The inspired writings teach us that, at the second coming of Christ, his reign of a thousand years, on the earth, will commence. A veritable kingdom of the house of Israel will have been prepared to receive him.
"The Son of man shall come down in heaven, clothed in the brightness of his glory, to meet the kingdom of God which is set up on the earth;" Doc. & Cov. 65. 5. The kingdom of God in heaven and on the earth will then unite and constitute but one kingdom. "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever;" Rev. 11. 15.
Those that have part in the first resurrection, "Shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years;" 20. 6.
The earth will go through a purifying process to fit it for the residence of its millennial inhabitants. "Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered;" Isa. 65. 17. That this passage refers to the preparation for the millennium is evident by the twentieth verse: "There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die a hundred years old; but the sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed."
This view of the subject is also presented to us in a revelation to Joseph, the Seer: "Old things shall pass away, and all things become new. * * * And he that liveth when the Lord shall come, and has kept the faith, blessed is he; nevertheless it is appointed to him to die at the age of man; wherefore children shall grow up until they become old, old men shall die;" Doc. & Cov. 63. 49-51.
There are three conditions of the earth spoken of in the inspired writings—the present, in which everything pertaining to it must go through a change which we call death; the millennial condition in which it will be sanctified for the residence of purer intelligences, some mortal and some immortal, and the celestial condition spoken of in the twenty-first and twenty-second chapters of Revelation, which will be one of immortality and eternal life.
When Christ's reign is fully established on the earth, there will be two capitals to his immense empire—Jerusalem on the eastern hemisphere and Zion on the western. "When the Lord of hosts shall reign in Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem;" Isa. 24. 23. "For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem;" 2. 3.
In this, "The fulness of times when Christ shall have subdued all enemies under his feet, and shall have perfected his work, when he shall deliver up the kingdom, and present it to the Father spotless, then shall he be crowned with the crown of his glory, to sit on the throne of his power to reign forever and ever;" Doc. & Cov., 76. 106-108.
The prophet Daniel speaks of this great event:
"I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed;" 7. 13, 14. This passage evidences that Christ's reign on the earth will be real and tangible; and that his kingdom will embrace a great variety of nations and peoples, and that he is also subservient to his Father.