THE
RESTORATION OF THE JEWS
All Bible students know that the
Scriptures are replete with prophecies concerning the restoration of the Jews
to their ancient homeland.
In 1830, there was no outward
indicates that these ancient prophecies were about to be fulfilled. The Roman
Emperor, Titus, sacked Jerusalem in A.D. 70 and banished the surviving Jews to
other countries. From A.D. 70 until 1830, the Jews lived as foreigners without
citizenship rights in the various countries of Europe.
Dr. Hollis M. Read says:
It must be evident to any common
observer that there is a great movement among them. This wonderful people, who
for 1800 years remained unaltered, have undergone a marvelous revolution
within the last forty years, especially the last twenty. (Hollis M. read, The
Hand of God in History, page 357)
Mr. Read’s book was published in 1870.
He says the marvelous revolution undergone by the Jews took place “within the
last forty years.” This would place the beginning of this great change in the
year 1830.
The Book of Mormon which was published
in March, 1830, contains the following prophecy:
And now I would prophesy somewhat more
concerning the Jews and Gentiles. For after the book of which I have spoken [Book
of Mormon] shall come forth, and be written unto the Gentiles . . . 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.—II Nephi
12:79, 80, 87 [LDS: 2 Nephi 30:3, 8].
Dr. Hollis M. Read says further:
There is at present in their civil condition
that indicates the returning favor of heaven. Nothing decisive or permanent was
done to remove the disabilities of the Jews until the beginning of the present
century. . . . In England a single ray of light darted above the horizon, but
was soon extinguished. An act passed in Parliament [1753] in favor of the
Jewish Emancipation, but was repealed the next year; and not until the year
1830 was the question renewed and then only to be lost. Yet in the same
year a bill in their favor was carried in France. (Ibid., page 348)
The Book of Mormon contains a prophecy
that after its publication the Lord would commence his work among all nations,
looking to the restoration of his people to the land of their inheritance. It
is significant that the permanent grant of civil rights to the Jews in
1,500 years was passed by the French Parliament in 1830, a mere few months after
the Book of Mormon was published. It is more significant that within a
period of a half century after the French acted in favor of the Jews, every nation in the civilized world except two had passed similar enactments.
In an issue of the Prophetic News,
published in 1887, we find the following statement:
The only countries in which, half a century
ago [1837] the Jews enjoyed full and integral equality of rights are France, Belgium,
the Netherlands, and the United States of America. At present [1887] except
Russia and Roumania, the constitutions of all countries of the civilized world
and political equality of rights to the Jews.
Let it be borne
in mind that in repealing the disqualifications of the Jews, all those countries
to which we are referring have had to do with a state of things that had lasted
for 1,500 years.
It is not easy to explain away the
prophecies in the Book of Mormon in their relation to subsequent events. (Roy
Weldon, Other Sheep: Book of Mormon Evidences [Independence, Miss.: Reorganized
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and Herald Publishing House, 1958],
77-79)
Further
Reading:
