In the 24th chapter of Matthew, the Lord, speaking to his disciples while on the mount of olives gave many insights into the signs of His coming. While reading this chapter, have you ever paused and asked yourself this question… Of the three appearances that make up the second coming, which one is chapter 24 speaking of?
Well, here’s a clue that you may not have considered. The Lord’s insights and teachings given on this occasion didn’t end with the 24th chapter, He also gave them the contents of chapter 25 or the parable of the ten virgins which we know represents the membership of His church.
As recipients of the restored gospel, we are fortunate to have Joseph Smith’s inspired version of chapter 24. One of its notable characteristics is the repeated reminder that it was given for the sake of the elect or to those who have accepted restored truth and entered into the covenant. We find the following as part of the text:
“but for the elect’s sake, according to the covenant, those days shall be shortened… so likewise shall mine elect be gathered from the four quarters of the earth… Behold I speak for mine elect’s sake… and they shall gather together the remainder of his elect from the four winds”.
So we conclude that the 24th chapter of Matthew was given to the Lord’s disciples in the meridian of time and for “the elect’s sake, according to the covenant” in our day. And I’m going to say that the appearance of the Lord given in the text is exclusivity and wholly that of His first appearance! And the parable of the ten virgins was also given “for the elect’s sake”, that we might have greater understanding and insight into His appearance to us!
From Matthew 25 we read:
1 Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.
2 And five of them were wise, and five were foolish.
3 They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them:
4 But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.
5 While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.
6 And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.
7 Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps.
8 And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out.
9 But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.
10 And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.
11 Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us.
12 But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.
13 Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.
So what additional insights, aside from the obvious ones, might be contained within the parable of the ten virgins? Well, we can start by reading three verses form JST Matthew (24):
32 And again shall the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, be fulfilled…
33 And immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven shall be shaken…
36 And, as I said before, after the tribulation of those days, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken, then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn; and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory;
The fact is that the three verses above and the parable of the ten virgins are just two versions of the same event! In one we learn that “the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light” and in the other, we read, “And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh”. So we must, therefore, conclude that the earth will be in darkness when “they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory”. In this case, the parable accurately reflects the prophecy given earlier on the mount that same day.
So why all the fuss about establishing the fact that it will be dark when the Lord comes to the members of His church as the Bridegroom? Well, for one thing, whenever your reading in the canon of scripture about the Lord’s coming and darkness is mentioned, you have a pretty good clue that you’re reading about His first appearance because the sign of the Lord’s appearance to the Jews is the complete opposite. We go to Zachariah 14 where we read:
5 And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.
6 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark:
7 But it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light.
The language here is a bit difficult in the King James and so you may want to check out some other translations but the bottom line is that when the Lord makes his appearance to the Jews there shall be a day and a night and a day with no darkness. If that sounds familiar, it’s because it’s the same sign Samuel the Laminate gave of the Lord’s coming to the Jews the first time.
And did you catch the other exciting news that Zechariah gave us above… “and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee”. So, if you are wise and are among those who have “oil in their vessels with their lamps” when the Lord comes as the Bridegroom and continue living for another seven years when the Lord comes as the Jewish Messiah, you will have a grandstand seat, as a mortal, looking down on Jerusalem as the Lord defeats Gog’s army of 200 million and fulfills His promises to our Jewish brethren, we read from D&C 45:
47 Then shall the arm of the Lord fall upon the nations.
48 And then shall the Lord set his foot upon this mount, and it shall cleave in twain, and the earth shall tremble, and reel to and fro, and the heavens also shall shake.
49 And the Lord shall utter his voice, and all the ends of the earth shall hear it; and the nations of the earth shall mourn, and they that have laughed shall see their folly.
50 And calamity shall cover the mocker, and the scorner shall be consumed; and they that have watched for iniquity shall be hewn down and cast into the fire.
51 And then shall the Jews look upon me and say: What are these wounds in thine hands and in thy feet?
52 Then shall they know that I am the Lord; for I will say unto them: These wounds are the wounds with which I was wounded in the house of my friends. I am he who was lifted up. I am Jesus that was crucified. I am the Son of God.
53 And then shall they weep because of their iniquities; then shall they lament because they persecuted their king.
54 And then shall the heathen nations be redeemed, and they that knew no law shall have part in the first resurrection; and it shall be tolerable for them.
Within these verses, we have not only the circumstances of the Lord’s second appearance and the dramatic interaction between the Jews and their long-awaited Messiah but we are also given a clue that leads us to an understanding of the nature of the Lord’s third appearance.
And what is that clue? It’s the phrase, “And then shall the heathen nations be redeemed”. In Ezekiel 38 we learn that the events surrounding the battle of Armageddon are calculated to have a perspective-altering influence on the minds and hearts of the heathen nations. We read:
16 And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes…
23 Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the Lord.
Doctrine and Covenants section 90 helps us round out our understanding:
9 That through your administration they may receive the word, and through their administration the word may go forth unto the ends of the earth, unto the Gentiles first, and then, behold, and lo, they shall turn unto the Jews.
10 And then cometh the day when the arm of the Lord shall be revealed in power in convincing the nations, the heathen nations, the house of Joseph, of the gospel of their salvation.
