Friday, October 25, 2019

Alexander Fraser (1802) on Joel 2:28-32 having a then-future fulfilment



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: And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit. And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the Lord come. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call. (Joel 2:28-32)

When Moroni initially appeared to Joseph Smith in September 1823, he told Joseph that the prophecy of Joel 2 had not yet been fulfilled. While it is true that what happened on the Day of Pentecost (cf. Acts 2:17) was a partial fulfilment of Joel 2:28-32, many commentators, including some from the time of Joseph Smith, viewed the text to still have a then-future fulfilment, too. Consider the following:

The prophecy of Joel (ii. 28.—32.) concerning the effusion of the Spirit, is applied to the apostolical age, (Acts ii. 16.-21.); but from the connection of the passage with what goes before, it seems to point likewise to a period still future, the conversion of the Jewish nation, which precedes the Millennium. (Alexander Fraser, A Key to the Prophecies of the Old and New Testaments, Which are Not Yet Accomplished: Containing, I. Rules For their Arrangement. II. Observations On their Dates. III. A General View of the Events Foretold in Them [Philadelphia: D. Hogan, 1802], 42)

Fraser ties the complete fulfilment to the future conversion of the Jews, a theme that is part-and-parcel of the eschatology of the Book of Mormon (e.g,. 2 Nephi 10:7).