Having used the prophecy of Moroni to clarify that a righteous portion of the Gentiles do ultimately repent prior to the second coming of the Lord in glory, let us now go back to the prophecy of Christ in 3rd Nephi.
We shall see that Christ was actually giving a three part sequence in his prophecy, first the Gentiles will reject the gospel, secondly, the fullness of the gospel will be taken from them and the gospel will be taken to the house of Israel… but only the knowledge of the fullness of the gospel will be given to the House of Israel as they are being grafted in.
Third and lastly, a portion of the believing gentiles will repent and become clean before the Lord
As you can see, the prophecy of Christ in 3rd Nephi is totally consistent with the prophecy of Moroni. A portion of believing gentiles will repent when the Marvelous Work commences.
Why is it that Moroni assures us that the gentiles will categorically repent and yet Christ says IF the gentiles repent?
It is because the context of Moroni’s remarks was only referring to the repentant believing gentiles. They, will repent.
Christ was making a broader declaration concerning all of the gentiles in the 3rd watch, realizing that some would repent while others would not when the marvelous work is ushered it.
He understood that the vast majority of the gentiles will reject the gospel when the final restoration takes place. Only a small portion of the gentiles will repent.
The Secret Appearance of Christ,
Moses, Elias and Elijah
The Secret Restoration of the Dispensation
of the Gospel of Abraham
Yes, I believe that Christ’s three part prophecy which is depicted in the image above, is related to the secret appearance of Christ and ministering angels to Joseph and Oliver in the Kirtland Temple.
God was remembering his covenant with the House of Israel when he sent messengers to restore the dispensation of the gospel of Abraham and the keys of gathering Israel.
The restoration of the gospel of Abraham was done secretly allowing a great delusion to take place while resulting in the preparatory gospel being taken to the House of Israel.
This began the grafting in of the House of Israel to the restored gentile church!’
The prophet Mormon also provides an additional witness that just after the Lamanites are scattered by the gentiles, the Lord will remember his covenant with Abraham-
“But behold, it shall come to pass that they shall be driven and scattered by the Gentiles; and AFTER they have been driven and scattered by the gentiles, behold, then will the Lord remember the covenant which he made unto Abraham and unto all the house of Israel” (Mormon 5)
The Trail of Tears and related events having to do with the scattering of the Lamanites by the Gentiles began in 1831.
In 1836 Elias came to the Kirtland Temple to restore the “Gospel of Abraham” and Moses came to restore the “keys of the gathering of Israel”.
Can this possibly be a coincidence?
Was God not remembering his covenant with Abraham and with the house of Israel?
Would the real Gentiles please stand up?
I am suggesting that the originating American gentiles from pilgrim stock from England that were instrumental in laying the foundation of the church are not from the same branch of Israel as those who began converting to the church and migrating to America from Great Britain and other foreign lands a decade later during the Nauvoo era.
The American Gentiles from pilgrim stock were primarily from Joseph/Ephraim.
Yet Joseph smith referred to the new converts from foreign lands as the “outcasts of Israel” and the “dispersed of Judah“.
One could make a strong argument that the new converts migrating to Nauvoo from foreign lands from which most current latter days saints descend from, are not even technically referred to as gentiles in the Book of Mormon based on the Saviors statement in 3rd Nephi.
He continued to refer to them as the house of Israel even though they had mingled among the gentiles nations.
Perhaps that is why so many Caucasian members of the church innately despise the gentile once they begin to dig deep into the scriptures even though they falsely assume themselves to be one.
I am suggesting that the early and prominent gentile players in the restoration movement such as the Whitmer family, the Cowdery family, the Luke Johnson family and hundreds of other gentiles descending from pilgrim stock from England, were the gentiles that the Book of Mormon refers to.
They embraced the Book of Mormon but ultimately left the church during the Kirtland, Jackson, Far West and Nauvoo era’s over things pertaining to the fulness.
David Whitmer and Oliver Cowdery personify the early originating gentile members of the church.
