The Kingdom of God Moves Forward

I got to teach Relief Society this last Sunday. The lesson was Chapter 20 of Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Lorenzo Snow, entitled The Kingdom of God Moves Forward.

I started by having class members look up the following scriptures:

Daniel 2:44 And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.

Joel 2:28 And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:

Jeremiah 31:34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

Isaiah 11:9 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.

What do all these scriptures have in common? They are prophecies of the restoration and of the millennium.
What evidence is there that these prophecies are being fulfilled? The lowering of the age of missionaries, the push for missionary work, the increasing rate at which temples are being built.

 From the lesson: We can see the hand of the Almighty establishing a kingdom spoken of in ages long past by Daniel the Prophet,—a kingdom which shall grow and spread until it fills the whole earth [see Daniel 2:44], when light and intelligence shall be so generally diffused that it shall no longer be necessary for any man to say to his fellows, “Know ye the Lord, but all shall know him, from the least unto the greatest;” [see Jeremiah 31:34] and when the Spirit of the Lord shall be poured out upon all flesh to such a degree that their sons and their daughters shall prophesy, their old men shall dream dreams, their young men see visions [see Joel 2:28], and when there shall be nothing to hurt or destroy in all the holy mountain of the Lord [see Isaiah 11:9]. [See suggestion 2 on page 246.]

Daniel 2:34-35:  Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.

The stone cut out without hands was the Kingdom of God, and it will grow until it fills the whole earth. At this point, I drew a mountain on the chalk board and described how one snowflake at the top of the mountain in 1820 slowly joined with a few others so in 1830 there were six joined together, and then more, until there was a snowball that gradually gained speed and force as it rolled down the mountain. It sped faster and faster, getting bigger and bigger, until last weekend it was announced that there were 15 million snowflakes all gathered together. This snowball is going to continue to grow until it is bigger than the mountain, as big as the whole earth. I invited the class members to keep this idea of a rolling, growing snowball in their minds.

We went back and talked about how the Church moved forward after the death of each of the first four Presidents, then I had someone read Alice Pond's account of her Grandfather's vision of the Savior. 

From the lesson:“In the large corridor leading into the celestial room, I was walking several steps ahead of grand-pa when he stopped me and said: ‘Wait a moment, Allie, I want to tell you something. It was right here that the Lord Jesus Christ appeared to me at the time of the death of President Woodruff. He instructed me to go right ahead and reorganize the First Presidency of the Church at once and not wait as had been done after the death of the previous presidents, and that I was to succeed President Woodruff.’

“Then grand-pa came a step nearer and held out his left hand and said: ‘He stood right here, about three feet above the floor. It looked as though He stood on a plate of solid gold.’

“Grand-pa told me what a glorious personage the Savior is and described His hands, feet, countenance and beautiful white robes, all of which were of such a glory of whiteness and brightness that he could hardly gaze upon Him.

“Then [grand-pa] came another step nearer and put his right hand on my head and said: ‘Now, grand-daughter, I want you to remember that this is the testimony of your grand-father, that he told you with his own lips that he actually saw the Savior, here in the Temple, and talked with Him face to face.’”⁵

President Snow’s visit with the Savior was a sacred confirmation of a truth he had known for many years—that Jesus Christ is the head of the Church. Inspired by this truth, President Snow frequently testified that the Church would continue to progress in spite of opposition.

 Why does the Church continue to move forward? Because Christ is at the head!
How does this help us in our testimonies? Because we can trust that God knows what he is doing. He won't let us go astray.

The prophet Wilford Woodruff said, "The Lord will never permit me or any other man who stands as President of this Church to lead you astray. It is not in the programme. It is not in the mind of God. If I were to attempt that, the Lord would remove me out of my place, and so He will any other man who attempts to lead the children of men astray from the oracles of God and from their duty." D&C Official Declaration 1

This snowball rolling down the mountain isn't simply going where gravity pulls it. The Lord is steering it very carefully. One example of this is the manifesto (D&C Official Declaration 1) that declared that the Church would no longer continue the practice of polygamy. Wilford Woodruff explained that the Lord showed him a vision of what would happen if the practice did not cease - the loss of temples and the stopping of all the ordinances in them as well as the imprisonment of all the church leaders. While President Woodruff would have let all this happened had it been the Lord's will, the Lord wouldn't allow the work of the Church to cease. So the practice of polygamy was stopped - a course correction, and the work of the Lord continued to move forward.

