2 Nephi 12:4

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Reference Search: 2 Nephi 12:4

4 And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plow-shares, and their spears into pruning-hooks—nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

Quotes for Discussion

“Rebuke”…like the term “judge,” also carries with it a positive and a negative aspect. It can mean either to justify or to convict. However, the root of the word means “to be in the front, the forepart,” and hence, figuratively “to be in the sunshine, to be clear, manifest, or to appear.” It has a very strong positive meaning associated with justice and arbitration. Yet, it also means “to put down, force back, reprimand, or humble.”

When Isaiah said that God would “judge among nations and rebuke many people” he apparently meant that God would select from among the nations those willing to follow His word….At the same time they would be rebuked, humbled, or made lower. Although to humble or rebuke a person, and at the same time set them up in the forefront, may seem to be a contradiction, that same thought has been expressed in similar words in modern times. The Lord stated that the people of the church must be chastened, chastised, and stand rebuked before Him that their sins may be forgiven (D&C 95).

Loren D. Martin, Isaiah: An Ensign to the Nations [salt Lake City: Valiant Publications, 1982], 55-56

“To judge”…carries with it the primary meaning of “to set up or to erect,” “to establish the righteous in judgment.” Although, the term also carries with it a meaning of condemnation or punishment, the primary meaning is positive. Therefore, to “judge among the nations” means to select the righteous from the unrighteous, the saint from the sinner.

K. Douglas Bassett, Commentaries on Isaiah in the Book of Mormon, p. 60

“Swords into plow-shares, and their spears into pruning-hooks”

In the millennial day, weapons for killing will be turned into tools for living. Can you imagine how many farm implements could be made out of an aircraft carrier? In 2005, the United States Department of Defense budget totaled 401.7 billion dollars. Imagine what can be done for the poor in all the world when millennial peace reigns and the inhabitants of the earth shall not “learn war any more”?

John Bytheway, Isaiah for Airheads, p. 73

Every gun made, every warship launched, every rocked fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.

This world in arms is not spending money alone: It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children….This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, Peace with Justice: Selected Addresses of Dwight D. Eisenhower [New York: Columbia University Press, 1961], 37-38

Nicholas Murray Butler has figured that money spent for the World War could have built a $2,500.00 house, placed in it $1000.00 worth of furniture, put it on five acres of land worth $100.00 an acre, and have given this to every family in the United States, Canada, Australia, England, Wales, Ireland, Scotland, France, Belgium, Germany, and Russia; could have given to each city of 20,000 or over in each of these countries a five-million dollar library and a ten-million dollar university; and could still with what was left set aside a sum of 5 per cent that would provide a $1,000.00 yearly salary for over 125,000 teachers and like number of nurses.

Author unknown, Improvement Era, 41:160

We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount…Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living.

General Omar Bradley, as quoted in Hugh B. Brown, Continuing the Quest, [salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1961], 255

The millennial day…that promised time when “they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more…[but shall] walk in the light of the Lord” (Isa. 2:4-5).

Howard W. Hunger, Ensign, November 1994, 88

Whereas numerous temples will already dot the earth prior to the Millennium, their number and distribution will increase during this time….The work of preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to all the inhabitants of the earth will continue under his direction. Meanwhile, a similar teaching program will continue among the spirits of those who have departed this life and are waiting the day of their resurrection (D&C 1380. While such spirits may hear the gospel of salvation and accept or reject it in the spirit world, mortals on earth will perform saving ordinances such as baptism on their behalf.

Paul B. Pixton, Encyclopedia of Mormonism, ed. By Daniel H. Ludlow, 4 vols. [New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1992], 906-908

[isaiah] further declared that the natural fears and enmities within the animal kingdom will cease, that “the wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid” (Isa. 11:6-9; cf. D&C 101:26). Ezekiel prophesied that the earth, which lost its pristine character as a result of the fall of Adam (cf. Gen. 3:17-19), will return to its paradisiacal state once again (Ezek. 36:35; cf. A of F 10). For the duration of the Millennium, Satan will be bound (Rev. 20:1-3). In place of the diabolical regime of the “prince of this world” (John 12:31; 14:30; D&C 1:35, the Lord Jesus Christ will dwell personally among the inhabitants of earth, ruling over the kingdom of God with the aid of righteous mortals and resurrected Saints from all ages (Isa. 35:2; Dan. 7:14, 27)….

During the Millennium, members of the Church of Jesus Christ from any era of time will help in the government of the earth under Christ’s direction (Dan. 7:27; D&C 103:7; cf. Matt. 5:5).

John the Revelator saw that at the commencement of the Millennium a New Jerusalem would descend to earth from heaven….Revelations given to the Prophet Joseph Smith show that the new Jerusalem in the Western Hemisphere will coexist with the old Jerusalem, each as a hemispheric capital….

Life will go on for those on earth: “And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them,…and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands” (Isa. 65:21-22). Righteous mortal men and women who die after the beginning of the Millennium “shall not sleep…in the earth, but shall be changed in the twinkling of an eye” (D&C 101:31), and children born in this era “shall grow up until they become old” (D&C 63:51; Isa. 65:20). The devil will have no “power to tempt any man,” being bound because of the righteousness of the earth’s inhabitants, and children will grow up without sin (1 Ne. 22:26; D&C 43:30-31; 45:58; 101:28-31). However, those who are wicked will not be resurrected or returned to the earth until after the millennium of righteousness (D&C 76:81, 85).

Encyclopedia of Mormonism, Vol. 4 p. 906-908