They continued to bear testimony of the Book of Mormon and of Jesus Christ, but they and the rest of their American gentile brethren stumbled and just couldn’t accept the fullness of the higher light at that particular time.
The baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost were not being manifest abundantly during those trying years.
David Whitmer eventually rejected his own missionary work.
He essentially renounced the validity of the baptisms of tens of thousands of LDS converts that were brought into the church as the direct or indirect result of his missionary efforts and the testimony above his name in the opening cover of the Book of Mormon to this very day.
He rejected his own calling as an apostle.
He rejected the calling of the quorum of the twelve apostles that he and Oliver Cowdery had been instrumental in choosing and ordaining.
He rejected the restoration of the Melchizedek priesthood and his own ordination as a high priest.
It was because of his actions and hundreds of others of his gentile brethren, that the Lord announced in section 124 that the fullness of the priesthood had been taken away from the gentiles!
Whitmer is one of the Great men of the Kingdom
Now then, have I been unreasonably hard on brother Whitmer and his fellow gentiles that rejected the fullness in this series?
Not at all.
Why?
Because what I am saying is the truth. I am simply quoting the prophecies of Jesus Christ and acknowledging their fulfillment regarding the preliminary rejection of the fullness of the Gospel by the Gentiles.
Furthermore, I am much kinder in my perception of these founding members of the restored church than most latter day Saints because I accept the unconditional promises that were given to people like David Whitmer and Oliver Cowdery.
I am claiming that David Whitmer and Oliver Cowdery and many others of the early gentiles are also the very same gentiles that Moroni prophesied about.
They are also the gentiles that will repent in the 3rd watch.
They REPENT and return to fulfill their callings!
Look at the UNCONDITIONAL promise given to Oliver and David
44 And by your hands I will work a marvelous work among the children of men, unto the convincing of many of their sins, that they may come unto repentance, and that they may come unto the kingdom of my Father.
45 Wherefore, the blessings which I give unto you are above all things.
Holy Cow, David and Oliver will be instrumental (along with others) in bringing to pass the Marvelous Work and a Wonder that is still a future event!
I would submit that David and Oliver have still not completed their callings as witnesses to the Book of Mormon. Perhaps they will witness about additional records as well.
It is because of their final testimony that many of the gentiles in the third watch will REPENT and enter the kingdom of the Father!
During the same month in 1829 that the above revelation was given to David and Oliver, the Lord gives a revelation directed exclusively at David Whitmer.
Are you sitting down?
I hope so because this might just blow your mind.
In it, He commands David Whitmer to seek to bring forth and establish Zion, a task that required the priesthood keys of the kingdom.
In the revelation given to Whitmer, Christ paraphrases his own prophecy in 3rd Nephi, telling David exactly what is going to happen to him and his fellow gentiles. He lets Whitmer know that the fullness of the gospel will be taken from him and his gentile brethren-
1 A great and marvelous work is about to come forth unto the children of men.
2 Behold, I am God; give heed to my word, which is quick and powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword, to the dividing asunder of both joints and marrow; therefore give heed unto my word.
3 Behold, the field is white already to harvest; therefore, whoso desireth to reap let him thrust in his sickle with his might, and reap while the day lasts, that he may treasure up for his soul everlasting salvation in the kingdom of God.
4 Yea, whosoever will thrust in his sickle and reap, the same is called of God.
5 Therefore, if you will ask of me you shall receive; if you will knock it shall be opened unto you.
6 Seek to bring forth and establish my Zion. Keep my commandments in all things.
7 And, if you keep my commandments and endure to the end you shall have eternal life, which gift is the greatest of all the gifts of God.
8 And it shall come to pass, that if you shall ask the Father in my name, in faith believing, you shall receive the Holy Ghost, which giveth utterance, that you may stand as a witness of the things of which you shall both hear and see, and also that you may declare repentance unto this generation.
