Will the Gentiles Also Look Beyond the Mark?

  Upon My House Shall it Begin

Nevertheless, many professing Christians divorce the issues of government from religious belief and embrace or sympathize with Satan's counterfeits, becoming a great impediment to those who are seeking to promote God's kingdom politically as well as religiously. Having been given the greatest amount of light, the suppressing of that light produces the darkest void. The slothful, who hide their talents, will end up by default in Satan's camp where "there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth,"⁽³⁰⁾ for "they who are not for me are against me, saith our God."⁽³¹⁾ While claiming to be with the Lord, in actuality, they are among that number who "have blasphemed against [God] in the midst of [his] house...."⁽³²⁾ They promote and sympathize with the very philosophies that bring captivity and destruction when they should be foremost in exposing evil and emanating truth which would stay such destruction.⁽³³⁾ The principle of accountability proclaims that the blood that will be avenged in the day of wrath will be upon the negligent watchmans' hands more than upon any others'.⁽³⁴⁾ Thus the Lord has decreed that when the day of vengeance comes as a whirlwind, "upon my house shall it begin, and from my house shall it go forth..., first among you, saith the Lord, who have professed to know my name and have not known me...."⁽³⁵⁾ Such is the fate of those seemingly "devout saints," for notwithstanding having "done many wonderful works" in the name of the Jesus Christ, they will hear Him "profess..., I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity."⁽³⁶⁾

Whether or not Christians rally to their political duty, Satan and his innumerable hosts have been hard at work. There is no lack of evidence that the devil's forces are laboring to establish a counterfeit kingdom--and thus far they have been highly successful.⁽³⁷⁾ Satan and his disciples rebel "against God, and [seek] to take the kingdom of our God and his Christ."⁽³⁸⁾ Because many Christians have been blinded to their responsibility toward establishing the governmental realm of God's kingdom, they become gullible targets for Satan's recruiting efforts.

When those who have been enlightened harden their hearts to the word of God, the Lord will "take away their talent, yea, even that which they have received, and give unto them who shall have more abundantly."⁽³⁹⁾ This was spoken concerning the Gentiles of the latter days. Was this not also the fate of the Jews at the time of Christ's first coming? Recall the words of Jesus to his disciples: "Whosoever receiveth, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance; but whosoever continueth not to receive, from him shall be taken away even that he hath."⁽⁴⁰⁾ Those Christians who have known God's power and

"have been made partakers thereof, and suffer themselves through the power of the devil to be overcome, and to deny the truth and defy [God's] power--they are they who are the sons of perdition, of whom [it is said] it had been better for them never to have been born.... Having denied the Holy Spirit after having received it, and having denied the Only Begotten Son of the Father, [they] crucified him unto themselves and put him to an open shame."⁽⁴¹⁾

Thus, included in the number who will deny the Messiah in the latter days will be "the very elect, who are the elect according to the covenant."⁽⁴²⁾ These traitors of the kingdom of God, until they are detected and cut off, will probably wreak the greatest havoc against God's kingdom, making the saints' trials all the more intense.⁽⁴³⁾ What might have the humble Jew thought at the time of Jesus when they could see that their Messiah had come, and yet the scribes, pharisees, and sadducees, who were their ecclesiastical authorities, so vehemently opposed him?⁽⁴⁴⁾

In order to understand Christ's latter-day deliverance and its correlation to the Gentiles' political negligence, one must be a student of scriptural prophecy. Might this be a significant reason why "the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy"?⁽⁴⁵⁾ Can anyone truly understand why Jesus Christ is coming unless he has the spirit of prophecy?

This was true for the Jews, and it is true for the Gentiles. Unlike the Jews at the time of Christ, Christians have the benefit of the New Testament to tell them plainly of Christ's mission to the Jews. When a Christian will ask the question, "To what prophecies did the Jews have access that pointed to Jesus Christ's first coming?" they will not be so harsh in their assessment of the Jew's blindness. When a Christian realizes that most of the prophecies of Christ's second coming were also a part of the cannon held by the Jews, he will see why the Jews could mistakenly confuse prophecies of Christ's second coming with his first. When a Christian realizes that most messianic prophecies combine in the same context elements of Christ's mission at his first and second coming--though they will be fulfilled two millennia apart--he will understand why the Jews expected a political Messiah. So few Jews did recognize Christ for who he was when he came. Realizing this, a Christian will begin to comprehend how vigilant a Jew would have needed to have been in order to truly understand. Soberly, the Christian should then arouse in himself a renewed sense of determination to also be vigilant. Are not Christians currently committing the opposite blunder: seeing the Messianic prophecies only in their first coming application?

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Endnotes:

30. Matt. 25:30.

31. 2 Ne. 10:16.

32. Doctrine and Covenants 112:26; Isa. 52:5.

33. Isa. 28:7,14,15; Doctrine and Covenants 103:7-10; Dan. 7:18,21; Matt. 5:13-16.

34. Ezek. 33:8; Doctrine and Covenant 82:3.

35. Doctrine and Covenants 112:24-26; 1 Pet. 4:17.

36. 3 Nephi 14:22,23; Matt. 22,23.

37. 1 Nephi 22:22; Rev. 13:1.

38. Doctrine and Covenants 76:28; Moses 4:3; JST-Rev. 12:1,7,17; 13:1,7; 1 Nephi 14:13.

39. Ether 12:35.

40. JST-Matt. 13:12.

41. Doctrine and Covenants 76:31-33,35; Matt. 12:31; 2 Pet. 2:19-21; 3:7; Heb. 6:4-6; 3 Nephi 28:34,35; Alma 39:6.

42. JS-M 1:22; Matt. 24:24.

43. Doctrine and Covenants 50:3-9; 64:37-40; 85:7-9; JST-Mark 9:40-48.

44. Doctrine and Covenants 90:36; 112:27.

"Would God that ALL the Lord's People Were PROPHETS"

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