Then Shall Jerusalem Be Inhabited Again

Part of the Savior’s message to the Nephites on His second day among them included this prophecy speaking about the last days: “And I will remember the covenant which I have made with my people; and I have covenanted with them that I would gather them together in mine own due time, that I would give unto them again the land of their fathers for their inheritance, which is the land of Jerusalem, which is the promised land unto them forever, saith the Father…. Then will the Father gather them together again, and give unto them Jerusalem for the land of their inheritance.” Jerusalem is to be inhabited by the people of the Lord again. He then quoted Isaiah’s prophecy about Jerusalem which poetically seems to say the same thing: “And then shall be brought to pass that which is written: Awake, awake again, and put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city, for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean. Shake thyself from the dust; arise, sit down, O Jerusalem; loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion.” And in case we missed it, the Savior repeated one more time in this same message: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, all these things shall surely come, even as the Father hath commanded me. Then shall this covenant which the Father hath covenanted with his people be fulfilled; and then shall Jerusalem be inhabited again with my people, and it shall be the land of their inheritance” (3 Nephi 20:29, 36-37, 46) Jerusalem is to be inhabited in these last days by the people of the Lord.

               To stress the importance of this last statement from the Savior, in the next verse (which is across a chapter break) the Savior said this: “And verily I say unto you, I give unto you a sign, that ye may know the time when these things shall be about to take place—that I shall gather in, from their long dispersion, my people, O house of Israel, and shall establish again among them my Zion.” Thus He gave a sign for when His people would be gathered in during the last days, and more specifically when Jerusalem (per the previous verse) would “be inhabited again with [His] people.” And what was the sign? It is the coming forth of the Book of Mormon: “And behold, this is the thing which I will give unto you for a sign—for verily I say unto you that when these things which I declare unto you, and which I shall declare unto you hereafter of myself, and by the power of the Holy Ghost which shall be given unto you of the Father, shall be made known unto the Gentiles…. And when these things come to pass that thy seed shall begin to know these things—it shall be a sign unto them, that they may know that the work of the Father hath already commenced unto the fulfilling of the covenant which he hath made unto the people who are of the house of Israel” (3 Nephi 21:1-2, 7). In other words, the coming forth of the Book of Mormon is the sign that the Lord is gathering Israel and that His people will inhabit Jerusalem again. Mormon emphasized this same message when, after recounting the words of the Savior to the Nephites, summarized, “And now behold, I say unto you that when the Lord shall see fit, in his wisdom, that these sayings shall come unto the Gentiles according to his word, then ye may know that the covenant which the Father hath made with the children of Israel, concerning their restoration to the lands of their inheritance, is already beginning to be fulfilled” (3 Nephi 29:1). When the words of the Savior that He spoke to the Nephites come unto the Gentiles—in other words, when the Book of Mormon comes forth—we may know that the Father’s covenant to restore His people to the lands of their inheritance is being fulfilled.

               That physical restoration, though, is to be coupled with a spiritual restoration bringing the Lord’s people to a knowledge of Him. Mormon said that his words he was writing in the Book of Mormon would “go unto the unbelieving of the Jews; and for this intent shall they go—that they may be persuaded that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God; that the Father may bring about, through his most Beloved, his great and eternal purpose, in restoring the Jews, or all the house of Israel, to the land of their inheritance, which the Lord their God hath given them, unto the fulfilling of his covenant” (Mormon 5:14). Thus the Jews and all the people of the Lord are to be restored to the lands of their inheritance and be brought to a knowledge that Jesus is the Christ. Jacob put it this way when he prophesied of the Jews in the last days: “But behold, thus saith the Lord God: When the day cometh that they shall believe in me, that I am Christ, then have I covenanted with their fathers that they shall be restored in the flesh, upon the earth, unto the lands of their inheritance. And it shall come to pass that they shall be gathered in from their long dispersion” (2 Nephi 10:7-8). There is to be a physical and spiritual gathering of the Lord’s people in the latter days. Mormon’s son Moroni summarized the purpose of the Book of Mormon in the title page by highlighting these two things: “Which is to show unto the remnant of the house of Israel what great things the Lord hath done for their fathers; and that they may know the covenants of the Lord, that they are not cast off forever—And also to the convincing of the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God, manifesting himself unto all nations.” The Book of Mormon testifies that the Lord will remember His covenant of physical gathering to His people and that they will come to know indeed that Jesus is the Christ.