The following talk was given in Sandy, Utah on December 16, 2023.

Foolishness is often displayed in religious matters. I cringe when it shows up among those who have accepted the Lord’s 2017 covenant. In moments of sober reflection I realize it cannot be prevented. It astonishes me that the Lord intends to fulfill His covenants, vindicate His promises, and meet every prophecy of His prophets. It perplexes me how that can happen in this ignorant generation. Nevertheless, somehow God has decreed that it will be so. 

One particularly foolish religious practice involves dogmatic claims to understand just how prophecy will be fulfilled. We can’t do that because God has taken precautions to prevent it. As Isaiah reported: “Have you not known, have you not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth faints not, neither is weary? There is no searching of his understanding.” Isa. 14:5. How God chooses to vindicate His prophecies is entirely in His own unsearchable mind. He intends for it to remain hidden, until at last He accomplishes it. When it is underway, we must consider and ask whether THIS (whatever “this” is) meets the promises God gave beforehand. No matter how it may vary from our predictions, when God’s purposes are underway they will look only how God planned them to look. 

God told Isaiah (referring to His people, Israel):
“Because I knew that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew, and your brow brass, I have, even from the beginning, declared it to you; before it came to pass, I showed it to you, lest you should say, My idol has done them, and my engraved image and my molten image has commanded them. You have heard, see all this; and will not you declare it? I have shown you new things from this time, even hidden things, and you did not know them. They are created now, and not from the beginning, even before the day when you heard them not, lest you should say, Behold, I knew them. Yea, you heard not, yea, you knew not; yea, from that time that your ear was not opened. For I knew that you would deal very treacherously and were called a transgressor from the womb. For my name’s sake will I defer my anger, and for my praise will I refrain for you, that I cut you not off. Behold, I have refined you, but not with silver; I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake — even for my own sake — will I do it[.]” Isa. 17:1. 

He shows it beforehand, but to us it still remains “hidden” and we “know not” because our “ear was not opened.” We assume, we presume, we conjecture and we impose our own vanity and foolishness thinking that we can search out God’s plans, even when He has said, “There is no searching of his understanding.” 

When Jesus Christ was here fulfilling all the prophecies of His coming to His people, there was a learned Pharisee and member of the Sanhedrin whose interest in Christ was aroused. However, Nicodemus did not recognize Christ as the Messiah, but instead thought Him just a provocative teacher worth quizzing. Christ reminded Nicodemus that everything He had done, was doing, and would yet accomplish, had been foretold by the prophets. Christ explained it this way: 

“Every thing about my assignment, which I am now performing, was foretold by the prophets sent earlier to teach Israel, for they all testified of me. They told you I would come, and I am now here doing what was prophesied, but you refuse to see it happening. Enough is underway that rejecting it means you prefer darkness to light. Humble yourself and admit the prophets foretold the very things now underway; repent and be baptized and the Spirit of Truth will open your eyes. If you want greater light, you will obey this instruction.” T&C 171: TSJ 2:4. 

Nicodemus knew the prophecies, and he thought he understood them. However, he could not understand how it was possible for God to accomplish all those promises in a way that had never entered into his mind or heart. 

To illustrate this subject, I only intend to use three examples. The first example is a prophecy set out in an allegory likening Israel to an olive tree. After foretelling much of Israel’s history, it covers future events. Concerning events just before the Lord’s return it reveals this:

And now behold, notwithstanding all the care which we have taken of my vineyard, the trees thereof have become corrupted, that they bring forth no good fruit.¹ And these I had hoped to preserve, to have laid up fruit thereof against the season unto mine own self. But behold, they have become like unto the wild olive tree, and they are of no worth but to be hewn down and cast into the fire; and it grieveth me that I should lose them. But what could I have done more in my vineyard? Have I slackened mine hand, that I have not nourished it? Nay, I have nourished it, and I have digged about it, and I have pruned it, and I have dunged it, and I have stretched forth mine hand almost all the day long, and the end draweth nigh. And it grieveth me that I should hew down all the trees of my vineyard and cast them into the fire that they should be burned. Who² is it that has corrupted my vineyard? 

