Scripture Blog

This weblog is my personal online scripture journal. I try to read the scriptures each morning as I exercise on my cross-trainer. It has a great impact on my life and my testimony of the Savior and his restored church. The journal is really for my own benefit but I have set it up as a web log in hopes to benefit anyone else that may be interested. "For he that diligently seeketh shall find; and the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto them, by the power of the Holy Ghost..." 1 Nephi 10:19

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Acts 3

After Peter & John had healed the lame man at the temple -

"...all the people ran together unto them in the porch that is called Solomon's, greatly wondering." (New Testament Acts 3:11)

As they wondered, Peter -

"...answered unto the people, Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk?" (New Testament Acts 3:12)

Explaining that through the Savior's -

"...name through faith in his name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know: yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all." (New Testament Acts 3:16)

And then Peter directly addresses them -

"And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers.
18 But those things, which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled." (New Testament Acts 3:17 - 18)


It was Jesus Christ of Whom Peter said that Moses -

"...and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days." (New Testament Acts 3:24)

Saying to those at the temple -

"Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed.
26 Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities." (New Testament Acts 3:25 - 26)


Blessing them through the principle of repentance and conversion. Establishing the fact that the Savior had come, Peter profoundly counsels and prophecies -

"...Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;
20 And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you:
21 Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began." (New Testament Acts 3:19 - 21)


This prophecy becomes clear of two future significant events related to the coming or second coming of Jesus Christ, 1) "times of refreshing", and 2) "times of the restitution of all things". Elder Bruce R. McConkie explained of the "times of refreshing" -

“If we are to catch the vision of Peter’s prophecy, we must know pointedly and specifically what is meant by the times of refreshing. It is elsewhere spoken of by Jesus as ‘the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory.’ (Matt. 19:28.) It is the day ‘when the earth shall be transfigured, even according to the pattern which was shown unto mine apostles upon the mount. . . .’ the Lord says. (D&C 63:21.) It is the day when ‘the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory.’ (Tenth Article of Faith.) It is the day of the ‘new earth’ that Isaiah saw (Isa. 65:17), the earth which will prevail when wickedness ceases, when the millennial era is ushered in. . . . It is the day when men ‘shall beat their swords into plowshares, and hooks’ (Isa. 2:4), a day of universal peace and justice, a millennial era when Christ shall reign personally upon the earth.” (Bruce R. McConkie in CR, Oct. 1967, p. 43.)

The "times of the restitution of all things" required a complete restitution or restoration before His coming. This began in the spring of 1820 as a young man - Joseph Smith, in upstate New York, was visited by the Father and the Son as this great and last despensation began. Elder McConkie also wrote of the times of restitution -

“These words mean age of restoration, an age in which God has promised to restore all things that he spoke by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.

Thus, Christ came once and ministered among men, climaxing his ministry with his atoning sacrifice and ascension to his Father. He is to come again, a second time, in a day of refreshing and renewal, to reign personally upon the earth. But he cannot come this second time until an age in the earth’s history commences which has the name the times of restitution, or in other words he cannot come until the age or period of restoration; and in that age or period all essential things that God ever gave in any age of the earth for salvation, betterment, blessing, and edification of his children will be restored again.” (Bruce R. McConkie in CR, Oct. 1967, p. 43.)