The Restoration Continues: Let Us Continue in It

The Restoration Continues: Let Us Continue in It

Anthony Sweat

August 2026

Introduction of Anthony Sweat

Anthony Sweat is a professor of Church history and doctrine at Brigham Young University, an accomplished author, artist, and educator. His ability to combine careful scholarship with a deep and personal testimony has blessed audiences throughout the Church and helped many better understand the beauty and power of the Restoration.

Tonight, he will remind us that the Restoration was never intended to be merely an historic event. It is a living work that continues today.

Please welcome Anthony Sweat.

The Restoration Continues: Let Us Continue in It

Anthony Sweat:

Thank you. What a wonderful blessing to be with you. So grateful to be a BYU religion professor who leads the Brethren and you astray on Book of Mormon geography. (Laughter)

I’m really thankful to be invited to speak. I know many of you. I want to express my appreciation to each of you for all the great work you do. For those of you that I don’t know, I hope I can get to know you.

I hope that what I can share can benefit and bless you each in some way, and that the Spirit of God will be with me as I share what I think are some of the most important truths in the Restoration.

You can see the title here. It’s called “The Restoration Continues: Let Us Continue in It.”

Back to Basics: What Is the Restoration?

One of the reasons why I want to pick this subject is because the FAIR theme is “Back to Basics.” I can’t think of anything more getting back to basics than “What is the Restoration?”

And what I’d invite you to do is, as I teach and speak, I hope the Spirit can inspire you in your respective roles of how you can use some of the truths that I hope I can articulate clearly and powerfully, as you give faithful answers and informed responses in your respective work that each of you do. And most importantly in your lives, in your homes, with your family members, your loved ones, as you’re sharing the restored gospel of Jesus Christ with them.

What Is the Restoration of All Things?

The basic question I want to look at is this question: What is the Restoration of all things?

I think sometimes we say that phrase a little too lightly and a little too much like, “Oh yeah, well, it’s when the Church was restored in 1830,” when it’s so much bigger than that.

And that’s what I want to try to explain today.

“The Restoration Continues”

At BYU, I end every class with a phrase, a little call and answer to my students. I say, “The Restoration continues,” and then I have them all say back in unison, “Let us continue in it.”

There is no greater hope in my life than to help people to continue in faith in the restored gospel. I love it with my whole soul.

It’s just part of me. It’s just who I am. I’m a seventh-generation Latter-day Saint. Not that that matters, but it’s just in my bones. It’s in my DNA.

I like to joke that when the doctor held me up, he didn’t say, “It’s a boy.” He just held it up and said, “It’s a Mormon,” you know, because that’s how I feel.

I love the Church. I love what it’s done for me and to me and what I’ve seen it do for others. And I want us to continue in it.

But what does it mean that the Restoration continues?

Looking Forward Rather Than Backward

When you hear this phrase, “the Restoration,” what comes to your mind?

If I stand up and say, “I’m going to speak to you about the Restoration,” inherently, what pops into your mind? What sort of a mental image?

You don’t need to say it out loud, but rhetorically, for most people, the picture on the left is what pops into their mind. If I said, “I’m excited to talk to you about the Restoration,” we think we’re going to go to the past.

And I hope that in the next half hour or so, when I’m done speaking, when I say, “Let’s talk about the Restoration,” that you think of Jesus and the future, because the Restoration of all things points us forward in Christ, not in the past.

The “Ongoing Restoration” in General Conference

“The ongoing Restoration”—this phrase or something equivalent to it has been said in general conference 25 times.

Now, that’s not a ton except for when you look at this stat: Every one of them has been since 2016.

So, when we’re saying things like “the Restoration continues” or “there’s an ongoing Restoration,” this is a relatively new teaching that we’re at least articulating.

I think it’s always been embedded in our scripture and in our doctrine, but it’s not something that we have articulated very well except for within the last 10 years as a whole.

Here’s just some of them: Elder Rasband, President Nelson, Elder Gong. These are the way these phrases are being said in general conference recently.

“You’re Just Seeing the Beginning”

Probably most famously is in 2018 when President Nelson gave his great comment:

“We’re witnesses to a process of restoration. If you think the Church has been fully restored, you’re just seeing the beginning. There is much more to come.”

