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Question

 

Gramps,

Will the gospel be taken to the middle eastern countries before the 2nd Coming?

Janet

 

Answer

 

Janet,

Great question.  It truly makes you wonder with all that is going on in the Middle East today.  Even recently, the news has been filled with reports of Christians being slaughtered by groups such as ISIS.

There are many things that need to happen before Christ returns.  One of them is that the gospel of Jesus Christ will be preached among all nations, tongues and people, and in their own language.

In the Gospel Principles Manual it states,

“Before the Second Coming and during the Millennium, the Lord will provide ways to bring the truth to all nations.”

In an extraction from Joseph Smith’s translation of Matthew it states this regarding the 2nd Coming of Christ and preaching to all nations,

31 And again, this Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world, for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come, or the destruction of the wicked;

 

32 And again shall the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, be fulfilled.

 

33 And immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven shall be shaken.

 

34 Verily, I say unto you, this generation, in which these things shall be shown forth, shall not pass away until all I have told you shall be fulfilled.

 

35 Although, the days will come, that heaven and earth shall pass away; yet my words shall not pass away, but all shall be fulfilled.

 

36 And, as I said before, after the tribulation of those days, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken, then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn; and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory;

Also in Matthew 24:14,

14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.

We can also read in D&C 90:11,

11 For it shall come to pass in that day, that every man shall hear the fulness of the gospel in his own tongue, and in his own language, through those who are ordained unto this power, by the administration of the Comforter, shed forth upon them for the revelation of Jesus Christ.

While we may wonder how this will ever happen, considering the conditions within the world today, the Lord will help us find ways to accomplish His task.  

In a talk given by M. Russell Ballard during General Conference in 2008 entitled “The Truth of God Shall Go Forth”  he quotes,

“Even Joseph’s closest associates in those early years did not fully understand the trials that the Latter-day Saints would endure as the Church rolled forth from its small beginnings in the early 1800s. But Joseph Smith knew that no enemy then present or in the future would have sufficient power to frustrate or stop the purposes of God. We are all familiar with his prophetic words: “The Standard of Truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done” (History of the Church, 4:540).

Gramps

 

 

 

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