2 Nephi 29 (III)

More in the vein of gathering home and scriptural writings:
2 Nephi 29:12 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. (Emphasis added) It goes on to say that each group will have the writings of the others. This whole notion of speaking unto all nations and them writing it is what makes me wonder where those writings are. At what point will we find a book, written in some ancient dialect, and the prophet will say, "that's scripture"? Of course, if we did actually find such a book, it would probably pose multiple problems.  For one, would it even be clear that it referred to Jesus Christ?  The Book of Mormon is unique in that it identifies Christ by name, and that may be as much a function of the fact that Joseph Smith was translating it via inspiration as opposed to a literary translation as anything else.  For all we know, the word actually used by the Nephites wasn't anything at all similar to the word, Christ, but as Joseph Smith was given the meaning of the word, he wrote down what it meant in English, not what they actually said, so we end up with references to Christ by name.  Additionally, the Book of Mormon was given with the specific intent of proving that Jesus Christ was the savior, as taught from the Bible, and is rife with references to the how the testimony of two witnesses establishes truth.  Now that we have the two witnesses, we would probably be erroneous to suppose that the records given to other people would meet the same criteria--i.e. the content of those religious texts would be targeted at them, not us, hence, would likely lack relevance, and may not be clearly speaking of Christ at all.

Think of the Old Testament: if you were to read that as a Christian for the first time, (assuming you had never heard of it, and that Christ didn't intentionally quote it throughout the New Testament), would you think it was teaching someone about Christ?  You have a creation story, followed by stories about a severly angry god punishing the world for riotous living, some prophets who seem to engage in behaviors specifically prohibited by Christianity (lying, drunkenness, incest, genocide), followed by some amazingly explicit instructions on daily life (that are not followed by modern Christians), and a smattering of history.  True, they pray, repent, are forgiven, pay tithing, and are told to do things similar to what we are taught in the New Testament, but many of those same positive themes are also available in ancient religious texts of the majority of the world's religions. What I am saying is that, while I haven't read other religions' scriptures, I probably ought to do so, and when I do it, I might well be reading the scripture given to the people referenced here in 2 Nephi. Of course, I might also not be.

2 Nephi 29:14 And it shall come to pass that my people, which are of the house of Israel, shall be gathered home unto the lands of their possessions; and my word also shall be gathered into one. (Emphasis added) Here, I think is a portion of the answer asked a couple of days ago, whether the condemnation the world is under for failing to "recover" Israel referred to a physical recovery to lands held anciently or to a spiritual recovery through preaching. Apparently it is both. The covenant made with Abraham included both gospel blessings and physical properties.