The reply was from one of our Brethren from the protestant movement (the Church of God...The Herbert Armstrong group).
I am going to use the question that he asks about the Jews as a lead-in to the topic for this post.
It is a very important topic relating to the Marvelous Work that needs to be addressed but I have been apprehensive to bring it up because it was not very easy for me to see this concept as I searched the scriptures over the years.
It took may years for the reality of this doctrine to emerge in my mind and I find it just as difficult to communicate this doctrine to others because of the false traditions of our fathers and because I believe the Lord wanted this truth to be obscured so that a great deception could take place in the latter days.
I believe the only reason that God is allowing certain truths to emerge at this time is because we getting ready to usher in the 3rd watch.
To develop this concept properly I would need to draw from many scriptures, events from History of the Church and the words of the Prophet Joseph Smith... and this post would become a book. I will simply give a short summary of the concept in this post and then I will follow up with additional scriptural verification in later posts.
I feel rather inadequate in trying to explain it... but I'll give a brief explanation of the concept and you can see if it feels good as you search and ponder about it.
Again, I will provide additional scriptural references in future posts.
Getting back to our friend from the Church of God... His reply and associated question is as follows:
Author [at] ptgbook said...
“I am also interested in Bible prophecy. When I was first learning about the Bible in depth, I was able to use fulfilled prophecy to prove that the Bible is inspired. How I did this is in my book about prophecy, Preaching the Gospel .
But there is one thing I have been curious about that I do not know, and that is when the next jubilee occurs. I would expect that the Jews would have kept track of this, even in exile. Do you have any information about the next jubilee that comes from the Jews?”
To my Church of God friend that asked the question above, let me first say that I do not consider myself to be an authority on when the various Jewish holidays, feast days and jubilees are on the modern day calendar. Sorry I cannot be of help on that point…. I think John Pratt is as good an authority as anyone I have seen. I suggest you search the articles he has written.
But I want to respond to an assumption that you have made in the following statement.
“I would expect that the Jews would have kept track of this, even in exile…”
Let me take this opportunity to challenge the common assumption that the Jews went into exile and maintained their national identity and knowledge of who they are after the siege upon Jerusalem. (referring to the siege that followed within a generation from the time they rejected Christ.)
The protestant view of the Jews is that they did maintain their national identity and traditions and beliefs after the siege at Jerusalem.. and that they began officially returning to Jerusalem in the Old World in 1848. I personally have come to believe this to be a false doctrine… it is setting people up for a grand delusion.
By the way, 99.9% of Mormons have adopted the protestant view pertaining to the Jews.. so I am not just challenging the views of protestants on this topic, I am challenging the views of modern main stream Mormonism…
Modern revelation tells us that the Jews were "destroyed and scattered".
"But, verily I say unto you, that desolation shall come upon this generation as a thief in the night, and this people shall be destroyed and scattered among all nations." (D&C 45:19)
That phrase sounds illogical to us because if the Jews are destroyed, how can they be scattered? But the phrase does not mean the Jews were all literally killed, it means that their national identity as a nation was destroyed.. The Kingdom of the Jews was destroyed and the individual Jews that survived the siege were scattered and mingled into the gentile nations just as the Kingdom of Israel had previously been scattered and mingled into the gentile nations. They lost their identity of who they were and of their religious beliefs.
As believers of the Book of Mormon, let us see what it says about the gathering of the Jews in the Latter days to see if it is congruent with the protestant belief of the gathering of the Jews:
“And it shall come to pass that the Jews which are scattered also shall begin to believe in Christ; and they shall begin to gather in upon the face of the land; and as many as shall believe in Christ shall also become a delightsome people.” 2nd Ne 30:7
I found this scripture to be a little perplexing because it seemed to contradict what I had been taught about the gathering of the unbelieving Jews to the Old World Jerusalem in 1948. I had always been taught that the Jews did not believe in Christ when they began gathering to Jerusalem in 1948 and that they would not believe in him until he returned... but the Book of Mormon clearly contradicts that teaching!
