[Quotes in red have been used on our Key Takeaways page.]
1920 October General Conference
SALVATION TO ISRAEL
Then there is one other promise that was made. We were not only to be a light unto the Gentiles; we were to be the means of bringing salvation to Israel; and in conclusion I want to read a few words from the forty-fifth section of the book of Doctrine and Covenants, on that subject. These words are a repetition to Joseph Smith, on the 7th day of March, 1831, of words originally spoken by the Master upon the Mount of Olives, when he was discussing with the disciples the judgment that would come upon Jerusalem, its destruction, the dispersion of the Jews, and then their gathering again, and the coming of the Lord in the last days. He said, beginning with the twenty-second verse:
Ye say that ye know that the end of the world cometh; ye say also that ye know that the heavens and the earth shall pass away;
And in this ye say truly, for so it is; but these things which I have told you shall not pass away until all shall be fulfilled,
And this I have told you concerning Jerusalem, and when that day shall come, shall a remnant be scattered among all nations;
But they shall be gathered again, but they shall remain until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.
And in that day shall be heard of wars and rumors of wars, and the whole earth shall be in commotion, and men’s hearts shall fail them, and they shall say that Christ delayeth his coming until the end of the earth.
And the love of men shall wax cold, and iniquity shall abound;
And when the times of the Gentiles is come in,—[that is, the beginning of this period]–
And 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;
But they receive it not, for they perceive not the light and they turn their hearts from me because of the precepts of men;
And in that generation [the generation when the light shall break forth]
And in that generation shall the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.
THE GOSPEL FIRST TO THE GENTILES
Now, my brethren and sisters, plainly as anything that the Lord has ever given us, we understand that the beginning of the times of the Gentiles was when the light broke forth in these latter days, and the gospel was given first to the Gentiles. It was written in olden times that those who were first, the Jews, who received the gospel first in former days, should be last in receiving it in the latter days; and those who were last in receiving the gospel in former days, namely, the Gentiles, shall be first in the latter days. So the gospel dispensation in the latter days was to the Gentiles first; and now our souls thrill when we think of the great labor that has been accomplished among the Gentile nations for nearly a hundred years. For it is a hundred years ago now since that light began to break forth, and finally came in its fulness, ten years later, when the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was established in the earth; and for all these many years, by thousands and tens of thousands, the elders of this Church have preached the gospel among the Gentile nations, and the blood of Israel hath been gathered out from the midst of the Gentiles, until the day of gleaning draweth nigh. There shall come a day when the Gentiles shall reject this gospel, they will close their doors against it. That will be the day when the wheat is gathered and when the salt of the earth is taken from among them. When that day comes they will care no more for the word of God, and they will close their doors against it. When that day comes then cometh the day of the redemption of Israel, and that day is nigh at hand. For, when the Gentiles shall begin to reject this word, Israel shall begin to receive it. We see the evidences of God’s preparation for that great work of the redemption of Israel under way. Our souls were thrilled as we saw the armies of the Allies march through the land of Palestine, and break down the power that had held that land under its dominion, in cruelty, for ages.
THE JEWS NOW TURNING TOWARD JERUSALEM
Now our souls are thrilled to see our half brothers, the Jews, turning toward the land of promise; and for the first time since their long dispersion one of their own people, an orthodox Jew, is the ruler of the land of Palestine. The Jews will go there. God knows how to bring them. He did it in our case, and he knows how to bring them. They may say they will not go, but they will. The Lord will hedge up the way behind them, and he will open up the way before them, and unto his appointed place they shall go, in preparation for their conversion at the hands of the Master. For he shall come in the day of their trouble, to their deliverance. He will stand upon the Mount of Olives, which shall cleave in twain, and a valley shall open for their rescue from their oppressors; and when they come to the feet of their Deliverer they shall see the marks of the nails in his feet and in his hands, and shall say: “What are these wounds?” Then he shall say unto them: “I am Jesus Christ, who was crucified. These are the wounds I received in the house of my friends.” Then shall a nation be converted in a day, and shall respond and become God’s chosen people.
