be. Great as has been the chastisement of the covenant though recreant
people, all through their centuries of suffering they have been
sustained by the Divine promise of recovery and rehabilitation. Though
despised of men, a large part of them gone from the knowledge of the
world, the people of Israel are not lost to their God, who knows
whither they have been led or driven. Note the paternal affection, in
which appears commiseration for the plight into which they had brought
themselves through sin: "And yet for all that, when they be in the land
of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them,
to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them: for I am
the Lord their God." (Lev. 26:44; see also Deut. 4:26-31).
Isaiah thus forcefully proclaims the purposes of God to be fulfilled
in the last, the current, age: "And it shall come to pass in that day,
that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the
remnant of his people, which shall be left. . . . And he shall set up
an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel,
and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the
earth." (Isa. 11:11-12).
So momentous shall be the assembling of the tribes in their respective
places of gathering, that the event shall be held to surpass the
deliverance of Israel from Egyptian bondage, for thus hath the Lord
spoken: "Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that it
shall no more be said, The Lord liveth, that brought up the children
of Israel out of the land of Egypt; But The Lord liveth, that brought
up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the
lands whither he had driven them: and I will bring them again into
their land that I gave unto their fathers. Behold, I will send for many
fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them; and after will I
send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain,
and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks." (Jer.
16:14-16).
To these Biblical citations let us add the words of the Lord Jesus
Christ, given to His Apostles just prior to His death and specified as
one of the signs to precede His later coming: "And he shall send his
angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together
his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other."
(Matt. 24:31).
Two gathering centers are distinctively mentioned, and the maintenance
of a separate autonomy for the ancient kingdoms of Judah and Israel
is repeatedly affirmed in Scripture, with Jerusalem and Zion as the
respective capitals. In the light of modern revelation by which many
ancient passages are illumined and made clear, we hold that the
Jerusalem of Judea is to be rebuilt by the reassembled house of Judah,
and that Zion is to be built up on the American continent by the
gathered hosts of Israel, other than the Jews. When such shall have
been accomplished, Christ shall personally rule in the earth, and then
shall be realized the glad fulfilment: "For out of Zion shall go forth
the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." (Isa. 2:3; see also
Joel 3:16; Zeph. 3:14).
Book of Mormon prophecies are plain in defining the extent and
purpose of the latter-day gathering. Be it remembered that it was the
people who once constituted the kingdom of Judah, the Jews, not the
entire house of Israel, who rejected Jesus as the Son of God and the
foreappointed Redeemer. By the Nephites who dwelt on the American
continent, an Israelitish branch, He was received and worshipped as
the Christ (see Book of Mormon, 3 Nephi 11); and the tenor of Book of
Mormon Scriptures warrants the inference that He was accepted by the
Lost Tribes, to whom He went to minister in person after His several
visitations in the resurrected state to the Nephites. (See 3 Nephi
15:15 and 16:1-3; compare 2 Nephi 29:12-13).
The rehabilitation of the Jewish nation is assured, and the prominent
part to be taken in that work by Gentile nations is defined in
prophecy. So spake Jehovah through His prophet Nephi:
"But behold, thus saith the Lord God: When the day cometh that they
shall believe in me, that I am Christ, then have I covenanted with
their fathers that they shall be restored in the flesh, upon the earth,
unto the lands of their inheritance. And it shall come to pass that
they shall be gathered in from their long dispersion, from the isles of
the sea, and from the four parts of the earth; and the nations of the
Gentiles shall be great in the eyes of me, saith God, in carrying them
forth to the lands of their inheritance. Yea, the kings of the Gentiles
shall be nursing fathers unto them, and their queens shall become
nursing mothers; wherefore, the promises of the Lord are great unto the
Gentiles, for he hath spoken it, and who can dispute?" (Book of Mormon
2 Nephi 10:7-9; see also 25:15-17).
The work of gathering is well under way; and among the far-reaching
results of the World War is the participation of the Gentile nations
in providing for the reassembling of Israel. It is the privilege of
the Gentiles to assist in the gathering of the Jews on the Eastern,
and the other branches of Israel on the Western Continent; and so far
as they shall accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ the Gentiles shall be
numbered with the covenant people and share with them the plenitude
of blessings, in their own right, for, verily, God is no respecter of
persons.
-- 45 --
AMERICA THE LAND OF ZION
The Place of the New Jerusalem
WE believe in the literal gathering of Israel, and in the restoration
of the Ten Tribes; that Zion will be built upon this [the American]
continent; etc. (Articles of Faith, No. 10).
