Reign Personally Upon the Earth

If the Savior were to visit in person a sacrament meeting in the Church, what would He do? A member of our bishopric posed this question in a meeting on Sunday, and I agree with the answer he gave. He suggested that the Savior would help the deacons and the priests to bless and pass the sacrament. The Savior, he proposed, would also greet people at the door, helping the young women to do their job. Surely He would indeed spend time serving  with the youth, and perhaps for the next hour He would also visit the Primary and serve the younger children. I thought of this as I pondered the 10^th article of faith this morning: “We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes; that Zion (the New Jerusalem) will be built upon the American continent; that Christ will reign personally upon the earth; and, that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory.” The line that stuck out to me was this one: “Christ will reign personally upon the earth.” The Savior came down among the children of men as a mortal to be among His people; and we believe the He will do so again. The Second Coming will not just be an event where the Savior appears and disappears; rather, we believe that for some time He will reign personally upon the earth. We believe that at some future day we will “behold the joy of [His] countenance” as He promised (Doctrine and Covenants 88:52).

               Several other passages of scripture speak of this time when the Savior will come personally upon the earth. The prophet Zephaniah wrote, “The Lord hath taken away thy judgments, he hath cast out thine enemy: the king of Israel, even the Lord, is in the midst of thee: thou shalt not see evil any more” (Zephaniah 3:15). He will be the king of Israel and will be among us. Zecheriah also alluded to this future time: “And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and his name one” (Zechariah 14:9). The Savior spoke of this more directly in modern revelation. He declared, “And also the Lord shall have power over his saints, and shall reign in their midst, and shall come down in judgment upon Idumea, or the world” (Doctrine and Covenants 1:36). He will reign in our midst, and it will be for a thousand years: “For I will reveal myself from heaven with power and great glory, with all the hosts thereof, and dwell in righteousness with men on earth a thousand years, and the wicked shall not stand” (Doctrine and Covenants 29:11). John also saw the same thing: “And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years” (Revelation 20:4). We will have the Savior to dwell with us for a thousand years. In the vision he received of the three degrees of glory, Joseph also said,

“These are they whom he shall bring with him, when he shall come in the clouds of heaven to reign on the earth over his people” (Doctrine and Covenants 76:63). The Savior will reign, or as Isaiah put it, “The government shall be upon his shoulder” (Isaiah 9:6). The Lord referred to this time when He will come and rule among men as the Millennium: “For in mine own due time will I come upon the earth in judgment, and my people shall be redeemed and shall reign with me on earth. For the great Millennium, of which I have spoken by the mouth of my servants, shall come” (Doctrine and Covenants 43:29-30). Amidst the challenges of mortality, we can look forward to the day when Jesus Christ will come among the righteous in an unprecedented period of peace and joy upon the earth. We of course do not know when that will take place, but we can rejoice in this promise from the Savior now: “Behold, verily, verily, I say unto you that mine eyes are upon you. I am in your midst and ye cannot see me; But the day soon cometh that ye shall see me, and know that I am” (Doctrine and Covenants 38:7-8).