To the Nephites who had gathered at the temple in the land Bountiful (3 Nephi 11:1), there came "a Man descending out of heaven" (3 Nephi 11:8) and who declared unto them: "I am Jesus Christ" (3 Nephi 11:10). This same voiced had previously declared to them out of the darkness of destruction: "I am Jesus Christ the Son of God. I created the heavens . .." (3 Nephi 9:15).
It is interesting, in view of some major Book of Mormon geographical theories which place the land of Bountiful in the Tabasco-Chiapas region of southern Mexico, that one of the names for this region was Tamoanchan, which means literally "place of the bird-serpent." Rafael Girard, in El Popol-Vuh Fuente Historica, provides an illustration of the hieroglyph for the name "Tamoanchan (see illustration). It shows a bird above a serpent, and on the body of the serpent are stars. He states that, according to the concept of the present Maya chorti priests, the bird is a representation of the God of the Sky.
In the National Museum in Mexico city is a large mural from Teotihuacan, the great city of ancient Mexico dating to the days of Christ (illustration not available). Around the border of this huge mural is the body of a serpent, star-studded over its entire length--the Milky Way. Water falls from the hands of the deity portrayed in the mural. Rafael Girard and others have pointed out that tamoanchan was the sky home of deity where there were water and rain in the center of the sky, the source of rain, the Milky Way (Girard 1952, 25). One of the names for the Messiah in Mesoamerica was Itzamna, which means "the dew from heaven." The primary symbol of Itzamna, as for Jehovah, was the serpent, the emblem raised up by Moses in similitude of the Messiah (see 1 Nephi 17:41; 2 Nephi 25:20; Helaman 8:14-15). With this in mind, it is also interesting to note that in Egypt the sky goddess (Tiamat or Nut) is represented not only by the serpent symbol, but by the Milky Way. Thus here we have in the Tamoanchan hieroglyph and the Teotihuacan mural the identical elements in Mexico as found in the Near East--stars and serpents.
In 1912, the National Museum of Mexico published a paper by Henning, Plancarte, Robelo, and Gonzalez entitled "Tamoanchan," In it the authors point out that tamoanchan was one of several names used by the ancients in referring to their ancient, and now unidentified lost capital. [Bruce W. Warren and Thomas Stuart Ferguson, The Messiah in Ancient America, pp. 150-152]
Note* Could this lost capital have been the land of Bountiful, the land to which the "serpent," the God of the Heavens, Jesus Christ came? [Alan C. Miner, Personal Notes]
3 Nephi 11:8 They saw a Man descending out of heaven ([Illustration]): Fig. 41: Bird and serpent symbol of the sky god with stars on the body of the serpent. Scene from a Maya codex. [Bruce W. Warren and Thomas Stuart Ferguson, The Messiah in Ancient America, p. 151]
3 Nephi 11:8 They saw a man descending out of heaven ([Illustration]): Christ Appears to the Nephites. [The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Gospel Art, #315]
3 Nephi 11:8 They saw a man descending out of heaven ([Illustration]): Christ Descending [Robert T. Barrett, Verse Markers, Book of Mormon, Vol. 1, p. 7]
3 Nephi 11:8 They saw a Man descending out of heaven ([Illustration]): "Behold, I am Jesus Christ." Artist: Gary L. Kapp. [Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, The Ensign, May 1997, front and back cover]