The Holy Bible makes frequent mention of Zion and Jerusalem with the
context showing that the terms are used interchangeably if not as
precise synonyms. This application of different names to the same place
is justified by the fact that within the walls of the Jerusalem of old
was a hill specifically called Mount Zion, and by contraction, Zion.
But the two names appear in other Biblical passages with distinctive
meaning, indicating different places, and expressive of contrast
instead of identity. For example, consider the prophecy voiced by
Isaiah relating to a time yet future: "Oh Zion that bringest good
tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest
good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength: lift it up, be not
afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God." (Isa. 40:9).
The same prophet refers to a Zion of the last days in which the
righteous shall be safeguarded, this to be in a mountainous land, with
the "munitions of rocks" as a defense; and he particularly states that
the land is very far off. (See Isa. 33: 14-17).
More definite than Bible prophecies, however, are the predictions
relating to the latter-day Zion made by prophets who ministered on
the American continent many centuries prior to the rediscovery of the
New World by Columbus. In the Book of Mormon the names Zion and New
Jerusalem are used with allied meaning and sometimes synonymously.
Near the beginning of the sixth century before Christ's birth, Ether,
a Jaredite prophet, compiled the history of his people from the time
of their coming to America soon after the dispersion from Babel.
Even before they had crossed the ocean, the sanctity of the Western
Continent as a foreappointed land for people who would observe the
laws of righteousness was made known to the Jaredites. In a summary of
Ether's record, Moroni the Nephite who lived a thousand years after the
extinction of the Jaredites, says of the latter:
"And the Lord would not suffer that they should stop beyond the sea
in the wilderness, but he would that they should come forth even unto
the land of promise, which was choice above all other lands, which the
Lord God had preserved for a righteous people. And he had sworn in his
wrath unto the brother of Jared, that whoso should possess this land of
promise from that time henceforth and forever, should serve him, the
true and only God, or they should be swept off when the fulness of his
wrath should come upon them. . . . For behold this is a land which is
choice above all other lands; wherefore he that doth possess it shall
serve God, or shall be swept off; for it is the everlasting decree of
God. And it is not until the fulness of iniquity among the children of
the land, that they are swept off." (Book of Mormon, Ether 2:7-10).
The inspired admonition of these ancient prophets to the inhabitants
of America today, that they observe and uphold the principles of
righteousness, which embody just government and true liberty under
equitable laws, may profitably be taken to heart by people of all
conditions and degrees.
America is the Land of Zion, and as the people of this continent render
allegiance to the God of Israel who is verily the God of all mankind,
the land shall be sacred to liberty as the inheritance of the house of
Israel. In it the Gentiles shall be potent, and shall be numbered with
Israel according to their deserts. To the Nephites the Lord gave this
far-reaching and blessed promise.
"But behold, this land, saith God, shall be a land of thine
inheritance, and the Gentiles shall be blessed upon the land. And this
land shall be a land of liberty unto the Gentiles, and there shall be
no kings upon the land, who shall raise up unto the Gentiles. And I
will fortify this land against all other nations. And he that fighteth
against Zion shall perish, saith God; for he that raiseth up a king
against me shall perish, for I, the Lord, the king of heaven, will be
their king, and I will be a light unto them for ever, that hear my
words." (Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 10:10-14).
Zion is to be established on this continent, and as the word of modern
revelation avers, in the western part of the United States (See D&C
45:64-71; 57:1-5). The time of the blessed consummation is conditioned
by the fitness of the people. Hither shall come the hosts of scattered
Israel, and the Lost Tribes from their long obscurity. Here shall yet
be built the City of the Lord, Zion, the New Jerusalem, which in time
shall be made one with the "Holy City," which the Revelator saw "coming
down from God, out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her
husband." (Rev. 21:2).
Holy Scriptures, of both ancient and latter days, aver that the Lost
Tribes of Israel shall be brought forth from the place whereunto the
Lord has led them, and shall figure in the general gathering incident
to the Dispensation of the Fulness of Times. Touching this feature of
the Divine purpose in the time of restoration, we are told:
"And they who are in the north countries shall come in remembrance
before the Lord, and their prophets shall hear his voice and shall
no longer stay themselves, and they shall smite the rocks, and the
ice shall flow down at their presence. And an highway shall be cast
up in the midst of the great deep. Their enemies shall become a prey
unto them, And in the barren deserts there shall come forth pools of
living water; and the parched ground shall no longer be a thirsty land.
