The Times of the Gentiles

The most common appellation for our time in the scriptures is of course the “last days,” referring to the fact that there are relatively few days until return of the Savior.  Another scriptural phrase that describes our time is “the times of the Gentiles.”  We read in Luke, “And then his disciples asked him, saying, Master, tell us concerning thy coming? And he answered them, and said, In the generation in which the times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled, there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars….  Verily I say unto you, this generation, the generation when the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled, shall not pass away till all be fulfilled” (JST Luke 21:24-25, 32).  These days are the times of the Gentiles, and the Lord reiterated this in the scriptures of our day: “But they shall be gathered again; but they shall remain until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled….  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….  And in that generation shall the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled” (D&C 45:25, 28, 30). 

               Elder McConkie said this about what is meant by the times of the Gentiles: “There was a period or time appointed for the Jews to hear the word, and then a period of time for the Gentiles to take precedence. The times of the Gentiles is the period during which the gospel goes to them on a preferential basis, and this will continue until they have had a full opportunity to accept the truth, or in other words until the fulness of the Gentiles. Then the message will go again to the Jews, meaning to the Jews as a nation and as a people.”  So perhaps we might rephrase this by saying that the times of the Gentiles is the time for the Gentiles to receive the gospel—the Jews’ time will come later, but for the rest of us, the time is now to accept and live the gospel. 

               A related phrase as Elder McConkie mentioned, and that shows up in several places in the scriptures, is the “fulness of the Gentiles.”  The angel Moroni told Joseph that “the fulness of the Gentiles was soon to come in” (JSH 1:41) in 1823.  The Savior told the Nephites, “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” (3 Nephi 16:4).  Paul used the same phrase as he wrote to the Romans: “For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in” (Romans 11:25).  Nephi helped us understand what is meant by this phrase when he taught his brothers: “And now, the thing which our father meaneth concerning the grafting in of the natural branches through the fulness of the Gentiles, is, that in the latter days, when our seed shall have dwindled in unbelief, yea, for the space of many years, and many generations after the Messiah shall be manifested in body unto the children of men, then shall the fulness of the gospel of the Messiah come unto the Gentiles, and from the Gentiles unto the remnant of our seed” (1 Nephi 15:13).  So the fulness of the Gentiles is the time when the Gentiles shall be able to accept the fulness of the gospel.  Eventually that time will pass and the Jews will have the greater opportunity to accept the gospel.  Wilford Woodruff put it this way, “When the Gentiles reject the Gospel it will be taken from them, and go to the House of Israel, to that long-suffering people that are now scattered abroad through all the nations upon the earth, … and they will rebuild Jerusalem their ancient city, and make it more glorious than at the beginning, and they will have a leader in Israel with them, a man that is full of the power of God and the gift of the Holy Ghost; but they are held now from this work, only because the fulness of the Gentiles has not yet come in.”  For now, this is the time for the Gentiles to fully accept the fulness of the gospel—the day of our salvation is now.