Foretelling the Kingdom
“Beware therefore, lest that come upon you, which is spoken of in the prophets; Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish: for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you.” (Acts 13:40-41.)
I cannot convince anyone of the Lord’s work in this day, I can only declare it. The acceptance of this Latter-day Kingdom of God is between the child and His Maker.
The Prophet Joseph Smith
“I have even from the beginning declared it to thee; before it came to pass I shewed it thee: lest thou shouldest say, Mine idol hath done them, and my graven image, and my molten image, hath commanded them.” (Isaiah 48:5)
The later-day Kingdom of God was promised of the Lord, and foretold by many of the prophets. Nearly every event in the Restored Kingdom can be found in the annals of the scriptures. It appears that the prophets would ask about several time periods. First about there own time, second they would ask, “When shall the day of the Lord come? When shall the blood of the Righteous be shed, that all they that mourn may be sanctified and have eternal life?” (Moses 7:45) They would then view the events of the life, suffering, crucifixion and resurrection of the Lord.
Last of all the question would be asked: “When shall the earth rest?” (Moses 7:58) Then would be viewed the events of the last days leading up to the return of the Lord to reign on earth. Peter spoke of this “restitution” or restoration “of all things,” before the second advent of the Savior, “which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.” (Acts 3:21)
Did all the holy prophets see and speak of this latter-day restoration? Although numerous, if not all, the prophets viewed and were aware of these events of the last days, they were restricted by the Lord as to what could be recorded, as Nephi wrote: “I, Nephi, am forbidden that I should write the remainder of the things which I saw and heard; wherefore the things which I have written sufficeth me; and I have written but a small part of the things which I saw.” (1 Nephi 14:28)
First in this latter day vineyard would be the calling of a prophet to establish the Lord’s purpose, for we see the Lord’s disappointment in the religious world recorded by Isaiah:
“The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.” (Isaiah 24:5)
With the calling of a prophet, the Lord could define the laws, institute correct ordinance, and again establish a covenant with His people. The promise given of the Lord is that in the “latter days” “the God of heaven (would) set up a kingdom” as well as informing us that “the kingdom shall not be left to other people” (Daniel 2:28, 44) The Lord has continued to ensue the pattern He has observed through the ages, as Amos recorded: “Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret unto His servants the prophets.” (Amos 3:7)
Why Joseph Smith? The question has been asked. A great amount of evidence supplies the answer, “because he was chosen before he was born.” “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee;” the Lord declared to Jeremiah, “and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.” (Jeremiah 1:5.)
In a book, The Messianic Idea In Israel, is found support that Joseph Smith was selected and ordained to this station in the Kingdom of God before his birth. Dr. Klausner from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem writes one entire chapter (chapter 9) about a latter-day prophet, a descendant of Joseph of old, the title of the chapter is “Messiah ben Joseph and the battle of Gog and Magog.” In this chapter he is trying to make sense of the traditions passed down from the Jews about this latter day son of Joseph who would be called “Taeb,” meaning the restorer,
“… sources regarded primarily as a prophet who will restore everywhere the true Law to its former validity and convert all peoples… but it is most interesting that his existence and his violent death are considered as matters known to all.” (The Messianic Idea In Israel by Joseph Klausner, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus of Hebrew Literature and Jewish History in the Hebrew University, Jerusalem. translated from the third Hebrew edition by W. F. Stinespring, Ph.D. professor of Old Testament, Duke University. The Macmillan Company, New York, 1955
p. 483)
It is fascinating that while these traditions exist in the Talmud, which contains thousands of years of commentary on the Old Testament, Jewish scholars are unsure where this tradition originated, for these prophecies are missing from the Old Testament. In his book, Dr. Klausner is attempting to give some answers about the source of these traditions.
Perhaps the origin of these traditions came from the Brass Plates that were taken from Jerusalem about 600 BC by Lehi and his family. In the Brass Plates are recorded the genealogy of the descendents of Joseph the son of Jacob, (1 Ne. 5:14-16) as well as the writings of other prophets, such as Zenos, who were descendents of Joseph, and in the linage of Lehi the first prophet of the Book of Mormon. (3 Ne. 10:16)
We find recorded in the Book of Mormon the prophecy of Joseph of old as he predicted the calling of a latter day prophet. To Joseph of old the Lord declared: “…a seer will I raise up out of the fruit of thy loins; and unto him will I give power to bring forth my word unto the seed of thy loins—and not to the bringing forth my word only, saith the Lord, but to the convincing them of my word, which shall have already gone forth among them.”
