The Millennium

Volume Three—Chapter Thirty THE MILLENNIUM

#Brief History of Beliefs about the Millennium

Millennium, of course, connotes any period of one thousand years’ duration. In this chapter, we will consider that specific thousand-year period ushered in by the Lord’s second coming when peace and righteousness will prevail on the earth and when Jesus Christ will personally reign. We call it “the Millennium” (with a capital “M”). We in the Church today fully believe the Millennium will occur. It will be a literal reality. Such is not the belief of much of orthodox Christianity today.

Jesus referred to the Millennium and his own millennial reign when he taught his disciples to pray to the Father: “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). The Savior taught them he would be sent again by the Father at the end of the world to conduct a day of judgment and introduce a subsequent thousand-year period of paradisiacal glory (cf. Matthew 25:31-46; John 5:22-29; Acts 1:3-8). Some early Christians (contemporaries of the mortal Christ) appear to have anticipated the second coming of Jesus Christ and the onset of the Millennium as imminent, even though the Savior had cautioned them that none but the Father knew the time of his coming (Matthew 24:36). Also, there are apostolic pronouncements and prophecies concerning events that must precede the Millennium (cf. Matthew 24:36; Acts 3:19-21; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4).1

Some church leaders in the Patristic (post apostolic) Period, such as Justin Martyr of Rome, accepted the notion of a literal Millennium when a glorious kingdom of Christ would exist on earth. By the third through fifth centuries, however, church fathers such as Origen (AD 254) and Augustine (AD 429) had transformed the literal expectation of a Millennium into a figurative one. For them, the millennial reign of peace took place only in the hearts of individual men and women. Their concept of “the Millennium” began with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:16-20). From the fifth century until the sixteenth-century Protestant reformation, belief in a literal Millennium was regarded as unorthodox by the institutional church.

Among orthodox Christians today, beliefs vary widely. While a few Christian sects accept the literality of the Millennium, the predominant view among Catholic and Protestant churches is that biblical references to the Millennium are strictly metaphorical. They believe there will be no literal earthly Millennium. Some feel the millennial rule of Christ occurs in the hearts of believers. Others believe the description of the Millennium in the book of Revelation refers to Christ’s reign in his heavenly kingdom.

The reader may wish to review a prior discussion of the important judgment that will occur at the onset of the Millennium to set the stage for the subsequent thousand

years.

Our discussion of the Millennium in this chapter will focus on two major subtopics. (1) First, we will summarize the characteristics of life here on earth during the Millennium. We will glean these from the scriptures. These comprise the “whats”— the “milk”—of the Millennium. (2) Second, we will consider the “whys and whos”—the “meat.” We will consider such questions as: Why has the Lord arranged for this special thousand years? What does he intend it will accomplish? Who are those individuals foreordained to be born into mortality during the Millennium? What qualifies them to come to earth during this special era? What is the nature of the mortal trial for those who live out their mortal existence during the Millennium. How does the Millennium fit into the grand design of the plan of salvation?

#Life During the Millennium

We owe many of the prophecies about the Millennium to Isaiah who seemed to have had something of an obsession with the concept. The millennial theme is found in his opening chapters, his last chapter, and often in between. I will summarize several revealed facts characterizing life during the Millennium:

The Millennium will be an unprecedented and glorious era of peace. Among the human race, a universal brotherhood will exist. It will require strict self-discipline among all human inhabitants of the earth.

There will be no war. Men will take the military hardware left over from the terrible pre-Millennial world wars and convert it into machinery for peaceful production. The prophet Isaiah spoke of this day when “they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” (Isaiah 2:4).

It is no wonder Isaiah surveyed this great future era and wrote: “The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing” (Isaiah 14:7). “Then judgment shall dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness remain in the fruitful field. And the work of righteousness shall be peace: and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever. And my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places” (Isaiah 32:16-18). Isaiah’s philosophic contemplation of the Millennium led him to exclaim, “For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him” (Isaiah 64:4).

Paradisiacal state of the earth. Ezekiel prophesied that the earth itself, which lost its pristine character as a result of the Fall of Adam (Genesis 3:17-19), will return to its paradisiacal state once again (Ezekiel 36:35; cf. Articles of Faith 1:10). Isaiah prophesied that during this period the earth will bring forth its strength. The whole earth will become a garden of luxurious foliage and abundant harvests. Great forests will grow up in the wilderness (Isaiah 41:19). Rivers and springs will change deserts and wastelands into meadows and farmlands (Isaiah 35:7). Noxious weeds, briars and thorns will give way to groves, orchards and profitable plant life (Isaiah 35:7).