And that’s when he said, “Eat your vitamins. Get some rest. It’s going to be exciting.”

And it is.

The Restoration Proclamation

And then in 2020, the prophets released the Restoration Proclamation. And you can see here that I’ve highlighted some parts of it.

This Restoration was initiated in the past with the beloved founding prophet Joseph Smith. But this promised Restoration goes forward until one day Jesus is going to gather all things in one.

That’s what we’re looking forward to as a whole.

The Restoration of the Church and the Restoration of All Things

So up front, I want to express that there, in my words, is a difference between the Restoration of the Church and the Restoration of all things spoken by the mouth of all the holy prophets, or what we might term the Restoration of the kingdom.

I don’t think those two things are the same. I don’t think they’re synonymous.

The Restoration of the Church is a central part of a broader work to restore the kingdom, but they’re not one and the same.

Joseph Smith and the Future Restoration of All Things

Here’s some ways showing that Joseph thought this way as well.

In August 1830, when the Church was only a few months old, he writes a letter to the Colesville Saints:

“For the day is fast hastening on, when the restoration of all things shall be fulfilled, which all the holy prophets have prophesied, even unto the gathering of the house of Israel. Then shall come to pass that the lion shall lie down with the lamb,” etc.

The Priesthood and the Restoration of All Things

Or in an 1832 revelation he received that is now canonized in section 86 that I’m going to spend a little bit of time trying to articulate a little bit, he spoke—the Lord spoke to him, anyway—about the priesthood needing to continue until the Restoration of all things, pointing again to the future.

The Restoration After the Martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum

After Joseph and Hyrum were martyred, leaders of the Church, a few apostles along with W. W. Phelps, wrote a letter to the Saints abroad, and they wrote this:

“The servants of God who have passed the veil of death,” speaking of Joseph and Hyrum, “are prepared to enter upon a greater and more effectual work in the speedy accomplishment of the restoration of all things spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets.”

And then they said:

“Not many years hence we shall see the kingdom of God coming with power and great glory to our deliverance.”

The Great Restoration of All Things

With John Taylor as the editor of the Times and Seasons, they wrote at great length:

“The full time had arrived for the great restoration of all things to commence.”

They were setting this up of, one, the Father and the Son and Moroni and the Book of Mormon and everything.

“May it roll on till we have a new heaven and a new earth, and all things will pass away and all things are made new.”

Restoration as a Return to an Intended Condition

Sometimes when you and I speak about the Restoration, we speak of it as though we’re returning to something former or old.

I don’t like that definition quite as much as I like that part of it: to return something to an unimpaired—or to put something into a perfected condition—is a broader sense of restoration as a whole.

I want us to think of the Restoration as putting something in its intended condition. The Lord is trying to make this world at one, or whole. Complete, as it’s supposed to be.

That’s His work. That’s the work that God’s doing.

Atonement: Bringing Things into Harmony

Sometimes we call this the Atonement, or the at-one-ment, as you’ve heard it broken down. The root word of atonement means to reconcile or to put something into harmony.

Romans 5:10–11 is likely the first time this word was used by William Tyndale when he translated it in this verse:

“We also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.”

It’s a new word that Tyndale made up, which I think is just wonderful.

It means, at the root of it, to take something out of harmony and to bring it back, or to put it in its proper, its balance, its right, its intended state. To make something whole as it ought to be.

Personal Redemption Through Jesus Christ

Now, that’s the good news of the gospel. You and I know this very well personally.

We know that you and I are fallen. You and I are not perfectly in harmony. You and I need redemption. We need at-one-ment with God through our Lord, which He provides.

But we have to understand that Atonement operates on a global scale, with not just individuals but with families and with the earth and with God’s kingdom as a whole. It expands to the entire world.

The Far-Reaching Effects of the Fall

The effects of the Fall of Adam and Eve. Sometimes we talk about the Fall as bringing sin and death. But the Fall also brought ignorance and unfairness and deception and injustice and oppression and war and violence and pain and suffering and family fracture and all the like.

It all came in a fallen world. That’s the world you and I are operating in.

And I testify that Jesus Christ will overcome all of that.

