Jesus the
Christ
Chapter 42
- Jesus the Christ to Return
The Lord’s
Second Advent Predicted in Ancient Scripture
“Ye men of Galilee,
why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you
into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into
heaven.” So spake the white-robed angels to the
eleven apostles as the resurrected Christ ascended from their midst on Olivet.
The scriptures abound in predictions of the Lord’s return.
Note:
Everyone will see Jesus Christ returning to execute judgment.
“And there
will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth
distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; men’s
hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are
coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they
will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.” Luke 21:25-27
By the
“second advent” we understand not the personal appearing of the Son of God to a
few, such as His visitation to Saul of Tarsus, to Joseph Smith in 1820, and
again in the Kirtland Temple in 1836; nor later manifestations to His worthy
servants as specifically promised; but His yet
future coming in power and great glory, accompanied by hosts of resurrected and
glorified beings, to execute judgment upon the earth and to inaugurate a reign
of righteousness.
Note:
Everyone will see Jesus Christ returning to execute judgment.
Now I saw heaven opened, and
behold, a white horse. And He who sat on
him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He
judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on
His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no
one knew except Himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in
blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies in
heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white
horses. Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He
should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of
iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of
Almighty God. And He has on His robe and on His thigh a
name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS. Revelation 19:11-16
The
prophets of both hemispheres, who lived prior to the meridian of time, said
comparatively little concerning the Lord’s second coming; their souls were too
full of the merciful plan of redemption associated with the Savior’s birth into
mortality to permit them to dwell upon the yet more distant consummation
appointed for the last days. Certain of them, however, were permitted to behold
in vision the working out of the divine purposes even to the end of time; and
these testified with unsurpassed fervency concerning the glorious coming of
Christ in the final dispensation. Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied
saying, “Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of
his saints, to execute judgment upon all.” In a more extended account of
the Lord’s revelations to Enoch than is included in the Bible, we read that
after this righteous prophet had been shown the scenes of Israel’s history,
down to and beyond the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ, he
pleaded with God, saying: “I ask thee if thou wilt not come again on the earth.
And the Lord said unto Enoch: As I live, even so will I come in the last days,
in the days of wickedness and vengeance, to fulfil the oath which I have made
unto you concerning the children of Noah. … And it came to pass that Enoch saw
the day of the coming of the Son of Man, in the last days, to dwell on the
earth in righteousness for the space of a thousand years.” Isaiah, in rapturous
contemplation of the eventual triumph of righteousness, exclaimed: “Say to them
that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not:
behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will
come and save you”; and again: “Behold, the Lord God will come with strong
hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his
work before him.” The conditions specified were not realized in the
earthly life of the Redeemer; moreover the context
clearly shows that the prophet’s words are applicable to the last days only—the
time of the ransomed of the Lord, the time of restitution, and of the triumph
of Zion.
Note: The
prophet Joel had much to say about the return of Jesus Christ for judgment.
“Let the nations be wakened, and come up to the Valley of
Jehoshaphat; For there I will sit to judge all the
surrounding nations. Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come,
go down; For the winepress is full,
the vats overflow— for their
wickedness is great.” Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The sun and
moon will grow dark, and the stars will diminish their
brightness. The Lord also will roar from Zion, and utter His
voice from Jerusalem; The heavens and earth will shake;
But the Lord will be a shelter for His people, and the strength of the children of Israel. Joel 3:12-16
Of all
Biblical scriptures relating to our subject, the utterances of the Christ
Himself in the course of His earthly ministry are most direct and certain. Many
of these we have already considered in the narrative of the Savior’s life; the
few following are sufficient for present
demonstration. “For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with
his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.” To
the apostles and the people generally He proclaimed: “Whosoever therefore shall
be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of
him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his
Father with the holy angels.” When a bound prisoner before proud Caiaphas,
Jesus answered the unlawful adjuration of the corrupt high priest, by
affirming: “I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on
the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.”
Note: The
prophet Zechariah had much to say about the return of Jesus Christ for
judgment.
Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, and your spoil will be divided in your midst. For I will gather all the
nations to battle against Jerusalem; The city shall be taken,
the houses rifled, and the women ravished. Half of the city shall go into captivity, but
the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then the Lord will go forth and fight against those
nations, as He fights in the day of battle. And, in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of
Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two, from east to west, making a very large valley;
Half of the mountain shall move toward the north and half of it toward the south. Then you
shall flee through My mountain valley, for the mountain valley
shall reach to Azal. Yes, you shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of
Judah. Thus, the Lord my God will come, and all the saints with You. It shall
come to pass in that day that there will be no light; The lights will
diminish. Zechariah 14:1-6
The
apostles had been so impressed with the Master’s assurance that He would return
to earth in power and glory, that they eagerly questioned as to the time and
signs of His coming. He stated explicitly, though at the time they failed
to comprehend Him, that many great events would intervene between His departure
and return, including the long era of darkness associated with the
apostasy. But as to the certainty of His advent in glory, as Judge, and
Lord, and King, Jesus left no excuse for dubiety in the minds of His apostles.
After the ascension, throughout the course of apostolic administration, the
future coming of the Lord was preached with earnest emphasis.
Note: The
prophet Isaiah had much to say about the return of Jesus Christ for judgment.
For the day of the Lord of hosts shall
come upon everything proud and lofty, upon everything lifted up— And it
shall be brought low— Upon all the cedars of Lebanon that are high
and lifted up, and upon all the oaks of Bashan; Upon all the high mountains, and
upon all the hills that are lifted up; Upon every high tower, and
upon every fortified wall; Upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all the
beautiful sloops. The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the
haughtiness of men shall be brought low; The Lord alone will be
exalted in that day, but the idols He shall utterly abolish. They shall go
into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, from
the terror of the Lord and the glory of His majesty, when He arises to
shake the earth mightily. In that day a man will cast away his idols of silver and
his idols of gold, which they made, each for himself to worship, to
the moles and bats, to go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the crags of
the rugged rocks, from the terror of the Lord and the glory of His
majesty, when He arises to shake the earth mightily. Isaiah 2:12-21
Book of
Mormon prophecies concerning the advent of the Lord in the last days are
specific and definite. On the occasion of His appearing to the Nephites on the
American continent shortly after His ascension from the Mount of Olives, Christ
preached the gospel to assembled multitudes; “And he did expound all things,
even from the beginning until the time that he should come in his glory”; and
the events to follow, “even unto the great and last day.” In granting the
wish of the three Nephite disciples who desired to continue their ministry in
the flesh throughout the generations to come, the Lord said unto them: “Ye
shall live to behold all the doings of the Father, unto the children of men, even
until all things shall be fulfilled, according to the will of the Father, when
I shall come in my glory, with the powers of heaven; And ye shall never endure
the pains of death; but when I shall come in my glory, ye shall be changed in
the twinkling of an eye from mortality to immortality: and then shall ye be
blessed in the kingdom of my Father.”
Note: Jesus
Christ never appeared to pagan native American Indians.
But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at
the right hand of God, and said,
“Look! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing
at the right hand of God!” Acts 7:55-56
The Coming
of the Lord Proclaimed through Modern Revelation
To the
Church of Jesus Christ, restored and reestablished in these the last days, the
word of the Lord has come repeatedly, declaring the actuality of His second
advent and the nearness of that glorious yet dreadful event. But a few months
after the Church was organized, the voice of Jesus Christ was heard,
admonishing the elders to vigilance and proclaiming as follows: “For the hour
is nigh, and the day soon at hand when the earth is ripe: and all the proud,
and they that do wickedly, shall be as stubble, and I will burn them up, saith
the Lord of Hosts, that wickedness shall not be upon the earth; for the hour is
nigh, and that which was spoken by mine apostles must be fulfilled; for as they
spoke so shall it come to pass; for I will reveal myself from heaven with power
and great glory, with all the hosts thereof, and dwell in righteousness with
men on earth a thousand years, and the wicked shall not stand.”
Note: The
LDS church proclaims Jesus Christ to be a liar.
Jesus
answered and said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not
revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also
say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock (confession) I will build My church, and the gates of Hades
shall not prevail
against it.” Matthew 16:17-18
In the
month following, the Lord gave instructions to certain elders, concluding with these
portentous words: “Wherefore, be faithful, praying always, having your lamps
trimmed and burning, and oil with you, that you may be ready at the coming of
the Bridegroom: for behold, verily, verily, I say unto
you, that I come quickly. Even so. Amen.”
Note:
Sidney Rigdon plagiarized the Holy Bible.