Elder McConkie taught of the changes in plant life during the Millennium:

We have spoken thus about mankind in general in setting forth, briefly, their millennial states. But what about other forms of life? Will their life and birth and death be as it now is? Or will they too be changed when the new heavens and the new earth replace this old mortal sphere? It is written: “And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new” (Revelation 21:5). “All things” include, literally, all things. Although the scriptures do not speak with particularity about the millennial status of plants and herbs and trees, and the rest of the plant kingdom, we do know they will go back to that state of existence that was theirs in the Garden of Eden (The Millennial Messiah: The Second Coming of the Son of Man, 654-55).

The earth is now characterized by mountain ranges, desolate deserts, and extensive swamplands. Much of the earth’s terrain is difficult to cultivate, and this fact limits the population potential of the earth. These features of the earth hostile to the earth’s being productive of crops and human habitation will be replaced by shallow vales and gentle slopes. There will be broad meadows and rich plains. All of this physical upheaval will be for one purpose, to restore the earth to its former perfection. The existing terrain will become smooth and productive (Luke 3:5). This will obviously result in multiplying the available arable surface of the earth many times.

The mechanism of this change may be that great earthquake that will occur after the opening of the seventh seal and prior to the Lord’s coming in glory. It will be an earthquake “such as was not since men were upon the earth.” It is described by John the Revelator (Revelation 16:18). John said: “Every mountain and island were moved out of their places” (Revelation 6:12-14). Referring to the same period of physical upheaval, Isaiah said: “Every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain” (Isaiah 40:4). The snow-capped peaks of mountain chains will crash from their pinnacles in the sky. The deep valleys of desert and marshlands will be filled with the debris.

The changes in the earth will be so great that the Lord speaks of it as “a new earth” and says there will be so little to remind one of the deficient and fallen sphere we now inhabit that “it shall not be remembered, nor come into mind” (Isaiah 65:17).

The refinement of the earth at that time will be so obvious that the planet is described as being “transfigured.” When the apostles were together on the mount of transfiguration, they were shown the vision of the transfigured earth (D&C 63:21).

Changes in the earth’s geography. During the Millennium remarkable physical changes to the earth’s surface will be inaugurated. The seas will be pushed back and the land mass of the earth will be one great land with only a Sea East, presumably where the Atlantic Ocean is now located.

Four generations after the Great Flood, in the days of Peleg, the earth became “divided” into eastern and western hemispheres. From a scientific standpoint, it seems that this change resulted either from continental drift or from the sinking of certain portions of the earth’s surface, thereby permitting vast regions to be flooded by the sea. No longer was the habitation of man “one land.” It was divided into islands and continents. North America thereby lost its former connection with the mainland of Eurasia. Presently, nearly three-fourths of the earth’s surface is submerged under water. The remainder is broken up into islands and irregular continents.

All this must make way for the Millennium. In that awe-inspiring moment of convulsion and conflagration that will begin during the appearance of the Lord on the Mount of Olives, “He shall command the great deep, and it shall be driven back into the north countries, and the islands shall become one land” (D&C 133:23-24). All of this physical upheaval will be for one purpose, to restore the earth to its former perfection.

The reclamation of the ocean floor by the rolling back of the sea and the leveling of inaccessible mountains will obviously result in multiplying the available surface of the earth many times. By joining the land into one continent the problems of commerce and communication will be minimized.

Although the land will apparently be joined into one global continent, it does not necessarily mean that it will form a band extending completely around the equatorial circumference of the earth. It appears from the writings of the ancient patriarchs that there was always a channel of sea, probably in the region of our present Atlantic Ocean which likely connected the Arctic and Antarctic Oceans. This conclusion is drawn from the fact that in the days of Enoch (which was before the “division”) there was a “sea east” (Moses 6:42), and since we know that the earliest civilization had its origin in the east-central portion of what we now call North America, a “sea east” would be in the region of our present Atlantic Ocean.

This sea is referred to a second time in the record of Enoch’s dramatic manipulations of the earth’s surface: “There also came up a land out of the depth of the sea and so great was the fear of the enemies of the people of God, that they fled and stood afar off and went upon the land which came up out of the depth of the sea” (Moses 7:14). Since there was a “Sea East” in ancient times, there will undoubtedly be a similar body of water during the Millennium to fulfill the promise that the earth will become “like as it was before it was divided.”

When the land again becomes one, America will then be the eastern-most portion of the continent of land which will extend almost around the earth. This would seem to give significance to the statement in Genesis that God planted a garden “eastward in Eden” (Genesis 2:8). If a solid belt of land stretched across the area now occupied by the Pacific Ocean so that America was connected with Eurasia to America’s west, it can be readily appreciated that the United States would then be a land “eastward.” Modern revelation has disclosed that this is exactly where the Garden of Eden was located (Matthias F. Cowley, Wilford Woodruff, History of His Life and Labors 481).

