The stick of Judah and the stick of Joseph — Section 46
Is the Book of Mormon really the stick of Joseph referred to by Ezekiel?
Representative of a Christian church:
These missionaries claim that the reference in the Book of Ezekiel (Ezekiel 37:15-19) to the sticks of Judah and Ephraim is a witness to the coming forth of the Book of Mormon to be a companion scripture to the Bible. Such is not the case. This scripture is simply a prophecy of the eventual reuniting of the tribes of Israel.
Missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:
We declare that the ‘stick of Judah’ is a reference to the Bible as a record of the house of Judah, as contained in Ezekiel 37:15-19. In these the last days, when the various branches of the house of Israel are being gathered, their sacred scriptural records are also being gathered together. This definitely includes both the Bible and the Book of Mormon. These scriptural records complement each other, and they form a united testimony that Jesus is the Christ, the God of Israel and the God of the whole world. The chapters of 2 Nephi 3 and 2 Nephi 29 also make this declaration. The ‘stick of Ephraim’ mentioned in Ezekiel 37 is a prophetic reference to the Book of Mormon as a record of one portion of the tribe of Ephraim that was led from Jerusalem to America about 600 B.C. When joined with the Bible (the stick of Judah), the two scriptures from a unified, complementary testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ, his resurrection from the grave, and his divine work among these two segments of the house of Israel. Joseph Smith received the following revelation (Doctrine and Covenants 27:5) in which the Lord Himself said, “… the hour cometh that I [Jesus] will drink of the fruit of the vine with you on the earth, and with Moroni, whom I have sent unto you to reveal the Book of Mormon, containing the fulness of my everlasting gospel, to whom I have committed the keys of the record of the stick of Ephraim…”
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