The Church has an important mission to fulfill.

From the lesson: Mormonism, a nickname for the real religion of the Latter-day Saints, does not profess to be a new thing, except to this generation. It proclaims itself as the original plan of salvation, instituted in the heavens before the world was, and revealed from God to man in different ages. That Adam, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and other ancient worthies had this religion successively, in a series of dispensations, we, as a people, verily believe. … Mormonism, in short, is the primitive Christian faith restored, the ancient Gospel brought back again—this time to usher in the last dispensation, introduce the Millennium, and wind up the work of redemption as pertaining to this planet.

^{The work of the church is to prepare for the millennium. Every person must hear the gospel. Every person must have an opportunity to accept the gospel and receive the necessary ordinances, either in this world or the next. The Lord won't let anything stop it. The Prophet Joseph Smith said, “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.”1}  

The work of God will go forward. This snowball will continue rolling. There is nothing that can stop its progress.


Sometimes the church appears to be facing difficulties, where people may wonder if the Church will be able to keep moving forward. Example: The Israelites leaving Egypt.

From the lesson: In many instances … where the destruction of the people of God seemed imminent, and there appeared no way of escape, … suddenly there arose something or another that had been prepared for their salvation to avert the impending destruction. We find this in the case of the Israelites when led by Moses. When they came to the Red Sea, and the Egyptian army in their rear threatened their destruction, there seemed no way of escape, but at the very moment when deliverance was required, behold, it appeared and they were delivered [see Exodus 14:10–25].

Other times may require sacrifice on the part of the Lord's people for their deliverance. An example is in the days of Esther.

From the lesson: But it may become necessary in the future—and this is the point I wish to make—for some of the Saints to act the part of Esther, the queen, and be willing to sacrifice anything and everything that is required at their hands for the purpose of working out the deliverance of the Latter-day Saints. First we should know that we are the people of God. … It is our business to step forward as did Esther, and be willing to risk all for the salvation of the people. In undertaking her task, Esther said, “If I perish, I perish.” [See Esther 4:3–16.] … But the people of God will not perish.

The question now is: What about us? What are the things that we need to do as individuals to build the kingdom and help the work move forward? Are we willing to sacrifice everything, as Esther was, to help the church move forward? Are we willing to sacrifice our time, our talents, our money, our bad habits, our lives to build up the kingdom of God?

From the lesson: This work is built on a sure foundation, being founded on the rock of ages. … No matter who are lost by the way and make shipwreck of their faith, the Church will go on.

The Lord very possibly may cause a heavy pressure to bear upon us, such as will require great sacrifice at the hands of his people. The question with us is, will we make that sacrifice? This work is the work of the Almighty and the blessings we look for which have been promised, will come after we have proven ourselves and passed through the ordeal. I have no special word to this people that there is, or that there is not, before them a fiery ordeal through which they will be called to pass; the question with me is, am I prepared to receive and put to a right and proper use any blessing the Lord has in store for me in common with His people; or, on the other hand, am I prepared to make any sacrifice that He may require at my hands? I would not give the ashes of a rye straw for any religion that was not worth living for and that was not worth dying for; and I would not give much for the man that was not willing to sacrifice his all for the sake of his religion.

It is the business of those who profess to be engaged in His work to move on, to go forward, … without murmuring or having to be urged; so long as there remains a step forward to be taken, that step should be taken. 

The Lord's Work, the Church, is going to continue to grow. Nothing will stop it. It will go on with or without us. The question for us is, are we helping it along? Are we part of this great work? Or are we sitting on the sidelines watching the snowball rush by? Are we moseying slowly along, tossing out anchors which will slow down our personal progress? Or are we at the head, letting go of our anchors (repenting of our sins), reaching out to grab others to join us, anxiously doing all we can, sacrificing all that is asked of us to help the Kingdom of God move forward?