Biblical Prophecies of the Restoration – Evidences

This video goes over a significant number of verses in the Bible, which can be seen with hindsight now, as amazing evidences of foreknowledge by prophets and apostles of the latter day restoration.

VIDEO EDIT NOTE: Twice during the video I mentioned that Lehi and Mulek are from the tribe of Joseph – I meant to say Lehi and Ishmael.

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In this video we’re going to talk about biblical verses or prophecies on the Restoration. There’s a lot of them, and I know that a number of these verses can have dualistic meanings, especially some of the Old Testament prophets. Isaiah was classic in this. So I know there’s multiple meanings for some of these verses. But in light of the Restoration, we can look back and see there’s some bulls-eyes in some of these verses. So I’m going to break it up into various categories. Let’s start with the Book of Mormon.

First here, I’ve got three examples here. I won’t read the full verses of these, but you can see the verses here. “Biblical prophets, they used a trumpet to symbolize the preaching of the gospel, the gathering of Israel, and the coming of the Messiah. On top of many Latter-day Saint temples stands the statue of the angel Moroni with a trumpet pressed to his lips. On September 22, 1827, Moroni again appeared to Joseph Smith and gave him gold plates to translate and to use as a tool to gather Israel from the four corners of the earth.”

Now let’s talk about the meaning of that very specific day that Moroni had designated and told Joseph this was to be the day this was to happen. So the significance, “This day happened to be one of the Jewish high holy days, Rosh Hashanah, also known as the Feast of Trumpets. On this Jewish holiday, the trumpet (ram’s horn or shofar) is sounded in celebration of the future gathering of Israel, the rebuilding of the temple, and the coming of Messiah Ben David, whom we believe is Jesus Christ.”

Another interesting, rich symbolism too is this is the day where light would come in, the autumn equinox, into the Holy of Holies in the temple in Jerusalem, ancient temple. So fascinating.

Okay. Revelations 14:6, this is our angel Moroni scripture, “And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people.” Why would this be needed if it was already on the earth?

Psalms 85:11, “Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven.” Think about the Book of Mormon, came out of the earth. It had been buried for over 1,400 years.

Okay. Isaiah 29:4, coming out of the ground, “And thou shalt be brought down, and shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust, and thy voice shall be, as one that hath a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper out of the dust.” Think of the familiar spirit. A second witness to the Bible. Very much a familiar spirit.

Okay. Ezekiel 37, the two sticks. Now, remember Lehi and Mulek were both from the tribe of Joseph there. Here it talks about the Stick of Joseph and the Stick of Ephraim to be written on, and that the coming day would come when these two would be joined together and become “one in mine hand.” And you think today the Stick of Joseph being the Book of Mormon and then the Stick of Judah being the Bible and they’re one in our hand today.

And critics hate this scripture, Latter-day Saints pointing to this because they say, “Well, it could just have been sticks that were to be written on. That’s what it says.” Well, you could say that. But you could also say it could very easily be scrolls. And that even makes more sense if you think about it, why would you just write the name on a stick? So I think it’s very powerful evidence too. And also where is this happening? Who else is talking about this?

Okay, let’s take a look at the specific blessing given by Jacob to his sons, his patriarchal and prophetic blessing to his 12 sons before he died. This one to Joseph was very specific in Genesis 49:22 through 26. He talked about, “Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well …”, think water, ” … whose branches run over the wall.” Think of the ocean as kind of a wall, going over the ocean.

Again, think of Lehi and Mulek both coming from the tribe of Joseph. And then look at the end. “The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound to the everlasting hills. They shall be on the head of Joseph and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren.”

And he was going to be separate. Very interesting. Everlasting hills. Take a look at the globe and you’ll find the everlasting hills in the Americas, the Rockies up in the North, the Andes. In fact, the Andes, they are the longest continental mountain range in the world. So definitely the everlasting hills.

Now let’s go to John 10:16, other sheep. This is Jesus Christ Himself. “Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.” Notice the emphasis. It was Him. Christ that was going to bring it. They were going to hear His voice. This was not the apostles going out to the Gentiles, which is often quoted there.

Isaiah 29. This is fascinating as we look back and see some of the events in the Restoration happened. “And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of the book that is sealed, which men delivered to one that is learned, saying, ‘Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot: for it is sealed.’ And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, ‘Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned.'”

Then, Verse 14, “I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder.” If you go to watch the video on the production of the Book of Mormon, the miraculous nature of it, it simply boggles the mind. 65 days with the unlearned farm boy producing this stuff. It is truly a marvelous work and a wonder.

