The dispensation of the “Fulness of Times,” unique among all other gospel dispensations, is the time-period that precedes the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and has the purpose of preparing the earth for His return. It is a time when the gospel in its fulness is to be taken to the four corners of the earth. It is a time when the gospel is being preached on the other side of the veil to persons who have passed through mortal life without an opportunity to hear the gospel. It is a time when ordinances are performed for both the living and the dead, bringing everyone who will repent into God’s family. The “Fulness of Times” will conclude with the Lord’s return.
Ancient prophets foresaw and foretold many of the events that would lead up to the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and, with it, the opening of this last dispensation (for example, 1 Nephi 13). Hence, we know that the restoration was a lengthy process, not a single event. Mark E. Petersen has written, “The restoration of the gospel should be viewed through a perspective of two thousand years. It was not a sudden thing. Neither was it ‘done in a corner,’ as the apostle Paul would have said … . In its preparation it was a world movement requiring centuries of time.”[1]
Much has been written previously about political events and processes that were part of that preparation, including but not limited to the establishment of political and religious freedom beginning with the signing of the Magna Carta, the work of the religious reformers such as Luther, Calvin and Knox, and the translation of the Bible into the vernacular.[2] Less has been written about economic developments and new technical knowledge the Lord has revealed to facilitate the spread of the gospel across the earth in these “Last Days.” The focus of this chapter is a brief analysis of some of the secular, technical knowledge revealed to mankind during the “Last Days” that has been critical in the process of taking the gospel to every kindred, tongue and people. In a later chapter, Sherilyn Farnes will continue this discussion with a special focus on the teachings of latter-day prophets regarding the revelation of technical knowledge and its role in moving forward the four-fold mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The Restoration of the Gospel
The Dispensation of the “Fulness of Times” began with the Prophet Joseph Smith’s First Vision in 1820 that opened the windows of heaven after a long period of darkness. After a long period of apostasy that included the loss of priesthood keys, priesthood ordinances and spiritual truths, the heavens were opened and revelation once again graced the earth.
In the prophet’s First Vision, he saw the Father and the Son, learned that they were separate, glorified beings with resurrected bodies of flesh and bones, that they were real in time and space, and that men and women were spiritual offspring of the Father. He learned that Christ’s Church was not on the earth and that he should join none of the other churches. Joseph Smith indicates in his history that there were “many other things” that they said to him “which I cannot write at this time.”[3]
In 1823, through another revelation, Joseph was led to a set of sealed plates buried in the Hill Cumorah in New York State and given the assignment to translate them. Through the process of translating the plates into the Book of Mormon, questions arose and that led to further revelation. Gospel principles were revealed, priesthood keys and the priesthood were restored (1829), and ordinances that had been lost or changed were returned to the earth (1829-1843). The correct form of temple worship combined with temple ordinances for the living and the dead were revealed.
Since 1820 there has been an outpouring of spiritual enlightenment that fulfills Old and New Testament prophecies regarding the last days. The Apostle Paul noted that there would be a future period called the “dispensation of the fulness of times” in which the Lord would “gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on the earth; even in him” (Ephesians 1:10). The Apostle Peter said that the second coming of Christ would not occur until “the restitution of all things” (Acts 3:19-21).
Part of the restitution of all things would be a book. Isaiah, the Old Testament prophet, spoke of a destroyed people who would “speak out of the ground” with a “voice that hath a familiar spirit.” The voice would be in the form of a “book that is sealed” that would be delivered to an unlearned man and the Lord would then perform a “marvelous work and a wonder” (Isaiah 29: 1-14). The coming forth of the Book of Mormon fulfills Isaiah’s prophecy of a sealed book coming out of the ground from a destroyed people (descendants of Joseph, the son of Jacob) with the Lord performing a marvelous work and a wonder through an unlearned man.
Ezekiel described a time when the stick of Joseph (the Book of Mormon) would be joined with the stick of Judah (the Bible) and become one. The joining of the two sticks or books would precede the gathering of Israel in the last days (Ezekiel 37:15-28). The joining of the two books had a three-fold purpose. The first was for the Book of Mormon to serve as a witness for the truths of the Bible. The second was to restore “plain and precious things” that had been removed from the Bible. The final purpose was to serve as another witness for Jesus Christ as the Son of the Eternal Father (1 Nephi 13:38-40).
