Today was the day, 186 years ago that the Nephite record known as The Book of Mormon passed from immortal to mortal hands. Interestingly enough, that night as these events unfolded to the knowledge of a few, the Jews blew their shofar trumpets celebrating Rosh Hashanah (the Feast of the Trumpets) on the other side of the world.
What significance did this high holy day have to coming forth of the Book of Mormon? Read, Joseph Smith’s Receipt of the Plates and the Israelite Feast of Trumpets, and you’ll never see this event the same way again.
In 34 A.D. Jesus Christ taught a remnant of Jacob living upon the American continent “Behold, I say unto you that the law is fulfilled that was given unto Moses” (3 Ne. 15:4) but adds that
“the covenant which I have made with my people is not all fulfilled” (3 Ne. 15:8). Jesus then gave a sign to know when this covenant was going to be fulfilled.
And verily I say unto you, I give unto you a sign, that ye may know the time when these things shall be about to take place—that I shall gather in, from their long dispersion, my people, O house of Israel, and shall establish again among them my Zion;
And behold, this is the thing which I will give unto you for a sign—for verily I say unto you that when these things which I declare unto you, and which I shall declare unto you hereafter of myself, and by the power of the Holy Ghost which shall be given unto you of the Father, shall be made known unto the Gentiles that they may know concerning this people who are a remnant of the house of Jacob, and concerning this my people who shall be scattered by them;
Verily, verily, I say unto you, when these things shall be made known unto them of the Father, and shall come forth of the Father, from them unto you;
For it is wisdom in the Father that they should be established in this land, and be set up as a free people by the power of the Father, that these things might come forth from them unto a remnant of your seed, that the covenant of the Father may be fulfilled which he hath covenanted with his people, O house of Israel;
Therefore, when these works and the works which shall be wrought among you hereafter shall come forth from the Gentiles, unto your seed which shall dwindle in unbelief because of iniquity;
For thus it behooveth the Father that it should come forth from the Gentiles, that he may show forth his power unto the Gentiles, for this cause that the Gentiles, if they will not harden their hearts, that they may repent and come unto me and be baptized in my name and know of the true points of my doctrine, that they may be numbered among my people, O house of Israel;
And when these things come to pass that thy seed shall begin to know these things—it shall be a sign unto them, that they may know that the work of the Father hath already commenced unto the fulfilling of the covenant which he hath made unto the people who are of the house of Israel. (3 Nephi 21:1-7)
One of the most important reasons that we build temples is so that the Abrahamic covenant can be fulfilled, and that through the atonement, the original blessings promised may now be extended back throughout time to all mankind from here in the last days.
The restoration began with the sign and the message, the temples, and the gospel are the work and when Christ comes again, it will be to initiate a millennium of peace wherein the covenant can be completely fulfilled to all of Abraham’s seed and all of God’s children.
It is fitting then that Moroni, with trumpet in hand who took part in the sign that the work of the Lord has commenced, stands atop many of the very places where the covenant is being fulfilled – the temples.
My feeble attempt to do this subject justice was a four part series I published back in 2010.
- The Marvelous Work of Fulfilling the Covenant: Part 1 of 4
- The Marvelous Work of Fulfilling the Covenant: Part 2 of 4
- The Marvelous Work of Fulfilling the Covenant: Part 3 of 4
- The Marvelous Work of Fulfilling the Covenant: Part 4 of 4
What do you think?
- Do you do anything special on this day?
- What does the fulfilling of the covenant mean to you?
- How do you look at the Moroni statues on the temples in light of this information?
6 Comments
One more observation pertaining to how the Feast of Trumpets is laid out upon the Hebrew calendar.
The Jews celebrate certain events such as the feast of Trumpets on TWO days rather than one. The first day of celebration comes to those Jews living in the State of Israel, while the second day of observation is practiced by those who live in the DIASPORA (the DISPERSED Jews throughout the world).
On the Jewish Calendar of the year 1827, you can plainly see Sept 22ond is the FIRST Day in which the Jews would have celebrated that Feast. The day that Moroni handed over the Plates to Joseph to BEGIN the Gathering of Israel. The next day of Sept. 23rd on that same year, you can see where this is the SECOND day of celebrating for those in the Diaspora. Maybe FORECASTING a date in the future when the gathering would be COMPETED by the coming forth of New Records. The Diaspora Representing those members who are presently Dispersed from among the main body of the church for having contrary beliefs concerning “Some Things” the main body holds to be true.
Could the Lord be telling us that the FULL Restoration of the gathering of Israel and the FULL implementation of the Gospel would be introduced on the 23rd of Sept of some future year (2017 Jubilee Year), when the Lord “Sets His hand again for thee SECOND time”, following the FIRST time He set His hand on Sept. 22ond 1827 , as pertaining to what is described in the Book of Isaiah concerning the Lord setting His hand TWICE to establish the FULL Gathering of Israel to Zion ?
Great stuff, Rob, thanks for sharing, I wasn’t aware of the two day celebration, that adds much to think about. I don’t know that it would be on the 23rd of September, that date specifically, because the Hebrews use a different calendar. To your point though, you’d be looking for the second day of the feast regardless of where that falls on the Gregorian calendar.
The calendar of events given to Moses was to be a “Perpetual” calendar for all time. So it’s not surprising that the Lord would provide the Plates on a Day given to us as a Sign of God’s Plan to begin the gathering of Israel in the Last Days. Just as Passover was given to the people of the Lord’s day as a Sign of the Lord’s Birth, and coming to the earth to perform the Great Sacrifice symbolized by the Sacrifice of the Unblemished Lamb.
Sept 22, 1827 was given as the first sign of the BEGINNING of the restoration of Israel. I wonder if the follow up sign of COMPLETELY Restoring Israel would come on a Feat of Trumpets of a next following date of Sept 23rd ? Hey ! That would be this year of 2017, which happens to also be a Jubilee Year….I Wonder…
It would certainly make a lot of sense for those events to coincide with those dates. Whether it is this year or not, well, we’ll see. It will happen at some point and I don’t think there is anything wrong with following the patterns established in the past.
I’m not getting your link to “Joseph Smith’s Receipt of the Plates and the Israelite Feast of the Trumpets” to work. Can it be fixed?
Ok, I updated the link. Looks like the Maxwell Institute updated its website and destroyed all the original permalinks (boo). The new site seems much nicer though and much more pleasant to read.