The Signs of the Coming

A revelation replays a discourse the Gospels record — and says so — then keeps talking past the point where the Gospels stop, into a scene where the returning Lord is asked about the wounds in his hands.

What this page maps. Modern revelation, reported as the text gives it. D&C 45 is a first-person divine address whose speaker identifies himself inside the verse text — “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end” (D&C 45:7), “I am Jesus that was crucified” (D&C 45:52). It names no recipient, and this page names none. The occasion, date and place of the revelation are outside this wiki’s source text.

Standing disclosure — KJV-overlap material. This page reports verbal correspondence with the King James text as textual fact, including where the correspondence follows the KJV’s English translation. What that correspondence implies about the origin of the Doctrine and Covenants text — in any direction — is an external question outside this wiki’s scope.

Where the Olivet comparison lives. The corpus hosts the Mount-of-Olives prophecy in several renderings; The Olivet Discourse pairs Joseph Smith—Matthew 1 with Matthew 24 phrase by phrase and already names this section as a further rendering. This page does not repeat that comparison. It treats what this section does with the material — including the one verse where it sides with Joseph Smith—Matthew against Matthew.

Account

The section’s own account of what it is doing

The revelation states its procedure before it starts. It offers to reason “as with men in days of old” (D&C 45:10), then repeats the offer and adds prophecy to it: “hearken and I will reason with you, and I will speak unto you and prophesy, as unto men in days of old.” (D&C 45:15). Then it names the source of what follows as a past occasion of its own speaking:

D&C 45:16: “And I will show it plainly as I showed it unto my disciples as I stood before them in the flesh, and spake unto them, saying: As ye have asked of me concerning the signs of my coming, in the day when I shall come in my glory in the clouds of heaven, to fulfil the promises that I have made unto your fathers,”

Everything from that verse to D&C 45:59 is framed as speech reported inside speech. The frame closes as explicitly as it opened, with an instruction and a limit: “it shall not be given unto you to know any further concerning this chapter, until the New Testament be translated, and in it all these things shall be made known” (D&C 45:60). “this chapter” is the revelation’s own word for the material it is re-showing.

Where the section sides with one rendering against another

[Textual] — distinctive shared phrasing. () - D&C 45:27: “And the love of men shall wax cold, and iniquity shall abound.” - Joseph Smith—Matthew 1:30: “And again, because iniquity shall abound, the love of men shall wax cold; but he that shall not be overcome, the same shall be saved.”

The saying stands at four distinct frozen verses in the corpus, and they split two against two on a single word. “the love of men shall wax cold” stands at exactly two — D&C 45:27 and Joseph Smith—Matthew 1:30. “the love of many shall wax cold” stands at exactly two — Matthew 24:12 and Joseph Smith—Matthew 1:10. The two-word probe “wax cold” returns those four verses and no others. So one of the two frozen renderings of the discourse carries both readings, at its two statements of the saying, and this revelation carries only the second of them. Divergence of order: the revelation puts the cooling first and the abounding second, and both other carriers put the abounding first as the cause. That is the state of the text; what it indicates about the relation of the three is outside this page’s scope.

[Textual] — distinctive shared phrasing. () - D&C 45:20: “And this temple which ye now see shall be thrown down that there shall not be left one stone upon another.” - Matthew 24:2: “verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.”

“one stone upon another” stands at six distinct frozen verses in the corpus: Matthew 24:2, Mark 13:2, Luke 19:44, Luke 21:6, Joseph Smith—Matthew 1:3, and D&C 45:20. Divergence: in the discourse the throwing-down is the relative clause and the stone the main statement; the revelation inverts them.

[Textual] — distinctive shared phrasing. () - D&C 45:26: “And in that day shall be heard of wars and rumors of wars, and the whole earth shall be in commotion” - Matthew 24:6: “And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.”

The corpus carries the phrase in two spellings, and the spelling sorts the carriers cleanly. “wars and rumours of wars” stands at exactly two distinct frozen verses, both in the New Testament: Matthew 24:6 and Mark 13:7. “wars and rumors of wars” stands at exactly four, none of them in the New Testament: 1 Nephi 12:21, 1 Nephi 14:15, 1 Nephi 14:16, and D&C 45:26. The divergence is orthographic and is reported as such, not scored.

