Living in the Eleventh Hour by Robert L. Millet

Author:Robert L. Millet [Millet, Robert L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Gospel Teachings
Publisher: Deseret Book Company
Published: 2013-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

Notes

^1. McConkie, “The Coming Tests and Trials and Glory,” Ensign, May 1980, 72.

^2. See Packer, “The Bishop and His Counselors,” Ensign, May 1999, 63.

^3. McConkie, Millennial Messiah, 21–22.

^4. Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 113; Smith, History of the Church, 2:478.

Chapter 14

“Israel Shall Be Saved”

During the first decade of my teaching at Brigham Young University, it was my privilege to teach the Book of Mormon many times. Those years proved to be formative ones, as they became foundational to my understanding of the restored gospel and aided immeasurably in my grasp of the great teachings of the Holy Bible. During the second semester of a rather large section of Book of Mormon, a young woman in class asked, “Brother Millet, there’s a phrase that is found throughout the Book of Mormon that I really don’t understand”

I responded, “What phrase is that?”

She replied, “The house of Israel.”

Let me put this question into perspective. We were then in 3 Nephi in our study. This young woman was one of the brightest students in the class and had done exceptionally well both semesters. I learned later that she came from an outstanding Latter-day Saint family and had taken early-morning seminary for four years. Her question was sobering. It caused me to wonder how many of the other ninety students might have had similar questions but were hesitant to raise them.

This particular semester was especially memorable because of a similar incident in another of my Book of Mormon classes, this one designated for returned missionaries. One of the young men asked, “Brother Millet, what difference does it make that my patriarchal blessing states that I am a descendant of Ephraim?”

“Anyone else have this question?” I asked.

Several others in the class nodded.

Once again I was staggered by the question. I wondered how such outstanding young Latter-day Saints could have come that far, some even having served full-time missions, without understanding the identity, responsibility, and destiny of the house of Israel.

I have reflected many times on the opening line of the tenth article of faith: “We believe in the literal gathering of Israel.” Why would the Prophet have stated it this way? For one thing, by the time of Joseph Smith—and this is even more true today—most in the religious world, particularly Christians, had come to speak of Israel as meaning the Jews only or as being merely a symbolic description of those who had come into the Christian church. The doctrine in the promise made to Abraham that his seed would be a leavening influence throughout the world (Genesis 13; 15; 17) was all but lost. Indeed, one of the vital things lost during periods of apostasy is individuals’ sense of covenant consciousness—who they are and Whose they are. Through Joseph Smith, God determined not only to restore the holy priesthood and many plain and precious doctrinal truths but also to bring his children “to the knowledge of their fathers ... and also to the knowledge of my covenants, saith the Lord” (2 Nephi 3:12).

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