The Establishment of the State of Israel

Spiritual vs. Political Gathering of Israel

 Articles and quotes will have the source information following the text in Red.

Some Problems with Supersessionism in Mormon Thought 

Steven Epperson 

Review of Our Destiny: The Call and Election of the House of Israel by Robert L. Millet and Joseph Fielding McConkie. Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1993. 157 pp. Bibliography, index. $11.95.

 Robert Millet and Joseph McConkie have undertaken the ambitious project of explaining, in 144 pages, that "history of histories"—the election of and covenant with the house of Israel by the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The book attempts to chronicle the rise of Israel to eminence in the premortal realm, the covenant of God with Abraham, the loss and restoration of that covenant, the scattering and gathering of Israel, covenant people in ancient America, the lost tribes, and the consummation of the individual and collective endeavors of members of the house of Israel in the millennial age. Drawing heavily on the teachings of Bruce R. McConkie, the authors have as their central thesis the claim that the house of Israel is a people called, prepared, and chosen to be a light to others.

The strengths of this book include discussions about the biblical understanding of the intimate nature of the covenantal relationship between the Lord and his people (34-37), temples as "sacral space" (120-22), the people of covenant as a "light to the nations" (62), and the sacrament as a covenantal meal (95-96). In discussing this last topic, the authors add insights into LDS celebrations of the Lord’s Supper by drawing upon the work of biblical scholars informed by historical/critical methodologies.

This book, however, can be rather difficult fare due to a priestly writing style fn and some verbatim redundancies, fn dogmatic assertions, fn and insider debates about Mormon esoterica. fn The text frequently appeals to the fears of those readers fn who are concerned that Church members may fall prey to "would-be leaders" (91), "unstable views" (99), and "other aspects of the apostasy" (13) and concludes that "the gentile nations—and, sadly, many Latter-day Saints—sin against the fulness of the gospel and reject its blessings" (86). Without factual support, the effects of this style of argument are coercion of assent by stigmatization and diversion of the reader’s attention from the avowed purposes of the book.

 At first glance, the principal assertions of Our Destiny appear consistent with certain traditional LDS concepts of election, covenant, dispensations, and religious identity. Closer examination, however, reveals flaws in interpretation, argumentation, and use of historical sources. A negative view of the Jews and a distinct chauvinism mar the pages of Our Destiny. Readers should ask what the effects would be on both Mormon thought and Church practice if these attitudes were to prevail.

 Speculative Interpretation of Scripture

 The book uses a number of scriptures in ways that can be supported only by tendentious readings or by appeals to private, noncanonical interpretations. For example, Col. 1:5 is cited as proof that "gospel principles were taught to us and understood by us long before we were born" (22). But Col. 1:5 is part of Paul’s greeting to the Christian community in Colossae. The community’s "faith in Christ" and "love [for] all the saints" (Col. 1:4) are the causes for the Apostle’s praise, not virtues acquired in premortal life or reserved for the Saints in the life to come.

 Our Destiny often employs an esoteric interpretive procedure to explicate scriptural texts and make authoritative pronouncements. For example, the book claims without canonical justification that the Lord called Abraham to leave Ur "that the bloodline may be kept pure" (44). This claim does not conform with the accounts in Genesis and in Abr. 2:6, which say nothing about bloodline. Similarly, there is no evidence for the claims that Ephraimites are to be "found on the frontier of movements that bring freedom" (48) and that Abraham was baptized and given the priesthood before receiving the covenant of circumcision and promise (43-44). Although this point can be supported by a "presentist" logic, no passage in the standard works states that this was so. Our Destiny introduces many interesting ideas, but sometimes at the expense of caution. fn

 Finally, the book uses noncanonical oral tradition and certain apocryphal literature to substantiate its preoccupation with consanguineous marriage and priesthood authority. For example, the book conjectures that Asenath, whom Joseph married in Egypt, was a "Shemite princess" descended from Hyksos invaders of Egypt and thus fit breeding stock for an Israelite (45). But there is no evidence that Asenath was of Hyksos descent or that the Hyksos were an ethnically pure Semitic group. fn Rather, her name means "belonging to or the servant of (the goddess) Neith." fnThe underlying message here is that race, lineage, and intermarriage were not determinative factors for the prophetic or priesthood authority of either Joseph or Joseph’s posterity. Asenath embraced the faith of her husband. Conversion, not racial consanguinity, was the essential ingredient in this story.

 Although these are sometimes minor problems, they surface throughout the book and thus erode its credibility. Contextual and contradictory evidence is occasionally disallowed or simply set aside, while speculative tales claim heroic deeds for putative Israelites and questionable views proliferate about privileged blood.

 Standing behind these problems lies a difficult methodological task for Latter-day Saint scholars, namely articulating the purpose and status of a written canon of scripture and its relationships to pronouncements of living prophets. In addition, this written canon of scripture must be compared to statements by other General Authorities, to the influence of the spirit of revelation, to details in noncanonical texts, to the implications of logic, and to other such factors. Such issues are not addressed in Our Destiny. An unexamined method of interpretation—if it appeals ultimately to any extracanonical written authority or wrests selected passages of scripture from their contextual base and then reads them against a more overt, historical, or literal sense of written scripture—can contribute to an erosion of the reader’s confidence in the standard measure of scripture and can lead to a proliferation of private, noncanonical, and idiosyncratic readings.

 A Negative View of the Jewish People and of Judaism

 While this book includes some positive statements about the Jews, overall it tends to present a negative judgment about the status of Jews as a covenant people and about Jewish religious experience during the past two thousand years. Our Destiny portrays the Jews at the time of Jesus as being preoccupied with lineage (26-27) and land (72, 108, 126), resenting and snubbing Gentiles (26), rejecting the gospel, and forsaking the Abrahamic covenant. They were "lost as to their identity as covenant representatives" and have since been scattered for apostasy (67). The book claims that the Jewish people became "as the world" and the Lord then "allowed [Israel] to suffer" (109). Exiled and scattered upon the face of the earth, they were no longer "truly the seed of Abraham" (27); yet, paradoxically, they symbolized all the house of Israel (67), formed "false churches," and substituted "rabbis" for "prophets" and "traditions" for "scripture" (109).

 Most Jews, according to Our Destiny, have mistakenly believed there is something "spiritual," redemptive, or "scriptural" about their "political" gathering to, and creation of, the state of Israel (72-73, quoting Bruce R. McConkie). Actually, the book asserts, title to covenant (89), land (127), and, hence, the rights to Abrahamic lineage will be restored to the Jewish people only when they "join the Church" (98). Indeed, the book claims that the Jews will enlist with those who have not been obliterated at the time of the Lord’s second coming to constitute the universal church in the millennial age—that time when "every living soul on earth will belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" (134, quoting Bruce R. McConkie). 

This list of negative judgments about Jews and Judaism runs consistently through the pages of Our Destiny. In effect, the book is strongly aligned with a tradition articulated by some early Church leaders—Sidney Rigdon, Oliver Cowdery, and others—who viewed the relationship between Mormons and Jews in the classic terms of traditional Christian, anti-Jewish theology. This theology, established and maintained for eighteen hundred years by the doctors of Christendom, purchased exclusive covenantal status for the churches of Christ at the price of displacing the Jewish people as heirs and witnesses of the covenant. fn According to this supersessionist doctrine—that Christians succeeded Jews as the Lord’s covenant people—"apostate," "old" Israel had forfeited its covenantal rights to the universal church of Christ, whose members now constituted the "new" Israel of God.

 From the second century down to our own, this theological "triumph" has been employed to justify enactment of forced conversions, vilification of Jews and Judaism by rank-and-file Christians, prohibitive social and economic legislation in both canon and civil laws, establishment of ghettoes, expulsions, and martyrdom of millions of innocent people. It is a shameful story. fn 

But supersessionism does not exhaust the options available to Latter-day Saints. That the Jewish people are the "seed of Abraham" and still heirs to "the glory, and the covenants...and the service of God, and the promises" (Rom. 9:4-5) is clear from the writings of Paul (Rom. 11:1, 29). The mystery Paul celebrates with his gentile converts is not the displacement of the Jews by the Church. Rather it is the adoption of Gentiles into the household of Israel through the Gentiles’ faith in Christ, which adoption fulfills the covenant of God to Abraham that he would be the father of many nations. fn

 In contrast to Cowdery and Rigdon, other LDS leaders, including Joseph Smith, Parley P. Pratt, and Orson Hyde, have seen the Jewish people as "truly the seed of Abraham" (27). Parley Pratt declared, with considerable historical sense and clarity, that Jews had resisted conversion and faced martyrdom because they would "‘not move one step to the standard that is not Abraham’s, nor from the everlasting covenant’" of their fathers (37). When Orson Hyde embarked on his nonproselytizing mission to the "children of Abraham" residing in European cities and in Jerusalem, he communicated and met with Jews and blessed the land for the return of the Jewish people—words and deeds that were unprecedented in nearly eighteen hundred years of encounters between Christians and Jews. fn These positive strands of LDS thought toward the Jews are conspicuously absent from the pages of Our Destiny. Evidence concerning encounters between Mormons and Jews seems to be selected on the basis of whether it agrees with the theoretical construct of Christian supersession.

 This underlying theory dictates that the contemporary gathering to what became the state of Israel by Jews from around the world be viewed merely as a "political," secular, nonredemptive phenomenon. In fact, according to the book, this assembling to "the Palestinian nation of Israel" is not the gathering of "Judah" at all; "people of Jewish ancestry" are merely rehearsing a minor prelude to the real gathering that is to come (72-73).

 However, in the Latter-day Saint tradition, one learns of Joseph Smith’s invocation that "from this hour [March 27, 1836]... the yoke of bondage...be broken,...and the children of Judah...begin to return to the lands [given]...to Abraham, their father" (D&C 109:62-64). In addition, widespread support was given by Mormons to early Zionist aspirations, expressed in editorials like the following: "We hope...steps will be taken for the full emancipation of the Jews in all the civilized nations, and that something will be done leading to the future occupation and redemption of the land.... Prophecy points to this as one of the certain events of the latter times." fn

 Our Destiny asserts that Jews have become "as the world" and have forsaken the true covenant of Abraham (109). However, Jewish history and experience demonstrate that the terms of covenant, community identity, and autonomous religious legitimacy continue among the Jews in the covenant of circumcision (Gen. 17:10-14), Torah recitation and study, daily prayer, celebration of covenant festivals, observation of divinely sanctioned moral and liturgical duties, eighteen hundred years of spiritual and intellectual reflection on the covenant, the martyrdom of millions for the "sanctification of God’s name" (kiddush ha-Shem), and the recitation, by tens of millions every day for four thousand years, of "Hear O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord; And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might" (Deut. 6:4-6). fn

 Even the teachings of our own tradition acknowledge the facts of Israel’s covenantal witness. In reference to this, Joseph Smith spurned theoretical abstractions of traditional Christian anti-Judaism and affirmed that the Jewish people "inculcate attendance on divine worship" and manifest to any disinterested reader "true piety, real religion, and acts of devotion to God." fn George A. Smith, having returned from Palestine in 1873, asserted that the Jewish people "still maintain their identity as the seed of Abraham.... They are a living record of the truth of the revelations of God." fn Since the Jewish people are still of "the seed of Abraham," lineage and returning to the lands of their inheritance are not contingent upon their joining the LDS Church (98). Jews have no reason to seek for, nor wait upon, our permission to be what they are in fact.

 Finally, Our Destiny concludes that the Jews must join the Church or be "destroyed" with the unrighteous (131-34). While several LDS writers have agreed with this strand of Christian apocalypticism, Brigham Young on three occasions corrected "erroneous expectations" that "all the inhabitants of the earth will join the church" in the Millennium, by calling those who held these false hopes "egregiously mistaken." fn Reflecting on the mystery and splendor of natural and human diversity, as well as on the law of free agency, Brigham Young said that "Jews and Gentiles" will not "be obliged to belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints," neither in the millennial nor distant ages to come. fn

 In other words, members of the Church have an alternative to supersessionism. Paul celebrated the adoption of the Gentiles into the covenant household of Abraham through faith in Christ without, at the same time, displacing the Jews. Mormon prophets and Apostles have placed emphasis on the living witness of covenant Israel, including the Jewish people, hoping thereby to learn more of the Maker and the meaning of covenant in these latter days. It may be well to remember the wisdom of the prophet Jacob: "For the people of the Lord are they who wait for him; for they still wait for the coming of the Messiah" (2 Ne. 6:13).

 Racial and Religious Chauvinism

 Frequently citing Bruce R. McConkie and others, Our Destiny argues that those individuals who comprise the house of Israel were elected due to their "premortal faithfulness and spiritual capacity" (17), were "segregated out from their fellows" (17), and were foreordained to "come to earth through a designated channel" (17) to occupy positions of "lineage and station" (18) in this life and "enjoy greater spiritual endowments than their fellows" (19). They are born with "believing blood" (19), "royal blood" (66) which makes it "easier for them to believe...than it is for the generality of mankind" (19). They are "endowed at birth with spiritual talents" (19) and a "predisposition to receive the truth" (66).

 In addition, the authors contend that since "literal blood descent" from Abraham delivers "the right to the gospel, the priesthood, and the glories of eternal life" (143), "rights" by blood descent are crucial for the exercise of legitimate authority to establish and maintain the Church (52-55). They claim that such authority is rooted securely, since the Church’s early leaders "were all of one stock" (53), sharing with Joseph Smith a "pure...blood strain from Ephraim" (54, quoting Utah Genealogical and Historical Magazine); they are "pure-blooded[Israelite[s]" (86). This teaching, they assert, is to be taken literally (52); it is "neither myth nor metaphor" (143). One is left wondering, however, what this doctrine amounts to today, for the book also says, "Nor should those who are not directly descended from Israel who join the Church feel in any way less than chosen" (143; italics added). Perhaps clearer definitions of what is meant by "the idea of a covenant or chosen people" (2; italics added) would make the book’s position less ambiguous.

 While recognizing that modern people may see this doctrine as "racist, sexist, or exclusivist," Our Destiny rejects the "egalitarian-sounding" views of such people on the grounds that such positions are "doctrinally defenseless and even potentially hazardous" (18). The authors, however, do not grapple with the implications of this doctrine, especially in light of the momentous 1978 revelation in Official Declaration 2. The book begins by worrying that "doctrines" about "royal blood" and "believing blood" in recent years have been "untaught" and "ignored" (1). Perhaps the revelation of 1978 explains that shift.

 Moreover, other factors raise further questions. Genetic research shows that intensive endogamy practiced in pursuit of a pure blood strain is biological suicide. It results in deleterious genes, which introduce incidences of disease, imbecility, and infertility otherwise checked by exogamic reproduction. In any event, pure blood strains are probably a myth. The distinguished Jewish historian Raphael Patai observed, "If by ‘pure’ we mean uniform, then it is unlikely that pure races of man ever existed." fn

 From genealogical science, statistics attest that the entire human family is lineally and genetically related. Most geneticists are in agreement. Guy Murchie has written that "no human...can be less closely related to any other human than approximately fiftieth cousin, and most of us...are a lot closer." fn "It is virtually certain," Murchie concluded, "that you [that is, all readers] are a direct descendant of...Abraham." fn

 This book’s use of William J. Cameron as an authority on these issues and its reference to him as a "wise man" (22) is even more troubling. William Cameron (1875-1955) was the editor of Henry Ford’s Dearborn Independent, a weekly publication whose columns in the 1920s and 1930s contained "some of the most vile anti-Semitism ever to be published in this country." fn Ninety-one issues of the Independent "hammered away at the theme of an international Jewish conspiracy.... Jews were blamed for everything from Communism to jazz, immorality, and short skirts." fn Albert Lee has identified Cameron as the author of "most of the anti-Semitic articles." fn His writings became "the bible of the German anti-Semites, including Adolf Hitler." fn In 1928, Cameron left the Independent to become editor of Destiny, the official publication of the Anglo-Saxon Federation of America, well known for its anti-Semitism, racism, and nativism. He maintained that Jesus "was not a Jew. And the Jews, as we know them, are not the true sons of Israel. It was the Anglo-Saxons who descended from the ten lost tribes of Israel." fn To associate, even slightly, with Cameron is unconscionable in the international Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. fn

 More meaningful and abiding criteria than race or blood exist for citizenship in the household of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Happily, Our Destiny does not completely ignore these religious dimensions. Unfortunately and probably unintentionally, the authors leave the distinct impression that membership based on conversion without the benefit of "believing blood" is second-rate because of their heavy emphasis on bloodline.

 However, their statements on privilege cannot be successfully reconciled with those concerning equality in the house of Israel. In Deuteronomy, the prophet reminds Israel that its God is "faithful" and "keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations" (Deut. 7:9). fn Paul wrote that all who have and act with faith in the God of Abraham, "the same are the children of Abraham" (Gal. 3:7). Gentile Christians, former["heathen[s]" (Gal. 3:8), uncertain and insecure about their covenantal identity because the Jewish people’s claim to Abraham is so strong in comparison, are told by the Apostle not to fear: "If ye are Christ’s then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise" (Gal. 3:29). The earth is the Lord’s; he "hath made of one blood all nations of men" (Acts 17:26).

 If we are all of one blood and virtual descendants, every one of us, of father Abraham, then claims to "lineage and station" (18), "nobility" (48), and rights by virtue of a select "blood strain" (54) are at best specious and quite irrelevant in today’s Church. Is it possible that, just when the LDS community is emerging from ethnic, linguistic, and geographical parochialism to become a worldwide religion, that Our Destiny would unwittingly turn us back?

 Steven Epperson is Assistant Professor of History, Brigham Young University.

 For example, "be it remembered," 13; "forsakes and eschews," 65.

 Compare repetitions on pages 2 and 85 as well as 72 and 116.

 "The great issue described by Nephi is not translation, but transmission" (6). Do we know that the written testimony was by John the Baptist (7)? Did "the Jews of Jesus’ day" all know "that all true servants of the Lord come baptizing" (12)? Is it true that "as with the individual, so also with persons and nations" (15)? The authors even dubiously put words into the Lord’s mouth (26).

 For example, "one mighty and strong" (136). The authors also make frequent use of passages from the Joseph Smith Translation without explaining their context or significance.

 These ad metum arguments are instances of "fallacies of substantive distraction," whose purpose is to shift "attention from a reasoned argument to other things which are irrelevant" to the case at hand. David Hackett Fischer, Historians’ Fallacies: Toward a Logic of Historical Thought (New York: Harper and Row, 1970), 282-306.

 For example, what does the word organized mean when Abraham saw "the intelligences that were organized before the world was" (Abr. 3:22) or when Father in Heaven "organized" the human family? It may or may not mean the kind of stratification that Millet and McConkie mention (16). Also in this connection, they speak absolutely of everyone’s "foreordination to lineage and family" (17), but President Harold B. Lee was more tentative: "These rewards were seemingly promised" (18, italics added).

 "Hyksos," in The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, 4 vols. (Nashville: Abingdon, 1962), 2:667.

 "Asenath," Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible 1:247-48. See also "Asenath," in The Anchor Bible Dictionary, ed. David Noel Freedman (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 1:476. The alien status of Asenath is underlined in a text from around the time of Christ that depicts Joseph as saying, "It is not meet that a God-fearing man...should kiss a woman of a strange people, who blesses dead and unprofitable idols, and eats the putrid bread of idolatry, which chokes the soul of man, who drinks the libations of deceit, and anoints herself with the oil of destruction." Quoted in Louis Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1910), 2:172.

 See James D. G. Dunn, The Partings of the Ways between Christianity and Judaism and Their Significance for the Character of Christianity (Philadelphia: Trinity Press International, 1991); John Gager, The Origins of AntiSemitism: Attitudes toward Judaism in Pagan and Christian Antiquity (New York: Oxford University Press, 1983); David P. Efroymson, "The Patristic Connection," in Antisemitism and the Foundations of Christianity, ed. Alan Davies (New York: Paulist, 1979), 98-117; Paul M. van Buren, "A Christian Theology of the People Israel," pt. 2 of A Theology of the Jewish-Christian Reality (New York: Seabury, 1983), 1-42; Charlotte Klein, Anti-Judaism in Christian Theology, trans. Edward Quinn (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1978); James Parkes, The Conflict of the Church and the Synagogue: A Study in the Origins of Antisemitism (New York: Atheneum, 1979); and Gavin I. Langmuir, History, Religion and Antisemitism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990).

 James Parkes, Conflict of the Church and the Synagogue; Jeremy Cohen, The Friars and the Jews: The Evolution of Medieval Anti-Judaism (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1982); Heiko A. Oberman, The Roots of Anti-Semitism in the Age of the Renaissance and the Reformation, trans. James I. Porter (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1984); Léon Poliakov, The History of Anti-Semitism, trans. Richard Howard (New York: Schocken, 1974); Jacob Katz, From Prejudice to Destruction: Anti-Semitism, 1700-1933 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1980); Lucy S. Dawidowicz, The War against the Jews, 1933-1945 (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1975); and Raul Hilberg, The Destruction of the European Jews (Chicago: Quadrangle, 1961; New York: Holmes and Meier, 1985). For two works that demonstrate that Christians did not have to acquiesce to or participate in political, economic, or theological discrimination against Jewish people, see Philip Friedman, Their Brothers’ Keepers (New York: Holocaust Library, 1978); and Philip P. Hallie, Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed: The Story of the Village of Le Chambon and How Goodness Happened There (New York: Harper and Row, 1979).

 Lloyd Gaston, "Paul and the Torah," in Antisemitism and the Foundations of Christianity, 48-71; van Buren, "Christian Theology of the People Israel," 277-83. The supersessionist theology of Millet and McConkie leads them into tendentious readings of many scriptures; for example, Acts 17:24-26; Rom. 9:6-7; 3 Ne. 21:14-22.

 Steven Epperson, Mormons and Jews: Early Mormon Theologies of Israel (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1992), 139-72.

 Deseret News, September 10, 1879, 502.

 Robert M. Seltzer, Jewish People, Jewish Thought: The Jewish Experience in History (New York: Macmillan, 1980), dispels the severely limited and inaccurate picture of the Jewish people and Judaism offered in Our Destiny.

Times and Seasons 3 (June 1, 1842): 810.

 Journal of Discourses, 26 vols. (Liverpool: F. D. Richards, 1855-86), 16:103-7, 220-21; hereafter cited as JD.

 JD 11:275; 2:316-17; see also 12:274.

 While Brigham Young based this view on John 14:2, "In my Father’s house are many mansions," allowing in that house "different classes of mankind...requiring a classification and an arrangement into societies and communities" (JD 11:275), he did not explain the differences that may exist amidst that variety of people in God’s mansions. He did, however, insist upon their difference, distinction, and duration "to all eternity."

 Raphael Patai and Jennifer Patai, The Myth of the Jewish Race, rev. ed. (Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1989), 16.

 Guy Murchie, quoted in Alex Shoumatoff, "The Mountain of Names," New Yorker, May 13, 1985, 60.

 Shoumatoff, "The Mountain of Names," 60.

 Ernest Volkman, A Legacy of Hate: Anti-Semitism in America (New York: Franklin Watts, 1982), 33.

 Harold E. Quinley and Charles Y. Glock, Anti-Semitism in America (New York: Free Press, 1979), 168.

 Albert Lee, Henry Ford and the Jews (New York: Stein and Day, 1980), 19.

 Edwin Black, "The Anti-Ford Boycott," Midstream: A Monthly Jewish Review 32 (January 1986): 39-41. Robert Wistrich noted that The International Jew was "highly praised by Adolf Hitler and widely distributed in German translation by the Nazi Party." Ford’s paper (written and edited by Cameron) had depicted the Jews as "a universally corrupting influence...from liberalism, unionism, and Bolshevism to Negro jazz music. One can see why Hitler once told an American reporter: ‘I regard Heinrich [sic] Ford as my inspiration.’" Standing behind and supplying Ford with his public anti-Semitic discourse was William Cameron. Robert S. Wistrich, Antisemitism: The Longest Hatred (New York: Pantheon, 1991), 118-19.

 Lee, Henry Ford and the Jews, 88; see also James H. Anderson, God’s Covenant Race: From Patriarchal Times to the Present (Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1944), 288, 304, 307.

 For more information on the racial fallacy and the historic relationship of racism and anti-Semitism in America, see Robert Singerman, "The Jew as Racial Alien: The Genetic Component of American Anti-Semitism," in Anti-Semitism in American History, ed. David A. Gerber (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1986), 103-28.

On several occasions, Brigham Young distinguished between the kingdom of God (by which he meant all the people on the earth during the Millennium) and the Church of Jesus Christ or Zion. JD 2:316-17; 11:275; 12:274. The kingdom of God will house "every sort of sect and party, and every individual following what he supposes to be the best in religion, and in everything else, similar to what it is now" (JD 2:316), including "Infidels" and those who "know nothing of Him from whom all good comes" (JD 12:274), so long as they bow the knee to God and Jesus Christ, however reluctantly (JD 2:316-17). In that day, all except the sons of perdition will be "gathered into kingdoms where there will be a certain amount of peace and glory." JD 12:274. Thus Brigham Young declared that the Presbyterians, the Quakers, and the Jews would remain free to live under the aegis of the kingdom of God, to have their own kingdoms, and to believe as they wished, not being "obliged to belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." JD 11:275. He did not mean, however, that they will be Saints or enjoy celestial happiness and glory. JD 12:274. In individual cases, even one who thought of himself as a Jew, did not have "any of the blood of Judah in his veins" if he had become "a good Latter-day Saint." JD 11:279.

