D&C 101:19-34

101:19-22 - Verses 19 to 22 discuss some concepts that are difficult for me to understand. The Lord says that only the places that He designates are to be used “for the work of gathering of my saints… Behold, it is my will, that all they who call on my name, and worship me according to mine everlasting gospel, should gather together, and stand in holy places.” The IM quotes Elder Harold B. Lee as teaching, “In these days of our generation, many are asking: Where is safety? The word of the Lord is not silent. He has admonished us: (D&C 45:32). The Lord has told us where these ‘holy places’ are: (D&C 45:68). Where is Zion? During the various periods of time or dispensations, and for specific reasons, the Lord’s prophets, His ‘mouthpieces,’ as it were, have designated gathering places where the Saints were to gather. After designating certain such places in our dispensation, the Lord then declared: (D&C 101:21). Thus, the Lord has clearly placed the responsibility of direction the work of gathering in the hands of His divinely appointed leaders. I fervently pray that all Saints and truth seekers everywhere will attune their listening ears to these prophet-leaders instead of to some demagogue who seeks to make capital of social discontent and gain political influence. There are several meanings of the world Zion… There is… (a) most significant use of the term by the Church of God is called Zion: It comprises, according to the Lord’s own definition, ‘the pure in heart.’ As one studies the Lord’s commandments and the attending promises for compliance therewith, one gets some definite ideas as to how we might ‘stand in holy places,’ as the Lord commands… As one studies the commandments of God, it seems crystal clear that the all-important thing is not where we live, but whether or not our hearts are pure.” I really like that last sentence, it doesn’t matter where we live but if our hearts are pure, because that’s where Zion is.

101:23-34 - There are several interesting things that the Lord covers about His second coming, I’m going to give the part of the verse and then what the IM has to say about it:

1. “All flesh shall see me together.” The IM quotes Elder Orson Pratt as saying, “The second advent of the Son of God is to be something… accompanied with great power and glory, something that will not be done in a small portion of the earth like Palestine, and seen only by a few; but it will be an event that will be seen by all- all flesh shall see the glory of the Lord; when he reveals himself the second time, every eye, not only those living at that time in the flesh, in mortality on the earth, but also the very dead themselves.” That’s pretty intense. I have always wondered how all people will see the Lord at once because the earth is round so there will be half of the population will be directly across from wherever he is. But I did hear something once that explains that with our discovery of radio waves, light waves, and heat waves, there’s really no way of saying what method the Lord will use to be seen everywhere when he comes again.
2. “Every corruptible thing… shall be consumed.” The Lord was clear that this means everything, people and animals. The IM quotes Elder Bruce R. McConkie as saying, “Incident to the commencement of the millennial era, the earth (the Lord’s vineyard) will be burned. Every corruptible thing will be consumed; all the proud and they that do wickedly shall be burned as stubble; the sinners will be destroyed; and there will be an entire separation of the righteous and the wicked. Those only shall be able to abide that day who are worthy to live on a paradisiacal or terrestrial sphere.” The IM continues, “The glory of a celestial being, of which the sun is typical, is so radiant that to bring that glory to the earth will cause great burning. The cleansing of the earth by fire will be caused by the coming of the Savior to earth. Those who are not changed to withstand the presence of the Savior will perish by fire.” Interesting, so it’s not like a wild fire that will get out of control or a meteor or anything like that, the fire will be caused by the glory of God, maybe that’s why all the righteous will be caught up to meet him.
3. “And all things shall become new.” Just like the people and animals that aren’t prepared to endure the second coming, the earth and elements “shall melt with fervent heat; and all things shall become new, that my knowledge and glory may dwell upon all the earth.” The IM says, “Of this newness Elder Parley P. Pratt wrote: ‘A new heaven and a new earth are promised by the sacred writers. Or, in other words, the planetary systems are to be changed, purified, refined, exalted and glorified, in the similitude of the resurrection, by which means all physical evil or imperfections will be done away.’ This newness of things is not the same as the ‘new heave and a new earth’ that will be part of the earth’s celestialization at the end of the Millennium.” This is kind of complicated, I don’t really understand this concept that much.
4. “The enmity of all flesh, shall cease from before my face.” This is very interesting and a topic that I’m actually pretty excited about, where there is no hostility toward anyone of anything, including animals that would be predator and prey now. I’ve never understood how this could be, how the lion could eat grass and not want to kill things and eat meat. One of the ways I’ve come to understand this more was while learning more about the state of things in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve and the animals were immortal, not in the glorified resurrected state like that of Heavenly Father, but not subject to physical ailments or infirmities that we have. The nature of animals were such that they didn’t need to eat each other to survive, that wasn’t part of their instincts, but they ate grass, and it makes sense that the creator of all things could make that changed in their bodies. The IM quotes Elder Orson Pratt as saying, “the enmity of the beasts of the field as well as that of all flesh will cease; no more one beast of prey devouring and feasting upon another that is more harmless in its nature; no more will this enmity be found in the fish of the sea, or in the birds of the air. This change will be wrought upon all flesh when Jesus comes; not a change to immortality, but a change sufficient to alter the ferocious nature of beats, birds and fished… gentleness, will characterize all the wild and ferocious animals, as well as the venomous serpents, so much so that the little child might lead them and play with them, and nothing shall hurt or destroy in all the holy mountain of the Lord, all things becoming, in some measure, as when they were first created.”
5. “Whatsoever any man shall ask, it shall be given unto him.” The first time that I heard someone say that we should be “praying by the Spirit” was shocking to me. I’d never heard or considered such a thing. Wasn’t the point of prayer to talk to God about what YOU wanted? Not to talk to him about what HE wanted. But now that I say it that way, it makes more sense. The purpose of this life isn’t to convince God to give you what you want, but to convince yourself to give God what He wants. Wow, that’s deep, this just rocked my understanding of prayer. If we are living our lives according to the will of God, we will want what God wants, and he will tell us what he wants by the Holy Ghost. Very interesting. The IM says “People sometimes pray for things they should not have. The Millennium will change that. People will ask one for righteous things, and all requests will be honored by Heavenly Father.” But what about praying for things that are righteous, even if we should have them, for instance praying to find a righteous man to marry or praying to have children, but the answer is still no? I’m not sure about that.
6. “Satan shall not have power to tempt any man.” The IM references a section from D&C 43:31 about how Satan will be bound during the Millennium, I know we covered it in section 43, but I was still a little rusty on it so I’m going to put it here too. The IM says, “In speaking of the millennial era, Nephi said that ‘because of the righteousness of his (the Lord’s) people, Satan has no power; wherefore, he cannot be loosed for the space of many years; for he hath no power over the hearts of the people, for they dwell in righteousness, and the Holy One of Israel reigneth.’ President Joseph Fielding Smith taught concerning the binding of Satan: ‘There are many among us who teach that the binding of Satan will be merely the binding which those dwelling on the earth will place upon him by their refusal to hear his enticing. This is not so. He will not have the privilege during that period of time to tempt any man.’ These two statements at first may seem to be at variance, but in reality they are not. It is true that the result of the righteousness of the Saints is that Satan cannot exert power over them. The restrictions that will come upon Satan will be a result of two important actions by the Lord: (1) He will destroy telestial wickedness from the earth at His Second Coming; and (2) He will reward the righteous by pouring out His Spirit on them to such an extent that Satan’s power will be overwhelmed. Satan will not have the power to tempt or negatively influence the Lord’s people. Both the righteousness of the Saints and the operation of the Lord’s power are necessary to bind Satan: if the Saints do not give heed to God’s word, He will not give them His Spirit. And without the Spirit, they on their own cannot withstand the force of the adversary. President George Q. Cannon explained: ‘We talk about Satan being bound. Satan will be bound by the power of God; but he will be bound also by the determination of the people of God not to listen to him, not to be governed by him. The Lord will not bind him and take his power from the earth while there are men and women willing to be governed by him. That is contrary to the plan of salvation. To deprive men of their agency is contrary to the purposes of our God… Satan only gains power over man through man’s exercise of his own agency; and when Satan shall be bound, as the Lord says he will be for a thousand years, one of the great powers that will help bring this to pass will be man’s agency. The Lord has never forced men against their will to obey Him. He never will do so. If Satan, therefore, has power with man, it is because man yields to his influence… The time is not far distant when great judgments will be poured out upon the wicked inhabitants of the earth. Every Prophet who has looked forward to our day has seen and predicted that the wicked would be destroyed. Their destruction means the destruction of Satan’s power. The righteous will be left, and because of their righteousness the Lord will have mercy upon them; they, exercising their agency in the right direction, will bring down His blessings upon them to such an extent that Satan will be bound.’” Satan will not physically be bound by God, not his power will diminish because when Jesus comes all those who cannot live a terrestrial law will be destroyed so all that are left are those who are relatively righteous, the Holy Ghost will be so strong among the people that it will over power any influence that Satan wields, because really, nothing he says is true, in the light of truth, people can see the fallacies in his argument. Very interesting.
7. “There shall be no sorrow because there is no death.” This makes me wonder if all the sorrow in the world is caused by death. A lot of it is, death and poor choices I think are the main causes, but in the Millennium there will be no death and everyone will be righteous, so that takes away those two main causes of sorrow. Wouldn’t that be amazing, I can’t even imagine. The Lord is very specific in that “an infant shall not die until he is old,” and I think that that’s important because the death of a child or the loss of a pregnancy is so devastating, probably one of the hardest experiences to go through in this life, and a huge contributing factor to difficult feelings. The IM says, “During the Millennium, death will cease among the righteous inhabitants of the earth. They will live to be very old, and when the time for the changed known as death arrives, they will ‘be changed in the twinkling of an eye’ from mortality to immortality and their ‘rest shall be glorious.’ Among those that have ‘kept the faith,’ there will not be a separation of the spirit and body where the spirit passes into the spirit world and the body is laid in the ground to await the Resurrection. Instead, at the appropriate time, there will be an instantaneous changed from a mortal to a resurrected, immortal condition.” I think that for me personally I would still want to know what the experience of living in the spirit world would be like.
8. “He shall reveal all things.” I always thought that that meant that everyone’s life would play out of a big screen so that everyone would know anything that you ever did, said, or thought, but I don’t think that that’s the case because when we repent the Lord remembers our sins no more, so he wouldn’t put them out there for everyone to see if we’ve been forgiven. The Lord is also very specific that this means “things which have passed, and hidden things which no man knew, things of the earth, by which it was made, and the purpose and the end thereof- Things most precious, things that are above, and things that are beneath, things that are in the earth, and upon the earth, and in heaven.” The IM comments “The Millennium is the time when the Savior will personally work with the faithful, obedient members of His Church who have lived on the earth since the days of Adam. One can only imagine the blessings that are in store for those who have been faithful. For example, the first ten chapters (about fifteen pages) in the book of Genesis cover approximately two thousand years of history. The amount of knowledge that has been lost concerning just this period is astounding. In the Millennium all that knowledge, and more, will be restore. It is of little wonder, then, that Saints have longed for the day when Christ would be in their midst, a day in which He will make all things known.” I can’t wait for that time, and honestly I can’t wait for that ability in the spirit world. I have heard that it is 1,000 times easier to learn in the spirit world after we die and I can’t wait to be able to do that. Read the rest of the records of all people, know the actual history of the world and what it means from God’s perspective, not that of the conquerors. That’s really exciting for me.