For every one of us and for the world as a whole. He will conquer all the effects of the Fall of Adam and Eve, including these things.

His atoning grace can restore not just the sinner to the standing of a saint, but one day will literally make at one a world that is currently undone.

The Restoration of All Things Through the Atonement of Jesus Christ

And maybe in a visual right here, the way I would summarize the Restoration of all things is when, through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, all the effects of the Fall of Adam and Eve are rectified and made right.

It is when the earth and its people reach their intended state or their intended condition.

And we can think of it like in this visual, that we have a celestial world that we came from, in a terrestrial garden state, to a telestial fall. There will be a redemption to a terrestrial state.

Our Article of Faith is, “Earth will receive its paradisiacal glory.”

The Earth’s Intended Celestial Condition

But then, at the end of the Millennium, it will receive its intended condition of being a celestial kingdom or a celestial earth.

Then, by the way, the kingdom will be established as a whole.

Again, John Taylor and Joseph Smith, his editor, wrote:

“The Lord has in his wise designs revealed unto us his will. He has made known unto us his future purposes. He has told us, as he did his ancient prophets, that the earth shall be redeemed–that the curse shall be removed from it.”

And he quotes those same similar verses, that He shall again live 1,000 years on the earth.

This is the time of the Restoration of all things. And this has got to be brought about by wisdom and the power of God and the wisdom, obedience, and faith of man combined.

How Do We Participate in the Ongoing Restoration?

So that raises a question. If we understand this broader work of Restoration, how do you and I participate in the ongoing Restoration?

I personally believe that when the Lord prayed, He was offering a prayer of Restoration:

“Thy kingdom come.”

And then look at this line as a key:

“Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

That gives you and I a signal for what the Restoration of all things is and how the kingdom gets established.

The kingdom is established to the degree that God’s will is perfectly done on earth like it is in heaven.

That’s an exciting concept that opens you and I up to be active participants in an ongoing Restoration, not just something that was said and done in the past in the 1800s.

God Is at Work Globally

In the world, and by the way, I believe God is at work globally among all of His children.

In the world, there’s 8 billion people. There’s roughly 18 million Latter-day Saints. I’m no mathematician, but run the numbers in your mind. That means that roughly 99.9% of the world is not Latter-day Saint.

Okay, 99.9!

Someone might run the math and be like, “Actually, it’s 99.87.” Good on you. That’s why I became a religion professor.

• There’s roughly 4,300 religious faiths.
• There’s 195 countries recognized by the United Nations.
• There’s roughly 130 million books.
• There’s about a dozen of them for sale on the back up here. I hope you buy some afterward and support FAIR.
• There’s roughly 25,000 universities.

God is at work among all these places and all these people and all these institutions with the honest and the wise and the good and those who are seeking to follow Him.

He’s not just doing it at one university down south in Provo, named Utah Valley University (laughter). I’m just kidding.

He’s doing it through a lot.

“We Believe in All Good”

If you don’t believe me, believe Brigham Young:

“I want to say to my friends that we believe in all good. If you can find a truth in heaven, earth or hell, it belongs to our doctrine.”

I like that Brigham says if you can find it in hell, we believe it. It is ours. We claim it.

Any truth, by the way, we claim.

Truth Does Not Have to Originate with Us

It doesn’t even have to be found and invented or originating with us.

I hate to break it to you. We did not invent Good Friday.

And yet, how many of you suddenly are practicing Good Friday?

I hate to break it to you, but “This Little Light of Mine, I’m Going to Let It Shine,” “Amazing Grace,” and recently, by the way, did you see that they added just recently “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” to our hymnal?

We didn’t write any of those.

God inspired great people of different faiths to put that together. And we have adopted and adapted them in the Restoration. We’ve embraced them. We’ve claimed them.

Truth Belongs to Mormonism, No Matter Who Has It

“‘Mormonism,’ so-called, embraces every principle pertaining to life and salvation for time and eternity. No matter who has it. If the infidel has got truth, it belongs to ‘Mormonism’.

“The truth and sound doctrine possessed by the sectarian world—[we would call those other religious faiths] and they have a great deal, all belong to this Church.”

