THE KINGDOM OF OUR CHRIST

 

 

The humble beginning of the Church is amazing, isn’t it? The Church was organised on 6 April 1830 with just six members in David Whitmer’s home. As of March 2024, the total membership of the Church reached 17 million members worldwide.

Reading this week about the organisation of the Church in Section 20 of Doctrine and Covenants reminded me of the prophecy within a dream of the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar in 597 B.C.

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 the King's dream 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. 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 who would rise up and who would make war with the saints of God until 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 (v 22).

Why is this a sad story if Christ triumphs in the end? Because when the anti-Christ’s power wages war against the Saints, many of us will be lost (Daniel 11:32-35).

With the ‘Come Follow Me’ programme, the Church has placed 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 and keep standing we must, not just for ourselves but to preserve the kingdom of our Christ. It is for Him the Kingdom exists.

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?'

“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. In the seventh chapter of Daniel, 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)

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art by Walter Rane)