Christ continues speaking of the Gentiles should they reject
His words after the house of Israel is gathered. All their lyings will be done away with.
At the end of 3 Nephi, Mormon would write, “Turn, all ye
Gentiles, from your wicked ways; and repent of your evil doings, of your lyings
and deceivings, and of your whoredoms, and of your secret abominations, and
your idolatries, and of your murders, and your priestcrafts, and your envyings,
and your strifes, and from all your wickedness and abominations, and come unto
me, and be baptized in my name, that ye may receive a remission of your sins,
and be filled with the Holy Ghost, that ye may be numbered with my people who
are of the house of Israel” (3 Nephi 30:2).
In this dispensation, the Lord told Joseph Smith, “And that
all their works may be brought to naught, and be swept away by the hail, and by
the judgments which thou wilt send upon them in thine anger, that there may be
an end to lyings and slanders against thy people” (D&C 109:30).
At that day, those who do not repent and accept Christ will
be cut off. “Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord! to what end is it
for you? the day of the Lord is darkness, and not light” (Amos 5:18).
“Yea, I would declare unto every soul, as with the voice of
thunder, repentance and the plan of redemption, that they should repent and
come unto our God, that there might not be more sorrow upon all the face of the
earth” (Alma 29:2).
“O then despise not, and wonder not, but hearken unto the
words of the Lord, and ask the Father in the name of Jesus for what things
soever ye shall stand in need. Doubt not, but be believing, and begin as in
times of old, and come unto the Lord with all your heart, and work out your own
salvation with fear and trembling before him” (Mormon 9:27).
These Gentiles will experience the full vengeance and fury
of the Lord. “For it is the day of the Lord’s vengeance, and the year of
recompences for the controversy of Zion” (Isaiah 34:8).
“The Spirit of the Lord God [HEB Jehovah] is upon me;
because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath
sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and
the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
“To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of
vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn” (Isaiah 61:1-2).
“For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven;
and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day
that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave
them neither root nor branch…
“And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes
under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of
hosts” (Malachi 4:1, 3).
“But if [Zion] observe not to do whatsoever I have commanded
her, I will visit her according to all her works, with sore affliction, with
pestilence, with plague, with sword, with vengeance, with devouring fire”
(D&C 97:26).
But, if the Gentiles repent, He will establish His church
among them.
“And it came to pass that I beheld the church of the Lamb of
God, and its numbers were few, because of the wickedness and abominations of
the whore who sat upon many waters; nevertheless, I beheld that the church of
the Lamb, who were the saints of God, were also upon all the face of the earth;
and their dominions upon the face of the earth were small, because of the
wickedness of the great whore whom I saw…
“And it came to pass that I, Nephi, beheld the power of the
Lamb of God, that it descended upon the saints of the church of the Lamb, and
upon the covenant people of the Lord, who were scattered upon all the face of
the earth; and they were armed with righteousness and with the power of God in
great glory” (1 Nephi 14:12, 14).
And, they will be numbered among them.
“Wherefore, my beloved brethren, thus saith our God: I will
afflict thy seed by the hand of the Gentiles; nevertheless, I will soften the
hearts of the Gentiles, that they shall be like unto a father to them; wherefore,
the Gentiles shall be blessed and numbered among the house of Israel.
“Wherefore, I will consecrate this land unto thy seed, and
them who shall be numbered among thy seed, forever, for the land of their
inheritance; for it is a choice land, saith God unto me, above all other lands,
wherefore I will have all men that dwell thereon that they shall worship me,
saith God”
(2 Nephi 10:18-19).
“But if the Gentiles will repent and return unto me, saith
the Father, behold they shall be numbered among my people, O house of Israel”
(3 Nephi 16:13).
“[I]n this passage the Savior speaks of ‘Gentiles,’ not a
‘nation,’ so the prophecy of Gentiles being ‘set up as a free people by the
power of the Father’ may be seen as extending beyond the United States. I read
it as Jesus referring not only to the Gentiles becoming politically free, but
also to their establishment in the land of promise. Latter-day scriptures often
use variants of the word establish in connection with building up the Church of
Jesus Christ and Zion, which occurs when the Saints receive and obey covenants
(3 Nephi 21:22; D&C 33:5; Jeremiah 30:20). So the words of Jesus likely
refer to the organization and spread of his church in all of the Americas, not
the United States alone, where the restoration began.”[1]
[1]Losing
the Remnant: The New Exclusivist “Movement” and the Book of Mormon, Matthew
Roper, FARMS Review 22/2 (2010):
94-95.
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