The Church Does Not Claim a Monopoly on Goodness and Truth

This is, by the way, recently from a Church Gospel Topics entry:

“The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints does not claim a monopoly on goodness and truth. True and wholesome principles can be found in various religions and ethical systems throughout the world. We believe God inspires good people of all faiths and all beliefs.”

“God is working amongst all of His children. God uses global people, global organizations, faiths, institutions, and nations to help bring about His restoration of all things, to help God’s will be established on this earth like it’s established in heaven.”

“It is not us against them.”

Working in Harmony with Our Brothers and Sisters

As we mature to a new place and phase of the restored Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we need to have this understanding to work in harmony globally with our brothers and sisters.

It’s a battle against unrighteousness and wickedness and evil. And that takes various forms, as Scott has well articulated.

But I hope that we can see that we’re trying to work together with many people in truth.

This earth will never again be the same. God is going to gather in one all things in Christ.

A Visual Representation of God’s Perfect Truth

Maybe as a visual for you who are more visual learners like I am, take a look at that center.

And, by the way, I want to emphasize this is not proportional of the percentage. Okay? You work out the percentage in your own mind.

If you look at the middle circle there, I believe that represents God’s perfect truth.

His perfect will, His perfect truth. That would be His kingdom, so to speak.

Unique Truth in the Restored Church

Then, if you see our Church in the Venn diagram, then the world—that would just be every other organization and faith—I believe that our Church has unique truth that, you can look at the Venn diagram, that is perfectly in harmony with God’s will that is not possessed by anybody else.

I also believe that our Church has areas we need to improve and live up to the standards that God has revealed and given, and do better and be better.

Otherwise, by the way, we wouldn’t have a prophet of God who calls upon us to make correctives, like rooting out racism or using the name of the Church properly.

There’s things that the prophets—and, by the way, I want to emphasize it’s the prophets who lead this ship—that they guide and direct us where we might be erring collectively as a people.

Truth Found Outside the Church

I also believe that the world has truth that is perfectly in harmony with God, that we don’t have, and that we can adopt and adapt in the ongoing Restoration.

I also believe that the world has things that are not true that we should not embrace. And I believe that we share a lot of things in common in the middle of the Venn diagram.

What is the Restoration of all things as God works with His Church, His authorized Church led by His prophets and His people, but as God works with all of His children globally?

What’s going to happen?

That’s going to happen.

And when that happens, His kingdom will be established.

That’s when God’s will is perfectly done on earth and in heaven.

Jesus Christ’s Ongoing Work

This is Jesus Christ’s ongoing work as a whole.

Now, anytime I teach this, and some of you right now might be getting a little uncomfortable because then we want to say, “Well, then what are we doing?”

Well, we’re doing a lot in the restored Church of Jesus Christ.

The Only True and Living Church

In the same Gospel Topics entry, we know that the Lord Himself, by the way, in Doctrine and Covenants 1 called this “the only true and living church.”

It’s another discussion for another day, but I recommend you read that Gospel Topics entry on this.

This is what they said so that we understand our role in it:

“The restored gospel found in the Lord’s Church provides knowledge and truth that isn’t found anywhere else.”

President Oaks on Three Unique Aspects of the Church

Just recently in June, President Oaks gave a seminar to new mission leaders, and he articulated three aspects of the Church being the only true and living Church that are unique.

1. He said: “We have the fulness of His doctrine, including the purpose of mortal life.”

And, by the way, he went on to explain and talk about the central role of the family in that. And I’ll touch on that myself momentarily.

1. “We have priesthood authority.”

That priesthood is in this restored Church and no other. President Oaks said. These are the keys to bind on earth and in heaven, to seal up the human family, to gather Israel, and to make authorized covenants with God, the new covenant.”

1. We have the testimony of Christ that broadens and enlarges His glorious work.

And you can read his full remarks, by the way, at least that they reported in the Church News on the 20th of June.

Modern Scripture in Preparation for the Second Coming

In my own words, I would say this. What are we doing uniquely?

