3 Nephi 6:1-9

6:1-9 - I'm really short on time here, but I'll do my best. The GRs have been destroyed from among the Nephites, and now that the war is finally over "the people of the Nephites did all return to their own lands... every man, with his family, his flocks ad his herds, his horses and his cattle, and all things whatsoever did belong unto them." I can't find it but HN's lecture on this chapter talked about horses and that this is the only true contention that people can bring against the Book of Mormon is to say here that there weren't any horses until the Spanish arrived and HN's response was something along the lines of "There are no ancient bones of camels to be found anywhere in Egypt, but we know that they had them here, and how do we know? Because Rachel hid an idol under her as she sat on one as she left her father's house to go into the desert. We learn that from the written record which on all other aspects appears to be true. We can apply the same here. No one can confirm or deny definitively the presence of horses in ancient America we can only go on the evidences. The Native Americans were exceptional horse back riders, whereas other cultures were terrified of the horse when it was first introduced. It's also possible that the horse is a general term used here, because if we take that verse to be literal, then we have to assume that every man over the age of 20 had a family and at least two horses. Is that the case? Probably not, this is a case of the 'whatsoever's. Every man took whatsoever family he had, and whatsoever horses he had, and whatsoever herds that he had, and went home." I have heard the horse argument before, and while I've never learned about it further, I thought that this was an excellent way to start. The other point that HN made was about the lands which were granted to the GRs who had repented and promised peace. He gave the example of World War I ending with heavy obligations laid on the Germans as retribution, which in turn led to World War II. But at the end of WWII that wasn't what happened at all, it was almost total forgiveness and rebuilding. He says that the Japanese and Germans were treated much like the GRs were here and the results were very prosperous, he says that it's a great strategy and the best way to move forward.

That's all I have time for, but honestly I'm kind of glad because there are two more HN lectures that I want to finish about this chapter before I continue, so I'll have time for that. A happy coincidence.