by elder b. h. roberts.
of all events that will take place in the immediate future, the most important to mankind is the glorious appearing of the son of god, generally spoken of as the second advent of the messiah. and if there is one thing that the writers of scripture are more explicit in than another, it is in relation to this all-important event.
the writer of the acts of the apostles, giving an account of the last meeting of the risen messiah with his disciples in palestine, and his last words to them, says:
"and when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. and, while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men 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, 9-11).
from this we learn that the same person whom the disciples had seen go up into heaven was to return in like manner. and this agrees with the words of jesus himself.
"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" (mat. xvi, 27).
from this last quotation we not only learn that the son of god is to come in the glory of his father, accompanied by his angels, but that he at that time "will reward every man according to his works." and to this testimony agrees that of other sacred writers.
st. jude, after referring to certain wicked characters who were like clouds without rain, or like raging waves of the sea foaming out their own shame, says:
{163} "and enoch also, the seventh from adam, prophesied of these, saying, behold, the lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him." (jude, 14, 15).
paul bears witness to the same thing:
"for if we believe that jesus died, and rose again, even so them also which sleep in jesus will god bring with him. for this we say unto you by the word of the lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the lord, shall not prevent them which are asleep. for the lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the arch-angel, 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: and so shall we ever be with the lord" (i thess. iv, 14-17).
and again:
"and to you who are troubled rest with us, when the lord jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not god, and that obey not the gospel of our lord jesus christ: who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the lord, and from the glory of his power; when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day" (ii thess. i, 7-10).
from the foregoing passages of scripture the reader learns two very important things: first—that the son of man in a glorious manner is to return to this earth; second—that when he shall so come, it will be to execute judgment—to reward the righteous for their faithfulness, and to punish those who "know not god, and who obey not the gospel, with everlasting destruction from the presence of the lord and the glory of his power."
no believer in the inspiration of the scriptures can possibly doubt the truth of what these passages teach, viz., that the son of god will verily come, and that to judgment! but in all other ages of the world, when god has decreed judgments upon a people or nation, he has first sent divinely-appointed messengers to warn them of the impending evil, that peradventure, some might repent and be saved. for example,—when god decreed that he would destroy the antediluvians by a flood for their wickedness, he first sent noah, a preacher of righteousness, among them to warn them of the approaching calamity: when destruction was hanging over the cities of the plain—sodom and gomorrah—the lord sent his angels {164} to first gather out righteous lot and his family: when destruction was decreed against nineveh, the prophet jonah was sent to cry repentance to the people, and in this instance the warning was heeded, and the calamity was turned aside: whenever bondage, famine, disease, or judgment of any character, was about to overtake ancient israel for their wickedness, prophets were sent to warn them, that they might repent and escape the sore affliction.
this has been the course pursued by the almighty in all ages and among all people; and now that mighty judgments are pronounced against the ungodly at the coming of the son of god, may we not reasonably expect that god will be true to his custom in the past, and send messengers to warn the nations of the near approach of those calamities? basing our conclusion on the experience of past ages, it would be reasonable to expect the lord to so proceed. but the scriptures themselves speak of a number of incidents that will take place as a preparatory work to the glorious coming of our lord. among these may be mentioned:
i.—the restoration of the everlasting gospel.
the great event is thus described by john the revelator:
"and i saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, fear god, and give glory to him: for the hour of his judgment is come" (rev. xiv, 6, 7).
ii.—the coming of a messenger.
to prepare the way for the son of god, when he shall come in the glory of his father. this event is foretold by the prophet malachi:
"behold, i will send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me: and the lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the lord of hosts. but who may 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: and he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the lord an offering in righteousness. then shall the offering of judah and jerusalem be pleasant unto the lord, as in the days of old, and as in former years" (malachi iii, 1-4).
iii.—the coming of elijah.
to whom is given the peculiar mission of turning the heart {165} of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to the fathers. malachi thus describes elijah's mission:
"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 father's, lest i come and smite the earth with a curse" (malachi iv, 5, 6).
iv.—the gathering of the saints.
the scriptures are replete with passages in relation to this event, but i can here refer only to a few. when john the revelator was about to foretell the downfall of babylon, he says:
"and i heard another voice from heaven, saying, come out of her, my people, that ye may not be partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. for her sins have reached to heaven, and god has remembered her iniquities. reward her even as she rewarded you and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled, fill to her double" (rev. xviii, 4-6).
the psalmist bears this testimony:
"our god shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before him and it shall be very tempestuous round about him. he shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people. gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice. and the heavens shall declare his righteousness: for god is judge himself" (psalm i, 3-6).
so isaiah:
"and it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it" (isaiah ii, 2-4).
