Sidney B. Sperry on Isaiah 2:2-5

In the days to come, The Mount of the Lord's House Shall stand firm above the mountains And tower above the hills; And all the nations shall gaze on it with joy. And the many peoples shall go and say: "Come, Let us go up to the Mount of the Lord, To the House of the God of Jacob; That He may instruct us in His ways, And that we may walk in His paths." For instruction shall come forth from Zion, The word of the Lord from Jerusalem. Thus He will judge among the nations And arbitrate for the many peoples, And they shall beat their swords into plowshares And their spears into pruning hooks: Nation shall not take up Sword against nation; They shall never again know war. O House of Jacob! Come, let us walk By the light of the Lord. (Isa 2:2-5, 1985 JPS Tanakh)

In The LDS Use of Isaiah 2:2-5, I discussed the common LDS appeal to Isa 2:2-5 as a “direct” prophecy of the temple in Salt Lake City, showing that, instead, it is better interpreted as being a prophecy of the eschatological temple in Jerusalem, with the temple in Salt Lake City being a “partial” fulfilment.

While reading his 1952 book on the major and minor prophets of the Old Testament, I encountered the following from Sidney B. Sperry (1895-1977) who agrees that Latter-day Saints should not read Isa 2:2-5 as having the temple in Salt Lake City as exhausting the application of the text:

What is meant by the phrase, “mountain of the Lord’s house”? It would seem to mean the dwelling place or abode of God, a place where He may feel at home with His people. (See Ps. 68:16, 17; Isa. 8:18) Latter-day Saints may be too prone to restrict the application of the phrase to one locality. Jerusalem is also spoken of in our scriptures in connection with it. Notice this passage:

And let them who be of Judah flee unto Jerusalem, unto the mountains of the Lord’s house. (D. & C. 133:13. Italics ours.)

Nor is that all. Isaiah speaks of the whole earth as the Lord’s “mountain.” But it will be that only when men are at peace with each other and the earth is at rest:

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. (11:9)

Not only did Isaiah see great religious commonwealths composed of gathered Israel teaching the peoples of all nations, but he saw also in glorious vision that there will be a time when there is no more war. (Sidney B. Sperry, The Voice of Israel’s Prophets: A Latter-day Saint Interpretation of the Major and Minor Prophets of the Old Testament [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1952], 24, emphasis in bold added)