Scriptural thoughts

I worked at a dance camp for two weeks in this July. I had a great conversation about the scriptures with the girls in the camp, and they wanted me to write down everything that I said, so that is what this is. Note, much of what is said would require a substantial understanding of the doctrine and history of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and is not intended for a general public audience even though it is on a public blog. It is also very lengthy and not organized. I essentially wrote down whatever I could remember and did not try to organize the ideas so they come randomly. It is only meant to help the girls remember the things that I told them.

Cool scriptural thoughts

Artwork has changed the way we view things in the church. Here are three examples of many.

1. The stripling warriors are not buff or macho. Stripling means pubescent.

2. The Isaiah scripture says the lamb and the wolf, not the lamb and the lion.

3. The translation of the book of mormon happened by Joseph putting the gold plates in a bag, and looking into a hat which held the seer stones which would have the words that needed to be written appear on the stones.

The church did not have the Joseph Smith translation papers for a long time because Emma did not follow the saints out west due to at least in part of her fight with Brigham Young. Because Joseph was so closely tied to the church, it was hard to know what of his property belonged to the church. Brigham said the papers belonged to the church and Emma said they belong to her. Emma stayed behind and the church lost the papers. A BYU student for a project asked for permission to look at the papers. He hung around for a while and became friends with those people and they ended up giving a very large percentage of the papers over to the church, but we don’t have all the papers yet.

Hyrum Smith was the co-president at the time of his martyrdom. The Lord needed two witnesses to seal the testimony of the church and book of mormon. However, if Oliver Cowdery had not fallen away from the church, he would have been the co-president and been in Carthage with Joseph. Hyrum would have become the undeniable president/prophet of the church and there would not have been as many branches that broke off in the confusion on who it should be the prophet.

Joseph had said that his son Joseph Smith the third would be prophet of the church. However, Emma did not follow the saints out west. Lucy Mack Smith, Hyrum’s wife, did follow the saints out west. Her son, Joseph Fielding Smith, became the prophet at the same time that Joseph Smith the third was president of the church that stayed behind. Joseph Smith the third would have been prophet if Emma had followed, but that blessing fell upon his cousin.

The church received the hieroglyphics that the book of Abraham came from. Many thought this would prove evidence that Joseph was a prophet because when an expert translated them, it would match what Joseph wrote. However, it was never meant to be a translation, rather it was an interpretation. Joseph wrote down what the Lord wanted us to hear from the hieroglyphics, not an exact word to word translation. That is the same that he did with the Joseph Smith Translation. It wasn’t Joseph trying to translate the bible, it was him clarifying what it should mean.

When the Saints received the commandment to build the Kirtland temple, they thought that it would be something like a log cabin. However, when the plans were unveiled, they were shocked to see the insane edifice that it was going to be. They didn’t even have shovels at the time. After the meeting, Hyrum Smith went outside and began to dig with his bare hands. The Kirtland temple is the most expensive building in the history of the United States in terms of cost per capita, and the saints started without even a shovel. This shows that not only can you do anything that the Lord asks of you, but when he asks you to do something, start digging even if you have nothing to dig with.

Some anti mormon stuff that you will hear is that Joseph Smith had many husbands. This is not necessarily true, but it stems from the fact that Joseph was sealed to many people including men. Now, this sounds very strange to us, but we have to understand how they saw the sealing ordinance back in that day. When the revelation of sealings was first introduced, it wasn’t how we see it now with us getting sealed to our families and all our ancestors. They believed that everyone needed to be sealed to Joseph in order to get into Heaven. The belief was that Joseph as the prophet was their spiritual representative, and he was guaranteed to get into heaven, so if they were all sealed to him they would be part of his family so that would qualify them for entrance into heaven as well. That is why he had men sealed to him. They were not his husbands, but it was more like siblings getting sealed together in order to be attached to Joseph to get into Heaven. The youngest person that Joseph was sealed to was a 14 year old girl (another anti mormon argument) but it was again because of this principle. The family wanted her to be sealed to Joseph so that they could get into heaven. However she wasn’t a wife to him in the same sense that Emma was for example. That is a principle of the gospel. God doesn’t reveal everything to us right away, so that is why some of the ordinances and principles have changed since they were first revealed because God reveals it slowly over time.

