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3 Nephi 16

The Lord Hath Made Bare His Holy Arm — The Gentiles, the Covenant, and the Gathering

3 Nephi 16: Jesus widens the vision again. He has yet other sheep, not of this land nor of Jerusalem nor of any land round about — they have not yet heard his voice, and he is commanded of the Father to go to them, that there may be one fold and one shepherd. He commands the twelve to write these sayings, for they are meant for the latter days: if the Jews at Jerusalem will not seek a knowledge of the Nephites and the other tribes, the record shall be kept and made manifest to the Gentiles, so that through the fulness of the Gentiles the scattered remnant of Israel may be brought to a knowledge of their Redeemer — and then God will gather them from the four quarters and fulfil the covenant made to all the house of Israel. Blessed are the Gentiles who believe; but wo to the unbelieving Gentiles, who have scattered and trodden down the house of Israel. The Father reveals the latter-day pattern: when the Gentiles sin against the gospel, reject its fulness, are lifted up in pride above all nations, and are filled with lyings, deceits, hypocrisy, murders, priestcrafts, whoredoms, and secret abominations, then the Father will bring the fulness of the gospel from among them and remember his covenant with Israel, bringing the gospel to them; and if the Gentiles repent they shall be numbered among God's people, but if not, they shall be as salt that has lost its savor. Then the words of Isaiah shall be fulfilled: 'Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice... they shall see eye to eye when the Lord shall bring again Zion... The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of God.' The chapter is the great latter-day prophecy — the record kept for the Gentiles, the warning and the hope of the Gentile age, and the covenant gathering of all Israel under the bared, saving arm of the Lord.

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Where we are

This chapter is the most directly latter-day in 3 Nephi — it is Christ speaking, in effect, about us, the Gentile readers who would one day hold this record. He widens the vision of the flock one more time (there are sheep even the Nephites do not know of), and then he reveals the whole latter-day plan: the record will be kept and brought to the Gentiles, and through the Gentiles the scattered remnant of Israel will be gathered to Christ — if the Gentiles believe and do not, in their pride, reject the fulness of the gospel. The chapter holds a great blessing and a great warning side by side, both aimed across the centuries at the Gentile world: blessed are the Gentiles who believe; but wo to the Gentiles who, lifted up in pride and filled with every abomination, reject the gospel. It is one of the few places in scripture where Christ speaks a prophecy aimed directly at the modern world and the people who would receive his word in the last days — and it is sobering, because the warning describes, with uncomfortable precision, the temptations of exactly such a people.

Begin with the further widening of the flock. I have other sheep, which are not of this land, neither of the land of Jerusalem, neither in any parts of that land round about whither I have been to minister (v. 1) — sheep who have not as yet heard my voice (v. 2), to whom Christ is commanded of the Father to go. The flock keeps expanding: the Jews knew only their fold; the Nephites are the "other sheep" the Jews didn't know; and now the Nephites learn there are other sheep they don't know — the lost tribes, to whom Christ will go after he leaves them. The Good Shepherd's circuit is wider than any single fold can imagine. And the purpose, always, is the same: that there may be one fold and one shepherd (v. 3). But then Christ does something that reaches straight to the reader: he commands the twelve to write these sayings (v. 4), because they are for the latter days — for a time when the record will be brought to the Gentiles, so that through them the scattered remnant of Israel might be gathered.

And here the chapter lays out the great latter-day plan, the very plan by which this record came to us. These sayings which ye shall write shall be kept and shall be manifested unto the Gentiles, that through the fulness of the Gentiles, the remnant of their seed... may be brought to a knowledge of me, their Redeemer (v. 4). This is the mechanism of the gathering in the last days: the record (the Book of Mormon) is preserved, brought to the Gentiles, and through the Gentiles' belief and preaching it reaches the scattered remnant of Israel, bringing them to Christ — and then will I gather them in from the four quarters of the earth; and then will I fulfil the covenant which the Father hath made unto all the people of the house of Israel (v. 5). The Gentiles are the instrument of the gathering: the gospel comes to them first, and through them flows back to scattered Israel. This is why blessed are the Gentiles, because of their belief in me (v. 6) — the Gentile reception of the gospel is itself a blessing and a key to the whole covenant fulfillment.

