“I give unto you a sign, that ye may know the time when these things shall be about to take place.” The great and final gathering of Israel, and the establishment of Zion, will occur when:
1. The Book of Mormon is published and the gospel is restored.
2. The United States of America is established to provide the freedoms needed for the Restoration. Note that it is by the power of the Father that this was done. Elder Mark E. Petersen of the Quorum of the Twelve stated: “When the Savior was among the Nephites, following His Resurrection in [the land of Israel], He also spoke of [the] modern United States. (This is recorded in the twenty-first chapter of 3 Nephi). The Savior said specifically that a great nation would occupy this area in our time and be set up as a free and independent country by act of our Heavenly Father. He specifically said that. Our Country, our government was set up by act of God… . The United States then is God’s country. It is His government set up specifically to provide freedom of speech and religion in this country so that our Church could be established here and so that we, as the missionaries of the Church, may travel the world over on American passports and have the protection of this great government as we preach the gospel to the world.”66
3. The true points of the Savior’s doctrine come to the descendants of ancient Nephites and Lamanites.
4. The Prophet Joseph Smith is raised up to bring about the great and marvelous work of God in the last days (the Savior applied Isaiah’s words to the latter-day Prophet who would be “marred” or martyred but not “hurt” or harmed in the eternal sense). This is a marvelous prophecy of Joseph Smith given directly by Jesus himself.