Deuteronomy 4:1 and 6:1 is where it says that judgement means ordinances. It is literally Hebrew for ordinances. See the footnote. When you see judgment in the scriptures, think of the temple and the ordinances in there.

Jeremiah 51:11 and 50:28 is where it says that the vengeance of the Lord is his temple. It also talks about the arrows and shields and fighting against Babylon. This shows that this battle is spiritual and it through family history work and doing ordinances in the temple. You will see this talked about a lot in Jeremiah and Isaiah for example Jeremiah 50 and 51 and Isaiah 42 or 2nd Nephi 21 (there are a lot more than that too)

Job 27:1 And 29:1 is where he mentions that it is a parable. Job is a type of Christ, and he shows what Christ felt during the apostasy and the restoration.

D&C 13:1 “… and this shall never be taken again from the earth until the sons of Levi do offer again an offering unto the Lord in righteousness.” That offering is family search. That reference is found here D&C 128:24. Because of the sealing power given in matthew 16:19, whatever is written on earth is also written in heaven. D&C 128:14 shows how that applies to family history work. Read all of D&C 128, it is some really cool stuff!

When the scriptures refer to a skin of blackness, it is possible that they were not referring to the actual color of skin, rather to the righteousness level of that person. In the book of mormon, Mary is referred to as being exceedingly white 1 Nephi 11:13. However, people were not exceedingly white in that time. It seems to allude to her purity. If the Lamanites were very black and the Nephites were very white, how could Teancum have snuck into the Lamanite camp and killed Amalickiah without being easily spotted? Therefore, those saying that the book of mormon is racist… that’s not true at all.

Moroni wandered for at least 36 years after the battle of Cumorah. It is possible that Mormon was not killed until 15 years after the battle because it wasn’t until 15 years later that Moroni actually said that he was alone because everyone had been killed (mormon 8:3) Also, if you read in Mormon 6:16, Mormon says “my soul ‘was’ rent with anguish… and I ‘cried’”. If he had been writing that account from Cumorah itself he probably wouldn’t have been talking in past tense, rather he would have said “my soul ‘is’ rent with anguish… and I ‘cry’”. The date of the battle is said in Mormon 6, and the heading of Mormon 8 shows the date when Moroni is actually finally alone, and Moroni 10:1 shows the last year that he wrote in the book of Mormon. He might have lived longer than that, but we don’t have documented record. We do have a second-third hand account of Joseph telling about the death of Moroni as recorded here: At a meeting at Spanish Fork, Utah Co., in the winter of 1896, Brother Higginson stated in my presence that Thomas B. Marsh told him that the Prophet Joseph Smith told him (Thomas B. Marsh, he being then President of the Twelve), that he became very anxious to know something of the fate of Moroni, and in answer to prayer the Lord gave Joseph a vision, in which appeared a wild country and on the scene was Moroni after whom were six Indians in pursuit; he stopped and one of the Indians stepped forward and measured swords with him. Moroni smote him and he fell dead; another Indian advanced and contended with him; this Indian also fell by his sword; a third Indian then stepped forth and met the same fate; a fourth afterwards contended with him, but in the struggle with the fourth, Moroni, being exhausted, was killed. Thus ended the life of Moroni. (Evans).

We know one of the things that Moroni did in those 36 years: At a conference held in Ephraim, Sanpete County, June 25th, 1875, nearly all the speakers expressed their feelings to have a temple built in Sanpete County, and gave their views as to what point and where to build it, and to show the union that existed, Elder Daniel H. Wells said "Manti," George Q. Cannon, Brigham Young, Jr., John Taylor, Orson Hyde, Erastus Snow, Franklin D. Richards, Lorenzo Young, and A.M. Musse said "Manti stone quarry." I have given the names in the order in which they spoke. At 4 p.m. that day President Brigham Young said: "The Temple should be build on Manti stone quarry." Early on the morning of April 25, 1877, President Brigham Young asked Brother Warren S. Snow to go with him to the Temple hill. Brother Snow says: "We two were alone: President Young took me to the spot where the Temple was to stand; we went to the southeast corner, and President Young said: "Here is the spot where the prophet Moroni stood and dedicated this piece of land for a Temple site, and that is the reason why the location is made here, and we can't move it from this spot; and if you and I are the only persons that come here at high noon today, we will dedicate this ground." (Whitney 436)

