Christ continues to teach the multitude about the gathering
of the house of Israel.
The Gentiles will assist Jacob and the house of Israel to
build the New Jerusalem.
What is the New Jerusalem? “The place where the Saints will
gather and Christ will personally reign with them during the Millennium. Zion
(the New Jerusalem) will be built upon the American continent, and the earth
will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory (A of F 1:10). It
also refers to a holy city that will come down out of heaven at the beginning
of the Millennium.”[1]
“And behold, this people will I establish in this land, unto
the fulfilling of the covenant which I made with your father Jacob; and it
shall be a New Jerusalem. And the powers of heaven shall be in the midst of
this people; yea, even I will be in the midst of you” (3 Nephi 20:22).
“Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of
my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my
God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh
down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name” (Revelation
3:12).
“And [Ether] spake also concerning the house of Israel, and
the Jerusalem from whence Lehi should come—after it should be destroyed it
should be built up again, a holy city unto the Lord; wherefore, it could not be
a new Jerusalem for it had been in a time of old; but it should be built up
again, and become a holy city of the Lord; and it should be built unto the house
of Israel—
“And that a New Jerusalem should be built up upon this land,
unto the remnant of the seed of Joseph, for which things there has been a type”
(Ether 13:5-6).
“When that day comes, the power of heaven will be among
them. “And blessed are they who shall seek to bring forth my Zion at that day,
for they shall have the gift and the power of the Holy Ghost; and if they
endure unto the end they shall be lifted up at the last day, and shall be saved
in the everlasting kingdom of the Lamb; and whoso shall publish peace, yea,
tidings of great joy, how beautiful upon the mountains shall they be” (1 Nephi
13:37).
He will also be there among them. “And it shall come to pass
in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in
the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations
shall flow unto it.
“And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up
to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will
teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go
forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
“And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many
people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into
pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they
learn war any more” (Isaiah 2:2-4).
“And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that
turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the Lord.
“As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the Lord;
My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall
not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the
mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and for ever” (Isaiah
51:20-21).
“The gathering is to occur in two senses: spiritually by
means of conversion to the gospel of Jesus Christ and literally by means of
gathering to the lands of inheritance. The literal gathering of Israel will
focus on two centers: Jerusalem in the Holy Land and the New Jerusalem (or
Zion) in the promised land. In the promised land, the remnant of Israel will
join with Gentiles, who have been gathered in the spiritual sense, to build up
the New Jerusalem and establish Zion. Then, says Christ, ‘shall the power of
heaven come down among them; and I also will be in their midst’ (3 Nephi
21:25).”[2]
When these things occur, then will the work begin among the
people with the gospel preached to this people. “And behold, they shall go unto
the unbelieving of the Jews; and for this intent shall they go—that they may be
persuaded that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God; that the Father
may bring about, through his most Beloved, his great and eternal purpose, in
restoring the Jews, or all the house of Israel, to the land of their
inheritance, which the Lord their God hath given them, unto the fulfilling of
his covenant” (Mormon 5:14).
Then the work will go to the lost tribes, those who the
Father led out of Jerusalem. “And when the day cometh that the wrath of God is
poured out upon the mother of harlots, which is the great and abominable church
of all the earth, whose founder is the devil, then, at that day, the work of
the Father shall commence, in preparing the way for the fulfilling of his covenants,
which he hath made to his people who are of the house of Israel” (1 Nephi
14:17).
Then work will commence among the lost. The Father will
prepare the way they will come to Him and call on the Father in His name.
“And I command you that ye shall write these sayings after I
am gone, that if it so be that my people at Jerusalem, they who have seen me
and been with me in my ministry, do not ask the Father in my name, that they
may receive a knowledge of you by the Holy Ghost, and also of the other tribes
whom they know not of, that these sayings which ye shall write shall be kept
and shall be manifested unto the Gentiles, that through the fulness of the
Gentiles, the remnant of their seed, who shall be scattered forth upon the face
of the earth because of their unbelief, may be brought in, or may be brought to
a knowledge of me, their Redeemer.
“And then will I gather them in from the four quarters of
the earth; and then will I fulfil the covenant which the Father hath made unto
all the people of the house of Israel” (3 Nephi 16:4-5).
Then, at that time, all will be gathered into the land of
their inheritance.
They will come from all nations. “For ye shall not go out
with haste nor go by flight; for the Lord will go before you, and the God of
Israel shall be your rearward” (3 Nephi 20:42). He would go before them.
“Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no
unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the
vessels of the Lord.
“For ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight: for
the Lord will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your rearward” (Isaiah
52:11-12).
“We face the challenge of raising families in the world in
darkening clouds of wickedness. Some of our members are unsettled, and
sometimes they wonder: Is there any place one can go to escape from it all? Is
there another town or a state or a country where it is safe, where one can find
refuge? The answer generally is no. The defense and the refuge is where our
members now live.
“The Book of Mormon prophesies, ‘Yea, and then shall the
work commence, with the Father among all nations in preparing the way whereby
his people may be gathered home to the land of their inheritance’ (3 Nephi
21:28).
“Those who come out of the world into the Church, keep the
commandments, honor the priesthood, and enter into activity have found the
refuge.”[3]
[1] Guide to the Scriptures, New Jerusalem.
[2] The
Covenant of the Promised Land: Territorial Symbolism in the Book of Mormon,
Steven L. Olsen, FARMS Review 22/2
(2010): 152-153.
[3] A
Defense and a Refuge, President Boyd K. Packer, October 2006 General
Conference.
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