12 And then, O house of Israel, behold, these shall come from far; and lo, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim.
After the Restoration, and after the elevation of the
Christian status, as discussed in verse eleven, the real gathering of Israel
will commence in earnest. “These [various portions of the house of Israel]
shall come from far [where they have been scattered]; …from the north and from
the west; and [even] these from the land of Sinim” (Ridges). According to David
J. Ridges, in the book previously mentioned, “Strong’s Exhaustive Bible
Concordance says [Sinim] might refer to inhabitants of southern China” (Isaiah Made Easier). This is not a
stretch at all for me to accept. In my comments to 1 Nephi 12: 8 I referred to
a Buddhist temple I visited while serving my mission to Korea, where there was
evidence to my mind that this was one of the places Christ had visited and
established his Church organization, with a first presidency and quorum of
twelve disciples. Of course, I have no evidence of this except my photograph
included in that comment, and my own reasoning, but it seems reasonable to me.
On a return trip to Korea I was able to go to that same
temple again, so I took a new digital photo of that painting, as well as the
one right next to it, which is also a bit too much of a coincidence to be a
coincidence. Notice the crowns or halos in the first image. There is one
central figure with a very ornate crown and halo. He is flanked by two figures
also with ornate crowns and halos, although they are obviously not the main
character. In addition, there are twelve others in the painting with halos.
This looks very much to me like the First Presidency and the Quorum of Twelve
Apostles. The second picture I am including looks suspiciously like the
equivalent of the seven presidents of the Seventy in the latter day
organization of the Church. On either side of them are three figures with
halos, one holding a scepter. Could this be the “First Presidency” under whose
direction the Seventy function? On the lower right side of the painting it
looks like two missionaries, surrounded by flames, casting out another larger,
monster-looking figure in the lower center of the painting, who is running away
in flames. I could be totally wrong, but these seem to be too much of a
coincidence to not be evidence of Christ’s organization being established in
Korea, which is very close to Southern China.
- Isaiah 43: 5 (5–7)
