Moroni repeatedly interrupts his abridgment of the Jaredite record to address the latter-day Gentiles, mentioning them eleven times (Ether 2:11; 4:6, 13; 8:23; 12:22–23, 25, 28, 35–36, 38). Having seen what will transpire in our day (Mormon 8:35), Moroni feels compelled to warn us by giving us the book of Ether as a second witness of a people’s rise and fall on the American continent. He knows all too well that “the fulness of the wrath of God” will at some point come upon the Gentiles (cf. Ether 2:11). Jesus and all the holy prophets had predicted “the end of the world, or the destruction of the wicked” prior to the Lord’s coming to reign on the earth (JS-Matthew 1:4, 31), and America would be the center stage of both good and evil (3 Nephi 21:11–29).
Despite the demise of the Gentiles as a whole, however, some would live to fulfill an essential ministering role to the house of Israel. Nephi, who also saw our day, predicted that “ye need not suppose that the Gentiles are utterly destroyed” (2 Nephi 30:1). Instead, the house of Israel would be “nursed by the Gentiles” (1 Nephi 22:6). Quoting Isaiah, Jacob notes that “the kings of the Gentiles shall be nursing fathers unto them, and their queens shall become nursing mothers” (2 Nephi 10:9; cf. Isaiah 49:23), and the Gentiles will be “like unto a father to them” (2 Nephi 10:18).
Elsewhere, Nephi had predicted the Gentiles’ spiritual ministry to the house of Israel when he said, “Then shall the fulness of the gospel of the Messiah come unto the Gentiles, and from the Gentiles unto the remnant of our seed” (1 Nephi 15:13).
Moroni goes into further detail of the Gentiles’ spiritual ministry by pointing to the Brother of Jared—who was the equivalent, in his day, of a “Gentile”—as a model or type for our time. For example, after the Lord had chastened the Brother of Jared, because he “remembered not to call upon the name of the Lord,” the Brother of Jared “repented of the evil which he had done, and did call upon the name of the Lord for his brethren who were with him” (Ether 2:14–15).
The Lord thus did not chastise the Brother of Jared simply because he had forgotten to pray, but because he had neglected to intercede on behalf of those over whom he had a spiritual stewardship. In fact, Moroni devotes a third of the book of Ether to describing the Brother of Jared’s ministry to his brethren (Ether 1–4, 6).
One way in which the fulness of the gospel would go from the Gentiles to the house of Israel would be through the sealed portion of the Book of Mormon, which contains the Brother of Jared’s vision. The Brother of Jared not only saw to the end of time, but also “all things,” which he wrote down and sealed up (Ether 3:26; 12:21). Similarly, the words of Christ, which contain the fulness of the gospel, would at some point come forth to the Gentiles and go from them to the house of Israel (3 Nephi 21:5–11).
Concerning these “greater things,” which don’t appear in the present Book of Mormon (Ether 4:13; cf. 3 Nephi 26:9), the Lord says, “They shall not go forth unto the Gentiles until the day that they shall repent of their iniquity, and become clean before the Lord. And in that day that they shall exercise faith in me, saith the Lord, even as the brother of Jared did, that they may become sanctified in me, then will I manifest unto them the things which the brother of Jared saw, even to the unfolding unto them all my revelations, saith Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Father of the heavens and of the earth, and all things that in them are” (Ether 4:6–7).
In this scripture, the Lord outlines a four-step process through which the Gentiles may experience what the Brother of Jared did: (1) repent of iniquity; (2) become clean before the Lord; (3) exercise faith “even as the Brother of Jared”; and (4) become sanctified in the Lord. The Brother of Jared had at some point himself undergone this spiritual transformation, as he developed into “a man highly favored of the Lord,” who exercised “exceedingly strong” faith (Ether 1:34; 12:19–20). He served as a father to his brethren by “crying unto the Lord” often on their behalf (Ether 1:34–40) and performing many extraordinary things, such as leading their exodus to the Promised Land (Ether 1:41–42).
Because initially he saw the Lord (Ether 3:13), seeing what the Brother of Jared saw—“even to the unfolding unto them [the Gentiles] all my revelations”—thus involves first of all making sure one’s calling and election. After that, the Brother of Jared saw “all the inhabitants of the earth which had been, and also all that would be” (Ether 3:25–26), and “all things” (Ether 12:21).
Desiring to reveal these things to the Gentiles and the house of Israel alike, the Lord calls upon them, saying, “Come unto me, O ye Gentiles, and I will show unto you the greater things, the knowledge which is hid up because of unbelief. Come unto me, O ye house of Israel, and it shall be made manifest unto you how great things the Father hath laid up for you, from the foundation of the world; and it hath not come unto you, because of unbelief” (Ether 4:13–14).
The Lord then provides a key to the spiritual breakthrough that will make this possible: “Behold, when ye shall rend that veil of unbelief which doth cause you to remain in your awful state of wickedness, and hardness of heart, and blindness of mind, then shall the great and marvelous things which have been hid up from the foundation of the world from you—yea, when ye shall call upon the Father in my name, with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, then shall ye know that the Father hath remembered the covenant which he made unto your fathers, O house of Israel. And then shall my revelations which I have caused to be written by my servant John be unfolded in the eyes of all the people” (Ether 4:15–16).
The parallel structure of the repeated words, “when ye shall… then shall,” tells us that we may rend the veil of unbelief by calling upon the Father in Jesus’ name—that is, provided we acknowledge (because we haven’t yet rent the veil and seen the Lord) our “awful state of wickedness, and hardness of heart, and blindness of mind” and call upon God, not presumptuously, but “with a broken heart and a contrite spirit.”
In conclusion, as the Brother of Jared was a savior of his brethren, so the Gentiles are called to be saviors of the house of Israel and of all men. Any alternative is damning: “For they were set to be a light unto the world, and to be the saviors of men; And inasmuch as they are not the saviors of men, they are as salt that has lost its savor, and is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men” (D&C 103:9–10; cf. 3 Nephi 16:15).