Latter Day Saints' Messenger and Advocate/Volume 1/Number 6/Millennium, No. XIII.

MILLEN[N]IUM. No. XIII.

Continued from page 68.

The sacred writers abound in descriptions of Christ's reign on the earth, for a thousand years—scarcely one of the ancient prophets but either directly or indirectly notices it, and out of the many allusions to it, in the Scriptures, I shall quote a few, in addition to those already quoted. In the prophecy of Isaiah, 4th chap. 2,3,4,5,6, the prophet thus describes that day, (the day of Christ's reign: for one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.) "In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely, for them that are escaped of Israel.—And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem; when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof, by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning. And the Lord will create upon every dwelling place of Mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defence. And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the day time from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and rain." All this is necessary to observe here, as this quotation is, that what the prophet here describes is to take place when the tabernacle of God is with men; and we have already seen that the tabernacle of God is to be with men when Christ reigns on earth a thousand years, or one day with the Lord.

Ezekiel, in the 24th chapter of his prophecy, gives the following account of this day, or thousand years: 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, and 31. "Therefore I will save my flock, and they shall no more be a prey, and I will judge between cattle and cattle. And I will set up one shepherd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant David, he shall feed them; and he shall be their shepherd. And I the Lord will be their God, and my servant David a prince among them; I the Lord have spoken. And I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beast to cease out of the land: and they shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods. And I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessings. And the tree of the field shall yield her fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase, and they shall be safe in their land, and shall know that I am the Lord, when I have broken the bonds of their yoke, and delivered them out of the hands of those that served themselves of them. And they shall no more be a prey to the heathen, neither shall the beast of the land devour them: but they shall dwell safely, and none shall make them afraid. And I will raise up for them a plant of renown, and they shall be no more consumed with hunger in the land, neither bear the shame of the heathen any more. Thus shall they know that I, the Lord their God am with them, and that they, even the house of Israel, are my people, saith the Lord God. And ye my flock, the flock of my pasture, are men, and I am your God, saith the Lord God. And in the 37th chapter of this same prophecy, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27 and 28 verses, the prophet thus describes the glory of Christ's reign on the earth. "And say unto them, thus saith the Lord God; behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and I will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land: and I will make one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel, and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all: neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with other detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwelling places, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them. So shall they be my people, and I will be their God. And David my servant shall be king over them; and they shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them. And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers dwelt, and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children's children forever.—Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them; and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And the heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for ever more." These quotations need no comment. They speak for themselves.

Every reader with the least degree of intelligence, knows that what is here said has yet to take place, and he also knows, that it will take place when the Lord restores the kingdom to Israel, and not till then, and that will take place when he comes to reign on the earth.

The prophet Hosea gives us a similar account in his prophecy, 14th chap. 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9th verses. "I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive—tree, and his smell as Lebanon. They that dwell under his shadow shall return; they shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine: the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon. Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? I have heard him, and observed him: I am like a green fir tree. From me is thy fruit found. Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know them? for the ways of the Lord are right, and the just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall therein." The prophet Joel says of the coming of the Lord, and of his reign on the earth, 3d chapter, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 and 21st verses, "The Lord shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the Lord will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel. So shall ye know that I am the Lord your God dwelling in Zion my holy mountain:—then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall be no strangers pass through her any more. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, & all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord, and shall water the valley of Shittim. Egypt shall be a desolation; and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence against the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land. But Judah shall dwell forever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation. For I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed: for the Lord dwelleth in Zion."

The prophet Amos says in the 9th chapter of his prophecy, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15th verses: "In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old; That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen which are called by my name, saith the Lord that doeth this. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the ploughman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and the hills shall melt. And I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the Lord thy God."

The above quotations, with a great many others which might be brought, set forth that order of society which will exist when the Savior reigns, that day, or the thousand years. We have a most splendid description of it given in the Psalms, beginning with the one hundred and forty fourth, to the end of the book; but we deem it unnecessary to quote any more, as the candid reader will be enabled, when the subject is laid before him so plain as is done in the above quotations, to see and understand for himself, so as to deliver his mind from darkness on this point, when reading the prophecies. Who cannot easily discover, that the order of things set forth in the above quotations, from the prophets, has never yet been on the earth, neither indeed can be, until the Lord comes? For it is at that time that Jerusalem is to be built and never to be thrown down, and it is at that time that the earth is to bring forth in her strength, and when the mountains are to drop down new wine, and all nature to rejoice before the Lord; for he comes to judge the earth in righteousness. It is also at that time, that the ploughman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed. And it is at that time, that the tabernacle of David shall be built, and Israel become the praise and glory of the whole earth.

(In a former part of this treatise, I noticed the change which was to be wrought upon the beast at that day, or thousand years; but not only the beast but the vegetable kingdom is also to be greatly changed—the trees and the vines—the one is to bring forth their fruit in abundance, the other to load itself to such a degree that the mountains will literally drop down new wine. So that a great change is to be wrought on all the lower creation—the very earth is to become more fruitful than ever it has been since it was cursed; and the Spirit of God is to be poured out on all flesh, and his power to be exalted in changing all things, so as to make them conduce to the happiness of men in the highest degree their nature is capable of. This is the Millen[n]ium, and this only. If the power of God is not exerted on both man and beast, as well as on all other parts of the lower creation, the idea of Millen[n]ium is worse than folly. All the above quotations, taken from the prophets, must be fulfilled, with a multitude of others which might be quoted, all to the same effect. The fulfillment of these prophecies will make a Millen[n]ium, and nothing else will; for these are the things which God has promised to do for the world, and which he has said will take place.—Whatever power therefore is necessary to change the nature of the lion, the leopard, the bear, the ass, the cockatrice, together with all other animals, which hurt and destroy, is necessary to be exerted to bring about the Millen[n]ium, and nothing else will do it. And not only the power necessary to effect this, but also to change the earth so as to make it more fruitful, and the seasons so that the ploughman can overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; for our present seasons will not admit such a thing—so that a great change must be wrought on all things, miracle or no miracle. If all this can be done without miracle, so be it, and if not, the days of miracles are not past, or else the idea of the Millen[n]ium is worse than folly.