“And at
midnight a cry was heard: ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!’ Then all
those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps.”
Matthew 25:6-7
Again we
read in a later revelation: “And blessed are you because you have believed; and
more blessed are you because you are called of me to preach my gospel, to lift
up your voice as with the sound of a trump, both long and loud, and cry
repentance unto a crooked and perverse generation, preparing the way of the
Lord for his second coming; for behold, verily, verily, I say unto you, the
time is soon at hand, that I shall come in a cloud with power and great glory,
and it shall be a great day at the time of my coming, for all nations shall
tremble.”
Note: Jesus
Christ did not return to the earth in 1831.
Wail, for the day of the Lord is at hand! It will come as destruction from the Almighty. Therefore, all hands will be limp, every
man’s heart will melt, and they will be afraid. Pangs and sorrows will take hold of them; They will be in pain as a woman in childbirth; They will be amazed at one another; Their
faces will
be like flames.
Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with both wrath and fierce
anger, to lay the land desolate; And He will destroy its sinners from it. For the stars of heaven
and their constellations will not give their light;
The sun will be darkened in its going forth, and the moon
will not cause its light to shine. “I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will
halt the arrogance of the proud, and will lay low the
haughtiness of the terrible. I will make a mortal more rare than fine gold, a man more than the golden wedge of Ophir. Therefore,
I will shake the heavens, and the earth will move out
of her place, in the wrath of the Lord of hosts and in the day of His fierce
anger.” Isaiah 13:6-13
The Lord
Jesus addressed a general revelation to His Church in March 1831, through which
His earlier predictions uttered to the Twelve shortly before His betrayal were
made plain, and the assurances of His glorious coming were thus reiterated: “Ye
look and behold the fig-trees, and ye see them with your eyes, and ye say when
they begin to shoot forth, and their leaves are yet tender, that summer is now
nigh at hand; even so it shall be in that day when they shall see all these
things, then shall they know that the hour is nigh. And it shall come to pass
that he that feareth me shall be looking forth for
the great day of the Lord to come, even for the signs of the coming of the Son
of man: And they shall see signs and wonders, for they shall be shown forth in
the heavens above, and in the earth beneath; and they shall behold blood, and
fire, and vapors of smoke; and before the day of the Lord shall come, the sun
shall be darkened, and the moon be turned into blood, and stars fall from
heaven; and the remnant shall be gathered unto this place, and then they shall
look for me, and, behold, I will come; and they shall see me in the clouds of
heaven, clothed with power and great glory, with all the holy angels; and he
that watches not for me shall be cut off.”
Note:
Sidney Rigdon plagiarized the Holy Bible.
“Immediately after the
tribulation of those days the sun
will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall
from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then
all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming
on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a great sound of a
trumpet, and they will gather together His elect
from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become
tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. So, you also, when
you see all these things, know that it is near—at the doors!” Matthew
24:29-33
So near is
the consummation that the intervening period is called “today”; and, in
applying this time designation in the year 1831, the Lord said: “Behold, now it
is called today (until the coming of the Son of man), and verily it is a day of
sacrifice, and a day for the tithing of my people; for he that is tithed shall
not be burned (at his coming); For after today cometh the burning: this is
speaking after the manner of the Lord; for verily I say, tomorrow all the proud
and they that do wickedly shall be as stubble; and I will burn them up, for I
am the Lord of hosts: and I will not spare any that remain in Babylon.
Wherefore, if ye believe me, ye will labor while it is called today.”
Note:
Tithing will not save you from the wrath of God.
But what
does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which
we preach): that if you confess
with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised
Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the
heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation. For the
Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.” For there is no
distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For “whoever
calls on
the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Romans
10:8-13
The Time
and Accompaniments of the Lord’s Coming
The date of
the future advent of Christ has never been revealed to man. To the inquiring
apostles who labored with the Master, He said: “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father
only.” In the present age, a similar declaration has been made by the
Father: “I, the Lord God, have spoken it, but the hour and the day no man knoweth, neither the angels in heaven, nor shall they know
until he comes.” Only through watchfulness and prayer may the signs of the
times be correctly interpreted and the imminence of the Lord’s appearing be
apprehended. To the unwatchful and the wicked the event will be as sudden and
unexpected as the coming of a thief in the night. But we are not left
without definite information as to precedent signs. Biblical prophecies bearing
upon this subject we have heretofore considered. As later scriptures
affirm: “Before the great day of the Lord shall come, Jacob shall flourish in
the wilderness, and the Lamanites shall blossom as the rose. Zion shall flourish
upon the hills and rejoice upon the mountains, and shall be assembled together
unto the place which I have appointed.” War shall become so general that
every man who will not take arms against his neighbor must of necessity flee to
the land of Zion for safety. Ephraim shall assemble in Zion on the western
continent, and Judah shall be again established in the east; and the cities of
Zion and Jerusalem shall be the capitals of the world empire, over which
Messiah shall reign in undisputed authority. The Lost Tribes shall be brought
forth from the place where God has hidden them through the centuries and
receive their long deferred blessings at the hands of
Ephraim. The people of Israel shall be restored from their scattered condition.