He then told of the writing and coming forth of the Book of Mormon and the joining with the Bible “…unto the confounding of false doctrines and laying down of contentions, and establishing peace among the fruit of thy loins, and bringing them to the knowledge of their fathers in the latter days, and also to the knowledge of my covenants, saith the Lord.”
Joseph Smith was seen as one of little education or standing: “And out of weakness he shall be made strong, in that day when my work shall commence among all my people, unto the restoring thee, O house of Israel, saith the Lord. And thus prophesied Joseph, saying: Behold, that seer will the Lord bless; and they that seek to destroy him shall be confounded; for this promise, which I have obtained of the Lord, of the fruit of my loins, shall be fulfilled. Behold, I am sure of the fulfilling of this promise;”
Notice that Joseph Smith was known by name and that his fathers name was also known; “And his name shall be called after me (Joseph of old); and it shall be after the name of his father. And he shall be like unto me; for the thing, which the Lord shall bring forth by his hand, by the power of the Lord shall bring my people unto salvation. Yea, thus prophesied Joseph: I am sure of this thing, even as I am sure of the promise of Moses; for the Lord hath said unto me, I will preserve thy seed forever.” (2 Nephi 3:7 - 16)
Joseph’s grandfather was aware that one of his descendents would be used by the Lord to do a great work:
“Upon one occasion, before the Prophet's birth, Asael Smith had a premonition that one of his descendants should be a great teacher and leader of men. To quote his words, as they are remembered and recorded by one who knew him and heard him speak: ‘It has been borne in upon my soul that one of my descendants will promulgate a work to revolutionize the world of religious faith.” (Joseph Fielding Smith, Church History and Modern Revelation, 1: 4.)
Joseph later wrote of his grandfather:
“My grandfather, Asael Smith, long ago predicted that there would be a prophet raised up in his family, and my grandmother was fully satisfied that it was fulfilled in me. My grandfather Asael died in East Stockholm, St. Lawrence county, New York, after having received the Book of Mormon, and read it nearly through; and he declared that I was the very Prophet that he had long known would come in his family.” (DHC 2: 443.)
William Tyndale must have had some premonition of the restoration and the importance of his translation of the Bible;
“Once, while disputing with a learned man, he said, ‘If God spare my life, ere many years I will cause a boy that driveth the plough shall know more of the scripture than thou dost” (Quoted in S. Michael Wilcox, Fire in the Bones: William Tyndale—Martyr, Father of the English Bible (2004), 47. Robert D. Hales October 2005 Conference Report)
Wilford Woodruff also had communicated to him of this restoration by an old
friend that enlightened him concerning religion:
“At a very early age, Wilford Woodruff was imbued with religious sentiments, but never allied himself with any of the various sects. He received much information from Robert Mason, who resided at Simsbury, Connecticut, and was called ‘The old Prophet Mason.’ He taught that no man had authority to administer in the things of God without revelation from God; that the modern religious societies were without that authority; that the time would come when the true Church would be established, with all its gifts and graces and manifestations, and that the same blessings enjoyed in the early Christian Church could be obtained in this age through faith. This led the youthful Wilford to hold aloof from the churches of the day, and to desire and pray for the coming of an Apostle or other inspired man to show the way of life. For three years previous to receiving the everlasting Gospel, he was impressed with the conviction that God was about to set up his Church and Kingdom on earth in the last days and for the last time. Thus he was prepared to receive the truth when it was presented to him by the Elders.” (Wilford Woodruff. by Franklin D. Richards, the Church Historian., Improvement Era, 1898, Vol. I. September, 1898. No. 11. )
Wilford Woodruff wrote in his journal of one incident of his friend:
“The people called this man, the Old Prophet Mason. He frequently came to my father's house when I was a boy, and taught me and my brothers those principles; and I believed him.
This prophet prayed a great deal, and he had dreams and visions and the Lord showed him many things, by visions, which were to come to pass in the last days.
I will here relate one vision, which he related to me. The last time I ever saw him, he said: ‘I was laboring in my field at mid-day when I was enwrapped in a vision. I was placed in the midst of a vast forest of fruit trees: I was very hungry, and walked a long way through the orchard, searching for fruit to eat; but I could not find any in the whole orchard, and I wept because I could find no fruit. While I stood gazing at the orchard, and wondering why there was no fruit, the trees began to fall to the ground upon every side of me, until there was not one tree standing in the whole orchard; and while I was marveling at the scene, I saw young sprouts start up from the roots of the trees which had fallen, and they opened into young, thrifty trees before my eyes. They budded, blossomed, and bore fruit until the trees were loaded with the finest fruit I ever beheld, and I rejoiced to see so much fine fruit. I stepped up to a tree and picked my hands full of fruit, and marveled at its beauty, and as I was about to taste of it the vision closed, and I found myself in the field in the same place I was at the commencement of the vision.
