Millennium
5/06
“What a happy earth this creation will be, when this purifying process shall come, and the earth be filled with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the great deep! What a change! Travel, then, from one end of the earth to another, you can find no wicked man, no drunken man, no man to blaspheme the name of the Great Creator, no one to lay hold on his neighbor's goods, and steal them, no one to commit whoredoms.” (Orson Pratt, JD, 21:325)
(D&C 77:6-7; Article of Faith #10)
01 – “As a generic term, ‘Millennium’ connotes any period of 1,000 years’ duration. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, however, one such period stands preeminent, namely, that future time when peace and righteousness will prevail under the direct providence of God and his messiah.” (Daniel H. Ludlow Encyclopedia of Mormonism, pg. 906)
02 – “With Christ shall come those who have already been resurrected; and His approach shall be the means of inaugurating a general resurrection of the righteous dead, while the pure and just who are still in the flesh shall be instantaneously changed from the mortal to the immortal state and shall be caught up with the newly resurrected to meet the Lord and His celestial company, and shall descend with Him” (James E. Talmage, Jesus the Christ, pg. 787)
03 – “When the reign of Jesus Christ comes during the millennium, only those who have lived the telestial law will be removed. The earth will be cleansed of all its corruption and wickedness. Those who have lived virtuous lives, who have been honest in their dealings with their fellow man and have endeavored to do good to the best of their understanding, shall remain.” (Joseph Fielding Smith, DS, 3:62)
(D&C 63:20-23; Ether 13:9; Isaiah 11:6-9)
04 – “In the coming millennial day it will be renewed and receive again its paradisiacal glory and will thus return to its terrestrial or Edenic state. And its final destiny is to become a celestial globe and shine like the sun in the firmament. In the process of abiding a celestial law, the earth was baptized by immersion in the days of Noah; and it will be baptized by fire at the Second Coming. This old earth is also destined to die and to be resurrected in the day of quickening. During the Millennium it will, in effect, be in a translated state, which, as pertaining to men, is the state Enoch and his people and some others attained. Thus, the earth was first a spirit planet and then a terrestrial globe. It is now a telestial earth; during the Millennium it will become terrestrial again; and finally, it will become a celestial earth.” (Bruce R. McConkie, Millennial Messiah, pg. 613-14)
05 – “This new heaven and earth which will come into existence when our Lord comes to reign, is this same earth with its heavens renewed or restored to its primitive condition and beauty. Everything is to be brought back as nearly as it is possible to its position as it was in the beginning. The mountains, we are informed, are to be thrown down, the valleys are to be exalted, and ‘the earth shall be like as it was in the days before it was divided.’” (Joseph Fielding Smith, The Restoration of All Things, 294–95.)
06 – “Some mortals have been translated. In this state they are not subject to sorrow or to disease or to death. No longer does blood (the life-giving element of our present mortality) flow in their veins. Procreation ceases. If they then had children, their offspring would be denied a mortal probation, which all worthy spirits must receive in due course. They have power to move and live in both a mortal and an unseen sphere. All translated beings undergo another change in their bodies when they gain full immortality. This change is the equivalent of a resurrection. All mortals, after death, are also resurrected. In the resurrected state they are immortal and eternal in nature, and those among them who are privileged to live in the family unit have spirit children. Millennial man will live in a state akin to translation. His body will be changed so that it is no longer subject to disease or death as we know it, although he will be changed in the twinkling of an eye to full immortality when he is a hundred years of age.” (Bruce R. McConkie, Millennial Messiah, pg. 644)
07 – “Conditions During the Millennium. When Christ comes the saints who are on the earth will be quickened and caught up to meet him. This does not mean that those who are living in mortality at that time will be changed and pass through the resurrection, for mortals must remain on the earth until after the thousand years are ended. A change, nevertheless, will come over all who remain on the earth; they will be quickened so that they will not be subject unto death until they are old..” (Joseph Fielding Smith, The Way to Perfection, pg. 298-299)
08 – “There will be no shedding of blood, because man and beast are changed (quickened) and blood no longer flows in their veins.” (Bruce R. McConkie, Millennial Messiah, pg. 658)
09 – “Men will have power over disease, and their bodies will become vigorous and strong, for it will be a new creation of all things when Christ shall come.” (Joseph Fielding Smith, DS, 3:58)
10 – “All those who have died in Christ shall come forth from the dead at his coming and shall dwell upon the earth as Christ shall be upon the earth during this millennium. They shall not remain here all the time during the thousand years, but they will mingle with those who are still here in mortal life. These resurrected saints and the Savior himself, shall come to give instruction and guidance; to reveal unto us the things we ought to know; to give us information concerning the work in the temples of the Lord so we may do the work which is essential to the salvation of worthy men.” (Joseph Fielding Smith, DS, 3:59)
11 – “Christ and the resurrected Saints will reign over the earth during the thousand years. They will not probably dwell upon the earth, but will visit it when they please, or when it is necessary to govern it” (Joseph Smith, TPJS, pg. 268)
12 – “He will, however, have children, and mortal life of a millennial kind will continue.” (Bruce R. McConkie, Millennial Messiah, pg. 644)
13 – “The mother who laid down her little child, being deprived of the privilege, the joy, and the satisfaction of bringing it up to manhood or womanhood in this world, would, after the resurrection, have all they joy, satisfaction and pleasure, and even more than it would have been possible to have had in mortality, in seeing her child grow to the full measure of the stature of its spirit.” (Joseph F. Smith, Gospel Doctrine, pg. 453)
14 – “When a child is raised in the resurrection, the spirit will enter the body and the body will be the same size as it was when the child died. It will then grow after the resurrection to full maturity to conform to the size of the spirit.”
