The Gathering of Israel

Elder Bruce R. McConkie Of the First Council of the Seventy

August 1972

I am pleased and honored to be with you in this great area conference of the Church and kingdom of God on earth.

May I consider with you some of the blessings and responsibilities that have come to us by virtue of our inheritance in the house of Israel and our membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

World Church

We are now in a new era of Church growth and development. In the early days of this dispensation, in the very nature of things, if the Saints were to survive as a people, they had to assemble together in chosen places. Otherwise they would have been lost among the masses of men and overcome by the world.

But now, in large measure, we are past that stage of our history. Congregations of Saints are springing up in all parts of the world. We are becoming a great and an influential people. Many of our members sit in high places of business and civic responsibility and are respected by their nonmember associates. We are becoming a world church--not an American church, not a British church, not a Mexican church, but a church for all mankind, for the honest and upright in every nation. We are the church of Jesus Christ , and we are and shall be established in every nation and among every people.

And with this new status comes a responsibility we have never had before, a responsibility to be worthy of our high position in the world, and to strengthen the Church in all the nations where it is and shall be established. It is our responsibility in Mexico and Central America , for instance, to build up the Church here, in these favored nations, and among the choice people who dwell in them.

Restoration and gathering

As you know, the Lord chose Joseph Smith to be the instrument in his hands of restoring the fulness of his everlasting gospel and of making its truths and blessings available to all men in this day.

As part of that restoration, Moses--the prophet and lawgiver of ancient Israel , the one chosen of Go.d to lead his people out of Egyptian bondage to their ancient promised land--came to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery on the third of April in 1836. He then committed unto them "the keys of the gathering of Israel from the four parts of the earth, and the leading of the ten tribes from the land of the north." (D&C 110:11.) Those keys are now vested in the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

May I remind you that this promised gathering of the Lord's chosen people was the hope and prayer of all the prophets of Israel . Of it they spoke, and wrote, and prophesied; and providentially many of their inspired utterances are preserved for us in the Bible and in the Book of Mormon.

After the Lord Jesus had set up his kingdom in the meridian of time; after he had spent forty days with his disciples as a resurrected personage, teaching them all "things pertaining to the kingdom of God" that it was expedient for them to know; and on the occasion when he was ready to ascend to his Father, the disciples asked him: "Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?" (Acts 1:6.) They already had his church, but were looking forward to that glorious day when Israel as a people and as a nation would be gathered together and given again their high status among the' nations of the earth.

He answered that this glorious eventuality was not for their day; that they were to do their assigned labors; and that it was not for them "to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power." (Acts 1:7.) Then he ascended into heaven, leaving to a future and distant day the establishment of the kingdom among the lost and scattered sheep of Israel; leaving the fulfillment of that divine promise to a day when the gospel would be restored by angelic ministration; leaving it to a day when the decree would go forth that the restored gospel should be preached "to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people." (Revelation 14:6.)

Israel 's scattering

Ancient Israel became a numerous and a mighty people in their promised land. Numbered in the millions, there were times when they were true and faithful to their covenants and obligations, which brought down upon them the blessings of heaven, and other times when they forsook the Lord, rebelled against his truths, and were cursed and scattered for their iniquities.

In about 721 b.c. ten of the tribes of Israel were carried into Assyrian captivity and bondage. This came to pass, the Lord says, because they "walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshipped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law." (Jeremiah 16:11.) Later these hosts of Israel were freed from their Assyrian captors and went northward into other lands and became lost from the knowledge of their brethren.

More than one hundred years after the Ten Tribes were taken captive, Lehi and his family left Jerusalem to come to their American promised land. Of the scattering of Israel that had already taken place, that is of the leading away of the Ten Tribes of Israel, Nephi wrote: "There are many who are already lost from the knowledge of those who are at Jerusalem . Yea, 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 whither they are none of us knoweth, save that we know that they have been led away." (1 Nephi 22:4.)