Every creature in the animal kingdom will become docile friends of man and of each other. Isaiah twice describes this phenomenon: “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together” (Isaiah 11:6-9; 65:25; Hosea 2:18). He even goes further and predicts that the animal species that have formerly been classified as “carnivorous” because of their dependence on flesh of other animals will become herbivorous so that they can exist upon plant life rather than meat: “The lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent’s meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain saith the Lord” (Isaiah 65:25; cf. Isaiah 11:7). “In that day, the enmity of man, and the enmity of beasts, yea, the enmity of all flesh, shall cease from before my face” (D&C 101:26). “And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain” (Isaiah 11:8-9). Elder McConkie added: “There will be no wild animals. The coyote will not stalk the deer, and the wolf will not kill the sheep, and all forms of life will be the friends and servants of men (Millennial Messiah, 657).

Beautiful, well-planned cities will dot the earth. Life will go on in many ways like it does now: “And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them . . . and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands” (Isaiah 65:21-22).

More temples. Whereas numerous temples will already dot the earth at the onset of the Millennium, their number and distribution will increase during the Millennium. In them priesthood ordinances essential to salvation and eternal life, for the living and the dead, will be performed in uninterrupted peace.

Family units will be perfected according to the plans made in the heavens before the peopling of the earth. Celestial marriage in its most glorious form will bind men, women, and children together in eternal unions, and the resultant families will truly continue forever.

Increased safety and security for the earth’s inhabitants. The Lord will apply strong external controls over natural phenomena and secular circumstances so that there will be no accidents, no disease, no infant mortality, no senile old age, and no congenital deformities.

The Lord will reign personally and justly. At the beginning of the Millennium, the Lord will take over the affairs of all governmental administration throughout the earth. Thus, telestial world governments will disappear. There will be no dictatorships, monarchies, democracies, parliaments, congresses, or legislatures. No one will identify themselves as socialists, communists, republicans, democrats or libertarians.

Elder McConkie wrote: “The millennial day is one in which the Lord himself will dwell with men. This is a boon of inestimable worth. We can scarcely conceive of the glory and wonder of it all. The Lord Jesus Christ, the King of heaven, our Savior and Redeemer, the Lord God Omnipotent dwelling among men!” (Millennial Messiah, 652). In further contemplating the Lord’s personal rule here on earth, Elder McConkie wrote:

In the millennial day the righteous shall see his face and hear his voice; they shall receive light and truth and wisdom as such fall from his lips. His throne shall be set up among them, and they shall hear him preach in their conferences. His voice shall again be heard on a mountain in Galilee as the Sermon on the Mount takes on a new and expanded meaning that none of us ever thought that it had. We shall hear again, in an upper room, as it were, the sermon on love and on the Second Comforter, and feel anew the power and spirit of the Intercessory Prayer. And to these will be added such other sermons as have never entered the heart of man as Jesus expounds the mysteries of eternity. . . .

In that day the Lord Jesus will hear the pleas of his people and answer them with blessings upon their heads. “And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear” (Isaiah 65:24). “And in that day whatsoever any man shall ask, it shall be given unto him” (D&C 101:27). And “with righteousness” shall the Lord “judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth.” Unjust judgments shall cease. That God who is no respecter of persons will weigh every man in the same balance, and all will be judged fairly and equitably. “And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins” (Isaiah 11:4-5). He shall be clothed in the robes of righteousness! He shall wear the garments of faithfulness! Even the girdles and robes and sandals and garments which cover his body and adorn his feet shall bear witness of his goodness and grace. “In that day shall there be [even] upon the bells of the horses, holiness unto the Lord; and the pots in the Lord’s house shall be like the bowls before the altar. Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the Lord of hosts” (Zechariah 14:20-21). What a glorious day it will be when Christ the Lord reigns and judges his people! (Millennial Messiah, 652).

The Lord Jesus Christ will rule with the aid of righteous mortals and resurrected saints from all ages (Isaiah 35:2; Daniel 7:14, 27). Doubtless, members of the Church of Jesus Christ from any era of time will help in the government of the earth under Christ’s direction (D&C 103:7; cf. Matthew 5:5). Those who serve under Christ in the secular government, however, will not all be members of the Church of Jesus Christ. The Lord will call righteous judges. These will judge fairly, and the people will learn that a whole new order of freedom under righteous law is being inaugurated among men. A program for universal peace and universal prosperity will be introduced. The Lord and his servants will establish a just government upon all the face of the earth (Revelation 20:6).

