THE GATHERING OF ISRAEL.
This subject is of great moment. It should interest all people, Jew and Gentile, especially those who profess Judaism and Christianity. It involves several features which affect the claims made by the Latter-day Saints that more revelation has been given and that the gospel has been restored in these, the last days. The solution of this question involves the fulfillment of many prophecies in the Old and New Testaments.
The trend of the teachings of modern Christianity is such as to keep, from the human mind, the idea that the Lord is a practical being and has anything whatever to do with the temporal affairs of the children of men. Yet by a careful reading of the Scriptures it is readily seen that God designated various portions of the earth to be occupied by different bodies of His children. He gave Palestine to the seed of Abraham, and designated where the children of Esau and other races should dwell. This truth is beautifully expressed by the apostle Paul in Acts xvii:26, as follows: "And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation."
To make this subject clear to the reader, we will first show that the seed of Abraham were promised certain countries, that they once occupied those promised lands, and were driven and scattered from them. Hence, in order to receive the fulfillment of the promise regarding their inheritance, they must of necessity be gathered home from their long dispersion.
In Genesis xiii:14, 15, we have the following: "And the Lord said unto Abraham after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward; for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever." This promise was renewed to his son Isaac, as recorded in Genesis xxvi:2, 3: "And the Lord appeared unto him and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of; sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee, and will bless thee; for unto thee and unto thy seed I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I sware unto Abraham, thy father." And again, the promise was made to Jacob, the father of the twelve tribes of Israel. In Gen. xlviii:3, 4, it is said: "And Jacob said unto Joseph, God Almighty appeared unto me at Luz, in the land of Canaan, and blessed me. And said unto me, Behold I will make thee fruitful and multiply thee, and I will make of thee a multitude of people; and will give this land to thy seed after thee for an everlasting possession."
It is not necessary to make special quotations to prove to Bible readers that the tribes of Israel were led into the land of Palestine in the days of the prophet Joshua, and under his administration received their respective inheritances in the promised land.
On reading the forty-ninth chapter of Genesis we find a brief statement of the blessings pronounced by the great patriarch upon his twelve sons. In blessing Joseph it is plainly indicated that his seed was "a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run over the wall;" in other words, his posterity should receive a land beyond the limits which bound the country occupied by the other tribes of Israel. This view is corroborated by the thirty-third chapter of Deuteronomy, in the blessing and prophecy of Moses upon the head of the tribe of Joseph.
The descriptions of the land of Joseph, given in these two chapters, together with the other passages of Holy Writ, show that the land of Joseph was no less than the Western Hemisphere, known to us as North and South America. It is well known that the tribes of Israel occupied the promised land from generation to generation, until through apostasy and transgression nearly all the tribes were carried into captivity long before the advent of the Messiah. When He came the land was occupied chiefly by the tribe of Judah, which was subsequently scattered among the various nations of the earth.
The Lord plainly warned the house of Israel that, to enjoy His blessings and to remain unmolested in the land of their fathers, they must keep His commandments. If they did not, this was to follow: "And I will bring the land into desolation; and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it. And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you, and your land shall be desolate and your cities waste." (Lev. xxvi:32, 33.) Very much like this prophecy are the sacred words of the Messiah, spoken 1500 years later: "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." (Luke xxi:23, 24.)