The Spiritual Gathering

In the most recent general conference President Nelson said, “And what is the Lord willing to do for Israel? The Lord has pledged that He will ‘fight [our] battles, and [our] children’s battles, and our children’s children’s [battles] … to the third and fourth generation’! As you study your scriptures during the next six months, I encourage you to make a list of all that the Lord has promised He will do for covenant Israel. I think you will be astounded! Ponder these promises. Talk about them with your family and friends. Then live and watch for these promises to be fulfilled in your own life.” One of the great promises that the Lord has given concerning covenant Israel in the latter days is to gather them. After Nephi used the words of Isaiah that spoke about the gathering of Israel to teach his brothers, they asked, “What meaneth these things which ye have read? Behold, are they to be understood according to things which are spiritual, which shall come to pass according to the spirit and not the flesh?” Like often is the case for gospel questions like this, Nephi’s answer was both: “The things of which I have read are things pertaining to things both temporal and spiritual” (1 Nephi 22:1-3). Today I focused on finding passages related to the spiritual gathering of Israel in the last days. His promises are indeed great to those who will be spiritually gathered in to Him.

One of my favorite prophecies about the last days is this one from Nephi about the covenant people of the Lord: “And it came to pass that I, Nephi, beheld the power of the Lamb of God, that it descended upon the saints of the church of the Lamb, and upon the covenant people of the Lord, who were scattered upon all the face of the earth; and they were armed with righteousness and with the power of God in great glory” (1 Nephi 14:14). This is surely part of the spiritual gathering as He gives His power to saints across the world who will covenant with Him, arming them with righteousness and His glory. The Lord has promised in the last days to pour out His knowledge, which the children of men can obtain if they will receive it and be gathered in to His gospel. He invites us with these words recorded by Moroni: “Come unto me, O ye house of Israel, and it shall be made manifest unto you how great things the Father hath laid up for you, from the foundation of the world; and it hath not come unto you, because of unbelief…. Yea, when ye shall call upon the Father in my name, with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, then shall ye know that the Father hath remembered the covenant which he made unto your fathers, O house of Israel” (Ether 4:14-15). Surely at least part of what is alluded to is the great knowledge we gain in the House of the Lord as we covenant with Him and receive the knowledge He has prepared for us, knowledge which in the latter days has been restored according to prophecy.

Another testimony from Nephi says this: “And he gathereth his children from the four quarters of the earth; and he numbereth his sheep, and they know him; and there shall be one fold and one shepherd; and he shall feed his sheep, and in him they shall find pasture” (1 Nephi 22:25). He has promised to find His sheep and bring them into the fold of His gospel, and that takes place all over the world as missionaries invite others to come unto Him and covenant with Him through baptism. Mormon taught us this about the Lord’s covenant with Israel: “He hath covenanted with all the house of Jacob, even so shall the covenant wherewith he hath covenanted with the house of Jacob be fulfilled in his own due time, unto the restoring all the house of Jacob unto the knowledge of the covenant that he hath covenanted with them. And then shall they know their Redeemer, who is Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (3 Nephi 5:25-26). The most important part of this spiritual gathering is that men and women are brought to the knowledge of their Redeemer, and the Lord has promised that this knowledge would go forth to the house of Israel. Lehi described it this way: “And after the house of Israel should be scattered they should be gathered together again; or, in fine, after the Gentiles had received the fulness of the Gospel, the natural branches of the olive tree, or the remnants of the house of Israel, should be grafted in, or come to the knowledge of the true Messiah, their Lord and their Redeemer” (1 Nephi 10:14). His promises to scattered Israel are indeed being fulfilled in our day as the knowledge of a Redeemer continues to go forth to the world and those of Israel are gathered in to Him through covenants in His restored Church.