I have come to believe that when I find an apparent discrepancy in the scriptures, I have the opportunity to discover a great mystery if I assume that it is me that is confused instead of the ineffable and infallible word of God. Instead of running from apparent discrepancies I love to find them and search them out until I can correct MY misunderstanding of Gods word.
OK... I had always been taught that the Jews began gathering to the Old World Jerusalem while still rejecting Christ yet the Book of Mormon seems to be teaching that the Jews don’t begin to gather in the latter days UNTIL AFTER they begin to believe in Christ! Furthermore, as I began to do some key word searching, I found that the Jews gather to the New World in the latter days instead of the Old World.
Finally it occurred to me that perhaps the so-called Jews in the Old World who still reject Christ are not the real Jews… Their gathering to the Old World in 1848 does not represent the gathering of the Jews in the latter days as described in the Old Testament and the Book of Mormon....
Upon further investigation it appears that the so-called unbelieving Jews that have gathered to the Old World may not be of the original bloodline of Judah.
Here is a belief being taught about the Ashkenazi Jews:
"The people of European origin known as Jews today are not descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They are imposters! History reveals that the modern so-called Jews are actually descendants of the Khazar tribes, which roamed Southern Russia. They adopted the religion of Judaism between the 7th and 9th centuries.
Today, the Khazars are known as the Ashkenazi Jews and Israelis, not because of race or genealogy but because of religion. These facts are documented in the research of such renowned Jewish scholars as Dr. Oscar Levy, Paul Meyer and Arthur Koestler. In fact, in his book, The Thirteenth Tribe, Arthur Koestler states that the notion of European Jewry as being biblically authentic is one of the biggest hoaxes ever perpetrated on the world.
Koestler argues that the bulk of modern Jewry did not originate in Palestine, but are of Caucasian origin. He notes that the mainstream of Jewish migration did not flow from the Mediterranean across France and Germany to the east and then back again. The stream moved in a westerly direction, from the Caucasus region through the Ukraine into Poland and thence into central Europe.
Biblically speaking the so-called Jews of today are known as the Amalekites or (Amalek). Their lineage stems from Isaac's son Esau not Jacob."
There is reason to believe that these Ashkenazi Jews appear to be financed by the Illuminati to be used by the US to create havoc with other nations and they are setting up a smoke screen.
I am not saying that all of those who think they are Jews are not Jews. In fact, anyone that believes in Christ has the believing blood of Israel in them. I am simply saying that those who began gathering to the Old World Jerusalem, claiming to be from Judah, that hate Christ and reject him as the Savior do not qualify as the true Jews.
People who are watching the events over in the Old World thinking that they will be seeing the major events of the last days as contained in prophecy are going to be taken by surprise!
Virtually all of the prophecies pertaining to the end times in the scriptures that most Christians are assuming will take place in the Old World, will begin and/or completely take place in America!
- The ministry of the Davidic Servant
- The ministry of the two witnesses
- The gathering and restoration of Israel (including the ten tribes and Judah)
- The redemption of Zion AND Jerusalem
- Armageddon
In future posts I will show beyond question that the Jer-USA-lem of latter day prophecy is here in AMERICA! Every time Isaiah and other Old Testament Prophets prophesied about Jerusalem in the latter days they are categorically referring to the land of America!
The apostle John spoke of things yet to take place when he wrote down the information that is now contained in the Book of Revelation. Here is one of the observations he makes:
“.. I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan." Rev 2:9
Please notice the wording in Isaiah 52:9
“Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem: for the Lord hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem."
In the above verse, Isaiah saw the final, successful restoration of the real Jews and the redemption of Jerusalem taking place in the 3rd watch, during the Marvelous Work and a Wonder when the Marred Servant returns to the Lords Vineyard for the last time.
However, the beginning of the gathering of the Jews after they had already begun to believe in Christ while they were in a scattered condition, took place back at the time of Joseph Smith, in the 2nd watch.
I believe modern day revelation proves the real latter day gathering of the Jews during the 2nd watch, began back at the time of the LDS restoration movement in 1836, not in 1948!