There is a debate in the church whether the nephites and lamanites lived in the Mexico area with the “narrow neck” (alma 63:5) being Panama, and the land northward being Mexico and the land southward being south America, and whether they lived in the midwest of the United States. The youtube channel “Book of Mormon Evidence” has found a lot of evidence for it being in the Midwest, but more importantly they have found a lot of evidence that the Book of Mormon actually took place. One example are the Masons. The Masons have some secret signs and tokens that only the highest ranking members of their group knows. You have to be a master Mason to learn these things. The Masons got these signs and symbolism when the temple of Solomon was ransacked. Joseph once met a Mason and was made a master Mason right away because he already had a knowledge of the signs and symbolism because they are very similar to what we do in our temples. Not only that, but there was once a general in the French and Indian war that was taken captive by the Native Americans, and was tied up to a tree. They were about to burn him. In desperation, him being a master mason, made one of the secret signs. The Native American chieftain recognized the sign, and called off the execution. The only way that is possible is if the signs and tokens were passed down through the Nephite times until then, and they were still similar to what took place in Solomon’s temple which was passed down by the Masons.

Also look up the mound builders on google images, and recall Moroni commanding the Nephite armies to “throwing up banks of earth” Alma 48:8 Read what this website has to say about the Mound Builders, does it not sound like it’s talking about the nephites?

In most versions of the myth, the Moundbuilders were some non-Indian "race" from Europe, Asia, or perhaps Atlantis that built a magnificent empire in this hemisphere only to be overrun and obliterated by the ancestors of the "savage" American Indians, much as Eurasian barbarians were thought to have toppled the Roman Empire. One of the most evocative tellings of this epic is in William Cullen Bryant's poem, "The Prairies": " All is gone; All - save the piles of earth that hold their bones, The platforms where they worshipped unknown gods, The barriers which they builded from the soil To keep the foe at bay - till o'er the walls The wild beleaguerers broke, and, one by one, The strongholds of the plain were forced, and heaped With corpses. https://www.ohiohistory.org/learn/collections/archaeology/archaeology-blog/2011/june-2011/the-moundbuilder-myth

The book of Revelations is part two of a vision. The first part of the vision is found in First Nephi beginning in 1 Nephi 11:1 and ending in 1 Nephi 14. 1 Nephi 14:25 is where Nephi is commanded to not write the rest of the vision because John was going to write it (the book of Revelations) The vision that Nephi saw, of everything that happened in the world, is the same vision that all the prophets get to see and is written in the sealed two thirds of the Book of Mormon. The sealed part is a portion of the vision that we have not read yet, we have received Nephi’s account and John’s account, but there is more to it. Lds.org has this to say about the sealed portion Few people have seen the sealed record—for instance, the Nephites in the land Bountiful at the Savior’s coming (see Ether 4:1–2) and Moroni (see Ether 12:24). The Lord said the sealed portion would be revealed to the world “in mine own due time” (Ether 3:27). He also said it would “not go forth unto the Gentiles until the day that they shall repent of their iniquity, and become clean before the Lord” (Ether 4:6; see also 2 Nephi 27:8).

1 Nephi 9 is where the Lord commands Nephi to make a backup of the plates because he knew that Martin Harris would lose the 116 pages. 1 Nephi 9:5 specifically is good. Therefore, everything important was saved. Read this cool thing I found on the LDS Living facebook page about the 116 pages Franklin D. Richards overheard someone ask Joseph how the Book of Mormon could be the “stick of Ephraim” when Lehi was of the tribe of Manasseh. The Prophet explained that the lost 116 pages said Ishmael was of the tribe of Ephraim, making the Book of Mormon peoples a blend of Manasseh and Ephraim, the two sons of Joseph [6].

