2 Nephi 27:26

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Reference Search: 2 Nephi 27:26

26 Therefore, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, yea, a marvelous work and a wonder, for the wisdom of their wise and learned shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent shall be hid.

Quotes for discussion

A Marvelous Work and a Wonder

More than seven hundred years before the birth of Jesus Christ the Lord spoke through Isaiah of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon and the restoration of the Gospel. Isaiah, by prophecy, spoke of the restoration of the new and everlasting covenant, and the Lord performing a “marvelous work and a wonder,” which should cause “the wisdom of their wise men” to perish, and “the understanding of their prudent men” to be hid….This marvelous work is the restoration of the Church and the Gospel with all the power and authority, keys and blessings which pertain to this great work for the salvation of the children of men.

Joseph Fielding Smith, as quote in Hoyt W. Brewster, Jr., Isaiah Plain and Simple [salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1995], 168

In August of 8152…a special conference was held in the old tabernacle on this square. President Heber C. Kimball opened by saying:

“We have come together today…to hold a special conference to transact business,…inasmuch as there are elders to be selected to go to the missions of the earth.

“The missions we will call for during this conference are, generally, not to be very long ones; probably from three to seven years will be as long as any man will be absent from his family.”

The clerk then read ninety-eight names of individuals who had been proposed for foreign missions….

To me it is a thing of wonder that at a time when our people were struggling to gain a foothold in these mountains, they put the spread of the gospel ahead of comfort, security, the well-being of their families, and all other considerations….

It has gone on ever since, and it goes on today at an accelerated pace. In a hundred nations missionaries of the Church are teaching the doctrines of salvation….They are fulfilling the declarations of ancient prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord concerning the “marvelous work and a wonder” that should come to pass in the dispensation of the fullness of times (Isa. 29:14).

Gordon B. Hinckley, Ensign, Nov. 1989, 53

Joseph was a seer. He had the gift to translate ancient records (see History of the Church, 1:238), and a “seer is greater than a prophet” (Mosiah 8:13-17).

The process of translation was truly “a marvelous work and a wonder,” or, as rendered in Hebrew, “a miraculous miracle” (Isa. 29:14). Depending upon his sequence of translation, scholars estimate Joseph in 1829 was translating at a rapid daily equivalent of from eight to thirteen of today’s printed pages….An able, professional translator recently told me e considers one page a day productive.

Neal A. Maxwell, Ensign, May 1992, 38

“Wisdom of their wise…shall perish”

The contents of all the world’s libraries cannot compare with the wisdom that comes by direct revelation. Joseph Smith taught, “Could you gaze into heaven five minutes, you would know more than you would by reading all that ever was written on the subject” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 324).

John Bytheway, Isaiah for Airheads, p. 163