 For a bracing antidote for religious chauvinism, see Yeshayahu Leibowitz, Judaism, Human Values, and the Jewish State, ed. Eliezer Goldman, trans. Eliezer Goldman and others (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1992), 106-22, 209-13.

 (Some Problems with Supersessionism in Mormon Thought, BYU Studies, vol. 34 (1994), Number 4--1994-95 .)

Jews in LDS Thought

 Chronicling the attitudes of Latter-day Saints toward the Jews and Israel illustrates a subjective use of history as well as the objective dynamics of a living theology.

 Arnold H. Green

 In their basic revealed texts, Latter-day Saints encounter many themes concerning the history and destiny of the Jews. Generations of Church officers and members have formed differing combinations of those themes. Their varying formulations somewhat reflect the trends and perceived needs of their eras. Thus, in effect, many Latter-day Saints have functioned as subjective revisionists or as reductionists. fn While a few of their revisions are specific to certain eras, other revisions have endured or reappeared and now coexist. In an effort to identify the main elements that have played roles in LDS thought about the Jews, this essay will first discuss revisionism and subjectivism in history and theology. It will then examine, in the order in which they have appeared over time, certain themes relating to the Jews. Bibliographic information for this body of LDS literature is given in the endnotes.

 Revisionism and Subjectivism in History and Theology

 Reviewing the issues surrounding revisionism and subjectivism is helpful for understanding the various themes that have been present in Latter-day Saint attitudes toward the Jews from 1830 to the present. Revisionism is the practice of deliberately revising generally understood ideas about history or theology. Subjectivism in historical studies means perceiving past situations or events in terms of present values. Both practices are risky yet unavoidable and often salutory. Revisionism is hazardous in that such a reinterpretive exercise can attract dishonest zealots—some whole historical endeavors reek of unscrupulous fanaticism. Perhaps the most unsavory of these at present is the revisionism which denies the occurrence of the Holocaust. fnNevertheless, revisionism is relentless and necessary, as implied by Carl Becker’s oft-quoted mot that every generation rewrites history from its own perspective.

 This re-visioning can also be beneficial. Events, documents, and other phenomena become more fully understood after scrutiny from various angles by historians of many eras. In fact, many reputable scholars label themselves "revisionists" to promote what they deem are improved ways of comprehending certain events and texts in light of neglected sources or fresh analytical approaches. fn

 Debates about the pros and cons of revisionism in history often pit subjectivism (investigating the past from one perspective or one’s current beliefs and values) against objectivism (reconstructing the past for its own sake). fn Meinecke identified these "two great tendencies" in historical studies and recommended that "neither of these tendencies . . . be pursued one-sidedly." fn

 Twentieth-century historians have typically employed some subjectivism and rejected Ranke’s ideal of completely objective, "scientific history." They have urged historians to assess the past’s "usefulness" in applying historical knowledge to humanity’s present quandaries. As Becker argued in 1935, "The history that lies inert in unread books does no work in the world. The history that does work in the world, the history that influences the course of history, is living history." fn Subjectivists of course distinguish between "living history" and fiction or propaganda. For instance, in the early twentieth century, Croce affirmed, "A history without relation to the document would be an unverifiable history; and... the reality of history lies in this verifiability." fn

 A similar subjective-objective interaction occurs in religion. fn In a Latter-day Saint context, subjectivism underlies Nephi’s practical advice that individuals should "liken" the scriptures unto themselves. fn Neal A. Maxwell counseled, "Make the living scriptures relevant to our lives and to our times as did Nephi." Russell M. Nelson, trained as a physician, used curative metaphors and urged that knowledge of history be used to uplift. He cautioned that "some truths are best left unsaid" in preference to the practices of "self-serving historians [who] grovel for ‘truth’ that would defame the dead and the defenseless." fn Yet, where subjectivism endorses likening, selecting, and omitting for our current or personal needs, objectivism cautions against "wresting the scriptures" (see 2 Pet. 3:16; Alma 13:20; D&C 10:63). fn

 In both history and theology, objectivism checks the subjectivist temptation to treat the documentary record too selectively, thereby wresting the past by reducing it or by citing evidence out of context. This concern applies to the intent of a specific passage (otherwise the sixth commandment could be rendered "Thou shalt... kill") and especially to the integrity of the whole context’s complexities and subtleties. For example, an objectivist might countenance on one hand the reduction of a situation that has the elements AABCCCXYYZZ to AbCxYZ (where two A’s are reduced to A, three C’s to C, and so on). On the other hand, the objectivist would protest the reduction of that event to BX. Yet B and X might be precisely those aspects of the situation that some historians or theologians would subjectively find most relevant to their day, although other subjectivists might prefer element C or the formulation AYZ.

 The ongoing revisionism present in the exercise of history and the tensions between subjectivism and objectivism in both history and theology are among the issues one encounters when surveying the complex topic of LDS attitudes toward the Jewish people and the modern state of Israel.

 The Jews in LDS Thought

 Impressively, the whole tapestry of the Book of Mormon consists of a myriad of complex and subtle threads. Through the decades, sermonizers and scholars have treated individual strands either in isolation or in reweavings of their own design, sometimes with apparently contradictory results.

 Scriptural Foundations. One may select from the tapestry a few main strands, for example:

 1. judgment

 2. lineage

 3. Judeophilia

 4. partnership

 5. return

 6. conversion to Christ

 7. universality

 On the basis of the manifestations of factors such as these, one may hazard to infer the Jews’ status according to LDS scripture.

 When considered in isolation, one of these strands—judgment—focuses on transgressions by the Jews and their resulting condemnation. fn For example, 1 Ne. 19:13-14 includes such phrases as "those who are at Jerusalem... shall be scourged by all people, because they crucify the God of Israel" and "they shall wander in the flesh, and perish, and become a hiss and a by-word, and be hated among all nations." fn Although milder than the sermonized abuse by the Greek and Latin Church Fathers, such language compares in accusation and tone to New Testament passages that Jewish writers have found offensive. fn

 In contrast, the thread of the Abrahamic lineage evokes themes of divine respect and prophetic expectations, leading to the strands of Judeophilia (esteeming the Jews) and an anticipated religious partnership. We find references to "the Jews, the covenant people of the Lord," and explicit cautions against hatred of the Jews: "Ye need not any longer hiss, nor spurn, nor make game of the Jews, nor any of the remnant of the house of Israel; for behold, the Lord remembereth his covenant unto them" (3 Ne. 29:8). fn Indeed, as Latter-day Saints have identified themselves either as literal or adopted descendants of scattered Israel, they imply a future Jewish-Mormon partnership. Assuming a "tribes of Israel" framework—featuring "Judah" and "Joseph" fn—scriptures predict cooperation between these tribes in such areas as promulgating scriptures fn and building millennial capitals. fn Prophetic expectations for the tribe of Judah also include the concept of a return to the Holy Land: "And I will remember the covenant which I have made with my people... 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 promised land of Jerusalem" (3 Ne. 20:29). fn

 Yet this thread of the Jews’ return to Israel frequently appears interwoven with Christ’s divine and messianic roles, the latter-day restoration of the New Testament church, and its progress defined in "tribes of Israel" terms. Many passages in Latter-day Saint scripture mentioning the Jews’ return thus also mention the Jews’ Christianization—"when they shall come to the knowledge of their Redeemer, they shall be gathered together again to the lands of their inheritance" (2 Ne. 6:11). fn Ambiguities exist, however, regarding sequence, amount, and timing. Verses like 2 Ne. 6:11 and 25:16-17 imply that the Jews’ conversion not only precedes their return, but also serves as its precondition, whereas those like 3 Ne. 20:29-30 imply a sequence of return followed by a delayed conversion and final inheritance. Suggesting the former order, 2 Ne. 30:7-8 hints at still a third sequence—return triggered by the Jews["begin[ning] to believe in Christ." fn

 Moreover, a prominent related strand conveys a sense of universality—"he denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female; and he remembereth the heathen; and all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile" (2 Ne. 26:33). fn Although Joseph Smith characterized the LDS Church’s missionary-driven growth as "the literal gathering of Israel" (AofF10), provision is made for those not counted among the innumerable sand-grains of Abraham’s descendants: "If the Gentiles shall hearken unto the Lamb of God, . . . they shall be numbered among the house of Israel" (1 Ne. 14:1-2). In other words, faith and faithfulness can "Israelize" Gentiles, and unfaithfulness can "gentilize" Israel (2 Ne. 30:2).

 The threads of judgment, lineage, Judeophilia, partnership, conversion, return, and universality have appeared, ebbed, reemerged, and continue to entwine in various configurations through Latter-day Saint thought on the past and future of Jews and Israel.

 1840-1880. By the mid-nineteenth century, Reform Judaism had arisen in Germany and spread to America. (Reform Judaism discarded or modified some traditional beliefs and observances and instituted others, such as a belief in progressive theology.) Secular Jewish nationalism (the advocacy of a Jewish nation and homeland divorced from traditional Judaism) was emerging. Christianity’s long tradition of trying to convert Jews had new expressions; "Christian Zionism" (Christian denominations encouraging the Jews’ return, largely because it validates their own theology) was flourishing, now mainly among evangelical Protestants. De Gobineau, a French aristocrat, was popularizing scientific racism, claiming the white race combined the best human traits and therefore was superior to, and should be isolated from, inferior races. Pogroms were increasing in Eastern Europe, as was the trickle of pious European Jewish emigrants to Palestine. fn

 Reading their newly revealed scriptures in light of such developments, nineteenth-century Latter-day Saints articulated three main and enduring theological positions regarding the Jews’ status. All three positions included the ideas of judgment, lineage, and return: Orson Hyde and Wilford Woodruff saw the promises made to the lineage triggering a return which would lead to conversion. Parley and Orson Pratt urged Christianization as necessary for removing the judgment on the Jewish lineage and thus permitting the Jews’ return. And Brigham Young disassociated return from the removal of judgment on lineage and from conversion. Instead, he associated conversion with the Second Coming.

 Orson Hyde’s 1841 prayer to "dedicate and consecrate this land [the Holy Land]... for the gathering together of Judah’s scattered remnants" included the themes of judgment, lineage, and delayed conversion, with the return to Palestine receiving the focus of attention—expressed formulaically as judgment/lineage/return/ delayed conversion (with the emphasized topic capitalized). While praying to "incline them to gather in upon this land" and "constitute her people as a distinct nation and government," Hyde also petitioned to "let Thy great kindness conquer and subdue the unbelief of Thy people." fn Almost the same blend of return and conversion exists in the Twelve’s 1845 Proclamation. Composed by Wilford Woodruff, it charges "the Jews among all nations . . . to return to Jerusalem" but implies impending conversion: "For be it known unto them that we now hold the keys of the priesthood and kingdom which are soon to be restored unto them." fn

 In contrast, Parley P. Pratt’s "Address to the Jews" in his 1852 "Proclamation" emphasizes a second formula of judgment/lineage/ immediate conversion: "To the Jews we would say—Turn from your sins." "We have now shown you the door of admission into the kingdom of God, into which you would do well to enter." Return to Jerusalem is implied as a benefit of conversion. As Orson Pratt explained, "The main part of [the Jews] will believe while yet scattered." fn

 A third formula of judgment/lineage/return/delayed conversion was articulated in 1866 by Brigham Young. "Let me here say a word to the Jews," he said. "We do not want you to believe our doctrine. If any professing to be Jews do so, it would prove they were not Jews. A Jew cannot now believe in Jesus Christ." "The decree has gone forth from the Almighty," he continued, "that they cannot have the benefit of the atonement until they gather to Jerusalem, for they said, ‘Let his blood be upon us and our children.’ Consequently, they cannot believe in him until his second coming." fn John Taylor and Wilford Woodruff softened Brigham Young’s position; fn then all three endorsed the theme of return by sending George A. Smith in 1872 to rededicate Jerusalem to that end. fn During the years 1841 to 1933, Palestine was dedicated by Latter-day Saints seven times only for the return of the Jews, not for the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. fn

 1881-1920. During the four decades straddling 1900, the Jews’ legal status improved in North America and western Europe, where assimilation seemed likely, at least until the Dreyfus Affair (in which Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish French officer, was courtmartialed for spying, even after the main evidence against him was proven to be forged). Meanwhile, the Jews’ condition drastically worsened in Eastern Europe, the "great migration" to the West began, and new expressions of secular and religious Zionism materialized. These forces provoked the first two Zionist aliyahs (waves of Jewish emigration to Palestine) and swelled the previous trickle to a stream. fn These events, particularly the obvious movement of large numbers of Jews to the Holy Land, prompted additional LDS pronouncements that confirmed and expanded the Hyde, Pratt, and Young conceptions of the Jews’ destiny.

 As during the years 1840 to 1880, a frequently expressed position was Hyde’s judgment/lineage/return/delayed conversion formulation. For example, it appeared in the dedicatory prayers of the Manti Temple (1888) and the Salt Lake Temple (1893) offered by Lorenzo Snow and Wilford Woodruff respectively. fn In 1899, J. M. Tanner contributed a flattering, academic description of Zionism. Five years later, J.M. Sjodahl placed a positive connotation on judgment—"Persecution has been the means of preserving their nationality"—then cited Old Testament return passages as a prelude to identifying Zionism as "exceedingly important." This position was reiterated in 1917 by James E. Talmage: the scattering permits biblical Israel to bless the nations, and the prophesied return has begun. Subscribers to this trend considered General Allenby’s capture of Jerusalem in November 1917 to be particularly significant. fn

 A version of Brigham Young’s view (judgment/lineage/return/ delayed conversion) appeared in 1918 when E.H. Lund enumerated cases of the Jews’ "unrighteousness and hypocrisy" per the Old Testament and then interpreted 2 Ne. 10:3-5 as asserting that the Jews were the only nation having the "necessary mental qualities" to crucify Jesus. Yet, he observed, present developments suggest that "the Lord is gradually withdrawing the curse which he placed on that land anciently," although "the innate skepticism and unbelief of the Jews will still possess them" until the Second Coming. fn

 Pratt’s emphasis on judgment/lineage/conversion/return also found new voices. For example, during 1901 the Improvement Era addressed a reader’s question: "When the Jews gather to Palestine, will they be in a condition of belief or unbelief in Jesus Christ?" The respondent, John Nicholson, dismissed what he called "the complete unbelief theory" and concluded, "Doubtless there will be a class of those who gather to Palestine who will be unbelievers, but it will probably be proportionally small." Nicholson also made a novel observation. Citing Reform Jews who proposed sympathetic (revisionist) views of Jesus, he commented, "These statements are evidences that the Jews are ‘beginning to believe in Christ,’ and are therefore being prepared for complete conversion." This idea was repeated in general conference in 1902 by B.H. Roberts and in 1918 by David O. McKay. fn

1921-1947. In 1920 the League of Nations entrusted a mandate over Palestine to Great Britain, which at first promised to sponsor the creation of a Jewish national home. The great migration, the relocation of over four million Russian Jews to the West from the 1880s to the 1920s, was accompanied by growing Judeophobia in western Europe and America—compounded after the 1917 Russian Revolution by a Communist, or "red," scare. By the late 1930s, moreover, Britain completed its "decommitment," announcing in 1939 an intent to transfer sovereignty over the Holy Land to the native Arab Palestinian majority. During that decade, Nazism arose in Germany and proceeded to attack the Jews’ economic interests, then their legal status, and ultimately the Jews’ very existence as individuals and as a people in both Germany and the lands it conquered during World War II. The third, fourth, and fifth aliyahs from Poland and Germany swelled the stream of immigrants to a flood. fn

 During this period, Joseph Fielding Smith perpetuated the judgment-on-lineage formula associated with Brigham Young and E. H. Lund. fn Hyde’s formula of lineage/return/delayed conversion was continued by Heber J. Grant, Janne Sjodahl, and David O. McKay. fn And Pratt’s stress on lineage/conversion/return was redefined by B. H. Roberts. President of the Eastern States Mission from 1922 to 1927, Roberts noted, "In greater New York, there are two millions of the House of Judah, and for the last several years I have been wondering how we could... have the material to present to them that would place in their hands the great message that God has for that branch of the House of Israel." fn By 1927, Roberts had already created some "material"—several pamphlets formulating the LDS message especially for Jews. These were later consolidated into a book entitled Rasha—the Jew: AMessage to All Jews. fn

 Meanwhile, two new emphases emerged tentatively during this era. In response to the red scare and anti-Semitism, Heber J. Grant, while implying lineage, partnership, and return, articulated a position of Judeophilia. Speaking at the April 1921 general conference, he called attention to "the agitation that is going on at the present time . . . against the Jewish people"; recalled Orson Hyde’s mission; cautioned, "Let no Latter-day Saint be guilty of taking any part in any crusade against these people"; and concluded, "Ibelieve in no other part of the world is there as good a feeling in the hearts of mankind towards the Jewish people as among the Latter-day Saints." fn

 John A. Widtsoe, who visited Jerusalem for another rededication of the land in 1933, befriended a prominent Palestinian Arab, then articulated a position of conversion/return/universality. In his autobiography, Widtsoe described meeting Shaykh Ya‘qub al-Bukhari, who "became one of our loyal friends with whom we corresponded for years." This Muslim friend "gave us the Arab view of the colonization of Palestine." Widtsoe concluded, "It is my personal belief that the Jews will succeed in taking over Palestine fully only when they accept Christ. Until that time, bloody conflict, hate, jealousy, and fear will accompany the Jewish efforts to colonize Palestine." He then expressed a universalist stance:

 The oft-asked question, "Who are the children of Abraham?" is well answered in light of the revealed gospel....All who accept God’s plan for his children on earth and who live it are the children of Abraham. Those who reject the gospel...forfeit the promises made to Abraham and are not children of Abraham. fn

 The optimistic LDS outlook for the Jews’ future expressed during the 1920s transmuted into pessimism with the onset of World War II. Attempts were made to understand events in traditional terms. For instance, Melvin J. Ballard depicted Hitler as "an instrument in the hands of God" to drive Europe’s Jews back to Palestine, and Charles A. Callis interpreted Nazism’s threat against Jews as a fulfillment of Zechariah’s prophecy. fn Such efforts underscored Latter-day Saints’ interest in developments among Jews primarily as evidence that would validate their own current views or dogmas. fn

 1948-1979. By the time the modern state of Israel was created in 1948, the Cold War had started. Until Stalin’s death (1953) and the Suez Crisis (1955-56), the USSR supported Israel as did the United States, but thereafter, the Arab-Israeli conflict coincided more or less with the global East-West conflict. As antireligion became orthodoxy in the East bloc and received constitutional protection in the West, many faiths acted to mitigate ancient animosities between themselves to permit cooperation in maintaining common spiritual beliefs and values. Thus an ecumenical dialogue began. Not yet participating in that process directly, the LDS Church nevertheless grew beyond its traditional base in the Western United States, becoming more global and interacting with peoples in Africa and Asia as well as in Europe and the Americas. fn These were among the factors that further shaped the attitudes of Latter-day Saints toward the Jewish people and the state of Israel.

 Orson Hyde’s emphasis on the return of the Jews expressed itself in some LDS officials welcoming the creation of Israel as a fulfillment of prophecy. In 1950, Ezra Taft Benson asserted, "In fulfillment of these ancient and modern promises, a great drama is being enacted in Palestine. The Jews are returning as one of the events of the last days." In his Israel! Do You Know? fn LeGrand Richards included a section entitled "New Nation of Israel Fulfills Prophecy" and suggested that the Three Nephites fought on the Jewish side in the 1948 War. The next year, he stated that "what is going on over in the Holy Land today is a great miracle," an assertion seconded in 1958 by Lynn M. Hilton. A year later, Arthur V. Watkins, U.S. Senator from Utah, wrote, "Israel, as an independent nation, is an established fact and must be accepted. No one believing in the prophecies of God would contend otherwise." fn

 Partly fusing the Hyde and Pratt traditions, many advocates of the return of the Jews seemed to feel at this point that the time had arrived for conversion. Hilton indicated, "It is my sincere prayer that we will not be as reluctant to take the gospel from the Gentiles and give it to Israel as Peter was reluctant to do the converse in the meridian of time." Richards, whose Marvelous Work and a Wonder fn anthologized his Southern States Mission presentations, wrote Israel! Do You Know? as a lesson plan to explain the LDS gospel to Jews. In it he declared, "God is calling the Jews. He invites them into the fold of Christ." During the late 1950s, Richards organized LDS "Jewish Missions" in Los Angeles; Salt Lake City; Ogden; San Francisco; Portland, Oregon; New York; and Washington, D.C., some of which produced their own "lesson plans."

 The First Presidency terminated these missions in 1958, but high-level interest in communicating with Jews continued. For example, in 1976 Ezra Taft Benson delivered a "Message to Judah from Joseph," in which he indicated that the LDS Church approaches Jews "in a different way than any other Christian church because [Latter-day Saints] represent the restored covenant to the entire house of Israel." fn On the other hand, Bruce R. McConkie, although emphasizing the idea of "believing blood"—"the more of the blood of Israel that an individual has, the easier it is for him to believe the message of salvation" [Jews excepted?]—reiterated that "the conversion of the Jews as a people... will not take place until after the Second Coming." fn

 The dicta of Ezra Taft Benson and Arthur Watkins in the 1950s contained a political undercurrent. The idea that Israel not only fulfilled prophecy, but also figured in the Free World’s containment of Communism became explicit in W.Cleon Skousen’s Fantastic Victory: Israel’s Rendezvous with Destiny, fn which put Israel on the side of the angels and portrayed its Arab opponents as diabolic Soviet agents and clients. A reviewer observed, "The tragedy of this type of analysis lies in its inability to recognize that the Soviet Union’s success in the Middle East during the past decade is primarily due to an American foreign policy based upon this one-sided view of the Arab-Israeli crisis." fn

 Meanwhile, Heber J. Grant’s 1921 expression of Judeophilia was taken up by LDS scholars who were familiar with Jewish contributions to Jewish-Christian dialogue fn and who, for the first time, directed their formulations to Jewish and academic audiences. So they downplayed judgment and Christianization while emphasizing judeophilia/partnership/return. For example, Eldin Ricks’s article published in the Herzl Yearbook fn selectively reviewed "material bearing on Zionist themes" in the Book of Mormon (see endnotes 15-20 below), recounted Orson Hyde’s mission, then selectively quoted from Sjodahl and other later adherents of the return/delayed conversion formula. Like Ricks, Truman G. Madsen selected Book of Mormon return passages and then discussed Orson Hyde, but he also distanced Mormonism from traditional Christian trinitarianism and drew parallels with Judaism. fn Meanwhile, Armand L. Mauss conducted a sociological study of "the unique Mormon doctrine of ‘Semitic identification,’ which holds that Mormons and Jews literally have the same ethnic origin," and concluded that "Mormons [are] less likely than any other denominations to hold secular anti-Jewish notions." fn

 During the same period, LDS scholars participating in the Church’s increased involvement in Africa and Asia echoed Widtsoe by articulating the theme of universalism. For example, in Mormonism—A Message for All Nations, Spencer J. Palmer criticized earlier formulations of "a narrow Mormonism," stressed the brotherhood of man under the fatherhood of God, and asserted that the restored gospel "is not the peculiar property of any one people, any one age, or any one nation" and that "it is a proclamation for every ear that will hear and for every heart that humbly seeks the truth." fn

 Since 1979. The LDS Church’s accelerating global expansion, together with the 1978 revelation extending the priesthood to "all worthy male members of the Church... without regard for race or color" (OD—2), has put a stronger emphasis on the universalist thread. LDS scholars have expressed considerable interest in this trend, fn as have General Authorities. The First Presidency issued a statement in 1978 "that all men and women are brothers and sisters, not only by blood relationship from common mortal progenitors, but also as literal spirit children of an Eternal Father." fn In "All Are Alike unto God," Howard W. Hunter affirms mankind’s common origin and brotherhood and states, "Our Father does not favor one people over another, but accepts all those of every nation who fear him and work righteousness." fn In "The Uttermost Parts of the Earth," Spencer W. Kimball similarly expresses the need to preach the gospel in Africa, China, India, and Southeast Asia and behind the Iron Curtain. fn

 As applied by some General Authorities to the question of the Jews’ restoration, this recent high-level emphasis on universalism has, in effect, produced a restatement of the Pratt conversion/ return formula. For example, in a May 1981 conference address, Marion G. Romney quoted most of the Book of Mormon’s conversion/ return passages, which he said "make it perfectly clear that the restoration of the house of Israel to the lands of their inheritance will signal their acceptance of Jesus Christ as their redeemer." fn

 Perhaps because of this emphasis on conversion, by the time his Millennial Messiah was published, fn Bruce R. McConkie had shifted his emphasis from Young’s judgment-on-lineage position to Pratt’s conversion/return expression. McConkie stipulated that the modern state of Israel "is not the gathering promised by the prophets. It does not fulfill the ancient promises. Those who have thus assembled have not gathered into the true Church." It is rather a "gathering of the unconverted." He repeated this assessment in A New Witness for the Articles of Faith under the heading "The Myth of the Jewish Gathering": "The present assembling of people of Jewish ancestry into the Palestinian nation of Israel is not the scriptural gathering of Israel or of Judah. It may be a prelude thereto.... But a political gathering is not a spiritual gathering." McConkie did, however, reaffirm the literal nature of the gathering within the tribes of Israel framework and the idea of "believing blood." fn

 The universalist emphasis has also spawned among Church members a new discussion of the tribal-blood framework and the status of the Jewish people within it. One trend has sought to broaden the framework—either to include all possibly identifiable Abrahamic peoples or by defining the "scattering" as being so extensive that virtually no one could conceivably be excluded. fn

 Spencer Palmer at first participated in this trend by arguing for possibilities of Asiatic descent from Abraham, but he later offered another solution that relied on Paul (Rom. 2:11, 28-29; Gal. 3:28-29) and on 2Nephi 26:33—a purer universalism which in effect reduces the tribes of Israel to a metaphor. fn Critical observers like Sterling McMurrin, while applauding such intentions, expressed doubt that the LDS Church can transcend its lineage-based theology; movement toward genuine universalism occurs "only if the missionaries are after all the souls that are out there in the wicked world and not just the lost sheep of the House of Israel." fn

 On the other side of the discussion, some have come to the defense of the fundamental role of lineage in the Mormon doctrine of gathering. fn Robert Millet and Joseph McConkie’s Our Destiny: The Call and Election of the House of Israel fn represents an effort to introduce into this discussion Bruce R. McConkie’s post-1979 position: the Church now constitutes the blood-based covenant Israel, but membership in the house of Israel is accessible to all through conversion. Without conversion even Jews cannot enjoy Abrahamic blessings [including covenant-related possession of the Holy Land?].