But the blessing is shadowed by a grave warning, and the warning is aimed at the Gentile nation in the latter days with startling directness. Wo, saith the Father, unto the unbelieving of the Gentiles (v. 8) — for they have scattered my people and trodden them under feet. And then the conditional prophecy that should make any latter-day Gentile reader tremble: at that day when the Gentiles shall sin against my gospel, and shall reject the fulness of my gospel, and shall be lifted up in the pride of their hearts above all nations... and shall be filled with all manner of lyings, and of deceits, and of mischiefs, and all manner of hypocrisy, and murders, and priestcrafts, and whoredoms, and of secret abominations... I will bring the fulness of my gospel from among them (v. 10). This is Christ, through the Father, describing a latter-day Gentile people who receive the fulness of the gospel and then, lifted up in pride above all nations, filled with corruption, reject it — and warning that if they do, the fulness will be taken from them and brought to Israel. It is a prophecy and a warning at once, and its catalog of sins — pride, lyings, hypocrisy, murders, priestcrafts, whoredoms, secret abominations — reads like a diagnosis of exactly the temptations that afflict a powerful, prosperous, gospel-possessing nation. The chapter does not let the Gentiles rest in their blessedness; it warns them, in the Lord's own voice, that the gospel given can be the gospel lost.

And the chapter ends on the great hope — the Isaiah prophecy of the gathering and the bared arm of the Lord. Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing, for they shall see eye to eye when the Lord shall bring again Zion... The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of God (vv. 18, 20, quoting Isaiah 52:8–10). The word study below opens up that bared holy arm; but feel the triumph of it. Whatever the Gentiles do, whatever the failures and the woes, the end of the story is sure: the Lord will bring again Zion, the watchmen will sing, and the salvation of God will be seen by all the ends of the earth. The covenant will be fulfilled; the arm of the Lord will be revealed in power before all nations; and the gathering will be accomplished. The warning is real, but the hope is greater — for the gathering of Israel rests not finally on the faithfulness of the Gentiles but on the bared arm of the Lord, which no human failure can stay.

The chapter has three movements.

  1. The other sheep and the record for the Gentiles (vv. 1–7). Christ has yet other sheep (the lost tribes) to visit; the twelve are to write these sayings, for the record will come to the Gentiles, and through the fulness of the Gentiles the remnant of Israel will be gathered to Christ — blessed are the believing Gentiles.
  2. The warning to the unbelieving Gentiles (vv. 8–15). Wo to the Gentiles who scattered Israel; when they sin against the gospel, reject its fulness, are lifted in pride, and filled with abominations, the fulness will be taken from them and brought to Israel — if they repent they are numbered with God's people; if not, they are as salt that lost its savor.
  3. The Isaiah prophecy of Zion (vv. 16–20). The land given to this people for inheritance; and the words of Isaiah fulfilled — the watchmen singing, seeing eye to eye, when the Lord brings again Zion; the Lord making bare his holy arm before all nations, and all the ends of the earth seeing the salvation of God.

The verses to carry are these. Verse 4 names the latter-day plan — through the fulness of the Gentiles, the remnant of their seed... may be brought to a knowledge of me, their Redeemer. Verse 10 names the warning — when the Gentiles shall... reject the fulness of my gospel, and shall be lifted up in the pride of their hearts... I will bring the fulness of my gospel from among them. And verse 20 names the hope — the Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of God. The chapter exists to reveal the latter-day plan of the gathering through the Gentiles, to warn the Gentile age of the pride that forfeits the gospel, and to promise that the covenant will be fulfilled under the bared, saving arm of the Lord.

The record for the Gentiles, and the latter-day gathering (verses 1–7)

...that these sayings which ye shall write shall be kept and shall be manifested unto the Gentiles, that through the fulness of the Gentiles, the remnant of their seed... may be brought to a knowledge of me, their Redeemer. — 3 Nephi 16:4

Christ first widens the flock one more time: I have other sheep, which are not of this land, neither of the land of Jerusalem (v. 1) — the lost tribes, whom even the Nephites do not know, to whom he will go that there may be one fold and one shepherd (v. 3). The Shepherd's flock keeps expanding beyond every horizon. And then he turns to the record and to the latter days, and what he reveals is nothing less than the plan by which the Book of Mormon would reach the modern world. I command you that ye shall write these sayings after I am gone (v. 4) — and the reason is that they are meant for a future Christ now describes. If the Jews at Jerusalem will not seek a knowledge of these other sheep, then these sayings which ye shall write shall be kept and shall be manifested unto the Gentiles (v. 4). The record will be preserved across the centuries and brought, in the last days, to the Gentiles — and through the Gentiles it will flow to scattered Israel.

