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)

BEYOND THE VEIL

 

“President Heber J. Grant told a wonderful story about work for the dead:

"There were three young men who were as intimate, I think, as any three young men who ever lived could be.  They were Heber J. Grant, Feramorz L. Young and Richard W. Young. 

Feramorz L. Young had been in the East and had been graduated with honors from the Troy Polytechnic Institute, then went on a mission to Mexico, where he died and was buried in the Gulf of Mexico. 

“It always seemed to me a strange thing that a boy with all the education he had, who had made a wonderful success should be taken from us...He had to fight for the Church and its doctrines all the time he was in the East.

I thought that with his faith and knowledge and with all the information he had gained, it was too bad he had to lay down his life while in the Lord's service.

“I do not think that Fera Young in his life ever listened to an unclean story.  If anyone started to tell such a story he would excuse himself and walk away.  I never heard an unchaste word uttered by him.  If there ever was a clean, sweet, absolutely pure young man upon the earth, he was that young man.

“When he died his mother said she could not remember a word or thought or act of his life that would bring her the least sorrow or uneasiness. 

“What in the providence of the Lord is the result?...A woman came to Sister Young, his mother, with photographs of one of this lady's near and dear friends, a very beautiful woman, and said:

"Now Mrs. Young, I do not believe a thing of what I am going to tell you.  This girlfriend of mine was one of the noblest, finest, choicest kind of girls and young women that ever lived. 

“She has come to me in this city of Salt Lake on three separate occasions at night in dreams, and has given me this information: the date of her birth, the date of her death, and all this is necessary, she says, for a record in the temple; and she has told me that your son, Feramorz L. Young, has converted her, and that in addition to converting her he has proposed marriage to her. 

“She has said to me, "I want you to go to Mrs. Young and give her this information and vouch for my honesty, virtue, integrity and upright life, and have the work done for me and have me married for eternity to her son, Feramorz. L. Young."

“This woman who visited Mrs Young said:  "I do not believe a word of it but the last time this friend of mine came - which was the third time - she said: "There is nobody in Salt Lake City who knows me and can vouch for me except you." 

"You might just as well go to Mrs. Young and give her this information, because I am going to come, and come, and come, until you do it". 

“This beautiful girl was sealed to Brother Fera Young and I am convinced that my dear friend lost nothing by dying in his youth.

("Comforting Manifestations": Excerpts from Funeral Sermon delivered by President Heber J. Grant from the Improvement Era February 1931)

There is not one righteous soul that will miss out on any fruits of the Plan of Salvation. To this end was the Saviour born and to this end He sacrificed His all that we might have ALL. The price has been paid, the ordinances of salvation put into place. Has he not secured eternal happiness and blessings of eternity for you and me and for all who seek Him???

All honour and glory be to His name forever and ever…..

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art: Salt Lake City Temple by Brent Borup)