"and he will lift up an ensign to the nations from afar, and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth: and, behold, they will come with speed swiftly" (isaiah v, 26, 27).
"and he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of israel [not the jews alone, but all israel], and gather together the dispersed of judah from the four corners of the earth" (isaiah xi, 12).
so paul:
"having made known to us the mystery of his will * * * that in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him" (eph. i, 9, 10).
{166} and lastly, the testimony of jesus:
"and they shall see the son of man coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. and he shall send his angels with a great sound of trumpet, and they shall gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other" (matt. xxiv, 30, 31).
all believers in the holy scriptures, then, must believe in and are looking forward to the glorious coming of the son of god. they also must believe that these four events we have named, will precede that coming. that is, they believe and are expecting that when those judgments connected with the coming of the messiah are about to overtake the inhabitants of the earth, an angel will come with the everlasting gospel, which must be preached to all nations; that a messenger will come to prepare the way before the lord, that elijah will come to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and vice versa; and that god's saints will be gathered together.
and now, in all sincerity of heart, and in the fear of god, the writer testifies to all men unto whom his words may come, that the first three events have taken place, and the fourth, the gathering of the saints, is now going on, and the coming of the son of god, together with the attendant judgments, are near at hand.
the restoration of the gospel
occurred in the following manner:
in the spring of 1820, joseph smith, then a lad between fourteen and fifteen years of age, being exercised on the subject of religion, and not knowing which of the contending sects of religion were accepted by god as his church, fortunately came upon that excellent advice given by the apostle james, viz.:
"if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of god, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him" (james i, 5).
in full, child-like confidence that god would fulfil his word, he called upon the lord in prayer, and in answer received an open vision, in which he beheld the father and the son, who revealed to him the startling truth that man had transgressed the laws of the gospel, changed the ordinances, broken the everlasting covenant, and that none of the churches or sects were acknowledged of his as his church or kingdom, and he was commanded to join none of them. he was {167} also informed that the time was at hand when the gospel would be restored, and was told that he was a chosen instrument to assist in bringing about the purposes of god.
let not the reader impatiently cast away this tract at the statement that god did not acknowledge any of the sects or churches as his church or kingdom. let it be remembered, according to the prophecy of the revelator we have quoted (rev. xiv, 6, 7), that every nation, kindred, tongue, and people in the hour of god's judgment, are to be without the gospel, or why would there be any need of an angel being sent from heaven with it to the earth, if it was anywhere on the earth? the learned john wesley said that the reason the extraordinary gifts of the holy ghost were no longer enjoyed was because the love of many waxed cold, the christians had turned heathens again and only had a dead form left (wesley's works, vol. vi, ser. 89). the church of england in her homily on perils of idolatry (page 3) says: "laity and clergy, learned and unlearned, all ages, sects and degrees have been drowned in abominable idolatry, most detested by god and damnable to man for eight hundred years or more."
but to return to our account of the restoration of the gospel. more than three years passed before joseph smith was again blessed with a heavenly vision. but on the night of the 21st of september, 1823, while engaged in prayer in his bedchamber, "i discovered," says he,
"a light appearing in the room, which continued to increase until the room was lighter than at noonday, when immediately a personage appeared at my bed-side, standing in the air, for his feet did not touch the floor. * * * not only was his robe exceedingly white, but his whole person was gloriously beyond description; and his countenance truly like lightning. * * * he called me by my name, and said unto me that he was a messenger sent from the presence of god to me, and that his name was moroni. that god had work for me to do, and that my name should be had for good or evil among all nations, kindred, and tongues; or that it should be good or evil spoken of among all people. he said that there was a book deposited, written upon gold plates, giving an account of the former inhabitants of this [the american] continent, and the source from whence they sprang. he also said that the fullness of the everlasting gospel was contained in it, as delivered by the savior to the ancient inhabitants [or america]. also that there were two stones in silver bows (and these stones, fastened to the breastplate, constituted what is called the urim of thummim) deposited with the plates, and the possession and use of these stones was what constituted seers in ancient or former times, and that god had prepared them for the purpose of translating the book."