John the Revelator saw in vision an angel flying in the midst of heaven with the everlasting gospel to be returned to earth. It was to be preached to every nation, kindred, tongue and people before Christ’s second coming (Rev. 14:6-7). The passage in Revelation refers to the Angel Moroni’s appearance to the Prophet Joseph Smith telling him about the plates. Moroni was one of Joseph’s key instructors as he prepared Joseph to translate the plates into the Book of Mormon.
Knowledge Not Revealed Since the World Was
In December 1832, less than three years after The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was established in1830, the Lord told the Prophet, “Behold, I will hasten my work in its time” (D&C 88:73). Generally, when the scripture regarding the Lord “hastening” His work is discussed, the conversation revolves around more missionaries, increased member commitment, more temples and additional temple work. However, in 1839, the Lord informed the Prophet that “God shall give unto you knowledge by his Holy Spirit … that has not been revealed since the world was until now … a time to come in the which nothing shall be withheld … And also if there be bounds set to the heavens or to the seas, or to the dry land, or to the sun, moon, or stars – All the times of their revolutions, all the appointed days, months, and years … shall be revealed in the days of the dispensation of the fulness of times” (D&C 121:26-32).
One might expect that the Lord was referring to spiritual truths that would yet be revealed. He was. But the revelation also referred to information concerning the land, the seas, the sun, moon and stars, including not only knowledge that had been lost but knowledge “that has not been revealed since the world was until now. The knowledge to be given mankind in the “fulness of times” was not only spiritual truth but temporal truth as well. It would be knowledge pertaining to the earth’s movements in space, its relationship to the sun, moon and stars. And the Lord would reveal how things work on the earth, in the seas, and in the heavens.
As the later Farnes chapter will show, there have been a number of statements by the Lord’s prophets concerning the Lord “hastening” His work through new technology. When one examines the secular progress that has been made since the early 1800s, it is clear that the Lord has been moving His work forward by enlightening men’s and women’s minds with respect to better ways of doing things. New and better ways of communicating, improved transportation, better health, increased wealth, and more leisure time have all facilitated the spread of the gospel across the earth.
The Early 1800s a Turning Point
In The Birth of Plenty, William J. Bernstein states:
The qualitative examination of history and culture teaches only so much. In the end, the ultimate measure of progress is statistical: What measurable improvements have been made in a nation’s literacy, longevity, and wealth? When we look at the numbers, it becomes crystal clear that something happened at some point in the early nineteenth century. Before then, the rate of improvement in the lot of mankind was small and stuttering, and after, substantial and steady.
This does not devalue the intellectual and scientific advances during the three centuries after the renaissance. But the bald fact is, the Renaissance and the early Enlightenment only minimally elevated the lot of the average person…. Until approximately 1820, per capita world economic growth – the single best way of measuring human material progress – registered near zero.[4]
Bernstein points out that the British economy expanded between 1600 and 1800 A.D. However, the expansion was based on population growth and not an improvement in the average person’s wellbeing. Bernstein then states: “Beginning around 1820, the pace of economic advance picked up noticeably, making the world a better place to live. What happened? An explosion in technological innovation the likes of which had never before been seen.” [5]The steady upward thrust of world per capita income has been a major result. World income per person jumped from the $400 to $600 range in the years prior to 1820 to $6,000 per year in 2000 and is higher today.[6]
Not only has man’s wealth increased dramatically since 1820, but his health and longevity as well. Between A.D. 1950 and 2000, life expectancy at birth increased from 66 years of age to 78 in the developed world, from 52 to 72 in Latin America and from 40 to 52 in Africa.[7]
In his book, Bernstein notes four conditions necessary for technological advance. The conditions are: property rights for most citizens, the scientific method, efficient capital markets, and fast and efficient communications and transportation.[8] The first three were in place at the beginning of the nineteenth century with the improvement in communications and transportation occurring soon thereafter. The first three conditions form the basis for technological change while the fourth condition is necessary for its spread.
