Accompanying this political and social upheaval will be a literal upheaval of the earth and heavens. The symbolic will be reflected in the physical.
Literature: Parley P. Pratt in the nineteenth century and Hoyt Brewster in the twentieth have interpreted the earth’s “remov[al] out of her place” as a tremendous change in the earth before its return to its paradisiacal state. This return to a paradisiacal state is affirmed in LDS theology as part of the Tenth Article of Faith: “We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes; that Zion (the New Jerusalem) will be built upon the American continent; that Christ will reign personally upon the earth; and, that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory.”
For Pratt and Brewster, “paradisiacal glory” included the rearrangement of the continents into the single-continent configuration while Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden. While theologically symmetrical, such a scenario cannot be reconciled with the scientific principles of plate tectonics, continental drift, and gravitation. If all of the earth’s land masses were to be reunited, especially with the presumed rapidity that would accompany the Messiah’s return, the resulting forces would be catastrophic. Major earthquakes occur with far less movement in the underlying formations. Because most of humankind could not survive such a catastrophe, it seems more probable that Isaiah was thinking of earthquakes.
Blenkinsopp renders this verse: “Then will I rattle the heavens, the earth will be shaken from its base at the fury of Yahveh of the hosts, on the day of his burning anger.” Blenkinsopp’s rendition links the “rattle” in the heavens to the “shaking” of the earth. Both of these images fit into the storm theophany context in which the term “lord of hosts” is also at home. The poetic use of these metaphors of shaking highlights the power of Yahweh as one who controls the heavens and earth and demonstrates that control through storm imagery—thunder and earthquakes.
Scripture: Revelation 6:12–14 corroborates that earthquakes will accompany Christ’s second coming (see also Matt. 24:7):
And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;
And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.
And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.
An interesting correlation to Isaiah’s description is the earthquake (v. 12) and the description that “every mountain and island were moved out of their places” (v. 14). John is probably alluding directly to Isaiah’s prophecy. (Incidentally, both descriptions show the “movement out of their places” as caused by earthquakes, rather than the reamalgamation of the continents.) Despite the devastation, the inhabitants (or most of them) will survive, also reinforcing the reading of earthquakes rather than a world-ending cataclysm. John’s parallel to Isaiah continues:
And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;
And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:
For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand? (Rev. 6:15–17)
Similarly, Isaiah 2:19 describes: “And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.” Probably both John and Isaiah saw the same vision, and John is deliberately alluding to Isaiah.