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SPIRIT TO BE POURED OUT ON ALL FLESH. -- This promise, as pertaining to the last days, was made by Joel and renewed by Moroni when he appeared to the Prophet Joseph Smith on Sept. 21, 1823. It has reference, not to the Holy Ghost, but to the pouring out of the Spirit of Christ, the spirit or light which enlighteneth every man born into the world. Those who hearken to this spirit and are led by its strivings come to the knowledge of the truth, accept the gospel, and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
It was this spirit, the Light of Christ, which prepared the way for the opening of the dispensation of the fulness of times. Working in the hearts of men in the dark ages, it caused them to seek light, to translate the Bible, to break away (partially, at least) from the chains of religious darkness which bound their minds. This is the spirit, inspiring good men and honest truth seekers in every nation, which has led to the great discoveries, inventions, and technological advances of our modern civilization -- achievements withheld from former dispensations and made known only in the last days.
DISCOVERY AND COLONIZATION OF AMERICA. -- The latter-day discovery and colonization of the American nation was part of the divine plan.This land, "choice above all other lands", has been reserved in all ages for the particular peoples permitted to inhabit it. In the latter- days these inhabitants were to come from the nations of the Gentiles. Nephi saw the foundation of a great and abominable church among the nations of the Gentiles -- a church "most abominable above all other churches," a church whose foundation was the devil, a church separated from the seed of his brethren, the Lamanites, by many waters. He also beheld that the Spirit of God, meaning the Light of Christ, came down and wrought upon a man among the Gentiles (Columbus), inspiring and impelling him to lead out in the discovery of America.
Then Nephi saw the same spirit, "that it wrought upon other Gentiles; and they went forth out of captivity, upon the many waters." Following this view of the colonization of America, Nephi saw the Revolutionary War, with the new inhabiters of this new land being delivered by "the power of God," while the wrath of God rested upon "their mother Gentiles."
ESTABLISHMENT OF THE AMERICAN NATION. -- We know by revelation that the United States was established as a nation by the Lord for two chief reasons:
1. So that the Book of Mormon, containing as it does the fulness of the gospel, might come forth with its message of salvation to both Jew (which includes the Lamanites) and Gentile.
2. So that the Lord's true Church might be set up again on earth, and thus have the way opened up for the fulfilling of the covenants made by the Lord with the house of Israel.
The resurrected Lord, in speaking to the Nephites of the signs whereby it might be known when the great latter-day work would commence, said that the Gentiles would be established in this land "as a free people by the power of the Father," so that the Book of Mormon record might come forth, and so "that the covenant of the Father may be fulfilled which he hath covenanted with his people, O house of Israel." The nation so set up was to be on "a land of liberty unto the Gentiles." It was to be a nation in which no kings would be raised up, a nation which would be fortified "against all other nations," so that all who fought against it "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 forever, that hear my words."
TRANSLATION AND PRINTING OF BIBLE. -- Without a knowledge on the part of the common people of the truths found in the Bible, the Lord could not have brought to pass his latter-day purposes. During the dark ages reading, writing, and a knowledge of the scriptures were confined, almost without exception, to the clergy. Because the people lacked the knowledge of the truth they were more easily kept in bondage by their civil and ecclesiastical overlords. And so the translation and printing of the Bible became a mighty force opening the door to progression and advancement in every field.
LATTER-DAY REVELATION. -- No sign of the times is more dramatic or expressive of such marvelous wonderment as revelation; and no sign is deserving of such attentive consideration by man as the opening of the heavens in latter-days. The voice of God is heard again. The Father and the Son appeared personally to the Prophet. Angels again minister to the faithful. The gift of the Holy Ghost is poured out on thousands of righteous church members. The President of the Church stands as a prophet, seer, and revelator to his people. Visions, revelations, gifts of the Spirit abound. By all these means the predictions of the ancient scriptures as pertaining to the last days are being fulfilled. What could anyone ask more as a sign of the times?