9 Behold, I am Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, who created the heavens and the earth, a flight which cannot be hid in darkness;
10 Wherefore, I must bring forth the fulness of my gospel from the Gentiles unto the house of Israel.
11 And behold, thou art David, and thou art called to assist; which thing if ye do, and are faithful, ye shall be blessed both spiritually and temporally, and great shall be your reward. Amen. ( section 14)
Incredible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Undoubtedly, David and many others probably interpreted “bringing the fullness of the gospel FROM the gentiles to the house of Israel” with a positive spin. Meaning that the righteous gentiles who had embraced the fullness of the gospel would then share it with the House of Israel.
It is Obvious four generations later to those of us that have scripture search capabilities that the the Lord was paraphrasing his prophecy in 3rd Nephi and the SPIN was just the opposite of what it appeared to be.
The fullness of the gospel would be taken away from the gentiles because of their rejection of it!
Then the preparatory gospel and the Book of Mormon and D&C containing a description of the fullness of the gospel would be taken by an unsuspecting portion of well meaning Gentiles, to the House of Israel.
Praise God for David and Oliver and others of the gentiles who initially stumbled but have been covered by the grace of Jesus Christ and by the grafting in of the other branches of Israel and by the scapegoat offering of the atonement statute of God’s servants!
They will return and repent and testify.
Now then, was it only those early American gentiles who apostatized in Kirtland that rejected the fullness of the gospel?
NO!
The early gentiles that stayed with the church and went to Nauvoo ALSO rejected the fullness of the gospel.
They also could only embrace a portion of the gospel. This is what section 124:25 was telling the Nauvoo saints. They had failed to retain the fullness!
The entire church failed to embrace the fullness of the gospel in the 2nd watch and the fullness of the gospel was taken from all of them.
The issue was’t just whether a person stayed in the church or not, it was whether they lived the law of the gospel contained in section 42 and magnified the office of high priest which was restored at the Morley Farm and established Zion.
The entire gentile church collectively rejected the fullness of the gospel.
Now then, you might be surprised to find out that as the remaining portion of the early gentiles from the Kirtland church mingled with the converts to the church that began pouring into Nauvoo from foreign lands, who were being graphed into the church, that something very fascinating took place when the great succession debate took place.
There is evidence to suggest that 90% of the early Kirtland saints that followed Joseph Smith to Nauvoo rejected Brigham Young and the 12 and refused to follow them to Utah.
The primary demographic that followed Brigham were the new converts. The poor farmers and laborers from foreign lands who were still babes in the gospel. Many were illiterate. Most did not own a copy of the Book of Mormon or D&C.
If you were not seasoned in the scriptures and had just come over to the promised land, who would you follow? If you had been converted to the gospel by the preaching of one of the 12 or their assistance and then you were forced to put your trust in the one group of men or another, would it not be the apostles that you had come to love and trust?
Listen to the statement of Brigham Young that was being directed to those who could not really think for themselves-
“You are now without a prophet present with you in the flesh to guide you; but you are not without apostles..” Times and Seasons 5:618
Those words would calculated to appeal to the new converts that had not yet been weaned from the breast.
They would not have been very impressive to the seasoned leadership of the church who understood that the 12 were not even allowed to preside in stakes!
It was primarily the branches of the House of Israel from foreign lands that were being graphed into the restored church that had embraced the preparatory gospel of Abraham, that chose to follow Brigham Young and the quorum of the 12 to Utah… and then continued taking it to the nations of the earth.
Few things Stranger than Strang
This brings us back to the mysterious character in the picture at the beginning of this series.
Truth is often stranger than fiction. And so it is with the life of James Jesse Strang, our mystery guy in the picture at the beginning of this article.
