When Christ met with the eleven by special appointment on a mountain in Galilee (Matthew 28:16 [Matt. 13:4]), he sent them out with instructions to “teach all nations,” to carry out all the instructions he had given them, and gave his messengers the promise, “Behold I am with you every day until the completion of the period” (Matthew 28:19– 20 [Matt. 13:4]). The “Great Commission” is not an unlimited call to everyone, but specifically and privately to the eleven; it is not an order for them to tell all men whatever they had heard but simply to instruct them to carry out certain specific orders (the language is technical and military); above all, it is not a promise that the Lord is going to stay in the world forever and ever or, as John Chrysostom desperately translates it, “for ages without end;” aeon is here in the singular; a definite limit is placed on the Savior’s personal support, which is to be enjoyed until the apostles have finished their work: “until the completion [syntelesis] of the aeon, or period.” There is going to be an end: the Lord said he would send his apostles out to preach to all the world for a witness, that they would carry out that assignment, “and then shall the end come” (Matthew 24:14 [Matt. 11:7]). Their mission, like the Lord’s, was indeed at the end of the world. There is no more firmly established belief or more ancient tradition in Christendom than the conviction that the apostles themselves actually did carry out their mission, the Lord, as he promised, “working with them, and confirming the word with signs following” (Mark 16:20 [Mark 8:7]). When every man on Pentecost heard the gospel preached in his own tongue, Peter announced that this was actually the fulfilment of that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; . . . in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh (Acts 2:16–17 [Acts 1:9]).
These were the last days, the gospel actually had been preached to all flesh, the prophecy was fulfilled, and the end could come. For the prophecy was that before the apostles could be put to death, “the gospel must first be published among all nations” (Mark 13:9–10 [Mark 6:2]; italics added). The apostles themselves complete the whole work of the dispensation; after them comes not the beginning—but the end. The clear statement of the Lord, that “this generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled” (Luke 21:32 [Luke 12:18]) is enough in itself to settle the issue: either Jesus was a false prophet, or the end did come.
The Great Commission
On a mountain he had appointed, to eleven men of whom some still doubted, he gave the whole of what the church would be sent out with: an authority, an errand, an ordinance, and a promise about how long he would stay.
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Note. Neither column carries a single substantive Joseph Smith Translation change; the commission stands exactly as the King James has it. What the Restoration adds is not revision but repetition: the same charge given again, in the Lord’s own voice, in November 1831.
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The reading is the Joseph Smith Translation, in the text of the Covenant Christian Edition, carried beside each Gospel and set against the King James baseline. Headers give both numbering systems: the CCE chapter and verse, and the traditional KJV reference.
16Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. 17And when they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. 18And Jesus came and spoke unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in Heaven and on earth. 19Go therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy ghost, 20teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, unto the end of the world. Amen.
14Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at a meal, and upbraided them, with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not those who had seen him after he had risen. 15And he said unto them, Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. 16He that believes and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believes not shall be damned. 17And these signs shall follow them that believe: in my name they shall cast out devils, they shall speak with new tongues, 18they shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover.
A Sweeping Promise
Never Trifle with the Promises of God
Mark’s commission promises that believers “shall take up serpents.” On the march of Zion’s Camp in June 1834, Martin Harris boasted that he could handle snakes safely and was bitten. Joseph Smith’s History records how he reproved him, and it draws the line the promise itself implies: faith for the man accidentally bitten, and no claim on it for the man who provokes the bite.
History, 16 June 1834, Zion’s Camp, Grand River, Missouri · History, 1838–1856, vol. A-1, addenda, p. 14 (History of the Church 2:95–96; Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 71–72) · Joseph Smith Papers ↗Martin Harris having boasted to the brethren that he could handle snakes with perfect safety, while fooling with a black snake with his bare feet, he received a bite on his left foot, it was communicated to me, and I took occasion to reprove him, and exhort the brethren never to trifle with the promses of God— I told them it was presumption for any one to provoke a serpent to bite him, but if a man of God was accidentally bitten by a poisonous serpent, he might have faith, or his brethren might have faith for him, so that the Lord would hear his prayer and he might be healed— but when a man designedly provokes a serpent to bite him, the principle is the same, as when a man drinks deadly poison knowing it to be such— in that case no man has any claim on the promises of God to be healed—
These Signs Shall Follow Them That Believe
Speaking to the Female Relief Society in April 1842 (the occasion was a complaint that some sisters had laid hands on the sick), Joseph Smith read Mark’s commission out in full and drew from it a conclusion about who the promise of signs was addressed to.
Discourse, 28 April 1842, Nauvoo · recorded by Eliza R. Snow, Nauvoo Relief Society Minute Book, 38–40 (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 224–225) · Joseph Smith Papers ↗Also recorded in the minutes as taken at the time; the Relief Society minute book; JS’s journal.