And it came to pass that the servant said unto his master, Is it not the loftiness of thy vineyard?³ Hath not the branches thereof overcome the roots which are good? And because the branches have overcome the roots thereof — behold, they grew faster than the strength of the roots, taking strength unto themselves⁴ — behold, I say, is not this the cause that the trees of thy vineyard have become corrupted? 

And it came to pass that the Lord of the vineyard said unto the servant, Let us go to, and hew down the trees of the vineyard, and cast them into the fire, that they shall not cumber the ground of my vineyard, for I have done all. What could I have done more for my vineyard? But behold, the servant said unto the Lord of the vineyard, Spare it a little longer. And the Lord said, Yea, I will spare it a little longer, for it grieveth me that I should lose the trees of my vineyard. Wherefore, let us take of the branches of these which I have planted in the nithermost parts of my vineyard, and let us graft them into the tree from whence they came.⁵ And let us pluck from the tree those branches whose fruit is most bitter, and graft in the natural branches of the tree in the stead thereof. And this will I do that the tree may not perish, that perhaps I may preserve unto myself the roots thereof for mine own purpose. And behold, the roots of the natural branches of the tree which I planted whithersoever I would are yet alive. Wherefore, that I may preserve them also for mine own purpose, I will take of the branches of this tree, and I will graft them in unto them. Yea, I will graft in unto them the branches of their mother tree, that I may preserve the roots also unto mine own self, that when they shall be sufficiently strong,⁶ perhaps they may bring forth good fruit unto me, and I may yet have glory in the fruit of my vineyard. 

And it came to pass that they took from the natural tree which had become wild, and grafted in unto the natural trees which also had become wild. And they also took of the natural trees which had become wild and grafted into their mother tree.⁷ And the Lord of the vineyard saith unto the servant, Pluck not the wild branches from the trees, save it be those which are most bitter; and in them, ye shall graft according to that which I have said. And we will nourish again the trees of the vineyard, and we will trim up⁸ the branches thereof, and we will pluck from the trees those branches which are ripened that must perish and cast them into the fire. And this I do that perhaps the roots thereof may take strength because of their goodness, and because of the change of the branches, that the good may overcome the evil. And because that I have preserved the natural branches and the roots thereof, and that I have grafted in the natural branches again into their mother tree, and have preserved the roots of their mother tree, that perhaps the trees of my vineyard may bring forth again good fruit, and that I may have joy again in the fruit of my vineyard, and perhaps that I may rejoice exceedingly that I have preserved the roots and the branches of the first fruit, wherefore, go to, and call servants, that we may labor diligently with our mights in the vineyard, that we may prepare the way, that I may bring forth again the natural fruit, which natural fruit is good, and the most precious above all other fruit. 

Wherefore, let us go to and labor with our mights this last time; for behold, the end draweth nigh, and this is for the last time that I shall prune my vineyard. Graft in the branches. Begin at the last, that they may be first and that the first may be last; and dig about the trees, both old and young, the first and the last, and the last and the first, that all may be nourished once again for the last time. Wherefore, dig about them, and prune them, and dung them once more for the last time, for the end draweth nigh. And if it so be that these last grafts shall grow and bring forth the natural fruit, then shall ye prepare the way for them that they may grow. And as they begin to grow, ye shall clear away⁹ the branches which bring forth bitter fruit, according to the strength of the good and the size thereof. And ye shall not clear away the bad thereof all at once, lest the roots thereof should be too strong for the graft and the graft thereof shall perish, and I lose the trees of my vineyard; for it grieveth me that I should lose the trees of my vineyard. Wherefore, ye shall clear away the bad according as the good shall grow, that the root and the top may be equal