Latter Day Saints' Messenger and Advocate/Volume 1/Number 4/Millennium. No. XI.

MILLEN[N]IUM. No. XI.

Continued from page 40.

Having ascertained to a certainty the situation of the Gentile world at present, and their condition in relation to the things of God; and that as concerning the faith of the saints they are reprobates, having departed from the true faith, to follow after fables to so great an extent, that there is not one society left which is standing as the apostles left the church, and as they directed that the church should continue: but all the sects, among all the people of the Gentiles, have departed from the faith and have turned away, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, and have made void the faith of God by their traditions.—For we have seen that all sects and parties, have ceased to bring forth the fruits of the kingdom of heaven, according to the order established by those who were immediately inspired of God, to establish his kingdom among men, and that the Gentiles have ceased to bring forth the fruit which they brought forth when the kingdom of heaven was first given unto them, and that the gospel which the apostles preached is considered heresy among them, and that a man who would attempt to contend for the very things for which the ancient apostles contended, would be called a heretic, an impostor, a false prophet, and every other evil epithet that could be heaped upon him. The apostasy of the Gentiles is so great, that they know not the doctrine of Christ when they hear it; neither are they capable of distinguishing the saints of God from those who follow after the evil one, nor the gospel of the blessed God, from fables. In so saying, I wish to be understood, as embracing all the Gentiles, without regard to sect, party, or name; for there is no difference among them: there is not one sect or party, in all the sectarian world but has departed from the faith, and is not walking according to the gospel of Christ: neither is there one sect which preaches the gospel; but a part of it only, and the remainder they despise; and not despise only, but those also who believe and proclaim it. We deem it therefore unnecessary to pursue this part of our subject any farther, as we have seen beyond the possibility of a doubt, that the Gentiles are in the very situation that the prophets and the apostles said they would be, when the Lord should set his hand to prepare a people for his coming, and to gather his saints together, that he might come in and sup with them, according to his promise, and manifest himself to them, and unvail the heavens and come down and reign with them, and over them a thousand years—that is, with those who were raised from the dead and were glorified, or who had been translated, and over those who were in the flesh; for the former are to reign with him, but the latter to serve him during his thousand years' reign on the earth.

Having got our way prepared, we will now attend to the first item we proposed investigating, in the order which we have laid down, to be pursued in the investigation of this subject: that is, Christ's second coming, or in other words, his reign on the earth.

The subject of Christ's reign on the earth, is one of vast importance in the estimation of the sacred writers, and one on which they have dwelt with great delight, and in which they seemed to feel the greatest interest.

The Psalmist David speaks of it in the most enthusiastic terms: "The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of isles be glad thereof. Ps. 97:1. In Ps. 93:1 he says, "The Lord reigneth, he is clothed with majesty; the Lord is clothed with strength, wherewith he hath girded himself: the world also is established, that it cannot be moved."

Again in Ps. 96:10, he says, "Say among the heathen that the Lord reigneth the world also shall be established that it shall not be moved: he shall judge the people righteously. Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof. Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein: then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice before the Lord; for he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth: he shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth."

From what we have previously shown respecting the Savior's second advent into the world, there can be no difficulty in understanding to what the Psalmist had an allusion in the foregoing quotations. As there is no reign of the Lord mentioned which is to be on the earth, but the thousand years' reign, or Millen[n]ium, the reader has only to notice that it is the world which is to rejoice, and the earth is to be glad, when the Lord reigneth. The matter therefore is settled, that it is his reign on the earth on which the Psalmist had his eye fixed, when he wrote the foregoing Psalms. Two things are to be noticed in the above quotations. The first is, that the Lord is to reign on the earth, and secondly that when he reigns on the earth, it is to be glad and to rejoice. The fact of the world being established, and the earth rejoicing, will enable us to understand many passages of scripture, that we otherwise could not understand; but with the aid of these facts will become very plain, and vastly interesting to the believers—a few of which we shall quote. We will begin with Isaiah, 35:1. The prophet thus expresses himself: "The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice, even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God. Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, be strong fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense; he will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes." From the 1st to the 8th verse. A small degree of attention will enable the reader to see that Isaiah and David had their eyes fixed on the same period. David says, The Lord reigneth let the earth rejoice, let the multitude of isles be glad thereof. Isaiah says, The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. We see that they both have said the same thing; that is, the earth is to rejoice and be glad when the Lord reigns. Isaiah says, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense, he will come and save you. For what will he come? to reign upon the earth, and to make the wilderness be glad and the desert to blossom as the rose. Let any person read the above quotations with care and he cannot but see that all refer to the same period.