THE LAMANITES TO BE REMEMBERED
Then another part of the House of Israel, the children of Father Lehi shall not be forgotten, though they have long been in dispersion. A prophet of old, in the Book of Mormon, said that at the hands of the Gentiles they would suffer and be scattered, but again the Gentiles should become their blessing. I bear witness to you that God, through the Gentile nations, is preparing the Indians of this, the American continent, through their allotments of land, through their education, and in divers other ways, for the acceptance and living of his gospel, and the day of their redemption draweth nigh. The Lord said, in the third section of the Doctrine and Covenants, that for this very purpose the Book of Mormon was given to the Latter-day Saints, to bring to pass the redemption of Father Lehi’s children, the Lamanites.
THE LOST TRIBES SHALL ALSO HEAR
Not only the Lamanites, but others of Israel shall hear—the lost tribes, to whom the Master said he would go, and they should hear his voice. My witness and testimony is that they are preparing themselves; that even now their prophets prophecy of their deliverance and are preparing that people. The mountains of ice shall flow down before them, and a highway shall be cast up, and they shall come forth with songs of everlasting joy, to be crowned at the hands of the children of Ephraim. These are only a few of the glorious things that are before us. It is for that purpose we are assembled here. Let us look upon the means which God has given us as only a means to an end, and not the end itself.
OUR POSITION, STATION AND PRIVILEGE
This is our station; this is our position. These are our privileges; and oh! when we look upon them in all their glory, how mean, how small, and how petty it seems to me for us to get down and quarrel with each other, and backbite, and slander, and fight over the petty little things, and forget the glorious purposes God had in bringing us here.
Now, the Lord keep our hearts upon his purpose and his mission for us, that we may be true unto him, and fail not to come unto the standard of perfection necessary to become the light of the world, the redeemers upon Mount Zion for Israel, the salt of the earth, the city set upon a hill, whose light shall shine forth to all men, and attract the good and the great from all nations, who shall come and say: “Let us go up unto the mountain of the house of the God of Jacob,” for the light to the Gentiles is manifest, “and learn of her ways and walk in her paths,” and become so perfect that we shall attract the attention of the angels of heaven; and the Lord Jesus Christ shall come again to live upon the earth among men, I humbly pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
1938 April General Conference
AMERICA A CHOICE LAND
I remember, years ago, being greatly impressed as I read a book written by an eminent authority, a Jew, Israel Zangwell, in which he called America the “melting pot of the nations.” He saw coming to this land peoples of all other countries, and under our Constitution and our glorious privileges in America the mixing of the blood of the nations, providing a new race of people in the earth, the American, rich in physical strength, in beauty, in intelligence and leadership.
I am sure he was right in offering his thought that America would provide a new race, produced under the most favorable circumstances that people have ever known in the earth, which are the conditions that obtain in America, the choice land—the old Book of Mormon prophets called it—choice above all other lands.
When I think that today one-sixteenth of the world’s population lives in these United States, and we have only one-seventeenth of the world’s land, yet are producing almost one-half of the world’s wealth, and there are no peoples in any other land, whether they be farmers, common laborers, or mechanics or artisans, whose average income is as high as the average income of the families of the United States, I repeat, it is a choice land.
THE BLOOD OF ISRAEL
But I am thinking of a superfine melting pot, if you please, that is going forward in America, wherein a very choice stock has been introduced, the blood of Israel, the children of the promise. You remember the old prophets foreshadowed the scattering of Israel, how they should be sifted among the nations, and yet should be gathered again.
I read an article also some time ago in which the author, discussing the question—Are the Jews the chosen people of God?—granted that they had the right to expect the realization of all the promises offered to their father, Judah; but, said he, “when they aspire to the realization of the great promises bestowed upon Judah’s brother, Joseph, they aspire to that which does not belong to them.” And then he concluded: “If only somewhere in the world today we could find the descendants of this Joseph, we would indeed find the chosen people of God.”