1. We have modern scripture to guide God’s Church and kingdom in preparation for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.
2. I would include in that specifically the revelations of:
   1. The marvelous Book of Mormon that has no parallel in its role to gather Israel in these latter days.
   2. The Doctrine and Covenants that I get to teach and testify from on nearly a daily basis.
   3. And also the beauties of the Pearl of Great Price.
3. We do have, as President Oaks mentioned, an expanded perspective of the purpose of life that includes the plan of exaltation, the premortal, mortal, and postmortal perspective of identity and purpose.
4. We have these priesthood keys and authority to administer the eternal covenants of salvation and exaltation.
5. And we have, related to that, the authority to do the work for the dead and to bind up and seal up the whole human family to God.

A Broader Perspective of the Restoration of All Things

Now, if you’ll permit me, I want to do a little timeout because if we understand this broader work of Restoration, we start to see the Restoration of all things through different lenses.

If I can touch on this broader Restoration of all things, including the restoration of God’s family through sealing, I hope I can do that with you.

The Wheat and the Tares as a Dispensational Framework

I want to do this because section 86 gives a curious interpretation of the parable of the wheat and the tares. I love it.

He’s not talking about, in this section, wheat and tares as us as individuals. He uses it in a dispensation framework.

He says the wheat and the tares is dispensational. And God established His Church. There were tares that were sown. Apostasy entered in. Men slept. The apostles were killed. And then there was falsehood.

And now the blade is springing up, and the Church has begun to come back.

Here’s what’s interesting; here’s His application:

“Therefore …the priesthood have remained, and must needs remain through you and your lineage until the restoration of all things spoken of by the mouth of all the holy prophets.”

He just linked the wheat and the tares to the Restoration of all things.

He just linked the wheat and the tares to priesthood lineage that needs to go through you and your family to bring about the Restoration of all things spoken by the mouth of all the holy prophets.

This is a big concept.

What’s he seem to be saying?

Well, he seems to be saying this. If I told you to picture the plan of salvation, picture it in your mind right now. Draw those circles and make those squigglies and do your three kingdoms.

Well, that’s not the first picture of the plan of salvation that was ever drawn. Many of you know this.

The First Diagram of the Kingdom of God

The first diagram of the kingdom of God that was ever drawn was by Orson Pratt, and that’s how he drew it. He’s trying to draw a lineage.

That top is a crown representing God.

And he’s trying to show kings and priests who are sealed up, and queens and priestesses, who are sealed up and connected to God, and that someone is connected to and through them, and someone else to and through them.

If he would have filled out this whole chart, it would go on ad infinitum. All these lines connecting in.

Wilford Woodruff’s Image of Hearts Connected Together

That’s not how Wilford Woodruff drew it.

I like how Wilford Woodruff drew it. He drew this in his journal the day he and Phoebe received their sealings.

You can see at the top he quotes Malachi:

“Turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the children of the fathers.”

He draws these priesthood keys: 12 hearts with a 13th larger heart, all connected into one grand heart.

It’s not hard to interpret that. Trying to show that they just got connected into this network through sealing, through priesthood.

Sealing as a Network of Connections

Or you and I might think of it more like this.

We all want to be part of good networks because good networks facilitate the flow of power and of resources, and they make things like opportunities available to people.

You and I, most of the things that we get to do in this life are not of our own doing because we were put in fortunate situations and we had some connection somewhere that opened up some doors of opportunity.

If this doesn’t speak to you, maybe this gives you a headache. This is a flight map. I think it was Delta’s.

One of the only reasons why you and I are able to fly over the whole world is because there’s connections that connect major international and national and regional airports that have opened up the world to you and I.

We’ve got to create these connections, these links.

Joseph Smith’s “Great Welding Link”

I hope you’re following in your mind where this is going. If you’re not, Joseph spoke of links all the time.

At the end of his life, Joseph repeatedly spoke about Elijah, what he called the great “welding link” or the “chain of the priesthood,” connecting the living, the dead, and the righteous Saints of the past:

“Herein is the chain that binds the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the children of the fathers, which is the mission of Elijah. And I would to God that this temple was now done that we might go into it and go to work and improve our time and make use of the seals while they’re on earth.”

Welding God’s Family into One Chain

Joseph F. Smith said:

“There’s got to be a welding and a joining together of parents and children and children of parents till the whole chain of God’s family shall be welded together into one chain, and they shall become the family of God and of His Christ.”

