The following remarks were shared at a conference held at Zion Ponderosa Ranch near Orderville, UT on October 27th, 2024.

I want to talk briefly about a subject that I wrote The Second Comforter: Conversing With the Lord Through the Veil to address, and deal with a couple of issues to reassert, reaffirm, and reclaim that the search to enter into the Lord’s presence as part of the gospel IS the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ that is in the Book of Mormon and in the Covenant of Christ that contains story after story of individual after individual who, searching for, finally recover and reclaim the presence of the Lord in their life. Well, one thing that has been presented as a barricade to the idea that a Gentile can enter into the presence of the Lord is a statement that’s made in Third Nephi. Now, I’m gonna read the statement as it appears in the traditional Book of Mormon language when Christ is talking about the other sheep that He has that are not of this flock. He says: 

Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd. And they understood me not, for they supposed it had been the gentiles; for they understood not that the gentiles should be converted through their preaching. And they understood me not, that I said, They shall hear my voice, and they understood me not that the gentiles should not… 

And at the time that the Scriptures were being prepared, the Lord required four changes to the text of the Book of Mormon. This is one of those four changes that was made and appears in the Book of Mormon form that is in all of our Scriptures as part of The New Covenants. 

…should not at that time hear my voice, that I should not manifest myself unto them save it were by the holy ghost. But behold, ye both heard my voice and seen me, and ye are my sheep, and ye are numbered among those whom the Father hath given me. (3 Nephi 7:3 RE)

And then he goes on to say that He has yet other sheep. In the incident in the Covenant of Christ, that same thing reads this way: 

Now I tell you truthfully that you are the ones I spoke of when I said: I have other sheep that aren’t part of this fold; I will visit them, and they will also hear My voice; then I will make all my sheep into one fold, following one Shepherd. And they didn’t understand Me, since they thought I was talking about the Gentiles. They didn’t understand that the Gentiles were to be converted through their preaching. And they didn’t understand Me when I said that they would hear My voice. And they didn’t understand Me that the Gentiles wouldn’t hear My voice at this time, and that I wouldn’t reveal Myself to them except by the Holy Ghost. But you’ve both heard My voice and seen Me, and you are My sheep, and you are included with those the Father has given to Me. (3 Nephi 7:3 CE)

So what the Lord is doing is He’s explaining to a specific group of people (the Nephites, with whom He’s visiting) a comment that He made to another specific group of people (the Jews that were located in Jerusalem) about the ministry that He had at that moment as a resurrected being, ministering to the scattered sheep of Israel in the various parts of the vineyard where branches of the real, authentic, original house of Israel (or branch of the olive tree) had been transplanted. He was going to visit with all of those, and He was not going—at that time, in that generation, among those people—going to visit with the Gentiles. The Gentiles, at that point, were intended to be converted to the truth as a consequence of the ministering of the people with whom He visited. It’s a time-specific event. It is not a bar to the Lord appearing to people at a later point in time. 

So that brings us, then, to Moroni 7:6 that I want to take a look at. I’m going to read from Covenant of Christ. After talking about everything that the Lord had accomplished, Moroni poses this question: 

And because He’s done this, my dear people, have miracles stopped? I tell you: No. And neither have angels stopped ministering to mankind. They are obedient to Him, to minister according to His commands, revealing themselves to those of strong faith and of a firm mind in every form of godliness. The responsibility of their ministry is to call people to repentance, and to fulfill and do the work of the Father’s covenants that He’s made to mankind, to prepare the way among [the] people by declaring Christ’s words to the Lord’s chosen vessels, so they can bear testimony of Him. And by doing this, the Lord God prepares the way for the remainder of mankind to have faith in Christ, so the Holy Ghost can have a place in their hearts according to the power of the Holy Ghost. This is how the Father vindicates the covenants He’s made to mankind. Christ has said: If you have faith in Me, you’ll have power to do what[so]ever I consider needed and proper. And He’s said to everyone on earth: Repent and come to Me and be baptized in My name and have faith in Me, so you can be saved. (Moroni 7:6 CE)