Dramatic increase in the population of the earth. It is highly possible that with the cessation of war, the eradication of infant mortality, the increase of the human life span to one hundred years, and the marked increase in the arable land area, the number of individuals who will populate the earth during the thousand years of the Millennial reign will total more than all those who lived on the earth during the previous six thousand years.

Absence of evil. There will be no murders, stealing, kidnapping, or treachery. Malachi teaches that children will be raised up carefully—“grow up as calves of the stall” (Malachi 4:2). The scriptures also indicate that among the righteous there will be no juvenile crime, no disobedient or disrespectful youth. For, says the Lord, “their children shall grow up without sin unto salvation” (D&C 45:58).

Women will outnumber men. There exists in scripture the suggestion that more women than men will abide the day of his coming. One of the more provocative millennial passages forecasts the order of matrimony that will then prevail, saying: “And in that day”—the millennial day—”seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach,” the reproach of being without a husband, without children, without a family of their own (Isaiah 4:1). This shall come to pass after the destruction of the wicked, and it is one of the scriptural intimations of the generality that women are generally more spiritual than are most men.

Does this imply that polygamy will be practiced during the Millennium? It is difficult to know.

Lucifer will be bound. Lucifer has an overt and unholy ambition to overthrow the kingdom of God. Isaiah accused him: “O Lucifer, son of the morning! . . . Thou hast said in thy heart: I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High” (Isaiah 14:12-14). In his divine plan for man, God has tolerated Lucifer and his hosts for a specific reason but only for a season. As the Prophet Lehi perceived, the Lord has allowed them to use their rebellious influence to enhance the test the human family here on this earth. “Wherefore, men are free according to the flesh; and all things are given them which are expedient unto man. And they are free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great mediation of all men, or choose captivity and death according to the captivity and power of the devil; for he seeketh that all men might be miserable like unto himself” (2 Nephi 2:27).

Satan has sacrificed and dedicated himself to the destruction of all good things. He is perpetually miserable. He finds desperate and hellish pleasure in attempting to provoke the whole human family to a similar state of discontent and misery. Those who respond to his tempting run the risk of becoming his servants (D&C 29:40, 45; Jacob 3:11; Mosiah 16:5).

During the Millennium, Satan will be bound (Revelation 20:1-3). The devil will have no “power to tempt any man” (D&C 101:28). In part, this binding of Satan will occur because of the righteousness of the people. They will not respond to his enticements, and thus he will wield no power. There apparently will also be an element of the Lord’s coercive restriction of Satan’s activities. Lucifer’s presence on the earth has been permitted only through the sufferance of the Father and the Son. With the ushering in of the Millennium, that sufferance will end. For one thousand years, he will have no influence. He cannot entice, ensnare, or torment.

There will be two world capitals—two hemispheric capitals—the New Jerusalem and Old Jerusalem. John the Revelator saw, at the commencement of the Millennium, that a “New Jerusalem” would descend to earth from heaven. Traditional Christianity has generally associated this with a renewing of the old city of Jerusalem where Jesus ministered among the Jews during the meridian of time. However, the revelations given to the prophet Joseph Smith indicate that the New Jerusalem is in the Western Hemisphere, and it will coexist with the Old Jerusalem, each as a hemispheric capital. Its descent from heaven may imply the return to the earth of the translated city and people of Enoch as described in the following section.

From the hemispheric capitals, laws, decrees, and leadership applicable to both the spiritual and political kingdoms of God will emanate. Isaiah usually distinguishes between the two capitals throughout his writings by speaking of the New Jerusalem as “Zion” and the capital of Judah as “Jerusalem.” The nuances found in Isaiah 2:3: “Out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem” describe two locations that are not redundant or merely rhetorical. They imply that the political administration of governmental affairs for the world will be centered in Zion (New Jerusalem). The world headquarters for spiritual affairs will be in Old Jerusalem. Of course this is only an implication, but it seems to be borne out by Micah 4:7 where it says, “The Lord shall reign over them in Mount Zion,” indicating that the New Jerusalem will be the seat of millennial government. Of course, we know the New Jerusalem will also have many temples, and therefore it will be an important spiritual center, as well.

According to modern scripture, the New Jerusalem will yet be established within the borders of the state of Missouri in North America (D&C 84:2-4; cf. 57:2-3; Articles of Faith 1:10).

Return of the City of Enoch. Near the beginning of the Millennium, the people of the ancient translated City of Enoch will return to earth. Whether they will live here in translated form or resurrected form is not clear. Apparently they will be centered in the New Jerusalem.

