(Isa. 21:10–12; A of F 10)
From this scripture we learn that the events described were to be in the future: “The Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people.” There could not be a “second time” unless there had been a first. The first time as when the Lord led Israel out of Egyptian bondage and captivity.
(LeGrand Richards, A Marvelous Work and a Wonder, rev. ed. [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1979], 202.)
The time has at last arrived when the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has set His hand again the second time to recover the remnants of his people, which have been left from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea, and with them to bring in the fulness of the Gentiles, and establish that covenant with them, which was promised when their sins should be taken away… . This covenant has never been established with the house of Israel, nor with the house of Judah… . Christ, in the days of His flesh, proposed to make a covenant with them, but they rejected Him and His proposals, and in consequence thereof, they were broken off, and no covenant was made with them at that time… . Thus after this chosen family had rejected Christ and His proposals, the heralds of salvation said to them, “Lo, we turn unto the Gentiles;” and the Gentiles received the covenant, and were grafted in from whence the chosen family were broken off.
(Joseph Smith, History of the Church, Vol. 1, [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1976], 313.)
The latter-day gathering is the second gathering … whereas the first was the gathering of Israel out of Egypt, making Moses the official holder of the gathering keys (see D&C 110:11). Not only will Israel be gathered, but many among the Gentile nations will also join the gathered remnant to learn of God (see Isa. 11:10, 12; 14:1; Jer. 16:14–16). The Church and the restored gospel will be the rallying standard, or “ensign,” to which Israel and these others will come (cf. 2 Ne. 6:14; 25:17; 29:1).
(Keith A Meservy, Studies in Scripture, Vol. 4, ed. Kent P. Jackson [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1993], 103.)
The second gathering will see remnants return from all directions (as symbolized by different countries: Assyria = Modern Iraq; Egypt, Pathros = Egypt; Cush = Ethiopia; Elam = Iran; Shinar = Iraq; Hamath = Syria) and from various continents (islands of the sea). The Lord will also set up a church (or ensign) for the nations and the scattered outcasts of Israel.
(Victor L. Ludlow, Unlocking the Old Testament [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1981], 158–59.)
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)… .
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) … 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.
(David L. Bolliger, Encyclopedia of Mormonism, ed. Daniel H. Ludlow, 4 vols. [New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1992], 2:709.)
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)… .
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).
(Terry L. Niederhauser, Encyclopedia of Mormonism, ed. Daniel H. Ludlow, 4 vols. [New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1992], 710.)
Earth Full of Knowledge
(Isa. 11:9; 54:13)
Advances in communication and travel during this last century have hastened the pace at which the word of the Lord goes out from Zion. (See Micah 4:2.) I feel much like Isaiah, who spoke of our time, when “the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea” (Isa. 11:9). I believe that this marvelous outpouring of knowledge has heightened our ability to take the Lord’s saving message to the world, “that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations.” (Luke 24:47.)
(James E. Faust, Ensign, May 1999, 19.)
[2 Ne. 30:8.] Has he fulfilled that promise? If there be anybody in this house past seventy-five years of age who will take the time to think of what has occurred since the Book of Mormon was first published, he will discover that almost every implement, almost every convenience now enjoyed by mankind, has come since the Book of Mormon issued from the press in the year 1830. We are witnesses this day that in a hundred years this world has made progress along most lines greater than in all the previous centuries since the earth was created and our first parents came upon it. The Lord said he would commence his work among the nations. Man had had his trial; men for thousands of years had worked at it. But when the Lord set his hand and when he began to quicken the minds of men by the inspiration of his holy power men began to work out wonderful inventions that have changed the entire condition of this world. I say to you that after a hundred years we are living in a new world. But the work of the Lord has only just begun.
(George Albert Smith, Conference Report, Apr. 1930, 67–68.)
In our day we are experiencing an explosion of knowledge about the world and its people. But the people of the world are not experiencing a comparable expansion of knowledge about God and his plan for his children. On that subject, what the world needs is not more scholarship and technology but more righteousness and revelation.
