"Lord, to whom shall we go?" Charting the Course of the Church from Here to the Second Coming: Part 2

Airbags Not Included

The Restoration has been a real rollercoaster.  

We've had our ups and downs, haven't we? 

But in the end we seem to be traveling a closed loop (or shall we call it a 'pride cycle?').

At some point we're going to get motion sick, exit the rollercoaster, and throw up our nachos.

Then what?

   -  Do we get back on the rollercoaster on an empty stomach?

   -  Do we sit this one out, finding a nice shady spot to fall asleep in?

   -  Do we try out some of the other amusement park rides that we haven't experienced?

Answer:  None of the above.

How about we wait patiently on our Father to come pick us up? 

​And while we're waiting, why don't we call over to our brothers and sisters to get ready so they don't miss their ride home?

Prepare Ye, Prepare Ye

The revelations given to Joseph Smith speak persistently of the Second Coming, as though the subject were never far from the Lord’s mind.

Whenever He talks about it, it seems like it is just around the corner.

   It is the eleventh hour,
   and the last time
   that I shall call laborers
   into my vineyard.

   And my vineyard has become
   corrupted every whit;
   and there is none which doeth good
   save it be a few;
   and they err in many instances
   because of priestcrafts.

(D&C 33:3-4)

The Lord commanded us to warn the world of "the desolation of abomination in the last days," and to "teach them of a judgment which is to come" (D&C 84:117, 87).

Ironically this message is the same as the one relayed prior to His First Coming by John the Baptist, Alma, and Samuel the Lamanite:

    Repent, repent,
    and prepare ye
    the way of the Lord,
    and make his paths straight;
    for the kingdom of heaven
    is at hand.

(D&C 33:10; compare with Matt. 3:2-3; Alma 7:9; and Helaman 14:9)

Talk about a platinum hit single!  Two thousand years later and we're still playing the same record.

What's the Rush?

We live in a world of free expedited, same-day shipping ― and you expect me to wait over 200 years for Christ to arrive?

   Be faithful until I come,
   for I come quickly;
   and my reward is with me.

(D&C 112:34)

"Quickly?"  QUICKLY??!  We've had time to go through an industrial revolution; we've had time to travel to the moon; we've had time to fight a couple of World Wars and to flood the earth with pornography . . . how is this "quick?"  

(Does the Lord not understand the meaning of "quickly?")

Or does He mean that he'll come quickly after a certain event, like, "Once I unscrew the cap to my toothpaste, I'll brush my teeth quickly?"

   Now it is called today
   until the coming of the Son
   of Man.

(D&C 64:23)

So it's been "today" since 1831?  How slow does the clock tick in Kolob? 

(Are we looking at a one-day-is-a-thousand-years kind of thing?)

So . . . we can expect the Second Coming sometime before the year of our Lord Two Thousand Eight Hundred and Thirty One?

(I suppose, on the outside, that's only eight centuries left of waiting.)

I really don't think we can last that long, do you?

According to the Science and Security Board (SASB), we've only got 100 seconds left on the Doomsday Clock.

So is it really, like, 11:58:20 p.m.?

Playing With Fire

Okay then, if we've got 100 seconds left, and 1 second for the Lord is like 4.22 days on earth . . . ummm . . . carry the 1 . . . assuming no leap years . . .  never mind.

​​It's no good trying to figure out when exactly the Lord is going to return.  

   Now [Christ] reigneth
   in the heavens,
   and will reign till he descends
   on the earth to put all enemies
   under his feet,
   which time is nigh at hand―

   I, the Lord God, have spoken it;
   but the hour and the day
   no man knoweth,
   neither the angels in heaven,
   nor shall they know until he comes.

(D&C 49:6-7)

Since the Lord always makes it sound like the Second Coming is imminent, it seems like that should be our messaging, too.