COMING FORTH OF THE BOOK OF MORMON. -- One of the great evidences of the Lord's goodness, mercy, and condescension toward his children on earth is found in the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, a book containing a record of God's dealings with peoples and nations on the American continent who had the fulness of the gospel. The price in faith, toil, and blood which first preserved and then brought forth this record in our day is incalculable. Many prophets foretold events surrounding its preparation, preservation, and final coming forth in the latter-days as a sign that the times of restitution of all things had commenced.
OPPOSITION TO THE BOOK OF MORMON. Strange as it may seem to present day enemies of the truth, their very opposition to the receipt of more of the word of the Lord by way of the Book of Mormon is one of the signs of the times. Their opposition, summarized in the canting chant, "A Bible! A Bible! We have got a Bible, and there cannot be any more Bible," brings forth this severe rebuke from the Lord: "Thou fool, that shall say: A Bible, we have got a Bible, and we need no more Bible. ... Wherefore murmur ye, because that ye shall receive more of my word?"
RESTORATION OF KEYS AND PRIESTHOOD. -- Without priesthood (which is the power and authority of God delegated to man on earth to act in all things for the salvation of men), and keys (which are the right and power of presidency, the right to direct the manner in which priesthood is to be used, and the means by which the door is opened for the gospel cause) the covenants of the Lord pertaining to the last days could not be fulfilled. Thus the restoration of the priesthood and its keys becomes a sign that the work reserved for the dispensation of dispensations has commenced. John the Baptist, Peter, James, and John, Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Elijah, Elias, Moses, and Moroni have all come restoring their keys, powers, and authorities.
RESTORATION OF THE GOSPEL. -- From the very beginning the Lord's prophets have known and spoken about the final restoration of the gospel in the last days. Isaiah devoted so many whole chapters to the great era of restoration and the events to transpire therein that he might well be called the ancient prophet of the restoration.
The promised restoration, destined to come by revelation and angelic ministration, was seen by John as taking place just before the day of judgment. Indeed, the promised restoration is so extensively intertwined with the whole concept of the last days that no one can really believe these are the last days without believing also that the Lord has spoken again and is bringing to pass his strange act.
MESSENGER TO PRECEDE SECOND COMING. -- "Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me," the Lord said speaking of his Second Coming. Both John the Baptist and the Prophet Joseph Smith have ministered in our day in fulfilment of this ancient prediction. The gospel itself is, also, a messenger preparing the way before the face of the Lord.
CHURCH AND KINGDOM SET UP AGAIN. -- The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the kingdom of God on earth. it is the kingdom set up without man's hands (meaning by revelation from heaven), and it was to come forth in the days of certain kings who reigned subsequent to the days of the Roman Empire; that is, it was to be set up in the last days.
The keys of the kingdom were given to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery in June, 1829, and the formal organization of the kingdom took place on April 6, 1830.
GROWTH OF THE CHURCH. -- For our day the Church was set up with this decree: It would stand forever; never again would there be universal apostasy; the kingdom would never be destroyed, left to other people, or sink into oblivion. This time the gospel and plan of salvation would remain; the newly established kingdom would in due course break in pieces all earthly kingdoms and would remain forever.
Enoch saw that the restored kingdom would remain on earth to prepare a people for the Second Coming of the Lord. In confirming the known truth that the keys of the kingdom had been committed to man on the earth, the Lord gave the irrevocable assurance that the gospel would roll forth "until it has filled the whole earth." There will be an eventual millennial day when every living soul on earth will belong to the true Church, for the knowledge of God shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea, and pending that blessed consummation the present marvelous growth, expansion, and stability of the Church will shine forth as one of the signs of the times.
GATHERING OF ISRAEL. -- After the Church had been organized and perfected in New Testament times, after the apostles had been ordained and commissioned to carry the message of salvation to all the earth, after the resurrected Christ had spent 40 days with his disciples schooling them in all things necessary for their ministry, after all this and more, there yet remained one great promised event about which the disciples had not been informed.