11 For it shall come to pass in that day, that every man shall hear the fulness of the gospel in his own tongue, and in his own language, through those who are ordained unto this power, by the administration of the Comforter, shed forth upon them for the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Verse 9 gives us the order of ministering here in the last days, we read, “unto the Gentiles first, and then, behold, and lo, they shall turn unto the Jews.” However, something else has to happen between the day of the Gentiles and the coming of Christ as the Jewish Messiah. President Nelson explains in this short video:
Did you hear what I heard? He said, “We have a lot to do before the Lord will come again, He wants Israel to be gathered and the world to be made ready”. So in other words, the gathering of Israel must be complete before the Lord will make His appearance as the Jewish Messiah because here in the last days the Gentiles are first and the Jews last in the order of ministering and it should be obvious that if Israel were gathered after the Lord’s appearance to the Jews, they would be last, not the Jews.
OK, returning to our discussion of section 90… In verse 10 we learn that “the day when the arm of the Lord shall be revealed in power” or when He shall destroy Gog and his army of 200 million, it shall be unto the “convincing the nations, the heathen nations… of the gospel of their salvation.” And that means that there will be a lot of preaching and administering of ordinances for a long time after the Lord appears to the Jews. We read:
11 For it shall come to pass in that day, that every man shall hear the fulness of the gospel in his own tongue, and in his own language, through those who are ordained unto this power, by the administration of the Comforter, shed forth upon them for the revelation of Jesus Christ.
And guess what, all of this ministering to the Jews and the Heathen nations will have to be completed before the Lord’s third appearance can unfold. And that is precisely what we learn from D&C 77:12:
“in the beginning of the seventh thousand years will the Lord God sanctify the earth, and complete the salvation of man, and judge all things, and shall redeem all things, except that which he hath not put into his power, when he shall have sealed all things, unto the end of all things; and the sounding of the trumpets of the seven angels are the preparing and finishing of his work, in the beginning of the seventh thousand years—the preparing of the way before the time of his coming.”
It should be amply obvious by now that this verse can not be speaking of either the Lord’s first two appearances and therefore must be what is commonly referred to as His third appearance. Only after the gospel is extended to the heathen nations and they have received the ordinances of salvation will it be time to “complete the salvation of man, and judge all things, and… redeem all things… when he shall have sealed all things, unto the end of all things”. This final appearance and process are documented in the 88th section of the Doctrine and Covenants where we read:
95 And there shall be silence in heaven for the space of half an hour; and immediately after shall the curtain of heaven be unfolded, as a scroll is unfolded after it is rolled up, and the face of the Lord shall be unveiled;
We need to note that this half-hour of silence started some 21 years previous to this appearance, back with the Lord’s first appearance and the opening of the seventh seal. (see Rev. 8:1)
96 And the saints that are upon the earth, who are alive, shall be quickened and be caught up to meet him.
This quickening of “the saints that are upon the earth” is the transformation from telestial to terrestrial, for when they are set back down on the earth it will have also have been turrestrialized or will have received its paradisiacal glory.
97 And they who have slept in their graves shall come forth, for their graves shall be opened; and they also shall be caught up to meet him in the midst of the pillar of heaven—
98 They are Christ’s, the first fruits, they who shall descend with him first, and they who are on the earth and in their graves, who are first caught up to meet him; and all this by the voice of the sounding of the trump of the angel of God.
Verses 97-98 speak of the righteous who receive a celestial resurrection.
99 And after this another angel shall sound, which is the second trump; and then cometh the redemption of those who are Christ’s at his coming; who have received their part in that prison which is prepared for them, that they might receive the gospel, and be judged according to men in the flesh.
This would be the resurrection of the terrestrial.
100 And again, another trump shall sound, which is the third trump; and then come the spirits of men who are to be judged, and are found under condemnation;
101 And these are the rest of the dead; and they live not again until the thousand years are ended, neither again, until the end of the earth.
These are the telestial, they shall not be resurrected “until the end of the earth” or the end of the millenium.
102 And another trump shall sound, which is the fourth trump, saying: There are found among those who are to remain until that great and last day, even the end, who shall remain filthy still.
The sons of perdition…
103 And another trump shall sound, which is the fifth trump, which is the fifth angel who committeth the everlasting gospel—flying through the midst of heaven, unto all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people;
104 And this shall be the sound of his trump, saying to all people, both in heaven and in earth, and that are under the earth—for every ear shall hear it, and every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess, while they hear the sound of the trump, saying: Fear God, and give glory to him who sitteth upon the throne, forever and ever; for the hour of his judgment is come.
We all know that “every ear shall hear it, and every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess” that Jesus is the Christ, now you know when this shall happen.
105 And again, another angel shall sound his trump, which is the sixth angel, saying: She is fallen who made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication; she is fallen, is fallen!
106 And again, another angel shall sound his trump, which is the seventh angel, saying: It is finished; it is finished! The Lamb of God hath overcome and trodden the wine-press alone, even the wine-press of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God.
107 And then shall the angels be crowned with the glory of his might, and the saints shall be filled with his glory, and receive their inheritance and be made equal with him.
These verses speak of the fulfilling of God’s commitments to telestial man, at this point He shall reward the righteous and lift all mankind and the earth to the telestial level and the balance of the millenium will continue to unfold.
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