A “precept of men”—an idea or interpretation which lacks scriptural support—that has gained a lot of traction the past half century is that the Lord’s “great and marvelous work” in the Book of Mormon is the restoration of the gospel through the prophet Joseph Smith. In reality, however, the gospel’s restoration is defined as the beginning or foundation of the great and marvelous work, not as that work itself (Doctrine & Covenants 5:14; 64:33; 138:53). And yet scripture headings, gospel doctrine manuals, and other church literature continue to mislead on that point.
In reality, Isaiah and the Book of Mormon define God’s great and marvelous work as the end-time restoration of the house of Israel in preparation for the Lord’s coming to reign on the earth. The scriptures further define the house of Israel as the Jews, Ten Tribes, and Lamanites of today. In relation to them, members of the church are identified as “the Gentiles”—specifically, the descendants of Ephraim, Israel’s birthright tribe, which assimilated into non-Israelite nations over many centuries of Israel’s exile (Genesis 48:10; Hosea, 7:8; Doctrine & Covenants 109:60).
Book of Mormon instances of the great and marvelous work anchor it firmly at the end of the world—a seven-or-so-year period that the prophet Joseph Smith called “the winding up scene.” It occurs when the great and abominable church of the devil gathers together “multitudes upon the face of all the earth, among all the nations of the Gentiles, to fight against the Lamb of God”—that is, against the saints of the Lamb and covenant people of the Lord, upon whom the power of God descends at the time the great whore suffers destruction (1 Nephi 14:13–17).
In that end-time context, a prophesied “great division” occurs in which the Gentiles take sides for or against the Lamb of God, some becoming sanctified as “saints”—not in name only but in very deed—while others turn and fight against him. That is when “the Lord God shall commence his work among all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people, to bring about the restoration of his people upon the earth” in fulfillment of the prophecies of Isaiah (2 Nephi 30:4–15; cf. Isaiah 11:4–9). That latter context is important because Isaiah’s prophecies are of an end-time scenario.
They connect all end-time prophecies: “For the time cometh. . . that I will work a great and a marvelous work among the children of men; a work which shall be everlasting, either on the one hand or on the other—either to the convincing of them unto peace and life eternal, or unto the deliverance of them to the hardness of their hearts and the blindness of their minds unto their being brought down into captivity, and also into destruction, both temporally and spiritually, according to the captivity of the devil, of which I have spoken” (1 Nephi 14:7; cf. Isaiah 29:14).
The great and marvelous work involves the Lord’s baring his “arm”—his end-time servant—in the eyes of all nations, at which time the Gentiles’ spiritual kings and queens restore the house of Israel and all who fight against Zion perish (1 Nephi 21:22–26; 22:8–14). The same great and marvelous work causes many LDS Gentiles to cry, “A Bible! A Bible! We have got a Bible, and there cannot be any more Bible” when the Lord offers them more of his word and “sets his hand again the second time” to restore his people (2 Nephi 25:17; 28:24 Isaiah 11:11–12).
The great and marvelous work is initiated by God’s end-time servant who is “marred” by those who disbelieve the words of Christ the servant brings forth that are on the large plates of Nephi, requiring the Lord to perform a miracle of healing (3 Nephi 21:9–10; cf. Isaiah 57:18–19). It causes the everlasting division or separation Nephi and Jacob saw between those who repent of worldliness and those who harden their hearts—in essence, between those who labor with the servant to restore the house of Israel and those who are “cut off” (Jacob 6:2; 3 Nephi 21:11).
The problem with precepts of men—notably this one—is that if one assumes God’s great and marvelous work has already happened, and that therefore we aren’t obliged to do more than keep the basic principles of the restored gospel, then we will not qualify for those glorious blessings God has promised his end-time servants who restore the house of Israel. Similarly, if we assume that we are those whom the scriptures identify as the house of Israel, not those identified as the Gentiles, then we will likely miss out on fulfilling our end-time missions in relation to them.