A key source for Bernstein’s measurement of economic change from the “Meridian of Time,” that is to say the time of Jesus Christ, to the “Fulness of Times” was the work of Angus Maddison, a British economist and a world scholar on quantitative macroeconomic history.[9] In his work with the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (1953-1978), he often traveled to the developing nations of South America, Africa and Asia to help governments improve their national accounting systems. The large differences in wealth among the developed and developing world intrigued him. When he accepted a professorship in Holland in 1978, he started a world economic development project to study the reasons for the differences and to measure economic growth for the world’s average person. Maddison and his colleagues’ work at the University of Groningen provides the best analysis of long-term economic growth available and academics and policy analysts use it extensively.[10]
As Angus Maddison found and William Bernstein noted, something happened around 1820 that has unleashed one innovation after another. In Bernstein’s words, “… sometime around 1820, the world seemed to turn over on its axis … the course of human economic progress before can best be likened to the stunted growth of underbrush; afterwards it resembled the vigorous and steady growth of an oak.”[11]
Charts 1 and 2 illustrate some of the key findings of Maddison and his colleagues. Real per capita income was stagnant at a subsistence level from A.D. 1 to 1000. Between A.D. 1000 and 1500, income growth, again, was almost imperceptible. In the next 320 years (A.D. 1500 to 1820) modest growth was evident as per capita income increased from just over $400 per person to more than $600 – an annual growth rate of 0.1 percent per year. From 1820 to the present, the rate of annual improvement jumped to 2.0 percent or 20 times the rate of growth in the previous three centuries. Income per capita exploded. Bernstein states: “Before 1820, there had been only minuscule material progress from decade to decade and century to century. After 1820, the world steadily became a more prosperous place.”[12]
Property Rights
Property rights, a major condition for economic growth, refer not only to physical but also intellectual property. Property rights are essential for both the landowner and the inventor to obtain a return on their work. In medieval times, the king made and enforced the laws. There was little protection for the average citizen with little incentive to invent or produce except for one’s own consumption. Before 1700, one could count on the fingers of one hand the significant inventions. They were the windmill, the waterwheel, and the printing press.[13]
The Magna Carta was a major step forward in Great Britain and set a precedent for the rest of Europe. The charter was interpreted to mean that the king was subject to law and that the rights of all free men were guaranteed. In the United States, the Declaration of Independence declared “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” The Constitution of the United States provided a broad framework of laws that guaranteed the rights of its citizens. These property rights allowed new ideas to be patented with significant returns guaranteed for the inventor.
During the year 1800, the number of patents granted for new inventions was 41 in the United States and 95 in Great Britain. In 1820, the number of patents granted in the US was 155, whereas the number in Great Britain was 105. In 1870, 13,538 patents were granted in the US, 2,180 in Great Britain. The attached graph shows the number of patents granted annually by each of the two countries from 1800 to 1870. Though the increase after 1820 was much larger in the US, the increase in Great Britain was also significant.[14] During the past century, more than 100,000 patents have been filed just to support and improve the modern automobile.
Transportation
From the beginning of time until the early 1800s, the fastest mode of land transportation was the horse. A good horse travelling on level, well-groomed roads could travel, at most, 40 miles in a day.[15] Today, a car covers the same distance in 30 to 40 minutes and the trip is safer and costs less. Prior to the automobile, steam locomotives began operating in the US in 1829. The first trains averaged 15 to 20 miles per hour depending on grade and load. By the end of the century, trains were doing 70 miles per hour.[16]
A tall sailing ship was the fastest mode of travel on the seas prior to 1800. It took the Pilgrims 65 days on the Mayflower to travel from Plymouth, England to Cape Cod, Massachusetts.[17] Today, the same trip takes just over six hours by airplane. Travel speeds over land increased from 20 to 30 miles per day to thousands of miles given the transition from horses to trains, to cars and finally to airplanes. In 1962, John Glenn circled the globe three times in slightly less than five hours traveling at speeds of more than 17,000 miles per hour in the Mercury spacecraft named Friendship 7.
If, today, the Church’s missionary force traveled by horse and sailing ship, it would take two to three months for many of them to reach the field and the same amount of time to return. Think of the time saved today as the Church, with its 67,000 missionaries, sends approximately 38,000 missionaries into the field annually.[18] Rather than spending weeks or months traveling to their missions, travel time is now one to two days.
Communications
Prior to the 1800s, the time it took to deliver a message over any significant distance was limited by the speed of a horse and/or the sailing ship. Unfortunately, General Andrew Jackson learned about the peace Treaty of Ghent, ending the War of 1812, two weeks after it was signed. Between the signing and his receiving notice, a great battle was fought with the British and lives were lost on both sides.[19] Had the telegraph existed, the lives of those who died in battle would have been saved.
