The Times and Seasons

Shortly before the Savior ascended into heaven as recorded in Acts 1, the apostles asked this question: “Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom of Israel?” (Acts 1:6) They seem to have been asking about the restoration of the lost tribes that had been prophesied in the Old Testament.  For example Jeremiah had said, “But, The Lord liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers” (Jeremiah 16:15). 

Ezekiel had prophesied something similar: “And I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand” (Ezekiel 20:34).  The Savior didn’t give them the kind of answer that they were looking for.  He said, “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power” (Acts 1:7).  What did He mean by “the times or the seasons?”  Taken in context the “times or the seasons” should refer to the period when the lost tribes are gathered back together which we believe has been going on since the restoration of the gospel.  George Q. Cannon interpreted it that way.  He said, “When the apostles asked the Lord Jesus about the restoration of the kingdom, he parried their question; it was not for the people who lived in that dispensation to participate, while in the flesh, in the blessings of the restoration of the kingdom of God on the earth and its final establishment in the latter days.  It was reserved for the great and last dispensation of the fulness of times, that great dispensation in which we now live” (JD 11:67).  This must be why the Nauvoo newspaper was named “The Times and Seasons”—the name itself was a declaration that the restoration was here and that God was gathering Israel together again.  I think the general idea taught by the scripture that we don’t always know the Lord’s timetable is also very instructive.  Brigham Young spoke about how “the honest in heart in all nations and generations who are worthy to receive salvation will receive it, sooner or later….  But it is not for me to know the times and the seasons: it is for me to be contented in the discharge of my duty today” (JD 6:193).  If a prophet could say that it wasn’t for him to know when something of great importance to the gospel and kingdom was going to take place, then perhaps it is a lesson for us in our own lives.  We often want the Lord to tell us “when” things will occur in our lives; we want to know when a longed-for blessing will come or when a severe trial will end.  I think that often the Lord’s answer to us is the same as it was to the apostles: “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons.”  The Prophet Joseph asked such a question in Liberty Jail.  He pled, “How long shall thy hand be stayed….  Yes, O Lord, how long shall they suffer?”  The Lord didn’t answer his question directly either.  Joseph was told simply, “Thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment” (D&C 121:2-3, 7).  It wasn’t for Joseph to know exactly when his sufferings would end; he only knew that in the Lord’s time table the suffering would be very short.  So knowing how the Lord responded to his original apostles with their question and to Joseph with his, we should not be surprised if, in His own way, the Lord gives a similar response to our own pleading questions.