Note: Zion
will not be located in North America.
It shall
come to pass in that day that the Lord will punish on high the host of exalted ones, and
on the earth the kings of the earth. They will be
gathered together, as prisoners are
gathered in the pit, and will be shut up in the prison;
After many days they will be punished. Then the moon will be disgraced and the sun ashamed;
For the Lord of hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in
Jerusalem and before His elders, gloriously.
Isaiah 24:21-23
In addressing
the elders of His Church in 1832, the Lord urged upon them the imperative need
of devoted diligence, and said: “Abide ye in the liberty wherewith ye are made
free; entangle not yourselves in sin but let your hands be clean, until the
Lord come; For not many days hence and the earth shall tremble and reel to and fro as a drunken man, and the sun shall hide his face, and
shall refuse to give light, and the moon shall be bathed in blood, and the
stars shall become exceeding angry, and shall cast themselves down as a fig
that falleth from off a fig tree. And after your
testimony cometh wrath and indignation upon the people; For after your
testimony cometh the testimony of earthquakes, that shall cause groanings in
the midst of her, and men shall fall upon the ground, and shall not be able to
stand. And also cometh the testimony of the voice of thunderings, and the voice of lightnings, and the voice of
tempests, and the voice of the waves of the sea, heaving themselves beyond
their bounds. And all things shall be in commotion; and surely, men’s hearts
shall fail them; for fear shall come upon all people; And angels shall fly
through the midst of heaven, crying with a loud voice, sounding the trump of
God, saying, Prepare ye, prepare ye, O inhabitants of the
earth; for the judgment of our God is come: behold, and lo! the Bridegroom
cometh, go ye out to meet him.”
Note:
Sidney Rigdon was caught up in the millennial craze of the time.
The Millerites were the
followers of the teachings of William Miller,
who in 1831 first shared publicly his belief that the Second Advent of Jesus Christ would
occur in roughly the year 1843–1844. Coming during the Second Great
Awakening, his beliefs were taken as predictions, spread widely, and
believed by many, leading to the Great Disappointment. Wikipedia
Encyclopedia
A
characteristic of present-day revelation is the reiteration of the fact that
the event is nigh at hand, “even at the doors.” The fateful time is repeatedly
designated in scripture, “the great and dreadful day of the Lord.” Fearful
indeed will it be to individuals, families, and nations, who have so far sunk
into sin as to have forfeited their claim to mercy. The time is not that of the
final judgment—when the whole race of mankind shall stand in the resurrected
state before the bar of God—nevertheless it shall be a time of unprecedented
blessing unto the righteous and of condemnation and vengeance upon the
wicked. With Christ shall come those who have already been resurrected;
and His approach shall be the means of inaugurating a general resurrection of
the righteous dead, while the pure and just who are still in the flesh shall be
instantaneously changed from the mortal to the immortal state and shall be
caught up with the newly resurrected to meet the Lord and His celestial
company, and shall descend with Him. To this effect did Paul prophesy: “Even so
them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. … For the Lord himself
shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and
with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which
are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to
meet the Lord in the air.” Compare the promise made to the Three Nephites:
“And ye shall never endure the pains of death; but when I shall come in my
glory, ye shall be changed in the twinkling of an eye from mortality to
immortality.” Of the superlative glories awaiting the righteous when the
Lord shall come, we have received in this day a partial description as follows:
“And the face of the Lord shall be unveiled; and the saints that are upon the
earth, who are alive, shall be quickened, and be caught up to meet
him.” The heathen nations shall be redeemed and have part in the first
resurrection.
