Mormon continues stating the Book of Mormon will go to the “unbelieving
of the Jews” (Mormon 5:14). They will receive it so they will know Christ is
the Son of the Living God. “And it came to pass after my father had spoken
these words he spake unto my brethren concerning the gospel which should be
preached among the Jews, and also concerning the dwindling of the Jews in
unbelief. And after they had slain the Messiah, who should come, and after he
had been slain he should rise from the dead, and should make himself manifest,
by the Holy Ghost, unto the Gentiles” (1 Nephi 10:11).
“And as I spake concerning the convincing of the Jews, that
Jesus is the very Christ, it must needs be that the Gentiles be convinced also
that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God” (2 Nephi 26:12).
“And it shall come to pass that the Jews shall have the
words of the Nephites, and the Nephites shall have the words of the Jews; and
the Nephites and the Jews shall have the words of the lost tribes of Israel;
and the lost tribes of Israel shall have the words of the Nephites and the
Jews” (2 Nephi 29:13).
“And it shall come to pass that the Jews which are scattered
also shall begin to believe in Christ; and they shall begin to gather in upon
the face of the land; and as many as shall believe in Christ shall also become
a delightsome people.
“And it shall come to pass that the Lord God shall commence
his work among all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people, to bring about the
restoration of his people upon the earth” (2 Nephi 30:7-8).
This will lead to the restoration of the Jews to the land of
their inheritance. This will fulfill the covenant made with the house of
Israel. “And I will cause you to pass under the rod [IE to be numbered as the
flock], and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant” (Ezekiel 20:37).
“And now behold, I say unto you that when the Lord shall see
fit, in his wisdom, that these sayings shall come unto the Gentiles according
to his word, then ye may know that the covenant which the Father hath made with
the children of Israel, concerning their restoration to the lands of their
inheritance, is already beginning to be fulfilled.
“And ye may know that the words of the Lord, which have been
spoken by the holy prophets, shall all be fulfilled; and ye need not say that
the Lord delays his coming unto the children of Israel.
“And ye need not imagine in your hearts that the words which
have been spoken are vain, for behold, the Lord will remember his covenant
which he hath made unto his people of the house of Israel” (3 Nephi 29:1-3).
“Simply believing in Jesus Christ, the Messiah and Redeemer, however, is not the only requirement for the complete restoration of Israel in the latter-days. According to the Book of Mormon, this conversion is explicitly associated with acceptance of the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ, his doctrine, his atonement. the New Testament (the book of the Lamb of God and of the twelve apostles of the Lamb), and latter-day scripture.”[1]
In addition to the Jews, the Book of Mormon will go to the
remnant of the descendants of the Nephites and Lamanites. It will come to them from the Gentiles. “And
the gospel of Jesus Christ shall be declared among them; wherefore, they shall
be restored unto the knowledge of their fathers, and also to the knowledge of
Jesus Christ, which was had among their fathers” (2 Nephi 30:5).
“And it came to pass that I beheld the remnant of the seed
of my brethren, and also the book of the Lamb of God, which had proceeded forth
from the mouth of the Jew, that it came forth from the Gentiles unto the remnant
of the seed of my brethren” (1 Nephi 13:38).
The descendants will be scattered and become “a dark, a
filthy, and a loathsome people, beyond the description of that which ever hath
been amongst us” (Mormon 5:15). “Yea, even my father spake much concerning the
Gentiles, and also concerning the house of Israel, that they should be compared
like unto an olive tree, whose branches should be broken off and should be
scattered upon all the face of the earth” (1 Nephi 10:12).
“But wo, saith the Father, unto the unbelieving of the
Gentiles—for notwithstanding they have come forth upon the face of this land,
and have scattered my people who are of the house of Israel; and my people who
are of the house of Israel have been cast out from among them, and have been
trodden under feet by them” (3 Nephi 16:8).
“For none of these iniquities come of the Lord; for he doeth
that which is good among the children of men; and he doeth nothing save it be
plain unto the children of men; and he inviteth them all to come unto him and
partake of his goodness; and he denieth none that come unto him, black and
white, bond and free, male and female; and he remembereth the heathen; and all
are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile” (2 Nephi 26:33).
Mormon’s reference to the Lamanites in verse 15, and other
references to Lamanites and black, have led to some to accuse the Book of
Mormon of being racist. This is not a valid critique.
“The use of black-and-white imagery to typify purity and
righteousness is exemplified in the works of Ephraim of Syria, a fourth century
AD. Old World Christian writer, who commented on Philip’s baptism of the
Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:26–39) as follows: ‘The eunuch of Ethiopia upon his
chariot saw Philip: the Lamb of Light met the dark man from out of the water.
While he was reading, the Ethiopian was baptised and shone with joy, and
journeyed on! He made disciples and taught, and out of black men he made men
white. And the dark Ethiopic women became pearls for the Son.’ Ephraim’s poems
explains that ‘bodies that were filled with stains are made white’ by means of
anointing and baptism. The Qur’an,
a seventh-century Semitic text, also speaks of the day of judgment as ‘the day
when some faces will be white and some faces will be black’ (3:106). This could
be taken as a reference to purity and righteousness on the one hand and
impurity and wickedness on the other, or to salvation and damnation, but
certainly not to race, since Islam has always been reasonably color-blind.
Modern Arabic still uses the idiom sawwada wajhuhu to describe the act of
discrediting, dishonoring, or disgracing a person, but its literal meaning is ‘to
blacken the face’ of someone.”[2]
[1] The
Restoration of Israel in the Book of Mormon, Frank F. Judd Jr. and Terrence
L. Szink, Review of Books on the Book of
Mormon 7/2 (1995): 116.
[2] The
Charge of “Racism” in the Book of Mormon, John A. Tvedtness, FARMS Review 15/2 (2003): 196-197.
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