This is the great latter-day mechanism of the gathering, and it is worth seeing clearly. Through the fulness of the Gentiles, the remnant of their seed, who shall be scattered forth upon the face of the earth because of their unbelief, may be brought in, or may be brought to a knowledge of me, their Redeemer (v. 4). The order is: the gospel and the record come first to the Gentiles; the Gentiles, believing, carry it to the scattered remnant of Israel; and so the lost sheep of Israel are gathered to Christ. And then will I gather them in from the four quarters of the earth; and then will I fulfil the covenant which the Father hath made unto all the people of the house of Israel (v. 5). The Gentiles are not bystanders in the covenant story; they are the instrument of its fulfillment in the last days — the means by which the record reaches scattered Israel and the gathering proceeds. This is why Christ pronounces them blessed: blessed are the Gentiles, because of their belief in me, in and of the Holy Ghost, which witnesses unto them of me and of the Father (v. 6). The Gentile belief, the Gentile reception of the gospel through the witness of the Holy Ghost, is itself a blessing and a hinge of the whole plan. And there is a deep humility built into this for the Gentile reader: you hold this record, you received the gospel, not because you are greater than Israel but because, in God's mercy and Israel's temporary unbelief, the fulness came to you first — and with it the responsibility to carry it back to the covenant people. The Gentiles are blessed; but the blessing is a stewardship.

The warning to the unbelieving Gentiles (verses 8–15)

And thus commandeth the Father that I should say unto you: At that day when the Gentiles shall sin against my gospel, and shall reject the fulness of my gospel, and shall be lifted up in the pride of their hearts above all nations... I will bring the fulness of my gospel from among them. — 3 Nephi 16:10

And now the blessing turns to a warning, and the warning is one of the prophecies most directly aimed at the modern world in all of scripture. First the Father grieves over what the Gentiles have done to Israel: wo, saith the Father, unto the unbelieving of the Gentiles (v. 8), for they have scattered my people who are of the house of Israel, who have been trodden under feet by them (v. 8), smitten, and... afflicted, and... slain, and... cast out... and... become a hiss and a byword (v. 9). The Gentile nations, in their dealings with the scattered house of Israel, have been instruments of affliction — and the Father marks it. But the sharper warning is the conditional prophecy of verse 10, and it should arrest any Gentile reader. At that day when the Gentiles shall sin against my gospel, and shall reject the fulness of my gospel, and shall be lifted up in the pride of their hearts above all nations, and above all the people of the whole earth, and shall be filled with all manner of lyings, and of deceits, and of mischiefs, and all manner of hypocrisy, and murders, and priestcrafts, and whoredoms, and of secret abominations; and if they shall do all those things, and shall reject the fulness of my gospel, behold... I will bring the fulness of my gospel from among them (v. 10).

Read that catalog slowly, because it is a prophecy and a mirror. The Gentiles described here are not pagans who never heard the gospel; they are a people who received the fulness of the gospel and then rejected it — sinned against it. And the marks of their fall are precise: pride above all nations (the arrogance of a powerful, prosperous people), lyings and deceits, hypocrisy, murders, priestcrafts (religion practiced for gain), whoredoms, and secret abominations (the secret combinations that have haunted the whole Book of Mormon). This is not a description of a heathen people; it is a description of a gospel-possessing, prosperous, prideful, corrupt people — and the warning is that to whom the fulness is given, from them it can be taken. I will bring the fulness of my gospel from among them (v. 10), and then will I remember my covenant... and bring my gospel unto the house of Israel (v. 11). The gospel is not a permanent possession of any nation; it is a stewardship that pride and corruption can forfeit. And the principle is sobering: the very Gentiles who were blessed (v. 6) for receiving the gospel can become the Gentiles who are woe (v. 8) for rejecting it — the blessing and the curse hang on the same gospel, received in humility or rejected in pride.

But even here, mercy is held out: if the Gentiles will repent and return unto me, saith the Father, behold they shall be numbered among my people, O house of Israel (v. 13). The repentant Gentile is not merely tolerated but numbered among Israel, grafted into the covenant people — the same dissolution of the line between insider and outsider that ran through chapter 2 (the Lamanites numbered among the Nephites). But the alternative is grave: if they will not turn unto me... they shall be as salt that hath lost its savor, which is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out (v. 15) — the exact image from the Sermon at the Temple (3 Ne. 12:13), now applied to an unrepentant Gentile nation. Salt that keeps its savor preserves; salt that loses it is cast out and trodden under foot. The Gentiles who receive the gospel and keep faith are the salt of the earth; the Gentiles who receive it and reject it are savorless salt, fit only to be cast out. The warning is stark, and it is aimed, across the centuries, at exactly the kind of people who would hold this book — a reminder that the gospel possessed is not the gospel secured, and that pride and corruption can forfeit even the fulness of God's word.