   That evil servant
   shall say in his heart:
   My lord delayeth
   his coming,

(Matt. 24:48)

We don't want to give the impression that the Lord "delayeth."  In fact, it's one of the "signs of the times."

   In that day shall be heard of wars
   and rumors of wars,
   and the whole earth shall be in commotion,
   and men’s hearts shall fail them,
   and they shall say that Christ delayeth
   his coming until the end of the earth.

(D&C 45:26)

​So what is Christ waiting for?

Wedding Preparations

On January 4, 1833, Joseph Smith wrote to the editor of a newspaper, Noah C. Saxton, and issued the following prophecy which was published in part by Mr. Saxton.

Joseph Smith:

And now I am prepared to say by the authority of Jesus Christ, that not many years shall pass away before the United States shall present such a scene of bloodshed as has not a parallel in the history of our nation; pestilence, hail, famine, and earthquake will sweep the wicked of this generation from off the face of the land, to open and prepare the way for the return of the lost tribes of Israel from the north country.

. . . I declare unto you the warning which the Lord has commanded me to declare unto this generation, remembering that the eyes of my Maker are upon me, and that to Him I am accountable for every word I say, wishing nothing worse to my fellowmen than their eternal salvation; therefore, "Fear God, and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment is come." Repent ye, repent ye, and embrace the everlasting covenant, and flee to Zion, before the overflowing scourge overtake you, for there are those now living upon the earth whose eyes shall not be closed in death until they see all these things, which I have spoken, fulfilled.

("Letter to Noah C. Saxton, 4 January 1833," p. 17-18, The Joseph Smith Papers)

Forget Paris

I served my mission in Paris.  But Paris is not the City of Love ― the New Jerusalem is.

Why are we supposed to "flee unto Zion?"  Imagine what it will be like to belong to Zion in a time when the love of mankind has grown cold all around it.

There are a couple of important things in this letter by Joseph Smith I want to point out.

   Point 1.  Joseph invokes the formal, prophetic voice by stating his words are given "by the authority of Jesus Christ."

   Point 2.  Joseph uses the verb "to sweep" when referring to the fate of the wicked who shall be "swept off" the land of America.  This might sound familiar:

   [This] is a land of promise;
   and whatsoever nation shall possess it
   shall serve God,
   or they shall be swept off
   when the fulness of his wrath
   shall come upon them.

   And the fulness of his wrath
   cometh upon them when they
   are ripened in iniquity.

​(Ether 2:9)

This was one of the things I had this in mind when I wrote the poem Cleaning House, but I wrote it from the perspective of the wicked who first "sweep" away the righteous.

   Where is the broom,
   my dustpan? I do not
   like this voice
   speaking from the dust:
​
   I will sweep up
   ‘repent.’ Throw it
   away as a rumor
   silences the wind
   of a thousand beating
   wings echoing
   the instinct to fly
   south.

   Ignore the inkling
   voice growing
   as mustard grain;
   prune the birdsong
   and build a scarecrow
   from its branches.

   Make their mating nests
   into a crown of hollyhock
   sapping strength from
   the tongue of turtledoves.

   Give no heed
   for the Lord hath done his work
   and given power unto us
   who hearken to the precept
   that:

           floors must be
           spotless
           and
           skies barren.

What Does it Mean to be "Swept Off?"

​​Can anyone explain what it means to be "swept off" this land?  I feel like this is kinda important since, you know, many of us are United States citizens.

Alma warned:

   There is a curse upon all this land,
   that destruction shall come
   upon all those workers of darkness,
   according to the power of God,
   when they are fully ripe;
   therefore I desire that this people
   might not be destroyed.

(Alma 37:28)

I concur!  We're talking about our families and neighbors.  I sure hope "that this people might not be destroyed," too.  

How Do We Know if We Are "Fully Ripe?"

There are two really simple tests to determine how "ripe" (or rotten) we are.

   1.  Has the Spirit of the Lord ceased striving with us?

For both the Nephites and the Jaredites, this was the death knell of their civilizations.