 In this recent discussion, positions have emerged along a spectrum, the poles of which might be labeled "universalism" and "literal blood of Israel," with some voices toward one of the purist ends and some in the synthetic middle. Spokespersons for each position have tended to use scriptural and other texts selectively in their efforts to define what are—or ought to be—the "living" elements in Mormon gathering theology. On the one hand, Steven Epperson’s Mormons and Jews: Early Mormon Theologies of Israel, fn by emphasizing Joseph Smith and limiting its coverage to the nineteenth century, functions in certain respects as an objectivist check on subjectivist tendencies, some of which minimize the prominent "Judah-consciousness" of early Mormonism. On the other hand, one of Epperson’s main arguments—that Joseph Smith expressed a position of Judeophilia unsullied and unconditioned by such negative traditional Christian features as judgment and conversion—renders Epperson’s work, too, open to inquiries into possibilities of selectivity.

 Summary and Conclusions

 As a review of an LDS textual tradition, this exercise leads to four conclusions. First, three interpretive traditions arose by the 1860s and survived for a century: Hyde’s return emphasis (which passed through Wilford Woodruff, J. M. Sjodahl, and Ezra Taft Benson, among others); Pratt’s conversion formula (John Nicholson, B. H. Roberts, LeGrand Richards); and Young’s stress on judgment (E. H. Lund, Joseph Fielding Smith, Bruce R. McConkie).

 Second, some of these traditions, along with variations on them, can be correlated with contemporaneous ideologies or developments: the tendency of the Civil War era to see things in racial terms, the successes of the Zionist movement, the British conquest of Ottoman Palestine, an American Judeophobic red scare, the creation of the state of Israel, the Cold War, Mormonism’s growth to global dimensions, and the 1978 priesthood revelation.

 Third, after 1948 there occurred a partial merger of the Hyde and Pratt traditions, and after 1979 the leading earlier spokesman for the Young position endorsed that of Pratt.

 Fourth, until the 1970s the discussion, assuming lineage as common ground, centered on the tension between the principles of judgment, conversion, and return. However, after 1979, by which time positions of universalism (John A. Widtsoe, Spencer Palmer, Howard W. Hunter) and Judeophilia (Heber J. Grant, Eldin Ricks, Truman G. Madsen) had reemerged, a further consensus arose on the basis of the Pratt formula, and the discussion shifted to consider the tension between lineage and universalism.

 In this regard, surveying an issue’s past also serves as a prelude to ongoing discussions. President Romney’s 1981 conference address—the most recent pronouncement on this topic from the pulpit of the Tabernacle—may have been intended to settle the question once and for all. But at a nonauthoritative level, position takers are likely to continue taking stands. Most of these persons, despite a few objectivist antiquarians inquiring into the total record for its own sake, can be expected subjectively to cull the many texts for passages that support their efforts to shape the dynamic tradition in the direction they wish to see it go. This observation stems not from cynicism, but from the way a "living theology" functions. What this generation enlivens depends on what it selects to remember—or to forget.

 Speaking personally, although it runs counter to my objectivist historical training, I would like to "forget out" nineteenth-century racism from our living theology, but I would like to "remember in" the courageous, outreaching efforts of Joseph Smith and Heber J. Grant, both of whom drew upon a special theological tradition in order to befriend the beleaguered Jews despite prevailing hostility. Someone is likely to ask, however, whether what I deem worth forgetting and worth remembering are related. While those on various sides of that question and others germane to it may subjectively approach the past in regard to their own positions, as in trial law they will at least function objectively with regard to each other’s, which may keep the relentless revision process honestly rooted to some extent.

 Arnold H. Green is Professor of History at Brigham Young University.

 Its belief in continuing revelation, along with the general aphorism that living prophets take precedence over dead prophets, in effect endows Mormonism with a mechanism to legitimize revisionism—as exemplified in the 1978 priesthood revelation, which rendered generations of speculation irrelevant. On the role of revelation in the gospel, see Harold B. Lee, "The Place of the Living Prophet, Seer and Revelator" (address to Seminary and Institute of Religion Faculty, Brigham Young University, July 8, 1964); Hugh W. Nibley, "The Expanding Gospel," BYU Studies 7 (Autumn 1965): 3-27; James B. Allen, "Line upon Line," Ensign 9 (July 1979): 32-39; and Thomas G. Alexander, "The Reconstruction of Mormon Doctrine from Joseph Smith to Progressive Theology," Sunstone 5 (July-August 1980): 24-33.

 See Karen J. Winkler, "How Should Scholars Respond to Assertions That the Holocaust Never Happened?" Chronicle of Higher Education 38 (December 11, 1991): A8-10; and B’nai B’rith, Hitler’s Apologists: The Anti-Semitic Propaganda of Holocaust "Revisionism" (New York: Anti-Defamation League, 1993).

 See David Boucher, Texts in Context: Revisionist Methods for Studying the History of Ideas (Boston: Nijhoff, 1985); John W. Jandora, March from Medina: A Revisionist Study of the Arab Conquests (Clifton: Kingston, 1990); Scott Heller, "‘Revisionist’ Art History Portrays Impressionists with New Brush Strokes," Chronicle of Higher Education 38 (April 8, 1992): A8-9; Geoffrey Roberts, "The Fall of Litvinov: A Revisionist View," Journal of Contemporary History 27 (October 1992): 639-57; Gaile McGregor, "Domestic Blitz: A Revisionist History of the Fifties," American Studies 34 (Spring 1993): 5-33; Stephen G. Rabe, "Eisenhower Revisionism: A Decade of Scholarship," Diplomatic History 17 (Winter 1993): 97-115; and Ronald H. Chilcote, "Revisionist Interpretations of the Brazilian Labor Movement," Latin American Perspectives 2 (Winter 1994): 132-43.

 In descriptive-explanatory historical studies, revisionism is an expected, often praiseworthy, activity easily identified because historians tend to seek credit for their innovations. Reinterpretation also occurs in prescriptive-explanatory theology, where recognizing it is more problematic. Because novelty is seldom a religious virtue, innovators tend to package their formulations not as "modern reconsiderations" but as "original meanings," at times disparaging as later deviations those prior teachings differing from theirs in substance or emphasis and thereby provoking "more-primal-than-thou" contests. Scholars who attempt to trace such contests’ history, particularly if exploring the primary texts’ initial messages, are often seen as partisan contenders or worse. For example, the nineteenth-century German scholars who pioneered the methods of form and source criticism and applied these to Bible studies—inter alia Wilhelm Vatke, Karl Heinrich Graf, and Julius Wellhausen—asserted that the scribes and rabbis up to the time of the Council of Jamnia in the first century after Christ had fundamentally revised the Bible while compiling it and that the new German methods would help retrieve the original documents and their meanings. However, critics of the scholars have accused them of merely imposing modern secular-evolutionist views on the sacred texts. See also Leslie C. Allen, "The Structuring of Ezekiel’s Revisionist History Lesson," Catholic Biblical Quarterly 54 (July 1992): 448-62.

 Friedrich Meinecke, "Historicism and Its Problems," in The Varieties of History, ed. Fritz Stern (New York: Meridian Books, 1956), 268.

 Carl L. Becker, Everyman His Own Historian: Essays on History and Politics (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1935), 252. Becker derived his idea of "living history" from Croce, who characterized as "dead history" that which is promulgated by institutional authority and that which is undertaken as "a learned exercize." Benedetto Croce, History: Its Theory and Practice, trans. Douglas Ainslie (1st Italian edition, 1916; New York: Russell and Russell, 1960), 19, 32-33. See also Benedetto Croce, "L’attitude subjective et l’attitude objective dans la composition historique," Revue de Synth�se Historique 6 (June 1903): 261-65.

 Croce, History, 14. Becker stated that "the relevant facts must be clearly established by the testimony of independent witnesses not self-deceived" (Becker, Everyman, 243).

 Contrasting "Christianity’s relation to life" with "scholarly distance from life" in the 1840s, Kierkegaard suggested that Christians can personalize Abraham’s faith by living faithfully through their own Abrahamic predicaments and can implement Christianity by "upbuilding" fellow beings "the way a physician speaks... at the bedside of a sick person." Søren Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling (1st Danish edition, 1843; New York: Viking Penguin, 1985); and Søren Kierkegaard, The Sickness unto Death, trans. Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong (1st Danish edition, 1848; Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1980), 5. Kierkegaard’s subjectivism was utilized by theologians contemporary with Becker, including Karl Barth, who asserted that "we must think in our time for our time." Originally published during 1923 in Christliche Welt, this phrase was quoted by H. Martin Rumscheidt, ed., The Way of Theology in Karl Barth (Allison Park, Pa.: Pickwick, 1986), vii.

 1 Ne. 19:23-24. Compare Spencer J. Condie, "And We Did Liken the Scriptures unto Our Marriage," Ensign 14 (April 1984): 16-20.

 Neal A. Maxwell, "The Reality of the Living Scriptures," in Things as They Really Are (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1978), 83; and Russell M. Nelson, "Truth and More," Annual University Conference, August 27, 1985, Brigham Young University.

 While "liken" and "wrest" can differ in kind, they can also differ merely in degree or perspective—"I liken, you wrest."

 By "judgment" is meant punishment on earth that is presumed to be divinely inflicted. See Patrick D. Miller Jr., Sin and Judgment in the Prophets (Chico, Calif.: Scholars Press, 1982).

 Compare 1 Ne. 1:19-20; 2:13; 3:17; 10:11; 17:44; 2 Ne. 6:9-11; 10:3; 25:2, 9-18; 27:1; Jacob 2:31; 4:14; Mosiah 13:27-30; 3 Ne. 10:4-7; 16:9; 17:14; 4 Ne. 1:31; Morm. 3:21; 7:5; and D&C 45:21-24.

 See Paul’s epistles to the Romans and the Galatians. Then compare Paul’s substance, tone, and use of rhetorical devices, for example, to the approaches of John Chrysostom, Discourses against Judaizing Christians, trans. Paul Harkins (Washington D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1979), 354-407; and Augustine, "Les Juifs et les Donatistes" and "Aveuglement des Juifs," Oeuvres compl�tes de Saint Augustin (Bar-le-Duc: Guérin, 1867), 5:396-430, 531-34, 555-58. Encyclopedia Judaica, s.v. "Anti-Semitism," identifies in Matthew and John "the two cardinal themes appearing in Christian anti-Semitism": collective guilt for deicide (Matt. 27:25) and affiliation with evil forces (John 8:44; compare Rev. 2:9; 3:9).

 Compare 1 Ne. 10:2-3, 12-14; 15:14, 19-20; 22:6, 11-12; 2 Ne. 6:13-14; 9:1, 53; 10:7, 16-18, 22; 25:11, 17-18; 29:1, 14; 30:4; Jacob 5; 6:4; 3 Ne. 16:5; and Ether 13:7-11.

 "Ye are a light unto this people, who are a remnant of the house of Joseph.... Ye are they of whom I said: Other sheep I have which are not of this fold" (3 Ne. 15:12-21; compare D&C 98:17).

 "I shall speak unto the Jews and they shall write it; and I shall also speak unto the Nephites and they shall write it" (2 Ne. 29:12; compare 2 Ne. 3:12, 29).

 "The Jerusalem from whence Lehi should come... should be built up again, and become a holy city of the Lord... and that a New Jerusalem should be built up upon this land" (Eth. 13:3-6; compare 3 Ne. 20:22; 21:23; and D&C 42:9; 45:66; 84:2; 124:36).

 Compare 1 Ne. 15:19-20; 2 Ne. 6:9-11; 25:11; Mosiah 12:23; 15:30; 3 Ne. 16:19; 20:46; 21:1; 9; Morm. 5:14; and D&C 77:15; 109:62 See also Jan Shipps and John W. Welch, eds., The Journals of William E. McLellin, 1831-1836 (Provo, Utah: BYU Studies, 1994), 44, 65, 106, 108, 121, 133, 135, 159, 184; Grant Underwood, The Millennarian World of Early Mormonism (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1993).

 Compare the Book of Mormon’s frontispiece; 1 Ne. 10:12-14; 13:39; 15:14; 19:15; 22:11; 2 Ne. 6:13-14; 9:2, 23-24; 10:7; 25:16; 26:12; 30:2, 7; 3 Ne. 10:5; 16:4, 11-12; Morm. 3:21; Ether 4:15; and D&C 20:9; 39:11; 77:15; 90:9; 107:33; 109:67; 112:4; 133:8.

 The issue of timing is related to that of lineage, for Mormons have interpreted Luke 21:24 to mean that, whereas in biblical times the gospel was preached first to the Israelites and then to the Gentiles, in the latter days the order is reversed, so that "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" (D&C 45:24-25). See LaMar E. Garrand, "The Last Shall Be First and the First Shall Be Last," in Carlos E. Asay and others, The Old Testament and the Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City: Randall Book, 1986), 233-60.

 Compare 2 Ne. 30:8.

 See Michael A. Meyer, Response to Modernity: A History of the Reform Movement in Judaism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988); Sefton D. Temkin, Isaac Meyer Wise: Shaping American Judaism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992); Mel Scult, Millennial Expectations and Jewish Liberties: A Study of the Efforts to Convert the Jews in Britain, up to the Middle Nineteenth Century (Leiden: Brill, 1978); R. H. Martin, "United Conversionist Activities among the Jews in Great Britain, 1795-1815: Pan-evangelism and the London Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews," Church History 46 (December 1977): 437-52; Encyclopedia Judaica, s.v. "Christian Zionism"; Robert M. Healey, "The Jew in Seventeenth-Century Protestant Thought," Church History 46 (March 1977): 63-79; Mayir Vreté, "The Restoration of the Jews in English Protestant Thought, 1790-1840," Middle East Studies 8 (January 1972): 3-50; George Gordon Nol Byron, Hebrew Melodies (London: John Murray, 1815); Joseph Arthur, Comte de Gobineau, Essai sur l’inŽgalitŽ des races humaines (Paris: Didot, 1853); Moses Hess, Rome and Jerusalem: A Study in Jewish Nationalism, trans. Meyer Waxman (New York: Bloch, 1918); and Jacob Barnai, The Jews in Palestine in the Eighteenth Century, trans. Naomi Goldblum (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1992).

 "Prayer of Orson Hyde on the Mount of Olives," contained in a letter from Orson Hyde to Orson Pratt, dated Alexandria, Egypt, November 2, 1841; reproduced in Joseph Smith Jr., History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, ed. B. H. Roberts, 7 vols. (Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1908), 4:456-57.

 Wilford Woodruff, Proclamation of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to All the Kings of the World, to the President of the United States of America, to the Governors of the Several States, and to the Rulers and People of All Nations (Liverpool: n.p., 1845) and appended to Millennial Star 6 (1845): 3.

 Parley P. Pratt, "Proclamation to the People of the Coasts and Islands of the Pacific (Ocean), of Every Nation, Kindred, and Tongue," Millennial Star 14 (September 18, 1852), 468; Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses, 26 vols. (Liverpool: F.D. Richards, 1855-86), 7:187; hereafter cited as JD.

 "Remarks," December 23, 1866, JD 11:279. The principle of subordinating individuals’ spiritual opportunities to their lineal descent from remote ancestors under ancient judgment had earlier been applied to blacks. See JD 2:179-91; 7:282-91. Brigham Young explained that Jesus will not appear initially in Jerusalem at his Second Coming, but "will appear first on the land where he commenced his work in the beginning," namely America. When he eventually appears in Jerusalem, the Jews will "see the wounds in his hands ... and then they will acknowledge him, but not till then." JD 11:279.  

JD 2:200; 4:232; 18:199-200; 18:220-21.

 Letters written during the journey by George A. Smith and his traveling companions—Lorenzo Snow, Eliza Snow, and Paul A. Schettler—were compiled and published in George A. Smith and others, Correspondence of Palestine Tourists (Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1875).

 Steven W. Baldridge and Marilyn Rona, Grafting In: The History of the Latter-day Saints in the Holy Land (Murray, Utah: Roylance, 1980), 1-4.

Jonathan Frankel and Steven Zipperstein, eds., Assimilation and Community: The Jews in Nineteenth-Century Europe (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992); Naomi W. Cohen, The Jews in Christian America: The Pursuit of Religious Equality (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992); Richard Griffiths, The Use of Abuse: The Polemics of the Dreyfus Affair and Its Aftermath (New York: Berg, 1991); Wladimir Kaplun-Kogan, Die jŸdischen Wanderbewegungen in der neuesten Zeit (Bonn: Marcus and Weber, 1919); Jack Wertheimer, Unwelcome Strangers: East European Jews in Imperial Germany (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987); Theodor Herzl, The Jewish State (1st German edition, 1896; London: Pordes, 1972); Israel Cohen, Theodor Herzl: Founder of Political Zionism (New York: T. Yoseloff, 1959); and S. Levenberg, The Jews and Palestine: A Study in Labour Zionism (Westport: Hyperion, 1976).

 Millennial Star 50 (June 18, 1888): 385-92; and Contributor 14 (April 1893): 298-99.

 J. M. Tanner, "The Zionist Movement," Improvement Era 3 (November 1899): 1-8; Jan M. Sjodahl, "The Jew, His Past, Present and Future," Improvement Era 7 (March 1904): 350-63; James E. Talmage, "The Tragedy of Israel," Improvement Era 21 (November 1917): 12-15; James E. Talmage, "The Last Dispensation," Juvenile Instructor 53 (February 1918): 76-78; "The Fall of Jerusalem," Improvement Era 21 (January 1918): 259-61; Jan M. Sjodahl, "Concerning Palestine," Millennial Star 80 (March 7, 1918): 152-54; and "Gathering of the Jews," Millennial Star 80 (August 15, 1918): 520-22; James H. Anderson, "Jerusalem Restored," Relief Society Magazine 5 (August 1918): 425-26; "The Return of the Jews," Relief Society Magazine 5 (August 1918): 469-70; and "A People of Promise, the Jews," Relief Society Magazine 5 (August 1918): 471-74.

 E. H. Lund, "The Return of the Jews," Improvement Era 21 (July 1918): 774; and 21 (August 1918): 774-75, 883.

 John Nicholson, "Gathering of the Jews," Improvement Era 5 (June 1902): 632-33; B.H. Roberts, Conference Reports (April 1902): 13-16; David O. McKay, Conference Reports (October 1918): 44-49.

 Ronald Sanders, The High Walls of Jerusalem: A History of the Balfour Declaration and the Birth of the British Mandate for Palestine (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1983); Gisela C. Lebzelter, Political Anti-Semitism in England, 1918-1939 (London: Macmillan, 1978); David A. Gerber, ed., Anti-Semitism in American History (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1986); Jerry Z. Muller, "Communism, Anti-Semitism and the Jews," Commentary 86 (August 1988): 28-39; Daphne Trevor, Under the White Paper: Some Aspects of British Administration in Palestine from 1939 to 1947 (Jerusalem: Jerusalem Press, 1948; reprint, Munich: Kraus, 1980); Hermann Graml, Antisemitism in the Third Reich, trans. Tim Kirk (Oxford: Blackwell, 1992); Martin Gilbert, The Holocaust (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1985); and Robert Jutte, Die Emigration der deutschsprŠchigen "Wissenschaft des Judentums": die Auswanderung jŸdischer historiker nach PalŠstina, 1933-1945 (Stuttgart: Steiner, 1991).

 See Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, 3 vols. (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1956), 3:47-48. Compare Joseph Fielding Smith, "The Negro and the Priesthood," Improvement Era 27 (April 1924): 564-65, where the constraint on Blacks is restated while cautioning against speculating about the reasons for it. At the popular level, however, expressions of judgment-on-lineage have sounded more like racism, pure and simple. For example, James H. Anderson, God’s Covenant Race from Patriarchal Times to the Present (Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1944), defined "covenant race" partly in terms of "racial purity" (91-92), and Earnest L. Whitehead, The House of Israel (Independence: Zion’s Printing, 1947), published Robert E. Lee’s pedigree back to King David (575-77), and Albert W. Bell, The Mighty Drama of Israel and the Jew (Salt Lake City: Stevens and Wallace, 1949), asserted:

The fact is, circumcision does not even make a Jew—a Jew. There is something in the blood. Circumcision is merely an index to their faith in God. The Jews just can’t get away from it. Like the posterity of Cain, the black kinky hair, the dark skin and the breath and other marks count; but the most common expression among us, and the most sacred withal, is "The Blood of Israel." That seems to count most. (169)

 See Grant’s dedicatory prayers for the temples in Hawaii, Improvement Era 23 (February 1920): 281-88; Cardston, Alberta, Improvement Era 26 (October 1923): 1075-81; and Mesa, Arizona, Liahona 25 (November 1927): 245-49; Jan M. Sjodahl, "England and the Jews," Improvement Era 30 (November 1926): 21-23; and David O. McKay, Conference Reports (April 1922): 62-69. Compare H.C. Singer, "The Jewish State in Palestine," Improvement Era 32 (January 1929): 202-9.

 B. H. Roberts, Conference Reports (April 1927): 34.

 B. H. Roberts, Rasha—the Jew: A Message to All Jews (Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1932).

 Heber J. Grant, Conference Reports (April 1921): 124.

 John A. Widtsoe, In a Sunlit Land: The Autobiography of John A. Widtsoe (Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1952), 214-15; and John A. Widtsoe, "Who Are the Children of Abraham?" in Evidences and Reconciliations (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1960), 398-400.

 Melvin J. Ballard, Conference Reports (April 1938): 42-46; and Charles A Callis, Conference Reports (October 1945): 80-83.

 See Douglas F. Tobler, "The Jews, the Mormons, and the Holocaust," Journal of Mormon History 18 (Spring 1992): 59-92.

 Howard M. Sachar, A History of Israel, 2 vols. (New York: Knopf, 1976, 1987); Hugh Higgins, The Cold War (New York: Barnes and Noble, 1974); Arthur J. Klinghoffer, Israel and the Soviet Union: Alienation or Reconciliation? (Boulder: Westview Press, 1985); John Rousmaniere, A Bridge to Dialogue: The Story of Jewish-Christian Relations (New York: Paulist Press, 1991); and James B. Allen and Richard O. Cowan, Mormonism in the Twentieth Century, 2d ed. (Provo: Brigham Young University Press, 1967).

 LeGrand Richards, Israel! Do You Know? (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1954). According to Rose Marie Reid, at her suggestion Richards changed the key word in the title of his book from "Judah" to "Israel."

 Ezra Taft Benson, Conference Reports (April 1950): 75; Richards, Israel Do You Know? 206-9, 229-33; LeGrand Richards, The Dawning of Israel’s Day (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Extension Publications, 1955); Lynn M. Hilton, The Jews: A Promised People (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Extension Publications, 1958); and Arthur V. Watkins, "When Applied Christianity Comes to Palestine," Instructor 94 (November 1959): 359. Compare Dale T. Tingey, "Recent Jewish Movements in Israel in Light of the Teaching of the Latter-day Saint Prophets" (master’s thesis, Brigham Young University, 1955); Levi Edgar Young, "A Sorrowing People," Improvement Era 60 (June 1957): 409-10; Daniel H. Ludlow, "Israel—Prophecies Being Fulfilled" (devotional address, Brigham Young University, August 8, 1967); and Daniel H. Ludlow, "Prophecy and Modern Israel" (devotional address, Brigham Young University, January 16, 1968). See also Michael T. Benson, "Harry S. Truman as a Modern Cyrus," BYU Studies 34 (1994): 6-27.

 LeGrand Richards, A Marvelous Work and a Wonder (Salt Lake City: Deseret Sunday School Union Board, 1951).

 Hilton, The Jews, 62; Richards, Israel Do You Know? 209. A missionary lesson plan for Jews was published for the Los Angeles Mission by Rose Marie Reid, Suggested Plan for Teaching the Gospel to the Jewish People (Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1958), who also prepared a self-published booklet entitled "Do’s and Don’t’s before Teaching the Jewish People" (1957). Other selfpublished plans were written about the same time by Farrel Miles and Albert Ostraff (Los Angeles), Bruce Gibb (Ogden), Irving Cohen (New York), and Artel Ricks (Washington, D.C.). A committee of BYU religion professors (Daniel H. Ludlow, Ellis T. Rasmussen, Eldin Ricks, and Sydney B. Sperry) completed another lesson manual in 1960. See Arnold H. Green, "A Survey of Latter-day Saint Proselyting Efforts to the Jewish People" (master’s thesis, Brigham Young University, 1967); Arnold H. Green, "A Survey of LDS Proselyting Efforts to the Jewish People," BYU Studies 8 (Summer 1968): 427-43; and Ezra Taft Benson, "AMessage to Judah from Joseph," Ensign 6 (December 1976): 72. Compare "Missionary Discussions for the Jewish People," Ensign 9 (April 1979): 72-73; and Howard H. Barron, Judah, Past and Future: LDS Teachings Concerning God’s Covenant People (Bountiful: Horizon, 1979). Also noteworthy are an eloquent, honest convert memoir by Herbert Rona, Peace to a Jew (New York: n.p., 1952), and a Mormon-boy-converts-and-gets-Jewish-girl novel by Gerald L. Lund, One in Thine Hand (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1982).

 Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1958), 77-78, 359-60. Compare Alvin R. Dyer, "The Redemption of Judah" (devotional address, Brigham Young University, June 13, 1967); Rodney Turner, "The Quest for a Peculiar People," Ensign 2 (May 1972): 6-11. Several other articles in this "Holy Land Issue" of the Ensign—especially those by W. Cleon Skousen, Eldin Ricks, Daniel H. Ludlow, and William E. Berrett—supported the idea of the state of Israel fulfilling scriptural prophecy.

 W. Cleon Skousen, Fantastic Victory: Israel’s Rendezvous with Destiny (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1967).

 James B. Mayfield, "Whose Victory?" Dialogue 3 (Autumn 1968): 135-37.

 In addition to concern about Christian accusations of deicide and association with evil (see note 14 above), these included first, objections to Christian portrayals of Judaism as having completed its preparatory function and so being at once superfluous and unable to provide salvation to its adherents, and second, charges that Christian missionary work targeting Jews in effect constitutes "spiritual holocaust."

 Eldin Ricks, "Zionism and the Mormon Church," Herzl Yearbook 5 (1963): 147-74.

 Truman G. Madsen, "The Mormon Attitude toward Zionism" (series of Lectures on Zionism, Haifa University, May 1981). Compare Truman G. Madsen, ed., Reflections on Mormonism: Judaeo-Christian Parallels (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Religious Studies Center, 1978).

 Armand L. Mauss, "Mormon Semitism and Anti-Semitism," Sociological Analysis 29 (Spring 1968): 11.

 Spencer J. Palmer, Mormonism—a Message for All Nations (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 1965), 3, 14.

 LaMond Tullis, ed., Mormonism: A Faith for All Cultures (Provo: Brigham Young University Press, 1978); Spencer J. Palmer, The Expanding Church (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1978); Garth N. Jones, "Expanding LDS Church Abroad: Old Realities Compounded," Dialogue 13 (Spring 1980): 8-22; Candadai Seshachari, "Revelation: The Cohesive Element in International Mormonism," Dialogue 13 (Winter 1980): 38-46; and Lee Copeland, "From Calcutta to Kaysville: Is Righteousness Color-Coded?" Dialogue 21 (Autumn 1988): 89-99.

 "Statement of the First Presidency," February 15, 1978, frontispiece in Palmer, Expanding Church.

 Howard W. Hunter, "All Are Alike unto God," Ensign 9 (June 1979): 72.

 Spencer W. Kimball, "The Uttermost Parts of the Earth," Ensign 9 (July 1979): 2-9. Compare Carlos E. Asay, "God’s Love for Mankind," in Mormons and Muslims, ed. Spencer J. Palmer (Salt Lake City: Publishers Press, 1983), 205-15; Rendell N. Mabey and Gordon T. Allred, Brother to Brother: The Story of the Latter-day Saint Missionaries Who Took the Gospel to Black Africa (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1984); Alexander B. Morrison, "The Dawning of a New Day in Africa," Ensign 17 (November 1987), 25-26; and Dallin H. Oaks, "Getting to Know China" (devotional address, Brigham Young University, March 12, 1991).

 Marion G. Romney, "The Restoration of Israel to the Lands of Their Inheritance," Ensign 11 (May 1981): 17.

 Bruce R. McConkie, The Millennial Messiah (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1982).

 Marion G. Romney, "The Restoration of Israel to the Lands of Their Inheritance," Ensign 11 (May 1981): 17; McConkie, Millennial Messiah, 228-31; and Bruce R. McConkie, A New Witness for the Articles of Faith (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1985), especially chs. 52-65, pp. 503-652, on the tenth Article of Faith.

 See James B. Mayfield, "Ishmael, Our Brother," Ensign 9 (June 1979): 24-32; and Bruce Van Orden, "The Seed of Abraham in the Latter Days," in Carlos E. Asay and others, The Old Testament and the Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City: Randall Book, 1986), 51-67.

 In Mormonism—a Message for All Nations (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 1965), 12, 16, Palmer quoted Matthew Cowley and Joseph Fielding Smith to the effect that "the Lord has scattered Israel throughout the world, even to the farthest reaches of Asia." Five years later, he published "Did Christ Visit Japan?" BYU Studies 10 (Winter 1970): 135-58. Yet The Expanding Church in effect ignores the tribes of Israel framework, declaring that "latter-day Israel is not a community of blood; it is a community of faith" (28). Compare Denny Roy, "Spencer Palmer: A Man of the World," This People 7 (May 1986): 46-53.

 Sterling M. McMurrin, "Problems in Universalizing Mormonism," Sunstone 4 (December 1979): 9-17; and Truman G. Madsen, "A Response," Sunstone 4 (December 1979): 18-20.

 For example, see Daniel H. Ludlow, "Of the House of Israel," Ensign 21 (January 1991): 51-55.

 Robert L. Millet and Joseph F. McConkie, Our Destiny: The Call and Election of the House of Israel (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1993), reviewed by Steven Epperson, above.

 Steven Epperson, Mormons and Jews: Early Mormon Theologies of Israel (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1992), reviewed by Grant Underwood, above.

 (Jews in Lds Thought , BYU Studies, vol. 34 (1994), Number 4--1994-95 .)

A Parallel

 Of all revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants, Section 45 gives the most complete information of the signs of the last days. This section and Matthew Chapter 24 parallel each other, but the modern revelation gives some additional information.

 In the New Testament chapter (consult the revision by the Prophet Joseph Smith, Pearl of Great Price, Joseph Smith 1:4, where greater clarity exists), the disciples asked Jesus: "Tell us, when shall these things be which thou hast said concerning the destruction of the temple, and what is the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world, or the destruction of the wicked, which is the end of the world?" In 1831, the Lord informed Joseph Smith that, as He had told His disciples anciently of the signs of His second coming in glory, He would show these things plainly to him. fn

 In both places the events first mentioned fn pertain to the generation of Jews living in the time of Jesus and the Apostles. These events were fulfilled by 70 A.D. with the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem by the Roman army under the command of Titus. The second series of events are of the generation in which we live, the Dispensation of the Fulness of Times. fn

 Signs Summarized

 In other revelations one finds confirmation of many of these events and conditions, although expressed, sometimes, in more vivid language. These references are also given in the summary below:

 The preaching of the fulness of the gospel. fn With the restoration of the Gospel, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has undertaken to acquaint the world with its message. By modern agencies such as newspapers, radio, magazines, books, tracts, etc., in addition to personal contacts by missionaries, the message has gone out to the world.

 The gathering of Israe1 fn is now taking place. The Jews are returning to their modern state of Israel, and for over 120 years people have accepted the gospel and have thereby come out of spiritual Babylon, the wicked world. Latter-day Saints have been gathering to Zion or America during this period of time. The ten tribes are yet to be restored.

 Wars and rumors of wars. (See next chapter.)

 Wickedness. fn

 Earthquakes. fn The destructiveness of this phenomenon has been very great each year.

 Unusual manifestations of heavenly bodies. fn Comets and meteoric showers are some of these manifestations. It appears that there will be many more spectacular demonstrations of the power of God.

 Plagues and diseases are spoken of in these words:

 And there shall be men standing in that generation, that shall not pass, until they shall see an overflowing scourge; for a desolating sickness shall cover the land. (Doc. & Cov. 45:31.)

 For I, the Almighty, have laid my hands upon the nations, to scourge them for their wickedness.

 And plagues shall go forth, and they shall not be taken from the earth until I have completed my work, which shall be cut short in righteousness. (Ibid., 84:96-97.)

 (Roy W. Doxey, The Doctrine and Covenants and the Future [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1954], 26 - 27.)

Israel

 [Four articles are clustered under this entry:

Overview

Scattering of Israel

Lost Tribes of Israel

Gathering of Israel

The first article is a general introduction of the distinctive LDS concept of Israel. The second article is a review of the scriptural scattering of Israel. The third article treats the scriptural promises of the restoration of the tribes to their homelands. The fourth article constitutes a review of the scriptural promises concerning the latter-day gathering of Israel. They reflect the breadth of interest in the topic among Latter-day Saints and the doctrinal and historical foundations of this interest. Other articles with a related historical component are Abrahamic Covenant; Covenant Israel; Ephraim; Jerusalem; Moses; Promised Land; and Zionism. Articles that incorporate doctrinal aspects of LDS interest are Allegory of Zenos; Law of Adoption; New and Everlasting Covenant; and New Jerusalem.

 Overview

 The name Israel (Hebrew for "God rules" or "God shines") has two particularly distinctive modern applications to Latter-day Saints. First, it refers to members of the Church. Second, it points to modern descendants of ancient Israelite stock, who, because of God's fidelity to ancient covenants made with their forebears, are to become recipients of his blessings in the latter days.

 HISTORY OF THE NAME. The name Israel first appears in the Bible as the divinely bestowed second name of Jacob (Gen. 32:28; 35:10). "Sons of Israel" or "children of Israel" initially meant Jacob's sons and their families (Gen. 50:25; Ex. 1:1) and, more distantly, all of Jacob's descendants (e.g., Ex. 1:7, 9). After Jacob's posterity settled in the land of Canaan, the name Israel referred to the league of tribes bound together by a covenant with the Lord (Josh. 24). Later, the united monarchy of Saul, David, and Solomon was known as Israel (e.g., 1 Sam. 9:16; 13:13; 2 Sam. 5:3). After the breach following Solomon's death, the name Israel denoted the northern kingdom (1 Kgs. 11:34-39; 12:3, 16), while the name Judah designated the southern realm (1 Kgs. 12:23, 27). After the northern kingdom fell to the Assyrians in 722 B.C., the name Israel became a spiritual designation for the southern kingdom (e.g., Isa. 5:7; Micah 3:1; Zech. 12:1; 1 Macc. 1:11, 62). The term "Jew" was first applied by outsiders to those living in the kingdom of Judah and first appears in 2 Kings 16:6.

 In the New Testament, the name Israel refers to the people of God, not usually in a nationalistic sense but designating those who are, or will be, gathered to Jesus Christ by obeying the word of God (e.g., Matt. 10:6-7; Luke 24:21; John 1:31, 49; Acts 2:22, 36). It also refers to Christ's kingdom (Matt. 27:42; Mark 15:32), into which Gentiles will be grafted as if into an olive tree (Rom. 11:17-21). Two passages in Galatians clearly equate Israel with the early Christian church (Gal. 3:27-29; 6:15-16), and the connection is also affirmed by Jesus' statement that his apostles will judge the tribes of Israel (Matt. 19:28; cf. 1 Ne. 12:9; D&C 29:12).

 In the Book of Mormon, several phrases appear with distinctive applications. The phrase "children of Israel" regularly refers back to Jacob's descendants in the Mosaic era, echoing the language of the Exodus account (e.g., Ex. 19:1; 1 Ne. 17:23; Jacob 1:7; Mosiah 7:19; cf. 3 Ne. 29:1-2). God's title Holy One of Israel, drawn from Isaiah (e.g., 48:17; 1 Ne. 20:17), appears in discussions of God's covenants, affirming him to be the faithful God who made covenants with ancient Israel (e.g., 1 Ne. 19:14-17). This title also appears in prophecies concerning God's future "reign in dominion, and might, and power, and great glory" (1 Ne. 22:24-25). The Holy One of Israel is identified as Jesus Christ (2 Ne. 25:29). "House of Israel" refers to the lineal posterity of Jacob and is frequently used in prophetic utterances that have to do with their scattering or latter-day gathering. Moreover, Book of Mormon people saw themselves as a "remnant" or "branch" of the house of Israel whose descendants would receive the blessings promised to Israel in the latter days (1 Ne. 19:24; 3 Ne. 20:16).

 For two major reasons, Latter-day Saints today apply the name Israel to themselves. First, Moses appeared to Joseph Smith, and Oliver Cowdery in the Kirtland Temple on April 3, 1836, and conferred on them the keys, or authorization, for "the gathering of Israel" (D&C 110:11; cf. PWJS, pp. 145-46). This gathering consists not only in restoring people of Israelite ancestry "to the lands of their inheritance" but also in bringing them "out of obscurity and out of darkness; and they shall know that the Lord is…the Mighty One of Israel" (1 Ne. 22:12). This action means bringing them into the Church. Second, Latter-day Saints have often learned from their patriarchal blessings that they are literally of the lineage of Israel (D&C 86:8-9), primarily the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh. The Lord has revealed that it is the particular responsibility of Israel to carry the message of the restored gospel to the world, and Ephraim has the responsibility of directing this work (D&C 133:26-34; cf. TPJS, p. 163). Those who are not of Israel's lineage become such through adoption at the time of their baptism and reception of the Holy Ghost (TPJS, pp. 149-50; Rom. 8:15-17; Gal. 4:5-7; Abr. 2:10; see also Law of Adoption).

 LINEAL ISRAEL. Israel's consciousness of lineal distinction was related at least in part to God's formal adoption of it by covenant at the holy mount. "Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people…and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation" (Ex. 19:5-6). As the chosen people of God, Israel was under a divine obligation to bear the covenant and its promises to others, an obligation established earlier with Abraham and his seed (Abr. 2:9-11; see also Abrahamic Covenant).

 The Book of Mormon Peoples were literally of Israel. Those who journeyed to the Western Hemisphere from Jerusalem with Lehi around 600 B.C. were descended from Joseph of Egypt through his sons Manasseh and Ephraim (Alma 10:3; cf. 1 Ne. 5:14-16; JD 23:184-85). A second group had links to the royal house of Judah through mulek, son of Zedekiah (Hel. 6:10; Omni 1:14-16). Several prophecies deal with the eventual restoration of God's covenant among the descendants of these peoples (e.g., 1 Ne. 22:3-12; 3 Ne. 20:22-27; 21:1-7). As a natural corollary, several prophecies focus on the scattering and eventual return of many of the Jews to Jerusalem and the blessings that await them there (e.g., 2 Ne. 6:10-14; 3 Ne. 20:29-46; Ether 13:5). As with other covenants, promises are fulfilled only when people-whether Gentiles or Israelites-obey the commandments of God (e.g., 1 Ne. 14:5-6; 22:17-22).

 Today, members of the Church-latter-day Israel, largely Joseph's descendants either by blood or adoption-are to seek out the other descendants of Israel and those who would become Israelites through adoption by baptism. The Prophet Joseph Smith observed that "as the Holy Ghost falls upon one of the literal seed of Abraham, it is calm and serene; …while the effect of the Holy Ghost upon a Gentile, is to purge out the old blood, and make him actually of the seed of Abraham. That man that has none of the blood of Abraham (naturally) must have a new creation by the Holy Ghost" (TPJS, pp. 149-50; cf. Rom. 6:4; 12:2).

 SPIRITUAL ISRAEL. In both ancient and modern times, keeping God's covenants has been the heart of becoming and remaining the people of God (e.g., Ex. 19:5-6; Deut. 4:32-40; D&C 100:15-16). At the physical center of Israel, so to speak, stood the house of God's spiritual blessings, where covenants were made and remade, first the tabernacle in the camp and later the temple in Jerusalem. Almost immediately after giving the Ten Commandments and other terms of the covenant (Ex. 20-23), God gave directions for fashioning the tabernacle (Ex. 24-27), the most sacred structure of Moses' Israel, "that I [God] may dwell among them" (Ex. 25:8). Latter-day Saints have also been commanded by the God of Israel to build temples for worship and for making covenants, so that the lives of men and women will be enriched through eternal family sealings (D&C 110:6-10; cf. TPJS, p. 186; WJS, p. 212; see also Temples).

 In the New Testament era Gentiles were offered a broad opportunity to become full partakers of Israel's blessings. While Jesus limited his personal ministry to Israelites (Matt. 15:24; cf. 3 Ne. 15:23) and told the Twelve to proselytize only among Israel (Matt. 10:5), he visited Gentiles in the Decapolis, near Galilee (Matt. 8:28-34), and sent his seventy disciples into areas where there were many Gentiles (Luke 10:1-17). He prophesied that many "shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 8:11). John the Baptist proclaimed that "God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham" (Matt. 3:9), evidently referring to the adoption of Gentiles into the house of Israel (TPJS, p. 319). Peter learned that the righteous in "every nation" who hearken to God are "accepted with him" (Acts 10:35). Even so, Paul reminded readers to "boast not against the branches" of the tree of Israel when they falter because "all Israel shall be saved" (Rom. 11:18, 26).

 The Book of Mormon preserves a prophecy of Joseph of Egypt (2 Ne. 3:5-21) wherein the Lord promised Joseph that "a choice seer will I raise up out of the fruit of thy loins…[to bring] them to the knowledge of the covenants which I have made with thy fathers" (2 Ne. 3:7). The "work" of this seer includes bringing forth a record written by Joseph's descendants that will be joined to a record from the tribe of Judah, to bring Israelites "to the knowledge of their fathers in the latter days, and also to the knowledge of my covenants, saith the Lord" (2 Ne. 3:11-12). The record from Joseph's lineage is the Book of Mormon and that from Judah's is the Bible (cf. Ezek. 37:15-23; see also Book of Mormon, Biblical Prophecies About). The prophecy states that the seer "shall be called after me [Joseph]; and it shall be after the name of his father. And he shall be like unto me" (2 Ne. 3:15). For Latter-day Saints, this seer is Joseph Smith. Moreover, the Book of Mormon is an instrument for bringing about the restoration of gospel covenants and Israel's gathering. About 600 B.C. the Lord spoke to Nephi 1 concerning both the Gentiles and Nephi's posterity: "I will manifest myself unto thy seed, that they shall write many things which I shall minister unto them, which shall be plain and precious; …behold, these things shall be hid up, to come forth unto the Gentiles, by the gift and power of the Lamb. And in them shall be written my gospel, saith the Lamb" (1 Ne. 13:35-36). On the title page of the Book of Mormon, one finds these words written about A.D. 400 stating the purpose of the work: "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" (see Book of Mormon: Title Page).

 The gathering of Israel could not proceed until the restoration of the keys or authorization for this effort. On April 3, 1836 (Passover time), both Moses and Elijah appeared to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery in the Kirtland Temple, Elijah restoring the sealing powers for turning the hearts of the children to the promises made to their ancestors (cf. Mal. 4:5-6; D&C 2:1-3; JS-H 1:38-39) and Moses the keys for gathering Israel (D&C 110:11, 13-16; cf. TPJS, pp. 337-38; PWJS, pp. 186-87).

 LAND OF ISRAEL. While the phrase "land of Israel" is used relatively infrequently in the earlier parts of the Old Testament and is likely the work of a later hand (e.g., 1 Sam. 13:19; 2 Kgs. 5:2), the concept of a definable land given to Israel as an inheritance is at least as old as Abraham (e.g., Gen. 12:7; Abr. 2:6; see also Promised Land). Furthermore, it is clear that continued obedience was required for retaining possession of it. For the Lord promised Abraham-with a caution-that his descendants would receive a "land which I will give unto thy seed after thee for an everlasting possession, when they hearken to my voice" (Abr. 2:6; cf. also Lev. 18:25-28; Jer. 16:12-13).

 The concept of multiple lands of inheritance is taught in the Book of Mormon. This plurality of territories is joined to the notion of inheritance, as expressed by Isaiah. In most cases, the Book of Mormon writer cites Isaiah about the gathering of Israel to its lands. For instance, Jacob predicted that the house of Israel "shall be gathered home to the lands of their inheritance, and shall be established in all their lands of promise" (2 Ne. 9:2, after quoting Isa. 49:24-52:2; cf. 2 Ne. 6:11; 10:7-8). Significantly, in each instance a spiritual transformation of Israel is to accompany the gathering to lands: "And they shall be brought out of obscurity and out of darkness; and they shall know that the Lord is their Savior and their Redeemer, the Mighty One of Israel" (1 Ne. 22:12). Again, God "has spoken unto the Jews, by the mouth of his holy prophets, even from the beginning [and will continue]…until the time comes that they shall be restored to the true church and fold of God" (2 Ne. 9:2; cf. 30:2; 3 Ne. 16:4; 20:13, 31).

 The resurrected Jesus stated that there are at least two lands to which descendants of the house of Israel are to be gathered. To hearers of the lineage of Joseph in the Western Hemisphere, he declared that "the Father hath commanded me that I should give unto you this land, for your inheritance" (3 Ne. 20:14; cf. 20:22; Ether 13:6-10). Concerning the Jews, the risen Jesus said, "I will remember the covenant which I have made with my people…[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" (3 Ne. 20:29; cf. Ether 13:5, 11). Latter-day scripture indicates that the ten tribes will come first to the Americas, where they will "be crowned with glory, even in Zion" (D&C 133:26-34) and then will inherit the land of their ancestors (3 Ne. 20-21).

 STATE OF ISRAEL. LDS leaders have viewed the creation of the modern state of Israel in the Middle East as a consequential world event but not as the complete fulfillment of prophecy. After noting the glory of God's work yet to be done among all branches of Israel and after discussing the redemption promised to Judah, Bruce R. McConkie, an apostle, wrote of the present immigration of a few million Jewish people to the Holy Land, "Is this the latter-day gathering of which the scriptures speak? No! It is not…. [It] is nonetheless part of divine plan" of a more complete gathering yet to occur (p. 229).

 Bibliography

 Hunter, Howard W. "All Are Alike unto God." Ensign 9 (June 1979):72-74.

McConkie, Bruce R. The Millennial Messiah, pp. 182-329. Salt Lake City, 1982.

Nelson, Russell M. "Thanks for the Covenant." Devotional and Fireside Speeches [BYU], 1988-89, pp. 53-61. Provo, Utah, 1989.

S. KENT BROWN

 Scattering of Israel

 The scattering of Israel, as foretold throughout the Bible and the Book of Mormon, is evidence of fulfilled prophecy. On the one hand, Abraham received promises that his children would possess a dwelling place as long as they remained faithful to God's commands (Abr. 2:6); on the other, prophets from Moses on warned that spiritual rebellion would lead to their removal from the Promised Land (Lev. 18:26-28; 26:21-33). During the divided monarchy, Israelite prophets pled for a return to neglected covenants to assure the Lord's promised protection (e.g., Hosea 6:1-3; Amos 5:4-9; Isa. 49; 50:1-3; 51-52; Jer. 3:12-19; 18:11). After they rejected prophetic warnings, both Israel and Judah were scattered.

 The scattering occurred in three primary phases: (1) the Assyrian captivity of the northern kingdom of ten of the tribes of Israel (c. 722 B.C.); (2) the Babylonian captivity of the kingdom of Judah (c. 587 B.C.); and (3) the destruction of the Judean state and second temple by Rome (A.D. 66-70). While other cases of scattering occurred, these phases accomplished the Lord's purposes of punishing his covenant people by scattering them; but he mercifully made preparation for gathering their descendants in the latter years when they "come to the knowledge of their Redeemer" (2 Ne. 6:8-14).

 Numerous references to Israel's scattering appear in scripture. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Nephi 1, and others wrote much concerning it (e.g., Isa. 50- 53; Jer. 3; 18; Ezek. 6:8-10; 11-12; 36; 2 Ne. 10). Perhaps the most notable of these is the prophecy of Zenos given "unto the house of Israel" and cited in the Book of Mormon by Jacob, son of Lehi (Jacob 5). In language similar to Isaiah 5:1-7 and echoed in Romans 11:17-24, Zenos compared the history of the house of Israel to an olive tree planted in a vineyard, likening it to a "tame olive tree" that begins to decay. Gentiles, represented in Zenos' allegory as branches from a wild olive tree, were grafted onto the tame tree to preserve its natural fruit. Servants assisted the lord of the vineyard in providing the best conditions for growth-digging, pruning, fertilizing, and finally transplanting, grafting, and pruning. Meanwhile, they planted branches of the mother tree in remote parts of the orchard. In three "visits" to the vineyard (Jacob 5:4, 16, 30), the lord and his servants labored to produce desirable olives that could be stored for "the season, which speedily cometh" (5:76). Finally, the desired fruit appeared, which greatly pleased the lord of the vineyard (5:38-75).

 Joseph Fielding Smith, a modern apostle, summed up this allegory thus: "It records the history of Israel down through the ages, the scattering of the tribes to all parts of the earth; …or in other words the mixing of the blood of Israel among the Gentiles by which the great blessings and promises of the Lord to Abraham are fulfilled" (Answers to Gospel Questions, Salt Lake City, 1963, Vol. 4, pp. 141-42).

 Book of Mormon prophets and the resurrected Savior also spoke of the scattering. Reflecting on his people's situation in a new land, Nephi 1 noted that they were part of scattered Israel that would one day be gathered (1 Ne. 22:3-5, 7-12). Jacob observed, "We have been driven out of the land of our inheritance; but we have been led to a better land" (2 Ne. 10:20-22). The resurrected Jesus told hearers in the Americas that though the prophesied scattering was not yet complete, the promised gathering was certainly forthcoming (3 Ne. 20:11-18, 29-46; 21:1-9, 26-29).