Again, major developments in communications began in the late 1700s. The optical forerunner to the telegraph was first developed and used in France at the height of the French Revolution (1790-1795). Samuel Morse sent the first US telegram across two miles of wire on 11 January 1838.[20] The first successful two-way telephone call between Alexander Graham Bell and his assistant, Thomas Watson, occurred on March 10, 1876.[21] The development of fax machines similar to those used today began in 1924.[22] The forerunner to the Internet began in the 1960s. The World Wide Web as we know it today started in the 1990s.
Church Adoption of New Technology[23]
In referring to the telegraph, President Brigham Young said, “We should bring into requisition every improvement which our age affords, to facilitate our intercourse and to render our intercommunication more easy.”[24] From the days of Brigham Young to the present, the Church has been an early adopter of technology.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, under President Heber J. Grant’s direction, was among the first to receive a radio broadcast license, and also among the first to obtain a commercial radio license. The Church’s first broadcast occurred in 1920, the same year the first commercial radio station (KDKA, Pittsburg) began broadcasting. In 1920, the Deseret News began nightly wireless news flashes in Salt Lake City. In 1924, the Church became a producer of radio programming with its own “Church Hour.” The Mormon Tabernacle Choir’s weekly network broadcast began in 1929. Portions of general conference were broadcast to Europe over short-wave radio in 1936.
President George Albert Smith presided over the first live general conference broadcast over commercial television in 1948, at a time when a television set was a small wooden box with a black and white picture. President David O. McKay was very active in using the various forms of mass communication. He said, “The Lord has given us the means of whispering through space, of annihilating distance. We have the means in our hands of reaching the millions in the world … We’re in the business of broadcasting to learn how to use it to further the work of the Lord.”[25] Under his administration, radio and television broadcasts to Mexico began in 1967. The first satellite broadcast of general conference to South America occurred in 1968.
During President Spencer W. Kimball’s administration, the Church was the beneficiary of the satellite. President Kimball addressed the first Church-wide closed-circuit meeting for women in 1978 along with General Conference meetings. A Church-wide youth fireside was held in 1982. Satellite communications expanded the Church’s instantaneous reach to most parts of the world in the 1970s and 1980s. By 1977, general conference reached all of the US, Latin America, Australia, the Philippines, parts of Africa, Europe and Asia. The Church’s Bonneville satellite Corporation was formed in 1980.
President Gordon B. Hinckley played a major role with respect to Church communications over a long period of time. In 1935, he was appointed executive secretary and director of the newly formed Church Radio, Publicity and Mission Literature Committee. In that position, he exerted a profound influence on the use of technology from 1935 until his death in 2008. He served as President of the Church during a time when traditional electronic media were reaching their zenith. In the year 2000, BYU-TV began broadcasting nationally, “24/7” on DISH Network’s satellite system and a short time later they joined the Direct TV satellite network. Today, the two satellite systems have approximately 45 million subscribers in the US and southern Canada and more overseas.[26] Near the end of his service, the Internet became an important communication vehicle as it provided one more way in which Church Headquarters could communicate with the field.
Under President Thomas S. Monson, the Church increased its presence on the Internet. Major websites, lds.org and mormon.org, provide information to the worldwide Church on a continuous basis.[27] The Church is producing biblical films that are now on YouTube™ for the world to enjoy. The Church recently launched a special Easter program entitled “Because of Him. The film was available on YouTube™ on Palm Sunday 2014. It is estimated that more than 100 million saw the program that day.[28]
Computers and the Internet have accelerated the work in many areas of Church endeavor. Family history is one of the beneficiaries. In order to gather family history information fifty years ago, one went to a library, the cemetery, or to old Church records. Often, it involved the expense of traveling to another country and took weeks, if not months, to gather the data. Today, records across the world have been photographed, digitized and are online. This means that anyone with an internet connection, anywhere in the world, has access to family records from their own home. Within the last few years, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints reached an agreement with Ancestry, Findmypast, MyHeritage, AmericanAncestors and Geneanet that allows Church members free access to the largest family history data files in the world.
