Part 12

The Kingdom of Israel was subdued by the Assyrians about 721 B. C.; the people were carried into captivity, and later disappeared so completely from history as to be designated the Lost Tribes. These are the ten tribes whose restoration is predicted as an event of latter times. The Kingdom of Judah maintained a precarious and partial independence for a little more than a century after the Assyrian captivity, and then fell a prey to the conquering hosts of Nebuchadnezzar. After seventy years of bondage, the period specified through prophecy by Jeremiah (25:11, 12; 29:10), a considerable number of the people were permitted to return to Judea, where they rebuilt the temple, and vainly strove to reestablish themselves on the scale of their vanished greatness. They were impoverished by the aggressions of Syria and Egypt, and eventually became tributary to Rome, in which condition of vassalage they existed at the time of Christ's earthly ministry amongst them.

From the numerous Biblical prophecies relating to Israel's dispersion the following are cited as particularly illustrative:

"And the Lord shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left few in number among the heathen, whither the Lord shall lead you." (Deut. 4:27.)

"And I will scatter thee among the heathen, and disperse thee in the countries, and will consume thy filthiness out of thee." (Ezek. 22:15).

"For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth." (Amos 9:9).

"And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." (Luke 21:24).

And so, in progressive stages, the covenant people of God have been scattered. The bringing of a body of Israelites to the Western Continent six centuries before the birth of Christ, of which the Book of Mormon bears record, was part of the general dispersion, and was so recognized by Nephite prophets.

Since the destruction of Jerusalem and the final disruption of the Jewish nation by the Romans, A. D. 71, the Jews have been largely wanderers upon the face of the earth, outcasts among the nations, a people without a country, a nation without a home. Israel has been sifted "like as corn is sifted in a sieve"; but, be it remembered that coupled with the dread prediction was the assuring promise "Yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth."

The record made by that division of the house of Israel which took its departure from Jerusalem, and made its way to the Western Hemisphere about 600 B. C., contains many references to the dispersions that had already taken place, and to the continuation of the scattering which was to the writers of the Book of Mormon yet future. In the course of the journey to the coast, the prophet Lehi, while encamped with his family and other followers in the valley of Lemuel on the borders of the Red Sea, declared what he had learned by revelation of the future "dwindling of the Jews in unbelief," of their crucifying the Messiah, and of their scattering "upon all the face of the earth." He compared Israel to an olive tree, the branches of which were to be broken off and distributed; and he recognized the exodus of his colony, and their journeying afar, as an incident in the general plan of dispersion.

Nephi, the son of Lehi, also beheld in vision the scattering of the covenant people of God, and on this point added his testimony to that of his prophet-father. He saw also that the seed of his brethren, subsequently known as the Lamanites, were to be chastened for their unbelief, and that they were destined to become subject to the Gentiles, and to be scattered before them. Down the prophetic vista of years, he saw also the bringing forth of sacred records, other than those then known, "unto the convincing of the Gentiles, and the remnant of the seed of my brethren, and also the Jews who were scattered upon all the face of the earth."

After their arrival on the promised land, the colony led by Lehi received further information regarding the dispersion of Israel. The prophet Zenos, quoted by Nephi, had predicted the unbelief of the house of Israel, in consequence of which these covenant ones of God were to "wander in the flesh, and perish, and become a hiss and a by-word, and be hated among all nations."

The brothers of Nephi, skeptical in regard to these teachings, asked whether the things of which he spake were to come to pass in a spiritual sense, or more literally; and were informed that "the house of Israel, sooner or later, will be scattered upon all the face of the earth, and also among all nations"; and further, in reference to dispersions then already accomplished, that "the more part of all the tribes have been led away; and they are scattered to and fro upon the isles of the sea"; and then, by way of prediction concerning further division and separation, Nephi adds that the Gentiles shall be given power over the people of Israel, "and by them shall our seed be scattered."

The day of deliverance for Israel is near at hand; the restoration of the ancient Kingdom of Judah, and of the remnants of all the tribes distributed throughout the earth, as well as bringing forth from their long exile the tribes that have been lost, are particularly specified as events of the current dispensation, directly precedent to the second advent of the Christ.

-- 44 --

THE GATHERING OF THE TRIBES

Judah and Israel to Come Into Their Own

WE believe in the literal gathering of Israel, and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes, etc. (Articles of Faith, No. 10).