The stick of Ephraim is a reference to Ezekial 37:15-17 which say that the stick of Ephraim and the stick of Judah would come together as one (which is a prophecy of the quad. The book of mormon (stick of ephraim) and the bible (stick of Judah) are together in one book.)

Book of Mormon Evidence also found that some DNA of some Native Americans matched DNA found over in Jerusalem. How else could that happen unless if the Book of Mormon was true?

Remember that “The burden of the scriptures if the temple” (Joseph Smith) so throughout all the Book of Mormon and scriptures, it is talking about the temple. I give a lot of references below in my theory about the Lost Ten Tribes, but a cool example is Christ’s famous scripture in Matthew 25: 36-43 where he says “Inasmuch as ye have done this unto the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” In verse 43 it mentions visiting people in prison. There is no documented record of Christ visiting anyone in prison. He didn’t even visit John the Baptist, rather he sent angels to visit them. Why then would Christ not practice what he preaches if he is perfect? Well maybe he was referring to those in Spirit prison. We can visit them by giving them their temple ordinances.

3 Nephi 10:5 says “how oft would I have gathered you as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings?” Why did Christ want to gather his people? To give them their temple ordinances. That is why the early saints gathered to Zion in the early days. You need to have enough people to build a temple and then they can all get their ordinances. That is why we don’t have to gather anymore because we have temples all over the world. In 3 Nephi 10:7 it says “the places of your dwelling shall be left desolate” That is because they are not sealed to their families, in the next life they are alone!

In the Mexico City temple dedication, Gordon B. Hinckley welcomed those from the other side of the veil who were present. He later said that someone else was there who he had failed to recognize, and he welcomed Father Lehi to the congregation and said that he must be very happy that his posterity was now accepting the gospel.

Joseph Smith saw a recorded 139 angelic beings including all the book of mormon prophets, Peter, James, John, Paul, Adam, Seth, Cainan, Able, Moses, Abraham, and Noah. He saw Jesus 10 times. Moroni visited him 27 times. "Apostate William Law attempted to kill Joseph and fired a pistol at him six times at close range. It misfired six times, and he then pointed it at a post and all six shots discharged properly."

"Joseph Smith saw a vision of the 13 men and one woman who died in the Zion’s Camp cholera epidemic and said, 'If I get a mansion as bright as theirs, I ask no more.' "

https://www.deseretnews.com/top/3088/2/Angelic-visitors-13-little-known-facts-about-Joseph-Smith.html

Orrin Porter Rockwell: Bodyguard of the prophet. Known as modern day Samson. He was promised by Joseph to never die if he wouldn’t cut his hair. Known to have killed over 100 men. Always hit them between the eyes. He was once accused of the attempted murder of the governor. His defense was “He’s still alive isn’t he? If I had tried to kill him, he would be dead.” He was asked by Joseph to stay behind at Carthage to protect Emma and his children. There is a song about him here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahlToQ72DkU

You can read about Kolob in the book of Abraham, but essentially it is a star that is nearest to God and it governs all the other stars. A day there is a 1000 years on earth. That is related to the seven seals found in the book of Revelations. Each seal is about 1000 years on earth. There is a Q & A in Doctrine and Covenants 77 that explains some things about the book of Revelations. The important thing about Kolob is that God was teaching Abraham the Plan of Salvation using astronomy because that is what Abraham loves. Kolob is symbolic of Christ. I view the song “If You Could Hie to Kolob” (hymn number 284) as an adult version of “I’m trying to be like Jesus” but more of trying to be like the all knowing powerful God Jesus while the children version is more like developing Christlike attributes kind of Jesus.

