)
·
Terrible thunder – such as was never heard before
·
Exceedingly sharp lightning – as was never seen before
·
Shaking of the earth lasting 3 hours
·
Cities combusting and burning
·
Cities sunken into the sea
·
Cities buried in the earth
·
Whirlwinds
·
Mountains where there had been none
·
Rocks broken and seams and cracks upon on the
face of the land
·
Darkness over the face of the land for 3 days –
a darkness that was felt as a vapor
·
No light – sun, moon, or stars – for 3 days
·
Darkness so heavy that no light could be kindled
– no candle nor torch nor fire.
·
Uncountable human misery - pain, injury, and
death – great howling and mourning
·
Radical changes in the topography of the land in
its aftermath (3 Nephi 8: 5-23).
Again, critics claim “overkill”
in the Book of Mormon. “If the Bible says 3 hours of darkness,” they argue, “then the Book
of Mormon says 3 days of darkness.”
This time the science of geology comes to the rescue.
A few years ago, I took a geology
class at the local community college. It
was hard work for my ageing brain to learn it all, but learn I did. What I learned has strengthened my testimony
of Biblical and Book of Mormon
accounts of events at the time of the crucifixion.
To understand both accounts, it
helps to understand the geological concept of plate tectonics. According
to geologists, the crust of the earth – the top layer – is not one solid,
unbroken land mass. Rather, it is made
up of a series of plates - looking like a huge jigsaw puzzle - that “float” on
the earth’s mantle. The mantle itself is made of extremely hot, molten rock
called magma. The heat of the magma
causes the plates to move. The map at the left shows a myriad of plate boundaries surrounding Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. Today, it remains a hot spot for earthquakes (remember Haiti?)
Where two plates come together,
the movement of the magma causes the plates to do one of three things: they
will pull apart - divergent; one will move under the other - convergent; or both will slid back and
forth, each going in the opposite direction. The latter is called a strike-slip or transform boundary. The places where these plates come
together are often called faults. Any
of the three movements can cause both earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
I believe that the Book of Mormon records volcanic
eruptions with resultant earthquakes and tsunamis. If the geographical area of the Book of Mormon covers southern Mexico,
Guatemala, and Belize (as LDS scholars believe), then it is a hugely
volatile zone for volcanic activity – one of the most volatile on earth. There is a strike-slip boundary of the
Caribbean Plate and the North American Plate that runs along the northern
borders of Guatemala, Belize, and Honduras. To the west, the North American
Plate has a strike-slip boundary with the Cocas Plate near southern Mexico, and
to the south, the Caribbean Plate bounds the South American Plate near Panama.
One of the dangers around these
multiple fault lines is that one seismic event can trigger another. We saw this recently in Japan when a second
earthquake followed the first (a completely different quake, not an
aftershock). Earthquakes and volcanic
eruptions can also be related. A
magnitude 4.2 earthquake in March of 1980 and a second 5.1 earthquake a few
weeks later in May preceded the eruption of Mount St. Helens that same year.
Earthquakes can precede volcanoes and volcanoes can trigger earthquakes.
All of the events described in 3
Nephi are geologically accurate representations of volcanic eruption. Here are some of the things which accompany
large eruptions, particularly explosive eruptions which emit huge amounts of
magma, ash, sulfur, gas, and pyroclastic “bombs” in a short amount of time.
·
The heat of the magma superheats the air causing
great storms – violent wind, lightning, and thunder – but no rain
·
Shaking in the earth that can last for hours (as
opposed to the minute or two experienced in an earthquake)
· Great football-shaped pyroclastic “bombs” of hot
lava burst out with such force that they cause anything they touch to burst
into flame
·
Tornados
·
Tsunamis that can wash away anything in their paths
·
Massive amounts of lava extruded
·
Earthquake(s) creating cracks and fissures in
the earth
·
New volcanic dome mountains
·
Huge amounts of ash that can darken the skies
for days
·
Huge amounts of sulfur and other gases, such that
candles, etc., could not be lit
·
Massive devastation
 |
| Popocatepetl; an active volcano in Mexico |
The worst of these explosive
volcanoes are called supervolcanoes. They
“produce devastation on an enormous . . . scale.” According to geologists, “supervolcanoes are
hard to identify centuries later, given the enormous areas they cover . . .
Large igneous provinces are also considered supervolcanoes because of the vast
amount of basalt lava erupted.”
There is a large igneous province along
the Caribbean Plate.
Joseph Smith lived in 19th
Century New York – not a volcanic zone. Little was known of the science of volcanology
at that time (in fact, the concept of plate tectonics wasn’t understood until
the 1960’s). If Joseph Smith wrote the Book
of Mormon as critics claim, how could he have so accurately described
volcanic destruction understood by science only within the last century?
