A day of burning is coming. “This is speaking after the manner of the Lord” (D&C 64:24), for fire is symbolic of God’s glory (God dwells in “everlasting burnings”; see commentary at Helaman 5:23–50). When the Lord and all his holy ones come to earth at his coming in glory, those people and things that cannot stand his glory will be burned: “I will burn them up,” says the Lord (D&C 64:24).
Following is a series of scriptural passages that shed further light on the burning or fire that will destroy the world at his coming and change it to a loftier sphere:
“The Lord will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire” (Isaiah 66:15; emphasis added).
“The inhabitants thereof are consumed away and utterly destroyed by the brightness of my coming” (D&C 5:19; emphasis added).
“All the proud and they that do wickedly shall be as stubble; and I will burn them up… . For I will reveal myself from heaven with power and great glory… . Mine apostles, the Twelve which were with me in my ministry at Jerusalem, shall stand at my right hand at the day of my coming in a pillar of fire, … in glory even as I am” (D&C 29:9, 11–12; emphasis added).
“All flesh shall see me together. And every corruptible thing … shall be consumed; and also that of element shall melt with fervent heat” (D&C 101:23–25; emphasis added).
“The presence of the Lord shall be as the melting fire that burneth” (D&C 133:41).
“The day cometh that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly shall burn as stubble; for they that come shall burn them, saith the Lord” (Joseph Smith–History 1:37; emphasis added).
See also Ezekiel 1:27; Zephaniah 3:8; 2 Thessalonians 1:7–8; 2:8; D&C 43:32; 45:57; 63:34; 130:7.
Notice who will be burned at the Second Coming: “all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly.” The Lord singles out one particular sin—pride—and lumps all the rest of the sins of humanity into the generic “all that do wickedly.” It is obvious that the Lord hates pride (Proverbs 6:16–17). He knows how that one sin is the basis for, and can lead to, so many other sins. Pride is the great distracter and obstructer to all spiritual progress.
Those who cannot abide the day of burning will be left with “neither root nor branch,” meaning that they will have in the eternal worlds neither ancestry nor posterity—no eternal family connections. They were unworthy of the sealing ordinances of the holy priesthood.