Because nature herself has a history, she is a fit subject for prophetic interpretation. Jesus used natural phenomena both to illustrate the nature of his Father and to foretell future events. An example of the former is his suggestion that the lilies of the field neither toil nor spin; and an illustration of the latter is in his words: "As the light of the morning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west, and covereth the whole earth; so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be." The rain and sunshine were symbols of his Father's complete and indiscriminate impartiality. The tares illustrated a process which issued in God's judgment.

The vine typified the church, while the budding fig tree is used to inform the faithful that the coming of Christ is nigh. Nature, seen through the mind of Jesus, becomes a sacrament and a commonwealth of value. Paul, catching the spirit of the Master, used the sidereal universe to testify of the resurrection, and the varying degrees of glory which obtain therein. So, later, Joseph Smith, with the promise of the kingdom informing his outlook, wrote:

The earth rolls upon her wings; and the sun giveth his light by day, and the moon giveth her light by night; and the stars also giveth their light, as they roll upon their wings, in their glory, in the midst of the power of God. Unto what shall I liken these kingdoms, that ye may understand? Behold, all these are kingdoms, and any man who hath seen any or the least of these, hath seen God moving in his majesty and power. -Doctrine and Covenants 85: 12a, b, c.

Behold, I will liken these kingdoms unto a man having a field, and he sent forth his servants into the field, to dig in the field; and he said unto the first, Go ye and labor in the field, and in the first hour I will come unto you, and ye shall behold the joy of my countenance: and he said unto the second, Go ye also into the field, and in the second hour I will visit you with the joy of my countenance; and also unto the third, saying, I will visit you; and unto the fourth, and so on unto the twelfth. And the lord of the field went unto the first in the first hour, and tarried with him all that hour, and he was made glad with the light of the countenance of his lord; and then he withdrew from the first that he might visit the second also, and the third, and the fourth, and so on unto the twelfth; and thus they all received the light of the countenance of their lord; every man in his hour, and in his time, and in his season; beginning at the first, and so on unto the last, and from the last unto the first, and from the first unto the last; every man in his own order, until his hour was finished, even according as his lord had commanded him, that his lord might be glorified in him, and he in him, that they all might be glorified. Therefore, unto this parable will I liken all these kingdoms, and the inhabitants thereof; every kingdom in its hour, and in its time, and in its season; even according to the decree which God hath made. -Doctrine and Covenants 85: 13-15.

We have previously mentioned how different minds bring varying depths of insight to the natural phenomena they observe. So Jesus saw in the sunrise two millenniums of history symbolized with startling clarity.

Prediction and Prophecy

There are those who discount the predictive element in the prophecy. Scholars predicate the existence of a multiple authorship of Isaiah, for instance, partly on the ground that it seems philosophically impossible to account the naming of Cyrus by a contemporary of Hezekiah. Cyrus, king of Persia, lived a hundred years ago or so after Isaiah, yet Isaiah named him. This preview of history seems impossible to scholars, who affirm that after all any prophet is a man of his own time.

 Even a cursory survey of the "critical" discussions of prophecy that have appeared within recent years should make it abundantly plain to everyone that Alexander, writing a century ago, correctly defined the attitude which has characterized the critical movement from its beginning, when he said: "The successive writers of this modern school, however they may differ as to minor points among themselves, prove their identity of principle by holding that there cannot be distinct prophetic foresight of the distant future."

It would be extremely interesting to know how such "critical" faculty could "account" for the Civil War prophecy of 1832 given by Joseph Smith, who then challenged in 1843 concerning it reaffirmed publicly that an angel had visited him and told him of the course of the war. This prophecy was fulfilled in detail thirty years after it was first uttered. It was published in 1851.

The coming of Christ was predicted in many structures of meaning from the beginning of time. By ordinance and sacrifice, by teaching and by the Law of Moses, by the testimony of the prophets of God, men were taught in what manner to look forward to the incarnation of his Son. Amos is sure that the future is an open book of Divinity: "Surely the Lord God will do nothing until he revealeth the secret to his servants the prophets" (Amos 3: 7)

Just as men were taught to look forward to Christ before he came, so we are taught to look forward to his coming again. The disciples on the Mount of Olives listened to the last discourse and then the Master said, "Behold, I have foretold you all things."

And the command is given that men must watch with care, so that they might find in the progress of events that being wrought out which was foretold.