[Textual] — distinctive shared phrasing. () - D&C 45:26: “and men’s hearts shall fail them, and they shall say that Christ delayeth his coming until the end of the earth.” - Luke 21:26: “Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.”

Both attach the failing hearts to the same catalogue of signs. The stated reason differs: the discourse gives fear and anticipation, the revelation gives a spoken conclusion — that the coming is delayed. The clause about delay has no counterpart in the discourse at this point.

[Textual] — distinctive shared phrasing. () - D&C 45:37: “Ye look and behold the fig trees, and ye see them with your eyes, and ye say when they begin to shoot forth, and their leaves are yet tender, that summer is now nigh at hand” - Matthew 24:32: “Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:”

Divergences: the discourse has one tree and the revelation has trees, plural; the discourse’s “ye know” is the revelation’s “ye say”; and the revelation adds a clause about seeing them with the eyes that the discourse does not carry. The revelation also declines the discourse’s framing word — the discourse calls it “a parable of the fig tree” (Matthew 24:32) while the revelation reserves that word for what precedes it, “it shall be with them like unto a parable which I will show you—” (D&C 45:36).

[Textual] — distinctive shared phrasing. () - D&C 45:44: “and they shall see me in the clouds of heaven, clothed with power and great glory; with all the holy angels” - Matthew 24:30: “and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.”

“in the clouds of heaven” stands at eight distinct frozen verses in the corpus: Matthew 24:30, Matthew 26:64, Mark 14:62, Joseph Smith—Matthew 1:1, Joseph Smith—Matthew 1:36, D&C 45:16, D&C 45:44, and D&C 76:63. Divergences: the discourse describes a third person and the revelation speaks in the first; the revelation says “clothed with” where the discourse says “coming… with”; and the revelation adds an accompanying company the discourse does not name here — “with all the holy angels” (D&C 45:44) — an element that stands in one of the other renderings, “and all the holy angels with him” (Joseph Smith—Matthew 1:1). Disclosed, not ranked.

[Textual] — distinctive shared phrasing. () - D&C 45:46: “and the saints shall come forth from the four quarters of the earth.” - Joseph Smith—Matthew 1:27: “so likewise shall mine elect be gathered from the four quarters of the earth.”

The six-word run stands at ten distinct frozen verses in the corpus: 1 Nephi 19:16, 1 Nephi 22:25, 3 Nephi 5:24, 3 Nephi 5:26, 3 Nephi 16:5, Ether 13:11, Moses 7:62, Joseph Smith—Matthew 1:27, D&C 33:6, and D&C 45:46. It is a phrase the corpus uses widely, and the pairing here is with the rendering of the discourse that uses it in the same position — after the signs and before the coming. Divergence: the discourse gathers “mine elect”, the revelation brings forth “the saints”, and the revelation attaches the movement to those who “have slept in peace” (D&C 45:46), which the discourse does not.

The scene the discourse does not contain

Where the reported speech runs past its counterparts is at the end, and the material there tracks two chapters of Zechariah rather than any Gospel.

[Textual] — distinctive shared phrasing. () - D&C 45:48: “And then shall the Lord set his foot upon this mount, and it shall cleave in twain, and the earth shall tremble, and reel to and fro, and the heavens also shall shake.” - Zechariah 14:4: “And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west”

Divergences: the prophecy names the mount twice and the revelation names it not at all, saying only “this mount” (D&C 45:48); the prophecy specifies the direction of the cleaving and the revelation gives an extent instead, “in twain”; and the revelation adds a trembling earth and shaking heavens with no counterpart in the prophecy’s verse. Because the revelation supplies no name here, this page does not supply one for it.

[Textual] — verbatim quotation. () - D&C 45:51: “And then shall the Jews look upon me and say: What are these wounds in thine hands and in thy feet?” - Zechariah 13:6: “And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.”

