The Latter-day Saints are looking for the coming of the Savior to reign
upon the earth, at which coming will commence the reign of peace for
one thousand years. This is the Millennium, during which period Satan
will be bound and all iniquity shall be done away. When Jesus had
finished his ministry at Jerusalem and had ascended into heaven from
the presence of His apostles, two heavenly beings "stood by them in
white apparel; which also said, '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.'"
(Acts i:10, 11.) He ascended in glory and power. In glory and power will
He come to reign. The preparation shown forth in the restoration of the
Gospel by a holy angel; the gathering of Israel; the restoration of
the ten tribes; the return of the Jews; the establishment of Zion and
Jerusalem--all are signs to precede His second coming, as referred to
in preceding chapters of this little work, in its discussion of several
subjects.
That Jesus will come in power and glory is evident from many
prophecies. And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these,
saying, "Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of His saints to
execute judgment upon all." (Jude i:14, 15.) Malachi says: "Behold, I
will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me, and the
Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to His temple. But who will abide
the day of His coming, and who shall stand when He appeareth? For
He is like a refiner's fire and like fuller's soap." (Mal. iii:1, 2.)
Unlike this first advent as the meek and lowly babe of Bethlehem, He
next comes in glory, to avenge the blood of His Saints, to purify the
sons of Levi, to cleanse and purify the earth that it may enjoy a reign
of peace and rest.
When Jerusalem is partly rebuilt by her ancient covenant people, the
Gentile nations will be gathered against them to battle. Then will the
crucified Redeemer appear to the Jews. He will set his feet upon the
Mount of Olives, and the mount will cleave in twain. The house of Judah
will look upon Him, and seeing the wounds in His hands and feet, will
ask where He obtained them. When He shall answer, "in the house of my
friends," they will weep and mourn, their separate houses and families
apart, to realize that He whom their fathers rejected is in truth their
Deliverer and Redeemer. Then will the fountain for uncleanness be
opened, and the house of Judah will be baptized for the remission of
their sins.
"Behold the day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in
the midst of thee. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to
battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the
women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity,
and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city. Then
shall the Lord go forth, and fight against the nations, as when He
fought in the day of battle. And His feet shall stand in that day upon
the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the
Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and
toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of
the mountain shall move toward the north, and half of it toward the
south." (Zech. xiv:1-4.)
"And one shall say unto Him, What are these wounds in Thine hands?"
Then He shall answer, "Those with which I was wounded in the house
of my friends." (Zech. xiii:6.) "And it shall come to pass in that
day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against
Jerusalem. And I will pour out upon the house of David, and upon the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication: and
they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn
for him as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness
for Him as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. In that day
shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of
Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon. And the land shall mourn, every
family apart; the family of the house of David apart, and their wives
apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart;
the family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the
family of Shimei apart, and their wives apart; All the families that
remain: every family apart, and their wives apart." (Zech. xii:9-14.)
"In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David,
and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness." (Zech
xiii:1.)
Many other plain and precious prophecies of the Old and New Testaments
might be cited to show forth the second coming of our Savior. These
predictions are corroborated by the prophecies in the Book of Mormon,
and by the predictions of the prophet Joseph Smith, made in the
revelations of God to him in these latter days.
In close connection with the Savior's second coming will be presented
the glorious conditions of the Millennium. "For the earth shall be
filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover
the sea." (Hab. ii:14.) "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and
the leopard shall lie down with the kid: and the calf and the young
lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.
And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down
together: And the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking
child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put
his hand on the cockatrice's den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in
all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of
the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." (Isa. xi:6-10.)
Man is the great head of God's creation, the image of his Maker. He has
made him "a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with
glory and honor." (Ps. viii:5.) Man led the way to the fall by which
came the enmity between himself and the lower animal creation. Should
man not lead the way, as the Lord directs, back to his "Paradise Lost"?
As an incident pointing the way to and expressing the true spirit
of the Millennium, when Zion's Camp, a body of more than 200 men,
journeyed through the wilderness of Indiana, Illinois and Missouri
from Kirtland to Western Missouri, the Camp at night would be visited
by serpents, which the brethren were inclined to destroy. The Prophet
Joseph told them not to kill the snakes, but to carry them peaceably
from their tents with sticks. Joseph promised them that if they kept
this counsel none should be bitten, adding that it was man's duty to
set the example of peace and lead the way back to the perfect harmony
existing in Eden before the fall. The Camp observed his advice and
realized his promise.
The time spoken of by Isaiah, as already referred to here, was also
predicted by Joel when he said: "And ye shall know that I am in the
midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God and none else: And my
people shall never be ashamed. And it shall come to pass afterward,
that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and
your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your
young men shall see visions; and also upon the servants and upon the
handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit." (Joel ii: 27-29.)
The apostle Peter, upon the day of Pentecost, gave the multitude to
understand that the Spirit which gave utterance to the apostles on that
occasion was the same Spirit concerning which Joel the prophet said in
the last days should be poured out, not upon the few only, but upon all
flesh. The Spirit of God alone can bring perfect unity, destroy enmity,
and fill the earth with the knowledge and glory of God.
Of this glorious epoch the prophet Jeremiah says: "And they shall teach
no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know
the Lord; for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the
greatest of them, saith the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity,
and I will remember their sin no more." (Jer. xxxi:34.) Such a
condition would be in harmony with the promise of the Savior that there
should be "one fold and one shepherd." The Spirit of Truth is the guide
into all truth, rather than to man-made theories taught by men devoid
of the authority and inspiration of Almighty God.
Paul says, "When that which is perfect is come, then that which is in
part shall be done away." (I Cor. xiii.) Prophecy and tongues and the
gifts of the Gospel imperfectly enjoyed by man in his weakness were
never designed to be done away until we come to enjoy a more perfect
fullness, "when we see as we are seen and know as we are known."
Zephania says: "For then will I turn to the people a pure language
that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve Him with
one consent." (Zeph. iii:9.) The pure language was confounded at the
tower of Babel, because men sought to thwart the purposes of Jehovah.
When the time comes that the wicked who will not obey are swept from
the earth, the Lord will restore to His children the language which
they learned from their mother tongue and which was spoken from Adam to
the time of the tower of Babel. He will also unite the great bodies of
water into a mighty ocean and roll it back to its place in the North,
while the lands of the earth will be reunited and become one vast
continent.
Isaiah says, speaking of the land of Zion, which is the Western
hemisphere, and the land of Jerusalem, on the Eastern continent:
"Thou shalt no more be termed forsaken, neither shall thy land any
more be termed Desolate; but thou shalt be called Hephzi-bah, and thy
land Beulah: for the Lord delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be
married." (Isa. lxii:4.) In other words, the lands shall be united.
What a glorious period and condition! The earth geographically
restored, spiritually redeemed and politically exalted to the
government of God. John, the revelator, prophesied: "The kingdoms of
this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and
He shall reign forever and ever." (Rev. xi:15.) And again, in the
twentieth chapter, fourth verse, "And I saw thrones, and they sat upon
them, and judgment was given unto them: And I saw the souls of them
that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God,
and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had
received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands: And they
lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years."
The further writings of the apostle John in the Apocalypse describe
the conditions of peace during the Millennium, and subsequently the
last resurrection, the change of the earth, the banishment of Lucifer
therefrom, and the earth celestialized as man's eternal abode, our
heaven. The apostle Peter says "the elements shall melt with fervent
heat," and John the apostle informs us that the earth shall become as
a sea of glass, a great Urim and Thummim. What a joyous consummation
to the labors of the faithful, in the great and marvelous blessings
that will bring such glory to those that serve the Lord and to their
heavenly abode!