If parents are righteous, they will have their children after the resurrection. Little children who die, whose parents are not worthy of an exaltation, will be adopted into the families of those who are worthy.” (Joseph Fielding Smith, DS, 2:56)
15 – “The purpose of the Millennium is to save souls....Billions of spirits will come to earth during the Millennium, when Satan is bound, when there is peace on earth, when there is no sorrow because there is no death, when they will not be confronted with the evil and carnality that face us. They will grow up without sin unto salvation. Thus saith the holy word.
...There will be billions of millennial mortals who will never be tested, as fully as we are, and who will go on to eternal life, as do little children, because an Almighty God in his infinite wisdom arranges that kind of a life for them. The Lord gives each of us what we need. And, we repeat, the whole millennial system has been ordained and established to save souls.”(Bruce R. McConkie, Millennial Messiah, pg. 660)
16 – “There will be wicked men on the earth during the thousand years.” (Joseph Smith, TPJS, pg. 268)
17 – “The Prophet’s statement that there will be wicked men on the earth during the Millennium has caused considerable confusion in the minds of many who have read in the Scripture in many places that when Christ comes the earth shall be cleansed from its wickedness, and that the wicked shall not stand, but shall be consumed. (D&C 5:18-19, 29:8-10, 101:23-25; Isaiah 24:1-3; Malachi 4:1). The evil-minded inhabitants, those ‘who love and make a lie’ and are guilty of all manner of corruption, will be consumed and pass away when Christ comes. In using the term ‘wicked men’ in this instruction at the home of Judge Adams, the Prophet did so in the same sense in which the Lord uses it in the eighty-fourth section of the Doctrine and Covenants, 49-53. The Lord in this scripture speaks of those who have not received the Gospel as being under the bondage of sin, and hence ‘wicked’. However, many of these people are honorable, clean living men, but they have not embraced the Gospel. The inhabitants of the terrestrial order will remain on the earth during the Millennium, and this class are without the Gospel ordinances. (D&C 76:73-76).” (Joseph Smith, TPJS, pg. 268)
18 – “NON-MEMBERS OF CHURCH DURING MILLENNIUM. Some members of the Church have an erroneous idea that when the millennium comes all of the people are going to be swept off the earth except righteous members of the Church. That is not so. There will be millions of people, Catholics, Protestants, agnostics, Mohammedans, people of all classes, and of all beliefs, still permitted to remain upon the face of the earth, but they will be those who have lived clean lives, those who have been free from wickedness and corruption. All who belong, by virtue of their good lives, to the terrestrial order, as well as those who have kept the celestial law, will remain upon the face of the earth during the millennium.
