Millennium

The Church's recent emphasis on self-reliance and gathering Israel are leading us to be more prepared for the Second Coming. Learn more:

Ezekiel 38–39 contains a vision that exhibits some important traits of apocalyptic revelation. It depicts an invasion of "Israel" by a foreign power called "Gog" of the land of "Magog," the "chief prince of Meshech and Tubal" (Ezek. 38:2). Gog and his forces will attack the "mountains of Israel," whose people will have been "brought forth out of the nations" (Ezek. 38:8). Like "a cloud to cover the land," Gog and his allies—"a great company, and a mighty army"—will advance on the Lord's people (Ezek. 38:15–16). But the Lord will not allow them to succeed. With earthquake, sword, pestilence, blood, rain, hailstones, fire, and brimstone, the Lord will intervene to stop Gog's attack; he and his armies will be slaughtered (see Ezek. 38:19–39:8). So massive will be Gog's armies, and so thorough their defeat, that for seven years the people of Israel will gather the weapons of their defeated enemies and use them for fuel. Their corpses will be so abundant that it will take seven months to bury them. Even after that, individuals will be employed to go through the land to find the bodies not yet buried (see Ezek. 39:9–16). Next is depicted a huge feast, at which birds and animals will gorge themselves on the blood and flesh of the slain (see Ezek. 39:17–20; see also D&C 29:20).

One of our favorite places to go for family vacation is called Craters of the Moon in Idaho. It’s a weird place that’s covered with miles and miles of black lava rocks and dormant volcanoes. It looks much like the surface of the moon, except that there’s no vegetation on the moon. Craters, at least, has a few trees and some sagebrush. Nearby, there’s a place called Hell’s Half Acre. The name says it all. It’s similar to Craters of the Moon, but it’s more burned looking.

How will the kingdom of God be established? . . . We have portrayed the world broken, corrupted, fallen, degraded and ruined; and shown that nothing but a world's God can put it right. . . .

The delegation of power to rule in the earthly kingdom of Jesus Christ will be necessary during the Millennium because He will not always be physically present on the earth. “Christ and the resurrected Saints will reign over the earth, but not dwell on the earth,” said Joseph Smith. They will rather “visit it when they please or when [it is] necessary to govern it.”1 Likewise, the Prophet taught the following: “That Jesus will be a resident on the earth a thousand [years] with the Saints is not the case. But [He] will reign over the Saints and come down and instruct [them] as He did the five hundred brethren [after His resurrection (see 1 Cor. 15:6)]. And those of the first resurrection will also reign with Him over the Saints.”2

Although there are many things we don’t know about the Millennium, there are several things we know as revealed through the scriptures and modern-day prophets.