I long for the day prophesied by Isaiah when “the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord” (Isa. 11:9; 2 Ne. 21:9). In an inspired utterance, the Prophet Joseph Smith described the Lord’s “pouring down knowledge from heaven upon the heads of the Latter-day Saints” (D&C 121:33). This will not happen for those whose “hearts are set so much upon the things of this world, and aspire to the honors of men.” (v. 35) … The Lord makes this great promise to the faithful:
“The doctrine of the priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the dews from heaven.
“The Holy Ghost shall be thy constant companion, and thy scepter an unchanging scepter of righteousness and truth; and thy dominion shall be an everlasting dominion, and without compulsory means it shall flow into thee forever and ever” (D&C 121:45–46).
(Dallin H. Oaks, Ensign, May 1989, 30.)
The gospel will be taught far more intensely and with greater power during the millennium, until all the inhabitants of the earth shall embrace it. Satan shall be bound so that he cannot tempt any man. Should any man refuse to repent and accept the gospel under those conditions then he would be accursed. Through the revelations given to the prophets, we learn that during the reign of Jesus Christ for a thousand years eventually all people will embrace the truth… .
If the knowledge of the Lord covers the earth as the waters do the sea, then it must be universally received. Moreover, the promise of the Lord through Jeremiah is that it will no longer be necessary for anyone to teach his neighbor, “saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord.” (Era, vol. 58, 142, 176; Jer. 31:34.)
(Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation: Sermons and Writings of Joseph Fielding Smith, ed. Bruce R. McConkie, 3 vols. [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1954–1956], 3:64–65.)
It will be thus when Jesus descends in the clouds of glory … You are made new creatures. So the earth will be made new, and great knowledge will be imparted to the inhabitants thereof … The knowledge of God will then cover the earth as the waters cover the mighty deep. There will be no place of ignorance, no place of darkness, no place for those that will not serve God. Why? Because Jesus, the Great Creator, and also the Great Redeemer, will be himself on the earth, and his holy angels will be on the earth, and all the resurrected Saints that have died in former dispensations will all come forth, and they will be on the earth. What a happy earth this creation will be, when this purifying process shall come, and the earth be filled with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the great deep! What a change! Travel, then, from one end of the earth to another, you can find no wicked man, no drunken man, no man to blaspheme the name of the Great Creator, no one to lay hold on his neighbor’s goods, and steal them, no one to commit whoredoms… . But, inquires one, can they sin? Yes; their agency will still be left …
Children will grow up without sin unto salvation, as a general thing, … mortality still continues, that people are subject to plagues, subject to pain, and subject to be afflicted … When Jesus has been here in person a thousand years, and all the ancient Saints that have been resurrected, and the modern Saints also, after they have lived upon the earth for the space of a thousand years, it seems that Satan is to be loosed out of his prison, and permitted to go forth and tempt. Whom shall he tempt? Those whom Jesus has brought from heaven? No, they are beyond temptation. Whom will he tempt? Those that are yet mortal—the innumerable inhabitants of the earth … He will go out into the four quarters of the earth, and gather together all that he can overcome …
Satan will gather up his hosts, that have apostatized from the truth … and fire will descend from God out of heaven, and devour that portion of the army of Satan that is still mortal… . They will be consumed, the same as the wicked will have been consumed over a thousand years before that.
(Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses, 21: 324–26.)
Some members of the Church have an erroneous idea that when the millennium comes all of the people are going to be swept off the earth except righteous members of the Church. That is not so. There will be millions of people, Catholics, Protestants, agnostics, Mohammedans, people of all classes, and of all beliefs, still permitted to remain upon the face of the earth, but they will be those who have lived clean lives, those who have been free from wickedness and corruption. All who belong, by virtue of their good lives, to the terrestrial order, as well as those who have kept the celestial law, will remain upon the face of the earth during the millennium.
Eventually, however, the knowledge of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters do the sea. But there will be need for the preaching of the gospel, after the millennium is brought in, until all men are either converted or pass away. In the course of the thousand years all men will either come into the Church, or kingdom of God, or they will die and pass away. In that day there will be no death until men are old. Children will not die but will live to the age of a tree. Isaiah says this is 100 years. When the time comes for men to die, they will be changed in the twinkling of an eye, and there will be no graves.
(Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation: Sermons and Writings of Joseph Fielding Smith, ed. Bruce R. McConkie, 3 vols. [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1954–1956], 1:86–87.)