Of the whole house of Israel , Nephi' wrote: "The house of Israel , sooner or later, will be scattered upon all the face of the earth, and also among all nations." (1 Nephi 22:3.)

And after Lehi was led out of Jerusalem by the hand of the Lord, the remainder of Israel was taken into Babylonian captivity, with a portion of them being permitted later to return to their homeland. In giving the reason for this later scattering, the Lord said: "Behold, ye walk every one after the imagination of his evil heart, that they may not hearken unto me: Therefore will I cast you out of this land into a land that ye know not, neither ye nor your fathers; and there shall ye serve other gods day and night; where I will not shew you favour." (Jeremiah 16:12, 13.)

Speaking of all those who had been and who would be scattered, Nephi says it had and would come to pass because they forsook "the Holy One of Israel; for against him will they harden their hearts; wherefore, they shall be scattered among all nations and shall be hated of all men." (1 Nephi 22:5.)

Gathering continues

Now what concerns us is the gathering of Israel in these last days and the part each of us should play with respect thereto. This gathering has commenced and shall continue until the righteous are assembled into the congregations of the Saints in all the nations of the earth.

"I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them," the Lord says, "and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase." (Jeremiah 23:3.)

Nephi teaches this truth in these words: "The Lord God will proceed to make bare his arm in the eyes of all the nations, in bringing about his covenants and his gospel unto those who are of the house of Israel . Wherefore, he will bring them again out of captivity, and they shall be gathered together to the lands of their inheritance; and they shall be brought out of obscurity and out of darkness; and they shall know that the Lord is their Savior and their Redeemer, the Mighty One of Israel." (1 Nephi 22:11, 12. Italics added.)

Missionaries to gather

How is this gathering to take place? How will it be accomplished? Who will do the work involved? Who will identify the lost sheep of Israel , and what invitation will be issued to them to gather with the Lord's people?

In answer, the Lord says: "I will send for many fishers .... 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." (Jeremiah 16:16.)

That is to say, the gathering of Israel is a great missionary undertaking. It is a matter of inviting scattered Israel to return to the Lord their God, to worship once again the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob, to come unto the Lord and forsake their false gods and false creeds. It is a call to worship that God who made them. It is a matter of "the servants of God" going forth and "saying with a loud voice: Fear God and give glory to him, for the hour of. his judgment is come; And worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters." (D&C 133:38, 39.)

Jeremiah speaks of Israel

Jeremiah tells us that when the gathered remnants of scattered Israel once again come to the knowledge of their Redeemer and Savior, they will ask, "Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods?" (Jeremiah 16:20.)

That is to say, ancient Israel forsook the Lord and his laws; they worshiped other gods, believed false doctrines, and created churches of their own, which had no saving power. Even the saints in the meridian of time fell away from the truth; darkness covered the earth and gross darkness the minds of the people. Men wrote creeds of their own to define God and set forth how he should be worshiped; they thus made their own gods and their own systems of religion just as surely as though they had hewn their gods from wood or cast them in gold or silver; and as Jeremiah said, "They are no gods."

Restoration

It now becomes our great privilege and opportunity to take to them these glorious truths of true religion that have come to us by revelation in this day. And so to those who say, "Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods?" the Lord's reply is: "Behold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause them to know mine hand and my might; and they shall know that my name is The Lord." (Jeremiah 16:20, 21.)

That is, this once, for the last time, beginning with the appearance of the Father and the Son to Joseph Smith in the spring of 1.820, the Lord will reveal himself anew to men. Israel shall forsake the false gods of the days of her iniquity, darkness, and scattering, and shall come to a knowledge of him through whom salvation comes.

And so when Joseph Smith asked the Personages who stood above him in the light which of all the sects was right, and which he should join, he was told to join none of them for they were all wrong.

Of this glorious vision he wrote, "The Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight." (Joseph Smith 2: 19.)

