Читать книгу Essentials in Church History - Joseph Fielding Smith - Страница 193

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Again the heavens were opened and the Lord made known many of his purposes and decrees which were for these latter days. A revelation (Doc. and Cov. Sec. 29) was given shortly before the second conference of the Church, containing instruction which was helpful for the guidance of the elders at that conference. They were taught the doctrine of the gathering of the Saints. The decree had gone forth from the mansions of the Father, that the Saints should be gathered into one place, for they were chosen out of the world, and they were to prepare their hearts against the day when tribulation and desolation would be sent forth upon the wicked. The hour is nigh, the Lord declared, when the earth should be ripe for destruction, for wickedness shall cease.

Because of the wickedness of the world, for the inhabitants thereof will not repent, the Lord should send forth terrible plagues to torment mankind. Great hailstorms should destroy the crops of the earth; flies shall “take hold of the inhabitants” and eat their flesh; their tongues shall be staid, and their flesh fall from their bones and their eyes from their sockets. The beasts of the forests, and the fowls of the air shall eat their bodies, and the great and abominable church, which shall endure until the end of unrighteousness on the earth, shall be cast down by devouring fire, as Ezekiel had said, for abomination must not reign.

All these things were predicted by the apostles and must be fulfilled; and the twelve who were with the Savior in his ministry shall come in glory to judge the house of Israel who have been faithful, “and none else.” The trump shall sound, the righteous dead will rise and Christ reign on the earth with his Saints for a thousand years. After the thousand years are ended, and men begin again to forsake the Lord, the earth shall be spared but for a little season. The final resurrection shall come; the righteous received in to eternal life and the wicked banished to partake of the second death with the devil and his angels. The second death is that same death which was first pronounced on Adam—banishment from the presence of the Lord. Those who partake of it cannot return, for they have no power. Then shall come the redemption of the earth, for old things shall pass away and all things become new, yet not “one hair, neither mote, shall be lost” for it is the workmanship of the hands of the Lord.