Hi Gramps!

Great big squeezes and hugs! I would like to know why my dad believes that the ten lost tribes live at the north pole under all that ice. He says that they will return some day, but right now they are living inside the earth. Maybe with the global warming issue the ice will melt and let them out. Anyway, my dad said he learned this in church growing up but I don’t think they are teaching it now. Is it doctrine or is my dad crazy? Do you believe the ten lost tribes live under the ice? Thanks!

Hally

Dear Hally,

If your dad learned in church growing up that the lost ten tribes were living under the ice somewhere near the north pole, he probably learned it from the kid who was sitting next to him in his Sunday School class!

Indeed the lost ten tribes, when they were released from their Assyrian captivity, migrated to the north and were lost to history. During the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ, at the time of the dedication of the Kirtland Temple on April 3, 1836, Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery were visited and given instructions by the Lord, Jesus Christ, and by several of the ancient prophets. Among these was Moses, who appeared before them and committed to them 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 (Doctrine and Covenants 110:11).

Please note that the scripture says, “from the LAND of the north,” not “from under the ice of the north.” Now if you think that the phraseology of the scriptures is merely an approximation, and is not to be taken too literally, please consider how Nephi in the Book of Mormon considered the literalness of what he read in the scriptures. Nephi said, in reference to what he read in the Book of Isaiah,

But great are the promises of the Lord unto them who are upon the isles of the sea; wherefore as it says isles, there must needs be more than this, and they are inhabited also by our brethren (2 Ne 10:21)

(2 Ne 10:21)

OK, so you might say, what about the land under the ice in the north? Ice and snow that are on the land masses of Alaska, Canada and Siberia above the arctic circle have been rather thoroughly mapped by satellite, and nothing resembling a people that we don’t know about has been observed.. But how about under the ice near the north pole? That area has been traversed many times by nuclear submarine, and under the ice in that area there are no land masses; it is the Arctic Ocean. 

Gramps