Peter placed a great deal of value on the testimony of Jesus which originated the word of prophecy. This word of prophecy he likened unto the light "which shineth in a dark place":

 For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount. We have therefore a more sure knowledge of the word of prophecy, to which word of prophecy ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light which shineth in a dark place, until the day-dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts. -II Peter 1: 16-19 (I.V.)

Peter looked for the "day-dawn," and referred evidently to the coming of the "day of the Lord" which is the millennial reign. The word of prophecy would create in those who had this "more sure knowledge" a disposition of spirit akin to the "day-star." Of himself our Lord said, "I am the bright and morning star" (Revelation 22: 16). Putting these references together they mean, quite surely, that the "more sure knowledge" given to us by the testimony of Jesus has the power to cause to arise in the hearts or dispositions of men that same spirit which activated the Lord Jesus. This itself would constitute the "day-star" which is the promise of the new day. For the divine word carries with it power to convey the divine life. God communicates himself, but it is himself he communicates.

As we think of the symbolism used by Jesus in foretelling his return in glory, we are struck by the fact that the day "dawns," it does not appear suddenly. In itself it is a process governed by a certain inevitability which is conditioned in law. People who watch for the coming of day always have this experience.

As we analyze the course of time since Jesus was here on earth, we may glimpse how his words about the ‘light of the morning" have been and are being fulfilled.

It is significant that when Santayana looked for a historical situation of the "light of faith," he used the voyage of Columbus to illustrate his theme:

Columbus found a world, and had no chart,
Save one that faith deciphered in the skies;
To trust the soul's invincible surmise
Was all his science and his only art.

Faith is the "light of the morning." It is expressed in an "invincible surmise" which is creative and which discovers new continents. Nephi of old said that this invincible surmise was wrought in the soul of Columbus by the Spirit of God. The light of faith is wrought in the soul of man by the Spirit of God. It sends men forth. It sustains them in adversity, as it did Columbus. Every schoolboy knows the story of the discovery of America. We need not outline it here. But when one considers the hardships which Columbus endured, the superstition against which he steadily maintained his conviction, he is reminded of the words of Paul: "faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." The only evidence of the existence of the promised land in the Old World before 1492 was the assurance in the soul of Columbus, wrought as we are reminded, by the Spirit of God. Surely here we have the first faint streak of dawn.

So a land of promise was disclosed to a people who dwelt in the Dark Ages. The day began to dawn, and the light began to stir in the minds of men. Huss, Luther, Zwingli, and others began the process which broke the chain of superstition. Perhaps Luther epitomizes, better than any other, that light which discovered again the almost lost continent in the souls of men. He said, "The just shall live by faith." Paul had said that before Luther said it. The individual conscience began to play a significant part in the religious affairs of men. It was felt that God could have access to his creatures in significant ways without recourse to a priestly hierarchy. Inevitably the spirit of democracy began to make itself felt. The renaissance helped center their attention on the ancient glories of classical culture. Superstition gradually gave way to the light of reason which brought freedom of action in many fields of human endeavor. Printing made its appearance, and knowledge which before then was confined to a few in the universities became increasingly available to all. The spirit of adventure and freedom broke out on every side. From this ferment of change and awakening came the Pilgrim Fathers to the Americas. So had the spirit of prophecy filtered into the common mind that John Robinson could say to his beloved congregation on the eve of their departure, July 21, 1620:

We are now ere long to part asunder and the Lord knoweth whether I shall live to see your faces again. But whether the Lord hath appointed it or not, I charge you before God and his blessed angels to follow me no further than I have followed Christ and if God should reveal anything to you by any other instrument of his, to be as ready to receive it as ever you were to receive any truth by my ministry; for I am very confident that the Lord hath more truth and light yet to break forth out of his holy Word.

And so, as Nephi recognizes, the Spirit of God wrought upon other Gentiles, "and they went forth out of captivity, upon the many waters." The light of the new day was gradually growing brighter. From the east to the west it came, and it came after the Son of Man, the day-star, the "bright and morning star" had been lifted up from the earth.