Notice the following verses in the Dedicatory Prayer of the Kirtland Temple:
“But thou knowest that thou hast a great love for the children of Jacob, who have been scattered upon the mountains for a long time, in a cloudy and dark day. We therefore ask thee to have mercy upon the children of Jacob, that Jerusalem, from this hour, may begin to be redeemed; And the yoke of bondage may begin to be broken off from the house of David; And the children of Judah may begin to return to the lands which thou didst give to Abraham, their father.” (D&C 109:61-64)
From that very hour, in 1836, the real Jerusalem of latter day prophecy began to be redeemed in Kirtland Ohio and the children of Judah began to return to the latter day Jerusalem in America…
There was not anything of significance taking place in the Old World Jerusalem at the time this revelation was given! Nor were there any branches or stakes or missionaries in that part of the world.
Of course we have already covered the fact that the Saints ultimately failed to live the law of consecration and had to eventually flee from Kirtland, but none the less, the gathering of the real Jews, the true descendants of Judah, who had mingled among the Gentile nations (who had already begun to believe in Christ as a result of the reformation movement) began gathering to America as a result of the prophetic plea in section 109. The remnants of Judah that had mingled among the Gentiles began gathering to the Promised Land of America. Many of them joined the LDS Church as a result of the foreign missionaries sent out in 1837.
Many if not most of the new converts coming from foreign lands to Nauvoo were actually from the tribe of Judah.
It was at the time that section 109 was given that the Gentile members of the Church were rejecting the fullness of the Gospel by refusing to live the law of consecration and rejecting the greater light they had been given.. therefore, the Lord began taking the gospel from the gentiles to the Jews… just as the Lord had taken the gospel from the Jews and taken it to the Gentiles during the first watch when Christ was on the earth.
This is why, shortly after the apostasy that took place in Kirtland Joseph Smith made the following cryptic declaration:
“God revealed to me that something new must be done for the salvation of his church”
After making this prophetic pronouncement he began sending the 12 apostles and other elders to foreign lands to preach the gospel. That began the process of gathering the scattered Jews among the gentiles who had already begun to believe in Christ as a result of the reformation.
Here is an excerpt from the history of the Church that makes brief mention of the apostasy that took place in Kirtland shortly after the failure of the Saints to redeem Zion at the appointed time in September of 1836:
"President John Taylor, of the Utah Church, in a discourse delivered at Salt Lake City, Utah, October 7,1881, said:- There was a time when there was a large amount of apostasy in Kirtland... There was a very bitter feeling gotten up by a number of men who had apostatized. Parley P. Pratt was one who was affected. He, however, did not go to the length that some did; and Orson Pratt had partaken more or less of that spirit. I speak of these things as facts."-Pamphlet "On marriage -Succession in the Priesthood," p. 13.
In history of the Church, Joseph Smith mentions that during the time of apostasy in Kirtland, the Lord revealed to him that something new must be done for the (temporal) salvation of the Church... the result was that the preaching of the gospel needed to be expanded from the existing gentiles in America to foreign missions (where the true Jews had become mingled and had begun believing in Christ)-
"In this state of things, and but a few weeks before the Twelve were expecting to meet in full quorum (some of them having been absent for some time), God revealed to me that something new must be done for the salvation of his church. And on or about the first of June, 1837, Heber C. Kimball, one of the Twelve, was set apart by the spirit of prophecy and revelation, prayer and the laying on of hands of the First Presidency, to preside over a mission to England, to be the first foreign mission of the Church of Christ in the last days..."
The above mentioned scriptures and historical events show that the Jews began gathering to the promised land of American in the 2nd watch and that they will again successfully be gathered again during the 3rd Watch, when the Lord stretches forth his hand AGAIN, THE SECOND TIME to restore Israel. (2 Ne. 25: 17)
The above scriptures and associated events in LDS church history provide another evidence that the Marvelous Work was to be a future event that takes place in the 3rd watch. They also unlock an incredible mystery about who the real Jews are and where the events of latter day prophecy will take place.
Many of the real Jews have gathered to the promised land of America and many of them have become Latter day Saints. It is amazing to think that many of the descendents of the Jews that Christ came to in the meridian of time are now members of the Church of Jesus Christ of latter days Saints. Their identity is hidden from the world and even from themselves!
