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This Final Glorious Gospel Dispensation

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This Final Glorious Gospel Dispensation This Final Glorious Gospel Dispensation Bruce R. McConkie (1915-1985) Quorum of the Twelve Apostles Ensign, Apr. 1980, pp. 21-25 This article appeared in the in the April 1980 issue of the Ensign. That month the Church was celebrating the 150 year of the restoration of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In this article, Elder McConkie summarized what had been restored and achieved in the first 150 years of the Dispensation of the Fulness of Times. He also briefly summarized what lay ahead in achieving the divine purpose this dispensation of the gospel in preparing a people for the Millennium,the next stage of existence for those desiring the celestial kingdom. Let every man upon the face of the without number, and (for us) our whole earth know that the glorious inheritance here on planet earth. gospel of God is alive and well and It is the fall of Adam, with its prospering in this day. temporal and spiritual death, and the Let every living soul know that the ransoming power of the Son of God, little stone cut from the mountain who abolished death and brought life without hands has begun to roll forth. and immortality to light through his In time it will break in pieces all the laws. kingdoms of men and fill the whole It is all of the laws, rites, and earth. ordinances; all of the truths, powers, Let it be known that the things and performances; all of the keys, “which our forefathers have awaited priesthoods, and privileges which with anxious expectation to be bring to pass the immortality and revealed in the last times” are now eternal life of man. being poured out upon the Saints; It is the atonement of Christ, the and that we have entered the redemption of man, the opening of promised time “in the which nothing the graves, the wonder and glory of shall be withheld” (D&C 121:27–28). eternal life. The gleams of celestial light which It is faith, repentance, and now pierce the darkness of our souls baptism; it is the gifts of the Spirit, will soon blaze forth in full celestial the revelations of heaven, and the splendor. The foundation has been unspeakable gift of the Holy Ghost. laid; the Lord’s house is now being It is eternal marriage and eternal built up on earth. lives and eternal exaltation. It is to be God, our gracious Father, has restored in these last days one with the Father and the Son and to reign with them the fulness of his everlasting gospel for the benefit and forever on their throne. blessing of all his children and for the salvation and It is the tests and trials of this mortal probation; it is exaltation of those who believe and obey. sorrow and pain and death; it is overcoming the world and God, our Father, and Jesus Christ, his Son, by the voice pursuing a godly course in spite of earth and hell; it is and instrumentality of angelic ministrants, gave to Joseph keeping the commandments and serving our fellowmen. Smith and his associates every key, power, and priesthood And, finally, it is to sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and ever held by man on earth. They have set up anew their Jacob, and all the holy prophets, in the kingdom of God to earthly kingdom, the kingdom of God. That kingdom is The go no more out. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This Church administers the gospel and offers salvation to all who will Gospel Grace Is Dispensed in Dispensations believe in Christ and live his laws. Whenever the Lord reveals the plan of salvation anew so What Is the Gospel? that men do not have to rely solely upon prior dispensings from heaven of the same glories and wonders, it is called What is the fulness of the everlasting gospel? a dispensation of the gospel. This may or may not involve It is the plan of salvation—the Father’s eternal plan to a restoration of keys and powers and priesthoods. It did save his children. when Jesus came to replace the Mosaic dispensation, for It is the begetting of spirit children, the teachings and instance, but not when the dispensations of Enoch and testings of our premortal existence, the creation of worlds Noah were ushered in. We do not know how many dispensations there have immersion for the remission of sins” which is the been, probably dozens or scores; nor can we be certain preparatory gospel. They were also empowered to make how long each lasted, or how one dispensation blended into offerings unto the Lord as the sons of Levi had done another. For the present we know only that a gracious God anciently. (See D&C 13.) Thus the processes began to has made his saving truths available at those times and prepare a people for the Second Coming of the Son of Man under those circumstances, when men were prepared to as John, in mortality, had prepared repentant persons for receive them. the first coming of Christ. We live in the dispensation of the fulness of times. That is to say, we live in the dispensation of the fulness of 3. Peter, James, and John. Shortly thereafter, these three dispensations. We have received all of the “keys, and brethren, who were the First Presidency in their day, powers, and glories,” possessed by them of old. Angelic brought back the Melchizedek Priesthood including the holy ministrants have come from those Biblical dispensations apostleship; they restored the keys of the kingdom; and which had distinctive keys and powers—“all declaring their they conferred the keys of the dispensation of the fulness dispensation, their rights, their keys, their honors, their of times (see D&C 27:12; D&C 81:2; D&C 128:20). majesty and glory, and the power of their priesthood” (D&C The keys of the kingdom of God on earth (which is the 128:18–21). Church) are the rights and powers to direct all of the Lord’s “In the dispensation of the fulness of times,” as Paul affairs on earth. Because Peter, James, and John came in promised, the Lord will “gather together in one all things in our day we have again the kingdom, which is the Church, Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth” and we have been given the missionary commission (Eph. 1:10). All of the rivers of the past have or will flow into commanding and empowering us to preach the gospel to all the ocean of the present; already all of the keys and powers people in this day. have fallen to our lot; in due course all of the doctrines and . Israel’s great lawgiver, the prophet whose life truths will be manifest to us. 4. Moses was in similitude of the Messiah himself, the one who delivered Israel from Egyptian bondage and led them to The Dispensation of the Fulness of Times their land of promise, came to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery on 3 April 1836, in the Kirtland Temple. He gave “It is necessary in the ushering in of the dispensation of them: (1) “the keys of the gathering of Israel from the four the fulness of times, which dispensation is now beginning parts of the earth,” and (2) the keys of “the leading of the to usher in,” the Prophet Joseph Smith wrote in 1842 “that ten tribes from the land of the north” (D&C 110:11). a whole and complete and perfect union, and welding Since then, with increasing power and in great glory, we together of dispensations, and keys, and powers, and have gathered, from their Egyptian bondage as it were, the glories should take place, and be revealed from the days of dispersed of Ephraim and a few others, initially to the Adam even to the present time.” Then he named those who mountains of America, but now into the stakes of Zion in had restored keys and powers: Moroni, Peter, James, and the various nations of the earth. The gathering of Israel is John, Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and “divers angels, from a reality. When the ten tribes return they will come at the Michael or Adam down to the present” (D&C 128:18–21). direction of the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of The “divers angels” included—among others, perhaps, of Latter-day Saints, for he now holds and will then hold the whom we are not aware—John the Baptist, Moses, Elijah, keys of presidency and direction for this mighty work. and Elias. We do not know the order in which these ancient ones came to bring their rights and powers, but suppose it 5. Elias. After Moses, came Elias. We know not who he may have been somewhat as follows: was in mortality. There were many prophets who bore that 1. Moroni. This ancient Nephite came first on the night name and title. One was Noah. Apparently this Elias lived in the day of Abraham, and may even have been Abraham of 21 September 1823, when he spent the whole night himself. In any event he “committed the dispensation of the teaching and counseling Joseph Smith relative to the Book gospel of Abraham” (D&C 110:12)—not, be it noted, the of Mormon, the restoration of the gospel, and what was to gospel of Christ, for that had already been received, but the be in the latter days. Thereafter he placed the plates in the gospel of Abraham, meaning the great commission which prophetic hands and gave the youthful Joseph “the keys of God gave Abraham in his day.
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