Letters Exhibiting the Most Prominent Doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day SaintsSpencer, Orson
Religion
Letters Exhibiting the Most Prominent Doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
Spencer, Orson
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints -- Doctrines; Latter Day Saint churches -- Doctrines
But grovelling unbelief will ask, how can such an immense city be let
down to the earth, or suspended over it, and contiguous to it? I reply,
How can the earth be suspended in vacant space? How could Jesus ascend
up till the eye could see his person no longer? How could Elijah go up
in the chariot of Israel? How could the angel fly through the midst of
heaven, that the prophets Zechariah, John, and Daniel saw speaking to
the young man Joseph? How can Christ come with his ten thousand Saints,
and descend with a shout? How will Saints, by tens of thousands and
millions, be caught up to meet him in the air? How do birds fly in the
air, and vast planets hang on nothing? Oh! marvellous unbelief! shall
not He who organized worlds out of their chaotic state, reorganize
them at His pleasure, so as to suit the capacity and pleasure of
immortalized bodies, that have kept their second estate, and have
obtained right and title to enter the pearly gates of the royal city?
Isaiah says, that the Lord's work, in the last days, shall be a
marvellous work and a wonder. The changes wrought in the condition of
the earth will be very great. The face of its surface will be greatly
changed. There are many islands and lofty barren mountains, and sunken
pestiferous valleys, and sterile plains, that will be revolutionized.
Indeed, far the greatest part of the earth stands covered with water.
The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunken man, and shake terribly
before the coming of the Son of Man. It shall even be turned upside
down; and the approach of Christ shall be indicated by a succession of
great events and changes. But a most extraordinary appearance in the
heavens shall be distinguished, and known as the _sign_ of the coming
of the Son of Man. Whether this sign of the Son of Man will be some
planetary body of an imposing aspect, first making its appearance in
the heavens and gradually approximating to the earth, or whether it
shall be stationary, is not, and probably, will not, be fully revealed,
except to the children of revelation, for that day shall come upon the
nations as a snare.
But it is revealed that an extraordinary sign in the heavens shall make
its appearance, announcing, with sublime and terrific grandeur, the
near approach of the Son of Man. The calamitous state of the nations,
convulsed with the sword, pestilence and famine, with which God will
plead with all flesh before the Son of Man shall come; followed also
with great convulsions of nature, will lead many to practise wild and
visionary impositions, pretending that Christ _has_ indeed come, and
that he has been seen in the wilderness, or in the secret chamber,
&c. But let it be understood distinctly, that even as a remarkable
_star_ escorted the Son of Man in his first advent, and became not only
visible but stationary over the very point of earth where Jesus was
born--marvellous indeed!--even so, and much more visible will be his
second coming.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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