 The scattering of Israel interests Latter-day Saints because of the promise of the latter-day gathering, which began in 1829 when the Lord restored the priesthood through the Prophet Joseph Smith. Then, on April 3, 1836, Moses appeared and gave the keys, or authorization, of gathering to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery in the Kirtland Temple. Today, commissioned by those with priesthood authority, missionaries gather latter-day Israel back to the covenant, to acceptance of their Redeemer, teaching them in the nations to which their ancestors were long ago dispersed.

 Bibliography

 Jackson, Kent P. "Nourished by the Good Word of God." In Studies in Scripture, ed. K. Jackson, Vol. 7, pp. 185-95. Salt Lake City, 1987.

Richards, LeGrand. Israel, Do You Know? Salt Lake City, 1982.

DOUGLAS A. STEWART

 Lost Tribes of Israel

 Events leading to the separation of the ten tribes of Israel-later known as the ten lost tribes-are linked to the division of the Israelite monarchy (c. 930 B.C.). Following their upstart king, Jeroboam, the northern kingdom of Israel apostatized from covenants they had made with the Lord (1 Kgs. 12:26-30). Isaiah warned that the Assyrian army would become "the rod of [God's] anger" (Isa. 10:5); the prophecy was fulfilled when the Assyrians took most of the people in the northern tribes into captivity (2 Kgs. 17:23). For latter-day saints, the lost tribes are Israelites other than either the Jewish people or the Lamanites of the Book of Mormon (2 Ne. 29:13). LDS sources provide some information about their situation and announce that descendants of these lost tribes will be vitally involved in events of the last days.

 The Lord revealed through Old Testament prophets that the ten tribes would return and receive promised blessings. Isaiah prophesied "that the Lord shall set his hand again…to recover the remnant of his people" (Isa. 11:11). Jeremiah declared that "remnants" would come from "the land of the north" (Jer. 3:18; 16:14-15; cf. 23:7-8; 31:8) and that the Lord would "make a new covenant" with them (Jer. 31:31).

 Book of Mormon prophets affirmed that the Lord had not forgotten the ten tribes, and that they are keeping records that will yet be revealed (2 Ne. 29:12-14). When the resurrected Jesus Christ appeared in the Americas, he spoke of being commanded of the Father to minister unto the lost tribes, "for they are not lost unto the Father" (3 Ne. 17:4). Jesus also promised that the Lord's redemptive work in the last days would include "the tribes which have been lost" (3 Ne. 21:26).

 For the lost tribes to receive their promised blessings in the last days, priesthood keys or authorization had to be restored. On April 3, 1836, Moses appeared to the Prophet Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery in the Kirtland Temple and committed to them the "keys of the gathering of Israel…and the leading of the ten tribes from the land of the north" (D&C 110:11). These keys still rest with the president of the church. In time, the ten tribes are to be "crowned with glory…by the hands of the servants of the Lord, even the children of Ephraim" (D&C 133:26-34). Elder James E. Talmage also affirmed that "the tribes shall come; they are not lost unto the Lord; they shall be brought forth as hath been predicted" (CR [Oct. 1916]:76). Plainly, according to scripture and teachings of LDS leaders, descendants of the lost tribes-wherever they may be-have continued to receive divine attention and will receive future blessings.

 Bibliography

Smith, Joseph Fielding. The Way to Perfection, chap. 20. Salt Lake City, 1968.

Talmage, James E. "The Dispersion of Israel." In AF, pp. 314-29.

DAVID L. BOLLIGER

 Gathering of Israel

 Latter-day Saints "believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes; [and] that Zion (the New Jerusalem) will be built upon the American continent" (A of F 10). In the LDS perspective, gathering Israel in the latter days consists of the following: (1) the spiritual gathering, which includes coming to know that Jesus is the Christ and joining The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; (2) the assembling of Church members to organized stakes; and (3) the gathering of the descendants of Jacob's twelve sons-including the lost ten tribes (D&C 110:11)-to the lands of their inheritance. These gatherings are necessary because of ancient apostasies that resulted in the dispersion of Israel into all nations (Deut. 4:27; 28:64; Jer. 16:13; Hosea 9:17).

 Israelite prophets, foreseeing Israel's scattering, also foretold her gathering in the last days (1 Kgs. 22:17; Jer. 31:7-12; 32:37-40; Ezek. 36:24; etc.). According to isaiah, Israel will come to know that the Lord is Savior, be gathered again, direct her own affairs, and rebuild Jerusalem (Isa. 52:1-2; D&C 113:7-10). Anciently, the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt, and Isaiah prophesied a future recovery of Israel from many lands (Isa. 11:11-13; cf. 2 Ne. 6:14; TPJS, pp. 14-15; Benson, 1977, pp. 137-38).

 The spiritual gathering of Israel through conversion to the restored gospel of Jesus Christ is to be accomplished by the elders of the Church (D&C 133:8) who are set apart and sent out as "fishers" and "hunters" to "hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks" (Jer. 16:16) and to call them to Zion and her stakes (D&C 133:4-9; Isa. 54).

 The Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants are seen as tools "to gather out mine elect" from all the earth (Moses 7:62; Benson, Ensign 16 [Nov. 1986]:78-80). The risen Jesus declared "that when the words of Isaiah should be fulfilled…then is the fulfilling of the covenant" that the Father made to gather Israel (3 Ne. 20:11-13). Further, he proclaimed that the Book of Mormon would come forth as a sign that scattered Israel was about to be gathered (3 Ne. 20-21). Nephi 1 quoted Isaiah 48 and 4 9, which he regarded as a herald of Israel's future gathering and glory (1 Ne. 20- 22).

 The priesthood keys, or authorization, to gather Israel were restored to the Prophet Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery on April 3, 1836, in the Kirtland Temple. "Moses appeared before us, and committed unto us the keys of the gathering of Israel from the four parts of the earth, and the leading of the ten tribes from the land of the north" (D&C 110:11). This authority is now held by the president of the church. That portion of Israel known as the Ten Tribes will yet be led from the north. Their gathering will be accomplished in part as they are converted to the Lord, receive the blessings of the gospel, and return to "the land of their ancient inheritance" (McConkie, 1982, pp. 321, 324-26).

 Both the spiritual and the literal characteristics of gathering were emphasized by the Lord in the following interpretation of the parable of the wheat and tares: "I must gather together my people, according to the parable of the wheat and the tares, that the wheat may be secured in the garners to possess eternal life, and be crowned with celestial glory" (D&C 101:65; also 86:7-10). Joseph Smith declared that in all ages the divine purpose of gathering is to build temples so that the Lord's children can receive the highest ordinances and thereby gain eternal life (TPJS, pp. 307-308, 314).

 The gathering of Israel continues in the post-earthly spirit world where Christ "organized his forces and appointed messengers…and commissioned them to go forth and carry the light of the gospel to them that were in darkness, even to all the spirits of men" so that they too may be gathered (D&C 138:30, 34; cf. 1 Pet. 3:18-19). In the implementation of this gathering, ordinances such as baptism and confirmation are performed in latter-day temples by Church members on behalf of the dead (cf. 1 Cor. 15:29).

 The physical gathering of Israel is a concomitant of the spiritual gathering. The Lord's servants are to unite and "come forth to Zion, or to her stakes, the places of thine appointment" (D&C 109:39). In 1830 the Lord commanded the Saints to gather into "one place" (D&C 29:8), the first place being in Ohio. In July of 1831 he revealed that "the land of Missouri" was "appointed and consecrated for the gathering of the saints" and independence, Missouri, was established as the "center place" (D&C 57:1-3). In 1838, after the Church had expanded, the Lord spoke of "gathering together upon the land of Zion, and upon her stakes" (D&C 115:6; cf. Isa. 54:2-3; D&C 101:21-22).

 Missionaries were sent out after the Church was organized (1830) to gather both spiritual and bloodline Israel. In the spirit of gathering, many converts immigrated from the eastern states, Canada, Britain, and Western Europe, first to Ohio, then Missouri, Illinois, and eventually the Great Basin. Between 1840 and 1890, more than eighty thousand converts came from continental Europe and fifty-five thousand from Great Britain (P. A. M. Taylor, Expectations Westward [Edinburgh, 1965], p. 144).

At the turn of the century and thereafter, converts were no longer asked to immigrate to America and the West. As Spencer W. Kimball reemphasized, converts were to remain in their own lands, where stakes of Zion would be established and temples built, allowing members all the privileges of the gospel in their native countries. He urged the Saints to establish "multiple Zions" and to gather together in their own "culture and nation" (Kimball, pp. 438-40; cf. Palmer, pp. 33-42).

 The gathering of Israel includes the Lamanites. To their ancestors in the Americas, the resurrected Jesus promised: "This people will I establish in this land, unto the fulfilling of the covenant which I made with your father Jacob" (3 Ne. 20:22, 25; 21:1-7).

 The gathering of Jews to the state of Israel will continue. Joseph Smith's associates and successors predicted that their initial gathering would be in unbelief (JD 4:232; 11:245; 18:64-66; cf. 16:352; 18:225). Elder Bruce R. McConkie calls this a "gathering of the unconverted to Palestine…a political gathering" (1982, pp. 229-30). This "preliminary gathering" is to precede Christ's coming to the Jews on the Mount of Olives, when he will personally manifest himself to them (2 Ne. 6:14; cf. Zech. 13:6; D&C 45:48-53; JS-M 1:37).

 The land of Canaan was promised to Abraham and his posterity on condition of their righteousness (Abr. 2:6), a promise later reiterated to Isaac and Jacob (Gen. 12:7; 26:3; 35:12). Of the descendants of Jacob, the Jews have maintained their identity throughout the ages. As descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the people of Judah are to return to their ancestral lands (D&C 109:64). At the dedication of the Kirtland Temple, Joseph Smith pled with the Lord that "the children of Judah may begin to return to the lands which thou didst give to Abraham, their father" (D&C 109:62-64). Orson Hyde, an early apostle, was called and ordained by Joseph Smith to dedicate Palestine for the return of the Jews. On October 24, 1841, Hyde climbed the Mount of Olives, prayed to "dedicate and consecrate this land…for the gathering together of Judah's scattered remnants," and erected a mound of stones to commemorate the event (HC 4:456-59).

 The Book of Mormon states that the Jews "shall be gathered in from their long dispersion, from the isles of the sea, and from the four parts of the earth" (2 Ne. 10:8; cf. 25:15-17). Moreover, Mormon, editor and compiler of the Book of Mormon, declared that "ye need not any longer hiss, nor spurn, nor make game of the Jews, nor any of the remnant of the house of Israel; for behold, the Lord remembereth his covenant unto them, and he will do unto them according to that which he hath sworn" (3 Ne. 29:8).

[See also Zionism.]

 Bibliography

Benson, Ezra Taft. "A Message to Judah from Joseph." Ensign 6 (Dec. 1976):67-72.

Benson, Ezra Taft. This Nation Shall Endure. Salt Lake City, 1977.

Kimball, Spencer W. The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, ed. Edward L. Kimball. Salt Lake City, 1982.

McConkie, Bruce R. "Come: Let Israel Build Zion." Ensign 7 (May 1977):115-18.

McConkie, Bruce R. The Millennial Messiah: The Second Coming of the Son of Man. Salt Lake City, 1982.

Palmer, Spencer J. The Expanding Church. Salt Lake City, 1978.

Talmage, James E. "The Gathering of Israel." In AF, pp. 328-44.

TERRY L. NIEDERHAUSER

 (Encyclopedia of Mormonism, 1-4 vols., edited by Daniel H. Ludlow (New York: Macmillan, 1992), 711.)

Judaism

 The views of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its members toward Jews and Judaism have been shaped chiefly by LDS teachings and by historical contacts with Jewish communities. These teachings include regarding the Jews as an ancient covenant people with a prophesied role in the contemporary gathering of Israel and in events of the last days, and the contacts include educational activities in Israel and LDS proselytizing efforts outside of Israel.

 Latter-day Saints share some traditional Christian positions toward Judaism, such as acknowledging debts for ethical foundations and religious terminology. Moreover, they have adopted stances expressed in Paul's mildly universalistic writings: Bible-era Judaism, based on the Law of Moses and embodying the Old Testament or covenant, was essentially "fulfilled" in Jesus Christ (cf. 3 Ne. 15:4-8), so Christianity became the New Covenant and therefore spiritual "Israel." However, they have tended not to share the anti-Semitic postures of some Christian eras or groupings. Reflecting a more positive view, the Book of Mormon contains such passages as "Ye shall no longer hiss, nor spurn, nor make game of the Jews,…for behold, the Lord remembereth his covenant unto them" (3 Ne. 29:8), and President Heber J. Grant stated, "There should be no ill-will…in the heart of any true Latter-day Saint, toward the Jewish people" (GS, p. 147).

 Mormons consider themselves a latter-day covenant people, the divinely restored New Testament Church. In this light, they have interpreted literally the Lord's mandate to them to regather Israel. While seeing historical judgment in Assyrian, Babylonian, and Roman treatment of biblical peoples, they have viewed the "scattering" as having beneficially diffused the "blood of Israel" worldwide. As a result, the Prophet Joseph Smith said that the Church believes in the "literal gathering of Israel" (A of F 10). This is done principally by missionary work searching for both biological and spiritual "Israelites" among the Gentile nations.

 In LDS eschatology, the first Israelite tribe thus being gathered is Ephraim, with which most Latter-day Saints are identified through patriarchal blessings. To this "Semitic identification" has been attributed the substitution of Judeophilia for anti-Semitism among Mormons (Mauss). Indeed, LDS doctrine has envisaged a partnership both in promulgating scripture-in Ezekiel 37:16, Latter-day Saints find allusions to the Bible and Book of Mormon-and in erecting millennial capitals: Ephraim will build the New Jerusalem in an American Zion, Jews ("Judah") will gather in "the land of their fathers" (3 Ne. 20:29) to rebuild (old) Jerusalem, a prominent theme in the Book of Mormon (see 2 Ne. 6, 9-10, 29; Ether 13) and the Doctrine and Covenants (sections 39, 42, 45, 110, 133). Like several post-Reformation evangelical groups, Latter-day Saints have anticipated a return of Jews to Palestine as part of Israel's gathering. Indeed, the Prophet Joseph Smith sent Orson Hyde, an apostle, to Jerusalem, where in October 1841 he dedicated the land and prayed "for the gathering together of Judah's scattered remnants" (HC 4:456). On grounds that "the first shall be last," Brigham Young said that the conversion of the Jews would not occur before Christ's second coming (Green; cf. Ether 13:12). Yet Palestine was subsequently rededicated for the Jews' return by several apostles in the Church: George A. Smith (1873), Francis M. Lyman (1902), James E. Talmage (1921), David O. McKay (1930), and John A. Widtsoe (1933).

 The creation by modern Zionism (secular Jewish nationalism) of a Jewish community and then a state in Palestine tested LDS doctrine's equating the Jews' "return" with Israel's "gathering" (i.e., conversion, but in different locations). While Rabbi Abraham Kook's disciples viewed Zionism's success from Jewish eschatalogical perspectives, some Latter-day Saints began regarding it from LDS perspectives: a secular preparatory stage for the messianic era. A latter-day apostle, LeGrand Richards, and some others in effect identified Zionism and the State of Israel as the expected "return," the physical prelude to the spiritual "gathering." Others, such as Elder Bruce R. McConkie, wrote that the Zionist ingathering was not that "of which the scriptures speak…. It does not fulfill the ancient promises." He saw it as a "gathering of the unconverted" but "nonetheless part of the divine plan" (Millennial Messiah, Salt Lake City, 1982, p. 229).

 Pre-World War I contacts with Jewish communities were apparently influenced by Brigham Young's dictum. Jews immigrated into Utah after 1864, aligning politically with non-LDS "Gentiles." Yet they related well to the LDS majority, which did not proselytize them. Indeed, to the earliest Jewish settlers in Utah, the LDS Church provided meeting places for services and donated land for a cemetery. Utahans have also elected several Jews to public office, including a judge, state legislators, and a governor (see Brooks, 1973).

 An LDS Near East mission (from 1884) was based temporarily at Haifa, where a cemetery contains graves of missionaries and German converts. Teaching mostly Armenians and German colonists, this mission ignored the longtime resident Jews of the Old Yishuv and had few contacts with new Zionist immigrants. After World War I some LDS leaders felt impressed to begin "gathering" Jews. New York Mission President (1922-1927) B. H. Roberts wrote pamphlets later consolidated into Rasha-The Jew, Mormonism's first exposition directed at Jews. In this same vein, Elder LeGrand Richards composed Israel! Do You Know? and then received permission to launch experimental "Jewish missions," the largest being in Los Angeles. This and smaller Jewish missions (Salt Lake City; Ogden; San Francisco; Portland, Oreg.; New York; Washington D.C.) were disbanded in 1959, when the First Presidency directed that Jewish communities not be singled out for proselytizing.

 Noteworthy interaction has accompanied Brigham Young University's foreign study program in Jerusalem (begun 1968), based first at a hotel and then at a kibbutz. Seeking a permanent facility, BYU leaders were granted a location on Mount Scopus by Jerusalem's municipal authorities. Construction began in 1984 on the Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies and, because it was such a prominent facility on such a choice site, drew opposition; ultra-Orthodox Jews, suspecting a "missionary center" under academic cover, warned of "spiritual holocaust." However, anti-Mormon campaigns failed to halt construction of the center, partly because U.S. congressmen and Jewish leaders, as well as Israeli liberals, defended it. The controversy reached Israel's Knesset, which obliged BYU to strengthen its nonproselytizing pledge. This contest was linked to the larger debate between Israel's secularists, who valued pluralism, and its militant Orthodox, who feared a new alien presence.

 LDS contacts with Judaism have led to an exchange of converts. Salt Lake's synagogue Kol Ami has been attended by some ex-Mormons. Perhaps a few hundred Jews have become Latter-day Saints. Like Evangelical Jews, most have continued to emphasize their Jewishness, and fellow Mormons have welcomed them and considered them "of Judah." Convert memoirs have appeared; for honesty and literary quality probably none surpasses Herbert Rona's Peace to a Jew. Jewish Mormons formed B'nai Shalom in 1967 to function as a support group and to facilitate genealogical research.

 Bibliography

 For Mormon activities in Palestine/Israel, see Steven W. Baldridge and Marilyn Rona, Grafting In: A History of the Latter-day Saints in the Holy Land, Salt Lake City, 1989. On LDS attitudes and behavior toward Jews, see Herbert Rona, Peace to a Jew, New York, 1952; Armand L. Mauss, "Mormon Semitism and Anti-Semitism," Sociological Analysis, 29 (Spring 1968):11-27; Arnold H. Green, "A Survey of LDS Proselyting Efforts to the Jewish People," BYU Studies 8 (1968):427-43; and Juanita Brooks, History of the Jews in Utah and Idaho, Salt Lake City, 1973. For theological dimensions, see Truman G. Madsen, ed., Reflections on Mormonism: Judeo-Christian Parallels, Provo, Utah, 1978.

ARNOLD H. GREEN

 (Encyclopedia of Mormonism, 1-4 vols., edited by Daniel H. Ludlow (New York: Macmillan, 1992), 1594.)

An omniscient God foresaw the modern establishment of Israel as a separate nation-state. Historians have since acclaimed the remarkableness of how the United Nations voted to establish the state of Israel with the support of both the United States and the Soviet Union. It was a narrow political space window through which necessary events quickly passed, leading to the official establishment of Judah once again in the Holy Land. But it was a space window that was soon closed.

(Neal A. Maxwell, All These Things Shall Give Thee Experience [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1979], 15.)

QUESTION

 Doesn't the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 and the return of the Jews to the Holy Land constitute one of the most important signs of the times?

 ANSWER

 The gathering of Israel as spoken of in the scriptures is destined to take place under the direction of the priesthood. Let it be stated again that the keys of the gathering of Israel rest with the president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They do not rest with the United Nations or with any other politically appointed body. The gathering spoken of by the ancient prophets is to be first to Christ and the saving principles of his gospel and only then to lands of inheritance. Salvation is found in covenants, not in geography. Faith, repentance, baptism, and the reception of the Holy Ghost are and ever will be the first principles of any nation or kingdom established by the true God of Israel.

 Israel was scattered anciently when she broke the covenants of salvation that she had made with her God, and she will be gathered only when she returns to those sacred covenants. Lands of inheritances are simply an outward, or physical, token of those covenants. Jacob taught:

 "After they have hardened their hearts and stiffened their necks against the Holy One of Israel, behold, the judgments of the Holy One of Israel shall come upon them. And the day cometh that they shall be smitten and afflicted.

 "Wherefore, after they are driven to and fro, . . . many shall be afflicted in the flesh, and shall not be suffered to perish, because of the prayers of the faithful; they shall be scattered, and smitten, and hated; nevertheless, the Lord will be merciful unto them, that when they shall come to the knowledge of their Redeemer, they shall be gathered together again to the lands of their inheritance" (2 Ne. 6:10-11; emphasis added).

 Yet again, Jacob said: "Wherefore, because of their iniquities, destructions, famines, pestilences, and bloodshed shall come upon them; and they who shall not be destroyed shall be scattered among all nations.

 "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" (2 Ne. 10:6-7; emphasis added).

  Nephi taught the same principles: "Wherefore, the Jews shall be scattered among all nations; yea, and also Babylon shall be destroyed; wherefore, the Jews shall be scattered by other nations.

 "And after they have been scattered, and the Lord God hath scourged them by other nations for the space of many generations, yea, even down from generation to generation until they shall be persuaded to believe in Christ, the Son of God, and the atonement, which is infinite for all mankind—and when that day shall come that they shall believe in Christ, and worship the Father in his name, with pure hearts and clean hands, and look not forward any more for another Messiah, then, at that time, the day will come that it must needs be expedient that they should believe these things.

 "And the Lord will set his hand again the second time to restore his people from their lost and fallen state. Wherefore, he will proceed to do a marvelous work and a wonder [the coming forth of the Book of Mormon and the organization of his Church] among the children of men.

 "Wherefore, he shall bring forth his words unto them, which words shall judge them at the last day, for they shall be given them for the purpose of convincing them of the true Messiah. . . . [And] his name shall be Jesus Christ, the Son of God" (2 Ne. 25:15-19; emphasis added).

 The present gathering of Jews to Palestine may be preparatory to the events spoken of in scripture, but it certainly does not fulfill them. It is a gathering for spiritual, not temporal, purposes of which the scriptures speak.

 (Joseph Fielding McConkie, Answers: Straightforward Answers to Tough Gospel Questions [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1998], 132.)

Number 1--1994

Harry S. Truman

as a Modern Cyrus

 Despite concerted opposition from his advisors, who saw the move as strategically unwise, Truman ignored strategy and recognized Israel for humanitarian and religious reasons.

 Michael T. Benson

 Without question the "puzzle of Palestine" (as Secretary of State Dean Acheson referred to it) "posed singular difficulty" for the administration of President Harry S. Truman "in terms of humaneness, conscience, diplomacy, strategy, intrigue, oil, domestic politics, prejudice, and personal pressure." fn Notwithstanding many mitigating factors, the historical record reveals that Truman’s decision to grant recognition to the nascent Jewish state was based primarily on humanitarian, moral, and sentimental reasons, many of which were an outgrowth of Truman’s religious upbringing and his familiarity with the Bible. His controversial action to grant recognition was subsequently "sanctified" by foreign policy officials at the State Department for strategic reasons. Given the similar strategic motivations of both the United States and Great Britain in the Middle East, parallels are readily evident. In adopting the Balfour Declaration, which restored to the Jews their ancient homeland, the British were compelled by dual considerations: first, a debt of conscience owed to the people of the Bible, and second, a strategy of empire which required that the British establish a presence in Palestine. fn

 In conversing with me about the above conclusions, John Lewis Gaddis, the visiting Harmsorth Professor of Modern History at Queen’s College, Oxford, remarked that such a thesis is on the right track. Nevertheless, he noted, one must emphasize the religious nature of Truman’s decision and the ways his actions diverged from typical policy making. Otherwise, there is no way to explain why Truman did what he did, because his decision to grant recognition is an aberration when viewed within the historical context. Examining the president’s actions through the prism of politics, strategy, or common sense renders the decision inexplicable. fn

 At the time, I did not mention a Mormon elder by the name of Orson Hyde, his mission to Palestine, and the way HarryS. Truman’s recognition of the nation of Israel in May 1948 might be viewed as a partial fulfillment of Hyde’s 1841 dedicatory prayer.

Elder Hyde’s Mission to Palestine

 Sometime after Orson Hyde’s baptism, the Prophet Joseph Smith gave Elder Hyde an extraordinary blessing:

 In due time thou shalt go to Jerusalem, the land of thy fathers, and be a watchman unto the house of Israel; and by thy hands shall the Most High do a great work, which shall prepare the way and greatly facilitate the gathering together of that people. fn

 As a literal realization of that blessing, Elder Hyde set out nearly a decade later on what may be one of the most arduous missions ever undertaken by a member of the Quorum of the Twelve. His harrowing voyage to Palestine via London, Rotterdam, Constantinople, and Beirut is a matter of record. On arriving in Jerusalem on October 21, 1841—after nearly nineteen months of travel—Elder Hyde recorded his first impressions of the Holy City: "My natural eyes for the first time beheld Jerusalem; and as I gazed upon it and its environs,... a storm of commingled emotions suddenly arose in my breast, the force of which was only spent in a profuse shower of tears." fn

 Early on Sunday morning, October 24, 1841, Elder Hyde crossed the Kidron Valley and ascended the Mount of Olives; there he built an altar and "in solemn silence, with pen, ink, and paper" offered a dedicatory prayer. fn His prayer contained the following petition:

 Thou, O Lord, did once move upon the heart of Cyrus to show favor unto Jerusalem and her children. Do Thou now also be pleased to inspire the hearts of kings and the powers of the earth to look with a friendly eye towards this place, and with a desire to see Thy righteous purposes executed in relation thereto. Let them know that it is Thy good pleasure to restore the kingdom unto Israel—raise up Jerusalem as its capital, and constitute her people a distinct nation and government, with David Thy servant, even a descendant from the loins of ancient David to be their king. fn

 Orson Hyde thereby enunciated a vision of the return of the Jews to their ancestral homeland fifty-six years before Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism, convened the first Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland.