The Isaiah prophecy: the bared arm and the gathered Zion (verses 16–20)

The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of God. — 3 Nephi 16:20

And the chapter ends, after the warning, on the great and unstoppable hope — the prophecy of Isaiah that the gathering will be accomplished, whatever the Gentiles do. Christ first confirms that the Father commanded me... that I should give unto this people this land for their inheritance (v. 16), and then quotes Isaiah's vision of the redeemed Zion: Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing, for they shall see eye to eye when the Lord shall bring again Zion. Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem; for the Lord hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem (vv. 18–19, Isaiah 52:8–9). The image is of watchmen on the walls of a restored Zion, who had long strained their eyes for the dawn, now singing together because they see the salvation coming — seeing eye to eye, in perfect unity and clarity, when the Lord shall bring again Zion. The long night of scattering ends; the watchmen sing; the waste places break into joy; the redeemed city is comforted.

And the climactic verse: The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of God (v. 20, Isaiah 52:10). The word study below opens up the bared holy arm; but feel the finality and the power of it. The arm of the Lord is the symbol of his saving strength, and to make bare the arm is to roll up the sleeve, to reveal the strength, to act openly and decisively before the whole world. After all the centuries of hidden purposes — the scattering, the lost tribes, the hidden Nephites, the Gentile times — the Lord will at last make bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations, revealing his saving power openly, undeniably, before every people on earth, so that all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of God. This is the answer to every warning and every woe in the chapter: whatever the Gentiles do, whatever the failures and the corruptions, the end is certain, for it does not rest on Gentile faithfulness but on the bared arm of the Lord. The gathering of Israel, the redemption of Zion, the salvation seen by all the earth — these are not contingent on human cooperation but guaranteed by the strength of God, who will, in his own time, roll up his sleeve and act in the sight of all nations. The chapter that warned the Gentiles so sternly ends by lifting every eye past the human failures to the divine certainty: the Lord will bring again Zion; the watchmen will sing; the holy arm will be bared; and all the ends of the earth — Gentile and Israelite, every fold of the one flock — shall see the salvation of God. The warning is real; the hope is greater; and the hope is as sure as the arm of the Lord.

How the chapter is built

3 Nephi 16 is built as a prophecy aimed across the centuries at the latter-day reader, and Mormon structures it as a deliberate sequence of plan, warning, and hope. The plan (vv. 1–7): the record will come to the Gentiles, and through the fulness of the Gentiles the remnant of Israel will be gathered — blessed are the believing Gentiles. The warning (vv. 8–15): but the Gentiles who reject the fulness, lifted in pride and filled with abominations, will have the gospel taken from them — salt that has lost its savor. The hope (vv. 16–20): whatever the Gentiles do, the Lord will bare his holy arm and bring again Zion, and all the ends of the earth shall see his salvation. The architecture moves from a conditional blessing (dependent on Gentile faithfulness) to an unconditional certainty (resting on the arm of the Lord) — so that the chapter ends not on the precariousness of human cooperation but on the surety of divine action. Mormon builds it this way to deliver both halves of the truth: that the Gentile age carries a real responsibility and a real danger (the gospel can be received and lost), and that the final gathering is guaranteed regardless, because it rests on the bared arm of God. The warning humbles; the hope steadies; and together they prepare the latter-day reader to hold the gospel with both fear and confidence.

And the chapter is built as the great self-referential moment of the Book of Mormon — the place where the record speaks of its own latter-day journey to the very people reading it. Christ commands the twelve to write these sayings precisely so that they will reach the Gentiles in the last days, which means that the words on the page are about the page itself, about how this record would be preserved, brought forth, and used to gather Israel. Mormon (and Moroni after him) understood that they were fulfilling this very commandment — writing the record that would come to the Gentiles, through whom scattered Israel would be gathered. So the chapter folds the reader into the prophecy: the Gentile holding this book is the Gentile of verse 4, the recipient of the record, blessed in believing it and warned against rejecting it. Mormon structures the chapter to make the reader self-aware — to realize that the ancient Christ, speaking to a Nephite multitude two thousand years ago, was looking down the centuries at us, commanding that this record be kept for our day, pronouncing a blessing and a warning over our reception of it. The chapter is built as the hinge between the ancient event and the modern reader, the place where the Book of Mormon turns and addresses the world that would one day hold it — blessed are you Gentiles if you believe; wo to you if, in your pride and corruption, you reject the fulness; but either way, the Lord will bare his holy arm, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of God.