“Mine Own Purpose”

Joseph F. McConkie, Robert L. Millet
The gathering and preservation of the house of Israel is not simply a means whereby God can favor or reward a portion of his children. Rather, it is the means whereby the Holy One of Israel can make available to all men and women- those naturally of Israel and those who obtain membership by adoption- the peace and joy of righteous family living here and the fulness of eternal life in the world to come, even the continuation of the family unit into eternity (see D&C 132:19-20).

“Mine Own Purpose”

The Lord’s purposes are forever the same. He gathered his people anciently in an effort to make them “a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation” (Exodus 19:6). For that selfsame reason God gathers Israel in the last days-that he might make with them the same covenant he made with their fathers of old, that they too might have the opportunity to become a kingdom of priests and kings, a holy nation (see Revelation 1:5-6; Revelation 5:9-10). In capsulizing his “own purpose” to Moses, the Lord explained: “This is my work and my glory-to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39).

Doctrinal Commentary on the Book of Mormon, Vol. 2

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