There was a saint born in 347 AD named St. Jerome. He considered himself a disciple of Christ for a long time, but he also greatly enjoyed the writings of the poet Cicero, and spent a lot of time studying about him. One day, he was convinced that he died in his sleep. He says that he was taken before the judgement bar. He tried to convince Jesus that he was a disciple of Him, but Christ told him that he was actually a disciple of Cicero. When he woke up, he determined to prove to Christ that he truly was His disciple, and he hardcore dedicated his life to studying the scriptures. The application in our life can be found in the line I said Thursday night of dance camp. “Are you a disciple of Christ? Or of Hollywood? Can you quote movies better than you can quote scriptures?” That applies to anything. Most of the things we enjoy are not bad things, but if we spend more time on those than on Godly things, then they become idols. Think of the message we are sending to God when other things come before the scriptures in our lives. We once had a 70 come to our stake conference, and he told us that none of us are prepared spiritually for what is to come. He said that he used to love reading murder mystery novels, which are not bad things, but he realized that it wasn’t the best thing that he could be doing with his time so he gave it up. The principle is to study your life and let the spirit guide you as to what things you need to give up to have the time necessary to dedicate to being a true disciple of Christ.

Clayton Christensen, a famous LDS man, was in the same ward as my mom growing up. He knew every single answer in primary, and she asked him how once. He said that instead of reading bedtime stories about princesses and fairytales, his parents would read him scripture stories. My mother vowed to do the same with her children, and I became that child who knew every answer in Primary.

A prophet, I think it was Ezra Taft Benson once said about family history work that if the veil could be lifted for an instant, we would forget all of our hobbies and things that occupy our time, and we would spend all of hour time doing family history work.

Joseph Smith said that guardian angels are real, and they are our ancestors. They are the only ones interested enough in our lives to protect us.

Brigham Young said that those that you do family history work or missionary work for will fall down and kiss your feet in the millennium in gratitude.

Boyd K. Packer said something along the lines of “Grab a pen my young friends, and let’s keep a journal, a record that will be passed down and may the angels quote from it for eternity.” What he means by the angels quoting from it for eternity is that when we need inspiration in our lives, if we have read the stories of our ancestors, then those stories will come to our remembrance in our times of need. It is essentially scripture for us because it can bless, strengthen, and inspire us in the same way that scripture can.

Russell M. Nelson’s wife came to our stake conference a little bit ago, and she said that we can pray that God will send specific angels to come and help us. She was once driving in the snow which she is not very good at doing, and she prayed that God would send one of her ancestors who was good at driving in the snow, and she felt his presence. We don’t pray directly to the ancestors, but if we know our ancestors well enough by reading about their stories, then we can request a specific one to come.

Remember that Patriarchal blessings are not official church doctrine. Believe everything that you hear in your blessing, but also understand that it can mean things that you don’t understand yet. Just because you hear that someone’s says that they will be alive for the millennium doesn’t mean that the millennium actually will start in our lifetime. No man knoweth the day that Christ will come.

There is not a lot that is known about the three nephites. I did read a talk once that said that John the Beloved is with the lost Ten Tribes of Israel preparing them for the second coming, so if my theory below is true, then he would be in the spirit world. It would make sense that the spirit world would have him there, and the earthly world would have the three nephites. There are moments in history that appears that the three nephites were spotted, but Mormon did say that they were hid from the world and the world knew them not, so it is not likely that we actually will meet or know who they are until the millennium.

Where Are the Lost Ten Tribes?

Growing up, this was always a question that greatly grabbed my attention. We know that ten of the twelve tribes of Israel were led away and lost. There are prophecies that these ten tribes of Israel will return in the latter days around the time of the millennium. There is also a lot of uncertainty about what exactly that means. Many believe that the ten tribes are on a different planet that will come and join with earth one day, others believe that they are in the north pole, others believe that there is no physical group that is lost, rather they have all been dispersed and we are gathering them through missionary work. My idea is that the lost tribes are dispersed on the earth, and we gather them through missionary work. Also, that they are also in spirit prison, and the process of restoring them from the land of the north is through family history and temple work.

The old testament talks a lot about bringing in the ten tribes from the land of the north. Throughout all these verses that follow, we must look at it through it with eyes of symbolism. This part of Jeremiah uses the symbolism a battle to do show how we gather the ten tribes.

Jeremiah 50:9 “For, lo, I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the north country: and they shall set themselves in array against her; from thence she shall be taken: their arrows shall be as of a mighty expert man; none shall return in vain.”

