General Conference
Fifth Day, Sunday Morning, Oct. 11.
Elder Orson Pratt spoke upon the 9th to 14th verses of the 7th chapter of Daniel, also St. John’s Revelation, 20th chapter.
All Bible believers were looking forward to the time when mankind would appear before God for judgment, and it would appear that the deeds of the human family are recorded and kept in books, but how many, and in what way these records were kept behind the veil was not known. We read in the Book of Mormon, which was just as sacred as the Bible, that Jesus said, about eighteen hundred years ago, that the father kept an account of all the deeds of the children of men. One saying declared that the Saints should judge the world. Another said that the twelve apostles should judge the tribes of Israel. Another quorum was also spoken of it in the Book of Mormon, as acting as judges, so it appeared there was quite a number of quorums selected to sit as judges under the inspiration of the Almighty, when the final judgment took place, and which must be done in equity and righteousness.
In another passage we were told that there were certain angels who would have judgment passed upon them by the saints of God. Every thought, word or deed would be subjected to judgment, and judges appointed for different ages of the world, so that judgment might be passed in a reasonably short space of time.
He then referred to a time of judgment prior to the resurrection where the wicked would be cast out into outer darkness, and the righteous would go into Paradise. Those angels who kept not their first estate, who fell from the presence of the Almighty, were reserved until the final judgment of the great day, when the Saints, endowed with the authority of the Holy Priesthood, would sit in judgment upon them, and assign to them their final doom.
He then spoke of the Ancient of Days before whose presence stood ten thousand times ten thousand, making one hundred million. He would come as a great judge in flaming fire, to set in order the entire range of the priesthood, from the earliest to the latest period of time. This ancient personage was no other, according to the great modern Prophet, Joseph, than our Father Adam, and he delivered up the kingdom and the greatness of the kingdom to Jesus Christ, and the place where this great conference would be held would be Adam-ondi-ahman, being about fifty or sixty miles north of Jackson county, Missouri, where Adam rose up and gave his final blessing upon his posterity, and they in turn blessed him. On that very spot was where the Ancient of Days would sit enthroned in power and glory and before him ten thousand times ten thousand would stand and minister unto him, and all the former-day Saints and Latter-day Saints would receive their appropriate places according to the priesthood they held and honored in their probation. He also referred to the benefits and blessings that would accrue to those who had been duly and legitimately married according to the celestial order of marriage, and contrasted the disappointment of those who had only been joined together by a justice of the peace.
[Deseret News, Oct. 12, 1874]
[Journal History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Oct. 11, 1874, 1]
[transcribed and proofread by David Grow, Sept. 2006]