Six consecutive words match without variation. “wounds in thine hands” stands at exactly two distinct frozen verses in the corpus, these two. Divergence: the revelation adds two words the prophecy does not carry — “and in thy feet” (D&C 45:51) — and names the questioners, whom the prophecy leaves as “one”.

[Textual] — verbatim quotation. () - D&C 45:52: “These wounds are the wounds with which I was wounded in the house of my friends. I am he who was lifted up. I am Jesus that was crucified. I am the Son of God.” - Zechariah 13:6: “Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.”

“in the house of my friends” stands at exactly two distinct frozen verses in the corpus, these two. The prophecy’s answer stops at the wounding; the revelation continues into three consecutive self-identifications the prophecy does not carry at any point. That continuation is the whole of the difference between the two scenes, and it is the reason this section’s ending has no Gospel counterpart.

The rest of the section’s borrowed language

[Textual] — distinctive shared phrasing. () - D&C 45:2: “in an hour when ye think not the summer shall be past, and the harvest ended, and your souls not saved.” - Jeremiah 8:20: “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.”

The two nouns and the two participles are the same four words; the revelation swaps which noun takes which participle. The prophecy’s closing clause is a first-person plural lament, “we are not saved” (Jeremiah 8:20); the revelation’s is a second-person warning, “your souls not saved” (D&C 45:2).

[Textual] — distinctive shared phrasing. () - D&C 45:7: “the light and the life of the world—a light that shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehendeth it not.” - John 1:5: “And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.”

Divergences: the gospel’s past tense “comprehended” reads “comprehendeth” in the revelation, and the gospel’s independent clause becomes a relative clause attached to a self-predication. The gospel is describing a light in the third person; the revelation predicates it of the first-person speaker in the same breath as “I am Alpha and Omega” (D&C 45:7).

[Textual] — distinctive shared phrasing. () - D&C 45:8: “I came unto mine own, and mine own received me not; but unto as many as received me gave I power to do many miracles” - John 1:11: “He came unto his own, and his own received him not.”

Every divergence is one of grammatical person: third to first throughout. The revelation continues into a consequence the gospel verse does not carry — power to do many miracles (D&C 45:8) — which the gospel supplies in its next verse in different terms, treated in the record below.

[Textual] — distinctive shared phrasing. () - D&C 45:8: “but unto as many as received me gave I power to do many miracles, and to become the sons of God” - John 1:12: “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:”

Divergences: person again, and an interposed element — the revelation inserts “to do many miracles” between the giving of power and the becoming (D&C 45:8), where the gospel joins them directly. The revelation then adds a further grant tied to belief, eternal life, where the gospel’s verse names belief as the condition of the grant already made.

[Textual] — distinctive shared phrasing. () - D&C 45:9: “and to be a messenger before my face to prepare the way before me.” - Malachi 3:1: “Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple”

“prepare the way before me” stands at four distinct frozen verses in the corpus: Malachi 3:1, 3 Nephi 24:1, D&C 35:4, and D&C 45:9. The identity of the messenger is where the two part company: in the prophecy the messenger is a person to be sent, and in the revelation the messenger is the everlasting covenant sent into the world (D&C 45:9). Reported as a textual difference and not resolved.

[Textual] — distinctive shared phrasing. () - D&C 45:13: “And confessed they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth;” - Hebrews 11:13: “and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.”

Eight consecutive words match apart from one dropped conjunction. “strangers and pilgrims” stands at exactly three distinct frozen verses in the corpus: these two and 1 Peter 2:11. The letter applies the confession to those who “died in faith, not having received the promises” (Hebrews 11:13); the revelation applies it to a company it has just named as separated from the earth and received unto himself (D&C 45:12), and adds a promise the letter’s verse denies — “But obtained a promise that they should find it and see it in their flesh.” (D&C 45:14). That is a substantive divergence and this page marks it rather than smoothing it.

[Textual] — distinctive shared phrasing. () - D&C 45:19: “that desolation shall come upon this generation as a thief in the night, and this people shall be destroyed and scattered among all nations.” - 1 Thessalonians 5:2: “For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.”