Note:
Sidney Rigdon was caught up in the millennial craze of the time.
In 1832, Miller submitted a series
of sixteen articles to the Vermont Telegraph—a Baptist paper.
The first of these was published on May 15, and Miller writes of the public's
response, "I began to be flooded with letters of inquiry respecting my
views, and visitors flocked to converse with me on the subject." Wikipedia
Encyclopedia
The Kingdom
of Heaven to Come
The coming
of Christ in the last days, accompanied by the apostles of old and by the
resurrected saints, is to mark the establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven upon
earth. The faithful apostles who were with Jesus in His earthly ministry are to
be enthroned as judges of the whole house of Israel; they will judge the
Nephite Twelve, who in turn will be empowered to judge the descendants of Lehi,
or that branch of the Israelitish nation which was established upon the western
continent.
Note: The
Kingdom of Heaven upon earth will not be in North America.
Then Peter answered and said to
Him, “See, we have left all and followed You. Therefore, what shall we
have?” So, Jesus said to them, “Assuredly I say to you, that in the
regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you who
have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of
Israel.” Matthew 19:27-28
While the expressions
“Kingdom of God” and “Kingdom of Heaven” are used in the Bible synonymously or
interchangeably, later revelation gives to each a distinctive meaning. The
Kingdom of God is the Church established by divine authority upon the earth;
this institution asserts no claim to temporal rule over nations; its sceptre of power is that of the Holy Priesthood, to be used
in the preaching of the gospel and in administering its ordinances for the
salvation of mankind living and dead. The Kingdom of Heaven is the divinely
ordained system of government and dominion in all matters, temporal and
spiritual; this will be established on earth only when its rightful Head, the
King of kings, Jesus the Christ, comes to reign. His administration will be one
of order, operated through the agency of His commissioned representatives
invested with the Holy Priesthood. When Christ appears in His glory, and not
before, will be realized a complete fulfilment of the supplication: “Thy
kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.”
Note: The
LDS church proclaims the Apostle Paul to be a liar.
Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly
abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power
that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus
to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Ephesians 3:20-21
The Kingdom
of God has been established among men to prepare them for the Kingdom of Heaven
which shall come; and in the blessed reign of Christ the King shall the two be
made one. The relationship between them has been revealed to the Church in this
wise: “Hearken, and lo, a voice as of one from on high, who is mighty and
powerful, whose going forth is unto the ends of the earth, yea, whose voice is
unto men—Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. The keys of
the kingdom of God are committed unto man on the earth, and from thence shall
the gospel roll forth unto the ends of the earth, as the stone which is cut out
of the mountain without hands, shall roll forth, until it has filled the whole
earth; Yea, a voice crying—Prepare ye the way of the Lord, prepare ye the
supper of the Lamb, make ready for the Bridegroom; Pray unto the Lord, call
upon his holy name, make known his wonderful works among the people; Call upon
the Lord, that his kingdom may go forth upon the earth, that the inhabitants
thereof may receive it, and be prepared for the days to come, in the which the
Son of man shall come down in heaven, clothed in the brightness of his glory,
to meet the kingdom of God which is set up on the earth; Wherefore may the
kingdom of God go forth, that the kingdom of heaven may come, that thou, O God,
mayest be glorified in heaven so on earth, that thy enemies may be subdued: for
thine is the honour, power and glory, for ever and
ever. Amen.”
Note:
Sidney Rigdon plagiarized the Holy Bible.
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare
the way of the Lord; Make His paths straight.’” Mark 1:3
“And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of
heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever
you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Matthew
16:19
“Inasmuch as you saw that the stone was cut
out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke in
pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold—the great God
has made known to the king what will come to pass after this. The dream is
certain, and its interpretation is sure.” Daniel 2:45
And every creature which is in heaven and on
the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in
them, I heard saying: “Blessing and honor and glory and power be to
Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever!”
