Several Appearings
We learn from various scriptures that there are to be several appearings of our Savior before the final appearance and the full cleansing of the earth. The Lord has said that “every man that will not take up his sword against his neighbor must needs flee unto Zion for safety. And there shall be gathered unto it out of every nation under heaven; and it shall be the only people that shall not be at war with one another.”
The interpretation of this is not made fully clear. It is, evidently, something which is yet future. It may be the aftermath of the present world struggle. It appears from the revelation, that there must be a time when Zion—the pure in the heart—will be isolated from the rest of the world, and in the world there will be bloodshed and wickedness. The wicked will say in that day, “Let us not go up to battle against Zion, for the inhabitants of Zion are terrible; wherefore we cannot stand. And it shall come to pass that the righteous shall be gathered out from among all nations, and shall come to Zion, singing with songs of everlasting joy.”
Today this nation is at war [this was written during World War 2], in the most bloody, vicious cruel and inhuman conflict that the world has ever seen. Not only are the armies at war, but blood and destruction, death and misery, are being poured out upon men, women and children who are not under arms. It is, so far as the combatants are concerned who seek to enslave the world, a war of extermination. Our own boys are called to enter this struggle. It cannot be, therefore, at least in its present stage, the time spoken of when Zion shall be terrible. That is yet future. Moreover, there must come a time, for the Lord has spoken it, when by some miraculous manner, he will gather form the four ends of the earth his people in a gathering which does not have to do with that which has already taken place. (Joseph Fielding Smith, The Signs of the Times: A Series of Discussions [Independence, Miss.: Press of Zion’s Printing and Publishing Co., 1943], 168-70, comments in square brackets added for clarification)
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Responding to "Mormons teach Jesus came many times"