Coming

 

In reading the Joseph Smith translation of Matthew 24:34, Christ teaches his disciples that the generation that sees the sign of His coming "shall not pass away" before the Second Coming. This reading of the scriptures may sometimes be seen as impossible. It appears that many signs have been given, including the restoration of the gospel itself, over the last 189 years-- and many generations have also passed on.

Perhaps it is possible that the Savior was referring to one specific sign. Several of those present thought that sign was the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem-- a doctrine which Paul corrected in his famous verse about the coming apostasy in his second letter to the Thessalonians.

A possibility that I will suggest, recognizing that I am neither a scholar nor much less a prophet to whom it is given to interpret scripture and reveal the will of God, is that the major sign will be the fulfilling of the Abrahamic Covenant. This suggestion is made based upon the significance of the Abrahamic Covenant to all audiences with whom Christ addresses this issue, Christ's "Law and Covenant" discourse (3 Nephi 15:1-17:4) and the Lord's teaching that the first will be last and the last will be first. The Abrahamic Covenant was given to Abraham around 1900 BC and promised innumerable posterity, a special land and that the nations of the Earth would be blessed through his seed. The Law of Moses was given roughly 600 years later and was fulfilled at the First Coming of Christ. Of their relationship, Christ taught, "Behold, I say unto you that the law is fulfilled that was given unto Moses. Behold, I am he that gave the law, and I am he who covenanted with my people Israel; therefore the law in me is fulfilled, for I have come to fulfil the law; therefore it hath an end. Behold, I do not destroy the prophets, for as many as have not been fulfilled in me, verily I say unto you, shall all be fulfilled. And...I do not destroy that which hath been spoken concerning things which are to come. For behold, the covenant which I have made with my people is not all fulfilled; but the law which was given unto Moses hath an end in me" (3 Nephi 15:4-8). Thus,the Law of Moses was given last and has already been fulfilled at the first coming of Christ, while the Abrahamic Covenant was given first and will be fulfilled last, perhaps at the time of His Second Coming.

Third Nephi chapter 21 is part of a sermon LDS scholars call the "Father Covenant" sermon because Christ is delivering a message from the Father to covenant peoples both in ancient America and in the present-day Church. The chapter begins with a seven-verse sentence about a sign. It is worth noting that the first reference to the sign is given in future tense, while the sentence concludes with a reference to the same sign in the past tense.

Sandwiched between the past and the future must be the present-- the sign-- to which the Lord places great emphasis by prefacing its disclosure with "verily, verily." Exchanging pronouns for the nouns they represent, we read, "Verily, verily, I say unto [the Lehites], when the [Book of Mormon] shall be made known unto [the Gentiles] of the Father, and shall come forth of the Father from [the Gentiles] unto [the Lehites]..." This is the sign. Christ repeats it again in verses four and five for clarity, for obviously a Book of Mormon people could get confused being told the Gentiles would bring them the Book of Mormon. Verse seven continues, again exchanging nouns for pronouns, "... when [the Lehite remnants] shall begin to know [the things of the Book of Mormon]-- it shall be a sign unto [the Lehite remnants], that [the Lehite remnants] may know that the work of the Father hath already commenced unto the fulfilling of the [Abrahamic] covenant which he hath made unto the people who are of the house of Israel." 

3 Nephi 16:10-11 says, "At that day when the Gentiles shall sin against my gospel, and shall reject the fulness of my gospel, and shall be lifted up in the pride of their hearts above all nations, and above all the people of the whole earth, and shall be filled with all manner of lyings, and of deceits, and of mischiefs, and all manner of hypocrisy, and murders, and priestcrafts, and whoredoms, and of secret abominations; and if they shall do all those things, and shall reject the fulness of my gospel, behold, saith the Father, I will bring the fulness of my gospel from among them. And then will I remember my covenant which I have made unto my people, O house of Israel, and I will bring my gospel unto them." This seems to confirm the previous idea that the preaching of the gospel and its acceptance among Central and South American peoples is a direct fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant and perhaps the sign the Savior referred to in Matthew 24:34.

If this is true, it would be worth noting when that activity really began to happen. The early Church tried to send missionaries among the Native American tribes with little success in the mid-1800s. After the Saints moved to Utah, surrounded by Native American tribes, they tried again with similar results. The exciting, dramatic and maybe even true reality is that the sharing of the gospel with Native and Latin American peoples didn't really catch on until the 1970s, shortly prior to the revelation that blacks could receive the priesthood (many in South America are of mixed descent).

Bringing this all together, the scriptures seem to say that within the generation of that time period-- the 1970s-- will be the fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant, perhaps by the Second Coming of Christ.

I hesitate to say any of this decisively, because of my acknowledged weakness. I also admit my inspiration for this study was given by my professor at BYU, Victor Ludlow. I do not attempt to be a sign seeker, for the scriptures clearly teach against that. But I do try to recognize the signs that have been given and accept correction where it may be needed. Recognizing that I was born only a decade later than this potential sign was given, it is an exciting reaffirmation that my generation may, in fact, witness something very special. No man can know the hour, but it is worth hoping to see in my lifetime.

An aside: Isaiah 54 and 3 Nephi 22 are essentially the same. They prophesy that when the Gentiles go sour, the Lehite remains will inherit the land once again. There can be little debate whether the Gentiles are going sour-- it is obvious and often repugnant just how sour they already are. So it should be no surprise that census predictions show Latin Americans and new immigrants from Mexico and further South are growing much faster than the 'Gentile' populations. This influx of Latinos appears to be a fulfillment of prophesy-- and as such, is not worth resisting, rather should be welcomed. This thought needs further development, but that much seems clear.