Having in mind the many prophetic declarations relative to the gathering of scattered Israel, and on the occasion of our Lord's ascension into heaven, the apostles asked: " Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?" In reply the Lord said: "It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power." In other words, the promised gathering of Israel was yet future; it was to occur in a time subsequent to New Testament times; the full restoration of the kingdom to Israel was reserved for the last days.
The keys of that gathering were conferred upon Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery by Moses on April 3, 1836, in the Kirtland Temple, and since that day the scattered remnants of Jacob have been leaving friends and temporal pursuits in all nations, and with the spirit of gathering resting mightily upon them, assembling with the saints who comprise the hosts of Latter-day Israel. The drawing power of the Church from all nations is one of the marvels of the ages.
TEN TRIBES TO RETURN. -- So far, the gathering of Israel has been limited primarily to the scattered sheep of Ephraim (who is ranked as the firstborn and as having the birthright), and to a few of Manasseh, Judah and other tribes. But the time is near when the lost tribes "who are in the north countries shall come in remembrance before the Lord," and shall come to Zion "with songs of everlasting joy," to be crowned with blessings by those of Ephraim who stand at the head.
TIMES OF GENTILES BEING FULFILLED. -- Taking the dispensation of the meridian of time as a starting point, the gospel was preached first to the Jews and thereafter to the Gentiles. Then dropping down to the dispensation of the fulness of times we find the gospel message going first to the Gentiles, with a promise that it will hereafter go to the Jews. Thus the first shall be last and the last first.
Now this era in which the Gentiles have precedence in receiving the gospel is called the times of the Gentiles. In it the non-Jews (meaning the other portions of scattered Israel, the portions found in the great Gentile nations of the earth) have the opportunity to accept the gospel and gain salvation before that right is to be given, in any substantial degree, at least, to the Jews. When the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled, then the gospel will go to the Jews.
Obviously the fulfilling of the times of the Gentiles will not come at a specified moment; it will involve a period of time. We are living in that transition period. Our Lord told his disciples, speaking of the signs of his Second Coming, that "Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." In December, 1917, General Allenby of Great Britain captured Jerusalem almost without opposition and for the first time in nearly 1900 years that city came out from under infidel or Gentile domination and was made available for the return of the Jews.
RETURN OF JUDAH TO JERUSALEM. -- Judah is commanded to flee to Jerusalem in the last days, and their return is given as one of the signs that the times of the Gentiles is being fulfilled. To effect this return of the Jews to their native Palestine, the Lord has begun to work by what appear to men as natural causes. When England received the mandate of Palestine, Mr. Balfour, secretary of state for foreign affairs, issued a declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations. Great sums were spent by Britain and others to industrialize Palestine, renew the fertility of her soil, and build up her civilization. Hundreds of thousands of Jews returned to the land of their fathers and now an Israeli nation itself has been established there.
JEWS TO BEGIN TO BELIEVE IN CHRIST. -- "And it shall come to pass that the Jews which are scattered also shall begin to believe in Christ; and they shall begin to gather in upon the face of the land." Much of the old Jewish bitterness against Christ has ceased; many now accept him as a great Rabbi, though not the Son of God. A few have accepted him in the full sense, coming into the true Church along with the gathered remnants of Ephraim and his fellows.
But the great conversion of the Jews, their return to the truth as a nation, is destined to follow the Second Coming of their Messiah. Those able to abide that day, in their extremity and mourning, will ask: "What are these wounds in thine hands and in thy feet? Then shall they know that I am the Lord; for I will say unto them: These wounds are the wounds with which I was wounded in the house of my friends. I am he who was lifted up. I am Jesus that was crucified. I am the Son of God."
