The Gentiles referred to in these verses are twofold. First, the gospel has been taken to the Gentiles in the latter days in fulfillment of the Savior’s declaration that, “many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first” (Matthew 19:30). In the meridian of time, the gospel went to the house of Israel and then to the Gentiles (see Acts 13:46). In the last days, the sequence was to be reversed. The gospel was to be taken to the Gentiles first and then to the house of Israel (see D&C 29:30; 90:9). Those Gentiles who repent when the gospel is presented to them and become clean are those who are baptized (Ether 4:6). Those who have revealed to them the things the brother of Jared experienced, will be the members of the Church who exercise faith unto becoming sanctified in Christ (v. 7). These will be the faithful members of the Church who purify and sanctify themselves “because of their yielding their hearts unto God” (Helaman 3:35). This purified state comes through the power of the priesthood and of the Holy Ghost (see Alma 5:54; 13:10–12). Those who contend or deny the word of God found in the Book of Mormon will be accursed, or have their eternal progress damned or stopped. Having rejected what they were offered, they will be given no more revelation (Ether 4:8). After the time when the revelations of the brother of Jared and all the other greater things have been revealed (v. 7), the earth shall shake and the unfaithful inhabitants shall be devoured as by fire (v. 9).
The Lord has stated that in our day his word “shall all be fulfilled whether [spoken] by mine own voice or by the voice of mine servants, it is the same” (D&C 1:38). The same principle was told to the brother of Jared, and then the Lord added a further admonition. Those who make an unrighteous judgment, or fail to recognize what the Lord has spoken, will know at the last day that what had been given by the Lord’s disciples (the Book of Mormon) was indeed the Lord’s word (Ether 4:10). Those who accept the Lord’s disciples and the Lord’s word spoken through the Book of Mormon will know through the manifestations of the Spirit that the words are true because they persuade them to do good (v. 11). Again the Lord reminds us that all that is good comes from him (see James 1:17; John 3:27; Moroni 7:12–17).
Nephi concluded his record with his testimony that his words “persuadeth [the reader] to do good” (2 Nephi 33:4,10). Mormon taught this concept to his son Moroni in an epistle to him even before Moroni began to abridge the Jaredite records (see Moroni 7:12–17 cited above). Moroni now shares the concept with his readers, but he quotes it as a statement the Lord had said unto him (Ether 4:11–12). The Lord also told Moroni what he had said to his twelve disciples in Jerusalem, with a slight variation: “He that will not believe me will not believe the Father that sent me” (v. 12; cp John 13:20). The Lord has revealed the same principle to the Church today (see D&C 84:36–37). The Lord also designated himself to Moroni in the same terminology as he did in Jerusalem, “the light and the life and the truth of the world” (Ether 4:12; cp. John 1:4; 8:12; 14:6). The Lord concluded his message to the Gentiles through Moroni with an invitation for the Gentiles to come unto him and receive the greater things that had been hid up because of unbelief (Ether 4:13). May we not forget that he is speaking to the members of the Church who are of the Gentile culture (vv. 6–7), but “are identified with the Gentiles” (D&C 109:60). May we accept his invitation and not be bound down by the conditions of the Gentiles that surround us (see D&C 113:9–10).