Revelation 5:13
The
Millennium
The inauguration
of Christ’s reign on earth is to be the beginning of a period that shall be
distinct in many important particulars from all precedent and subsequent time;
and the Lord shall reign with His people a thousand years. The government of
individuals, communities and nations throughout this Millennium is to be that
of a perfect theocracy, with Jesus the Christ as Lord and King. The more wicked
part of the race shall have been destroyed; and during the period Satan shall
be bound “that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years
should be fulfilled”; while the just shall share with Christ in rightful rule
and dominion. The righteous dead shall have come forth from their graves, while
the wicked shall remain unresurrected until the thousand
years be past. Men yet in the flesh shall mingle with immortalized beings;
children shall grow to maturity and then die in peace or be changed to
immortality “in the twinkling of an eye.” There shall be surcease of
enmity between man and beast; the venom of serpents and the ferocity of the
brute creation shall be done away, and love shall be the dominant power of
control. Among the earliest revelations on the subject is that given to Enoch;
and in this the return of that prophet and his righteous people with Christ in
the last days was thus assured: “And the Lord said unto Enoch: Then shalt thou
and all thy city meet them there, and we will receive them into our bosom, and
they shall see us; and we will fall upon their necks, and they shall fall upon
our necks, and we will kiss each other; And there shall be mine abode, and it
shall be Zion, which shall come forth out of all the creations which I have
made; and for the space of a thousand years the earth shall rest. And it came
to pass that Enoch saw the day of the coming of the Son of Man, in the last
days, to dwell on the earth in righteousness for the space of a thousand
years.”
Note:
Sidney Rigdon loved to plagiarize other works.
In his master's thesis, Salvatore
Cirillo cites and amplifies the arguments of D. Michael Quinn that
the available evidence that Smith had access to published works related to 1
Enoch has moved "beyond probability—to fact." He concludes that
there is no other explanation than this for the substantial similarities that
he finds between the Book of Moses and the pseudepigraphal Enoch
literature. However, reflecting on the "coincidence" of the
appearance of the first English translation of 1 Enoch in 1821, just a few
years before Smith received his Enoch revelations, Richard L. Bushman concludes: "It is
scarcely conceivable that Joseph Smith knew of Laurence's Enoch
translation." Wikipedia Encyclopedia
In these
latter days the Lord has thus spoken, requiring preparation for the Millennial
era, and describing in part the glories thereof: “And prepare for the
revelation which is to come, when the veil of the covering of my temple, in my
tabernacle, which hideth the earth, shall be taken
off, and all flesh shall see me together. And every corruptible thing, both of
man, or of the beasts of the field, or of the fowls of the heavens, or of the
fish of the sea, that dwell upon all the face of the earth, shall be consumed;
And also that of element shall melt with fervent heat;
and all things shall become new, that my knowledge and glory may dwell upon all
the earth. And in that day the enmity of man, and the enmity of beasts, yea,
the enmity of all flesh, shall cease from before my face. And in that day
whatsoever any man shall ask, it shall be given unto him. And in that day Satan
shall not have power to tempt any man. And there shall be no sorrow because
there is no death. In that day an infant shall not die until he is old, and his
life shall be as the age of a tree, and when he dies
he shall not sleep, (that is to say in the earth,) but shall be changed in the
twinkling of an eye, and shall be caught up, and his rest shall be glorious.
Yea, verily I say unto you, in that day when the Lord shall come, he shall
reveal all things.”
Note: Zion
will not be located in North America.
Now it shall come to pass in the latter
days that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established on
the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; And peoples
shall flow to it. Many nations shall come and say, “Come, and let us go up to
the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach
us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths.” For out of Zion the law shall go
forth, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge
between many peoples, and rebuke strong nations afar off; They shall beat their
swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; Nation
shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.
Micah 4:1-3
The
Millennium is to precede the time designated in scriptural phrase “the end of
the world.” When the thousand years are passed, Satan shall be loosed for a
little season, and the final test of man’s integrity to God shall ensue. Such
as are prone to impurity of heart shall yield to temptation while the righteous
shall endure to the end. A revelation to this effect was given the Church
in 1831, in part as follows: “For the great Millennium, of which I have spoken
by the mouth of my servants, shall come; For Satan shall be bound, and when he
is loosed again, he shall only reign for a little season, and then cometh the
end of the earth; And he that liveth in righteousness
shall be changed in the twinkling of an eye, and the earth shall pass away so
as by fire; And the wicked shall go away into unquenchable fire, and their end
no man knoweth on earth, nor ever shall know, until
they come before me in judgment. Hearken ye to these words: Behold, I am Jesus
Christ, the Saviour of the world. Treasure these
things up in your hearts, and let the solemnities of eternity rest upon your
minds.”