BUILDING OF LATTER-DAY TEMPLES. -- This final dispensation is now and in greater measure is yet to be the great era of temple work and temple building. Isaiah foretold that the house of the Lord would be established in the tops of the mountains, in the American Zion, and that scattered Israel would flow unto it just before the Second Coming. Micah repeated the same prophecy. Ezekiel foretold the placing of a similar holy sanctuary among gathered Israel in Palestine in the last days. And the Lord has given us renewed assurance that this same temple is to be erected in "the mountains of the Lord's house" in Jerusalem.
This latter-day building of temples -- holy sanctuaries apart from the world where sacred ordinances can be performed for the salvation and exaltation of men -- even as such temples were built and such ordinances performed anciently, is one of the great evidences of the divinity of this great latter-day work as well as one of the great signs of the last days.
LORD TO COME SUDDENLY TO TEMPLE. -- Malachi preserved for us the promise that the Lord would suddenly come to his temple in the last days prior to the great and dreadful day of the Lord, an event which actually took place, as far as the Kirtland Temple is concerned, on the 3rd of April in 1836. This is one of those prophetic utterances destined for dual fulfilment, however, and the Lord yet again shall come suddenly to others of his temples, including the great temple to be erected in Jackson County.
SPIRIT OF ELIJAH AND GENEALOGICAL RESEARCH. -- A great change has taken place in this dispensation relative to genealogical research; since the coming of Elijah, the hearts of people everywhere, both in the Church and out, have turned to their fathers. The time when genealogical societies were first organized to any appreciable extent ties in so closely with the time of Elijah's return that it constitutes competent and relevant evidence that Elijah actually came.
PERSECUTION OF THE SAINTS. -- Where the gospel is, there will be opposition and persecution, for Lucifer will not stand idly by while the work of God rolls forward. Hence, the saints have been tormented, pushed about, persecuted, reviled. The Missouri persecutions are one of the blackest pages in American history. Persecution is the heritage of the faithful; when men join the Church, it commences; when they leave the truth, their persecutors become their friends.
PERSECUTION OF THE JEWS. -- Because they rejected the truth and failed to keep the commandments of the Lord, all the curses enumerated by Moses came upon the Jews. "The Lord shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies," he said, so that thou "shalt be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth. ... And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all nations whither the Lord shall lead thee." Similar predictions of their scattering and suffering were also made by our Lord during his ministry. And as we view present and past events, in what nations and kingdom have they not become a hiss and a byword? Where have they not been treated as the offscourings of the earth?
Yet with it all a remnant was to be preserved as a peculiar and distinct people. (What a miracle it is that the Jewish people continue as a distinct race in spite of all their persecution and suffering!) And when Jerusalem was no longer trodden down of the Gentiles, when the fulness of the Gentiles was fulfilled, they were to return to the land of their fathers. In Germany, Russia, Poland, and many nations, they have been slaughtered, burned, driven, and scourged; yet they have maintained their distinctive race and are now and will continue to return to Jerusalem. Indeed, their very persecutions have helped cause them to flee unto Jerusalem.
TRUE GOSPEL TO BE PREACHED IN ALL THE WORLD. -- Mormon missionaries work a modern miracle in carrying again to the world the same identical gospel preached by Christ and his apostles. Where else is there any church or organization which can call upon scores of thousands of its members to volunteer two or three or more years of their lives, pay their own expenses, and go forth carrying a message to the world? "And the voice of warning shall be unto all people, by the mouths of my disciples, whom I have chosen in these last days. And they shall go forth and none shall stay them, for I the Lord have commanded them."
SCIENTIFIC AND INVENTIVE PROGRESS. -- The promised latter-day increase of knowledge and learning is evidenced by the many inventions, engineering marvels, and mechanical undertakings of modern times. We have already seen the discovery and world- wide use of radio, television, telephones, and wireless; of steam engines, automobiles, airplanes, and railroads; of electricity, atomic energy, and destructive weapons; of medicinal advances, surgical achievements, and wonder drugs. Apparently some of the ancient prophets were even permitted to see the latter-day use of airplanes and armored tanks, of trains and automobiles, and perhaps other achievements, and to make records of their visions in such descriptive terms as were then available to them.