Here indeed is a thrilling epic. Consider for a moment a brief biography of this man. Enoch was ordained to the Priesthood when he was twenty-five years of age (D&C 107:48). When the Lord called him to be a prophet he hesitated to accept the call because he was “a lad.” He considered himself hated by others because he was “slow of speech” (Moses 6:31). The Lord healed Enoch of his impediments, and he became a mighty prophet, seer and revelator. Mountains were moved from their places, and rivers turned from their courses, at his command. His influence over mankind was immense, “so great was the power of the language which God had given him” (Moses 6:31). He built a great city which he later defended as a valiant general in what was probably the first pitched (intense and at close quarters) battle in the history of the world (Moses 7:13). He was an administrator and scribe in the conference called by Father Adam at Adam-ondi-Ahman three years before Adam’s death. Enoch wrote the official record of this conference and placed it in a book along with other revelations. This compilation became known as the Book of Enoch (D&C 107:57; Moses 6:26-50; Moses 7).

At the age of 430, he and his entire city were translated and removed to another sphere (Moses 7:21, 69). Enoch and the citizens of his city were refined to a terrestrial level. The place of their habitation was of the terrestrial order. Since that time, Enoch and the Saints with him have been ministering angels (TPJS, 170). Enoch has personally returned to this earth on several known occasions. Doubtless, his people have also. Jude and Paul were ministered to by Enoch. They both enjoyed personal associations with him and received important aspects of the Gospel from his teachings (TPJS, 169-171).

At the time of the second coming, Enoch, his people, and his translated city will return to this planet in accordance with the promise of the Lord. In speaking of the wonderful reunion between the people of Enoch and the saints who will be living upon the earth at that time, the Lord declared to Enoch: “Then shalt thou and all thy city meet them there [the saints of the New Jerusalem], and we will receive them into our bosom, and they shall see us; and we will fall upon their necks and they shall fall upon ours and we will kiss each other” (Moses 7:63).

No death. Among the celestial-bound, there will be no death. This does not mean that people will be immortal. Children born in this era “shall grow up until they become old” (D&C 63:51). Righteous mortal men and women will mostly live to an age of about 100 years in full strength and then “shall not sleep . . . in the earth, but shall be changed in the twinkling of an eye from mortal to resurrected beings” (Isaiah 65:20; D&C 101:31). They will be resurrected with a celestial eternal body and receive their celestial inheritance. There will be no lengthy separation of the body from the spirit, no funerals, and no consignment of the body to the grave (D&C 101:30-31; 63:51).

In D&C 101 one of the most singular prophecies in all holy writ is recorded information about the Millennium. Speaking of the time of the Millennium it says: “And there shall be no sorrow because there is no death” (D&C 101:29). In a revelation to Joseph Smith, the Lord said, “In that day an infant shall not die until he is old; and his life shall be as the age of a tree; and when he dies he shall not sleep, that is to say in the earth, but shall be changed in the twinkling of an eye, and shall be caught up, and his rest shall be glorious” (D&C 101:30-31).

This blessed promise of “no death” does not apply to everyone. It only applies to the righteous and obedient. For those who do not become Christ’s people and members of his kingdom, Isaiah teaches the sorrows of death are still theirs (Isaiah 65:20).

Expanded missionary work. Missionary work—the work of preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to all the inhabitants of the earth—will continue under the Lord’s direction. A similar teaching program will continue among the spirits of those who have departed this life and are waiting the day of their resurrection (D&C 138). While such spirits may hear the gospel of salvation and accept or reject it in the spirit world, mortals on earth will perform saving ordinances such as baptism on their behalf. The conditions of peace and righteousness, and perhaps upgraded communication between the earth and the spirit world, prevailing during the Millennium will allow this work to proceed until all pertinent ordinances have been made available to every individual who has lived on earth since the time of Adam and Eve (D&C 138).

At or near the beginning of the Millennium, the Savior will meet with his chosen saints and hold a great sacrament meeting, or perhaps a series of sacrament meetings. This sacrament meeting is sometimes referred to as “the marriage supper of the Lamb” (Revelation 19:9; D&C 58:11; 65:3), and it may be similar to the sacrament meeting the resurrected Lord held with the Nephites when he visited them (3 Nephi 20:1-9).

As the Lord receives his chosen saints unto himself, he will commemorate this triumphant event by partaking of the sacrament with them just as he did with his disciples at the Last Supper (D&C 27:5-14). Then he will ordain them and send them forth to preach the Gospel to those who have survived the burnings, earthquakes and other devastations of that period.

