“My Vineyard Will I Cause to Be Burned with Fire”

W. Cleon Skousen

The parable says this marvelous harvest of good fruit will last for a long time and during these many years the Lord will lay up much fruit. This appears to be referring to the Millennium. At the end of this peaceful, productive period of the Millennium the allegory says something tragic will happen. Once more the wild fruit will begin to appear in the Lord's vineyard. The Lord said that when that happens he will gather the good fruit and also the bad fruit. The good fruit he will preserve unto himself, but the bad fruit will be cast away unto its own place. Then comes the winding-up scenes and the preparation of the earth to be celestialized by fire. In a modern revelation, the Lord describes the great falling away and the final conflagration of fire which will turn the earth into a celestial sphere like unto a sea of glass. The scripture says:

"And again, verily, verily, I say unto you that when the thousand years are ended, and men again begin to deny their God, then will I spare the earth but for a little season. And the end shall come and the heaven and the earth shall be consumed and pass away, and there shall be a new heaven and a new earth."12

"This earth, in its sanctified and immortal state, will be made like unto crystal and will be a Urim and Thummim to the inhabitants who dwell thereon, whereby all things pertaining to an inferior kingdom, or all kingdoms of a lower order, will be manifest to those who dwell on it; and this earth will be Christ's."13

Thus we come to the conclusion of this remarkable parable which was employed by the Lord to give the history of Israel in an allegory so that only those who had the prophetic key such as Isaiah, Nephi, Jacob, etc. would know what it meant until after it came to pass. The rest would only understand the parable as it unfolded and came to pass.

Treasures from the Book of Mormon

References