All Flesh Shall See It Together

My eight-year-old daughter recently learned at church about how the Savior is going to return to the earth.  She told me excitedly that she hoped the day would be on Christmas, though I suggested to her that it probably wouldn’t be this Christmas given the numerous prophecies that have not yet been fulfilled which must come to pass before His coming.  She asked me many excited questions about His coming, such as how everyone could see Him in the world if He is only one person and there are so many people in the world.  She asked if we could be sure to jump in our car and go see Him as soon as He came, and she also wanted to know if she would get new teachers at school once He came and if He would live on earth with us like when He did during mortality.  I loved to see her enthusiasm to see the Savior again, and I hope she keeps that forever.  I sought to explain to her that His coming will be so powerful that all will somehow see it and Him.  It will not be as the first coming to a relatively obscure place where few new about His arrival; rather, this time the scriptures teach that He will come in “power and great glory” (Doctrine and Covenants 34:7).  Somehow, in a way we don’t understand, when He comes again, “the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together” (Isaiah 40:5). 

               Many other scriptures attest to the power and universality of His coming.  In another revelation in our day the Lord said, “Prepare for the revelation which is to come, when the veil of the covering of my temple, in my tabernacle, which hideth the earth, shall be taken off, and all flesh shall see me together” (Doctrine and Covenants 101:23).  Abinadi taught the people of Noah, “The time shall come when all shall see the salvation of the Lord; when every nation, kindred, tongue, and people shall see eye to eye and shall confess before God that his judgments are just” (Mosiah 16:1).  Another revelation tells of a moment around the time of His coming when all the world will see the same sign: “And angels shall fly through the midst of heaven, crying with a loud voice, sounding the trump of God, saying: Prepare ye, prepare ye, O inhabitants of the earth; for the judgment of our God is come. Behold, and lo, the Bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. And immediately there shall appear a great sign in heaven, and all people shall see it together” (Doctrine and Covenants 88:92-93).  The scriptures also testifies of the power of this event when He will come again: “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).  In a similar verse the Savior testified, “And then they shall look for me, and, behold, I will come; and they shall see me in the clouds of heaven, clothed with power and great glory; with all the holy angels; and he that watches not for me shall be cut off” (Doctrine and Covenants 45:44).  We won’t need to get in a car and drive anywhere to see it—we will know He has come, and “every ear shall hear it, and every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess” that He is the Christ (Doctrine and Covenants 88:104).