My blog post on Come Follow Me: D&C 58-59
Excerpt:In D&C 58, we continue to see the Lord discussing the Gathering. The Lord explained that the Gathering requires a righteous people, and the Lord prepares a righteous people through tribulation and challenges.
“For after much tribulation come the blessings. Wherefore the day cometh that ye shall be crowned with much glory; the hour is not yet, but is nigh at hand.” (vs 5).
His/ promises here are conditional for those particular saints. But they will come to pass. There will be a center city/place of Zion established in Independence Missouri someday.
For this, the Lord often talks about things as if they are near. We just don’t live on the Lord’s timeline. Moroni spoke to us as if we were present, even though we were 1500 years in the future. Alma spoke of the first coming of Christ as if it had already happened. Time, in this instance, is not viewed as linear, but cyclical.
The Lord’s time, while perhaps having a linear dimension of some sort, focuses more on cycles of time, what the scriptures call an “eternal round” (1 Nephi 10:19, Alma 7:20; 37:12, D&C 3:2; 35:1).
https://joelsmonastery.blogspot.com/2021/05/come-follow-me-d-58-59.html