Thirty years ago, a few megabytes of digital storage cost thousands of dollars. Today, one can buy gigabytes of storage for a few dollars. Large computer farms across the United States have created the “Cloud” that allows one to access vast quantities of data almost instantaneously on one’s computer, cell phone or other mobile device. Digital storage in its various forms allows one to have immediate access to the scriptures, lesson manuals, and other reference materials as well as family history information.
Fifty years ago, computers were large main frames that filled a good-sized room. It took hours on the computer to analyze a simple problem. Today, the same problem can be performed in seconds by a hand-held device. The app-based movement is a major change as communications, transportation, entertainment, and other activities become more mobile.
Leisure, Literacy and Longevity – the Role of the Three L’s
Increased leisure, improved literacy and longer life expectancy for the world’s population have also played important roles in the spread of the gospel. Significant improvements in each of these areas began in the early to mid-nineteenth century as a result of rapid growth in per capita income. Each of these three areas will be discussed briefly in order to gain an appreciation for the roles they have played in “hastening” the spread of the Restored Church (D&C 88:73).
Leisure. Leisure has been defined as “free time.” It is time spent away from business, work, domestic chores, education and necessary activities such as eating and sleeping. Leisure may be used to improve the quality of one’s experience in various areas. Serious leisure has been defined as “the systematic pursuit of an amateur, hobbyist, or volunteer activity that is substantial, interesting, and fulfilling.”[29] Examples of serious leisure could be stamp collecting, community projects, missionary work, etc. Initially, leisure was the privilege of the upper-class in society. “Opportunities for leisure came with more money and less working time, rising dramatically in the mid to late 19th century.”[30]
Prior to 1820, the workday for manual labor ranged from 10 to 16 hours. The use of child labor was common. A movement to reduce the workday to 10 hours began in the early 1820s in the major East Coast cities of the United States. Initially, the pursuit was unsuccessful, but the movement finally caught hold in the 1830s and 1840s as skilled workers began organizing trade unions. In 1840, President Martin Van Buren ordered a 10-hour day for workers employed on federal projects. The movement then spread to non-craft workers. A circular issued by the Boston artisans states:
That we are now engaged in a cause which is not only of vital importance to ourselves, our families, and our children, but is equally interesting and equally important to every mechanic in the United States and the whole world. We are contending for the recognition of the natural right to dispose of our own time in such quantities as we deem and believe to be most conducive to our own happiness and the welfare of all those engaged in manual labor.[31]
Eventually, actions taken by labor unions, the government and others led to the 8-hour workday and 40-hour work week in the first half of the twentieth century.[32] The flood of knowledge promised by the Lord in the early 1800s led to technical innovations that produced increased labor productivity. Improved labor productivity led to increased income and reduced work hours. Additional free time has been and is being used to spread the gospel and administer a lay Church that has no professional, paid clergy at the local levels. Stake presidencies, high councilors, bishoprics, quorum presidencies, stake and ward auxiliary officers and teachers, and so forth, need time to act in the positions to which they have been called. Whether members or investigators, people need free time to hear the gospel message, read the scriptures, engage in meaningful prayer and attend services. Though technology has made engaging in family history research much simpler, as noted above, free time is still needed to do the research and perform the associated temple ordinances. Where people live at the subsistence level, or below, and consume all of their time in earning a living, it is hard for them to function as members of the Church. It can be even more difficult when they do not have adequate means of transportation.
Literacy – The Ability to Read and Write. One of the great evidences of the restoration of the gospel is the coming forth of the Book of Mormon – a book of scripture comparable to the Bible. “It is a record of God’s dealings with ancient inhabitants of the Americas and contains the fulness of the everlasting gospel.” Joseph Smith described the book as the “keystone of our religion.”[33] A person’s ability to read and understand the book’s message is critical to one gaining a testimony of its truthfulness. It is possible for a person who can’t read to gain a testimony, but the process is much simpler if one can read the words and ponder their meaning. Literacy is also a necessity for the administration of a lay church, for engagement in missionary service, for conducting family history research, studying lesson manuals and leading class or quorum discussions, and many other activities that are needed in a fully functioning church.[34]
The worldwide literacy rate is estimated to have been twelve percent in 1820. By 2014, the rate had risen to more than 80 percent.[35] Rough estimates indicate that in the mid-nineteenth century approximately 60 percent of the US population was literate. By 1870, the percentage stood at 70 percent. And today, the figure is in the high 90 percent range.[36] The invention of the printing press in the mid-fifteenth- century reduced the cost of producing reading materials. Also, additional funding in the late 1800s by local and State governments for elementary and secondary schools plus financial support from State and federal governments for colleges and universities were key to the growth in the number of young people receiving an education and increasing the literacy rate in the United States. Educational improvements in Europe, Asia and other regions during the same period of time resulted in literacy improvements in other parts of the world, making it easier for missionaries to teach the gospel, for members and investigators to read the scriptures and other materials, and, hence, for the Church to be established in more locations around the world.