Joseph again:

“The earth will be smitten with a curse unless there’s a welding link of some kind between the fathers and the children,” a whole and a complete and a perfect union.

This is why Elijah was sent, as Joseph said another time, to rescue us.

It’s Elijah that is bringing about the Restoration of all things through his keys, specifically Elias and Elijah, through the temple.

Connecting the Priesthood Again

May 1844:

“Therefore, those who are baptized for their dead are Saviors on Mount Zion, and they must receive their washings and anointings for their dead and for their dead the same as for themselves till they are connected to the ones in the dispensation before us and trace their lineage to connect the priesthood again.”

What’s another phrase that we could say?

Instead of saying “to connect the priesthood again,” we could say “to restore the priesthood again.”

Sealed Through, Not Merely Sealed To

You and I, when we talk about sealings, we’re so caught up on location that we’re forgetting the broader purpose of sealing children to parents.

We’re trying to create this network of lineage and ancestry to connect the priesthood.

It’s not about living arrangements in heaven. We’re not all going to be hanging out in our grandparents’ basement apartment.

You all picture your eternal families right now. And where are your children?

Well, they’re going to be with their spouses. And who are their children going to be with?

Their spouses.

And if any of us have this vision of our children—and all the women in here are like, “No, I want my children in my basement where we need them”—and they need to go on and grow up and have a fulness just like you.

We need to think less about being sealed to and more about being sealed through. Not just about living with, but working with.

A Network of Eternal Ministry

Sealing is creating a network of eternal ministry to reach and teach all of God’s children on both sides of the veil, to bring them to the feet of their Redeemer so that they can choose Him when all the factors of mortality are conquered by our Savior.

That’s what sealing is doing.

That’s why it’s the rescue, the whole.

Brigham Young taught:

“By this power,” speaking of priesthood sealing, “men will be sealed to men back to Adam, completing and making perfect the priesthood from this day to the winding up scene.”

Sealing is this divine rescue.

The Covenant Is for the Sake of the Whole World

That’s why the covenant has been “renewed and confirmed upon you, which is confirmed upon you for your sakes, and not for your sakes only, but for the sake of the whole world.”

As covenant Israel, we have an obligation to help restore all of God’s children, as before, to their first estate.

Remember, every one of God’s children on this earth, every one of them picked and chose to follow our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

And every one of them will be brought back to His feet to choose Him again if they desire.

The Book of Mormon and the Restoration of Covenant Israel

This is Mormon chapter nine:

“Behold, these things which have been desired concerning our brethren, yea, even their restoration, the knowledge of Christ, are according to the prayers of all the saints who have dwelt in the land.”

And, by the way, the Book of Mormon is doing this in a microcosm with the family of Lehi, in a macro for all of God’s children.

The whole story of the Book of Mormon is people being in covenant Israel, some dwindling and drifting, and God preparing a means to bring them back to the covenant through the work of Jesus Christ. Again, if they choose it through their agency.

“And may the Lord Jesus Christ grant that their prayers may be answered according to their faith. And may God the Father remember the covenant which he made with the house of Israel. And may he bless them forever through faith on the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.”

Gathering Together in One All Things in Christ

That’s why Elder Bednar taught:

“The Savior’s restored Church is being established throughout the world and is the instrument by which God will gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in Him.”

I hope we see why the temple and temple work and the gathering of Israel on both sides of the veil, and binding and sealing them up through the keys that have been restored, are so central to this.

The Patchwork-Blanket Metaphor

My colleague Mike MacCay likes to use the example of a patchwork blanket, and I think it’s a wonderful visual metaphor.

And he said there’s lots of different things out there, and what sealing is doing and what the keys of the priesthood are doing are acting as a thread to bind this patchwork blanket together.

In his own words:

“It’s a patchwork blanket. The beauty is that it includes all of them. The role of Latter-day Saints is to sew them together.”

Ordinances and the Restoration of All Things

AT&T knows what they’re talking about. That’s their current marketing campaign. [Connecting Changes Everything].

And I’m such a temple nerd that when I see that during basketball games, I’m like, “Little do they know. Little do they know.”

