=1. The Earth Under the Curse.=--The blessed conditions, under which
the earth shall exist and man shall live during the millennial era,
are almost beyond human powers of comprehension, so different are they
from all to which history testifies and which experience confirms. A
reign of righteousness throughout the earth has never yet been known
to the fallen race of man. So marked has been the universal curse, so
great the power of the tempter; so bitter the selfish and ungodly
strife betwixt man and man, and between nation and nation; so general
has been the enmity of the animal creation, among its own members, and
toward the being who, though in a degraded state, yet holds the Divine
commission to the authority of dominion; so prolific has been the soil
in bringing forth thorns, briers, and noxious weeds, that the
description of Eden is to us as the story of another world, an orb of
a higher order of existence, wholly unlike this dreary sphere. Yet, we
learn that Eden was truly a feature of our planet, and that the earth
is destined to become a celestialized body,--fit for the abode of the
most exalted intelligences. The millennium, with all its splendor, is
but a more advanced stage of preparation, by which the earth and its
inhabitants will approach the fore-ordained perfection.
=2. Regeneration of the Earth.=--The term regeneration (translated
from the Greek _palingenesia_, and signifying a new birth, or, more
literally, one who is born again) occurs twice[1127] in the New
Testament; while other expressions of equivalent meaning are used in
many places. However, the terms are usually applied to the renewal of
the soul of man through the spiritual birth, by which salvation is
made obtainable; though our Lord's use of the term, in the promise of
future glory which He confirmed upon the apostles, has probable
reference to the rejuvenation of the earth, its inhabitants and their
institutions, in connection with the millennial era:--"I say unto you,
That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of
man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon
twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel."[1128]
[1127] Matt. xix, 28; Titus iii, 5.
[1128] Matt. xix, 28.
=3.= A time of restitution is foretold. Consider the words of Peter,
spoken to the people who had come together in Solomon's porch,
marveling over the miraculous healing of the lame beggar at the gate
Beautiful:--"Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may
be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the
presence of the Lord; and he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was
preached unto you: whom the heavens must receive until the times of
restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all
his holy prophets since the world began."[1129]
[1129] Acts iii, 19.
=4.= That the change to a state more nearly approaching perfection is
to affect both nature and man is evident from the teachings of Paul,
as recorded in his letter to the Romans:--"Because the creature itself
also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the
glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole
creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not
only they, but ourselves also, which have the first-fruits of the
Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the
adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body."[1130]
[1130] Rom. viii, 21-23.
=5.= This work of regeneration has already begun. As a necessary
preliminary, whereby the curse that would otherwise afflict the earth
might be averted, Elijah the prophet was to visit the earth, bringing
with him the keys and authority of a great work; concerning which
event, while yet future, the Lord said:--"Behold, I will send you
Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of
the Lord: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children,
and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite
the earth with a curse."[1131]
[1131] Mal. iv, 5-6; see also III Nephi xxv.
=6.= The Latter-day Saints solemnly declare that this prophecy has had
a literal fulfillment, in that on the third day of April, A.D. 1836,
Elijah visited the Prophet Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery, in the
newly dedicated temple at Kirtland, Ohio, announced his mission as
that spoken of by the mouth of Malachi, declared that the day for the
fulfillment of the prediction had come, and committed the keys of this
work of the last dispensation to the Church, that the labor of
restoration might be carried on; and moreover, as a sign "that the
great and dreadful day of the Lord is near, even at the doors."[1132]
Throughout the Millennium, this process of regeneration will be
continued. Society shall be purified; nations shall exist in peace;
wars shall cease; the ferocity of beasts shall be subdued; the earth,
escaping in a great measure the curse of the Fall, shall yield
bounteously to the husbandman; and the planet shall be redeemed.
[1132] Doc. and Cov. cx, 14-16; p. 154, this book.
=7.= The final stages of this regeneration of nature will not be
reached until the Millennium has run its blessed course. Describing
the events to take place after the completion of the thousand years,
John the Revelator says:--"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for
the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was
no more sea.... And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying,
Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with
them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with
them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their
eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying,
neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed
away."[1133] A similar prediction was made by Ether the Jaredite, six
hundred years before Christ was born:--"And there shall be a new
heaven, and a new earth: and they shall be like unto the old, save the
old have passed away, and all things have become new."[1134] This
event is to follow the scenes of the Millennium, as the context makes
plain.
[1133] Rev. xxi, 1, 3-4.
[1134] Book of Mormon, Ether xiii, 9.
=8.= In the year 1830 of our present era, the Lord said:--"When the
thousand years are ended, and men again begin to deny their God, then
will I spare the earth but for a little season; and the end shall
come, and the heaven and the earth shall be consumed and pass away,
and there shall be a new heaven and a new earth, for all old things
shall pass away, and all things shall become new, even the heaven and
the earth, and all the fulness thereof, both men and beasts, the fowls
of the air and the fishes of the sea: and not one hair, neither mote,
shall be lost, for it is the workmanship of mine hand."[1135]
[1135] Doc. and Cov. xxix, 22-25.
