Friday, July 19, 2024

Duane S. Crowther on The Times of the Gentiles in Latter-day Saint Theology

  

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)