Eventually, however, the knowledge of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters do the sea. But there will be need for the preaching of the gospel, after the millennium is brought in, until all men are either converted or pass away. In the course of the thousand years all men will either come into the Church, or kingdom of God, or they will die and pass away. In that day there will be no death until men are old. Children will not die but will live to the age of a tree. Isaiah says this is 100 years. When the time comes for men to die, they will be changed in the twinkling of an eye, and there will be no graves.” (Joseph Fielding Smith, DS, 1:86-87)
19 – “The heathen nations who will not come up to worship will be visited with the judgments of God, and must eventually be destroyed from the earth.” (Joseph Smith, TPJS, pg. 268)
20 – “Thus there will be many churches on earth when the Millennium begins. False worship will continue among those whose desires are good, ‘who are honorable men of the earth,’ but who have been ‘blinded by the craftiness of men.’ (D&C 76:75) Plagues will rest upon them until they repent and believe the gospel or are destroyed, as the Prophet said. It follows that missionary work will continue into the Millennium until all who remain are converted. Then ‘the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.’ (Isa. 11:9) Then every living soul on earth will belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.” (Bruce R. McConkie, Millennial Messiah, pg. 651)
21 – “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.” (George Q. Cannon, Gospel Truth, 1:86)
3-Step Process:
1- Satan Bound - (Key - Revelation 20:1-3)
22 – “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 enticings. This is not so. He will not have the privilege during that period of time to tempt any man.” (Joseph Fielding Smith, Church History and Modern Revelation, 1:192)
23 – *“When Satan is bound in a single home—when Satan is bound in a single life—the millennium has already begun in that home, in that life.” (Spencer W. Kimball, TSWK, pg. 172)
2- Wicked Destroyed - (Chain - D&C 43:31-33)
3- Righteousness of the Saints - (Seal - 1 Nephi 22:26)
24 – “We read that Satan shall be bound a thousand years. How is this to be accomplished? By our becoming so impregnated with the principles of the Gospel—with the Holy Ghost—that the enemy will have no place in us or in our families, and shedding forth that influence in our neighborhoods....Then will he not be bound? Yes, so far as this earth is concerned; and that is the way in which it is to be done, in my humble opinion. He will be chained to all intents and purposes when he can have no influence—no power—no tabernacles into which he can enter; he will then have no place of entertainment. When he finds that he is cornered that close, will he not consider himself bound? I think he will, whether he thinks so or not.” (Daniel H. Wells, JD, 5:43)
25 – *“When you have resisted a temptation until it no longer becomes a temptation, then to that extent, Satan has lost his power over you, and as long as you do not yield to him, to that degree he is bound.” (Eldred G. Smith, Improvement Era, June 1970, pg. 104)
26 – “As to those who are born after the Millennium and who turn to unrighteousness, their state will be awful. We suppose they will continue to live on an earth where there is no death and that they will be numbered among those of whom Isaiah said: ‘The child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed.’ (Isaiah 65:20) Surely there shall be many sons of perdition in that day, for many shall come out in open rebellion against God, knowing perfectly that he is supreme and that they are fighting him and his plan of salvation.” (Bruce R. McConkie, New Witness for the Articles of Faith, pg. 652)
27 – “After the thousand years Satan will be loosed again and will go forth again to deceive the nations. Because men are still mortal, Satan will go out to deceive them. Men will again deny the Lord, but in doing so they will act with their eyes open and because they love darkness rather than light, and so they become sons of perdition. Satan will gather his hosts, both those on the earth and the wicked dead who will eventually also be brought forth in the resurrection. Michael, the Prince, will gather his forces and the last great battle will be fought. Satan will be defeated with his hosts. Then will come the end. Satan and those who follow him will be banished into outer darkness.” (Joseph Fielding Smith, DS, 1:87-88)
28 – “ZION AND JERUSALEM: TWO WORLD CAPITALS. When Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon, he learned that America is the land of Zion which was given to Joseph and his children and that on this land the City Zion, or New Jerusalem, is to be built. He also learned that Jerusalem in Palestine is to be rebuilt and become a holy city. These two cities, one in the land of Zion and one in Palestine, are to become capitals for the kingdom of God during the millennium.” (Joseph Fielding Smith, DS, 3:71)
29 – “I have often wondered what that expression meant, that out of Zion shall go forth the law. Years ago I went with the brethren to the Idaho Falls Temple, and I heard in that inspired prayer of the First Presidency a definition of the meaning of that term ‘out of Zion shall go forth the law.’ Note what they said: “We thank thee that thou hast revealed to us that those who gave us our constitutional form of government were men wise in thy sight and that thou didst raise them up for the very purpose of putting forth that sacred document [as revealed in Doctrine and Covenants, section 101]....