President Smith continued the subject, by quoting the commission given to the ancient Apostles in Mark, 16th chapter, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th verses: “Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe: In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”
No matter who believeth, these signs, such as healing the sick, casting out devils, etc., should follow all that believe, whether male or female. He asked the Society if they could not see by this sweeping promise, that wherein they are ordained, it is the privilege of those set apart to administer in that authority which is conferred on them; and if the sisters should have faith to heal the sick, let all hold their tongues, and let everything roll on.
He said the reason of these remarks being made was, that some little foolish things were circulating in the society, against some sisters not doing right in laying hands on the sick. Said that if the people had common sympathies they would rejoice that the sick could be healed; that the time had not been before that these things could be in their proper order; that the Church is not fully organized, in its proper order, and cannot be, until the Temple is completed, where places will be provided for the administration of the ordinances of the Priesthood.
The Commissions and Commands of Jesus Himself
An editorial on baptism in the Times and Seasons, which Joseph Smith then edited, opens its argument with this section’s two passages, quoted one after the other, and later glosses the promise that closes Matthew: “lo I am with you always” is kept “by the other comforter which the world cannot receive.”
Editorial, “Baptism,” Times and Seasons, 1 September 1842 (3:903–905); Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 262–266 · Joseph Smith Papers ↗As it is well known that various opinions govern a large portion of the sectarian world as to this important ordinance of the gospel, it may not be amiss to introduce the commissions and commands of Jesus himself on the subject.— He said to the twelve, or rather eleven at the time: Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: Thus it is recorded by Matthew. In Mark we have these important words: Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptised shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned. And to show how the believers are to be known from the unbelievers, he continues and says: And these signs shall follow them that believe: in my name shall they cast out devils: they shall speak with new tongues: they shall take up serpents: and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them: they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover.
… If God is the same yesterday, to day, and forever; it is no wonder he is so positive in the great declaration: He that believes and is baptised shall be saved, and he that believes not shall be damned!
… He had set in the church firstly Apostles, and secondly prophets, for the work of the ministry, perfecting of the saints, &c.; and as the grand rule of heaven was that nothing should ever be done on earth without revealing the secret to his servants the prophets, agreebly to Amos 3:7. so Paul could not learn so much from the Lord relative to his duty in the common salvation of man, as he could from one of Christ’s ambassadors called with the same heavenly calling of the Lord, and endowed with the same power from on high—so that what they loosed on earth, should be loosed in heaven; and what they bound on earth should be bound in heaven: He, the Lord being a priest forever, after the order of Melchisedec, and the anointed son of God, from before the foundation of the world, and they the begotten sons of Jesus through the gospel, to teach all nations—and lo I am with you always to the end of the world—that is—by the other comforter which the world cannot receive— for ye are the witnesses—having the testimony of Jesus which is the spirit of prophecy.
Until the Completion of the Period
The last clause of Matthew is usually read as a promise that the church will never be without him. Nibley reads the Greek and finds something narrower and stranger: a specific commission to eleven named men, with a limit on it, and the early Christians, he argues, understood the limit and watched for it.
Why did the early Christians express the keen and anxious concern they did for “signs of the times?” Why did they diligently study the times and seasons and everlastingly ask the Lord and the apostles, “When will it be?” (Cf. Acts 1:7 [Acts 1:2].) It is because they were expecting an end and had been instructed to watch even until the end. Their attitude would have been hard to understand if they had ever been given reason to believe that the church had been established, once and for all, to remain firm and steadfast until the end of the world.
It has often been noted that the ancient Christians professed two expectations: one an expectation of bliss, the other an expectation of woe. In their calendar the woe was to come first. Paul explains the situation when he reminds the Thessalonians that they must indeed look forward to “the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and . . . our gathering together unto him,” but not be deceived into thinking “that the day of Christ is at hand,” since before that could come there must come “a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition” (2 Thessalonians 2:1–3). And Peter reminds the church, “first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,” and only later will the Lord come, being meanwhile “not slack concerning his promise,” since “one day is with the Lord as a thousand years” (2 Peter 3:3–9). The joy is coming, but first the woe. There are ends and other ends. The “signs of the times” are significant because things follow a pattern: “When you see these events,” says the Lord, stating a general rule in a present general condition, “know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand” (Luke 21:31 [Luke 12:18]); for example, you look at the trees, and “when they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand” (Luke 21:29–30 [Luke 12:18], italics added). It is a characteristic and repeated event, this “end of all things” and “restitution of all things,” which we shall discuss in the next section.
Whose coming was expected by the saints? The Lord’s, according to some accounts, the adversary’s, according to others. Why should this be a cause (as it has been) of ferocious controversy? Plainly they expected both; and not at one and the same time, but first the deceiver, and then the Lord.
The first entry runs on into Mark 16:20, which falls in the next section (the Ascension); it is kept here because Nibley’s argument runs continuously, in a single paragraph, from Matthew’s promise into Mark’s report of how it was kept.