Note:
Sidney Rigdon plagiarized the Holy Bible.
Now when
the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his
prison and will go
out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them
together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea. Revelation 20:7-8
Behold, I
tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed— in a moment,
in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the
trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be
changed. 1 Corinthians 15:51-52
His winnowing fan is in His hand, and
He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the
barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
Matthew 3:12
The
Celestial Consummation
The
vanquishment of Satan and his hosts shall be complete. The dead, small and
great, all who have breathed the breath of life on earth, shall be
resurrected—every soul that has tabernacled in flesh, whether good or evil—and
shall stand before God, to be judged according to the record as written in the
books. So shall be brought to glorious consummation the mission of the
Christ. “Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to
God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority
and power. For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The
last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For he hath put all things under
his feet.” Then shall the Lord Jesus “deliver up the kingdom, and present
it unto the Father spotless, saying—I have overcome and have trodden the
wine-press alone, even the wine-press of the fierceness of the wrath of
Almighty God. Then shall he be crowned with the crown of his glory, to sit on
the throne of his power to reign for ever and ever.” The earth shall pass
to its glorified and celestialized condition, an eternal abode for the exalted
sons and daughters of God. Forever shall they reign, kings and priests to
the Most High, redeemed, sanctified, and exalted
through their Lord and God Jesus the Christ.
Note: In
the eternal there will be a convergence to God with joy.
Now I saw a new heaven and a
new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also,
there was no more sea. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New
Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned
for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying,
“Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell
with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and
be their God. And God will wipe away every tear from their
eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There
shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” Then He
who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He
said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.” And He
said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the
Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life
freely to him who thirsts. He who overcomes shall inherit all things,
and I will be his God and he shall be My son. Revelation 21:1-6
For whatever is born of God overcomes
the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—
our faith. Who is he who
overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? 1 John 5:4-5
Notes to
Chapter 42
1.
Enoch, spoken of by Jude as “the seventh from
Adam,” was the father of Methuselah. In Genesis 5:24 we read: “And Enoch walked with God;
and he was not; for God took him.” From the Lord’s revelation to Moses we learn that Enoch was a mighty man, favored of God
because of his righteousness, and a leader of and revelator to his people.
Through his agency a city was built, the inhabitants of which excelled in
righteous living to such an extent that they were of one heart and one mind and
had no poor among them. It was called the City of Holiness or Zion. The residue
of the race were all corrupt in the sight of the Lord.
Enoch and his people were taken from the earth and are to return with Christ at
His coming. (Moses 7:12–21, 68, 69; compare D&C 45:11, 12.)
2.
Heathen in the First Resurrection.—“And then shall the
heathen nations be redeemed, and they that knew no law shall have part in the
first resurrection; and it shall be tolerable for them” (D&C 45:54). Such is the word of the Lord with
respect to those benighted peoples who live and die in ignorance of the laws of
the gospel. This affirmation is sustained by other scriptures, and by a
consideration of the principles of true justice according to which humanity is
to be judged. Man shall be accounted blameless or guilty according to his deeds
as interpreted in the light of the law under which he is required to live. It
is inconsistent with our conception of a just God to believe Him capable of
inflicting condemnation upon any one for non-compliance with a requirement of
which the person had no knowledge. Nevertheless, the laws of the gospel cannot
be suspended even in the case of those who have sinned in darkness and
ignorance; but it is reasonable to believe that the plan of redemption shall
afford such benighted ones an opportunity of learning the laws of God; and, as
fast as they so learn, will obedience be required on pain of the penalty.
See Articles of Faith, 21:389–90.
3.
Regeneration of the Earth.—In
speaking of the graded and progressive glories provided for His creations, and
of the laws of regeneration and sanctification, the Lord has thus spoken
through revelation in the present dispensation: “And again, verily I say unto
you, the earth abideth the law of a celestial
kingdom, for it filleth the measure of its creation,
and transgresseth not the law. Wherefore it shall be
sanctified; yea, notwithstanding it shall die, it shall be quickened again, and
shall abide the power by which it is quickened, and the righteous shall inherit
it.” (D&C 88:25, 26.) This appointed change, by which the
earth shall pass to the condition of a celestialized world, is referred to in
numerous scriptures as the institution of “a new heaven and a new earth” (Revelation 21:1, 3, 4; Ether 13:9; D&C 29:23).