the angel then quoted a number of prophecies from the jewish scriptures, among them the first part of the third chapter {168} of malachi, and also the fourth chapter of the same book, the eleventh chapter of isaiah, and the second chapter of joel, from the twenty-eighth verse to the close. he stated that these prophecies would be fulfilled in this generation.
four years after this first visit of the heavenly messenger, in the meantime being instructed by him in doctrine and principle, the tablets containing the ancient history of america, together with the urim and thummim by which they were to be translated, were given into his charge. in the course of two years the work of translation was completed, and in the winter of 1829-30 the book of mormon—for so the record is called—containing the "fulness of the everlasting gospel," as taught to the ancient peoples of america, was given to the world.
nor is the world asked to receive this important message on the statement of joseph smith alone, but the lord has given other witnesses, and their statement has been published with every edition of the book of mormon, and is as follows:
the testimony of the three witnesses.
"be it known unto all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people unto whom his work shall come, * * * we declare with words of soberness that an angel of god came down from heaven, and he brought and laid before our eyes, that we beheld and saw the plates, * * and the engravings thereon, and we know that it is by the grace of god the father, and our lord jesus christ, that we beheld and bear record that these things are true; and it is marvelous in our eyes, nevertheless the voice of the lord commanded us that we should bear record of it; wherefore, to be obedient unto the commandments of god, we bear testimony of these things. and we know that if we are faithful in christ, we shall rid our garments of the blood of all men, and be found spotless before the judgment seat of christ, and shall dwell with him eternally in the heavens."
"oliver cowdery,
"david whitmer,
"martin harris."
though these three witnesses; through transgression, lost the spirit of god, and wandered away from the fold of christ, they never denied the testimony they bore to the truth of the book of mormon. two of them previous to their death came back to the church, and died in the faith. the other—david whitmer—died at richmond, mo., in january, 1888, and on his deathbed, as he had always done previously, solemnly declared that his testimony concerning the book of mormon was true.
the coming of the messenger.
while the book of mormon was in course of translation, a very important event took place, viz, the coming of the messenger {169} to prepare the way for the coming of the lord. this is described by joseph smith as follows:
"we (joseph smith and oliver cowdery) still continued the work of translating; when in the ensuing month (may, 1829), we, on a certain day, went into the woods to pray, and inquire of the lord respecting baptism for remission of sins.
"while we were thus employed, praying and calling upon the lord, a messenger from heaven descended in a cloud of light, and having laid his hands upon us, he ordained us; saying unto us—'upon you, my fellow servants, 'in the name of messiah, i confer the priesthood of aaron, which holds the keys of the ministering of angels, and of the gospel of repentance, and of baptism by immersion for the remission of sins,' and this shall never be taken from the earth, until the sons of levi do offer again an offering unto the lord of righteousness.'
"the messenger who visited us on this occasion, and conferred this priesthood upon us, said that his name was john, the same that is called john the baptist in the new testament; and that he acted under the direction of peter, james and john who held the keys of the melchisedec priesthood, and who would in due season visit us and confer that, the higher priesthood, upon us, which holds the keys of the laying on of hands for the gift of the holy ghost, and right to all the offices in the church."
subsequently, in fulfilment of this promise, peter, james, and john came to them, and conferred upon them the higher order of priesthood—the melchisedec. this gave them the keys of all the spiritual blessings of the church of christ, and the power and authority to organize the church and kingdom of god upon the earth.
elijah comes.
in 1836, in the kirtland temple, ohio, elijah the prophet came, in fulfilment of malachi's prophecy (mal. iv, 5, 6), and made known those principles which would turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to the fathers, viz., the doctrine of salvation for the dead. from the keys of knowledge which elijah restored great light has been thrown upon the plan of salvation, showing it to be more perfect and more extensive than ever man dreamed of in his philosophy. it is learned from the keys of knowledge which he restored that the innumerable millions who have died without a knowledge of christ or of his gospel, together with those who have been deceived by the teachings of pseudo ministers of christ, are not eternally lost, but that since the spirit of man when separate from the body retains all the faculties of mind, the gospel is preached in the spirit-world to the disembodied spirits, and that on condition of their {170} accepting the gospel, and living according to the laws of god in the spirit, they may be saved on condition of the outward ordinances of the gospel being administered vicariously for them upon the earth by their agents—their relations. that the gospel is preached to departed spirits is evident from the scriptures. peter said:
"for christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to god, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the spirit: by which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; which sometime were disobedient, when once the long suffering of god waited in the days of noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water" (i peter iii, 18-20),
men may turn and twist that passage all they please, but its plain simple statement is that the spirit of christ, while his body lay in the tomb, went and preached to the spirits which were disobedient in the days of noah. and again he says:
"for for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to god in the spirit" (i peter iv, 6).