And then also Joseph was not learned. Yeah. He didn’t feel up to the task. I mean, this was overwhelming for him. And then the learned was actually Professor Charles Anthon. You can read this in Joseph Smith History. In fact, Joseph said he used these exact words when Martin talked about some of the book being sealed. He says, “I cannot read a sealed book.”

Okay, let’s look at witnesses, the law of witnesses. Here’s two, Matthew 18:16 and 2 Corinthians 13:1, both. “In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.” Doesn’t it just make logical sense that the Lord would want to have a second witness to the Bible? For me, it’s why I believe the Bible there.

Okay. Now, new category. Let’s talk about Joseph Smith. All right. I love 1 Corinthians. Paul says, “God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the wise, which are mighty.”

It reminds me of Joseph’s calling of the young boy prophet, David was called. And Moses had this speech impediment and inferiority complex almost, Enoch. It’s just like the the Lord to have called somebody like Joseph, the weak of the earth, and actually to really even show more miraculous nature of what happened.

Okay. Messiah ben Joseph. I did an entire video on this. There’s actually a book, 25 years of research, David Mitchell has gone into this. It’s very fascinating here.

But this is the Jewish tradition of a Latter-day restorer that would be called Messiah ben Joseph. So I’m going to give you Randal Chase in the Church History Study Guide that he did. I’m going to give you a quick commentary on this and there’s a whole video, as I mentioned.

He says, “The disciples in Jesus’ day knew all about the coming prophet of the Restoration, known as the Messiah ben Joseph, that would gather Israel together prior to the coming of the Messiah to reign on earth. This great prophet, a descendant of the tribe of Joseph, was especially important to the Samaritans, partly descended from Joseph, and a sore subject for the Jews, who despised the Samaritans as unworthy half-breeds.”

Okay. Now, here’s the verse, John 1:19 through 21, and he gives some commentary about the verses. “Troubled by his rising popularity, mighty preaching and baptisms, the leaders of the Jews sent priests to ask John the Baptist, ‘Who are thou?’ There had been many who had pretended to be the Messiah over the years, but John made it clear, ‘I am not the Christ.’ ‘Well then, who? Art thou Elias?’ meaning Elijah, who they knew would come prior to the advent of the Messiah. John said, ‘I am not.’ There was only one other possibility if he was not the Christ and not Elijah. They asked, ‘Art thou that prophet?’ meaning the prophet descended from Joseph who would also come before the Messiah. And John said again, ‘No.'”

Okay. Cleon Skousen said: “From the most ancient times, Jewish tradition has proclaimed that a great servant of God from the House of Joseph would come in the latter days to prepare the way for the coming of Shilo, the great Messiah. In fact, so profound was the respect of the rabbis for this Joseph that they began calling him Messiah ben Joseph and called their Savior, Messiah ben David. Literally translated, these appellations mean, the anointed one, Son of Joseph, and the anointed one, Son of David. A comprehensive study of this mysterious Messiah ben Joseph was made by Dr. Joseph Klausner, Professor Emeritus of Hebrew literature and Jewish history at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, who put down the basic attributes which Jewish tradition variously ascribed to him.”

Here’s how Skousen summarized that. He says, “He will rise up shortly before the coming of Messiah ben David. He will be a descendant of Joseph through Ephraim. His mission will commence at about the time Elijah comes in preparing the world for the coming of the Messiah ben David. The Messiah ben Joseph will enter into a great contest with the anti-Christ forces. As part of that contest with the anti-Christ, Messiah ben Joseph will be killed.”

And you can see there the other Samarian traditions there. So that is fascinating. Like I said, a whole video on that.

Okay. Let’s talk about the apostasy. Amos 8 talks about a famine in the land that was going to come. Look at verse 12, “They wander sea to sea, from north to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord and shall not find it.” And it was the famine, in verse 11, it says the famine was for hearing the words of the Lord. Interesting. They shall not find it.

Here, Isaiah 24. It talks about, “The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken their everlasting covenant.” I did the video on restoring original Christianity. Just one example of the baptism. Think about children being baptized. In the New Testament, they weren’t; they were blessed. Jesus blessed the little children, not baptized them. Think about the mode of baptism. Jesus came up straightway out of the water. It was a symbolism of death and burial and newness of life. Sprinkling doesn’t do that. So changing the mode of the ordinance as an example.

2 Thessalonians 2. Paul wrote to the saints in Thessalonica. He says, talking about the Second Coming, don’t be concerned or worried about it. And then, verse 3, “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day …”, meaning Christ’s second coming, ” … shall not come, except there come a falling away first.” Very clear. Very fascinating.

