3 Nephi 25

 (All of my own thoughts are in red type 7/20 orange 7/21 brown 2022-23) 

CHAPTER 25

At the Second Coming, the proud and wicked will be burned as stubble—Elijah will return before that great and dreadful day—Compare Malachi 4. About A.D. 34.

  1 ^aFor behold, the day cometh that shall ^bburn as an oven; and all the ^cproud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of Hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. Does this expression take us back to the parable of the olive trees and the vineyard? What is our root and branch? Our ancestors and posterity? Is Jesus Christ our root, meaning the source of our sustenance? Are our branches our works? 
  2 But unto you that fear my name, shall the ^aSon of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth and ^bgrow up as ^ccalves in the stall. "Fearing" His name seems to be an appropriate contrast to feeling "all is well in Zion". Isn't there plenty to "fear" in verse 1 if you don't "fear" those things will happen? Notice that Jesus comes with "healing in his wings"...what will we have to go through that will require healing? In the most obvious way...just being here in this telestial world puts us in a condition to need healing; but I would assume that the tribulations may be traumatic both emotionally and physically, where we would need healing from those injuries as well... The promise we shall grow up as calves, makes it sound like our lives will continue in the millennium that will make us feel like we are comparatively as young as a calf?
  3 And ye shall ^atread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of Hosts. This sounds pre-millennial since there will be no wicked during that time...Good to know HE does it
  4 Remember ye the law of Moses, my servant, which I commanded unto him in ^aHoreb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.
  5 Behold, I will send you ^aElijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful ^bday of the Lord; done when Elijah came to the Kirtland temple to restore the sealing keys so we could bind our ancestors to us. 
  6 And he shall ^aturn the heart of the ^bfathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and ^csmite the earth with a curse. And how are hearts of the fathers turned to their children? I get that the children turn their hearts to their fathers by doing their temple work? But how are the hearts of the fathers turned to the children? And is the order important? I had the thought that the reason for the turning could have something to do with the covenants made to the fathers that are saving to the children, who are brought to a knowledge of God and the covenants. Then those children do the saving work for the fathers and/or are filled with love and gratitude for the love they had for them centuries before.  D&C 98: 17 And again, the hearts of the Jews unto the prophets, and the prophets unto the Jews; lest I come and smite the whole earth with a curse, and all flesh be consumed before me. Does this give us insight to what this means? What is the curse? D&C 128:18 I might have rendered a plainer translation to this, but it is sufficiently plain to suit my purpose as it stands. It is sufficient to know, in this case, that the earth will be smitten with a curse unless there is a welding link of some kind or other between the fathers and the children, upon some subject or other—and behold what is that subject? It is the baptism for the dead. For we without them cannot be made perfect; neither can they without us be made perfect. Neither can they nor we be made perfect without those who have died in the gospel also; for it is necessary in the ushering in of the dispensation of the fulness of times, which dispensation is now beginning to usher in, that a whole and complete and perfect union, and welding together of dispensations, and keys, and powers, and glories should take place, and be revealed from the days of Adam even to the present time. And not only this, but those things which never have been revealed from the foundation of the world, but have been kept hid from the wise and prudent, shall be revealed unto babes and sucklings in this, the dispensation of the fulness of times. There is much to ponder in these verses...