“Messiah Will Set Himself Again the Second Time to Recover Them”

Joseph F. McConkie, Robert L. Millet

How oft have I called upon you by the mouth of my servants, and by the ministering of angels, and by the voice of thunderings, and by the voice of lightnings, and by the voice of tempests, and by the voice of earthquakes, and great hailstorms, and by the voice of famines and pestilences of every kind, and by the great sound of a trump, and by the voice of judgment, and by the voice of mercy all the day long, and by the voice of glory and honor and the riches of eternal life, and would have saved you with an everlasting salvation, but ye would not! (D&C 43:25).

“Messiah Will Set Himself Again the Second Time to Recover Them”

In the broad sense Israel has often been gathered. Christ sought unsuccessfully to bring all Israel together in his mortal ministry. He concluded his last preachment in the temple, saying,

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!”

(Matthew 23:37.)

In a more specific sense the scriptures speak of two occasions wherein Christ directed Moses to return and restore the keys of the gathering; first, on the Mount of Transfiguration (Matthew 17); second, in the Kirtland Temple (D&C 110).

Doctrinal Commentary on the Book of Mormon, Vol. 1

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