Question: I’m confused about whether the prophesied gathering of Israel has started. Does the current “gathering of Israel” through missionary work fulfill the words of Isaiah?
Answer: According to the scriptures, there occur two phases of Israel’s gathering: first, a beginning of gathering—of Ephraim and Judah; and second, an end-time gathering of the whole house of Israel in a new exodus to lands of inheritance.
While we know that the Ephraimite Gentiles have been gathering spiritually and physically to Zion and her stakes since the gospel of Jesus Christ was restored through the prophet Joseph Smith, the Jews have also been gathering to the land of their fathers from near the time Apostle Orson Hyde traveled to Jerusalem in 1841 and dedicated the Holy Land for the return of the Jews. The latter scenario fulfills Nephi’s prophecy that states:
“It shall come to pass that the Jews which are scattered also shall begin to believe in Christ; and they shall begin to gather in upon the face of the land; and as many as shall believe in Christ shall also become a delightsome people” (2 Nephi 30:7). During the five years I lived in Israel (1968–1973), I personally met and befriended many descendants of Jewish pioneers to Israel who believed in Jesus but who declined to join any Christian church.
An excerpt from Orson Hyde’s dedicatory prayer states as follows: “Thou, O Lord, did once move upon the heart of Cyrus to show favor unto Jerusalem and her children. Do Thou now also be pleased to inspire the hearts of kings and the powers of the earth to look with a friendly eye towards this place, and with a desire to see Thy righteous purposes executed in relation thereto. Let them know that it is Thy good pleasure to restore the kingdom unto Israel—raise up Jerusalem as its capital, and constitute her people a distinct nation and government, with David Thy servant, even a descendant from the loins of ancient David to be their king.” (History of the Church, 4:26.)
The prophesied second or main gathering of the house of Israel—the Jews, Ten Tribes, and Lamanites of today—takes the form of a physical end-time exodus from the four directions of the earth at the time God’s judgments are coming upon the world. According to the prophecies of Jesus, Nephi, Jacob, those events constitute the Lord’s great and marvelous work of restoring the house of Israel in fulfillment of his covenants with them according to the words of Isaiah. See Isaiah 11:10–16; 43:5–8; 48:20–21; 49:8–23; 51:9–11; 1 Nephi 22:8–12; 2 Nephi 6:11–18; 10:7–9; 30:8–15; 3 Nephi 16:4–20; 20:12–46; 21:7–29.
