Let us now turn to the Book of Mormon
claim that the three Nephites would be among the Jew, “And great and marvelous
works shall be wrought by them.”
There are indeed fabulous accounts to
be had concerning happenings in Israel’s War of Independence in 1948 when
Israel survived what competent authorities have called insurmountable odds.
In the Saints’ Herald for June
18, 1951, Israel A. Smith, president and prophet to the church, published the
account of Dr. Athur U. Michelson, publisher of the “Jewish Hope,” who visited
Palestine after the 1948 war with the Arabs and discovered that there was a
widely held belief among the Israeli soldiers that God had intervened on their
side in their war of independence.
We quote from two different articles—“Israel’s
Army Aided” by dr. Arthur U. Michelson, Saints’ Herald for April 23,
1951, and “Visions and Angels,” by Israel A. Smith, Saints’ Herald for
June 18, 1951.
Israel A. Smith quotes Dr. Michelson.
In the 1948 War the Jews had decided to surrender and give up the city when:
The Arabs suddenly threw down their
arms and surrendered. When their delegation appeared with the white flag, they
asked, “Where are three men that led you, and where are all the troops we saw?”
The Jews told them that they did not know anything of the three men, for this
group was their entire force. The Arabs said they saw three persons with long
beards and flowing white robes, who warned them not to fight any longer,
otherwise they would be killed.
Later as the Israelites were
surrounded by the armies of the Egyptians in The Negeb area and were about to
capitulate Dr. Michelson says:
The Jews were encircled by the
Egyptians and, humanly speaking, had absolutely no chance to escape. One
morning to the amazement of the Jews, the Arabs and the Egyptians suddenly gave
up the fighting and surrendered. The Jews were at first very skeptical because
they couldn’t believe that the Arabs and the Egyptians would give up their
strong position and surrender. When they asked the Arabs and Egyptians for the
cause of their surrender, they told them that they saw an old man with a long
beard who was dressed in a white robe, and who warned them not to fight any
longer, otherwise they would all perish. This man was seen and heard by almost
all the enemy troops. A great fear came over them and they decided to give up
the right.
These and other stories were in wide circulation
among the Israeli soldiers after the 1948 war in which the Jews captured
Palestine.
The Jews told Dr. Michelson, “If God
had not intervened, we would all have been killed. We would never have conquered
Palestine because we were so few and without arms and ammunition.”
An editor comments: “The amazing
history of this nation . . . has astounded the world, not only with its
accomplishments, but with its survival in an overwhelmingly hostile environment”
(Introduction to David Ben Gurion’s Israel—Years of Challenge, 1963). (Roy
E. Weldon and F. Edward Butterworth, Book of Mormon Deeps, 3 vols. [1978],
2:306-7)
