The gospel of Jesus Christ is to go forth to the world according to a divinely established timetable. Our Lord ministered in the flesh to those of the twelve tribes. “I am not sent,” he taught, “but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matthew 15:24). Some years after the Resurrection, by divine decree and by the hand of Peter and Paul and the Apostles, the gospel went to the Gentiles (see Acts 10-11).
In the last days-in the dispensation of the fulness of times-the gospel was restored and the Church of Jesus Christ established first among a “gentile” nation; from the Latter-day Saints it shall eventually go preferentially to the Jews and to all the tribes of Israel. Thus, those who were once first in receiving the gospel in the meridian of time-the Jews-shall, in the last days, be last in receiving the message of salvation.
On the other hand, those who were last to receive the missionary thrust in the first century-the Gentiles-are honored to be the first recipients of the waters of life in the dispensation of the fulness of times.