Have they been found? Yes. It has been the declaration of this people, for more than a hundred years, that the mission of this Church was to find the blood of Joseph, through Ephraim, sifted among the nations of the earth, and for more than a hundred years we have been finding them, one of a city, two of a family, one here and one there, even as the prophets said they would be found, at the cry: “Come out of her,” (out of Babylon) “O ye, my people, that ye be not partakers of her plagues.” We have been gathering them up from the nations of the earth.
I read with interest the investigations of the British Israel movement, which seeks to establish the fact that the founders of the British Empire were these descendants of Joseph. They give some very good evidences, and it is not difficult for me to believe that this branch of Israel did play a conspicuous part in the founding of the British Empire; but when they have proven their case they will discover that while that blood was there a large part of it has left England and is here in America. They have lost it. It has come to its own, to the land of Joseph, for Joseph’s branch would go over the wall (the ocean) to the utmost bounds of the everlasting hills.
GATHERING PLACE IN WESTERN AMERICA
This is the land of Joseph. Some twenty-eight thousand converts to the Church, in the hundred years of the preaching of the Gospel in England, have come into the fold in that land, and most of them have come to America. Also from the Scandinavian countries, from the central countries of Europe, from Germany and Holland and Switzerland, they have come in great numbers. This choice stock has responded to the Gospel appeal, to the highest standards that have ever been offered to man, and they have been brought to America.
They were not left, like many of the poorer emigrants, in the congested centers of the East, but by the devotion and self-sacrifice of our fathers they were brought into this western land, where the old prophets saw them. For in the last days the mountain of the Lord’s house was to be established in the tops of the mountains, and all nations, or people of all nations, were to flow unto it. This is the place, and here we came, willingly, because we had to. So we are here, in the right place.
And what for? To obtain the natural advantages of America? Yes, and to have some superior advantages, advantages of leadership. We have the protection and blessing that comes through the Constitution and the government of this country, through the wealth of the soil. These are ours. And here we mingle and mix the blood of the nations, the choice blood of the nations, the descendants of Joseph producing here, for that is the purpose, the greatest race of men and women that have ever lived, under the most ideal conditions. And what for? Great are those objectives.
TIMES OF THE GENTILES
Our mission of gathering this branch of the house of Israel from the Gentile nations was to be accomplished during the “times of the Gentiles.” One of our revelations says, that the generation that saw the light break forth would see the close of the times of the Gentiles. When that is accomplished then cometh the day for the rest of the house of Israel. We are not to be alone. You Latter-day Saints must prepare yourselves to become the saviors of all the rest of the house of Israel; even as Joseph saved them long ago, you are to save them, and their day is dawning.
GATHERING OF THE JEWS
I look to the Jew. Notwithstanding all his distress and peril through the ages that have passed, he seems to be in another peril, and yet I see the hand of God in it. He was to go to his native land, to the land of promise for Judah, to the Holy Land, and they are going, though many of them are going as our fathers came west—willingly because they had to. Even Hitler is used as an instrument, in the hands of God, of driving them where the Lord wants them.
Oh you, our half brothers, Oh, that I could speak to you and your hearts could feel it and know that God has not forsaken you! Your hour is coming. Your deliverance is at hand. Do not complain, but be patient, and go where the Lord wants you, for he yet will redeem you. Your hour is dawning. Let there be no doubt about it.
I would like our Jewish brethren to know that Moses has appeared in this generation and in the Kirtland Temple delivered the keys of the gathering of Israel to the Prophet Joseph Smith, and that an Apostle of this dispensation has blessed the land of Palestine for the return of the Jews. We are confident that this blessing will be realized.
DESCENDANTS OF LEHI
To the descendants of Father Lehi, who have suffered so long, for whom we received the precious record of the Book of Mormon,— it did not come to us for our sake, it was committed into our hands to hold in custody for these millions who are in Mexico, Central America and South America—their day must come. It is coming, and I see the hand of God preparing for their deliverance. But you, you must lead the way.