“as a thief in the night” stands at four distinct frozen verses in the corpus: 1 Thessalonians 5:2, 2 Peter 3:10, D&C 45:19, and D&C 106:4. What arrives that way differs: in all three of the others it is the day of the Lord, and here alone it is a desolation upon a generation.

[Textual] — distinctive shared phrasing. () - D&C 45:25: “But they shall be gathered again; but they shall remain until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” - Luke 21:24: “and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.”

“times of the Gentiles” stands at exactly four distinct frozen verses in the corpus: Luke 21:24 and three in this section, D&C 45:25, 45:28 and 45:30. The revelation is the only carrier that says anything about the interval’s content, and what it says is that a light breaks forth among the Gentiles and is not received (D&C 45:28–29).

[Textual] — distinctive shared phrasing. () - D&C 45:31: “that shall not pass until they shall see an overflowing scourge; for a desolating sickness shall cover the land.” - Isaiah 28:15: “when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge”

“overflowing scourge” stands at exactly three distinct frozen verses in the corpus: Isaiah 28:15, Isaiah 28:18, and D&C 45:31. In the prophecy the phrase appears inside a boast the prophecy is refuting — the boast that the scourge will pass them by. The revelation carries no such frame and pairs the scourge with a second term that has no other carrier at all: “desolating sickness” stands at exactly one frozen verse in the corpus, D&C 45:31.

[Textual] — distinctive shared phrasing. () - D&C 45:54: “And then shall the heathen nations be redeemed, and they that knew no law shall have part in the first resurrection; and it shall be tolerable for them.” - Revelation 20:6: “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power”

“part in the first resurrection” stands at six distinct frozen verses in the corpus: Revelation 20:6, Mosiah 15:24, Mosiah 15:26, D&C 45:54, D&C 63:18, and D&C 76:64. The vision states the blessedness of that portion without naming who receives it; the revelation names a class — “they that knew no law” (D&C 45:54). One other carrier also names a class, and describes it differently: “they that have died before Christ came, in their ignorance, not having salvation declared unto them” (Mosiah 15:24). Whether the two descriptions pick out the same people is not settled here; the Book of Mormon side of that thread is treated on The Resurrection.

The named parable

[Textual] — paraphrase. () - D&C 45:56: “And at that day, when I shall come in my glory, shall the parable be fulfilled which I spake concerning the ten virgins.” - Matthew 25:1: “Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.”

This is one of the few places in the section where the text names its own source, and what it names is not a book but an occasion of its own speech — a parable “which I spake” (D&C 45:56). The shared string is two words. The revelation then supplies a reading of the parable’s wise: “they that are wise and have received the truth, and have taken the Holy Spirit for their guide, and have not been deceived” (D&C 45:57) — three qualifications the parable itself does not state. Minted asserted_by: "source" at the 2026-08-10 editorial review.

The signs elsewhere in the collection

The section’s catalogue of signs is not the collection’s only one, and three other passages carry material close enough that a reader working through this page should have them in view. They are cited here, not registered, because their coverage belongs to other pages.

The burning and the sequence of plagues: “the hour is nigh and the day soon at hand when the earth is ripe; and all the proud and they that do wickedly shall be as stubble; and I will burn them up” (D&C 29:9), followed by a darkened sun and a moon turned to blood (D&C 29:14) in nearly this section’s words, and then by material with no counterpart here at all (D&C 29:18–20).

[Textual] — distinctive shared phrasing. () The close of that sequence names a prophet: - D&C 29:21: “And the great and abominable church, which is the whore of all the earth, shall be cast down by devouring fire, according as it is spoken by the mouth of Ezekiel the prophet” - 1 Nephi 22:13: “And the blood of that great and abominable church, which is the whore of all the earth, shall turn upon their own heads; for they shall war among themselves”

The chain, reported as textual fact: a search of all 48 frozen Ezekiel chapters finds no occurrence of “whore of all the earth” — though Ezekiel 16 and Ezekiel 23 carry the frozen Old Testament’s densest whoredom-and-harlot imagery, applied there to named cities — so what is absent from Ezekiel is the phrase and the church-figure, not the image; the phrase stands instead at the Book of Mormon verse shown. What that pattern means for the sources these texts drew on is not asserted; Quotation and Attribution treats the class.

