I have no problem with the idea that Jesus may have visited America, as
the Book of Mormon states; it would correlate with today’s appearances of Jesus
in the dreams of Muslims, and would fit the white god traditions of Central and
South America and in the South Pacific. But if Jesus came to America, this does
not mean that the Book of Mormon’s account thereof is true. The migration of
Jews to America in 600 BC is much harder to support. Even harder to defend
is the passage in 3 Nephi 8:5-25 where, before the arrival of Jesus, cities
fall and are buried or sink into the sea, accompanied by earthquakes and
storms, and three days of darkness. (Thom
Hobson, The Historical Jesus and the Historical Joseph Smith [Nashville,
Tenn.: Elm Hill, 2019], 70, emphasis in bold added)
Comments like these only show that Hobson did not really bother reading up on the LDS side of things. This event in the Book of Mormon is actually evidence for the historicity, as it is describing volcanism at the right time and place in Central America. For more, see the book by Jerry Grover (who himself is a geologist), Geology of the Book of Mormon. See also Benjamin R. Jordan, "Volcanic Destruction in the Book of Mormon: Possible Evidence from Ice Cores," Journal of Book of Mormon Studies 12, no. 1 (2003). It should also be noted that these works, and others, were published before Hobson's book.
Instead of being a problem for the historicity of the Book of
Mormon, this is a bulls-eye.
