THE LAST DISPENSATION OF TIME

 

“Joseph Smith continued visiting me and others up to a certain time and then stopped. The last time I saw him was in heaven. He came and spoke to me. He said that he could not stop to talk to me because he was in a hurry.

“The next man I met was Father Smith; he couldn’t talk to me because he was in a hurry. I met half a dozen brethren who held high positions on earth, and none of them could stop to talk to me because they were in a hurry. I was much astonished.

“By and by I saw the Prophet again, and I got a privilege to ask him a question: “Now”, said I, “I want to know why you are in a hurry? I have been in a hurry my whole life, but I expected my hurry would be over when I get into the kingdom of heaven, if I ever did.”

“Joseph said: “I will tell you Brother Woodruff, every dispensation that has had the priesthood on earth and has gone into celestial kingdom, has had a certain amount of work to do to prepare to go to the earth with the Saviour when He goes to reign on earth. Each dispensation has had ample time to do this work. We have not. We are the last dispensation and so much work has to be done and we need to be in a hurry in order to accomplish it.

“Of course, that was satisfactory with me, but it was new doctrine to me.”

-          Wilford Woodruff, Discourses Delivered at Weber Stake Conference, Ogden, 19 October 1896; as published in Deseret News Weekly, Volume 53, #21)

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Time Is At Hand by Danny Hahlbohm)

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THE FINAL HARVEST

 

Chapter 23 of Leviticus contains a series of holy days that the Lord commanded all Israel to observe. Three of the most important are: 1. The Feast of Trumpets; 2. The Day of the Atonement and; 3. The Feast of the Tabernacles.

The Feast of Trumpets in particular signifies: 1. The beginning of Israel’s final harvest; 2. The day God had set to remember His ancient promises to gather Israel; 3. A time for new revelation that would lead to a new covenant with Israel and; 4. A time to prepare for the Millenium.

This is the significance of the Feast of Trumpets as it relates to us and this last dispensation. The final harvest of Israel began on 22 September 1827, the very day Israel celebrated the Feast of Trumpets. This is the day that Moroni gave the golden plates to the Prophet Joseph Smith. The timing of its deliverance was not coincidental. This was a carefully orchestrated and rehearsed event for four years prior. Picture Joseph receiving the golden plates from Moroni whilst trumpets blew in Israel. (see The Golden Plates and the Feast of Trumpets by Lenet Hadley Read, Ensign 2000)

We know that many truths have been lost and taken away from the Bible, but none more significant that the prophecies of the restoration of the gospel in the latter days missing from Isaiah 29 and which Nephi quoted in its completion in 2 Nephi 27 as were contained on the brass plates:

1.      Letter-day context of the prophecy (2 Nephi 27:1)

2.      A ‘book’ that Isiah prophesied would come forth in the last days (verse 6)

3.      The book would be ‘sealed’ (verses 7-8)

4.      Roles of Moroni and Joseph Smith in bringing forth the Book of Mormon (verses 9-10)

5.      ‘Three witnesses’ who would behold the ‘book’ and testify ‘to the truth of the things therein’ (verses 12-13)

I stand in awe of God who orchestrates His work with such perfect precision to fulfil His purposes which cannot fail. The adversary might be working hard to ‘pervert the right ways of the Lord that he might blind the eyes and harden the hearts of the children of men’ (1 Nephi 13:27) but he cannot win. God’s plan for our salvation runs like clock-work with every step put into place long before its’ reality.

So ordered are the events that will transpire upon this earth that they cannot possibly fail, because ‘God created all things spiritually before they were naturally upon the face of the earth’ (Moses 3:5). Everything was designed, proven and tested before it came into being.

The Final Harvest is under way and in our hands we hold the book that is gathering Israel…..

 

We Israel, His chosen seed

will come to Zion

With songs of everlasting joy

To worship our Lord and our King

And to Him forever our praises we will sing. 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Reaping the Harvest by Nathan Greene)

THE MYSTERIOUS BOOK OF MORMON

 

 

When Alma handed over the records of his people to his son Helaman, he told him that they should be handed down from one generation to another until they will go forth to every nation and every people to come to know of ‘the mysteries’ that they contain (Alma 37:4).

My favourite section of the Doctrine and Covenants is Section 76 which says that the hidden mysteries of God’s kingdom and even the wonders of eternity will be revealed to faithful saints (D&C 76:5-10). I have for a long time wanted to know the mysteries and I believe the Book of Mormon has been extremely influential in the realization of this desire.