   The Spirit of the Lord
   had ceased striving with them,
   and Satan had full power
   over the hearts of the people;
   for they were given up
   unto the hardness of their hearts,
   and the blindness of their minds
   that they might be destroyed.

(Ether 15:19)

     a.  How do know if the Spirit has ceased striving with us?

If we want to know what it looks like for the "Spirit to cease striving," look no further than the tell-tale sign: ANGER (see, Moroni 9:4-5).

This is why we need to let go of our anger.  (Especially being angry with the wicked.)

   Love your enemies,
   bless them that curse you,
   do good to them that hate you,
   and pray for them
   which despitefully use you,
   and persecute you;

   That ye may be the children
   of your Father which is in heaven.

(Matthew 5:44-45)

   2.  Have we cast out those whom the Lord has sent?

We know we're ripe for destruction when we reject and persecute those whom God has sent to warn us (example: the city of Ammonihah).  Can I have an Amen(!) from Abinadi, Samuel the Lamanite, and Ether?

   The time cometh, saith the Lord,
   that when ye shall cast out the righteous
   from among you, then shall ye be ripe
   for destruction.

(Helaman 13:14)

Do we pass either of these two tests?

   Because to pass is to fail.

How Are the Wicked Destroyed?

You're probably wondering what's gonna happen to cause our destruction.  

Well, if history is any indicator, there are two main ways the wicked are destroyed. 

   1.  Natural Disasters.

The Book of Mormon is pretty graphic in its depiction of the Nephite destruction prior to Christ's coming:

   The whole face of the land was changed,
   because of the tempest and the whirlwinds,
   and the thunderings and the lightnings,
   and the exceedingly great quaking
   of the whole earth;

   And the highways were broken up,
   and the level roads were spoiled,
   and many smooth places became rough.

   And many great and notable cities were sunk,
   and many were burned,
   and many were shaken till the buildings
   thereof had fallen to the earth,
   and the inhabitants thereof were slain,
   and the places were left desolate.

(3 Nephi 8:12-14)

It would be redundant to quote all of the prophecies about natural disasters that will befall us in the end times; but my favorite is probably the one about hailstones the size of basketballs falling from the sky (and, for dramatic effect, they will be on fire, too) which will "destroy the crops of the earth" (D&C 29:16).

   2.  Wicked Destroy the Wicked.

The other way we generally see nations getting destroyed is by war.

   The judgments of God
   will overtake the wicked;
   and it is by the wicked
   that the wicked are punished;
   for it is the wicked that stir up the hearts
   of the children of men unto bloodshed.

(Mormon 4:5)

Both the Nephites and the Jaredites fought annihilating wars that ended their civilizations.

In perhaps one of Moroni's more poetic descriptions of the Jaredites, we read:

   So swift and speedy was the war
   that there was none left to bury the dead,
   but they did march forth
   from the shedding of blood
   to the shedding of blood,
   leaving the bodies of both men, women,
   and children strewed upon the face of the land,
   to become a prey to the worms of the flesh.

   And the scent thereof went forth
   upon the face of the land,
   even upon all the face of the land;
   wherefore the people became troubled
   by day and by night, because of the scent.

(Ether 14:22-23)

Yikes.  (I think I'd rather take the earthquake.)

By the way, have I mentioned that Yellowstone is due for a super volcano eruption?

Guest Starring the Lost Ten Tribes

Back to Joseph's letter:

   Point 3:  Notice that Joseph says the purpose of the wicked being swept off the land is "to open and prepare the way for the return of the lost tribes of Israel from the north country."

We're going to be seeing a lot more of the Ten Tribes in the coming days, so I suggest everyone refresh their memories by re-reading the discussion of the Ten Tribes in my blog post from a year ago, "Teach Us Thy Statutes, Thy Law: Part 7 (also the one where I go off on a major tangent)."

See you back here when you're done.