As complete as was the scattering, so shall the gathering of Israel be. Great as has been the chastisement of the covenant though recreant people, all through their centuries of suffering they have been sustained by the Divine promise of recovery and rehabilitation. Though despised of men, a large part of them gone from the knowledge of the world, the people of Israel are not lost to their God, who knows whither they have been led or driven. Note the paternal affection, in which appears commiseration for the plight into which they had brought themselves through sin: "And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them: for I am the Lord their God." (Lev. 26:44; see also Deut. 4:26-31).

Isaiah thus forcefully proclaims the purposes of God to be fulfilled in the last, the current, age: "And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left. . . . And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth." (Isa. 11:11-12).

So momentous shall be the assembling of the tribes in their respective places of gathering, that the event shall be held to surpass the deliverance of Israel from Egyptian bondage, for thus hath the Lord spoken: "Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that it shall no more be said, The Lord liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; But The Lord liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers. Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks." (Jer. 16:14-16).

To these Biblical citations let us add the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, given to His Apostles just prior to His death and specified as one of the signs to precede His later coming: "And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." (Matt. 24:31).

Two gathering centers are distinctively mentioned, and the maintenance of a separate autonomy for the ancient kingdoms of Judah and Israel is repeatedly affirmed in Scripture, with Jerusalem and Zion as the respective capitals. In the light of modern revelation by which many ancient passages are illumined and made clear, we hold that the Jerusalem of Judea is to be rebuilt by the reassembled house of Judah, and that Zion is to be built up on the American continent by the gathered hosts of Israel, other than the Jews. When such shall have been accomplished, Christ shall personally rule in the earth, and then shall be realized the glad fulfilment: "For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." (Isa. 2:3; see also Joel 3:16; Zeph. 3:14).

Book of Mormon prophecies are plain in defining the extent and purpose of the latter-day gathering. Be it remembered that it was the people who once constituted the kingdom of Judah, the Jews, not the entire house of Israel, who rejected Jesus as the Son of God and the foreappointed Redeemer. By the Nephites who dwelt on the American continent, an Israelitish branch, He was received and worshipped as the Christ (see Book of Mormon, 3 Nephi 11); and the tenor of Book of Mormon Scriptures warrants the inference that He was accepted by the Lost Tribes, to whom He went to minister in person after His several visitations in the resurrected state to the Nephites. (See 3 Nephi 15:15 and 16:1-3; compare 2 Nephi 29:12-13).

The rehabilitation of the Jewish nation is assured, and the prominent part to be taken in that work by Gentile nations is defined in prophecy. So spake Jehovah through His prophet Nephi:

"But behold, thus saith the Lord God: When the day cometh that they shall believe in me, that I am Christ, then have I covenanted with their fathers that they shall be restored in the flesh, upon the earth, unto the lands of their inheritance. And it shall come to pass that they shall be gathered in from their long dispersion, from the isles of the sea, and from the four parts of the earth; and the nations of the Gentiles shall be great in the eyes of me, saith God, in carrying them forth to the lands of their inheritance. Yea, the kings of the Gentiles shall be nursing fathers unto them, and their queens shall become nursing mothers; wherefore, the promises of the Lord are great unto the Gentiles, for he hath spoken it, and who can dispute?" (Book of Mormon 2 Nephi 10:7-9; see also 25:15-17).

The work of gathering is well under way; and among the far-reaching results of the World War is the participation of the Gentile nations in providing for the reassembling of Israel. It is the privilege of the Gentiles to assist in the gathering of the Jews on the Eastern, and the other branches of Israel on the Western Continent; and so far as they shall accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ the Gentiles shall be numbered with the covenant people and share with them the plenitude of blessings, in their own right, for, verily, God is no respecter of persons.

-- 45 --

AMERICA THE LAND OF ZION

The Place of the New Jerusalem

WE believe in the literal gathering of Israel, and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes; that Zion will be built upon this [the American] continent; etc. (Articles of Faith, No. 10).

The Holy Bible makes frequent mention of Zion and Jerusalem with the context showing that the terms are used interchangeably if not as precise synonyms. This application of different names to the same place is justified by the fact that within the walls of the Jerusalem of old was a hill specifically called Mount Zion, and by contraction, Zion.

But the two names appear in other Biblical passages with distinctive meaning, indicating different places, and expressive of contrast instead of identity. For example, consider the prophecy voiced by Isaiah relating to a time yet future: "Oh Zion that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength: lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God." (Isa. 40:9).