We pray that kings and rulers and the peoples of all nations under heaven may be persuaded of the blessings enjoyed by the people of this land by reason of their freedom and under thy guidance and be constrained to adopt similar governmental systems, thus to fulfill the ancient prophecy of Isaiah and Micah that ‘...out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.’ (George Albert Smith, Improvement Era, October 1945, p. 564)” (Harold B. Lee, Ensign, November 1971, pg. 15)
30 – “After Christ comes, all the peoples of the earth will be subject to him, but there will be multitudes of people on the face of the earth who will not be members of the Church; yet all will have to be obedient to the laws of the kingdom of God, for it will have dominion upon the whole face of the earth. These people will be subject to the political government, even though they are not members of the ecclesiastical kingdom which is the Church.
This government which embraces all the peoples of the earth, both in and out of the Church, is also sometimes spoken of as the kingdom of God, because the people are subject to the kingdom of God which Christ will set up; but they have their agency and thousands will not be members of the Church until they are converted; yet at the same time they will be subject to the theocratic rule.” (Joseph Fielding Smith, DS, 1:229)
31 – “The building of these two world capitals will commence before the Second Coming and continue during the Millennium.” (Bruce R. McConkie, New Witness for the Articles of Faith, pg., 587)
32 – “MILLENNIAL CONVERSION OF ALL TO TRUTH. With the destruction of the wicked and the fall of the great and abominable church (D&C 29:21; D&C 88:94)—events destined to accompany the ushering in of the millennium—the conversion of men to the truths of the gospel will become easy. In due course every living soul on earth will come to the knowledge of the truth, ‘for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.’ (Isaiah 11:9; Habakkuk 2:14) This means that when ‘all things shall be made known unto the children of men’ (2 Ne. 30:15-18), they all shall accept the gospel, for the knowledge of God is found only by revelation through the power of the priesthood. (D&C 84:19-22)” (Bruce R. McConkie, MD, pg. 499)
33 – “By the time Christ comes we are expected to have done all that is within our power to do now for our dead. That does not mean we are going to do all that is to be done, because it will go on during the millennium. The great work of the millennium will be the salvation of the dead, and those who are on the other side will help us, too, by bringing us information.” (Joseph Fielding Smith, DS, 2:166)
34 – “That this work may be hastened so that all who believe, in the spirit world, may receive the benefit of deliverance, it is revealed that the great work of the Millennium shall be the work in the temples for the redemption of the dead; and then we hope to enjoy the benefits of revelation through the Urim and Thummim, or by such means as the Lord may reveal concerning those for whom the work shall be done, so that we may not work by chance, or by faith alone, without knowledge, but with the actual knowledge revealed unto us.” (Joseph F. Smith, Gospel Doctrine, pg. 438)
35 – “The ordinances for the salvation of the dead are mortal ordinances, because all these ordinances pertain to this life, and immortal beings cannot perform them.” (Joseph Fielding Smith, DS, 2:166)
36 – “The question may arise here—‘Will it be possible for men to sin during the Millennium?’ Yes. Why? Because they have not lost their agency. Agency always continues wherever intelligent beings are, whether in heaven, on the earth, or among any of the creations that God has made; wherever you find intelligent beings, not to the same extent perhaps, under all circumstances, but yet there is always the exercise of agency where there is intelligence. For instance, when Satan is bound and a seal set upon him in this lowermost pit, his agency is partially destroyed in some things. He will not have power to come out of that pit; now he has that power; then he will not have power to tempt the children of men, now he has that power; consequently his agency then will be measurably destroyed or taken away, but not in full. The Lord will not destroy the agency of the people during the Millennium, therefore there will be a possibility of their sinning during that time. But if they who live then do sin, it will not be because of the power of the devil to tempt them, for he will have no power over them, and they will sin merely because they choose to do so of their own free will.” (Orson Pratt, November 22, 1873, JD, 16:319-320)
Records with promises to come forth:
Sealed Portion of the Book of Mormon ()
Record of John the Baptist (D&C 93:6)
Book of Enoch (D&C 107:57)
Record of Joseph of Egypt (2 Nephi 2:4)
37 – “That is, the Spirit will manifest what petitions should be made. Such will be the case during the millennium, for ‘in that day whatsoever any man shall ask, it shall be given unto him.’ (D & C 101:27)” (Bruce R. McConkie, DNTC, 1:427)
38 – “There are no words in our language that accurately convey to our minds either the nature of man or the type of life he is destined to live during the Millennium. In that day, in process of time at least, the Lord has promised to restore ‘a pure language,’ so that all men may ‘call upon the name of the Lord, to serve him with one consent.’ (Zeph. 3:9)” (Bruce R. McConkie, Millennial Messiah, pg. 646-647)
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