That’s why Joseph taught:

“All the ordinances will bring about the restoration spoken by the mouth of all the holy prophets.”

This is the whole and the complete and the perfect union and the welding together of all dispensations.

The Restitution of All Things and the Second Coming

When will that happen?

As I conclude, let’s not read Peter out of context:

“Repent . . . and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;

“And he’ll send Jesus Christ that was before preached unto you,

“Whom the heavens must receive until the times of the restitution of all things.”

He’s speaking about the Second Coming in context of this sermon as a whole.

From a Telestial World to the Kingdom of God

Maybe give another visual.

God is at work now in our telestial glory. Our Lord will come again, and we’re trying to prepare for that coming.

And when He comes, He is going to rule and reign on this earth. But it will take a thousand years, whether literal or metaphorical, for God to subdue all enemies and put them under His feet and establish the kingdom, no more forever to be taken down, and to overcome all the effects of the Fall and to bring everybody into a oneness who desires through His Son.

Then there will be a final triumph over evil, and there will be what I like to call the “crowning coming.”

The Crowning Coming

The crowning coming is when this earth is made into the kingdom of God, the celestial kingdom, and God the Father crowns it with His presence as His kingdom.

That’s why N. T. Wright, the great Bible scholar, said:

“The world is out of joint and God’s judgment will perform a great act of new creation through which it will be restored to the way God always intended it to be.”

And Wright understands this inherently.

So do our prophets. They know exactly what they’re talking about.

Look Forward to Christ’s Greatest Works

As I conclude, what are some implications then?

1. For all of us, let’s look forward to Jesus performing some of His greatest and mightiest works.

The great and exciting stuff is yet to come in the Restoration of all things.

Do Not Be Afraid of Growth and Change

1. We need not to be afraid of growth and change.

All of us are like, “We’re not afraid. We’re a little tired of it recently.”

Correctives and collective repentance as we learn to live up to what the Lord needs His people to do and be as we follow His prophets.

Work Hard, but Be Patient

1. Let’s work hard, but let’s also tell people to be patient.

Sometimes when I work with students who are struggling with aspects of the Restoration or the faith or the Church or the people or the practices or whatever it is, sometimes I’ll say to them, “What you’re wanting right now is the end of the Millennium.”

You’re wanting everything to be made known, everything to be corrected, everything to be understood, everything to be made right currently.

And that’s not where we’re at right now. We’re working toward that.

But let’s be patient.

And I know some of us might say, like, “Well, it’s sure taking a long time.”

Remember, a thousand years to us is what to God? One day.

This Restoration of the Church is a few hours old right now.

“Soon” Is Relative

And time is relative.

He will come soon, but soon is relative.

Just ask any parent at Christmastime. The moment Thanksgiving is over and you look at the calendar, you’re like, “Oh man, it is already Christmas. It is already here. We have so much to do. We have so little time. We’ve only got one month.”

And if you say to your six-year-old kid, “We got one month till Christmas,” how long is that to him or her?

That might as well be forever.

God is working, and He’s working speedily and hastily, and His coming is soon.

But let’s be patient.

Collaborate with Other Faiths and Organizations

1. Let’s openly collaborate with, learn from, adopt, and adapt with other faiths and other organizations for good.

Creation, Fall, Atonement, and Restoration

1. Let’s just remember the Creation, Fall, and Atonement are the three pillars for us personally, familially, and globally.

Restoration will come to all.

Let’s have faith and hope and charity in that, and let’s go forward in so great a cause.

“The Restoration Continues”

So, brothers and sisters, I testify this is Jesus’s work.

I’m grateful to be a part of it with you.

I’m grateful to try to serve Him in this ongoing Restoration.

I know it will happen. It is happening.

And I know that He will perform this great act of the Restoration of all things that was initiated by His great work with His mighty servant in the last days, Joseph Smith, and that is centrally carried forward through His living prophets today.

I leave that with you humbly in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Will you do my call and answer with me?

Anthony Sweat: The Restoration continues.

Audience: Let us continue in it.

Oh, you guys, I’d give you like a C on that one. Come on. Where’s your oomph?

Anthony Sweat: The Restoration continues.

Audience: Let us continue in it!

All right. Thank you. God bless you.