To be continued…
Because I am Watching 
Joseph Smith made the statement that the effects on a pure gentile when receiveing the gift of the holy ghost are much more profound than on a individual that had more of the blood of Isreal in them.So I would assume that a gentile was a mixture of the descendents of Japath the son of Noah and of the ten lost tribes that were lead north approx.725 b.c. or possibly even descendents of Esau and Ishmael? As far as the time of the gentiles being fulfilled is not this the time that they had a window of time to accept the fulness of the gospel?Joseph was told that the time of the gentiles was soon to come in by the angel Moroni,obviously this was the period of time that they had to accept the fulness.After which would begin the time of the Jew’s and the House of Isreal.Joseph Smith sent Orson Hyde to dedicate Palestine for the return of the Jews in 1843, this dedication in my mind would be in prepreation for “the time of the House of Isreal” to begin.Also a year latter this gentile nation murdered the Prophet in cold blood further dimenishing their chances of receiving the fulness.This gentile nation further sealed their doom by violating their oaths of office to the constitution of the US by placing the marriage covenant under their jurisdiction.These all were great blasphemes.In 1917 the Balfour agreement was signed by the league of nations allowing the Jews to return to Palestine. According to the 45th sec. of the D&C they were to remain in a scattered condition untill the times of the gentiles be fulfilled.
Great comments NU!
Allow me to respond-
“Joseph Smith made the statement that the effects on a pure gentile when receiveing the gift of the holy ghost are much more profound than on a individual that had more of the blood of Isreal in them.”
That is correct.
Here are a few things to consider in your interpretation of his remarks, one has to do with the term “pure gentile”. How does a pure gentile differ from someone from the house of Israel who is partly gentile and partly Israel, such as the first elders?….(See “Identified with the Gentiles” (109:60))
Another question is what exactly does it mean to have a more profound experience than someone from the house of Israel? That could be taken two different ways.
“So I would assume that a gentile was a mixture of the descendents of Japath the son of Noah and of the ten lost tribes that were lead north approx.725 b.c. or possibly even descendents of Esau and Ishmael?”
A gentile is anyone of the house of Israel whose forefathers mingled their seed among ANY of the non-Israel nations.
I will address your inference to the excluding of Ham and a previous comment you made in a previous reply about the blacks and the priesthood in more detail later in this series.
“As far as the time of the gentiles being fulfilled is not this the time that they had a window of time to accept the fulness of the gospel?Joseph was told that the time of the gentiles was soon to come in by the angel Moroni,obviously this was the period of time that they had to accept the fulness.After which would begin the time of the Jew’s and the House of Isreal.”
Yes, you are right, the times of the gentiles were about to come in shortly after the appearance of Moroni. They left as fast as they came in just a few short years later.
The times of the gentiles were ushered in during the 2nd watch with the restoration of the priesthoods and the church, however, you need to understand that the times of the gentiles has a dual fulfillment.
They came in during the 2nd watch and then the gospel was taken from the gentiles and given to the House of Israel,
The times of the Gentiles will come in again in the 3rd watch when the Marvelous work begins.
Please note section 45:23-42 with special emphasis on verses 25 and 28.
These verses are NOT speaking about the 2nd watch and what happened four generations ago.
They are speaking of the times of the gentiles that are about to open up again in the very near future!
This is one of the reasons why this series is so significant in understanding prophecy.
From the time that the gentiles finished rejecting the gospel back in about 1834-37 until today, we have no longer been in the times of the gentiles in the sense that these passages are referring to.
But the times of the gentiles is about to come in again during our lifetime!
Notice verse 28 VERY CAREFULLY
“When the times of the gentiles is come in, a light shall break forth among them that sit in darkness, and it shall be the fulness of my gospel” (verse 28)
If you will scrutinize that verse in the context of the entire chapter you will find that even though it presents a shadow fulfillment of what happened in the 2nd watch with the gentiles, the literal fulfillment of it is clearly speaking about the last generation of time that we are currently in!
Section 45 is a clarification of what Christ taught about the last generation in Matt 24!
verse 28 is about to take place and those that sit in darkness are those rulers and perhaps others (primarily of the House of Israel) that have been ruling over Gods people at this present time.
After THEY reject the greater light when it shines forth, the first laborers of the last kingdom (who are identified with the gentiles) will once again restore the keys of the kingdom to this earth (see section 65) and they will resume administrative control and will gather the nations for the last time.
For details about who holds the final administrative responsibilities and how it will unfold, first with the gentile and then with the Jew, see section 90:6-11 See also 133:25-35 showing that the Ephraimites identified among the gentiles are in the administrative role)
Watcher,,
Is there a final part to this series, or part 5 it?
