One Mighty and Strong 101

 

One Mighty and Strong 101

 

 

As Latter-Day Saints, we are shamefully ignorant to the concepts, events and key players of the time preceding Christ’s Second coming. Like in a game of chess, we wait for the appearance of the “King of kings” piece, but are hardly aware of the other fifteen pieces on the board, that can and do play a significant role. Since “nobody knows the day or the hour”, much like in the days of Noah, we marry and get married, go on missions and come back, paying little attention to things outside of our immediate concern. The problem with that approach is that much like our Jewish predecessors, who in the majority, “inadvertently” missed the divine presence and ministry of the Holy Messiah in their midst, we, who feel at times justified to act superior to them, run the risk of following in their unfortunate footsteps.

 

We have grown so accustomed to have more knowledge than “mainstream” Christians, we have arrogantly assumed we have it ALL. We as a nation seriously plagued by being ethnocentric are making assumptions about pivotal end time prophecies as having to do with us, the LDS church. And ironically, while waiting for their fulfillment in a manner we “know” they should happen, “look beyond the mark.”

 

We wait for our temple to pop up on Temple mount, forgetting that other people can build temples. And for that matter, be God’s covenant people. We wait for our missionaries to establish their presence in all parts of the world and bring the world the fullness of the Gospel, assuming both that having more is the fullness and that we get to be the messengers.  We proudly claim our Ephraim lineage, but know but very little about the details of the grand process of the literal gathering of Israel in which we are allegedly to participate.

 

Like a tiny gear in a massive clock of Heavenly Father’s “work and glory” we are very self-aware and oblivious to the “other” multiple sheep and records He has. Of everyone, WE should know better!!! This prediluvian trajectory has kept from us recognizing the presence of One Mighty and Strong, who makes his subtle debut in ALL of the standard works and, before too long, in OUR OWN LIVES!!! And if we fail to recognize “the holy arm” of the Lord (Isaiah 52:10), we will forever remain in the deathly grip of the “arm of flesh”!!!!

 

So much has been said and prophesied about him, it would be overly ambitious, to attempt to cover everything. In this essay I will try to create a “beginner’s” outline of some of the basics we know, or, truth be told, don’t know about the One Mighty and Strong or end-time Servant. 

 

 

Mysterious

 

  The One mighty and Strong narrative is excruciatingly damaging to the reputation of the LDS church as organization. This reason alone is massive enough for some to have attempted to obfuscate the true meaning of the scriptural passage in D&C 85 and suggest that it’s taken out of context:

While that man, who was called of God and appointed, that putteth forth his hand to steady the ark of God, shall fall by the shaft of death, like as a tree that is smitten by the vivid shaft of lightning (D&C85:8).

The fact that The Servant comes to replace “the Lord’s Anointed” could be perceived as a threat to a controlled narrative. 

 

Another significant reason that undoubtedly contributes to the mysterious nature of the Servant is the fact that he is a key player in “a strange act” (Isaiah 28: 21) that is about to unfold and that will rival in its awe and magnitude the crossing of the Red Sea, a pivotal landmark in Judeo-Christian tradition and history. The dramatic element of surprise is vital to Heavenly Father, who demonstrates His power, majesty and Glory to us, His children, who have become completely entrenched in a deist perception of God that no longer gets involved in the affairs of men.

 

An Elias, a concealed forerunner…

 

The Lord established a pattern of having a forerunner prior to His initial coming. John the Baptist was sent “to make ready a people ​​​prepared​ for the Lord” (Luke 1:17). Similarly, the end-time Servant comes in preparation for Christ’s return. Both John and the end time Servant come out of obscurity, both are temporarily removed or distanced from the people they serve and are then brought forth by Him in all power. To those he ministers to, the Servant appears to have “come out of nowhere”, much like John, who emerged, as it were, out of the woodwork. 

 

 The pattern of a concealed mission revealed is established with both Moses and Joseph Smith, both of whom, as we shall see below, have direct connection to One Mighty and Strong.  It is more apparent with Moses, a Hebrew living among the Egyptians, who is removed from his people before he returns to liberate them.

 

With Joseph, the issue of concealed identity is not as obvious.  Clearly, the transformation of a humble farm boy walking out of the woodwork of New York, into a prophet of the Restoration was very significant. However, it appears that just like his contemporaries, we know less about Joseph’s true identity than we realize:

 

“Would to God, brethren, I could tell you who I am! Would to God I could tell you what I know! But you would call it blasphemy, and there are men upon this stand who would want to take my life” (Quoted by Orson F. Whtiney, Life of Heber C. Kimball (Salt Lake City: Kimball Family, 1888), 322). 

 

The above quote suggests that fully grasping his identity and purpose was a process for Joseph. Moreover, something about his true nature was painfully preposterous even to the twelve sitting next to him!!!  And it just might come across that way to us when “all things” become revealed and restored. Just like his predecessors John, Moses and Joseph, the One Mighty and Strong gets to discover his true identity gradually, one step at a time.  

 

A Moses

“And the Lord hath said: I will raise up a Moses; and I will give power unto him in a rod...” (2 Nephi 3:17).  In this familiar discourse Lehi is prophesying about the coming forth of “a Moses” and we have no trouble identifying him as the prophet Joseph. But a more subtle allusion is made to the One Mighty and Strong, that can be easily overlooked:

 

And there shall rise up one mighty among them, who shall do much good, both in word and in deed, being an instrument in the hands of God, with exceeding faith, to work mighty wonders, and do that thing which is great in the sight of God, unto the bringing to pass much restoration unto the house of Israel, and unto the seed of thy brethren (2 Nephi3:24, emphasis added).