The same prophet refers to a Zion of the last days in which the righteous shall be safeguarded, this to be in a mountainous land, with the "munitions of rocks" as a defense; and he particularly states that the land is very far off. (See Isa. 33: 14-17).

More definite than Bible prophecies, however, are the predictions relating to the latter-day Zion made by prophets who ministered on the American continent many centuries prior to the rediscovery of the New World by Columbus. In the Book of Mormon the names Zion and New Jerusalem are used with allied meaning and sometimes synonymously.

Near the beginning of the sixth century before Christ's birth, Ether, a Jaredite prophet, compiled the history of his people from the time of their coming to America soon after the dispersion from Babel. Even before they had crossed the ocean, the sanctity of the Western Continent as a foreappointed land for people who would observe the laws of righteousness was made known to the Jaredites. In a summary of Ether's record, Moroni the Nephite who lived a thousand years after the extinction of the Jaredites, says of the latter:

"And the Lord would not suffer that they should stop beyond the sea in the wilderness, but he would that they should come forth even unto the land of promise, which was choice above all other lands, which the Lord God had preserved for a righteous people. And he had sworn in his wrath unto the brother of Jared, that whoso should possess this land of promise from that time henceforth and forever, should serve him, the true and only God, or they should be swept off when the fulness of his wrath should come upon them. . . . For behold this is a land which is choice above all other lands; wherefore he that doth possess it shall serve God, or shall be swept off; for it is the everlasting decree of God. And it is not until the fulness of iniquity among the children of the land, that they are swept off." (Book of Mormon, Ether 2:7-10).

The inspired admonition of these ancient prophets to the inhabitants of America today, that they observe and uphold the principles of righteousness, which embody just government and true liberty under equitable laws, may profitably be taken to heart by people of all conditions and degrees.

America is the Land of Zion, and as the people of this continent render allegiance to the God of Israel who is verily the God of all mankind, the land shall be sacred to liberty as the inheritance of the house of Israel. In it the Gentiles shall be potent, and shall be numbered with Israel according to their deserts. To the Nephites the Lord gave this far-reaching and blessed promise.

"But behold, this land, saith God, shall be a land of thine inheritance, and the Gentiles shall be blessed upon the land. And this land shall be a land of liberty unto the Gentiles, and there shall be no kings upon the land, who shall raise up unto the Gentiles. And I will fortify this land against all other nations. And he that fighteth against Zion shall perish, saith God; for he that raiseth up a king against me shall perish, for I, the Lord, the king of heaven, will be their king, and I will be a light unto them for ever, that hear my words." (Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 10:10-14).

Zion is to be established on this continent, and as the word of modern revelation avers, in the western part of the United States (See D&C 45:64-71; 57:1-5). The time of the blessed consummation is conditioned by the fitness of the people. Hither shall come the hosts of scattered Israel, and the Lost Tribes from their long obscurity. Here shall yet be built the City of the Lord, Zion, the New Jerusalem, which in time shall be made one with the "Holy City," which the Revelator saw "coming down from God, out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband." (Rev. 21:2).

Holy Scriptures, of both ancient and latter days, aver that the Lost Tribes of Israel shall be brought forth from the place whereunto the Lord has led them, and shall figure in the general gathering incident to the Dispensation of the Fulness of Times. Touching this feature of the Divine purpose in the time of restoration, we are told:

"And they who are in the north countries shall come in remembrance before the Lord, and their prophets shall hear his voice and shall no longer stay themselves, and they shall smite the rocks, and the ice shall flow down at their presence. And an highway shall be cast up in the midst of the great deep. Their enemies shall become a prey unto them, And in the barren deserts there shall come forth pools of living water; and the parched ground shall no longer be a thirsty land. And they shall bring forth their rich treasures unto the children of Ephraim my servants. And the boundaries of the everlasting hills shall tremble at their presence. And there shall they fall down and be crowned with glory, even in Zion, by the hands of the servants of the Lord, even the children of Ephraim; and they shall be filled with songs of everlasting joy. Behold, this is the blessing of the everlasting God upon the tribes of Israel, and the richer blessing upon the head of Ephraim and his fellows." (D&C 133:26-34).

-- 46 --

THE COMING OF THE LORD

The Consummation of the Ages

WE believe . . . that Christ will reign personally upon the earth; etc. (Articles of Faith, No. 10).

"Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." (Acts 1:11). So spake the white-robed angels to the Apostles as the resurrected Christ ascended from their midst on Mount Olivet. The assertion is definite, unambiguous, easy to comprehend. Jesus the Christ is to return to earth "in like manner" as He went, therefore as a material Being, a living Personage, having a tangible immortalized body of flesh and bones.

The actuality of the Lord's future advent is attested by the utterances of holy prophets both before and since the brief period of His ministry in the flesh, and by His own unequivocal avowal. Consider the following:

"For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works." (Matt. 16:27).

"For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father's, and of the holy angels." (Luke 9:26; compare Mark 8:38).

The Master had so effectively instructed the Apostles concerning His assured death and His later return to earth in power and glory, that they eagerly inquired as to the time and signs of His coming. (See Matt. chap. 24). Though they failed to comprehend the full import of His reply, He told them that many great developments would intervene between His departure and return; but as to the certainty of His advent as Judge, and Lord, and King, Jesus left no excuse for dubiety in their minds. Throughout the apostolic period the Lord's coming was preached with the emphasis of inspired and convicting testimony.

Book of Mormon prophecies concerning the great event are no whit less explicit. To the Nephites the resurrected Christ preached the Gospel of salvation; "And He did expound all things, even from the beginning until the time that He should come in His glory." (Book of Mormon, 3 Nephi 26:3).

Questions of supreme import to every one of us are these: (1) When will Christ come? (2) What shall be the purpose and attendant conditions of His coming?

The date of the Lord's advent has never been revealed to man, nor shall it be. Prior to His resurrection Jesus Himself did not know it, as witness His words: "But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father." (Mark 13:32).

In the present age the Father hath declared: "And they have done unto the Son of Man even as they listed; and He has taken His power on the right hand of His glory, and now reigneth in the heavens, and will reign till He descends on the earth to put all enemies under His feet, which time is nigh at hand. I, the Lord God, have spoken it, but the hour and the day no man knoweth, neither the angels in heaven, nor shall they know until He comes." (D&C 49:6-7).

In the light of such scriptural affirmations we may dismiss as empty conjecture all alleged determinations as to the precise time of the Lord's appearing. Nevertheless, the specified signs and conditions by which is shown the imminence of the event are definite, and from these we know that the great day of the Lord is very near. So near is the consummation that the intervening period is called "today"; and on the morrow mankind shall rejoice or tremble at the presence of the Lord. (See Doctrines and Covenants 64:23-25).

Christ's advent shall be made with the accompaniment of power and great glory. While in suddenness and unexpectedness to the unobserving it shall be comparable to the coming of a thief in the night, it shall be a manifestation of surpassing glory to all the world: "For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." (Matt. 24:27).

With the Lord's appearing a general resurrection of the righteous dead shall be effected, and many then in the flesh shall be changed from the mortal to the immortal state without the intervening experience of prolonged disembodiment or the sleep of the grave. (See 1 Thess. 4:14-17).

"And the face of the Lord shall be unveiled; And the saints that are upon the earth, who are alive, shall be quickened, and be caught up to meet Him. And they who have slept in their graves shall come forth; for their graves shall be opened, and they also shall be caught up to meet Him in the midst of the pillar of heaven." (D&C 88:95-97).

Then shall be established the era of peace, the predicted Millennium, in which Christ shall dwell with men, and shall rule in the earth as Lord and King.

-- 47 --

THE FEDERATION OF THE WORLD

A Thousand Years of Peace

WE believe . . . that Christ will reign personally upon the earth, and that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory. (Articles of Faith, No. 10).

Through the lurid gloom of smoke and fire in which the nations have been enshrouded, amidst the awful stench of blood that has sickened the world, mankind has had reason to rejoice in the enlightening beams of comforting assurance that an era of peace is to be established. And this shall be a peace that cannot be broken, for righteousness shall rule, and man's birthright to liberty shall be inviolate.

Of necessity this blessed state shall be attained only after due preparation; for in the economy of God it would be as incongruous to force upon mankind an unappreciated and undesired boon as to arbitrarily afflict with an undeserved curse.

The coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to reign personally upon the earth is near at hand, for the Scriptures so attest. Prophecies relating to this impending event specify a period of a thousand years, distinctively known as the Millennium, which in certain conditions shall differ from both preceding and succeeding time. While this period is nowise indicative of a limitation to the Lord's dominion, it specifies the duration of a particular part of His ministry, even as the epoch of His administration in the flesh is measurable in terms of years and days.