we okay so are we living in the sunset
of the Gentiles that is we speak of the
day of the Gentiles are we now in the
sunset of the Gentiles and I think the
answer to that is yes and there's some
way to find out about this number one is
studying Isaiah and understanding the
times that we live in
and then the other question is well who
are you where do you fit in with those
last days where do you fit in in the uh
mixture of peoples that Isaiah talks
about and that the Book of Mormon covers
I've talked about this quite a bit but
you know the book of Isaiah is the
launching pad for essentially for you
know scripturally for the Book of Mormon
and the whole book of Mormon I I would
say is written around the book of Isaiah
when you go through the prophecy of
Nephi as he gets the Angelic host and he
talks to uh the Angelic host talks to
Nephi about the tree of life and then he
goes into all of these other prophecies
about the future about his own seed
about the remnant of Joseph and then
goes into the Gentiles and Beyond you
know that's that's a lot of you are are
one of those
groups and and it's nice to know who you
are and what purpose and meaning you
have in the
overarching uh uh Prophecies of Isaiah
the Nephi's prophecies are equal to
Isaiah's prophecies and then of course
with the New Testament coming into the
New Testament you have Jesus starting
his ministry opening up the scroll of
Isaiah going to what we have today is
chapter 61 and talking about him as the
anointed one and it's they're both
launched in a sense the New Testament
and the Book of Mormon from Isaiah and
both are of course the New Testament and
the The Book of Mormon push back a lot
on the Old Testament in in a sense that
they are very
Christian they're very Christian and
this seems to be something that has
been
uh almost
suffocated in in the Old Testament I've
talked a lot about the two ways to look
at history and and the future in time
and one of those is the dialectic right
this comes from the philosopher Hegel
and it's a truth it's a way to look at a
it's a secular view of of how time
passes and it is the way it works
because we live in a temporal Fallen
World but beyond that there's another
way and that is the timing of God and
it's prophecy it's understanding what
prophecy is and how it works and and
where we fit into that prophecy and
Isaiah is full of these prophecies
including our our times especially our
times and the Book of Mormon is full of
these prophecies I wanted to go over
something here in in looking at this and
tying this in with the book of Isaiah
here as you look at the title page of
the Book of Mormon here's what you get
wherefore it is an abridgment of the
record of the people of Nephi and also
the lonite of the lamanites written to
the lamanites right they are a remnant
of the House of Israel they're they're
josephites
and also to Jew and Gentile you say well
wait a minute the house of Israel well
think of Israel as as the lost 10 tribes
and of all of the josephites and then
also to Jew that's from the kingdom of
Judah and the Gentile and those are
split into two different groups I would
say you have the ephraimite Gentiles
which would be a lot of those that are
in the United States perhaps and even
England and and some of Western Europe
and then you have the Gentiles that that
go beyond that and and may not have
uh the what appears to be the direct
blood of the ephraimites or any other
tribe of Israel right and this is
written by way of commandment so by God
remember these prophecies this time
frame is from God and also by the spirit
of Prophecy and of Revelation it is to
come forth by the gift and power of God
unto the interpretation thereof sealed
by the hand of Moroni and hid up unto
the Lord to come forth In Due Time by
way of the Gentile that would be the
ephraimite Gentiles with Joseph Smith
the interpretation thereof by the gift
of God so a Seer is the one that has to
do
this all right now looking at this now
beyond that this is to show unto the
remnant of the House of Israel what
great things the Lord hath done for
their fathers and that they may know the
covenants of the Lord the covenants of
the Lord this would be looking at
Abraham Isaac and Jacob uh the covenants
of the remnants and those that are lost
and the Covenant of the land right the
land of promise and that they are not
cast off forever and to the convincing
this is crucial because all of the all
of the covenants of these groups all tie
into the Covenant what I might call the
K the cut Covenant who is Jesus Christ
right and also to the convincing of the
Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ
the Eternal God manifesting himself unto
all
nations okay so this is those groups of
individuals are all written of in the
book of Isaiah but they are traced in a
different manner through a different
tradition which is a josephite tradition
not a judahite tradition that we get
from the Old Testament rather it's from
what I would still call the book of
Joseph or rather is from what I would
call the stick of Joseph the brass
plates the original stick of Joseph
which produces the Book of Mormon when
you pick up the book The Book of Mormon
The Stick of Joseph you are picking up
one end of the stick and what does dad
say about picking up one end of the
stick when you pick up one end you pick
up the other end and and the other end
of the Book of Mormon stick is the brass
PL
and these prophecies about these
different groups of people that kind of
work together that hand off truth one to
the other that perpetuate the gospel and
keep the records and teach from the
records and follow the records well it'd
be nice to know who you are in that
story in that gospel Arc of time that of
Prophecy and Revelation are you an
ephraimite Gentile are you a gentile are
you a Jew are you of the Lost 10 tribes
or you have the remnant of the House of
Joseph and and based on those groups
what does that mean for you where do you
stand in that Arc of time does that not
give you more identity does that not
give you more purpose in who you are and
the key to all of this is Isaiah and
understanding Isaiah as we are told to
do by Christ himself is probably a
pretty important thing in these last
days and then if you are a gentile or an
ephraimite Gentile so to speak are we in
the sunset of the day of the Gentile and
I think if you look around and you see
what's happening with uh the family
primarily that's the number one
indicator you see what's happening in a
fight against religion you see what's
happening with Christianity and how it's
being divided everywhere the numbers are
going down America is essentially
following Europe in that decline I think
you're hardpressed to argue that we're
not not in the sunset of the day of the
Gentiles at this time and then of course
listen to president Nelson and his last
week's uh talk on or his general
conference talk on the second coming
some of this is what I will be talking
about in the conference the virtual
conference with the Isaiah Institute if
you know this what are you doing about
it if you know this does this change
your view of again your your identity
and your purpose I think these are good
questions now there are a lot of sources
that you can pull from to to learn about
Isaiah and you should pull from all of
them right now there's a great source in
the Isaiah Institute and they're having
a conference here this weekend Saturday
October 19th a virtual conference and
you can learn a little bit about this
you've got Abraham gilotti who is the
keynote speaker who is an expert on the
book of Isaiah he's an expert on Hebrew
who is speaking I am going to be a guest
speaker there you've got four other
speakers that you can learn from to
start delving into the book of Isaiah
and I would argue that you will
especially learn more about the Book of
Mormon by understanding Isaiah but
you'll even learn more about the New
Testament and getting context to the New
Testament by learning Isaiah in my mind
Isaiah kind of slips through as a
Messianic Prophet writing perhaps in in
code where a lot of these things get
through to some degree the scribes and
the editors of the Old Testament the
writers of the Old Testament where many
other things never made it through like
the tradition of the Brazen serpant pull
from different sources but maybe with
timing here take a look at the virtual
conference from Isaiah Institute this
weekend Saturday morning there will also
be a Q&A p channel that will be
available lots of different good talks
I'll put the link in the description and
regardless look into
Isaiah thanks for listening