So the spirit of the new day was seen in the mariner, in the monk, and in the pastor. These were joined by others. George Washington, the soldier-statesman, was sustained in his struggle against the blind oligarchy which sought to hold his people in bondage by the self-same spirit as we have indicated. Perhaps when "all things" shall be revealed, we shall hear again the prayers he must have expressed to the God under whose hand the nation was being fashioned. Joseph Smith put his finger surely on a fact that was apprehended by the prophets of old when he said: "I, the Lord, ruleth in the heavens above, and among the armies of the earth." Surely the hand of God was with Washington and his armies to give them the victory in war. But this is not all. After the war was won, men needed to win the peace. For many weeks the delegates met in Philadelphia in the Constitutional Convention when it seemed no solution to the problems involving the thirteen states would ever be found. Washington finally wrote to a friend that he despaired of the undertaking and wished he had not been identified with it. Then, in the soul of a statesman, Benjamin Franklin, the light of faith, the promise of a new day, shone to give light to all. This is what he said:

I therefore beg leave to move that, henceforth, prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings on our deliberations, be held in this assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the clergy of this city be requested to officiate in that service.

The resolution was approved, and the course adopted which it indicated. Soon the atmosphere changed and problems which had hitherto seemed insoluble yielded to the spirit of accommodation, and the world was blessed with an instrument of government in that constitution which could only have been framed by the hand of wise men whom God raised up for that very purpose. The dawn of the day came nearer.

Then, after the mariner had sailed his course and the monk had defied the might of a Holy Roman Empire, after the pastor had preached his sermon and the warrior had won his battles, after the statesman had guided the resolve of the Constitutional Convention to seek the aid of the Almighty, a boy was led into the woods, and these words were heard in a blaze of light which he tells us was brighter than the beams of the May sunshine:

"This is my beloved Son, hear him."

The land was discovered and the people prepared. Men of promise were led to the land of promise which was delivered from bondage by the shedding of blood. A constitution was framed to preserve these liberties which are the inalienable rights of every man given by God in his creation, and through all of this was fashioned a matrix in which the jewel of the kingdom could be set. The soil was prepared and the seed was sown. The day-star had arisen and now we have a "more sure knowledge of the word of prophecy" through the testimony of the Lord Jesus.

Who can doubt that the light will continue to grow brighter? Only those who are not obedient to the prophetic vision. Those who receive it and are obedient come under the blessing of this enlightening promise: "That which is of God is light, and he that receiveth light and continueth in God, receiveth more light, and that light groweth brighter and brighter, until the perfect day" (Doctrine and Covenants 50: 6). And so it has come to pass that "According to men's faith it shall be done unto them."

So Jesus indicated that the rising of the sun in the morning was a type and prophecy of a rising of the Son of God in the hearts of men. It is Jesus that has the key to the future in his hand. He interprets the course of nature and the process of history truly, and with confidence may we pay heed to what he tells us.

In Jesus Christ history has reached its climax and inaugurated a new humanity. He inherited all the limitations of the flesh, with its sentence of death. He inherited also the mental atmosphere of a spiritual tradition which, as he said, was a light which had turned into darkness. These he used in such ways as to change their value. The body he transmuted and translated. The tradition he cleansed and purified and illumined. Temporally and spiritually the universe reached the end of its endeavor in him. He is the purpose for which all things were made, in which all things find their consistency, This climax, however, does not stand by itself. Within the process are powers and structures of values and truth which can make men new. Jesus was the end and the beginning of a new order. "Behold," he said, "I make all things new."

God cannot change the past so as to make what has happened as if it had not happened. Lady Macbeth states a truism, almost a tautology, when she says, "What's done, is done," and follows it with "What's done, can't be undone." As we look into our past lives we know this to be true. As long as we retain consciousness, we retain knowledge of the fact that we are agents unto ourselves. We are free for ever. For ever and ever we shall be the people who did what we did. Can we be delivered from the past? Can God make history other than what it is? Not by changing the facts. But we can be delivered from history, not by ignoring it, but by having the lord Jesus change its value for us. God cannot change the facts of history, but he can change history from being a prison house of bondage to a world of freedom. He cannot change history; but he can change its value.

Consider how Christ changed the value of the cross. To those who understand its testimony, the cross is the source of all that is good and holy and redemptive. But it is also the result of all that is sinful and shameful in the hearts of men. Jesus took this shameful device and turned it into a throne of glory. He turned the utmost in wickedness of man into the righteousness of God. What is the result from this process? The answer is that in Christ each and every man's history and the history of mankind itself is changed into a new day.

It surely must be that in Christ the spirit of prophecy which reaches forward into the past will translate every jot and tittle of our experience into an expression of gratitude. We cannot see clearly now. The day is just dawning and there are many pockets of darkness which we know will eventually be banished. But we can have faith as we see what Jesus saw so clearly, and find confirmation of our faith in the process of nature which in Jesus constitutes a commonwealth of value.

"As the light of the morning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be."