The trumps and the battle: an earth that shall “reel to and fro as a drunken man” (D&C 88:87), the cry “the Bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him” (D&C 88:92), and a final battle in which “Michael shall fight their battles” (D&C 88:115).
The posture the signs are to be watched in: “be not deceived, but continue in steadfastness, looking forth for the heavens to be shaken, and the earth to tremble and to reel to and fro as a drunken man” (D&C 49:23).

This section’s distinctive contribution against all three is that its signs are reported speech — given as what was said to the disciples in the flesh (D&C 45:16) — and that it ends where they do not, with the question about the wounds.

Significance

Two things about this section are worth stating because they are easy to lose in the catalogue of parallels.

The first is that the section frames itself as a re-showing rather than a new prophecy, and marks the frame at both ends (D&C 45:16; D&C 45:60). That framing is the section’s own claim about its relation to the Gospels’ discourse. It is not a claim this wiki can test — the origin of the correspondence is out of scope — but it is the reason the parallels above are dense and are also, at several points, not quite the Gospels’ wording.

The second is the shape of the ending. Every rendering of the Olivet material in the corpus closes on watchfulness — a thief, a servant, a returning lord. This one closes on a recognition scene: the returning figure is asked what the wounds in his hands are, and answers by naming himself three times (D&C 45:51–52). The language of the question is Zechariah’s; the answer belongs to no other verse in the corpus. Where the discourse’s counterparts end in a warning about not knowing the hour, this one ends in an identification.

Key references

D&C 45:1–15 — the address, the advocate’s plea, the offer to reason as with men in days of old
D&C 45:16–33 — the frame opened; the temple, the scattering, the times of the Gentiles, the scourge
D&C 45:34–59 — the fig tree, the signs, the coming, the wounds, the ten virgins
D&C 45:60–75 — the frame closed; the gathering, the New Jerusalem, the terror of the Lord
Matthew 24, Joseph Smith—Matthew 1, Luke 21 — the discourse’s other renderings in the corpus
Zechariah 13:6, Zechariah 14:4 — the prophecies behind the closing scene

The Olivet Discourse · The Voice of Warning · The Day of the Lord · The Prophecy on Wars · The Resurrection · New Jerusalem · The Gathering to Zion · Index · Connections

Sources

Doctrine and Covenants section 45 (verse text only; headnotes excluded). Cross-references quoted from Jeremiah 8, Isaiah 28, Malachi 3, Zechariah 13, Zechariah 14, Matthew 24, Matthew 25, Luke 21, John 1, 1 Thessalonians 5, Hebrews 11, Revelation 20, and Joseph Smith—Matthew 1. D&C 49 and D&C 88 are quoted in the closing disclosure section for comparison only and no connection is registered to them on this page; D&C 29 additionally carries one record here since the 2026-08-10 editorial review — the Ezekiel-named church-of-the-earth pairing at D&C 29:21, hosted on this page because verses 14–21 are this page’s material; the sections’ broader coverage belongs to The Resurrection, The Word Sent to the Shakers, and Sons of Perdition. Further carriers named inside disclosures — Mark 13, Luke 19, 1 Nephi 12 / 14 / 19 / 22, 3 Nephi 5 / 16 / 24, Mosiah 15, Ether 13, Moses 7, 1 Peter 2, 2 Peter 3, Matthew 26, Mark 14 — are cited rather than registered.

Every quote is verbatim from the frozen source text, cited to its exact reference and checked character-for-character; no quote crosses a verse boundary. Twenty-two connection records are registered here, all [textual]; one of them, the named parable of the ten virgins, was minted asserted_by: "source" at the 2026-08-10 editorial review, under its named-parable ruling, and the rest carry asserted_by: wiki. Distribution figures are counts of distinct frozen verses in the corpus, derived by search at the time of writing.