Orson Pratt

“ He will dwell with man upon the earth. Will this confine him to this earth? No, not any more than the kings of the earth are confined to their palaces, or the city in which they may dwell. They have the right to visit the different portions of their dominions and even any parts of the earth. So will God our Eternal Father, when he selects this earth as a habitation, make it as one of his dwelling places, but he will have power to go from one celestial world to another, to visit the myriads of creations, as may seem to him good. ”

“ The curse will not occupy the whole face of the earth to the same extent during that time as it has during the days of wickedness. But so great has been the curse that God decreed that it should suffer death like unto man; it cannot escape it, the change must come, the final change, which is equivalent to death itself. The Prophet Isaiah speaks of the earth dying: "And they that dwell therein shall die in like manner." ”

“ The Lord has under his control all the laws of nature, whether uniform or not. It is just as easy for the Lord to cause water to stand up as perpendicular walls, instanced in the case of the children of Israel crossing the Red Sea, as it is to cause these waters to settle to their common level. What causes water to find its level? It is the power of God, and nothing else. We give it the name of gravitation; but the power of gravitation is nothing more nor less than the power God exercises upon the elements, producing uniform laws. ”

“ Geologists say it would take some millions of years to effect any changes of the earth in regard to the location of its continents and islands, and a great number of intelligent readers are inclined to this belief. But there is a God who will disappoint them all, who will show forth his power, causing the earth to rock to and fro like a drunken man; a God whose power is able to cause the mountains to be cast down, and the valleys to come up. When it rains upon the exalted valleys, it will wash down the rich soil upon the rocky mountains which have sunk beneath, making them fertile ”

“ The earth is destined to pass away; after these immortal beings have dwelt upon it for one thousand years, after Jesus has been here reigning as King of kings and Lord of lords, and people have become familiar with him and all the ancients, by and by the earth will be burned up. ”

“ I believe the Lord has certain established laws by which he accomplishes his wonderful works pertaining to all his creations. How long this submerged earth had an existence before the Lord commanded the great deep, that enveloped the whole surface of the same, to be removed, is not for me to say; no one can tell how many years, or thousands of years, or how many millions of years, this earth may have existed in the form of partial or imperfect organizations before this great event happened, of which Moses gives an account. ”

“ What, people not subject to sickness, or to sorrow, or punishment, people whose bodies are celestial and immortal, who will endure in their bodies to all eternity! Will they mingle with mortal beings? ”

“ What! the inhabitants of heaven coming to reign on this earth? Yes. Some of you may say, "I should not think that heavenly people would want to leave the presence of God and the Lamb, where all is peace and happiness, where there is no sin to mar the peace of that blessed abode. I should not suppose that they could anticipate joy in coming back to this earth." But the earth is to undergo a change in which it will be sanctified and made glorious when the sinners are destroyed. ”

“ Since the day that Isaiah lived and prophesied among the people, you will admit, with me, that there never has been a universal destruction of all the wicked and the transgressors from off the face of the earth. There have been scores of millions of sinners upon the earth since the utterance of this prophecy to the present time, but the wholesale destraction spoken of has never taken place. ”

“ The earth then will be made new, immortal, eternal in its nature; and holy beings that John saw come down in this holy city will be its inhabitants. No more death, no more sorrow, etc.; in other words, this earth, this creation, will become a heaven. The heavens that exist now are innumerable to man. God has from all eternity been organizing, redeeming and perfecting creations in the immensity of space; all of which, when they are sanctified by celestial law, and made new and eternal, become the abode of the faithful former inhabitants, who also become immortal, through and by celestial law. ”

“ The earth will doubtless be rolled back to the position it formerly occupied. We read that there is to be a restitution of all things spoken of by the mouth of all the holy Prophets. If the earth is to be restored to its former condition, as it once existed soon after the creation, then, so far as continents and oceans are concerned, there will be a restitution of those portions of the globe, as well as many things not mentioned in prophecy. ”

“ But in relation to the great event I have named, I have no doubt but what every motion and arrangement that the Lord will cause to take place upon the surface of our globe, will have a tendency to prepare it for the habitation of beings of a higher order of intelligence than those who now occupy it. In testimony of this, we will refer you to some few passages of Scripture. The inhabitants of the heavens, who now reside in the presence of God the Father, and his Son Jesus Christ, do not always expect to reside there; they have anticipations as well as we. ”

“ It will then be far more glorious than it will appear, during the thousand years of rest; it will then be reorganized by Almighty God in the most perfect form, so that it shall be capable of eternal and everlasting endurance, no more to be dissolved, no more to suffer from the action of the elements one upon the other, as has been the case with this earth, during its temporal existence. But it will continue to all eternity, and who are to inhabit it? ”

“ If only the sun were to be darkened, the heathen nations, that could not account for it, might say it had reference to some great eclipse, such as has occurred in different ages; but when they find that all the stars of heaven withhold their light, and there is not even so much as a glimmer of light, and the sun too becomes as black as sackcloth, they cannot impute it to an eclipse, for an eclipse would not destroy the light of the stars that are scattered over the concave of heaven. ”

“ You will all admit with me also that the signs which are to appear in the heavens, about the time of this universal destruction of the wicked, have not yet taken place. We are told not only that the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, but the stars shall refuse their shining. ”

“ It will continue in its temporal state with a portion of the curse upon its face, until the devil shall gather together his armies at the end of the thousand years, when he will marshal them, bringing them up on the breadth of the earth, and compassing the camp of the Saints and the beloved city. Then the Lord will make the final change; then the last trump will sound, which will bring forth all the sleeping nations; they will come forth with immortal bodies no more to be subject to temporal death. ”

“ There will be a resurrection, and when these great events take place on the earth, which are so clearly predicted by so many of the ancient worthies, who held communion with God, the graves will give up the righteous dead. ”

“ He will prepare a creation just adapted to the condition of such people—those who are not sanctified by the Gospel in all its fullness, and who do not endure faithful to the end, will find themselves located upon one of the lower creations, where the glory of God will not be made manifest to the same extent. ”

“ They are not like mansions built by men, they are worlds of greater and lesser magnitude. The first grade are exalted, celestial bodies, from which celestial light will radiate through the immensity of space. ”

“ That curse has not been fully removed to this day, the earth has groaned under wickedness. Its inhabitants have had to suffer all the inclemencies of a rigid climate or the intensities of heat and cold. Millions have thus suffered for many thousands of years, all in consequence of the curse that came upon this creation. ”

“ It does not say there shall be no place found for the elements, but there shall be no place found for the organized world. Like ourselves, the organization of the mortal body will cease, it will be finally dissolved, and the elements of which it is composed will be scattered in space; but that same God that controls the laws by which it exists now will in due time, and when he sees proper, speak to these elements, and by his Almighty power they will again come together, and be formed into a new earth, as is clearly portrayed in the 21st chapter of St. ”

“ How easy it would be for the Lord to compress the polar regions of our globe, and cause the equatorial regions to rise higher, so as to balance the polar waters, and retain them in the arctic and antarctic regions. ”

“ The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come," etc. Do you suppose, my brethren, that the Lord would have inspired such men as the Psalmist David, the Prophets Isaiah, Joel, John the Revelator, as well as many others, to speak of events of this description, which were to take place in the latter times, if no such thing would transpire? ”

“ They will come forth from their sleeping tombs, and the sea will give up the dead which is in it. The graves of the wicked will be opened, and they will come forth; and a great white throne will appear, as recorded in the 20th chapter of Revelations, and the personage who sits on it is described. ”