Another great change happened nearly two thousand years after the earth was made. It was baptized by water. A great flow of water came, the great deep was broken up, the windows of heaven were opened from on high, and the waters prevailed upon the face of the earth, sweeping away all wickedness and transgression—a similitude of baptism for the remission of sins. God requires the children of men to be baptized. What for? For the remission of sins. So he required our globe to be baptized by a flow of waters, and all of its sins were washed away, not one sin remaining. You were baptized, Latter-day Saints, for the remission of your sins, believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, repenting of your sin with all your heart, going down and being buried beneath the liquid grave, you came forth as new creatures. So says the New Testament; you buried the old man with all of his wicked deeds, and came forth out of the liquid element born anew. So the earth in a measure was renewed, not fully; no more than we are renewed fully by baptism; we are not made immortal, when we come out of the waters of baptism; we still retain the effects of the fall, so far as mortality is concerned. So does the earth; the earth retains the effects of sin and transgression that came upon its face. But notwithstanding it retains these effects so far as mortality is concerned, yet it was cleansed in a measure from this transgression. But alas! This earth has again become corrupted. We are required, after being baptized for the remission of our sins, to sin no more; to live holy and perfect lives, so far as we possibly can, and to keep the commandments of God in all things, and to walk in newness of life, and this to the end of our days. The earth has not been permitted to rest during the period of four thousand years and upwards since its baptism. Wickedness again has accumulated upon its face. The inhabitants of the earth have corrupted and defiled the earth by their transgression. By and by another great change will come. As the earth was cleansed from its transgression by baptism in water, so it must again be cleansed, before it is made immortal. It must be cleansed by an element that is stronger and more purifying than that of water, namely, the element of fire. Fire must prevail over all the face of this earth. What for? For the purpose of cleansing the earth from its transgressions, the same as the Latter-day Saints expect to be cleansed and purified more fully than by baptism in water—by the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost. This is the promise to all that will repent of their sins and be baptized for the remission of the same, that they shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, which is another baptism, more effectual, more cleansing, more purifying in its nature, sanctifying the inner man and the outward man, and making him a new creature. So this earth in due time must be baptized with fire first, and then the Holy Ghost. Fire will cleanse all the proud and they that do wickedly from its face—all persons that are corrupt, all sinful persons, all disobedient persons, all who do not keep the commandments of God; it will cleanse the earth by burning them as stubble, fulfilling the words of the prophet Malachi, in the last chapter, which reads thus: “For, behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.”

It seems, then, that this earth has to undergo a process very similar to that of the redeemed man. It has to obey all the great sacred ordinances of the Gospel, so far as its first principles are concerned; the earth has to undergo a cleansing process, first by water, a similitude of water baptism, and then by the Holy Ghost, a similitude of baptism by fire and the Holy Ghost which you receive by the laying on of the hands of those who have authority. Does this make man immortal? No; man still retains his mortality, even after he is baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost—his body is subject still to death. It may be burned at the stake; it may pass away as the earth will pass away; not annihilated, not one particle of our earthly tabernacles shall be struck out of existence; but the elements may be separated asunder, they may mingle perhaps with other elements—all this may take place, even after we have been sanctified and purified by the baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost. So with our earth, when it is renewed by the coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, when he shall descend, as Paul says, in flaming fire. What effect will that have? It will have the effect that is spoken of by Malachi, all the proud, including every wicked man, every wicked woman, will be swept away like stubble before the devouring flame. It will be thus when Jesus descends in the clouds of glory. The elements will be cleansed, the same as you receive a cleansing by the Holy Ghost. You are made new creatures. So the earth will be made new, and great knowledge will be imparted to the inhabitants thereof, as predicted in the 11th chapter of the prophecy of Isaiah. The knowledge of God will then cover the earth as the waters cover the mighty deep. There will be no place of ignorance, no place of darkness, no place for those that will not serve God. Why? Because Jesus, the Great Creator, and also the Great Redeemer, will be himself on the earth, and his holy angels will be on the earth, and all the resurrected Saints that have died in former dispensations will all come forth, and they will be on the earth. What a happy earth this creation will be, when this purifying process shall come, and the earth be filled with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the great deep!