Life Expectancy. Increases in knowledge of how the human body functions, breakthroughs in germ theory, antibiotics, widespread vaccination and major public-health advances in sanitation and regulation have helped life expectancy to skyrocket not only in the US but around the world.[37] These factors are responsible for a doubling in human longevity in both the United States and other parts of the world. In 1800, the life expectancy in the richest European countries was approximately 40. Today, longevity in those countries is approximately 80. In the US in 1850, the life expectancy for a male was slightly less than 40 and for a female it was slightly more than 40.[38] Today, in the US, the average life expectancy for those born in 2018 is 76 for a male and 81for a female.[39]
It is not difficult to understand how an increase in longevity has helped the Lord’s work move forward. For example, the longer average lifespan allows general authorities of the Church to give additional years of service. Extra years of retirement allows many members opportunities to serve as senior missionaries, as temple ordinance workers, or to engage in other types of service. In 2017, the number of senior missionaries serving was approximately 6,300. According to David Williams, global operations manager for the Church-service missionary program office, the need was for 12,000 full-time senior missionaries if the Church were able to fill all of the requests it receives.[40] If the average life expectancy were still 40, there would be few, if any, full-time missionaries of any age serving. The longer life span also opens the way for more members to serve in the ever-increasing number of temples, both as patrons and as ordinance workers. It also allows more seniors to engage in family history work, thus providing the ever-increasing number of names needed to keep the temples functioning closer to their capacity.
Conclusion
The last 200 years have been a time of “refreshing,” a time of “restitution,”
a time of “gathering together all things in one.” As the Prophet Joseph Smith stated in the early 1800s, it would be a time in which the Lord would give knowledge … “that has not been revealed since the world was … a time in which nothing shall be withheld including the bounds set to the heavens or to the seas, or to the dry land, or to the sun, moon, or stars.”[41]
As Angus Maddison discovered, something happened around 1820 that has unleashed one innovation after another. The steady upward thrust of world per capita income has been a major source of help with world income per person jumping from the $600 or less in the years prior to 1820 to $6,000 per year in A.D. 2000 and higher today. US real per capita income (income adjusted for inflation using 2009 dollars) has increased from about $1,200 to more than $50,000 in 2014.[42]
Since 1820, travel speeds on land have increased from 20 to 30 miles per day to thousands of miles given the transition from horses to trains, to cars and finally to airplanes. The speed of communicating has become almost instantaneous with satellites and the Internet. Additional knowledge has improved longevity, literacy and free time.
All of these developments have aided the Church in spreading the gospel.
Throughout the last 184 years, the Church has been at the forefront of adopting new technology. Among the first to obtain a commercial radio license, the Church began broadcasting in 1920. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir’s weekly network broadcast, which began in 1929, has been welcomed into millions of homes ever since. While portions of general conference were broadcast to Europe over short-wave radio in 1936, general conference broadcasts on television began in the United States in 1948. With satellite transmission, 95 percent of the Church can now watch General Conference in real time. In the year 2000, BYU-TV began broadcasting nationally and today, the two satellite systems that service BYU-TV (DISH and Direct TV) have approximately 45 million subscribers in the US, southern Canada and overseas. In the last two decades, the Internet has become a major tool for Church finance including online submission of tithing and donations, communications, family history research, record keeping, and other activities.
There is no question but what the Lord is “hastening” his work. And this is being done not only through a larger missionary force and increased membership, but also through the use of technology as the world is brought closer and closer together.
Endnotes
[1] Mark E. Petersen, The Great Prologue, Deseret Book Company, Salt Lake City UT, 1975, p. 1.
[2] Ibid., p. 1.
[3] Joseph Smith History, 1:19.
