Hosea 9:17

"My God will cast them away, because they did not hearken unto him; and they shall be wanderers among the nations."

"God will cast them away ..." This he promptly did. It was never indicated that all of the posterity of Israel would be destroyed, but that their "states" would perish. This verse provides the insight that certain descendents would become wanderers among the nations:

"And where they have wandered to, who can tell? and in what nations to be found, no man knows. Wanderers they are, and perhaps even now unknown to themselves. Some have thought that they found them in one country, some in another. One very pious writer in a book called "Star of the West" thinks that he has found them among the North American Indians."[30]

The mystery of where they went still intrigues men, and the present-day Mormon church has received as doctrine that the Indians are the lost tribes of Israel. However, it is a matter of total indifference. All people, wherever they live, whatever was their former status, whoever they were, are all alike subjects of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The new covenant of God is through Christ and through Christ only. Racial status is not where the things of Christ are concerned. Since the dawn of the times of the Messiah, "there is no distinction" between Jews and anyone else (Romans 10:12).