Part 2: The Restoration is for the "Last Time" not the "Next to Last Time"

As a follow up to yesterday's post here are a few relevant statements:

"As I have often said, and the same I can say again–it is too late in the day for this people ever to be cast off and disowned by the Lord. The work the Lord promised to do is too nigh accomplished, and he has promised to make short his work on the earth. This work has some time since commenced; and if any of the people will not serve their God and do the work he has given them to do, they will be removed out of the way, and that speedily. It is too late in the day for this people to apostatize and the Priesthood to be taken again from the earth; so there is not much ground for fears even in this respect."

(Brigham Young, August 28, 1859, in Journal of Discourses 6:267. Emphasis added).


Joseph Smith was what he professed to be, a prophet of God, a seer and revelator. He laid the foundation of this Church and kingdom, and lived long enough to deliver the keys of the kingdom to the Elders of Israel, unto the Twelve Apostles. He spent the last winter of his life, some three or four months, with the Quorum of the Twelve, teaching them. . . . Said he, during that period, “I now rejoice. I have lived until I have seen this burden, which has rested on my shoulders, rolled onto the shoulders of other men; now the keys of the kingdom are planted on the earth to be taken away no more for ever.” But until he had done this, they remained with him; and had he been taken away they would have had to be restored by messengers out of heaven. But he lived until every key, power, and principle of the holy Priesthood was sealed on the Twelve and on President Young, as their President. . . . That Kingdom, the germ of which is planted here, will continue to grow and will never be overthrown

(Wilford Woodruff, December 12, 1869, Journal of Discourses 13:164. Emphasis added).


These keys are still on the earth. Here are the servants of the living God, sitting on my right hand and on my left, who have had these keys committed into their hands by authority from the proper source, from those who received them from the heavenly messengers. These keys, being now in the hands of the Priesthood, never will be taken from them while the earth shall stand or eternal duration shall roll on. There may be apostates, those who fight against the anointed of the Lord and lift up their heel against those holding these keys; yet be it known to the Latter-day Saints and to all the ends of the earth that the almighty hand of the Great Jehovah is stretched out and He will accomplish the purposes ordained by Him in regard to this great and important work of the latter-days.

(Orson Pratt, May 5, 1870, Journal of Discourses 13:359. Emphasis added).


We live in a different day to the ancients. They had before them the prospect of Martyrdom and the overthrow of the work with which they were connected. But in these days God has given unto us different promises. These are the last days, and he has said that his kingdom shall triumph in these last days; it shall not be overthrown or go into the hands of another people . . . . The days of the triumph of the wicked are numbered. They can not prevail over this work for any length of time. It will grow and increase and spread abroad until it fills the whole earth, and we and our children after us will enjoy the earth and all the blessings thereof, according to the predictions of the holy Prophets. The prospect, then, before us, concerning this life is a different one from that which presented itself before others who have preceded us.

(George Q. Cannon, August 10, 1873, in Journal of Discourses 16:142. Emphasis added).


The Prophets who have preceded us have been slain generation after generation; they have passed away. The Savior and his apostles likewise passed away, the work, the foundation of which they laid, having been overcome and destroyed by the adversary from the face of the earth. They foresaw that for a long time ahead, apostacy would follow their labors and administrations, and a sorrowful thing it was for them to contemplate: but in our case it is different. We live on the threshold of a new era; the work that God has established in our day shall never be given to another people. The Priesthood which God has restored, the authority by which men can administer in the ordinances of God–that priesthood shall never be taken from the earth. Joseph Smith, Hyrum Smith, David Patten and other martyrs may fall, Brother Joseph Standing among the rest, their blood may be shed, and the blood of others yet living may yet be shed to confirm the testimony that has been borne, but though this is the case, there is this to console us in contemplating the future for ourselves and our posterity after us, and it is that there is no power on earth, nor in hell that can destroy the church that God has established, nor obliterate the priesthood from the earth again as it was obliterated in ancient days. It was necessary when this church was started that angels should come to restore that which was taken away, the everlasting priesthood, but there will be no future necessity for this. We are at the threshold of a thousand years of peace, we are engaged in laying the foundation of that work which shall stand forever, not only the thousand years but as long as time shall last and as long as the earth itself shall endure. This is the consolation we have that our predecessors did not have, and we can rejoice in the contemplation of the glorious future of this work.

(George Q. Cannon, August 3, 1879, Journal of Discourses 20:250-51. Emphasis added).


But verily I say unto you, that I, the Lord, will contend with Zion, and plead with her strong ones, and chasten her until she overcomes and is clean before me. For she shall not be moved out of her place. I, the Lord, have spoken it. Amen.

(D&C 90:37-37).


“Ever since the Church was organized, we have been led by revelation. And who has been misled by it? People have always prospered who have listened to the voice of the Shepherd. It was so in the days of Joseph, it was so in the days of President Young, it is so to-day under President Taylor, and it will be so to the end. The Lord has stretched forth his hand to accomplish his purposes, and it will not be withdrawn until all is fulfilled. We shall not be destitute of the voice of revelation. We may do a great many things contrary to the mind and will of God, for which he will chastise us and scourge us, if necessary; but he will not withdraw His Priesthood from us, and his voice will not cease to be heard; it will be given unto those of his servants who live for it, and they will know the mind and will of God for this people. Persecution may go on. People may say we have not the gifts; but the Lord will not leave us; he has not left us; he will make of this people a great nation; and there is no power upon the face of the earth that can arrest the progress of `Mormonism,’ as it is called by the world, but which is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It will grow, increase and spread abroad as the Prophet Daniel saw it, until it fills the whole earth.”

(George Q. Cannon, July 25 1880, in Journal of Discourses 22:107-8. Emphasis added).


The Church of God has been organized, the kingdom of God has been established, and the Gospel has been restored to the earth for the last time; and this work which has fairly begun will never cease, but will continue to spread abroad and increase in the earth, and gather to its fold the righteous, the honest, the pure, the meek and the poor of the earth, until "the kingdom" shall be exalted to power and glory in the midst of the world; and it will reign triumphant when Babylon will be broken to pieces, and will fall to rise no more. These are the promises that have been made to us. This fact is indicated by the revelations of God to man through ancient and modern prophets, and through angels that have visited the earth in this dispensation of the fullness of times.

(Joseph F. Smith, June 21, 1883, in Journal of Discourses 24:188. Emphasis added).