“They Shall All Know Me”
Jeremiah 31:31–34
31 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord:
33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
Elder Bruce R. McConkie wrote:
“In one of his greatest doctrinal expositions, the Prophet Joseph Smith equated the making of one’s calling and election sure, spoken of by Peter, with ‘the sealing power spoken of by Paul’ [History of the Church, 3:379]. He said that those who were sealed up unto eternal life were the ones of whom Jeremiah spoke when he said that the Lord ‘will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah.’ In the day of this new covenant the Lord promised: ‘I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.’ Then comes the glorious promise that those who receive the covenant and keep its terms and conditions shall see the Lord. ‘And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more’ [Jer. 31:31–34; see also History of the Church, 3:380].
“Having referred to this promise, the Prophet Joseph Smith asked: ‘How is this to be done?’ How will it come to pass that every man shall know the Lord? Why will it not be necessary for men to continue to teach one another the doctrines of the kingdom? The Prophet answers: ‘It is to be done by this sealing power, and the other Comforter spoken of, which will be manifest by revelation’ [History of the Church, 3:380].”
(The Promised Messiah: The First Coming of Christ [1978], 584–85.)