Okay. How about some of these comments from various types of reformers? One of the old ones, Roger Williams, pastor of the oldest Baptist Church in America, in Rhode Island there. “There is no regularly-constituted church on earth, nor any person authorized to administer any church ordinance; nor can there be, until new apostles are sent by the great Head of the Church, for whose coming I am seeking.” He went on to say, “The apostasy hath so far corrupted all, that there can be no recovery out of the apostasy until Christ shall send forth new apostles to plant churches anew.”

Okay. Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible, prepared my 73 noted theologians and Bible students. “We must not expect to see the Church of Holy Scripture actually existing in its perfection on the earth. It is not to be found, thus perfect, either in the collective fragments of Christendom, or still less in any one of these fragments.”

Dr. Fosdick, prominent American Baptist clergyman and author. He said, “Christianity today has largely left the religion which he prepared, taught, and lived, and has substituted another kind of religion altogether. If Jesus should come back to now, hear the mythologies built up around him, see the creedalism, denominationalism, sacramentalism carried on in his name, he would certainly say, ‘If this is Christianity, I am not a Christian.'”

Then, John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, “It does not appear that these extraordinary gifts of the Holy spirit were common in the church for more than two or three centuries. We seldom hear them after that fatal period when the emperor Constantine called himself a Christian, and from a vain imagination of promoting the Christian cause thereby, heaped riches and power and honor upon Christians in general, but in particular upon the Christian clergy. From this time, they almost totally ceased; very few instances of the kind were found. The cause of this was not as has been supposed because there was no more occasion for them because all the world was become Christian.”

“This is a miserable mistake; not a twentieth part of it was then nominally Christian. The real cause of it was the love of many, almost all Christians, so-called, was waxed cold. The Christians had no more of the Spirit of Christ than the other heathens. The Son of Man, when he came to examine his church, could hardly find faith upon the earth. This was the real cause why the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Ghost were no longer to be found in a Christian Church because the Christians were turned heathens again, and only had earth a dead form left.”

Okay. Will Durant, famed historian. “Christianity did not destroy paganism; it adopted it. The Greek mind, dying, came to a transmigrated [new] life in the theology and liturgy of the Church.” I did an entire video on that called Original Christianity Restored: Part One.

“Thomas Jefferson, who was a serious student of Christianity, acknowledged the loss of the original gospel and looked forward to the prospect of a restoration of primitive Christianity.”

Now for some passages on the Restoration. So this one, Matthew 9, talks about the importance of a restoration rather than a reformation of something that was already there. Verse 17, “Neither do men put new wine into old bottles; else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish; but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved.”

Okay. One of my favorites is Acts 3. We read there: “Repent and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: 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.” So there would need to be this restitution of all things before Christ would come again.

And then my all time favorite is Daniel 2, how Daniel interprets King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. You can look on the page. I’ll just read the key part and then again describe the dream. The last part where he says, “Whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided. And the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken. And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay. And in the days of these kings…” This is so important. “And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed.”

Look at the calendar. When could this have happened? So the vision of the… Here’s what it looks like. The gold head was Babylon and this King Nebuchadnezzar. The silver, the breasts and arms were those in the Medes and the Persians. The brass was the Grecian empire, Alexander the Great. The legs of iron were the Roman empire. But the 10 toes were the 10 divisions that ended up coming out of the Roman empire, and that’s actually exactly what happened. By 476 A.D., Rome had lost its power, and the tribes that sacked the Roman empire became the 10 nations of Europe.

So the earliest that this could have been on the calendar, and others marked this as much later, but the earliest was 476 A.D. Think about that for a minute. It had to be after that. So I want to point to… The history of Christianity, I’m saying that His kingdom had to have been set up after 476 A.D. Note that, that is so critical. So think about any church formed before 476 and then those that claim that that’s their authority, they link off from that church. And then think about this, the Church itself being restored, the newness, the restoration, and in the fullness. But also it talks about consuming all these kingdoms. That’s obviously not going to happen until the millennium, but it will be a part of the way the millennium works there that will be established.

Okay. Now let’s talk about the temple. And I did an entire video on the temple. So I’m just going to hit a couple of super quick highlights. Isaiah 2, of course, this is an amazing one. It says, “… in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall say, Come and let’s go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths.”

Utah comes from the Native American Ute tribe. “Ute” means actually high places or mountain tops. Think about that. It’s right there. Then “Utah” means people of the mountains. So I think it’s a great example.

Now, Obadiah. This one is fascinating just because it talks about saviors, plural, upon Mount Zion prior to the Second Coming. “For the day if the Lord is near … And saviours shall come up on Mount Zion.” So think about that. We understand that now from the aspect of proxy temple work and how people have those ordinances.