“I then knelt upon the ground, and prayed unto the Lord, and asked Him, in the name of Jesus Christ, to show me the meaning of the vision. The Lord said unto me: ‘This is the interpretation of the vision: the great trees of the forest represented the generation of men in which you live. There is no church of Christ, or kingdom of God upon the earth in your generation. There is no fruit of the church of Christ upon the earth. There is no man ordained of God to administer in any of the ordinances of the gospel of salvation upon the earth in this day and generation. But, in the next generation, I the Lord will set up my kingdom and my church upon the earth, and the fruits of the kingdom and church of Christ, such as have followed the prophets, apostles and saints in every dispensation, shall again be found in all their fullness upon the earth. You will live to see the day, and handle the fruit; but will never partake of it in the flesh.'
“When the old prophet had finished relating the vision and interpretation, he said to me, calling me by my Christian name: ‘I shall never partake of this fruit in the flesh; but you will, and you will become a conspicuous actor in that kingdom.’ He then turned and left me. These were the last words he ever spoke to me upon the earth.
“This was a very striking circumstance, as I had spent many hours and days, during twenty years, with this old Father Mason, and he had never named this vision to me before. But at the beginning of this last conversation he told me that he felt impelled by the Spirit of the Lord to relate it to me.
He had the vision about the year 1800, and he related it to me in 1830—the same spring that the Church was organized.
“This vision, with his other teachings to me, made a great impression upon my mind, and I prayed a great deal to the Lord to lead me by His Spirit, and prepare me for His church when it did come.
In 1832, I left Connecticut, and traveled with my eldest brother to Oswego County, New York; and in the winter of 1833, I saw, for the first time in my life, an Elder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He preached in a schoolhouse near where I lived. I attended the meeting, and the Spirit of the Lord bore record to me that what I heard was true. I invited the Elder to my house, and next day I, with my eldest brother, went down into the water and was baptized. “We were the first two baptized in Oswego County, New York.
“When I was baptized I thought of what the old prophet had said to me.
“In the spring of 1834, I went to Kirtland, saw the Prophet Joseph Smith, and went with him, and with more than two hundred others in Zion's Camp, up to Missouri. When I arrived, at my journey's end, I took the first opportunity and wrote a long letter to Father Mason, and told him I had found the church of Christ that he had told me about. I told him about its organization and the coming forth of the Book of Mormon; that the Church had Prophets, Apostles, and all the gifts and blessings in it, and that the true fruit of the kingdom and church of Christ were manifest among the Saints as the Lord had shown him in the vision. He received my letter and read it over many times, and handled it as he had handled the fruit in the vision; but he was very aged, and soon died. He did not live to see any Elder to administer the ordinances of the gospel unto him.”
(Wilford Woodruff, Leaves from My Journal [Salt Lake City: Juvenile Instructor Office, 1881], 8.)
The name of Joseph Smith is both highly esteemed and rejected throughout the entire world, fulfilling the words which Moroni spoke in the year 1823 informing Joseph: “…that God had a work for me to do; and that my name should be had for good and evil among all nations, kindreds, and tongues, or that it should be both good and evil spoken of among all people.” (JS-History 1:33)
While this latter day Kingdom of God would be considered “a marvelous work and wonder” among those who embrace it, yet there would be those who would oppose the Lord’s work of which Isaiah spoke: “Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the LORD, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us? Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay:”
With Joseph’s meager education and rural background it is evident that the work did not originate from him, “for shall the work say of him that made it, he made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, he had no understanding?” (Isaiah 29:14-16.)
While among the descendants of Lehi, the Lord taught: “For in that day, for my sake shall the Father work a work, which shall be a great and a marvelous work among them; and there shall be among them those who will not believe it, although a man shall declare it unto them.” The Savior then spoke of the Prophet Joseph: “But behold, the life of my servant shall be in my hand; therefore they shall not hurt him, although he shall be marred because of them. Yet I will heal him, for I will show unto them that my wisdom is greater than the cunning of the devil.” Jesus then gave warning to those who reject His work: “Therefore it shall come to pass that whosoever will not believe in my words, who am Jesus Christ, which the Father shall cause him to bring forth unto the Gentiles, and shall give unto him power that he shall bring them forth unto the Gentiles, (it shall be done even as Moses said) they shall be cut off from among my people who are of the covenant.” (3 Nephi 21:9-11.)