We war against the Babylon (spirit prison) by taking people out of it. This is shown here in the next verse,

Jeremiah 51:11 “Make bright the arrows; gather the shields: the LORD hath raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes: for his device is against Babylon, to destroy it; because it is the vengeance of the LORD, the vengeance of his temple.”

Very interesting that he would say the vengeance of his temple. That highlights that these arrows, and things that we fight with are temple ordinances that free the people out of Babylon.

Jeremiah 31:8 “Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her that travailed with child together: a great company shall return thither.”

Blind and lame? That sounds a lot like the symbolism we are used to of those who don’t see spiritual things.

Jeremiah 16:15 But, The Lord liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers.

I think that they will gather physically, but it will happen when they are resurrected. Notice in these verses that follow how in verse six he specifically is talking about restoring the preserved of Israel, and then directly following in verses eight and nine he gets more specific about how.

1 Nephi 21: 6 “And he said: it is a light thing that thou shouldst be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel. I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the ends of the earth.

8 “Thus saith the Lord: In an acceptable time have I heard thee, o isles of the sea, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee; and I will preserve thee, and give thee my servant for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages;

Desolate heritages, sounds a lot like a family that has not been sealed together. He will cause to inherit those through temple work.

9 That thou mayest say to the prisoners: Go forth; to them that sit in darkness: Show yourselves. They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in all high places.

I think we are already used to hearing this symbolism in terms of things spiritual, and not physical. Their pastures shall be in all high places could mean spiritually high places, like a temple. Feeding in the ways can mean the ways of the Lord which are taught in the endowment.

11 And I will make all my mountains a way, and my highways shall be exalted.

Mountain of the Lord, highway could mean a spiritually “high” way like a temple.

12 And then, o House of Israel, behold, these shall come from far; and lo, these from the north…

18 Thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all, as with an ornament, and bind them on even as a bride.

“Bind” them on even as a bride. Many times, the temple clothing has been compared to a marriage garment. To seal is a synonym of to bind.

21 “Who hath begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children, and am desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro?

He has lost his children because he is not sealed to them, that is why he is desolate.

22 “I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people

That sounds a lot like the temple to me.

Isaiah 35:8 And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it…”

Why can’t the unclean pass over the highway? Because it is the way of holiness. That sounds a lot like a temple to me.

Isaiah 62:10 prepare ye the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up a standard for the people.

Casting up a highway, lifting up a standard. I really think that highway means a temple. This transitions nicely into the modern revelation that we have about the subject.

D&C 133:26-27, 29

26 And they who are in the north countries shall come in remembrance before the Lord; and their prophets shall hear his voice, and shall no longer stay themselves; and they shall smite the rocks, and the ice shall flow down at their presence.

If they have prophets, why did Joseph receive the keys to gather them and not their prophets? Maybe because they lack the bodies necessary to do so themselves. The ice shall flow down at their presence could be symbolic of their frozen state in spirit prison.

27And an high way shall be cast up in the midst of the great deep

Now that we know what a highway is…

29 and in barren deserts there shall come forth pools of living water and the parched ground shall no longer be a thirsty land.

We easily recognize this verse, verse 29, as symbolic. Pools of living water being the gospel coming to areas that didn’t have it, so why don’t we usually recognize verse 26 and 27 as symbolic as well instead of seeing it literally? Isaiah 35: 4-10 illustrates my point well.

4 Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, ear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you.

Remember what vengeance means.

5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.

Again, typically correlated to spiritual blindness and deafness.

6. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.

7 And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirst y land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes.

More symbolism.

8 And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall before those; the Wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.

There is the highway again that appears to be the temple. It says that it will be called The way of holiness.

9 No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there:

10 and the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

There is the relation to the 10 Tribes “the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy.”

The April 1983 ensign says that Moses gave his keys to Peter James and John on the Mount of transfiguration. In D&C 110 11 it tells us what keys Moses gives “Moses appeared before us, and committed unto us the keys of the gathering of Israel from the four parts of the earth, and the leading of the ten tribes from the land of the north.” Although this could be a coincidence, I find it an interesting correlation that Moses appeared on the mount of transfiguration and gave his keys, and then later in the bible, there is record of baptisms for the dead (1 Cor. 15:29). After Moses comes in this dispensation, baptisms for the dead happen again. In the book of mormon, there is no record of Moses coming to anyone to give his keys, and there also is no record of baptisms for the dead in the book of mormon.

