The Second Comforter

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