that the ancient saints also knew something about performing ordinances vicariously for the dead is evident from this remark of the apostle paul:
"else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead" (i cor. xv, 29).
and we ask—if there was no such thing among the ancient saints as baptism for the dead, why, then, does paul refer to it in such positive terms?
the gospel of christ is not limited in its powers to save to this life, or this world alone. its powers enter into the spirit-world. and by its proclamation in the world of spirits the fathers will learn that they are dependent upon the children still in this world for the performance of the outward ordinances of the gospel; hence, their hearts will be turned to the children. the children on the earth will learn that it is within their power to attend to ordinances of the gospel for their progenitors; hence, the hearts of the children will be turned to the fathers. it is because of this—because of the knowledge restored by elijah, that the latter-day saints, wherever they have planted their feet, have sought, even in the days of their greatest poverty, to build a temple, the {171} proper place in which to attend to these ordinances for the dead; and they thus witness to the world that the hearts of the children are turned to the fathers.
keys of gathering restored.
the same day that elijah came to the kirtland temple—3rd april, 1836—moses came also, and committed the keys of the gathering of israel from the four quarters of the earth, and the leading of the ten tribes from the land of the north. and it is because he came and restored that authority, and communicated the commandment for the saints to gather together, that thousands have left their homes in the land of their birth, and have cast in their lot with the latter-day saints in the land of america, and are now where the prophets predicted the people of god and the house of god would be established in the last days—"in the tops of the mountains"—and some out of all nations are flowing unto them, and they are taught in the ways of the lord, and are seeking to walk in his paths (see isaiah ii, 1-4). the cry from heaven which st. john heard in his visions is now of a truth being sounded among the nations: "come out of her (babylon), my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues; for her sins have reached unto heaven, and god hath remembered her iniquities" (rev. xviii, 4, 5). and the saints by their flight to the gathering places which god has appointed, as well as by word, are testifying to the world that the hour of god's judgment is at hand, and they are seeking to be prepared for the coming of the messiah.
thus the most important events which are to take place before the glorious coming of the son of god have been fulfilled. we know not the day nor the hour in which the master will come, but we know that the preparatory work to that event has made considerable progress:—the gospel has been restored to the earth, and is being preached to all nations for a witness that the end is near:—the messenger has come and restored the authority of god to man, that the way might be prepared for his coming and judgment:—elijah has come and performed his mission:—and the saints are gathering together to the tops of the mountains, and are building up the house of god. and as the fig tree putting forth its leaves proclaims the approach of summer, so these things indicate the near approach of that time when the son of god will be "revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not god {172} and who obey not the gospel of our lord jesus christ." this is the word of god and remember, o reader! that it is written, though heaven and earth pass away, not one jot nor tittle of the word of god shall fail, but all shall be fulfilled.
despise not this testimony and warning because he who bears it is a representative of a cause and people everywhere spoken against. remember that satan has ever opposed the work of god, and those who labored to establish it. if he did so in former ages, will not this opposition be more fierce in the dispensation when the work of god is to become triumphant, resulting in the overthrow of the powers of darkness and binding them? such, it would seem, are the plain dictates of reason—such are the facts. be not deceived, then, reader, whoever you may be, by the infamous falsehoods in circulation about the latter-day saints, but examine these things with a prayerful heart that you may know of their truth and escape the calamity that shall befall those who "reject the counsels of god against themselves."
"seek to know god in your closets, call upon him in the fields. follow the directions of the book of mormon, and pray over and for your families, your cattle, your flocks, your herds, your corn and all things that you possess; ask the blessings of god upon all your labors, add everything that you engage in."
—joseph smith.