Surely all of us, as we contrast the truth about God that has come by revelation in this day with the manmade creeds of our fathers, are led to rejoice and sing praises to the Holy One of Israel!

Of this glorious day of restoration and gathering, another Nephite prophet said: "The Lord . . . has covenanted with all the house of Israel" that "... the time comes that they shall be restored to the true Church and fold of God,'" and that "... they shall be gathered home to the lands of their inheritance, and shall be established in all their lands of promise." (2 Nephi 9: 1, 2. Italics added.)

And it was Nephi himself who saw in vision the results of this gathering. He saw that in the last days, "the covenant people of the Lord .... were scattered upon all the face of the earth;" and that "the church of the Lamb, who were the saints of God, were also upon all the face of the earth;" and that these saints were to be among all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people. (1 Nephi 14: 14, 12. Italics added.)

Law of gathering

Now I call your attention to the facts, set forth in these scriptures, that the gathering of Israel consists of joining the true Church, of coming to a knowledge of the true God and of his saving truths, and of worshiping him in the congregations of the Saints in all nat.ions and among all peoples. Please note that these revealed words speak of the folds of the Lord, Of Israel being gathered to the lands of their inheritance, of Israel being established in all their lands of promise, and of there being congregations of the covenant people of the Lord in every nation, speaking every tongue, and among every people when the Lord comes again.

Any person, therefore, who has accepted the restored gospel, and who now seeks to worship the Lord, in his own tongue, and among his own people, and with the Saints of his own nation has complied with the law of gathering and is entitled to all of the blessings promised the Saints in these last days.

Gospel for all people

God is no respecter of persons. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a world Church. The gospel is for all men. As Paul said, God "hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the ear[h, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him." (Acts 17:26, 27.)

The place of gathering for ,the Mexican Saints is in Mexico; the place of gathering for the Guatemalan Saints is in Guatemala; the place of gathering for the Brazilian Saints is in Brazil; and so it goes throughout the length and breadth of the whole earth. Japan is for the Japanese; Korea is for the Koreans; Australia is for the Australians; every nation is the gathering place for its own people.

The Book of Mormon teaching is, "There is one God and one Shepherd over all the earth. And the time cometh that he shall manifest himself unto all nations." (1 Nephi 13: 41, 42.) The gospel is the same everywhere. It does not matter where we live if we keep the commandments of God, and the commandments are the same in all nations and among all people.

Requirements for eternal life

To gain salvation all men must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ who is the God of Israel and the God of the whole earth; they must repent of their sins and come before him with a broken heart and a contrite spirit; they must be baptized by immersion under the hands of a legal administrator; they must receive the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost, and endure in righteousness and truth to the end.

All men everywhere must come unto Christ and love and serve God with all their heart, might, mind, and strength. Service and obedience are essential to salvation, and it is just as important for you to keep the commandments as it is for me; it is just as important for your sons to go on missions as it is for mine. All of us must be clean and pure and upright; we must develop in our souls the attributes of godliness until we become like the Lord.

The talents and abilities of the saints of God are needed among their own people and with their own kindred. You are and should be the leaders of the Church here. It is your responsibility to do the missionary work in your own nation. You already know the language and customs of the people and are in a position to say to them, "Come follow me; let us learn and live the gospel together; we are brothers; the Lord wants us in his kingdom; the kingdom is here; let us both be part of the gathering of Israel in our choice and favored land."

Now I rejoice with you that I hold membership in the Church and kingdom of God on earth. I know the work we are engaged in is true, that the fulness of the everlasting gospel has been restored, that Moses did in fact bring again the keys of the gathering of Israel, and that the Lord has set his hand the second time to gather his people into his church and kingdom in all the lands whither he has driven them.

I rejoice with you that we are members of that choice and favored family, and I know that if we keep the commandments we shall live forever in celestial glory in that eternal family which is Israel. That all of us may so do is my prayer, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, who, I repeat, is the God of Israel and the God of the whole earth. Amen.