[1 Nephi 5:18-19]
VERSE 18
These Plates ... unto all Nations. It appears that after the sacrifice and offerings, and when the
repast had been finished and the plates examined, Lehi gathered his family and,
filled with the Holy Spirit, addressed them on the nature and value of the
records. During the course of his address he prophesied that these plates
"should go forth unto all nations"—not the plates, surely, but their
contents.
The one set of plates could not go to all nations, but
copies of the contents, written and printed could, and have been widely
distributed.
VERSE 19
Never Perish; neither ... dimmed any more by Time. May we conclude from this that Laban had not taken proper care
of the records? That they had lost their brightness, become dim, and, perhaps,
begun to evince signs of corrosion? If so, that would be another strong reason
why they should be taken from him and handed over to Lehi.
At all events, they shall never perish; never be
dimmed any more by time. (George Reynolds and Janne M.
Sjodahl, Commentary on the Book of Mormon, 7 vols. [Salt Lake City:
Deseret Press, 1976], 1:50)
[2 Nephi 10:7]
They Shall Be Restored. On this Condition:
when "they shall believe in me, that I am Christ." The Hebrews have
certainly not yet, as a whole, accepted Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah,
although many individuals have done so; but the ancient prejudices and
inherited hatred have been greatly allayed among the educated classes. The
Lord, apparently anxious to fulfil his promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, has,
therefore, already begun the gathering of their descendants in the Land of
Promise. In 1896, Dr. Theodore Herzl was prompted to issue his famous pamphlet,
"The Jewish State," which became the foundation stone of modern
Zionism. In November 1917 Lord Balfour declared that "the British
government would look with favor upon the restoration of Palestine as the
Jewish homeland." This declaration may at first have been intended as a
statement of the British policy only, and it may have been chiefly a bid for
the support of the fifteen million Jews in the world for the cause of the
allies in the world war. A Hebrew battalion was also organized against the
Turks in Palestine, and Zionism obtained a recognized status in the world.
After the great war, in 1922, the Balfour declaration was ratified by the
League of Nations, and since then the gathering has proceeded rapidly.
According to Mr. Gedaliah Bublick, a noted newspaper editor in Tel Aviv,
Palestine, there were in 1920 only 55,000 Jews in the country. Sixteen years
later there were 400,000, of whom ten thousand were immigrants from America.
Owing to the antiSemitic pressure in many countries, Zionism is one of the most
important movements, at present.
During the month of August, 1929, sporadic attacks
were made by Arabs on Jewish settlements, which were vigorously repulsed by the
Jews. A royal British commission found, after inquiry, that the Arabs had very
little reason for complaint, the Palestinian government having favored them in
the matter of employment, taxation and budgetary allotments. But the discontent
continued.
During the summer of 1936 an American commission,
unofficial, consisting of U. S. Senators Copeland, Austin and Hastings, went to
Palestine to investigate the cause of Arab outbreaks. During the month of
December, that year, they reported the existence in the country of a political
conflict between Jewish and Arab aspirations. Certain agitators, they found,
were seeking to establish an Arabian state, and they feared that the Jews
nourished similar plans. But the Balfour declaration did not contemplate
anything but a Palestinian state, in which Jews and Arabs would have equal
rights. The commission found no ground for prohibition of Jewish immigration.
There is room for hundreds of thousands more settlers in Palestine, and if the
Trans-Jordan is opened to the Jews, millions can find refuge in the land
promised to Abraham and his descendants. (Gen. 15:18-21)
Zionism is a question of more than academic interest
to the United States. For, on December 3, 1924, Great Britain and the United
States, represented by the late Lord Balfour and the then Secretary of State,
Charles Evans Hughes, resp., entered into a treaty by which the United States
consented to the mandate of Great Britain over the Holy Land, as given by the
League of Nations, and stipulated that the consent of the United States would
be required to any change in that mandate. (Ibid., 316)
Further Reading:
Does 1 Nephi 5:18-19 contain a false prophecy?