 I should mention that I do not intend to discuss the policies of the modern state of Israel. Members of the Church have been counseled repeatedly to avoid taking sides in the apparently intractable Middle Eastern conflict. For example, President Howard W. Hunter observed: "We do not need to apologize nor mitigate any of the prophecies concerning the Holy Land. We believe them and declare them to be true. But this does not give us justification to dogmatically pronounce that others of our Father’s children are not children of promise." fn Church leaders have continued to "plead for peace and for coexistence with all the peoples who lay claim to old Jerusalem and the Holy Land: Jewish, Christian, Islamic, and others." fn

 Nonetheless, given the eventual unfolding of the Lord’s purposes in the Near East, the Jewish return to Palestine is an astonishing phenomenon which cannot be divorced from the events that prophecy has foretold will transpire there. Professor Daniel Peterson concludes, "We need only think for a moment about the sheer improbability of the whole thing to begin to see its miraculous character." fn

 Some, however, are quick to note that a Jewish return to Palestine "should not necessarily be seen as a ‘fulfillment’ of the spiritual promises made through the ancient and modern prophets." fn "I have occasionally heard Western Christians, including Latter-day Saints," records Peterson, "talk as if we must support every action and every policy of the government of Israel, because that government is the leadership of God’s chosen people. This is false. Worse, I believe it is idolatrous." fn Elder Bruce R. McConkie has been even more explicit:

 Let there be no misunderstanding in any discerning mind on this point. This gathering of the Jews to their homeland, and their organization into a nation and a kingdom, is not the gathering promised by the prophets. It does not fulfill the ancient promises.... This gathering of the unconverted to Palestine—shall we not call it a political gathering based on such understanding of the ancient word as those without the guidance of the Holy Spirit can attain, or shall we not call it a preliminary gathering brought to pass in the wisdom of him who once was their God?—this gathering, of those whose eyes are yet dimmed by scales of darkness and who have not yet become the delightsome people it is their destiny to be, is nonetheless part of the divine plan. It is Elias going before Messias; it is a preparatory work; it is the setting of the stage for the grand drama soon to be played on Olivet. fn

 Notwithstanding the disparate perspectives vis-à-vis the role of the establishment of Israel in the eternal scheme of things, one would certainly be hard pressed to disagree with this caveat: the establishment of the state of Israel represents a modern political miracle.

 In this article, I will focus on the consummation of a specific plea in Elder Hyde’s petition to the Almighty: "Do Thou now also be pleased to inspire the hearts of kings and the powers of the earth to look with a friendly eye towards this place, and with a desire to see Thy righteous purposes executed in relation thereto." fn Neither time nor space will allow for the treatment of Great Britain’s role in restoring the Jewish people to Palestine and the subsequent fulfillment of Elder Hyde’s prophecy that "England is destined, in the wisdom and economy of heaven, to stretch forth the arm of political power, and advance in the front ranks of this glorious enterprise." fn Rather, I will focus on what might be considered a very unlikely means of fulfilling Elder Hyde’s dedicatory prayer: the thirty-third president of the United States, Harry S. Truman.

 I hasten to add that I am not the first to emphasize the significance to the Latter-day Saints of President Truman’s role in restoring the Jews to their Zion. Eliahu Elath, former Israeli ambassador to the United States and president of the Hebrew University, made this interesting observation in 1977:

 When Harry was sixteen, the Truman family moved to Independence, a small town in the western part of Missouri. During the 1850’s [1830s], it had been one of the centers of activity of the Mormons. Joseph Smith, founder of the sect, insisted that it had been revealed to him in a dream that Independence was the site of the Garden of Eden. He changed its name to Zion. Mystics may discover a hint here of the historic role a son of Independence-Zion was to play in the restoration of Israel to its ancient homeland in Zion. fn

 Chief Executives and the Question of Palestine

 The first chief executive to express a desire to see the Jewish people restored to their ancient homeland was John Adams. In an 1818 letter to Major Mordechai Noah, Adams wrote, "For I really wish the Jews in Judea an independent nation, for as I believe, the most enlightened men of it have participated in the amelioration of the philosophy of the age." fn "A century later Jewish nationalists would stir their faithful by recalling" Adams’s message, "discreetly omitting" the concluding phrase: "Once restored to an independent government and no longer persecuted they would soon wear away some of the asperities and peculiarities of their character, possibly in time becoming liberal Unitarian Christians." fn

 While every American president beginning with Woodrow Wilson has gone on the record in favor of a Jewish national home, U.S. involvement in the Palestinian conundrum would begin in earnest with the administration of Harry S. Truman in the mid-1940s. Truman recalled in 1961 that the Palestine question was "an exceptional kind of a problem of a unique people and of a unique country" which, he contended, "could not be dealt with in the routine, customary manner in which subjects of a political character were generally treated." fn Ambassador Elath observed:["[Truman’s] actions regarding Palestine, his support of the Zionist cause and the Jewish desire for statehood, were motivated by deeper, more noble considerations than mere political and personal gain." fn White House Counsel Clark Clifford noted:

 The ethical and moral, humanitarian and sentimental reactions that the President felt toward Israel were very, very important to him.... I know why he fought for Israel. I know that, for instance, he believed that in the Old Testament there were references to the fact that ultimately there would be a Jewish homeland.... He felt a desire to see that these people who had been so mistreated all through their lives and all through their history would be given a chance. fn

 Truman’s Religious Upbringing and Studies of History

 As a young boy, Harry, who was neither as athletic nor social as his fellow classmates or his younger brother Vivian, spent most of his time reading books. He especially liked a red-backed, four-volume set of biographies by Charles Francis Horne, The Lives of Great Men and Famous Women. Recalled Truman, "When I was a boy I was something of a bookworm, in part because my eyesight kept me out of a good many games and sports.... By the time I was twelve or fourteen years old I had read every book in the Independence Library, including the encyclopedias." fn Margaret, Truman’s only child, recorded: "My father’s second preference, after Horne’s biographies, was the Bible. By the time he was twelve, he had read it end to end twice and was frequently summoned to settle religious disputes." fn Young Harry’s regular Bible study instilled in him a seriousness quite marked for a boy his age. He could quote many verses at random, and "in a childlike way he knew their beauty and could understand the allegorical significance." fn

 Though he was a regular church attender before assuming the presidency (he retained his membership in the Baptist Church of Grandview, Missouri), Truman very rarely attended church during his seven years in the Oval Office, explaining that he attracted too much attention and distracted other worshippers. fn Despite such irregular church attendance, Truman was a deeply religious man (the Christian Century called him "one of our more religious presidents" fn), and his biblical upbringing was clearly manifested in correspondence, speeches, and public statements. Many of these communications "exhibited distinct theological attitudes—reverence for the Holy Scriptures, belief in a Supreme Being, support for a spirit of toleration among the various religious faiths, and support for the ecumenical movement." fn Shortly after announcing his candidacy for the Senate in 1934, Truman wrote in his diary: "And now I am a candidate for the United States Senate. If the Almighty God decides that I go there I am going to pray as King Solomon did, for wisdom to do the job." fn

 Truman’s "later public addresses and papers are studded with Biblical references." fn His final address to the nation as president in January of 1953 is evidence of his deep-seated attachment to the Bible and his penchant for historical analogies:

 Think what can be done, once our capital, our skills, our science—and most of all atomic energy—can be released from the tasks of defense and turned wholly to peaceful purposes all around the world. There is no end to what can be done. I can’t help but dream out loud just a little here. The Tigris and the Euphrates Valley can be made to bloom as it did in the times of Babylon and Nineveh. Israel can be made the country of milk and honey as it was in the time of Joshua. fn

 In a 1959 interview, Truman observed, "As a student of the Bible I have been impressed by the remarkable achievements of the Jews in Palestine in making the land of the Holy Book blossom again." fn

 When asked about the numerous references to God and the Bible in Truman’s addresses, White House aide and speech writer, George Elsey, answered that in this regard Truman led and his staff followed:

 The staff certainly did not deliberately compose phrases or paragraphs of this sort, and inject them. This was very much a part of President Truman’s own personal belief and feeling. Many of these phrases and sentences were added by him in longhand very near the final draft of a speech.... One could find long before he had ever had a staff helping him in matters, references of this sort, back in his early campaign speeches, in his senatorial days in the ’30s and ’40s, so this a reflection of Mr. Truman’s own beliefs. fn

 A Providential President?

 Initially humble, insecure, and overwhelmed, Truman commented to reporters upon hearing of President Franklin Roosevelt’s death: "Boys, if you ever pray, pray for me now. I don’t know whether you fellows ever had a load of hay fall on you, but when they told me yesterday what had happened, I felt like the moon, the stars, and all the planets had fallen on me." fn The unlikely chief executive from Independence expressed humility and self-deprecation so frequently that his own vice-president, Alben Barkley of Kentucky, finally "took him aside and told him to cut it out." The people of the United States, according to Barkley, "would lose all confidence in him if he did not show confidence in himself. ‘God raises up leaders,’ [Barkley told Truman.] ‘We do not know the process, but in the wisdom of Almighty God, you have been made President.’" fn

 Vice-president Barkley was not the only one to believe that Truman’s assumption of office came about by providential intervention. Zionist leaders saw the failed Midwestern haberdasher as the instrument whereby the Jews would attain their state. In a particularly terse letter to the president just weeks before Ben-Gurion’s historic announcement of May 1948, Chaim Weizmann, the first president of Israel, exhorted: "The choice for our people, Mr. President, is between statehood and extermination. History and providence have placed this issue in your hands, and I am confident that you will yet decide it in the spirit of the moral law." fn

 One of the most revealing comments relative to Truman’s providential role came from David Niles, a White House aide who worked for Presidents Roosevelt and Truman. On more than one occasion, Niles expressed doubts "‘that Israel would have come into being if Roosevelt had lived.’" fn Indeed, Roosevelt’s mercurial record on the Palestine issue has left more questions than answers. As a former State Department official summarized, "In many ways President Roosevelt’s handling of the Palestine question remains an enigma. He left no coherent policy for his successor and some of his statements and actions are difficult to understand." fn Conversely, Truman’s continued support of partition and of the establishment of a Jewish state elicited some of the "bitterest, the most venomous" opposition he was to face during his time in the White House. fn

 Opponents to Truman’s Palestine Policy

 Truman’s support for a Jewish homeland is all the more astounding given the political climate of Washington in the late 1940s. Despite the unremitting pressure he endured from nearly every side, Truman held firm to the conviction that the Palestine issue was unique and would ultimately be decided by a different standard. When his secretary of defense, James Forrestal, reminded him of the critical need for Saudi Arabian oil in the event of war, Truman said he would handle the situation in the light of justice, not oil. fn Forrestal continued to register his concerns about the accessibility of oil as late as the winter of 1948, arguing that without Middle Eastern oil the European Recovery Program [known as the Marshall Plan] had a very slim chance of success. In his opinion, as well as that of many others at Foggy Bottom, the United States simply could not supply the European continent while meeting the demands for its own consumption. fn Max Ball, director of the Oil and Gas Division at the Department of the Interior, insisted that Middle Eastern oil resources had to be developed as quickly as possible for "the supply of Europe, to prevent European industry from collapsing and falling to Communism or to the dogs." fn Notwithstanding such dire prognostications, "oil meant less to Truman," recalled Ambassador Elath "where human suffering and the future of a people depended upon the results of their desperate struggle for physical and national survival." fn

 White House counsel Clark Clifford recalled a conversation he had with Forrestal early in 1948:

 We were talking together one time—I had breakfast with him every week. He said, "Clark, I don’t understand why you fellas at the White House view the Jewish problem the way you do." I replied, "What do you mean?" He said, "Well, it’s very clear to us that there are 35 million Arabs and there are 400,000 Jews and the 35 million Arabs are going to push the 400,000 Jews into the Mediterranean. It’s just a question of numbers." And I said, "Well Jim, with President Truman it is not a question of numbers. It is a question of the ethics and morality of the problem." Forrestal just kind of shook his head. fn

 Truman adhered to the belief that the Palestine issue should be decided on moral grounds.

 However, State Department officials and military leaders thought in purely strategic terms, for which they cannot be faulted. Nonetheless, they tended to ignore humanitarian and moral considerations. Their assessment of the situation, as outlined by George Kennan, the director of the State Department’s policy planning staff, included strategic and economic politics and an interest in the world of realpolitik. The assessment was separate, Kennan argued, from the altruistic, moralistic, or humanitarian motives existing in American foreign relations. fn

 All of Truman’s most trusted foreign policy advisers were absolutely opposed to the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine. Truman faced the formidable front of General George Marshall, Undersecretary of State Robert Lovett, Secretary of the Navy (and later Secretary of Defense) James Forrestal, Policy Planning Staff’s George Kennan, State Department counsel Charles Bohlen, and Dean Acheson, who was Marshall’s successor. As Acheson stated: "I had learned to understand, but not to share, the mystical emotion of the Jews to return to Palestine and end the Diaspora. In urging Zionism as an American governmental policy they had allowed, so I thought, their emotion to obscure the totality of American interests." fn

 These men argued that however humanitarian a Jewish homeland might seem, "it posed a real risk to United States national security." Although some might "sense more than a whiff of prejudice" among these arch-WASPs, "it is probably more accurate to describe the attitude of Lovett and others as intellectually unsympathetic, not viscerally anti-Semitic. Pragmatists all, these men were really quite bloodless about an issue that aroused such passion in others." fn Former Israeli ambassador to the United States Abba Eban observed: "You would have expected with a president normally—for something so controversial—that the ‘Wise Men’ would be divided: some for and some against. But there was nobody for this issue in what I would call the influential group." fn

 The May 12 Oval Office Showdown

 Several months after the United Nations’ vote to partition Palestine, Truman met with the "chemist from Pinsk," Chaim Weizmann, on March 18, 1948. While the Truman and Weizmann accounts differ slightly on various points, both agree Truman attempted to emphasize that his "primary concern was to see justice done without bloodshed." fn Furthermore, as best as can be determined, Truman gave his pledge that if the Jewish state were declared, the United States would recognize the new state immediately. As Truman recalled: "And when [Weizmann] left my office, I felt that he had reached a full understanding of my policy and that I knew what it was he wanted." fn Weizmann confided to intimate associates that he had received a specific commitment from the President: Truman "would work for the establishment and recognition of the Jewish State." fn Indeed,

 the move was typical of Truman, a statement of personal integrity and intent, uncluttered by bureaucratic options and provisos. It was the word of one amiable citizen to another, one from Independence, the other from Pinsk. Yet it was as binding as an act of state. Truman never notified the State Department ofhis promise. fn

 According to Clark Clifford, Truman told Weizmann, "You can bank on us. I am for partition." fn Truman’s promise to Weizmann is all the more important when one considers the events that transpired shortly thereafter.

 Due to a myriad of factors and events—among them Truman’s reticence to discuss with anyone his promise made to Weizmann—the political picture in Washington became more convoluted in subsequent weeks. The apex of the State Department’s opposition to Truman’s stated position and his support for Zion- ist aims occurred on May 12, 1948, in what Clark Clifford has called "The Showdown in the Oval Office." fn In attendance were President Truman; Secretary of State George Marshall; Undersecretary of State Robert Lovett; White House staff members Clark Clifford, David Niles, and Matthew Connelly; Fraser Wilkins of the Near East Agency; and Robert McClintock of the United Nations office. fn

 Before the meeting, Truman issued this ominous warning to Clifford: "General Marshall is opposed to our recognizing Israel. He’ll bring his assistants with him.... I think that between the two of us maybe we can convince Marshall of the rightness of our cause." fn The president began the proceedings by saying that he was seriously concerned as to what might happen in Palestine after the scheduled departure of the British in two days. Undersecretary Lovett was then called on to present the State Department’s position of opposing any hasty recognition of the new Jewish state. Counsel Clifford was called upon next. His statement mentioned—explicitly and for the first time—recognition of the new Jewish state by the United States. fn

 "As I talked," remembered Clifford, "I noticed the thunder clouds gathering—Marshall’s face getting redder and redder." By the time Clifford finished, "General Marshall’s face was absolutely beet-red. I think he had grave difficulty containing himself during the presentation." fn Clifford concluded by explaining the Balfour Declaration and quoting the following lines from Deut. 1:8, verifying the Jewish claim to a homeland in Palestine: "Behold, I have set the land before you: go in and possess the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give unto them and to their seed after them."

 Lovett then offered a rebuttal to Clifford’s presentation, arguing inter alia that premature recognition would be a blow to the prestige of the president and would signify a "very transparent attempt to win the Jewish vote." fn To recognize the Jewish state prematurely would be the equivalent of "recognizing a pig in a poke." Lovett then "pulled out a file of reports suggesting again that large numbers of the Jewish immigrants were Communists or Soviet agents." fn How did the United States know what kind of Jewish state would be established? The undersecretary concluded by reading "excerpts from a file of intelligence telegrams and reports regarding Soviet activity in sending Jews and Communist agents from Black Sea areas to Palestine." fn "I felt that this was preposterous," recalled Clifford. "Jewish refugees from Eastern Europe in fact were specifically fleeing the Communists." fn

 Lovett’s rejection of Clifford’s proposal for recognition was merely a precursor to the blow yet to come from the "greatest living American," as Truman called General George C. Marshall. fn Immediately after the meeting, Secretary Marshall dictated from memory what he had said. He concluded:

 The counsel offered by Mr. Clifford was based on domestic political considerations, while the problem which confronted us was international. I said bluntly that if the President were to follow Mr. Clifford’s advice and if in the elections I were to vote, I would vote against the President. fn

 Marshall’s rejoinder, recalled Clifford, "was so shocking that it just kind of lay there for 15 or 20 seconds and nobody moved." fn Needless to say, it brought the meeting to a grinding halt. In try- ing to evoke the feeling in the room at the time, Clifford would recall years later: "There was really a state of shock. The President, I think, was struck dumb by it. There was this awful, total silence." fn This was as strong a personal rebuke as Marshall had ever tendered, given the tremendous respect both men had for each other, and was certainly not what the underdog from Missouri needed to hear in May 1948, just two months before a Democratic convention he did not yet control and six months before a presidential election which he appeared sure to lose.

 Nevertheless, Truman showed little emotion. He simply raised his hand and said that he was "fully aware of the difficulties and dangers in the situation, to say nothing of the political risks involved which he, himself, would run." fn Seeing that his secretary of state was still quite agitated, Truman turned toward Marshall and remarked: "I think I understand the question involved and I think we need no further discussion of it. I think we must follow the position General Marshall has advocated." fn Clifford recalled: "Lovett, who felt as I did that this awful meeting should be ending as quickly as possible said, ‘Well thank you very much Mr. President. I think we’ve pretty well covered it.’ They got up and left." fn Truman turned to Clifford and said, "That was rough as a cob." fn The president told his counsel not to feel badly. As a trial lawyer who had lost cases before, Clifford confessed, "Well, I didn’t ever think I was going to win every case but I’m little afraid that I may have lost this one." fn To this Truman replied, "Let’s not agree that it’s lost yet." fn The president continued, "I never saw the General so furious. Suppose we let the dust settle a little—then you can get into it again and see if we can get this thing turned around. I still want to do it. But be careful. I can’t afford to lose General Marshall." fn Any leak—particularly in the midst of the most difficult months of the Cold War—of the astonishing events of that afternoon would have been catastrophic. fn

 According to Fraser Wilkins, "the State Department representatives came away from the meeting... with the [distinct] impression that recognition of the new Jewish state would be put off indefinitely." fn However, Truman’s endorsement of the State Department’s position was—according to Clark Clifford—merely an attempt not to "embarrass General Marshall in front of the others." fn "Because President Truman was often annoyed by the tone and fierceness of the pressure exerted on him by American Zionists," recalled Clifford on another occasion, "he left some people with the impression he was ambivalent about the events of May 1948. This is not true: he never wavered in his belief that he had taken the right action." fn

 Years after leaving the White House—and in typical Trumanesque fashion—the former commander-in-chief recalled:

 I’d recognized Israel immediately as a sovereign nation when the British left Palestine in 1948, and I did so against the advice of my own Secretary of State, George Marshall, who was afraid that the Arabs wouldn’t like it. This was one of the few errors of judgment made by that great and wonderful man, but I felt that Israel deserved to be recognized and didn’t give a damn whether the Arabs liked it or not. fn

 As one can see, Truman had already made up his mind long before the now-famous May 12 Oval Office meeting.

 Conclusion

 Two days later, unbeknownst even to the American delegation at the United Nations, Truman had the United States be the first country to recognize the Jewish nation, reborn after two millennia. In speaking of his decision to recognize Israel immediately, Truman stated matter-of-factly in his Memoirs: "I was told that to some of the career men of the State Department this announcement came as a surprise. It should not have been if these men had faithfully supported my policy." fn The president from Independence had kept his word to the chemist from Pinsk. "The old Doctor will believe me now," quipped Truman. fn

 Harry S. Truman, according to one of his closest associates, was the "one American who had more to do with assisting in the creation of Israel than any other" individual. fn For Trygve Lie, first secretary general of the United Nations, Truman’s influence in the establishment of the Jewish state could not be overemphasized: "I think we can safely say that if there had been no Harry S. Truman, there would be no Israel today." fn To be sure, Truman has been eulogized by Jews around the globe for his instrumental role in recognizing the nascent state. He himself expressed some discomfort with the extent to which his name and actions were extolled. In a letter to a former staff assistant, Max Lowenthal, Truman—in his familiar deferential and self-effacing style—wrote: "You know how those Israelites have placed me on a pedestal alongside of Moses, and that is the reason I wrote you as I did because I wanted you to have the credit." fn Still trying to downplay his role, Truman told a large Jewish organization in 1952, "I take no special credit for having recognized the State of Israel. I did what the people of America wanted me to do." fn

 Notwithstanding such attempts to discount the monumental role he might have played, an experience related by Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, highlights the sheer historical significance of Truman’s courageous decision. A few years after retiring from public service, Ben-Gurion recalled:

 At our last meeting, after a very interesting talk, just before [the president] left me—it was in a New York hotel suite—I told him that as a foreigner I could not judge what would be his place in American history; but his helpfulness to us, his constant sympathy with our aims in Israel, his courageous decision to recognize our new State so quickly and his steadfast support since then had given him an immortal place in Jewish history. As I said that, tears suddenly sprang to his eyes. And his eyes were still wet when he bade me good-bye. I had rarely seen anyone so moved. I tried to hold him for a few minutes until he had become more composed, for I recalled that the hotel corridors were full of waiting journalists and photographers. He left. A little while later, I too had to go out, and a correspondent came up to me to ask, "Why was President Truman in tears when he left you?" fn

 Clifford believed he knew the answer:

 I believe I know. These were the tears of a man who had been subjected to calumny and vilification, who had persisted against powerful forces determined to defeat him, who had contended with opposition even from within his own Administration. These were the tears of a man who had fought ably and honorably for a humanitarian goal to which he was deeply dedicated. These were tears of thanksgiving that his God had seen fit to bless his labours with success. fn

 "Did Truman act out of—fundamentally in the long run—moral, ethical, historical principles?" asked David McCullough rhetorically. "Yes, absolutely." fn

 When Israel’s chief rabbi paid President Truman a visit in early 1949 and told him, "‘God put you in your mother’s womb so you would be the instrument to bring about the rebirth of Israel after two thousand years,’" tears rose to the president’s eyes. fn The rabbi then opened the Bible he was carrying with him and read the words of King Cyrus from the book of Ezra: "The Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kindness of the earth; and He hath charged me to build Him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah" (Ezra 1:2). One of Truman’s aides present at the meeting, David Niles, thought the chief rabbi was "‘overdoing things, but when I looked over at the President, tears were running down his cheeks.’" fn When I asked David McCullough about this incident and the president’s propensity for such public displays of emotion, he responded: "Truman was not a cry-on-the-spot kind of fellow. I have about three instances where Truman cried in public. They are very few and they are always real." fn

 Shortly after leaving the White House in 1953, Harry S. Truman paid a visit to the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City, accompanied by his former haberdashery partner, Eddie Jacobson. During a conversation with Professor Alexander Marx and seminary president Professor Finkelstein, Jacobson—"waving his hand toward Harry S. Truman—proclaimed: ‘This is the man who helped create the State of Israel.’" Without so much as a moment of hesitation, Truman retorted: "What do you mean, helped create? I am Cyrus, I am Cyrus!" thus "evoking the biblical imagery of Cyrus [the Great,] who made possible the return of the Jews to Jerusalem." fn Subsequently, some within the Jewish intelligentsia have not been able to resist the historical parallels:

 Harry S. Truman’s name will go down in history as the man who knew the arrival of an historic moment and he linked it promptly with American history. He saw the emergence of an oppressed people as a free sovereign state, and he used his great office to extend to that people a friendly hand. For that reason, we say that he is The Modern Cyrus.... Cyrus’s deeds are recorded in four Biblical books—Ezra, Isaiah, Daniel, and Second Chronicles. Truman’s name is indelibly written in modern Jewish history, to be remembered by all generations to come. fn

 "The Jews who wish for a State shall have it," wrote Theodor Herzl in the summer of 1895, over a half-century after Orson Hyde’s prophetic prayer offered from the Mount of Olives on October 21, 1841. fn And while Elder Hyde would probably never have thought that someone like the irascible "Man from Missouri" would someday help realize the petition that God "inspire the hearts of kings and the powers of the earth," history has confirmed that Harry S. Truman truly was a modern Cyrus.