Increased revelation. Apparently the Millennium will be a time of abundant revelation—great revealed knowledge. “In that day when the Lord shall come, he shall reveal all things. Things which have passed, and hidden things which no man knew, things of the earth, by which it was made, and the purpose and the end thereof. Things most precious, things that are above, and things that are beneath, things that are in the earth, and upon the earth, and in heaven” (D&C 101:32-34). Among other exciting opportunities, we will doubtless be blessed to have access to the sealed portion of the

Book of Mormon (see 2 Nephi 27:11). Can you imagine anything more exciting than having access to this abundant revealed knowledge!

Increased spiritual understanding. Isaiah says that “the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:9). There will be neither agnostics nor atheists in those days. Nor will the Saints have as much difficulty rising to the spiritual level where they can communicate with the Lord. Isaiah was told by the Lord “that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear” (Isaiah 65:24).

All people will speak one language—one that is “pure and undefiled” (Moses 6:6). One of the great social stumbling blocks in our present world is our inability to communicate freely with the people of other nations. Language has degenerated into thousands of dialects. One who can speak or understand even six or seven is considered a linguistic scholar. The confusion that began with the confounding of tongues at the Tower of Babel still prevails. The only successful attempt to overcome it has been the agreement among scientists to use two dead languages, Greek and the Latin, for terms and appellations in the various branches of scientific study.

There are some who think language has evolved, is improving, and is becoming more flexible and expressive. However, prominent scholars agree with the scriptures that the very opposite is the case. Language has actually devolved.3

Moses stated that originally the children of men had a language that was “pure and undefiled” (Moses 6:6). Adam and the early patriarchs taught the people to write this language in a form revealed by God himself (Moses 6:46). This was the only language used by the people of that day and age (Genesis 11:6). Ether wrote that when the confounding of tongues occurred at the Tower of Babel, Jared and his brother, Mahonri-Moriancumer, pleaded with the Lord not to confound their knowledge of this perfect language. Their prayers were answered (Ether 1:35-37).

During the Millennium the pure language of Adam, which apparently is the language of heaven itself, will again be established among all nations. Speaking of this, the Prophet Zephaniah states: “For then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve him with one consent” (Zephaniah 3:9).

Millennial myths. Now, we must be a little careful with a few of the characteristics of millennial life that have been suggested. For example, what of mothers who lost children in death throughout the world’s existence? Some of these mothers have been comforted by a priesthood leader’s promise that they will have the opportunity to “rear the deceased child to adulthood during the Millennium.” This doctrine is problematic. It would seem to entail both the mother and child’s returning to the terrestrial millennial earth in a resurrected or perhaps a translated state.4 They could hardly be born again and return as mortals, and they couldn’t return to the millennial earth as spirits. Another problem with this “doctrine” is that it would require the child to be returned to the earth with a child’s body and reared there to adulthood. The child may have spent many years (even hundreds or thousands) in the spirit world prior to his return to earth as a child. It seems likely this “doctrine,” while comforting at the time of bereavement, is not literally true but fits into the category of “funeral doctrines”— those preached in funerals purely to give comfort to the bereaved with little attention given to their actual truth.

#The Purpose of the Millennium

We have considered the “whats” of the Millennium. Now, let us turn our attentions to the “whys and whos.” It is not entirely clear the Lord has revealed to man all of the reasons for the Millennium. The onset of the Millennium will obviously mean significant changes in the earth itself and society of people who inhabit it. But exactly why is the Millennium necessary? I will make four points that will fall short of a complete explanation but may be helpful in your future thinking:

No arbitrariness in the Millennium. First, we do acknowledge and emphasize that there is no arbitrariness in the Lord’s Millennium. He does nothing without reason. There are obviously important reasons for every aspect of the Millennium. But what are they?

There is no aim, purpose, or agenda in the Father’s mind but giving each and every person the opportunity to live with him forever. There can be no doubt that the purpose of the Millennium is to save souls. Every aspect of his plan, including the Millennium, will never have any other purpose than this. He knows exactly what he is doing, and his ways are higher than our ways. Whatever he does is divinely considered and is right whether or not we can fully appreciate his purposes.

Elder McConkie, in his book Millennial Messiah, considered the ultimate purpose of the Millennium, and concluded:

Our Eternal Father knows all of his spirit children, and in his infinite wisdom, he chooses the very time that each comes to earth to gain a mortal body and undergo a probationary experience [the concept of foreordination]. Everything the Lord does is for the benefit and blessing of his children. And each of those children is subjected to the very trials and experiences that Omniscient Wisdom knows he should have. Those who were entitled to [and, should we say, “needed”] an inheritance in Enoch’s Zion came to earth in that day. Those whose spiritual stature qualified them for life among the Nephites during that nation’s golden era found their inheritance with that people in ancient America (660).