What are mysteries? President Joseph Fielding Smith has said that ‘mysteries are those principles of the gospel necessary for our salvation that are not understood by the world’; the Book of Mormon Institute Manual says that ‘they are the saving principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as revealed because of faith and obedience’ but Elder Bruce R. McConkie gives the best explanation: “Any gospel truth, however easy and simple, that is not understood, or that is beyond present spiritual capacity of a given person to understand, is to him a mystery” (The Mortal Messiah 2, p 164).

I am often amazed by the critics of The Book of Mormon who discount what is contained therein. This book is so much easier to understand than the Bible into which certain errors had crept through ‘ignorant translators, careless transcribers, or designing and corrupt priests’ (Teachings of Joseph Smith, p 327). Don’t get me wrong, I love the Bible but every time a doctrinal principle becomes clearer to my understanding because of the Book of Mormon, I become more and more grateful for this sacred book. I guess you can say, the Book of Mormon reveals to me ‘my mysteries’.

Alma stressed the importance of scripture to Helaman in great detail but in the end he conceded that the real purpose of preserving the records is known to God who ‘counsels in wisdom over all his works’ and then he calls the records sacred because God will show forth his ‘power’ through them unto future generations (Alma 37:12, 14). Who are the future generations? I believe it is us of this dispensation of time and this is the power: “What then is the power of the Book of Mormon? It will proclaim the everlasting gospel; it will gather Israel; it will build the New Jerusalem; it will prepare a people for the Second Coming; it will usher in the Millenium – at least it will play such an important part in all of these that its value and power can scarcely be overstated” (The Millenial Messiah [1982], p 171).

These then are the mysteries which the world does not understand, the mysteries of this dispensation of time which will bring us to the Millenium. These are the mysteries which only the sheep of the Shepherd of Israel hear and understand and accept. These are the mysteries that enlarge the caverns of our hearts and which feed the soul of every Israelite in anticipation of every prophecy of the mysterious book we hold in our hands, the book which bears witness of our God, the King of Kings who will return with healing in His wings.

How much you must love those

Who have borne witness of Thy name!

Thy prophets of old, Thine everlasting friends,

Thine angels who herald

Thy gospel and Thy name;

To the ends of the earth they speak

And their words forever remain.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Moroni Burying the Plates by Katie Payne)

A WELCOME BY THE FAITHFUL

 

In his efforts to stay the tide of increasing floundering amongst the early Church members who had converted from Judaism to Christianity, Paul wrote the famous sermon that we now call the book of Hebrews. Throughout the entire sermon, his goal was to reinforce the members’ conversion by denouncing the law of Moses and emphasizing that the only way to salvation was through Christ. He reminded these converted Jews of the time they were illuminated, had accepted the truth and had endured afflictions because of it (Hebrews 10:32). He admonished them not to let all that growth and endurance go to waste by casting away their confidence in the truth they once accepted (v 35). In other words, if it was right when you prayed about it and received a witness of it, and trusted it, and lived for it, it is still right. It is right when the pressure mounts, when doubts set in, when fears rear their ugly heads, when the adversary steps in to destroy your reward if you remain faithful.

Following his admonition to confidence, Paul said something highly significant to us, the saints of this last dispensation who await the Second Coming of the Saviour: “For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry” (Hebrews 10:37). In other words, don’t give up especially now when the Lord is at the door….

It has been 2023 years since the Lord’s first advent. Many, like Nephites of old who awaited His first coming, are becoming incredulous about His return. Those who still believe are asking how much more wicked the world has to get before He appears. Elder Christofferson who was in Melbourne, Australia, conducting a leadership meeting was asked this very same question of a sister during a question and answer segment to which he replied: “The world is already wicked enough for His coming, the Father is waiting for more covenant keeping saints to welcome Him.” In his talk, “Preparing for the Lord’s Return” given in April 2019, Elder Christofferson elaborated: “First, and crucial for the Lord’s return, is the presence on the earth of a people prepared to receive Him at His coming.”  

Nephi saw us in our day and testified that the ‘power of the Lamb of God descended upon the saints of the church of the Lamb, and upon the covenant people of the Lord…and we were armed with righteousness and with the power of God in great glory’ (1 Nephi 14:14). It is time for us, the covenant people, to rise to that privilege. We are the chosen for this time and this place to usher in the greatest event of the history of mankind. The winding up scenes will not be easy, they will not be pleasant, but they will be worth the sacrifice, the perseverance, the wait…..and when He comes, the tears of the faithful….

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: His Return by Dan Wilson)