 Michael T. Benson, a third-year doctoral student at St. Antony’s College, Oxford, recently completed a visiting research fellowship at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. This article was cowinner of the 1993 BYU Studies Writing Contest, article division.

 Robert J. Donovan, Conflict and Crisis: The Presidency of Harry S. Truman, 1945-1948 (New York: W.W. Norton, 1977), 312.

 Barbara Tuchman, Bible and Sword: How the British Came to Palestine (New York: New York University, 1956), vii.

 Gaddis made these remarks during my doctoral qualifying examination at Oxford in November 1992. When I related this experience to Truman’s most recent biographer, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David McCullough, his response was as follows: "I’m thrilled Gaddis reacted the way he did, because I sometimes think graduate students dehumanize these people. They suck all the warm blood out of them, somehow, in the process of getting their Ph.D.s., so that the human equation is never one to take seriously. Because sentiment and affection and memory and the chemistry of personality are always affecting how history turns. Always. And you can’t measure it, you can’t quantify it, you can’t document it." David McCullough, interview by author, Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., May 28, 1993.

 Joseph Smith, Jr., History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 6 vols. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1949), 4:375 (hereafter cited as History of the Church).

Orson Hyde, A Voice from Jerusalem (Boston: Albert Morgan, 1842), 7.

 History of the Church 4:456-59.

 History of the Church 4:457.Gaddis made these remarks during my doctoral qualifying examination at Oxford in November 1992. When I related this experience to Truman’s most recent biographer, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian David McCullough, his response was as follows: "I’m thrilled Gaddis reacted the way he did, because I sometimes think graduate students dehumanize these people. They suck all the warm blood out of them, somehow, in the process of getting their Ph.D.s., so that the human equation is never one to take seriously. Because sentiment and affection and memory and the chemistry of personality are always affecting how history turns. Always. And you can’t measure it, you can’t quantify it, you can’t document it." David McCullough, interview by author, Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., May 28, 1993.

 Howard W. Hunter, "All Are Alike unto God," Ensign 9 (June 1979): 74.

 Truman G. Madsen, "Zionism," in Encyclopedia of Mormonism, ed. Daniel Ludlow, 5 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1992), 4:1626.

 Daniel C. Peterson, Abraham Divided: An LDS Perspective on the Middle East (Salt Lake City: Aspen, 1992), 357. See also the review of Abraham Divided in this issue of BYU Studies.

 James B. Mayfield, "The Arab-Israeli Conflict: A Mormon Dilemma?" Dialogue 4 (Summer 1969): 34.

 Peterson, Abraham Divided, 364.

 Bruce R. McConkie, The Millennial Messiah (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1982), 229.

 History of the Church 4:457 (emphasis added).

 Hyde, Voice from Jerusalem, 14.

 Eliahu Elath, "Truman: The Man and the Statesman," lecture given at the Harry S. Truman Research Institute, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mount Scopus, Israel, May 18, 1977, Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace Library, 8.

Max Kohler, "Some Early American Zionist Projects," Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society 8 (1900): 85.

 Peter Grose, Israel in the Mind of America (New York: Alfred Knopf, 1983), 6.

 Elath, "Truman: The Man and the Statesman," 40.

 Eliahu Elath, "The 14th of May 1948 in Washington, D.C.," in Truman and the American Commitment to Israel: A Thirtieth Anniversary Conference, ed. Moshe M‡oz and Allen Weinstein (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1982), 105.

 Clark Clifford, "Preserving the Free World," in The Truman Presidency: Intimate Perspectives, Vol. II of Portraits of American Presidents, ed. Kenneth W. Thompson (New York: University Press of America, 1984), 18.

 Harry S. Truman, "Me and Libraries," College and Research Libraries 19 (March 1958): 99.

Margaret Truman, Harry S. Truman (New York: William Morrow, 1972), 52.

 Frank McNaughton and Walter Hehmeyer, This Man Truman (New York: McGraw Hill, 1945), 13.

 Merlin Gustafson, "Harry S. Truman as a Man of Faith," Christian Century 90 (January 17, 1973): 75.

 Gustafson, "Harry S. Truman as a Man of Faith," 75.

 Gustafson, "Harry S. Truman as a Man of Faith," 76.

 William Hillman, Mr. President: The First Publication from the Personal Diaries, Private Letters, Papers and Revealing Interviews of Harry S. Truman (New York: Farrer, Straus, and Young, 1952), 194.

Harold F. Gosnell, Truman’s Crises: A Political Biography of Harry S. Truman (London: Greenwood, 1980), 9.

 Harry S. Truman, Public Papers of the President, 1953 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1966), 1201.

 Louis L. Gerson, The Hyphenate in Recent American Politics and Diplomacy (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1964), 95.

 George Elsey Oral History, 95-96, July 6, 1970, Harry S. Truman Library, Independence, Missouri (hereafter cited as HSTL).

 Harry S. Truman, Memoirs, 2 vols. (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1955), 1:19-20.

 Bert Cochran, Harry Truman and the Crisis Presidency (New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1973), 118.

 Chaim Weizmann to Harry S. Truman, April 9, 1948, Z5/3141, Central Zionist Archives, Jerusalem, Israel. A copy of this letter was sent to General Marshall with accompanying cover letter; both are on file at Weizmann Archives, Rehovot, Israel. Weizmann received no reply from Truman.

 Alfred Steinberg, The Man from Missouri: The Life and Times of Harry S. Truman (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1962), 304; Evan Wilson, Decision on Palestine (Stanford, Calif.: Hoover Institution, 1979), 56; and Grose, Israel in the Mind of America, 156.

 Wilson, Decision on Palestine, 55.

 Congressional Record, "Joint Meeting of the House and Senate Held Pursuant to the Provisions of House Concurrent Resolution 126 in Commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of Harry S. Truman," 98th Congress, 2d Session, May 8, 1984, vol. 130, pt. 8, p. 11330.

 Henry Wallace, The Price of Vision (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1973), 607; and David McCullough, Truman (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1992), 597.

 Steinberg, The Man from Missouri, 306-7.

 Michael J. Cohen, Truman and Israel (Berkeley: University of California, 1990), 94.

 Elath, "Truman: The Man and the Statesman," 36.

 Clark M. Clifford, interview with author, Washington, D.C., December 15, 1993.

 George Kennan, American Diplomacy, 1900 to 1950 (London: Secker and Warburg, 1952), 91-103.

 Dean Acheson, Present at the Creation: My Years in the State Department (New York: W.W. Norton, 1969), 169.

 Walter Issacson and Evan Thomas, The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1986), 451.

 Interview with author, December 19, 1993, New York, New York.

 Truman, Memoirs 2:161.

 Truman, Memoirs 2:161.

 Abba Eban, "Tragedy and Triumph," in Chaim Weizmann: A Biography by Several Hands, ed. Meyer W. Weisgal and Joel Carmichael (New York: Atheneum, 1963), 306.

 Grose, Israel in the Mind of America, 278.

 George Elsey Oral History, 95-96, July 6, 1970.

 Clark Clifford, Counsel to the President: A Memoir (New York: Random House, 1991), 3-25.

 Clifford, Counsel to the President: A Memoir, 9-10.

 Clark Clifford, "The Unique and Inspiring Leadership of President Truman," in Harry S. Truman: The Man from Independence, ed. William F. Levantrosser (New York: Greenwood, 1986), 386.

 Clifford remembered that no one during those days knew exactly what the name of the new Jewish entity would be: "We knew that it would not be called Palestine, but were unaware that the Jewish leaders were going to call their new country Israel. My information was that they were going to give it the name of Judaea." Clark Clifford, "Recognizing Israel," interview by Bernard A. Weisberger, American Heritage 28 (April 1977): 8-9.

 Clark Clifford, "The Legacy of Harry S. Truman," interview by Walter Cronkite, HSTL; Crossroads Series, videocassette.

 Foreign Relations of the United States, 1948, 9 vols. (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1965), 5:975 (hereafter cited as FRUS).

 Clark M. Clifford, "Factors Influencing President Truman’s Decision to Support Partition and Recognize the State of Israel," in The Palestine Question in American History (New York: Arno Press, 1978), 40.

 FRUS 1948, 5:975.

 Clifford, "Factors Influencing," 40.

 Robert G. Nixon (October 9-November 23, 1970), interview by Hess, Oral History Collection 6, HSTL, 927-28.

 FRUS 5:975 (italics added). The confrontation between Marshall and Truman, according to McCullough, turned "on their terrible concern on what is going to happen in Europe. Where is the oil going to come from? And what about the Marshall Plan? It’s going to fail!" McCullough interview.

 Interview with Clifford.

 McCullough, 616.

 FRUS, 1948, 5:976.

 Daniels, notes, 46.

 Clifford interview.

 McCullough, 617.

 Clifford interview.

 McCullough, 617. 

Clifford, Counsel to the President, 15.

 The Palestine predicament was hardly the only pressing international concern in early 1948. The fate of Czechoslovakia was sealed in February when a violent coup backed by the Red Army imposed a pro-Communist government in a matter of days. (See Bruce Evensen, "The Limits of Presidential Leadership: Truman at War with Zionists, the Press, Public Opinion and His Own State Department over Palestine," Presidential Studies Quarterly 23 [Spring 1993]:269-81.) A feeling of revulsion swept much of the world, as it had only ten years previous when the Nazis had seized the same country; it appeared as if Italy and France were headed for the same destiny. The New York Times compared Russia’s "imperialistic mission" to Hitler’s quest for world domination in 1939 (New York Times, February 29, 1948, D&C 4, 10E Former British prime minister Winston Churchill could see "the menace of war rolling toward the West" (New York Times, March 7, 1948, 18). Senator Arthur Vandenberg, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, urged immediate action "to avert a Third World War" (New York Times, March 2, 1948, 1). Truman wrote to his daughter, Margaret: "Things look black so that we are faced with exactly the same situation with which Britain and France were faced in 1938/39 with Hitler" (HST to Margaret Truman, 3 March 1948, cited in Letters from Father: The Truman Family’s Personal Correspondence [New York: Arbor House, 1981], 108). On March 5, General Lucius Clay, U.S. military governor of the American-occupied zone in Germany, cabled the U.S. Army’s director of intelligence in Washington to warn that war with the Soviets might come "with dramatic suddenness" (Jean Edward Smith, Lucius Clay: An American Life [New York: Henry Holt, 1990], 466-67). Columnists Joseph and Stuart Alsop reported that "the atmosphere of Washington today is no longer postwar. It is a prewar atmosphere" (cited in McCullough, Truman, 603). Truman even went so far as to reintroduce conscription in late March 1948. (Congressional Record, 80th Cong., 2d Sess., 1948, 94, pt. 3:3038.) This war-scare atmosphere in the United States projected relatively small Palestine onto the world stage, thus imbuing it with a symbolic meaning that ranged well beyond the eastern Mediterranean.

 Wilson, Decision on Palestine, 143.

 Clifford, "Recognizing Israel," 9.

 Clifford, Counsel to the President, 25.

 Harry S. Truman, Where the Buck Stops: The Personal and Private Writings of Harry S. Truman, ed. Margaret Truman (New York: Warner Communications, 1989), 64.

 Truman, Memoirs 2:164.

 Eban, "Tragedy and Triumph," 312.

 Trude B. Feldman, "Truman Was Israel’s Friend," Washington Star, December 30, 1972, vertical file, Palestine, HSTL.

 "Credit for a New Nation," Kansas City Times, October 21, 1954, vertical file, Palestine, HSTL.

 Robert Ferrell, ed., Off the Record: The Private Papers of Harry S. Truman (New York: Penguin, 1980), 402.

 Quoted in I.L. Kenen, "Personal Reflections," in Truman and the American Commitment to Israel, 73.

 Moshe Pearlman, Ben Gurion Looks Back (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1956), 116.

 Clifford, "Factors Influencing," 45.

 McCullough interview.

 Steinberg, Man from Missouri, 308.

 Steinberg, Man from Missouri, 308.

 McCullough interview.

 Moshe Davis, "America and the Holy Land: A Colloquium," American Jewish Historical Quarterly 62 (September 1972): 43. The Cyrus analogy was certainly not lost on these Jews, who saw Truman’s role as providential: "The Jewish Republic throughout history will recognize Harry Truman as its second Cyrus who helped its rebirth" (Intermountain Jewish News, January 22, 1953, 16, vertical file, Palestine, HSTL). In speaking of this incident, Clark Clifford recalled:

Harry Truman was a very modest man, even to a certain extent a humble man. The presidency certainly did not change him. But I think every now and again he allowed himself a little freedom to congratulate himself on important accomplishments. So this would be one of those rare instances in which he was perfectly willing to accept the commendation that had been offered him and to agree with it. (Clifford interview)

 Philip Slomovitz, "Harry S. Truman: The Modern Cyrus," The American Jewish Outlook, January 23, 1953, 11, vertical file, Palestine, HSTL.

 Preface to Der Judenstat by Theodor Herzl, quoted in Conor Cruise O’Brien, The Siege (London: Collins, 1988), 71.

(Harry S. Truman as a Modern Cyrus, BYU Studies, vol. 34 (1994), .)

1948-1979. By the time the modern state of Israel was created in 1948, the Cold War had started. Until Stalin’s death (1953) and the Suez Crisis (1955-56), the USSR supported Israel as did the United States, but thereafter, the Arab-Israeli conflict coincided more or less with the global East-West conflict. As antireligion became orthodoxy in the East bloc and received constitutional protection in the West, many faiths acted to mitigate ancient animosities between themselves to permit cooperation in maintaining common spiritual beliefs and values. Thus an ecumenical dialogue began. Not yet participating in that process directly, the LDS Church nevertheless grew beyond its traditional base in the Western United States, becoming more global and interacting with peoples in Africa and Asia as well as in Europe and the Americas. fn These were among the factors that further shaped the attitudes of Latter-day Saints toward the Jewish people and the state of Israel.

 Orson Hyde’s emphasis on the return of the Jews expressed itself in some LDS officials welcoming the creation of Israel as a fulfillment of prophecy. In 1950, Ezra Taft Benson asserted, "In fulfillment of these ancient and modern promises, a great drama is being enacted in Palestine. The Jews are returning as one of the events of the last days." In his Israel! Do You Know? fn LeGrand Richards included a section entitled "New Nation of Israel Fulfills Prophecy" and suggested that the Three Nephites fought on the Jewish side in the 1948 War. The next year, he stated that "what is going on over in the Holy Land today is a great miracle," an assertion seconded in 1958 by Lynn M. Hilton. A year later, Arthur V. Watkins, U.S. Senator from Utah, wrote, "Israel, as an independent nation, is an established fact and must be accepted. No one believing in the prophecies of God would contend otherwise." fn

 Partly fusing the Hyde and Pratt traditions, many advocates of the return of the Jews seemed to feel at this point that the time had arrived for conversion. Hilton indicated, "It is my sincere prayer that we will not be as reluctant to take the gospel from the Gentiles and give it to Israel as Peter was reluctant to do the converse in the meridian of time." Richards, whose Marvelous Work and a Wonder fn anthologized his Southern States Mission presentations, wrote Israel! Do You Know? as a lesson plan to explain the LDS gospel to Jews. In it he declared, "God is calling the Jews. He invites them into the fold of Christ." During the late 1950s, Richards organized LDS "Jewish Missions" in Los Angeles; Salt Lake City; Ogden; San Francisco; Portland, Oregon; New York; and Washington, D.C., some of which produced their own "lesson plans."

 The First Presidency terminated these missions in 1958, but high-level interest in communicating with Jews continued. For example, in 1976 Ezra Taft Benson delivered a "Message to Judah from Joseph," in which he indicated that the LDS Church approaches Jews "in a different way than any other Christian church because [Latter-day Saints] represent the restored covenant to the entire house of Israel." fn On the other hand, Bruce R. McConkie, although emphasizing the idea of "believing blood"—"the more of the blood of Israel that an individual has, the easier it is for him to believe the message of salvation" [Jews excepted?]—reiterated that "the conversion of the Jews as a people... will not take place until after the Second Coming." fn

 The dicta of Ezra Taft Benson and Arthur Watkins in the 1950s contained a political undercurrent. The idea that Israel not only fulfilled prophecy, but also figured in the Free World’s containment of Communism became explicit in W.Cleon Skousen’s Fantastic Victory: Israel’s Rendezvous with Destiny, fn which put Israel on the side of the angels and portrayed its Arab opponents as diabolic Soviet agents and clients. A reviewer observed, "The tragedy of this type of analysis lies in its inability to recognize that the Soviet Union’s success in the Middle East during the past decade is primarily due to an American foreign policy based upon this one-sided view of the Arab-Israeli crisis." fn

 (Jews in Lds Thought , BYU Studies, vol. 34 (1994), Number 4--1994-95 .)

Chapter Ten

 The House of Judah

 On the one hundred and thirtieth anniversary of the organization of the Church, Elder George Q. Morris, of the Council of Twelve, said:

 . . . I thought I would like to mention three signs that the Lord gave that we might observe and know when we saw them that he had set his hand again to accomplish final preparatory work for the coming of the millennium.

 The first of these was to be the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ ....

 Another sign of great importance was the rise of an evil power ....

 A third item is God's promise that he would gather Jews to Jerusalem, and I think perhaps we may well now not continue saying the Jews are going to gather in Jerusalem. 1 think now we may well say they have gathered. The ultimate returns will come later as they develop this land and are joined by others.1

 When the independent state of Israel was created in 1948, the words of prophets long dead were fulfilled and a new era in the long and troubled history of the House of Israel was born. With it one of the great signs of the Lord's coming, predicted by prophets many centuries before, entered the final stages of its fulfillment.

 Israel the Unfaithful

  Several thousand years before the birth of the Savior, Abraham was promised that the hand of Jehovah would be over him and his posterity. Through the chosen, or covenant, people which came from this great patriarch, were all the nations of the earth to be blessed.2 As part of that covenant, Abraham was told that he and his posterity would be given a promised land as their "everlasting possession" and, said Jehovah, "I will be their God."3

 Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were men of high spiritual stature, and well earned their right to the covenant. Unfortunately, as time passed, much of their posterity were not as anxious to have Jehovah as their God, and, like an unfaithful spouse, turned to the gods of the heathen. Through succeeding generations, notwithstanding the efforts of mighty prophets like Moses, Samuel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel and others, the House of Israel turned to idolatry and wickedness. Whether it was unnamed golden calves or deities with strange names like Baal, Ashtoreth, Molech, or Chemosh didn't matter a great deal; the Israelites generally preferred them to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And thus the stage for the future tragedy of this nation was set. 

The prophets of Israel began early in their history to predict the great scattering of this people. Before they even crossed the River Jordan to possess the promised land, Moses predicted the tragic consequences of Israel's idolatry.

 I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that ye shall soon utterly perish from off the land whereunto ye go over Jordan to possess it; ye shall not prolong your days upon it, but shall utterly be destroyed.

 And the Lord shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left few in number among the heathen, whither the Lord shall lead you.4

 Periodically during the reign of the judges and the long era of the kings, the covenant people would turn back to their God, but the repentance was never permanent enough to last for more than one or two generations.

  So Jeremiah warned:

 I will scatter them also among the heathen, whom neither they nor their lathers have known: and I will send a sword after them, till I have consumed them.5

 And Ezekiel promised:

 And I will scatter toward every wind all that are about him, to help him, and all his bands; and I will draw out the sword after them.

 And they shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall scatter them among the nations, and disperse them in the countries.6

 With the added perspective of history, we today can see the literal fulfillment of these prophetic utterances. After Solomon's death, Israel was split into two kingdoms-the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. In 721 B.C., the Assyrians under Shalmaneser swept the northern kingdom into captivity and those ten-and-a-half tribes were lost to history, and remain lost to this day. One hundred and thirty-four years later, King Nebuchadnezzar brought the Babylonians against Judah, and that kingdom too was carried away. Through the righteousness of men like Daniel, his three companions, and Ezra, the house of Judah was not destroyed, but seventy years later Cyrus freed them to return to Jerusalem. Even this did not change the hearts of the remaining Israelites for very long. Though the captivity corrected their tendency to worship idols, their hearts were still hardened away from "true worship" of their God. Soon the Jews were back in virtual slavery to a variety of conquering nations.

 The Savior came into the Jewish nation at a time when they were nothing more than a vassal province of Rome. He, too, struggled to overcome the hypocrisy and pride of the Jewish nation, but had comparatively little success. So, sadly he mourned:

  O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!

 Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.7

 The final scattering of that royal tribe was completed less than forty years after Christ was crucified. Vespasian and Titus, Roman generals, brought in the mighty Roman legions to crush a Jewish revolt. The rebellion spread until Jerusalem itself came under siege, and, in one of the great catastrophes of the world's history the Jewish nation ceased to exist. Elder Ezra Taft Benson referred to that tremendous final blow and later persecutions in a conference address in 1950.

 I think one of the saddest chapters in history is the account of the dispersion and suffering of Judah.

 I have before me a quotation of Will Durant in his book, The Story of Civilization, in which he states that "no people in history fought so tenaciously for liberty as the Jews, nor any other people against such odds." He says further, "No other people has ever known so long an exile, or so hard a fate."

 Then referring to the siege of Jerusalem under Titus, lasting for 134 days, during which 1,110,000 Jews perished and 97,000 were taken captive; he states that the Romans destroyed 987 towns in Palestine and slew 580,000 men, and a still larger number, we are told, perished through starvation, disease, and fire.

 "Nearly all Judea was laid waste. So many Jews were sold as slaves that their price fell to that of a horse. Thousands hid in underground channels rather than be captured. Surrounded by Romans they died one by one of hunger while the living ate the bodies of the dead."

 Scarcely eight thousand Jews were left in all of Palestine. And even their banishment and scattering didn't end their persecution. Efforts were made to drive them from various countries. Some nations made an effort to banish them completely. They were accused of causing the "Black Death" that spread through Europe in 1348, and many Jews were crucified therefore.

  I have said nothing regarding the Crusades and the dastardly deeds perpetrated in the name of Christianity upon the remaining Jews in Palestine. Yes, the prophecies regarding the dispersion and the suffering of Judah have been fulfilled. 8

 Little wonder that Christ said: "Behold, your house is left unto you desolate." Little wonder that Hosea, speaking for the Lord, says: "Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as other people: for thou hast gone a whoring from thy God .... "9

 Abraham 2: 8-11.

 Footnotes are at the end of the chapter.

 Deuteronomy 4:26-27. (Italics added) See also Leviticus 26:27-39.

 Jeremiah 9: 16. (Italics added)

 Ezekiel 12: 14-15. (Italics added)

 Matthew 23: 37-38. (Italics added)

 Ezra Taft Benson, Conference Report, April, 1950, pp. 74-75. (Italics added)

 Hosea 9:1.

 Israel and Judah to Return

 Ironically, even as the ancient prophets predicted the calamities that would befall their people, they often predicted their future restoration as well. The Lord promised Abraham that the covenant was to be an everlasting one, and the Lord's promises will be kept. This is why Elder Morris designated the restoration of the Jews as one of the signs that the preparatory work for the Millennium was begun. This is also why the Lord explained to the Nephites that the restoration of his people would be the sign to indicate when the end was drawing near.

 And verily I say unto you, I give unto you a sign, that ye 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.10

 This great work of gathering Israel has been going on since the organization of the Church, but the gathering of the Jews back to the land of Jerusalem is a more recent phenomenon. On October 24, 1841, one of the Twelve Apostles of God returned to Jerusalem and specifically dedicated that land for the return of the Jews. The world took little note of that special mission of Eider Orson Hyde's, but the century following that solitary prayer has seen great changes upon the land so dedicated. The prayer of Orson Hyde has been abundantly answered, for in part he said:

  Grant, therefore, O Lord, in the name of Thy well-beloved Son, Jesus Christ, to remove the barrenness and sterility of this land, and let springs of living water break forth to water its thirsty soil. Let the vine and olive produce in their strength, and the fig tree bloom and flourish. Let the land become abundantly fruitful when possessed by its rightful heirs; let it again flow with plenty to feed the returning prodigals who come home with a spirit of grace and supplication; upon it let the clouds distil virtue and richness, and let the fields smile with plenty. Let the flocks and herds greatly, increase and multiply upon the mountains and the hills; and let Thy great kindness conquer and subdue the unbelief of Thy people. Do Thou take from them their stony heart, and give them a heart fresh; and may the Sun of Thy favor dispel the cold mists of darkness which have beclouded their atmosphere. Incline them to gather in upon this land according to Thy word. Let them come like clouds and like doves to their windows. Let the large ships of the nations bring them from the distant isles; and let kings become their nursing fathers, anti queens with motherly fondness wipe the tear of sorrow from their eye.11

 With an additional one hundred and thirty years' perspective, it is not difficult to see the prophetic nature of Elder Hyde's prayer. The Jews have indeed been returning to their native land from which they have been dispersed for so many centuries. The land has indeed begun to be abundantly fruitful to these rightful heirs, and they have once again become a government worthy of identity. The Apostle's request that the large ships of the nations be used to return the Jews to their homeland brings forth the vivid pictures of refugee ships described in the novel Exodus, by Leon Uris.

 In the talk previously referred to, Elder George Q. Morris went on to recount the great miracle of the return of the Jews.