Thanks Watcher. Is there a Part after part 5? I actually tried to comment at the bottom of part 5 but it would not let me, so I posted my comment from part 4.
The end of part 5 reads ‘Brigham’s Gift’…and then, like a French movie, abruptly ends and leaves you sitting there scratching your head!
Sorry about that.
I think that a post about “Brigham’s Gift”, (or in other words, the additional saving ordinance of the gospel that he added which was his gift to us, Moroni 10:30, Doctrine and Covenants 124:120 ) was going to be the next post I was going to do. But then I decided to not post on that topic.
Sorry about the confusion.
I will take that last part about Brigham’s Gift off
I seem to remember a post on section 65 a while back.
You wrote:
“After THEY reject the greater light when it shines forth, the first laborers of the last kingdom (who are identified with the gentiles) will once again restore the keys of the kingdom to this earth (see section 65) and they will resume administrative control and will gather the nations for the last time.”
D&C 65:2 states that the keys are already commited to man, but then the rest of the section future paces the events. Is that where the idea that the keys will need to be restored?
If it’s JS that’s to return, won’t he already have the keys and therefore not need to be restored but have them already be commited to him?
Just trying to get a firmer grasp on this one.
I am unable to find the quote that you are showing other than in the above comment section.
Here is how I interpret section 65 which Joseph Smith designated as a prayer. It was an inspired prayer about a future prophetic event.
“HEARKEN, and lo, a voice as of one sent down from on high, who is mighty and powerful, whose going forth is unto the ends of the earth, yea, whose voice is unto men—Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.”
Verse one is referring to the “One mighty and strong” that is mentioned in Section 85 and Isaiah 28 that comes back to set in order the house of God prior to the final secret return of the Savior. This mighty and strong servant had previously been on the earth during the 2nd watch and received the keys of the kingdom which were to stay with him in life and death. He is one of the first laborers of the last kingdom. He is sent down from heaven to declare the truth and re-establish the everlasting covenant for the last time. He is “Elijah the Restorer” who comes again in the 3rd watch.
2 “The keys of the kingdom of God are committed unto man on the earth, and from thence shall the gospel roll forth unto the ends of the earth, as the stone which is cut out of the mountain without hands shall roll forth, until it has filled the whole earth.”
When the one mighty and strong returns to the earth in the 3rd watch, he will commit the keys of the kingdom to mortal men on the earth. From these mortal men, the kingdom will roll forth bringing to pass the literal fulfillment of the prophet Daniel words. [Compare the phrase “from thence shall the gospel roll forth unto the ends of the earth” to section 38:33 “and from thence, whosoever I will shall go forth among all nations“]
Although the setting up of foreign missions by the apostate quorum of the Twelve was a shadow fulfillment of 38:33, the literal fulfillment takes place in the 3rd watch.
3 “Yea, a voice crying—Prepare ye the way of the Lord, prepare ye the supper of the Lamb, make ready for the Bridegroom.”
“Elijah the Restorer” will prepare the way of the Lord in the 3rd watch just as “Elijah the Preparer” prepared the way of the Lord in the 1st watch and the 2nd watch.
4 “Pray unto the Lord, call upon his holy name, make known his wonderful works among the people.”
5 “Call upon the Lord, that his kingdom may go forth upon the earth, that the inhabitants thereof may receive it, and be prepared for the days to come, in the which the Son of Man shall come down in heaven, clothed in the brightness of his glory, to meet the kingdom of God which is set up on the earth.”
6 “Wherefore, may the kingdom of God go forth, that the kingdom of heaven may come, that thou, O God, mayest be glorified in heaven so on earth, that thine enemies may be subdued; for thine is the honor, power and glory, forever and ever. Amen.”
The kingdom of God must be set up on earth during the 3rd watch in preparation for being caught up to meet the kingdom of heaven in the air. See Section 84:99 96:99
.
.
.
.
http://threewatches.blogspot.com/2009/04/section-65.html
It’s amazing that with the recent series on Elijah that I didn’t see the connection sooner.
Thank you.