=9.= According to the scriptures, the earth has to undergo a change
analogous to death, and to be regenerated in a manner comparable to a
resurrection. References to the elements melting with heat, and to the
earth being consumed and passing away, such as occur in many
scriptures already cited, are suggestive of death; and the new earth,
really the renewed or regenerated planet, which is to result, may be
compared with a resurrected organism. The change has been likened unto
a transfiguration.[1136] Every created thing has been made for a
purpose; and everything that fills the measure of its creation is to
be advanced in the scale of progression, be it an atom or a world, an
animalcule, or man--the direct and literal offspring of Deity. In
speaking of the degrees of glory provided for His creations, and of
the laws of regeneration and sanctification, the Lord, in a revelation
dated 1832, speaks plainly of the approaching death and subsequent
quickening of the earth. These are His words:--"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."[1137]
[1136] Doc. and Cov. lxiii, 20-21.
[1137] Doc. and Cov. lxxxviii, 25-26.
=10.= During the Millennium, the earth, while preparing for the final
change, will be tenanted by both mortal and immortal beings; but after
the regeneration is complete, death will no longer be known among its
inhabitants. Then the Redeemer of earth "shall deliver up the kingdom,
and present it unto the Father spotless, saying, I have
overcome."[1138] Before victory is thus achieved and triumph won, the
enemies of righteousness must be subdued; the last foe to be
vanquished is death. Thus saith Paul the Apostle:--"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. But when he saith, All things are put under
him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things
under him. And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall
the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under
him, that God may be all in all."[1139]
[1138] Doc. and Cov. lxxvi, 107.
[1139] I Cor. xv, 24-26.
=11.= The following partial description of the earth in its
immortalized condition has been given by the Prophet Joseph Smith in
this dispensation:--"This earth, in its sanctified and immortal state,
will be made like unto crystal, and will be a Urim and Thummim[1140]
to the inhabitants who dwell thereon, whereby all things pertaining to
an inferior kingdom, or all kingdoms of a lower order, will be
manifest to those who dwell on it; and this earth will be
Christ's."[1141]
[1140] See page 273.
[1141] Doc. and Cov. cxxx, 9.
=12. Absence of Evidence from Science.=--Attempts have been made to
demonstrate an agreement between the teachings of science concerning
the destiny of the earth, and the scriptural predictions regarding the
ordained regeneration of our planet, by which it is to be made fit for
the abode of immortal souls. Without considering the details of the
alleged evidence of mutual support between science and the revealed
word in this matter, it may suffice to say that the so-called
evidence is unsatisfactory, and that science is practically silent on
the subject. The geologist views the earth as a body in process of
continual change, its surface a heterogeneous mass of fragmental
material; he reads, in the record inscribed on its stony pages, the
story of past development through many successive stages of progress,
each making the globe more fit for habitation by man; he witnesses the
work of constructive and destructive agencies now in operation, land
masses yielding to the lowering action of air and water, and by their
destruction furnishing material for other formations now in process of
construction;--the general effect of all such being to level the
surface by degrading the hills and raising the valleys. On the other
hand, he observes volcanic agencies operating to increase the
inequality of level by violent eruption and crustal elevation. He
confesses inability, from his observations of the present, and his
deductions concerning the past of the earth, to predict even a
probable future. So futile have been his efforts to ascertain the
origin or determine the destiny of the globe, that he has generally
abandoned the attempt. The epoch-making declaration of an acknowledged
leader in the science has now become proverbial:--Geology furnishes
"no traces of a beginning, no prospect of an end."[1142]
[1142] James Hutton.
=13.= The astronomer, studying the varied conditions of other worlds,
may seek by analogy to learn of the probable fate of our own. Gazing
into space with greatly augmented vision, he sees, within the system
to which the earth belongs, spheres exhibiting a great range of
development,--some in their formative stage, seemingly unfit for the
abode of beings constituted as are we; others in a state more nearly
resembling that of the earth: and yet others seemingly old and
lifeless. Of the mighty systems beyond the comparatively small company
under control of our own sun, he knows nothing but the existence of
these central orbs. But, nowhere has he discovered a celestialized
world. Think you that mortal eye could discern such even if it were
within the limits of vision as determined by distance alone?
=14.= The poet has written:--
"Nor think though men were not,
That heaven would want spectators,
God want praise!
Millions of spiritual beings
Walk the earth
Unseen both when we wake,
And when we sleep."
If this thought be founded on truth, and the Christian soul will
hardly doubt it, we may as readily believe in the existence of other
worlds than those of structure so gross as to be visible to our dull
eyes. I repeat, that in regard to the revealed word concerning the
regeneration of earth, and the acquirement of a celestial glory by our
planet, science has nothing to offer, either by way of support or
contradiction. Let us not because of this, disparage science, or decry
the labors of its votaries. No one realizes more fully than does the
truly scientific man how much we do not know.