The Gathering

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TheGathering

• www.kevinhinckley.com

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Sister Holland

• While working on his Ph.D. at Yale University, my
  husband (Elder Holland) got to know well one of
  the senior reference librarians who had given him
  valuable help researching for his dissertation.
• On a whim one day, he said, "Ilene, I need to
  know how many books we have in either the
  Sterling Memorial or Beinike Rare Book Libraries
  that claim to have been delivered by an angel."
• The librarian gave him a peculiar look (but my
  husband has always received peculiar looks) and
  said, "I don't know of any books that have been
  delivered by angels. Swords maybe. Or chariots.
  But I don't know of any books."
• "Well, just run a check for me would you? It may
  take a little doing, but I really would like to
  know. It would help me with some religious
  writing I am doing." (Now, please understand that
  Yale has the fourth-largest library in the
  nation, with nearly 9,000,000 volumes in its
  collection.)
• Ilene dutifully did some checking. For several
  days she had nothing to report, but then one day
  was all smiles as my husband strolled by to his
  carrel.
• "Mr. Holland, yoo hoo," she said, very
  unlibrarianlike. "I have a book for you. I found
  one book which, it is claimed, was delivered by
  an angel. But it's one from your people," she
  said. (She always spoke of Latter-day Saints as
  my husband's people, which probably meant she had
  him confused with Wilford Woodruff.)
• "But it's one from your people," she said, and
  she held up a paperback copy of the Book of
  Mormon. "I'm told you can get them for a dollar."
  
• "My word," she continued. "An angel's book for a
  dollar. You would think angels would charge more,
  but then again, where would they spend it?" (BYU
  Devotional, Sept 86)

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The House of Windsor
The House of Israel

• House of Kings and Queens
• Title
• Defender of the Faith
• Heirs
• Linage in the Windsor family

Son and Daughters of Christ
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Covenants with Abraham

• Genesis 17 JST
• And thou shalt observe to keep all my covenants
  wherein I covenanted with thy fathers and thou
  shalt keep the commandments which I have given
  thee with mine own mouth, and I will be a God
  unto thee and thy seed after thee.
• And I will give unto thee and thy seed after
  thee, a land wherein thou art a stranger all the
  land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession
  and I will be their God.

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The Abrahamic Covenant with Israel

• 1. Be ministers of the Gospel to the world (the
  nations of the earth blessed)
• 2. Have Eternal increase
• 3. Inherit a promised land
• 4. Have the right to hold the Holy Priesthood
• 5. Become heirs of all God has

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Question

• Is the Covenant unfair to everyone not of the
  covenant?

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Melvin J. Ballard

• "Israel is a group of souls tested, tried,
  and proven before they were born into the
  world. . . .
• Through this lineage were to come the true and
  tried souls that had demonstrated their
  righteousness in the spirit world before they
  came here.

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President Harold B. Lee

• "Those born to the lineage of Jacob, who was
  later to be called Israel, and his posterity, who
  were known as the children of Israel, were born
  into the most illustrious lineage
  of any of those who came upon the
  earth as mortal beings. All these
  rewards were seemingly promised, or
  foreordained before the world was.

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However- 3 Nephi 16

• 10 At that day when the Gentiles shall sin
  against my gospel, and shall reject the fulness
  of my gospel, behold, saith the Father, I will
  bring the fulness of my gospel from among them.
• 11 And then will I remember my covenant
  which I have made unto my people, O
  house of Israel, and I will bring my
  gospel unto them.

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Question

• What still needs to be done, in order to redeem
  Zion?

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DC 105

• "Behold, I say unto you, were it not for the
  transgressions of my people, speaking concerning
  the church and not individuals, they might have
  been redeemed even now.
• But behold, they have not learned to be obedient
  to the things which I required at their hands,
  but are full of all manner of evil, and do not
• 1) impart of their substance, as becometh saints,
  to the poor and afflicted among them
• 2) And are not united according to the union
  required by the law of the celestial kingdom
• And Zion cannot be built up unless it is by the
  principles of the law of the celestial kingdom
  otherwise I cannot receive her unto myself.
  Therefore it is expedient in me that mine elders
  should wait for a little season, for the
  redemption of Zion." 

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Neal A. Maxwell

• The subtle and wondrous efficiency of
  righteous unity is found in the manner in
  which it moves each man to do more than he
  ever imagined, or even wanted, to do himself.
  
• Seeing others pass a supposed breaking point
  without breaking, going a second mile with a
  burden they are only required to carry one mile,
  witnessing those falsely accused persist in sweet
  patience--there is a clear contagion in such
  things. . . .
• One is simply inspired to do more, and his
  performance is sanctified for the welfare of his
  soul.
• Of One Heart Look Back at Sodom (Salt Lake
  City, Utah Deseret Book Company, 1990), p. 28