And they shall bring forth their rich treasures unto the children
of Ephraim my servants. And the boundaries of the everlasting hills
shall tremble at their presence. And there shall they fall down and be
crowned with glory, even in Zion, by the hands of the servants of the
Lord, even the children of Ephraim; and they shall be filled with songs
of everlasting joy. Behold, this is the blessing of the everlasting God
upon the tribes of Israel, and the richer blessing upon the head of
Ephraim and his fellows." (D&C 133:26-34).
-- 46 --
THE COMING OF THE LORD
The Consummation of the Ages
WE believe . . . that Christ will reign personally upon the earth; etc.
(Articles of Faith, No. 10).
"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 1:11). So spake
the white-robed angels to the Apostles as the resurrected Christ
ascended from their midst on Mount Olivet. The assertion is definite,
unambiguous, easy to comprehend. Jesus the Christ is to return to earth
"in like manner" as He went, therefore as a material Being, a living
Personage, having a tangible immortalized body of flesh and bones.
The actuality of the Lord's future advent is attested by the utterances
of holy prophets both before and since the brief period of His ministry
in the flesh, and by His own unequivocal avowal. Consider the following:
"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."
(Matt. 16:27).
"For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the
Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his
Father's, and of the holy angels." (Luke 9:26; compare Mark 8:38).
The Master had so effectively instructed the Apostles concerning His
assured death and His later return to earth in power and glory, that
they eagerly inquired as to the time and signs of His coming. (See
Matt. chap. 24). Though they failed to comprehend the full import of
His reply, He told them that many great developments would intervene
between His departure and return; but as to the certainty of His advent
as Judge, and Lord, and King, Jesus left no excuse for dubiety in their
minds. Throughout the apostolic period the Lord's coming was preached
with the emphasis of inspired and convicting testimony.
Book of Mormon prophecies concerning the great event are no whit less
explicit. To the Nephites the resurrected Christ preached the Gospel
of salvation; "And He did expound all things, even from the beginning
until the time that He should come in His glory." (Book of Mormon, 3
Nephi 26:3).
Questions of supreme import to every one of us are these: (1) When will
Christ come? (2) What shall be the purpose and attendant conditions of
His coming?
The date of the Lord's advent has never been revealed to man, nor shall
it be. Prior to His resurrection Jesus Himself did not know it, as
witness His words: "But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no,
not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father."
(Mark 13:32).
In the present age the Father hath declared: "And they have done unto
the Son of Man even as they listed; and He has taken His power on the
right hand of His glory, and now reigneth in the heavens, and will
reign till He descends on the earth to put all enemies under His feet,
which time is nigh at hand. 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." (D&C 49:6-7).
In the light of such scriptural affirmations we may dismiss as empty
conjecture all alleged determinations as to the precise time of the
Lord's appearing. Nevertheless, the specified signs and conditions by
which is shown the imminence of the event are definite, and from these
we know that the great day of the Lord is very near. So near is the
consummation that the intervening period is called "today"; and on the
morrow mankind shall rejoice or tremble at the presence of the Lord.
(See Doctrines and Covenants 64:23-25).
Christ's advent shall be made with the accompaniment of power and great
glory. While in suddenness and unexpectedness to the unobserving it
shall be comparable to the coming of a thief in the night, it shall
be a manifestation of surpassing glory to all the world: "For as the
lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so
shall also the coming of the Son of man be." (Matt. 24:27).
With the Lord's appearing a general resurrection of the righteous dead
shall be effected, and many then in the flesh shall be changed from
the mortal to the immortal state without the intervening experience
of prolonged disembodiment or the sleep of the grave. (See 1 Thess.
4:14-17).
"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. And they who have slept in their graves shall come forth; for
their graves shall be opened, and they also shall be caught up to meet
Him in the midst of the pillar of heaven." (D&C 88:95-97).
Then shall be established the era of peace, the predicted Millennium,
in which Christ shall dwell with men, and shall rule in the earth as
Lord and King.
-- 47 --
THE FEDERATION OF THE WORLD
A Thousand Years of Peace
WE believe . . . that Christ will reign personally upon the earth, and
that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory.
(Articles of Faith, No. 10).
Through the lurid gloom of smoke and fire in which the nations have
been enshrouded, amidst the awful stench of blood that has sickened
the world, mankind has had reason to rejoice in the enlightening beams
of comforting assurance that an era of peace is to be established. And
this shall be a peace that cannot be broken, for righteousness shall
rule, and man's birthright to liberty shall be inviolate.
Of necessity this blessed state shall be attained only after due
preparation; for in the economy of God it would be as incongruous
to force upon mankind an unappreciated and undesired boon as to
arbitrarily afflict with an undeserved curse.
The coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to reign personally upon the
earth is near at hand, for the Scriptures so attest. Prophecies
relating to this impending event specify a period of a thousand years,
distinctively known as the Millennium, which in certain conditions
shall differ from both preceding and succeeding time. While this
period is nowise indicative of a limitation to the Lord's dominion, it
specifies the duration of a particular part of His ministry, even as
the epoch of His administration in the flesh is measurable in terms of
years and days.
Unto righteous Enoch, who walked with God and was taken bodily from the
earth (Gen. 5:24; Heb. 11:5), the certainty of the millennial reign was
revealed over thirty centuries before the Lord's birth in mortality,
as is thus recorded: "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." (Pearl of Great
Price, p. 45).
In glorious vision John, the apostle and revelator, foresaw Christ's
personal reign, during which Satan is to be bound:
"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 worshiped 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. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand
years were finished." (Rev. 20:4, 5; see also verse 2).
The Millennium is to be a Sabbatical era, when the earth shall rest;
and men, relieved from the tyranny of Satan, shall, if they will, live
in righteousness and peace. Man, to whom was given dominion over the
earth and its creatures, shall rule by love, for enmity between him
and the brute creation shall cease, and the ferocity and venom of the
beasts shall be done away. So hath the Lord avowed through the prophet
Isaiah. (See Isa. ch. 65).
We are definitely assured that the Millennium is to be inaugurated
by the advent of Christ, and that Satan's power over men shall be
restrained, and further, that after the thousand blessed years are
finished, Satan shall be loosed for a season, and such as elect to
follow him shall eventually go with him to eternal condemnation. See
Rev. 20:7, and consider these words of the Lord Christ spoken in the
current dispensation:
"For in my own due time will I come upon the earth in judgment, and
my people shall be redeemed and shall reign with me on earth. 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. . . . Hearken ye to these words; Behold, I am Jesus Christ, the
Savior of the world. Treasure these things up in your hearts, and let
the solemnities of eternity rest upon your minds." (D&C 43: 29-34).
The following revelation is equally specific:
"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. . . . And again,
verily, verily, I say unto you, that 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." (D&C 29:11, 22, 23).
It is evident from citations given and from all Scripture bearing upon
the subject, that the Millennium is to precede the consummation spoken
of as "the end of the world." In the era of peace both mortal and
immortalized beings will tenant the earth; and though sin will not be
wholly abolished nor death banished, the powers of righteousness shall
be dominant. Though Satan shall afterward regain a measure of power
over mankind, his time will be short and the earth shall eventually
be restored to its paradisiacal glory, and become a fit abode for the
glorified children of our God and His Christ.
-- 48 --
THY KINGDOM COME!
So Pray We Yet
"OUR Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom
come."
Thus did the Master teach His disciples to pray; and the injunction has
never been abrogated. The passing of the centuries has demonstrated the
need of ever increasing fervency in the supplication Thy kingdom come!
But if this petition be anything more than words, it implies a
conviction on the part of the supplicant that the kingdom specified
has not yet been established on the earth, and that it will be set up
in due time. And, if there is to be a kingdom, there must needs be a
living, reigning King.
In the Gospel according to Matthew the phrase "kingdom of heaven"
repeatedly occurs; while in the writings of the other evangelists and
throughout the epistles, the corresponding expression is "kingdom of
God," "kingdom of Christ," or simply "kingdom." In many instances these
designations are used with the same meaning, though a distinction is
apparent in others. The several scriptural usages of the terms comprise:
1. A signification practically identical with that of "The Church of
Jesus Christ."
2. The designation of the literal kingdom, material and spiritual, over
which Christ the Lord shall rule by personal ministration in days yet
future.
Under the first conception, the "kingdom" of scriptural mention has
been already established as an organization among men, and is today in
a state of war against sin, with its powers and resources mobilized
in defense of freedom of worship and for the salvation of the race.
Plainly, when we speak of the Church as the Kingdom we refer to an
institution already extant on the earth, not one that is yet to come.
The Church of Jesus Christ asserts no right of control in the
government of nations; and its jurisdiction in temporal affairs is
limited to matters of organization and discipline within itself, such
as are essential to the maintenance and perpetuity of any community
body.
The Kingdom of God and the Church of Christ are virtually synonymous
terms. We do not pray that this organization shall come; for it is
now existent. We pray and strive for its growth and development, for
the spread of its saving principles, and for their acceptance by all
mankind. But the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than the Church as the
latter exists today, and when fully established will be seen to be a
development thereof. Its advent is yet to be prayed for.
This relationship is made clear through a revelation given to the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1831: