What Are The “Times of The Gentiles”?
According to the traditional Christian viewpoint, the “times
of the Gentiles” is the period during which the House of Israel is to be
scattered and persecuted among the nations of the earth. With the destruction
of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. the Jewish people were scattered and began to suffer a
period of persecution which continues to the present day. To other churches,
then, the “times of the Gentiles” is the era during which the Gentile nations
have embraced Christianity and hold full power over Israel and over all the
nations of the earth. The Church of Christ did become a church made up of
converts from outside of the house of Israel and the Gospel was truly taken from
the Jews.
The Latter-day Saints have a different understanding of
the term. They recognize that the Gospel was taken, to a certain degree, to the
Gentiles through the work of Paul and other Christian missionaries of the first
century, and that at the same time it was taken from the Jewish people and they
were dispersed among the nations. But a fundamental belief of the church is
that an apostasy took place during the first centuries A.D. in which Christianity
became corrupt and the Gospel was taken from the earth. Thus there was an
extended period in which the true doctrines of Christ were not found among the
Gentile nations.
Instead of accepting the traditional Christian view, the
Latter-day Saints hold that the “times of the Gentiles” in our modern day
commenced with the restoration of the Gospel through Joseph Smith. In 1831, a
revelation alluding to the spiritual light that broke forth through the
revelations to Joseph Smith and others stated, “And when the times of the Gentiles
is come in, a light shall break forth among them that sit in darkness, and it
shall be the fulness of my gospel.” (D&C 45:28) Thus Later-day Saints
understand the “times of the Gentiles” to be the period (which began in 1830)
in which the Gospel is to be preached to the people of the Gentile nations.
(Duane S. Crowther, Prophecy: Key to the Future [Salt Lake City:
Bookcraft Inc., 1962], 19-20, italics in original)