DISEASE, PLAGUE, PESTILENCE TO SWEEP EARTH. -- Despite medical advances, people are to suffer from diseases, plagues, and pestilences of undreamed proportions in the last days. Men's hearts shall fail them. New and unheard of diseases will attack the human system. After the times of the Gentiles comes in there shall be an overflowing scourge, and "a desolating sickness shall cover the land." Also: "I the Lord God will send forth flies upon the face of the earth, which shall take hold of the inhabitants thereof, and shall eat their flesh, and shall cause maggots to come in upon them; And their tongues shall be stayed that they shall not utter against me; and their flesh shall fall from off their bones, and their eyes from their sockets." The plagues and pestilences of the past will be as nothing compared to what is yet to be as the great winding up scene approaches.
ELEMENTS IN COMMOTION. -- Our earth has been and will be subject to various physical conditions during the course of its existence. When first created, it came forth in a terrestrial or paradisiacal status, all land being in one place; then came the fall and the resultant telestial conditions now prevailing; and mighty changes were most certainly wrought by the universal flood and in the day when the continents were divided. We are now approaching the day when the earth is to be renewed and returned to its paradisiacal glory and when the islands are to become one land again.
Conditions and circumstances destined to prevail during this final pre-millennial period call for great commotion and upheaval among the very elements. This is the day when "there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places " when there shall be "the testimony of earthquakes, that shall cause groanings in the midst of her [the earth], and men shall fall upon the ground and shall not be able to stand." This is the day when we shall hear "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." In our day there are to be dust storms, whirlwinds, tornadoes, floods, and "a great hailstorm sent forth to destroy the crops of the earth." And finally, incident to the final change back to its paradisiacal state, the very globe itself shall "tremble and reel to and fro as a drunken man."
DISASTERS AND CALAMITIES TO ABOUND. -- Perils and calamities, daily instances of turmoil and violent death, and an increasing flood of disasters and dangers are symptomatic of the times. For instance: "There are many dangers upon the waters, and more especially hereafter, the saints learned by revelation back on August 12, 1831, following Elder William W. Phelps' daylight vision of the destroyer riding upon the face of the Missouri River. "For I, the Lord, have decreed in mine anger many destructions upon the waters; yea, and especially upon these waters .... Behold, I, the Lord, in the beginning blessed the waters; but in the last days, by the mouth of my servant John, I cursed the waters. Wherefore, the days will come that no flesh shall be safe upon the waters."
STRIKES, ANARCHY, VIOLENCE, TO INCREASE. -- Not only do disasters and perils abound because of the unsettled conditions of the elements, but that same spirit of unrest is found among men themselves. The Lord's decree for this age is: "The whole earth shall be in commotion. " Signs of this commotion are seen daily in the untempered strikes and labor troubles that rock the economic world; in the violence, compulsion, and destruction of property that attend these strikes; in the unholy plots against our freedoms and free institutions; in the anarchy, rebellion, and crime that flow from great political movements which seek to destroy the agency of man and overthrow the governments of the world by force and violence. Communism and every other brutal and evil association or form of government are signs of the times.
LATTER-DAY WICKEDNESS. -- Our Lord's epigrammatic announcement, "Iniquity shall abound", as he described latter-day conditions, perfectly summarizes the prevailing world condition. Crime and licentiousness of every sort are the common diet of a large portion of the inhabiters of our globe. Murder, robbery, rape, whoredoms, every form of sex immorality, and all forms of crimes against persons and property truly abound. Juvenile delinquency is a problem of substantial magnitude. Birth control is one of the great evils of the day. This is the time when the prediction of the Lord is fulfilled that men should say: "Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck." And all these iniquities receive anything but deterrence from the common run of movies, radio and television broadcasts, comic books, and other cheap and degrading so-called literary efforts.
End of Part 1.