The latter-day Jewish gathering has been predicted in many prophecies, both ancient¹ and modern.² This long-awaited day of gathering began after Moses conferred the necessary gathering keys upon the Prophet Joseph Smith on April 3, 1836.³ Joseph and his successors have continually exercised those keys for the benefit of the Jewish people since that time.⁴

Doctrine and Covenants Section 110:11 confirms that it was Moses, and not the apostle John, that conferred on Joseph Smith the keys for the Jewish gathering.⁵ This means that John's little book mission in Revelation chapter 10 did not include the keys for the latter-day gathering of the Jews.⁶ If John had received those keys as part of his little book mission in 96 AD,⁷ then John would have been the logical person to restore them in 1836, instead of Moses.⁸ This also indicates that John's keys for his little book mission were limited to his ministry among the Lost Ten Tribes.⁹

On the other hand, the Three Nephites have never held the keys to gather the Jewish people.¹⁰ Nevertheless, they also minister among the latter-day Jews¹¹ in a protective capacity,¹² but the Jews know them not.¹³

The Jews are gathering to their homeland in a state of unbelief,¹⁴ which some call a secular gathering.¹⁵ During this preparatory gathering¹⁶ the Jews migrate to and redeem the land of their inheritance before the Second Coming.¹⁷ The physical gathering of the Jews to Palestine and to the modern state of Israel is already a matter of historical fact.¹⁸ The ongoing gathering of Jews to the modern state of Israel is not a spiritual gathering. The Jews will not spiritually gather until they convert to the gospel of Jesus Christ at the Second Coming.¹⁹ After their conversion the Jews will be spiritually gathered to the promised land of their inheritance in Palestine.²⁰

Joseph Smith dedicated the Kirtland Temple on March 27, 1836.²¹ In the dedicatory prayer, Joseph pled with the Lord to redeem the Jewish homeland commencing from that hour.²² A week later, on April 3, 1836, Moses restored to Joseph Smith the keys for the physical and spiritual gathering of the Jews.²³ In 1841, Orson Hyde, a Jewish apostle of the church,²⁴ traveled to Jerusalem and dedicated the land for the return of the Jews.²⁵ In 1845, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles issued a special proclamation addressed to All the Kings of the World. That proclamation commanded the Jews to return to Palestine.²⁶ President George A. Smith rededicated Palestine for the return of the Jews in 1873.²⁷

These spiritual actions kindled a nationalistic spirit among the Jewish people called Zionism,²⁸ which even the Jews do not understand.²⁹ Zionism is the nearly irresistible urge among the Jewish people to gather to their homeland.³⁰ The early Zionist movement formally began in 1878, when the Lovers of Zion was organized to help establish Jewish settlers in Palestine.³¹ The Zionist Federation was formed in 1896 with national delegates, marking the official birth of the Zionist movement.³² Today, millions of Jews have gathered to the state of Israel³³ in response to spiritual promptings associated with the Zionist movement.³⁴

Several ancient prophesies foretold that gentile nations would be the nursing fathers and mothers of the Jews during their latter-day gathering.³⁵ These prophesies have been literally fulfilled.³⁶ In 1917, for example, England took control of Palestine from the Turks at the end of World War I, and Lord Balfour then announced that England favored a Jewish homeland in Palestine.³⁷ In 1920, the British appointed Viscount Herbert Samuel to be governor over Palestine, which meant that a Jew governed in Palestine for the first time since 70 AD.³⁸ In 1922, the Balfour Declaration was ratified by the league of nations,³⁹ and in 1947 the United Nations partitioned Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states.⁴⁰

The announcement of the Balfour Declaration sparked conflicts between Jews and Arabs for the next twenty years.⁴¹ Eventually, the British colonial secretary announced that the British Mandate in Palestine would end on May 15, 1948.⁴² In the hours before the Mandate ended, the Jews declared their independence, and the state of Israel was born⁴³ in the midst of war.⁴⁴ In 1967, the Israeli army prevailed in the Six Day War against hostile Arab neighbors, and Jerusalem became the capitol of the Jewish state for the first time since 70 AD.⁴⁵ War will not cease in this part of the world until the end of Armageddon at the Second Coming.⁴⁶

And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.

— Revelation 11:3