This is a promise that is being made at the end of the Book of Mormon, generations after when Christ had appeared to people. And Moroni is trying, in the final concluding section of the book (and there’s only that much left [holding up his book and showing the pages], and all of this preceded it), he’s trying to say to us in our day, “Hey, this stuff that you’ve been reading about in this remarkable account of the Lord’s dealing with people: This is on-going; it won’t end; it will continue.” Whenever we have people of faith, whenever we have people that are willing to have a firm mind in every form of godliness, this process remains open. 

So, then we get to First Nephi, in which language… (And again, I’m gonna read from Covenant of Christ. But you can read these same words, a little more turgidly written, in the King Jamesian language in any Book of Mormon.) But this is what the promises made by a prophet, writing a record intended for our day (because he CLEARLY says he’s got US in his mind when he’s recording this stuff), he despairs… He KNOWS that his descendants are all gonna fall into apostasy. He KNOWS that his people will be destroyed. So he’s writing to give hope to YOU. You’re his target audience. And that becomes much more clear in this book than it is in the King Jamesian version that we have to read in the traditional Book of Mormon. 

If the Gentiles then obey the Lamb of God [meaning, “then” to him is “now” to us; if the Gentiles today obey the Lamb of God,] He’ll reveal Himself to them in word and power and in person, in order to remove barriers to their belief, and if they don’t harden their hearts against the Lamb of God, they’ll be included with your father’s descendants — indeed, they’ll be included as part of the house of Israel. And they’ll become a blessed family in the promised land forever. They won’t be enslaved anymore, and the house of Israel won’t be embarrassed anymore. (1 Nephi 3:25 CE)

He’s saying—even if you want to go to the words in Third Nephi that says He’s not gonna appear to the Gentiles—he’s saying the Gentiles who will accept Christ will become Israel. If you accept Christ, you inherit this land and all of the promises that were made in the prior covenant. Indeed, that’s exactly what the Allegory of the Olive Tree is trying to tell you. That’s exactly the purpose of the regrafting of the various branches into one singular, original mother tree at the end, which is Israel. Israel is being reclaimed—this time by covenant. This time, the blood of Israel becomes adopted into the family by covenant, which was the whole purpose of the Lord commencing the work and the grafting that has been taking place since 2017 and continues to enlarge by the words that we have been given today. 

Now, I’ve written a small book; it’s entitled Ten Parables. And the tenth parable in the Ten Parables is something called “The Missing Virtue.” I’m not going to read that parable to you, but what I’m going to say is based upon what you read in the tenth parable. So if you haven’t read it, it’s a little book. The guy who convinced me to go ahead and publish The Second Comforter… I had put out The Second Comforter, Eighteen Verses, and Nephi’s Isaiah (I think Nephi’s Isaiah was second), and he told me, “If you really intend to be a writer…” and I didn’t really intend to be a writer, but he said, “If you really intend to be a writer, you really need to write at least one work of fiction.” So I wrote Ten Parables.

I have to tell you that the first parable in Ten Parables is really not me writing fiction. It’s an actual story that the Lord told that’s been lost. And so the first of the ten parables is a retelling of a story/a parable that belongs to Christ, restored. And the tenth parable is actually not a parable really/exactly. It’s actually autobiographical. So I cheated when I called it “Ten Parables.” There are eight of them—well, eight that I wrote; one belongs to Christ, and the last one is (I’m now admitting, and some of you have already figured that out—and I don’t know how I’ve evaded the answer when you’ve asked me, “Is that about me?”), it is based on actual events that took place, but I did change some details to be able to claim, with a straight face that it was a parable instead of actual history—but it’s based on actual events. I’m gonna give you a couple of examples of how the reality was changed in order to let me say, Yeah, it’s a fiction.

The black fellow with the open guitar case in the parable, based on my recollection, was named James. He wasn’t named John. I used the name John, but…