“The Roots Are Good”

To the missionaries of the latter days the Lord has said: “Ye are called to bring to pass the gathering of mine elect,” for, the Lord explained, “mine elect hear my voice and harden not their hearts” (D&C 29:7). For theirs was a “believing blood.” “What then is believing blood? It is the blood that flows in the veins of those who are the literal seed of Abraham-not that the blood itself believes, but that those born in that lineage have both the right and a special spiritual capacity to recognize, receive, and believe the truth. The term is simply a beautiful, a poetic, and a symbolic way of referring to the seed of Abraham to whom the promises were made. It identifies those who developed in pre-existence the talent to recognize the truth and to desire righteousness.” (New Witness, pp. 38-39 )

“The Roots Are Good”

Thus as Abraham’s seed, armed with the power of the restored priesthood, went forth to gather their kin, they found that the field was white, already to harvest (D&C 4:4). In the day when the Lord chose to restore his Church and kingdom, the blood of Israel was to be found throughout the earth. Because they of Israel are scattered among gentile nations, they are “identified with the Gentiles” (D&C 109:60).

Most of Israel from the time of their ancient scatterings have been oblivious of their royal ancestry, and thus legal administrators with seeric vision-also of the chosen seed themselves (D&C 52:2; D&C 86:8-10)- were sent to begin the work of the Father, the work of gathering; it was a work of restoring them to the knowledge of the covenant that God made with their fathers.

Doctrinal Commentary on the Book of Mormon, Vol. 2

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