2 Ne 8:3 the Lord shall comfort Zion

Since the organization of the church, the saints have been the object of persecution and public ridicule. While these difficulties may have lessened of late, the lot of the latter-day saint continues to be more persecution than adoration. Yet, all of these inequities, individually and collectively, will be wiped away. Those saints who were commanded to build Zion in the 1830’s (see DC 57 & 63) must have been horrified when they were mobbed and driven from their Jackson County homes. The promise is, and has always been, that the Lord does not expect his saints to suffer forever. “This verse (2 Ne. 8:3) was a great comfort to the Saints when they were driven out of Missouri and later out of Illinois. The Lord assured the Saints that eventually he would pour out comfort and blessings upon his people in America.” (W. Cleon Skousen, Isaiah Speaks to Modern Times, 633-634 as taken from Commentaries on Isaiah in the Book of Mormon, ed. by K. Douglas Bassett, [American Fork, UT: Covenant Publishing Co., 2003], 37)

Ezra Taft Benson

“We live in a time when the devil is on the loose and is working among the Saints to thwart and tear down the work of God. But he will not succeed. Individuals may fall and there may be those who betray sacred covenants, but the kingdom of God will roll forward until it reaches its decreed destiny to fill the entire earth.

“I carry in my calendar book a passage of scripture that I sometimes use to remind myself and others about the eventual outcome of efforts to destroy the Church: ‘No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall revile against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord.’ ("3 Ne. 22:173 Nephi 22:17.)” (Come unto Christ [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1983], 22.)