Generational trials. Certainly the billions of people who live on the earth during the Millennium will be tested in a different manner than those who lived prior to Christ’s second coming. Those who live during the Millennium will live on a peaceful, secure terrestrial earth without the adversity and turmoil of our present telestial one. What does this lesser test accomplish? Are millennial citizens particularly favored? Is that fair? Who are these billions of people that will populate the earth during the Millennium? Is living on the earth during the Millennium a special blessing? If it is, how did those individuals qualify for that blessing?

We may intuitively assume that the mortal test for those who live during the Millennium is an easier, more merciful test. But is it? There are obviously many individuals that will be better approached, better tried, better tutored, and better tested in a terrestrial sphere than in a telestial sphere. Just why that is so, it’s difficult to be sure.

One concept that may have application here is that of the so-called generational trials. We ought not to assume that every individual or every generation is most effectively tested in the same way. The Prophet Joseph Smith, writing from Liberty Jail in March 1839, introduced the idea that an Abrahamic trial for one generation may quite different from that of another, even though both generations may be equally challenged and tested.

The saints between 1831 and 1847 were heavily persecuted. They were threatened, driven from their homes, mobbed, beaten, and even murdered. Joseph wrote:

And now, beloved brethren, we say unto you that inasmuch as God hath said that He would have a tried people, that He would purge them as gold, now we think that this time He has chosen His own crucible, wherein we have been tried; and we think if we get through with any degree of safety, and shall have kept the faith, that it will be a sign to this generation . . . it will be a trial of our faith equal to that of Abraham, and that the ancients will not have whereof to boast over us in the day of judgment, as being called to pass through heavier afflictions (TPJS, 135-36).

What is our collective, generational trial today? Elder Ezra Taft Benson said in 1977:

Every generation has its tests and its chance to stand and prove itself. Would you like to know of one of our toughest tests? Hear the warning words of President Brigham Young, “The worst fear I have about this people is that they will get rich in this country, forget God and His people, wax fat, and kick themselves out of the Church and go to hell. This people will stand mobbing, robbing, poverty and all manner of persecution and be true. But my greatest fear is that they cannot stand wealth” (Preston Nibley, Pioneer Stories, 45).

It is just possible that our test today may be the most difficult and the toughest test of all, for the evils are more subtle, more clever. Evil seems less menacing, and it is harder to detect. While every test of righteousness represents a struggle, this particular test seems like no test at all, no struggle and so could be the most deceptive of all tests.

Do you know what peace and prosperity can do to a people? It can put them to sleep. The Book of Mormon warned us of how the devil, in the last days, would lead us away carefully down to hell [2 Nephi 28:20-22]. . . .

We have too many potential spiritual giants who should be more vigorously lifting their homes, the kingdom, and the country. We have many who feel they are good men, but they need to be good for something—stronger patriarchs, courageous missionaries, valiant genealogists and temple workers, dedicated patriots, devoted quorum members. In short, we must be shaken and awakened from a spiritual snooze (“Our Obligation and Challenge,” Regional Representatives Seminar, 30 Sept. 1977, 2-3).

There is one additional aspect of the generational trial we face. It involves affluence but of a different sort. It is the affluence of knowledge and sophistication. Elder Harold B. Lee said, “We are now going through another test—a period of what we might call sophistication. This is a time when there are many clever people who are not willing to listen to the humble prophets of the Lord. And we have suffered from that. It is rather a severe test” (“Sweet Are the Uses of Adversity,” Instructor, June 1965, 217).

Is it not an astonishing notion that ease and affluence can be an Abrahamic test equal, in the sense of proving one’s faith, to the sufferings and deprivations of earlier generations? If we were given the choice, would we not choose that trial rather than a trial of cruel adversity? Why are ease and affluence so difficult? Because they inevitably lead toward self-indulgence and self-importance. Richard D. Draper wrote of this trial:

We can become spiritually flabby and casual in our prayers because we seem to need nothing, indifferent to the needs of others because we do not know how it feels to go without. Not liking to be reminded that others have needs, we remove ourselves from the inner city of life to the “quiet hedonism of suburbia” (Neal A. Maxwell, “The Gospel Gives Answers to Life’s Problems” [address to seminary and institute personnel], Provo, Utah, Brigham Young University, Summer 1970, 2) both temporally and spiritually. We can gorge ourselves with temporal things to the point of spiritual death.

Mormon’s editorial comment about a deteriorating Nephite society adds another witness: “And thus we can behold how false, and also the unsteadiness of the hearts of the children of men. . . . Yea, and we may see at the very time when he doth prosper his people . . . then is the time that they do harden their hearts, and do forget the Lord their God, and do trample under their feet the Holy One—yea, and this because of their ease, and their exceedingly great prosperity” (Helaman 12:1-2). The test of ease and affluence is real for much of the Church today. And it will become more a factor as the Church expands into third-world countries where there is poverty instead of abundance. It will take the best within us to meet the challenge (“Witness of Jesus Christ,” The 1989 Sperry Symposium on the Old Testament, 61).

