HELAMAN 12:13-15—MORMON’S COSMIC VIEW AND IMAGERY

Helaman 12:15 has been viewed as indicating that Mormon had a heliocentric view of the cosmos. However, our modern, sun-centered model of the solar system would have been inconsistent with the beliefs of ancient cultures. The idea that nature was inert was exactly what Mormon did not assume. For him, rocks, hills, mountains, the whole solar system, and even the smallest particles of dust, obeyed the commands of God. Mormon’s statements in these verses are evidence that the Nephites understood the earth’s motion very differently from the way we understand it today, and that Mormon’s commentary was motivated by an awareness of God’s active involvement in nature and not form a need to make a scientific correction. We tend to superimpose our view of the cosmos on Mormon’s words. There is no mention of the astronomical bodies moving around each other. Mormon is simply expressing a view from his day that resonates with people who believe in the divine Creator, that when God instructs the earth to move in whichever direction He needs it to, the earth moves. Mormon is bewailing that we as people are not as compliant as natural matter. He was not speaking from a scientific point of view, but form a doctrinal and symbolic perspective, a perspective the Lord reinforced when speaking to Abraham. “For I am the Lord thy God; I dwell in heaven; the earth is my footstool; I stretch my hand over the sea, and it obeys my voice; I cause the wind and the fire to be my chariot; I say to the mountains—Depart hence—and behold, they are taken away by a whirlwind, in an instant, suddenly” (Abraham 2:7).