“The Bad Had Been Cast Away Out of the Vineyard”

Joseph F. McConkie, Robert L. Millet

In addition, the work of gathering-missionary work and the conversion of souls-will go forward in an unprecedented manner during the thousand years of peace. There will be hosts of non-members of the Church and, for that matter, numerous churches on the earth as the Millennium begins. But such shall not be the case as the glory of the Millennium grows in intensity through the thousand years.

“Some members of the Church have an erroneous idea,” President Joseph Fielding Smith observed, “that when the millennium comes all of the people are going to be swept off the earth except righteous members of the Church. That is not so. There will be millions of people ... of all classes, and of all beliefs, still permitted to remain upon the face of the earth, but they will be those who have lived clean lives, those who have been free from wickedness and corruption. All who belong, by virtue of their good lives, to the terrestrial order, as well as those who have kept the celestial law, will remain upon the face of the earth during the millennium.”

Doctrinal Commentary on the Book of Mormon, Vol. 2

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