 In a writing issued recently this statement was made:

"About two million Jews have returned to restore land which has lain desolate for centuries. In little more than ten years fetid swamps have been transformed into fertile valleys. Orchards now blossom on stony hillsides. Farms have sprouted in the desert and towns and cities have been built on the site of ancient settlements." (Know the World: Israel, "Around the World Program" by Peggy Mann.) ....

  In 1948, with a population of 600,000 the Declaration of Independence was issued, and the State of Israel was established. An army of 35,000 Jews was opposed by an army of nearly 80,000 Arabs. In about nine months peace was declared and they set up their government. They planted more than 53 million trees. Martyrs' Forest bas six million trees, one for each Jewish life lost in Nazi Europe.

 This statement by a writer is very interesting:

 "Strangely enough when the State of Israel was reborn in 1948, it was a nation of 600,000, the same number which the Bible reports that Moses led out of bondage in Egypt. It now numbers some two million, the same number which it is said populated the ancient Kingdom of Solomon, when Israel was in all its glory." (See above reference)

 That is why we may now say that the Jews have returned to Palestine. On a land one-tenth the size of Utah they have nearly a half million more people than we have in our whole Church [1960]. They have about 258 people for each square mile in Palestine. which is a dense population. We have about ten a square mile in Utah.12

 The continuing miracle of the Jewish tenacity for national life in the face of nearly overwhelming odds is yet another testimony that the promises of the Lord concerning this clown-trodden people are being fulfilled.

 3 Nephi 21:1. (Italics added)

 Joseph Smith, DHC, Vol. 4, p. 457, October 24, 1841. (Italics added)

 George Q. Morris, Conference Report, April, 1960, p. 101.

 The Great Gathering Home

  It is exciting to know that prophecies that have stood unfulfilled for hundreds, even thousands of years are being fulfilled in one's own lifetime. That is the case with the gathering home of the Jews to their ancient homeland. The sufferings which this people have endured while awaiting their return are too numerous to recount. Fresh in the minds of most people are the terrible persecutions which raged against the Jews under Nazi Germany, but that was only one example out of many hundreds of scourges this people have undergone down through the centuries. Ezra Taft Benson of the Quorum of Twelve spoke of these devastating calamities and showed how they have worked to further the Lord's purposes in gathering these, his children, back home. He spoke of visiting the ruins of a Jewish ghetto in Warsaw, Poland, after World War II.

 As we stood on the crumbled brick and mortar and the rubble stone fifteen feet deep, with only the spire of one burned synagogue showing-no other building in that vast area-we were told by the guide that some two hundred thousand bodies, it was estimated, still remained under the rubble of those once great buildings in this section of Warsaw.

 We visited some of the concentration camps and the crematoriums where it is estimated, six million of the sons and daughters of Judah lost their lives, reducing their world population from seventeen to eleven million.

 We were impressed almost to tears as we visited some of these wanderers, these persecuted and driven sons of our Heavenly Father, to find how doggedly they were determined to return to Palestine. Ofttimes, as they would come into relief agencies to get temporary help, we would ask them why they did not settle nearby. Sometimes they were invited to stay. But they had one desire, and that was to return to the land of their fathers.

 I recall that a survey was made by UNRRA, United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, in which they interviewed 3,629 Jews in displaced persons' camps to determine what they would like to do if they were given their freedom to move and locate as they pleased. Of this number, 3,619 indicated that they would like to go back to Palestine. Nine of them expressed a desire to come to the United States, and one to Australia. This desire-which is almost a passion-was so great that it was as strong as life itself ....

 Yes, my brethren and sisters, this great drama goes on before our very eyes, in large measure unnoticed by the Christian world. One hardly ever hears reference to the prophecies regarding Judah's return. Yet, the promises are clear that it would be one of the great events of the last days. And, of course, we know from modern revelations and prophecies that much more is yet to occur.13

  It is equally exciting to see the words of our own latter-day prophets fulfilled through events that are transpiring in the world today. Joseph Smith clearly indicated, for example, that Christ could not come before the Jews were gathered home. In the general conference of the Church in April, 1843, he said:

 Judah must return, Jerusalem must be rebuilt, and the temple, and water come out from under the temple and the waters of the Dead Sea be healed. It will take some time to rebuild the walls of the city and the temple etc.; and all this must be done before the Son of Man will make His appearance.14

 This statement was made while there was a great flurry in the United States over William Miller's predictions that the second advent would occur in that year. History has now shown the folly of those predictions and the accuracy of Joseph Smith's.

 President Wilford Woodruff was also most explicit when he spoke of the gathering of the Jews as being one of the unfulfilled signs of the times. In 1875, speaking of Christ, he said: "He will never come until the Jews are gathered home and have rebuilt their temple and city and the Gentiles have gone up there to battle against them."15 Four years later, after becoming president of the Church, Wilford Woodruff made another prediction:

 The time is not far distant when the rich men among the Jews may be called upon to use their abundant wealth to gather the dispersed of Judah and purchase the ancient dwelling places of their fathers in and about Jerusalem and rebuild the holy city and temple. For the fulness of the Gentiles has come in, and the Lord has decreed that the Jews should be gathered from all the Gentile nations where they have been driven, into their own land, in fulfillment of the words of Moses their law-giver.16

  Elder Benson referred to this quote by President Woodruff in the conference talk referred to above and said: "It is rather significant that up to 1948 more than seven hundred million dollars has been expended by American Jews alone in helping to bring about the fulfillment of this prophecy by President Wilford Woodruff."17 In an interview in 1967, Israel's Prime Minister, Levi Eshkol explained Israel's magnificent progress as a nation as partially resulting from help given to the Jews by other Jews from all over the world who "... look upon this enterprise of the homecoming as a joint venture of the Jewish people throughout the world. They have helped with about 100 million dollars a year in donations to assist Jewish immigrants to Israel . . . including more than 90 per cent who came penniless."18

 Ezra Taft Benson, Conference Report, April, 1950, pp. 77-79. (Italics added)

 Joseph Smith, DHC, Vol. 5, p. 337, April 6, 1843. (Italics added)

 Wilford Woodruff, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 18, p. 111, September 12, 1875. (Italics added)

 Wilford Woodruff, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 18, p. 111, September 12, 1875. (Italics added)

 Ezra Taft Benson, op. cit., pp. 76-77. (Italics added)

 U.S. News and World Report, April 17, 1967, p. 76. As quoted by Daniel H. Ludlow, "Israel Prophecies Being Fulfilled," BYU Summer Devotional, (BYU Press: Provo, Utah) August 8, 1967, p. 8.

 Jerusalem for the Jews and the Temple Rebuilt

 One of the signs given by the Savior to his disciples concerning the end referred to the city of Jerusalem. Christ spoke of the time when Jerusalem would be encompassed about with armies, and warned the Jews to flee from these days of vengeance.19 He then continued:

 But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people.

 And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden, down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. 20

  As was previously mentioned, that promise was fulfilled when the Roman legions besieged the city of Jerusalem and finally destroyed it (A.D. 70). Although the city itself was restored under the Emperor Hadrian about sixty-five years later, Jerusalem remained as a city of the Gentiles down through the centuries. Hadrian built a temple to Jupiter upon the site of the ancient temple; five hundred years later the city was taken by the Arab chieftain, Khalif Omar, in 637 A.D.; the European Christians held it for a few years after the Crusades, but the city soon fell into the possession of the Turks; it intermittently passed back and forth between various Arab and Turkish rulers until the British captured it under General Allenby in World War I. For more than 1800 years the prediction of the Master was literally fulfilled-Jerusalem was trodden down by the Gentiles.

 Although the British set up Palestine as a homeland for the Jews and the Jewish people began to flock back to Jerusalem, the city of Jerusalem was still not completely controlled by the Jews. When Israel declared themselves to be a free and independent nation in 1948, the Arabs bitterly protested and war broke out. Peace was finally achieved through the United Nations, but Jerusalem was partitioned and became a divided city-half belonging to Israel, the other half to Jordan. Perhaps this is what Zechariah foresaw when he said that "... a line shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem."21 But finally, after nearly 1900 years, in June, 1967, the now-famous "six-day war" broke out and Israeli forces smashed through Jordanian defenses and captured all of Jerusalem. So as Christ, Joseph Smith, Wilford Woodruff, Orson Hyde, and others predicted, Jerusalem is being rebuilt and inhabited once again by those so long ago dispersed from its streets and dwelling places.

  These prophets also spoke of the time when the temple would be constructed once more. As yet, that prophecy is unfulfilled, but the conditions are shaping up so as to bring about its fulfillment, perhaps in the next few years. Once again it seems as though the obstacles are insurmountable, but the prophets have spoken. The site of the temple is presently occupied by one of the holiest of Moslem shrines-the Mosque of Omar, also known as the Dome of the Rock. Tradition associates it with the spot where Abraham nearly offered up Isaac for sacrifice. But in addition, Moslems believe that it was from this site that their Prophet Mohammed ascended into heaven. Even though the site is now under Jewish control, the Jews are understandably reluctant to tear down a shrine of such stature. If they were to do so, it would undoubtedly bring the rage of the Arab world into sharp focus, and aggravate matters far beyond their present tenuous limits.

 But the obstacles against the Jews repossessing Palestine and the holy city also seemed insurmountable; yet the Lord brought about his work and fulfilled his word. So it is that it can be expected that the temple will also be rebuilt and the words of the Lord's servants vindicated. When that is accomplished, the world will have yet another indication that "God works in mysterious ways, his wonders to perform !"

 As the promises concerning the Jews are fulfilled, it brings to mind President Woodruff's statement when he spoke of the future destiny of the Jews and warned the nations of the Gentiles to take heed of the Lord's promises so that they themselves might avoid his coming judgments.

 The gospel is now restored to us Gentiles, for we are all Gentiles in a national capacity, and it will continue with us, if we are faithful, until the law is bound, and the testimony sealed, and the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled, when it will again revert to the Jews, whom the Lord will have prepared to receive it. They will gather to their own land, taking with them their gold and silver, and will rebuild their city and temple, according to the prediction of Moses and the prophets. When this time arrives, which is nigh, even at our doors, let the Gentile nations who reject the gospel which is now sent to them, prepare to meet the judgments of an offended God! For when their cup is full even to the brim, the Lord will then remember the chastisements of the Jews, his favored people, and at whose hands they will have received double for their iniquities. Offenses must come, said the Savior, but woe unto them by whom they come. Woe unto the Gentiles, who have administered afflictions to the Jews for these many years! Woe unto them if they now reject this only means of salvation, for the awful calamities spoken of in these books, the Bible and Book of Mormon wilt certainly befall them.22

 Luke 21:20-22.

 Luke 21:23-24. (Italics added)

 Zechariah 1:16.

 Wilford Woodruff, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 18, pp. 220-221, August 13, 1876. (Italics added)

 The Great War-The Jews Find Their Messiah

  Since the June, 1967, war an uneasy and sporadic peace has hung over the nations of the Middle East. The large political powers of the world have applied diplomatic pressures to bring about cease-fire agreements and treaties of peace. Some of the leading statesmen have predicted that the conflict in this area of the world can be resolved without further warfare. The ways of God are not the ways of men, however, and the decrees of God are often ignored by the "wise men" of the world. The prophecies clearly indicate that the troubled conflicts already witnessed in the Middle East are but a prelude to great catastrophic events yet to come. Especially is this true of war.

 According to both the prophets of the Old Testament and those of the latter-day restoration, the Jews are yet to see a war of such staggering proportions that the mind finds it difficult to grasp. It seems clear from the description given by these prophets that none of the conflicts in Jerusalem's long and bloody history could qualify as being this predicted war. Ezekiel, for example, recorded the words of the Lord, wherein the great invading force was described. The leader, symbolically called Gog, prince of the land of Magog, was pictured as leading a great host of warriors from many lands.23 Anciently, the land of Magog was a land to the north of the generally known world of the Israelites. Josephus identified it as the land of the Scythians, who were the people living in the regions north of the Black and Caspian Seas in present-day Russia. It was also used to refer to almost any people of crude and unlearned ways who were from little-known countries to the north.24 Ezekiel pictures them as coming from the north 25and as being so numerous as to be like "... a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee."26 Their purpose shall be to spoil and ravage the land of Israel.27

  And yet strangely enough, it is out of this great catastrophe that the Jews will finally come to know their Master, Jesus of Nazareth. Many of the latter-day prophets have spoken of this great event, and their predictions add more details to what is known concerning the last of the tribulations of the house of David-the battle known as Armageddon.

 Elder Charles W. Penrose predicted that the nations of the Gentiles would come up against Jerusalem in order to take spoil of their wealth so that they could alleviate their own bankrupt positions. He then described the resulting war and final deliverance of the Jews.

 The bankrupt nations, envying the wealth of the sons of Judah, will seek a pretext to make war upon them, and will invade the "holy land" to "take a prey and a spoil." . . .

 His [Christ's] next appearance will be among the distressed and nearly vanquished sons of Judah. At the crisis of their fate, when the hostile troops of several nations are ravaging the city and all the horrors of war are overwhelming the people of Jerusalem, he will set his feet upon the Mount of Olives, which will cleave and part asunder at his touch. Attended by a host from heaven, he will overthrow and destroy the combined armies of the Gentiles, and appear to the worshipping Jews as the mighty Deliverer and Conquerer so long expected by their race; and while love, gratitude, awe, and admiration swell their bosoms, the Deliverer will show them the tokens of his crucifixion and disclose himself as Jesus of Nazareth, whom they had reviled and whom their fathers put to death. Then will unbelief depart from their souls, and "the blindness in part which has happened unto Israel" be removed.28

 Orson Pratt explained that Satan would play a part in the gathering of this mighty army through the showing forth of miracles.

  He will gather up millions upon millions of people into the valleys around about Jerusalem in order to destroy the Jews after they have gathered. How will the devil do this? He will perform miracles to do it. The Bible says the kings of the earth and the great ones will be deceived by the false miracles. It says there shall be three unclean spirits that shall go forth working and they are spirits of the devils. Where do they go? To the kings of the earth; and what will they do? Gather them up to battle unto the great day of God Almighty. Where? Into the valley of Armageddon. And where is that? On the east side of Jerusalem.

 . . . There the Lord shall fight for his people, and smite the horse and his rider, and send plagues on these armies, and their flesh shall be consumed from their bones, and their eyes from their sockets. They will actually fulfil these prophecies, with all their pretension to Bible and prophetic learning. 29

 The promises referred to by both Elder Penrose and Elder Pratt refer to ancient prophecies given by Isaiah, Ezekiel, Joel, Zechariah, and other Old Testament prophets. The promises of deliverance for Jerusalem and the return of the Savior are found most specifically in Zechariah where he foretells of the Jews looking upon the wounds of Jesus and the mourning that will result from their startling discovery;30 of the fountain springing forth ; 31of the great earthquake and the resulting avenue of escape opened in the Mount of Olives;32 of the destruction of the army;33 and of the resulting millennial era that will be ushered in.34

 President Joseph Fielding Smith also wrote of this terrible war and described in more detail the great earthquake that would split the Mount of Olives and the earthquake which would save the Jewish nation.

  All of them [the prophets] speak of it; and when that time comes, the Lord is going to come out of His hiding place. You can see what a terrible condition it is going to be; and the Jews besieged, not only in Jerusalem, but, of course, all through Palestine are in the siege; and when they are about to go under, then the Lord comes. There will be the great earthquake· Tile earthquake will not be only in Palestine. There will not be merely the separation of the Mount of Olives, to form a valley that the Jews may escape, but the whole earth is going to be shaken. There will be some dreadful things take place, and some great changes are going to take place, and that you will find written in the book of Ezekiel (38: 17-23), which I did not read to you. 35

 He went on to speak about the Jews recognizing their Savior and then President Smith said:

 Then they will fall down at His feet and worship Him. After these days will come their redemption and the building of Jerusalem. They will be given their own land again, and every man will live under his own vine and his own fig tree and they will learn to love the Lord and keep His commandments and walk in the light, and He will be their God and they will be His people, and that is right at our doors. 36

 In the Book of Revelation, John also spoke of this last struggle and told of the Gentiles treading down the holy city for a period of forty-two months, or three and a half years.37 During this period, there will be two witnesses who will be given power to prophesy and to work with the people of Judah. John spoke of the tremendous power which they would have, which probably explains the success of the Jews in holding off such a powerful army for three and one-half years.38 Joseph Smith explained that the two witnesses are prophets raised up to the Jewish nation prior to the end.

 Q. What is to be understood by the two witnesses, in the eleventh chapter of Revelations?

 A.They are two prophets that are to be raised up to the Jewish nation in the last days, at the time of the restoration, and to prophesy to the Jews after they are gathered and have built the city of Jerusalem in the land of their fathers.39

  John went on to say that after the witnesses had finished their testimony, they would be caught and killed by the troops besieging Jerusalem. This would cause much rejoicing and merrymaking among the armies of Gog. Rather than the bodies being buried, John predicted that they would be left lying in the streets, evidently as a sign of Gog's triumph.40

 In his pamphlet, A Voice of Warning, Parley P. Pratt explained how the Gentiles would race through the city plundering the Jews.

 John in his 11th chapter of Revelation, gives us many more particulars concerning this same event. He informs us that, after the city and temple are rebuilt by the Jews, the Gentiles will tread it under foot forty and two months, during which time there will be two Prophets continually prophesying and working mighty miracles. And it seems that the Gentile army shall be hindered from utterly destroying and overthrowing the city, while these two Prophets continue. But, after a struggle of three years and a half, they at length succeed in destroying these two Prophets, and then over-running much of the city, they send gifts to each other because of the death of the two Prophets, and in the meantime will not allow their dead bodies to be put in graves, but suffer them to lie in the streets of Jerusalem three days and a half, during which the armies of the Gentiles, consisting of many kindreds, tongues and nations, passing through the city, plundering the Jews, see their dead bodies lying in the street. But after three days and a half, on a sudden, the spirit of life from God enters them, and they will rise and stand upon their feet, and great fear will fall upon them that see them. And then they shall hear a voice from heaven saying, "Come up hither," and they will ascend up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies beholding them.41

 According to John, it is then that the great earthquake strikes, felling one-tenth of the city and killing seven thousand people outright.42

 Ezekiel 38: 1-7.

 F. N. Peloubet, Peloubet's Bible Dictionary, (Holt, Rinehart & Winston: New York, 1947), pp. 380, 598. See entries' for "Magog" and "Scythians."

 Ezekiel 38: 15.

 Ezekiel 38: 9.

 Ezekiel 38: 13.

 Charles W. Penrose, "The Second Advent," Millennial Star, Vol. 21, pp. 582-583, September. 10, 1859. (Italics added)

 Footnotes are at the end of the chapter.

 Zechariah 12: 10-14; 13: 6.

 Zechariah 13:1; 14:8. (This is evidently the water which Joseph Smith said would come from the temple and heal the Dead Sea. See footnote No. 14 of this chapter.)

 Zechariah 14:1-7.

 Zechariah 14:12-15.

 Zechariah 14:16-21.

 Joseph Fielding Smith, Signs of the Times, (Deseret Book Co.: Salt Lake City, 1964), p. 170. (Italics added)

 Joseph Fielding Smith, Signs of the Times, (Deseret Book Co.: Salt Lake City, 1964), pp. 171-172. ( Italics added )

 Revelation 11: 2.

 Revelation 11: 3-6.

 Doctrine and Covenants 77:15.

 Revelation 11:7-12.

 Parley P. Pratt, A Voice of Warning, Published by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (first published in 1837), pp. 41-42.

 Revelation 11:13.

 Close to the End

  For those closely watching the signs of the times, this event just spoken of shall signal the last of the world's existence. The prophets indicate that it is shortly thereafter that the great coming of the Lord in glory takes place, and the Millennium is ushered in. John, for example, after speaking of the two witnesses being caught up to heaven, and the great earthquake says:

 The second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly.

 And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever.43

 Parley P. Pratt briefly summed up the entire closing scene.

 Suffice it to say, the Jews gather home, and rebuild Jerusalem. The nations gather against them in battle. Their armies encompass the city, and have more or less power over it for three years and a half. A couple of Jewish Prophets, by their mighty miracles, keep them from utterly overcoming the Jews; until at length they are slain, and the city is left in a great measure to the mercy of their enemies for three days and a half, the two Prophets rise from the dead and ascend into heaven. The Messiah comes, convulses the earth, overthrows the army of the Gentiles, delivers the Jews, cleanses Jerusalem, cuts off all wickedness from the earth, raises the Saints from the dead, brings them with Him and commences His reign of a thousand years .... 44

 President Joseph Fielding Smith indicated also that this would be one of the last events to be fulfilled before Christ came.

 One thing we are given by these prophets definitely to understand is that the great last conflict before Christ shall come will end at the siege of Jerusalem ....

 So we are given to understand that when the armies gather in Palestine will be the time when the Lord shall come in judgment and to make the eventful decision which will confound the enemies of his people and establish them in their ancient land forever.45

  This miraculous deliverance of the Jews by their Redeemer will be something that the nations of the earth shall speak of for many years. The destruction of the army is of such a magnitude that Ezekiel tells of the Jews burning the spoils of war for seven years without need of going to the fields or forests for fuel.46 The number of the slain shall be so great that the entire house of Israel shall spend seven months burying the dead in an attempt to cleanse the land.47 Thereafter, they will have to hire permanent burial teams to seek out the bodies which are as yet unburied to remove the stench of death from off the face of the land.48

 It is not hard to understand why in a Proclamation of the Twelve Apostles the kings and rulers of the earth were warned that they could not remain neutral in the coming crises.

 You cannot, therefore, stand as idle and disinterested spectators of the scenes and events which are calculated, in their very nature, to reduce all nations and creeds to one political and religious standard, and thus put an end to Babel forms and names, and to strife and war. You will, therefore either be led by the good Spirit to cast in your lot, and to take a lively interest with the Saints of the Most High, and the covenant people of the Lord; or, on the other hand, you will become their inveterate enemy, and oppose them by every means in your power.49

 And so the tribe which produced the royal house of David, so long trodden down by their enemies, so long searching for their Messiah, so long without a homeland, shall come to know that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob still lives and still remembers the covenants made with their fathers so long ago.

 Revelation 11:14-15. (Italics added)

 Parley P. Pratt, A Voice of Warning, Published by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (first published in 1837), p. 42.

 Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation (Bruce R. McConkie, comp.), Vol. 3, (Bookcraft: Salt Lake City, 1956), pp. 46-47. (Italics in original)

 Ezekiel 39: 8-10.

 Ezekiel 38: 11-13.

 Ezekiel 38: 14-16.

 Proclamation of the Twelve Apostles, Millennial Star, Vol. 6, pp. 6-7, (end of volume) October 22, 1845. (Italics in original)

 (Gerald N. Lund, The Coming of the Lord [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1971], 194 - 195.)

The gathering of the house of Israel: On September 21, 1823, the angel Moroni appeared to Joseph Smith and quoted the eleventh chapter of Isaiah to him and emphasized that it was soon to be fulfilled. (See Isaiah 11:10-12.) On April 6, 1830, the church of Jesus Christ was restored to the earth, and soon missionaries were sent to proclaim the glad tidings. On April 3, 1836, Moses appeared in the Kirtland Temple and restored the "keys of the gathering of Israel." (See Doctrine and Covenants 110:11.) On October 24, 1841, Elder Orson Hyde dedicated the Holy Land for the return of the Jews. In May 1948 the state of Israel was created and was officially recognized by the leading countries of the world.

 The scriptures indicate there are to be three main aspects of the gathering: (1) the gathering of the dispersed of Israel from the nations of the earth to Zion; (2) the return of the Jews (tribe of Judah) to Jerusalem and the ancient promised land; and (3) the restoration of the lost tribes of Israel to the true fold of the Shepherd.

 The following references in the Book of Mormon discuss the various aspects of the gathering of Israel and of the building of the New Jerusalem on the American continent: 1 Nephi 19:14-17; 2 Nephi 10:7-8; 2 Nephi 25; 3 Nephi 20:20-33, 46 (these verses are now in the process of fulfillment); 3 Nephi 21:20-25; 3 Nephi 29:8-9; Ether 3:1-12.

 (Daniel H. Ludlow, A Companion to Your Study of the Book of Mormon [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1976], 119.)

3 NEPHI 20:29-31, 46 

Prophecies of the Savior now in the process of fulfillment

 Many prophecies of the Savior concerning the house of Israel have already been fulfilled. Some of these were fulfilled before the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, but many of them have been fulfilled since the publication of this holy scripture. However, others of these prophecies of the Savior are now in the process of fulfillment and still others are in the future.

 For example, in verse 29 the Savior promises that in the last days the house of Israel should be gathered together to "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." (3 Nephi 20:29.) This prophecy was made by the Savior in A.D. 34 and it was published in the Book of Mormon in 1830. Yet it was not until 1948, 118 years after the publication of the Book of Mormon, that the modern state of Israel was established and these people could gather home to the land of their inheritance.

 Also, in verse 30 the Savior prophesies: "And it shall come to pass that the time cometh, when the fulness of my gospel shall be preached unto them." Again, the great missionary program of the Church was not organized in 1830 when the Book of Mormon was published. However, since that time the gospel has been taken to many peoples upon the earth, including many of the Jewish people. In verse 31 the Savior continues: "And they shall believe in me, that I am Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and shall pray unto the Father in my name." So far this prophecy has been only partially fulfilled; the acceptance of Jesus Christ by the Jewish people as a whole is still in the future.

 (Daniel H. Ludlow, A Companion to Your Study of the Book of Mormon [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1976], .)