Lost Years of Jesus - Mormonism and Jesus in The Americas

Mormonism and Jesus in The Americas

According to the Book of Mormon, Jesus visited the American natives after his resurrection. The book of Third Nephi, from verse 10 tells:

"10. Behold, I am Jesus Christ, whom the prophets testified shall come into the world. (...) 12. And it came to pass that when Jesus had spoken these words the whole multitude fell to the earth; for they remembered that it had been prophesied among them that Christ should show himself unto them after his ascension into heaven. (...) 14. Arise and come forth unto me, that ye may thrust your hands into my side, and also that ye may feel the prints of the nails in my hands and in my feet, that ye may know that I am the God of Israel, and the God of the whole earth, and have been slain for the sins of the world."

L. Taylor Hansen wrote the book He Walked the Americas in 1963. In the book drawing from Native American legends, folklore and mythology discussed that a "White Prophet" had visited many different parts of America. Mormons believe that the "White Prophet" was Jesus Christ.

Some Mormon scholars believe that Quetzalcoatl, who they describe as a White, bearded God who came from the sky and promised to return, was actually Jesus Christ, in contrast with the Mesoamerican interpretation of their feathered serpent deity. Latter-day Saint President John Taylor wrote: "The story of the life of the Mexican divinity, Quetzalcoatl, closely resembles that of the Savior; so closely, indeed, that we can come to no other conclusion than that Quetzalcoatl and Christ are the same being. But the history of the former has been handed down to us through an impure Lamanitish source. "

This idea was adapted by science fiction author and Mormon Orson Scott Card in his story America.