[4] William J. Bernstein, The Birth of Plenty, The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2004, 3.
[5] Ibid., pp. 14-15.
[6] Ibid., p. 18.
[7] UN World Population Prospects 2008. wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/Life_Expectancy_at_Birth_by_Region_1950-2050.png
[8] Bernstein, op. cit., pp. 15-16.
[9] Bernstein, op cit., p. 18. Angus Maddison, a graduate of the University of Cambridge, worked for the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC) and its successor, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). He then accepted a professorship at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands where he led a study of world economic development.
[10] wikipedia.org/wiki/Angus_Maddison.
[11] Bernstein, op. cit., pp. 26-27.
[12] Bernstein, op. cit., p. 19.
[13] Bernstein, op. cit., p. 93.
[14] Bernstein, op. cit., p. 87. Data sources: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and U.K. Intellectual Property Office. For more on the increase in US patents, see Sherilyn Farnes, “Divine Influences in Technology: The Fourfold Mission of the Church,” herein.
[15] cartographersguild.com/reference-material/
[16] wiki.answers.com; en.wikipedia.org.
[17] wiki.answers.com.
[18] There were 67,049 full-time missionaries serving at the end of 2017. See lds.org/church/news/2017-statistical-report-for-2018-april-general-conference?lang=eng.
[19] history.com
[20] wikipedia.org/wiki/Telegraphy.
[21] wikipedia.org/wiki/invention_of_the_telephone.
[22] americaslibrary.gov (telegraph and telephone); wikipedia.org (fax); history.com (Internet).
[23] This section summarizes some key points found in a more detailed history of the Church’s use of electronic media. Sherry Pack Baker and Elizabeth Mott, “From Radio to the Internet: Church Use of Electronic Media in the Twentieth Century,” in A Firm Foundation: Church Organization and Administration, ed. David J. Whittaker and Arnold K. Garr (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2011), pp. 339–60, also available online at rsc.byu.edu/archived/firm-foundation/15-radio-internet-church-use-electronic-media-twentieth-century, accessed 7 September 2018. For additional information, see also Bruce L. Christensen, “Broadcasting,” in Encyclopedia of Mormonism, ed. Daniel H. Ludlow (New York, NY: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1992), pp. 232-4, available online at http://eom.byu.edu/index.php/Broadcasting, accessed September 7, 2018; also Sherilyn Farnes, “Divine Influences in Technology: The Fourfold Mission of the Church,” herein..
[24] Leonard J. Arrington, “The Deseret Telegraph – A Church-Owned Public Utility,” Journal of Economic History, 11, No. 2 (1951): pp. 118, 122. Also see: Baker and Mott, “From Radio to the Internet.
[25] Prince, Gregory A. and William Robert Wright, “David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism” (SLC: U of U Press, 2005), 124, 127. See also Baker and Mott article.
[26] Baker and Mott, op. cit.
[27] In August 2018, Church President Russell M. Nelson issued a statement calling for the use of the Church’s proper name, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, rather than nicknames such as ‘Mormon Church’ or acronyms such as ‘LDS” or ‘LDS Church’. He acknowledged that the change would require time for planning and implementation. www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/name-of-the-church.
[28] “LDS Church News,” Deseret News, April 6, 2014.
[29] Wikipedia, “Leisure, Types.”
[30] Wikipedia, “History of Leisure.”
[31] albany.edu/history/history316/TenHourDay.html
[32] Shana Lebowitz, “Here’s how the 40-hour workweek became the standard in America,” Business Insider.
[33] Book of Mormon, Introduction.
[34] New technologies have enabled the Church to provide spoken word recordings of the scriptures and many other materials both on compact disc and online for the blind, in addition to earlier braille versions.
[35] ourworldindata.org/literacy
[36] Mark Roser and Esteban Ortiz-Ospina, “Literacy,” Our World in Data,
[37] Joe Pinsker, “Why We Live 40 Years Longer Today than We did in 1880,” The Atlantic, November 2013.
[38] “Life Expectancy by Age, 1850-2011” infoplease, Report AD
[39] www.statista.com/statistics/274513/life-expectancy-in-north-america/
[40] “Senior Missionaries are “Needed, Blessed, Loved,” Church News, 1 September 2017.
[42] Charles I. Jones, Stanford GSB and NBER, “The Facts of Economic Growth,” 3.