When all individuals live in relative peace, prosperity, and happiness, it will be easy to become passively comfortable with oneself and the state of others. This is the terrestrial level that may predominate during the Millennium. The celestial level requires constant proactive rejection of the status quo as sufficient. Those who qualify for celestial glory will doubtless be required to constantly extend themselves in a manner that has not been common on the telestial earth. Could it be the test of the “millennial generation”—the test of luxury, abundance, and sophistication—will be the “cruelest,” most trying test of all?

Metaphorical or symbolic significance of the Millennium. There may be rich meaning in contemplating how the Millennium fits into the rest of the plan of salvation. For example:

 The Millennium is the earth’s Sabbath, occurring as it does during the seventh thousand years. During this era the earth will rest. The Millennium symbolizes a sabbatical in human history (cf. D&C 77:12; Moses 7:64), analogous to the role of the weekly Sabbath (cf. Ex. 20:8-11). The millennial period is patterned after the Lord’s period of rest following the six creative periods (cf. Genesis 2:1-3). But why? What is the literal importance and significance of this? In what sense does the earth rest? And what is the purpose of this rest? I’m afraid we don’t really know.

Preparation of the earth for its exaltation. There is more to this earth than the 

offspring of God who come to dwell upon it for their mortal trial. The plants, animals, and even the so-called “inanimate” things of the earth consist of, in actual fact, the combination of matter and intelligences. These additional intelligences are of major concern to the Lord. They also are undergoing their mortal trial. Eventually some will die (shed their mortal matter) and be resurrected. Some to celestial glory and others to lesser glory. Perhaps the Millennium is a crucial step in the mortal experience of these additional intelligences. Apparently, the Lord is preparing the earth for its eventual exaltation in an orderly, incremental way. Our earth is now telestial. After the “end of the world,” at the onset of the Millennium, the earth becomes a terrestrial planet. Finally the terrestrial earth will end, again by fire. This is the “end of the earth.” The earth will then become a celestial planet. Just why this orderly evolution—this “preparation for exaltation”—is so vital is unknown to us.

Tying up the second estate into a neat package. All of the inhabitants of the earth and the spirit world must be sifted, sorted and assigned their separate eternal stations. The atonement of Jesus Christ would be of no avail whatever and the earth would apparently be utterly wasted in the end if all the loose threads of six thousand years of human life upon the earth were not bound up and sealed (D&C 2:1-3; TPJS, 337-338).

There is plenty of missionary work to be done both on earth and in the spirit world. There is also plenty of temple work (baptisms, endowments, and sealing ordinances) to be completed on the earth for the living and for the dead. It will be beneficial to have these two spheres more closely connected administratively and the communication between the two upgraded. The patriarchal pattern of family unity must be extended to every person worthy of the celestial kingdom. An accounting must be made of every soul ever born. The Millennium may provide a necessary thousand years of sifting, sorting, striving, accounting, and reconciliation. The Millennium may be a vital time in which to prepare the entire human race for its ultimate presentation to the Father by his Son (1 Corinthians 15:24; D&C 76:106-107).

The task of unifying and preparing the human family for eternity will be a tremendous undertaking. Consider the chasms separating nations and individuals, living and dead. Joseph Fielding Smith taught:

Some people may think that it is impossible for us to do this work for the dead because we have not the names of people who lived in ancient times. We have not the records, we do not know how to reach them from anything we have in this life, and there have been millions of people who no doubt were honest, and did the best they knew, but died without a knowledge of the gospel, whose names it is impossible for us to obtain. How are they going to be saved? It is our duty to go to the temple and take our records and work for the dead of our own lineage as far back as we can go, but what about these others? I will tell you. The great work of the Millennium, of 1,000 years, will be for the salvation of these souls. Now let us keep it clearly in our minds that we do not enter into exaltation until after the resurrection. We do not enter into exaltation in the spirit world. We have privileges there, of course, based upon faithfulness and obedience to the gospel, but during the Millennium—and that is the great purpose of the Millennium—we will go into the temples (Doctrines of Salvation, 2:166).

1 See a discussion of these signs of the Lord’s second coming in chapters 24, 25, and 26.

2 See “The Judgment at His Second Coming,” in chapter 9, The Judgments.

3 See numerous references to the devolution of language in Joseph Fielding Smith’s The Way to Perfection, chapter 10.

4 See volume 2, chapter 17, Doctrine of Translation.