Gramps,
Garden of Eden in Missouri? That’s the craziest thing I ever heard. Not disputing that the poles shifted, but where are these four rivers now? There aren’t four rivers in Jackson County. The Euphrates and Tigris aren’t even in the USA. “A river went out of Eden and parted = Red Sea Pison = Nile River Gishon = Tigris Euphrates = Euphrates.”
Lance, from Springfield, Missouri

Dear Lance,
The part of your comment that I put in quotes is exactly as it appeared in the incoming email–undoubtedly garbled in some way that I have not been able to decipher. The scripture from which you evidently took your information is from Genesis 2:10-14, as follows—
And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone. And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates.
The four rivers named above are the Pison, Gihon, Hiddekel and the Euphrates. The Pison is stated to encompass the whole land of Havilah. The second river, Gihon is said to encompass the whole land of Ethiopia. Third, Hiddekel, runs toward the east of Assyria, and the fourth is the Euphrates, with no landmarks stated.
Now we have Lance, from Missouri, who can’t find four rivers in Jackson County and therefore ridicules the prophet of God, who stated that the Garden of Eden was in the place we now call Jackson County, Missouri. This wise Lance even admits to a shifting of the poles, but infers that such a catastrophic event could not account for the Garden of Eden being in Missouri, and he seems to tie the Euphrates in present day Iraq with the Euphrates that is mentioned in Genesis. However, our wise Lance fails to mention the universal flood in the days Noah that took place, according to the Septuagint, in 3246 B.C., according to the Hebrew Bible in 2288 B.C., and according to the English Bible in 2348 B.C. Nor does he mention that, as stated in the English Bible, that during the flood—
And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered. Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered (Gen 7:19-20),
which states that at the time of the flood there wasn’t a mountain on the earth higher than about 23 feet above sea level.
Nor does our expert mention that in the days of Peleg, about 150 years after the flood, the earth was divided, whatever that means (see Gen. 10:25).
Among scholars with credentials that I imagine would surpass even those of our expert, Lance, was Elder John A. Widtsoe, of the Quorum of the Twelve of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who graduated from Harvard University with high honors in 1894, was awarded a PhD from the University of Goettingen, Germany in 1899, became the director of the Department of Agriculture at Brigham Young University in 1905, president of the Utah State Agricultural College in 1907 and president of the University of Utah in 1916, who had the following to say about the location of the Garden of Eden—
“Despite the apparently specific descriptions given, this clue [Gen. 2:10-14] has not led to the location of the Garden of Eden. Careful scholars have not been able to identify any of the four rivers with certainty. None of the rivers mentioned fits into the lands now known. Since the historically well-known names of Euphrates, Assyria, and Ethiopia do not fit into the use of them in the Garden of Eden story, it is more than probable that they are ancient names variously applied in later times. Clearly, these rivers and countries belong to early ages of the world’s history, and do not apply to present-day terminology” (John A. Widtsoe, Evidences and Reconciliations, p.394).
Therefore, Lance, I would suggest that since the most erudite scholars in the world have not been able to identify the location of the four rivers to which you refer, you may give some deference to the prophet of God, who gave the location of the Garden of Eden as a revelation from God, and not let the high opinion of yourself blind yourself to revealed eternal truth.
Gramps