Let’s look at Elijah here. We know this one well. Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. “And he shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the children to the fathers.”

It’s fascinating when you think about proxy temple work and saviors on Mount Zion. I did an eternal marriage video, talks about this specifically. In fact, when Elijah came on April 3rd, 1836 it was a very unique day. The only one that would wind up like this within the 19th century. But then to take it one step, it was just crazy. This lunar solar calendar, there’s kind of this very scientific. In fact, it’s on the Church website a link to it there. But this was in the video. It says, “It means that the Easter of 1836 to this very day was calendrically the most similar in history to the Easter of 33 A.D. And if the earth’s orbit continues unchanged, that Easter should retain this distinction for another 3,000 years, when a better realignment interval is due.” So quite fascinating.

Okay. Now, a few verses on prophets, apostles, and priesthood authority. Amos 3:7, “Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.” This is so important. Where are the prophets today?

And in that vein, how about the apostles? Paul says to the Ephesians, “Ye … are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone.” And then he says two chapters later that this will last, that we will have apostles and prophets, the key part of that until we all come in the unity of the faith. So we aren’t in the unity of the faith so you can say, “Well, where do you find apostles and prophets on the earth today?”

Hebrews 5:4, how this is done, “No man taketh this honor unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron.” For example, you don’t become a pastor by going to divinity school and then applying for a job as a pastor, is an example of that potentially.

Okay. Missionaries and prophesied gathering of Israel. Romans 10:14 and 15. So verse 15, “And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things.” So we’ve had over a million people serve full-time missions at their own expense that are bringing the glad tidings even in foreign languages in the history of the Restoration.

And then some on the gathering. “He will lift up an ensign and they shall come”, says Isaiah. “With great mercies will I gather thee.” “Israel and Judah are to be gathered to their lands.” “The Lord shall gather the house of Israel from the people among whom they are scattered.” Just think about our prophet today who’s talking about the gathering of Israel out there on the earth today. And I was definitely part of it. It was a huge theme of the prophets of old.

And then think about the patriarchal blessing given to Ephraim. Genesis 48, this is Jacob giving the blessing here. I don’t know if you remember this, but he puts his hands like this. In the right hand is the one to get the birthright blessing. The firstborn, right? And that was supposed to be to Manasseh, but he’s putting it on the head of Ephraim. And Joseph says, “No. No, father, it’s not supposed to be that way.” Look at verse 19, “I know it, my son, I know it. He also shall become a people … “, meaning Manasseh, ” … and he also shall be great. But truly his younger brother shall be greater than he and his seed shall become a multitude of nations.” Verse 22, “I have given to thee one portion above thy brethren.”

And so this birthright that Joseph had of the sons went to Ephraim. Now that birthright, you have a double portion, but you also with that have the responsibility to take care of the family. And that is the responsibility that Ephraim has today, gathering and helping bring the gospel to all of Israel today.

If you look at, think about, 1 Peter 2:9 says that these saints, they would be a peculiar people, and you think about the saints today, how peculiar they are relative to the world. We talk about sending out these missionaries, I mean it’s stunning what you see happening there. Who’s talking of this? Even Moses himself brought the keys of the gathering of Israel. Talk about Elijah turning the hearts. Who’s talking about this? What about the temples being built? Look of the map here all over. Who’s paying tithing? Malachi says, “Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. And ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.”

Here you can see the Pew research study. 79% of active Latter-day Saints pay a full tithing. Only 4% of Christians actually pay full tithing. Who’s serving? I did a video on this study of the University of Pennsylvania. The hours spent serving, the active Latter-day Saints spends nine times the hours serving of active religious volunteers in United States. And then you look at the doctrine, you go to the Restoring Original Christianity video that I did, two parts on that. And it’s no surprise when Bishop Causse talked about the city in France, in Paris that did the study of the church before they would agree to build a temple. After a month long study, they came and reported that they viewed it as the church on the earth that was the closest to the original Christian Church anywhere to be found.

I hope this video did help in showing that as well. I hope you enjoyed the video. Subscribe for more.

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Resources:

Book:

Biblical Roots of Mormonism – Eric Shuster

Many related videos on Latter-day Saints’ Q&A which are mentioned throughout this video

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Latter-day Saints’ Q&A is a video series not produced by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but by me, an ordinary member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, an independent voice, with a passion for studying Church history and defending the faith. In this series, I provide evidences for the restoration, and address tough questions posed by critics of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, offering faithful answers based on accurate research and historical references which will be posted at the end of each video.