3 Nephi 17:4 “But now I go unto the Father, and also to show myself unto the lost tribes of Israel, for they are not lost unto the Father, for he knoweth whither he hath taken them.”

I think it is possible that in all these verses that Christ references the lost tribes, he could be talking about visiting them in the spirit world. In one of the verses He says, “They have not yet heard my voice”. We know that when he went to the spirit world during the three days after His death, He didn’t visit them personally, but sent messengers. Maybe now that they had preached the gospel to those in the spirit prison, he could now visit them, and they could hear his voice. *Bonus possibility. It was about a year after Christ resurrected that he appeared to the Nephites. If he organized messengers at his resurrection, and they converted people, then it would have been a year for these people since they accepted the gospel. Converts on earth have to wait a year to enter the temple “Enter God’s presence” so maybe these people had to wait a year before they could finally come into Christ’s presence as well.

2 Nephi 29:12-13“For behold, I shall speak unto the Jews and they shall write it; and I shall also speak unto the Nephites and they shall write it; and I shall also speak unto the other tribes of the house of Israel, which I have led away, and they shall write it; and I shall also speak unto all nations of the earth and they shall write it. 13 And it shall come to pass that the Jews shall have the words of the Nephites, and the Nephites shall have the words of the Jews; and the Nephites and the Jews shall have the words of the lost tribes of Israel; and the lost of Israel shall have the words of the Nephites and the Jews.”

When they resurrect, they will have their memories to tell us, and maybe those are the records. Maybe the record itself is FamilySearch, as we compile the record of all their doings. They then will bring additional memories to write down when they resurrect.

Discourses of the Prophet Joseph Smith pg. 264-265 “The Spirit of the Lord fell upon Joseph in an unusual manner, and he prophesied that John the Revelator was then among the Ten Tribes of Israel who had been led away by Salmanasser, king of Assyria, to prepare them for their return from their long dispersion, to again possess the land of their fathers.

It says that John was with the Ten Tribes. However, John is a twinkled being, he probably can choose to go between the spirit world and our world. We know that the three Nephites were taken from the earth when the Nephites turned wicked, so that shows it is likely that John could go between worlds.

Once while I was on my mission, a deacon asked me what the 12 oxen in the baptismal font of the temple represent. I said, “They represent the 12 Tribes of Israel!” and then I gasped as I realized the significance of it. The evidence was right there in the temple, baptisms for the dead are directly correlated to the 12 tribes of Israel.

To summarize my theory, I think that the Ten Tribes of Israel were led away and dispersed throughout the world. We are gathering them today through missionary work, but all the ones who have died are the “lost” ten tribes and are in spirit prison. We restore them by doing temple work. They will return in the millennium. We know that only those who have their temple work done are resurrected at the beginning of the millennium, so that makes sense that the temple work would enable them to physically gather. I don’t know why Joseph Smith would immediately begin to use every key that he received except for the keys that Moses gave him, those of leading the Ten Tribes of Israel out of the land of the north. I believe that he did immediately begin to use those keys, and the gathering of Israel is a process through missionary work and family history work. That would explain why Spencer W. Kimball said that “We need to dissolve the imaginary boundary we place between family history work and missionary work because they are the same great redemptive work”.

This would explain where they are. I always wondered that if the ten tribes are in Greenland or the North Pole, how would we have not found them yet? It has been so many years, their population has to be huge unless if they destroyed themselves with wars. With the technology we have now, how would we have not found them yet? I think it’s because they aren’t there physically.

As a last note, whether or not I am right that there isn’t actually a physical group of people, I still believe this theory has to mostly be correct. That is because even if there is a physical group of people, they still have to have had thousands or millions that have died and are in spirit prison, and everything I have said about family history work would apply to them. They are still the lost Ten Tribes of Israel even though they are passed away, and what the Lord has said should apply to them too.