The Lamanites Today

I wrote yesterday about the Lord’s declaration that the Lamanites would “come to the knowledge of their fathers… that they might believe the gospel and rely upon the merits of Jesus Christ” because of their receiving the Book of Mormon (D&C 3:20).  The Lord also promised in another revelation that “before the great day of the Lord shall come, Jacob shall flourish in the wilderness, and the Lamanites shall blossom as the rose” (D&C 49:24).  The natural question when thinking about this statement is this: who are the Lamanites today and has this acceptance of the gospel and spiritual blossoming already happened?  In the Doctrine and Covenants the Lord clearly labeled one group as Lamanites.  He commanded four individuals (Parley Pratt, Oliver Cowdery, Peter Whitmer, and Ziba Peterson) to go “into the wilderness among the Lamanites” to preach the gospel (D&C 32:2).  These missionaries went to Missouri and visited the American Indians.  According to the student manual, it at first seemed that they would have success among the Delaware Indians but other Christian missionaries opposed to the Mormons intervened and stopped them.  From my understanding of Church history there has not been a great acceptance of the gospel by the American Indians, although certainly there have been some and one current general authority is an American Indian. 

If we look at the Native Americans alone then we could hardly say that the Lord’s promises about Lamanites accepting the gospel have been fulfilled, but it seems that the leaders of the Church have understood the descendants of the Lamanites to comprise a group far wider than just the Native Americans.  President Kimball appears to have spoken extensively about this.  In 1975 he said, “ there are nearly 130 million Lamanites worldwide….  There are now more than 350,000 Lamanite members of the Church.”  In 1976 he said this, “Our Lamanite work has been going forward. The American Indians and others of the Lamanites, 60 million or more of them in South and Central America and Mexico and the islands, are accepting the gospel.”  Clearly he viewed the descendants of the Lamanites as being a much bigger group than just the American Indians.  Other Church leaders have also spoken about the descendants of the Lamanites, as this website shows.  For example, Melvin J. Ballard said in 1925, “For this very purpose, therefore, were these plates preserved, to bring to pass the redemption of the children of father Lehi, known in North and South America, in Central America, and in Mexico, as the American Indians and some of the natives upon the isles of the sea.”  President Hinckley said at the dedication of the Mexico City temple, “Bless thy Saints in this great land and those from other lands who will use this temple…. Most have in their veins the blood of Father Lehi. Thou hast kept Thine ancient promise.”  At the dedication of the Lima, Perus temple he said this, “Bless Thy work that it shall blossom and grow in this nation and in its neighbor nations of South America. Remember, Father, Thine ancient covenant with the children of Lehi that in the latter days Thou wouldst favor them and bring to them a knowledge of their Redeemer.”  It would seem, according to these statements, that there are descendants of Lehi among the native peoples all throughout North and South America.  And with the incredible growth of the Church in Central and South America, surely we can indeed say that the Lamanites are indeed coming to the knowledge of their fathers and are blossoming as a rose.