 

While it’s true that Joseph accomplished many wonderful things in his lifetime, none of them can be described as “mighty wonders” fitting for a Moses. Also, Joseph’s ministry was primarily focused on the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh: another reason to interpret this verse as referring to miracles and the literal restoration of the House of Israel that will be performed in the future by the One Mighty and Strong. 

 

 

It is also the Servant, who like Moses, is granted the gift and power to command the elements:

Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and strong one, which as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters overflowing, shall cast down to the earth with the hand. (Isaiah 28: 2)

 

The Moses - Joseph - Servant connection is also established through the administration of priesthood keys.  Moses “committed ... the keys of the gathering of Israel” (D&C 110:11) to Joseph and Oliver (replaced by Hyrum in 1841). The Rod of Jesse,  or “a Servant in the hands of Christ” and his associate and companion, The Root of Jesse,  are also said to have “much power” and to rightfully possess “the priesthood, and the keys of the kingdom, for an ensign, and for the gathering of my people in the last days,” the very keys possessed by Moses earlier (D&C 113:4-6).

 

In addition to this intricate prophetic chain, there emerges a pattern of leadership that not only applies to the past, but foreshadows what we will see with the One mighty and Strong in the future. It is a pattern of prophet and companion, a president and co-holder of keys that goes like this:

 

Moses - Aaron

Joseph - Hyrum

Servant - Companion

 

A Joseph

 

Much like Joseph, the servant is sent forth to teach higher knowledge that most are not ready for: 

Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them   that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts (Isaiah 28: 9).

 

Isaiah’s words echo Joseph’s:

“I have tried for a number of years to get the minds of the Saints prepared to receive the things of God; but we frequently see some of them, after suffering all they have for the work of God, will fly to pieces like glass as soon as anything comes that is contrary to their traditions: they cannot stand the fire at all” (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/teachings-joseph-smith/chapter-45?lang=eng).

 

 

The doctrine One mighty and Strong will teach is also primarily rejected with disbelief:

For in that day, for my sake shall the Father work a work, which shall be a great and a marvelous work among them; and there shall be among them those who will not believe it, although a man shall declare it unto them. (3 Nephi 21:9)

 

The above scripture begs a question as to what doctrines the Servant might be restoring? Perhaps the same ones Joseph was threatened by his associated to be killed for? Perhaps it was precisely those doctrines he WAS killed for. The teachings that undermine the “standard” Christian paradigms and seem to be contradictory and counterintuitive.

 

It is very likely that the Servant is to continue the interrupted work of Restoration commenced by Joseph, but that connection won’t be apparent, at least not to most. To the majority the One Mighty and Strong will appear but “a man”, who “came out of nowhere” and just like Joseph’s his teachings will appear different and novel, for “that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider” (Isaiah 52:15).

 

Another passage that we may have mistakenly attributed to refer just to Joseph is also referring to the One Mighty and Strong:

But behold, the life of my servant shall be in my hand; therefore, they shall not hurt him, although he shall be marred because of them. Yet I will heal him, for I will show unto them that my wisdom is greater than the cunning of the devil. (3 Nephi 21:10)

After all, Joseph was not healed after he was “marred”. But the Servant will be.

Isaiah is more specific by clarifying that it is “his visage” that will be marred “more than any man” (Isaiah 52:14).  Obviously, the injury to face is a direct and poignant connection of One Mighty and Strong to Joseph, creating a one-of-a-kind amalgamation of the two.

 

 

 

 

 

The Destroyer

   

Isaiah uses the term ‘the arm of the Lord” in reference to the One Mighty and Strong extensively, which makes this verse in the opening section of D&C take on new meaning:

And the arm of the Lord shall be revealed; and the day cometh that they who will not hear the voice of the Lord, neither the voice of his servants, neither give heed to the words of the prophets and apostles, shall be cut off from among the people (D&C 1:14).

 

The poignant message of the verse that can be all too easily overlooked is that the Arm of the Lord, the Servant and his message is aligned with the voice of the Lord.

The separation “from among the people” will happen NOT based on following the person at the pulpit, but based on being able to hear Him.

 

In the scriptures the Arm of the Lord is also His “anger” and “sword bathed in heaven, that shall fall upon the inhabitants of the earth” (D&C 1:13). It is He, and not the Adversary, as some would infer, who is The Destroyer:

 

Behold, the destroyer I have sent forth to destroy and lay waste mine enemies; and not many years hence they shall not be left to pollute mine heritage, and to blaspheme my name upon the lands which I have consecrated for the gathering together of my saints (D&C105:15).

 

 

The above study of the One mighty and Strong is not by any means comprehensive. It is admittedly a drop in a deep doctrinal bucket of truths we are still to learn… But it’s a start.

 

Christ comes to us the way He came to the two men on the road to Emmaus, a stranger, a passerby. He comes as a rugged fisherman, an obscure tax collector. He comes disguised like Abinadi, without a name tag or a handshake that would reveal the nail marks. He steps out of the woodwork, with ‘no beauty or comeliness’, like an Elias, a Moses, a Joseph.  He speaks words of Truth, be it through His own voice, or the voice of His Servant…He so desperately wants to be recognized, remembered, loved, known!!! Will we hear Him or face the wrath of His Sword? For what could shield us against the Holy Arm and mighty POWER of the DESTROYER!?!?