KING OF ALL KINGDOMS

I love history. I particularly love finding connections to people across the span of time. Many prophets of old were given to know us and our day through visions and dreams and God given revelations. One such prophet was Daniel who was taken to Babylon around 605 B.C. Daniel lived in captivity for 70 years and served 5 heathen kings. Because of his righteousness he rose to such prominence that he was made governor of all the Jews in Babylon. He prophesied and interpreted dreams of kings with boldness and worshipped the God of Israel without fear. He is mostly known for surviving the lion's den into which he was thrown, for which survival king Darius called him 'Daniel, servant of the living God' (Daniel 6:20). So in Daniel we mainly see immense power, until we read the recordings of his own dreams and visions which pertained not only to his time but to the time which we the latter-day saints live in. Then we see a man heavily burdened with knowledge which tugged at his heart for the scriptures record that Daniel was grieved in his spirit, that the visions of his head troubled him and his countenance changed in him forever (Daniel 7:15, 28).  What could have brought such grief to so great a man?

Chapter 7 of Daniel is a record of a dream that Daniel had of four major ancient empires: Babylonian, Persian, Greek and Roman. We know from Nebuchadnezzar's dream of a great image in chapter 2 that the Roman empire was destroyed and replaced by a powerful European group of ten nations. This dream was about the latter days in which a 'stone was cut out of the mountain without hands' (Daniel 2:45) which consumed all the other kingdoms of the earth. We know of course that this stone is the Kingdom of God on earth, meaning the Church. The visions of Daniel as opposed to kings' dreams should, however, hold a particular interest for us because they go further than the establishment of the Church. The first recorded dream which Daniel had talks about a beast with ten horns, meaning the Roman empire which becomes replaced by ten powerful European nations, as already mentioned. What is particularly interesting is that Daniel saw another horn come up on this beast. This horn is described as a 'little horn' (Daniel 7:8) and does not seem to represent an earthly government or nation so it does not seem to have any political or secular power. However, it does have a terrible power of its own.  This is the  power of an anti-Christ that would rise up and that would make war with the saints of God util the time of Christ's Second Coming (Daniel 7:20-27). What must have pointedly struck at the heart of Daniel is in verse 21 which states that this power prevailed against the saints....until the Ancient of Days, meaning Adam, shall come to Adam-ondi-Ahman to hand over the kingdom to the King of all kings, to Him to whom the kingdom rightly belongs. Why is this a sad story if Christ triumphs in the end? Because when the anti-Christ power wages war against the Saints, many of us will be lost (Daniel 11:32-34). With the latest changes, the Church is placing the responsibility of our testimonies upon our own shoulders, attempting to prepare us for a worse time to come when the saints will be persecuted and many of us will not stand. We will not stand if we do not take this responsibility to heart and center ourselves on the Saviour of the world and His Kingdom. This can already be seen by many who have recently left the Church, whose testimonies were not able to survive the subtle manipulations of the anti-Christ power of our day.
There is another important reason why we need to spiritually invest in ourselves. Without us, there is no kingdom. We, the saints of latter-days are preparing the kingdom in which Christ will reign. Consider Elder LeGrand Richards' take on this:

"When I was president of the Southern States Mission, one of our missionaries preached on that dream of Nebuchadnezzar in one of our meetings where we had some investigators, and I stood at the door to greet them as they went out. A man came up and introduced himself as a minister and he said, 'You don't mean to tell me that you think the Mormon Church is that kingdom, do you?' And I said, 'Yes sir, why not?'. He said, 'It couldn't be.' I said, 'Why couldn't it?' And he said, 'You can't have a kingdom without a king, and you don't have a king, so you don't have a kingdom'. 'Oh', I said, 'my friend, you didn't read far enough. You just read the seventh chapter of Daniel, where Daniel saw one like the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven, "and there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him" (Daniel 7:14). 'Now', I said, 'my friend, tell me how can the kingdom be given to him when he comes in the clouds of heaven if there is no kingdom prepared for him? That is what we Latter-day Saints are doing." (In CR Oct 1975, pp 76-77 or Ensign Nov 1975, p 51)

When the heavens opened and John the Beloved saw the Saviour appearing on a white horse whose eyes were as a flame of fire, he also saw that upon His head sat many crowns (Revelation 19:12). These crowns no doubt will represent that He is the King of all kingdoms. And these crowns will be adorned with valuables without price, meaning those who have overcome and endured with faith, those who will welcome Him as their King, those of which the Saviour has said "they shall be mine, saith the Lord of Hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels......." (Malachi 3:17). We shall be His  and He will be ours, the begotten Father of our spirits, the Saviour of our souls, the Prince of Peace, the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.....

FORERUNNER

In the ancient world there were men who held an important job. They were required to go ahead of a travelling party to clear the path of fallen trees, rocks, undesirable persons or any obstacles that would prevent the travelling party from finishing their journey. They prepared the way. They were called 'forerunners'.

The most famous 'forerunner' to whom this title was applied symbolically was John the Baptist. Not much is known of John's personal life besides the role he played in the accomplishment of Christ's mission, but this much we do know. He was born to two elderly people according to God's promise to be 'the voice crying in the wilderness' to herald the arrival of one greater than he, as prophesied by Isaiah (40:3) and Malachi (3:1). When John the Baptist was two and a half years old a decree went out from Herod the king that all boy children two years and younger should be slain. John escaped this deadly fate because of the selfless courage of his father Zacharias who caused his wife Elizabeth to take him to the desert where he was raised to manhood. When Zacharias refused to disclose his hiding place he was slain by Herod's order, between the temple and the altar as he performed his temple duties (Matthew 23:35).  So apart from his miraculous birth and a rough upbringing what we know most from the scriptures is that John's life was solely focused on being the 'forerunner' of the long awaited Messiah. One might ask why the Son of God would need anyone to prepare the way before Him?

We know that first and foremost there needed to be a person with proper priesthood authority that could baptise Jesus, even though He needed no baptism. John had this priesthood power and authority. His father Zacharias would have been the high priest had that office not been corrupted earlier in Jews' history by making it a political appointment reserved primarily for those of wealth and prominence. Upon his death, John would have been the next reigning high priest. The leadership in Jerusalem, including the Pharisees, scribes, Sadducees and the Sanhedrin knew who John was and what his lineage was. Therefore, his teaching of the Saviour's coming, the gospel, the performing of miracles and baptising would have created a fertile environment for Jesus as He began his ministry. If there was no John beforehand to vouch for and testify of Him, the leadership in Jerusalem and indeed the Jewish population would not have recognized Jesus as having any authority or position as He was a carpenter without any acknowledged political or religious standing. John's ministry also provided a nucleus of faithful baptised believers from whom he could call His apostles. These were men already converted and ready to serve, hence their ability to walk away from their professions and families the instant the Saviour called them. Such was the power of John the Baptist, a martyr, who valiantly testified, taught and prepared the way and whom Jesus characterized as "a burning and a shining light" (John 5:35).

And here is an interesting fact. Even though Jesus and John were cousins and John testified of Him unrelentessly, it can be assumed that he didn't really know Him directly. The only time prior to the baptism that they would have been in close contact would be in Bethleham before they were 3 years old and before Herod's death decree. After that Jesus grew up in Nazareth and John was raised in Perea, on the east side of Jordan. In JST of John chapter 1, John says that he knew Him but was told by 'Him' who sent him to baptise that he shall know the Messiah when he sees the spirit descending upon Him following baptism (John 1:33, 34). He might have been told prior to baptism that it was his cousin but he might not have recognized Him when he saw Him without divine assistance. The Holy Ghost descending upon Jesus like a dove was both a confirmation to John of the Saviour's identity and a spiritual witness of His Sonship.

Here is the crux of this story. In my patriarchal blessing there is an interesting sentence that goes like this: "As you remain faithful to your trust, your guardian angels will never forsake you. They will go before you to 'prepare the way' and will be close to you and give you strength to resist evil." As I studied about John the Baptist this year my thoughts were cast upon this sentence and I realised I had 'forerunners' in my life. I wondered how much harder I would have struggled in my life had not an obstacle been removed from my path here and there, a temptation repressed , a hurtful incident prevented. I realised that I could very well have come this far more on the merits of my forerunners than on my own strength. If we are sincerely striving to accomplish our life's mission, our guardian angels will ensure that obstacles of any kind will not be keep us from accomplishing the purposes of our second estate. And one day when we look back on our lives we will plainly see just how much these guardian angels have helped us and we will be compelled to say as Elisha of old said to his servant who trembled at the sight of the approaching Syrians:

"Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they 

that be with them"

And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee,

open his eyes, that he may see.

And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man;

and he saw:

and behold, the mountain was full of horses and

chariots of fire....."

2 Kings 6:16,17

I attribute and credit some insight and phraseology in this blog post to my friend Larry Keeler who has enlarged my understanding of the scriptures many times.