"To speak vaguely as many do of the day of true peace when people `shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks' is most often done by ignoring the preamble to that marvelous promised peace," wrote Elder Neal A. Maxwell in Wherefore Ye Must Press Forward.
"Isaiah was precise whereas some who quote him are vague, for Isaiah made it abundantly clear that several specific and dramatic conditions must be established first, and then the Lord will `judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people.' (Isa. 2:4.)"There is a difference in the example at hand between vague yearning and real hope for peace. The former approach assumes that somehow - perhaps through international bodies - the marvelous day of peace will come. The latter view takes account of what else Isaiah said: how the Lord's house shall first be established in the tops of the mountains; how people from all nations shall flow unto it; how out of Zion will go the law; and how out of Jerusalem the word of the Lord. (Isa. 2:2-3.) Then there will be the Lord's judgment among the nations and His rebuking of many. Those are very specific preambles to the peace promised."
"Widespread peace . . . will come . . . by a gradual preparation of a particular people, followed by a coming of the King of Peace."
