The allegory of Zenos is structured about elements of urgency—the Lord of the vineyard being anxious to gather up the harvest before the end of the season, or “against the season” (Jacob 5:13, 18, 19, 20, 23, 27, 29, 31, 46, 76), for “the end is nigh at hand, and the season speedily cometh; and if ye labor with your might with me ye shall have joy in the fruit which I shall lay up unto myself against the time which will soon come” (verse 71).
The “end of the world” is the destruction of the wicked (Joseph Smith Matthew 1:4), the destruction of those who are not either terrestrial or celestial at the time of Christ’s coming in glory. “The righteous need not fear,” Nephi taught, “for they are those who shall not be confounded. But it is the kingdom of the devil, which shall be built up among the children of men, which kingdom is established among them which are in the flesh—for the time speedily shall come that all churches which are built up to get gain, and all those who are built up to get power over the flesh, and those who are built up to become popular in the eyes of the world; and those who seek the lusts of the flesh and the things of the world, and to do all manner of iniquity; yea, in fine, all those who belong to the kingdom of the devil are they who need fear, and tremble, and quake; they are those who must be brought low in the dust; they are those who must be consumed as stubble” (1 Nephi 22:22–23). In short, “the time speedily cometh that the Lord God shall cause a great division among the people [cf. D&C 63:54], and the wicked will he destroy; and he will spare his people, yea, even if it so be that he must destroy the wicked by fire” (2 Nephi 30:10). (Joseph Fielding McConkie and Robert L. Millet, Doctrinal Commentary on the Book of Mormon, 4 vols. [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1987–1992], 2:71)