"Lord, to whom shall we go?" Charting the Course of the Church from Here to the Second Coming: Part 23 (Conclusion)

Open Upon My Death

A young man is excited to attend his first Super Bowl. 

He spots an empty seat next to an older man on the 50 yard line.

"Is this seat taken?" the young man asks, hoping to have a better view of the game.

The man replies, “No.”

The young man is surprised and asks, “How could someone pass up a seat like this?”

“It’s my wife’s seat," the old man replies.  "We’ve been to every Super Bowl together since the day we were married but she’s passed away.”

“Oh, I am sorry” the young man says. “But couldn’t you find a friend or relative to come with you?”

“No,” the man replies, “They’re all at the funeral.”

The Game's Afoot

​​Well, this is a new record: 23 entries in this Series (the previous record was held by "Done by Common Consent," which topped out at 19 entries).

I started with a football joke because of something I want to share.

All my life I have felt the winds winding up toward what we-in-the-biz call the "Final Scene."  Have you heard of the Winding Up Scenes?  The 'ol End-of-the-World-as-we-know-it?

I suppose every generation believes they are special ― that they will be the ones to pick up the Lord's work and advance it down the field.  

So you can imagine my surprise witnessing over the years the ball retreating.  This isn't right, I thought!  The ball is moving in the wrong direction.  What's going on?

And of course I came to realize (as many of you have) that I had been deceived and distracted by the game being played on the field ― which was not the real game at all. 

I saw that the Lord was active in the bleachers, at the concession booth, in the parking lot.  The Lord tried getting the attention of the players but they were too invested in the game.  So the Lord was calling the destitute and downtrodden, the poor and marginalized to join him in playing a very different sort of game.

Well, can you believe it?  All my life I had been taught to keep my eyes on the quarterback and to follow his playbook.  And gradually my eyes were opened, and I realized that the Lord didn't have a stake in which team won or in who took home the championship trophy. 

Instead, Christ was busy at work among those who hadn't even made the team ― the weak and simple things of the earth ― who didn't wear jerseys and who don't have letterman jackets.  

Then I saw that Satan was refereeing the field (how did I not see that before?), throwing flags and stirring up the players and the crowd.  In their contentious rivalries, the fans in the stands cheered and cursed depending on who was winning.  

Satan worked to ensure that the game would go into double overtime.  While everyone was caught up in the thrill of the competition, they failed to notice that one-by-one, the Lord was escorting a few here and few there away from the stadium. 

"Wait!" I called out to him.  "Where are you going?"

What I Am Trying to Do

​If you'll permit me to be a bit vulnerable, I want to share some personal thoughts.

The Jesus I know is playful.  He is also brutally honest.  He carries with him a sense of endless possibility and hope.  

The thing that struck me most about Him, though, was that he carries no spirit of judgment or condemnation. 

It was surprising how many inside jokes we shared.

I remember one time praying about the future.  What did the Lord want me to do ― as a father and husband, as a provider and protector ― in order to prepare for what is coming? 

I had the thought, "If you plan for the future from a place of fear, you open yourself to be deceived."

So I decided that I would orient myself away from fear and toward love.  What did it mean to prepare for the future from a place of . . . love?

I wanted to share this:

"Fruit is sweet when it is picked in season, but taken too soon, when it is not yet ripe, it is bitter, and taken too late it lies rotten on the vine and will perish.  You are a laborer in my vineyard, but you are to tend my fruit ― only I can preserve it.  The harvest, after all, is mine."

I know the Lord has things well in hand.  We get to labor with Him but the work is (and always was) His. 

He is, after all (as Mary first believed), the Gardener.

The fruit he is trying to preserve is our souls.  Christ is the one who weeds around our trunks, who dungs about us and prunes our unnatural growth; He is the one who harvests our grapes to make sweet wine.  

And like a true friend, he sits down with us to share a drink.

   We are in good hands.

Exciting Times Ahead

The key to preparing for the future is to keep a prophetic perspective:

   1.  Zion is the ark.  It is a marriage between the bride (Zion) and her husband (Christ).  

   2.  How do we know if we're ready for Zion?  Well, there's an easy test: can we endure the presence of the Lord without burning up like a box of Cornflakes doused in kerosene?  Because the Lord will walk among the inhabitants of Zion. 

   3.  Our preparation to flee unto Zion (the ark) is NOT to be done in haste.  "Let not your flight be in haste, but let all things be prepared before you" (D&C 133:15).  So let's not rush foolishly, driven by fear.

   4.  There are spiritual and physical preparations we would be prudent to begin at this time.  Have you prayed and asked for specific direction from the Lord for you and your family?  After all, Lehi was led out of Jerusalem while Jeremiah was commanded to remain and go into exile.  Two prophets, but two different paths.  No one can tell you what is right for you and your family except the Lord.

   5.  Time is hastening and so I best be blunt: Zion cannot arise from a hierarchy, which is antithetical to the celestial law of equality required for a people to be "one."

   6.  The gospel exists independently of an organization.  Likewise, the children of Christ exist independent of an organization.  The Lord says those who repent and live his gospel are his church.  "It is my church, if it so be that they [not "it"] are built upon my gospel" (3 Nephi 27:8).

   7.  We need to learn to hear the voice of God and to be guided by the Holy Spirit so we will not be rudderless when the Church is broken up.   The Lord compared the "wise virgins" to those who "have received the truth, and have taken the Holy Spirit for their guide, and have not been deceived" (D&C 45:57).

   8.  The purpose of gathering into a body of believers is not to create inequality by dividing people into leaders and followers.  The purpose of gathering is to love one another, to bear each other's burdens, to mourn together, to labor in the fellowship of friendship.  

   9.  The Lord does not put new wine into old bottles.  If he did, the bottles would burst.  So the Lord is not going to pour Zion into the organizational structure of the modern Church, since it is incapable of "holding" Zion.  All things must become new.  Including a new heaven, and a new earth.

   10.  We need an ark because of several natural and social calamities that are coming.  These devastations come when the people are "fully ripe" in iniquity and will sweep the inhabitants off the face of the land to prepare the way for the return of the lost Ten Tribes.

   11.  Zion requires a people who are pure in heart, and also (1) a holy house; (2) a holy city; and (3) a holy name.

   12.  When times get tough, we need to understand that it is okay to die.  Life goes on.  We need a loving reason to strive on, to live another day.  Instead of seeking to preserve our own lives, we can focus on living so that we can bless other people.

   13.  Instead of having a "bunkering" mentality, let's take care of one another.  We need community.  We cannot make it alone.  The promises of the Lord will be fulfilled communally.

   14.  When men's hearts are failing them, it's going to be tough to carry on with "unwearingness."  We're going to need to remember that it's going to be okay: God has a plan that stretches across eternal lives and countless worlds.  

   15.  If you're feeling overwhelmed, take a breath and remember: we don't have to save the world or even change the world.  God's got it under control.  We just need to warn our neighbors.  Let's invite them to prepare with us.  We don't need to start non-profits and go on television: but we all can have a quiet conversation with family and friends.  It is time. 

   16.  In Part 6, I shared some simple suggestions of ways we can improve the Church and make the organization more loving ("Practical Suggestions for Overcoming Priestcraft, A-Z").  Take a look and see if the Spirit prompts any ideas in you.

   17.  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is identified with the "gentiles."  We are "Ephraimite gentiles" who have become a multitude of nations.  On the other hand, the New Jerusalem will be built by the remnant of Jacob and the Lamanites.​  We gentiles get to "assist" them.  

   18.  As gentiles, we are restorers in two important ways.  First, we restore the knowledge of the covenants of the Lord to the House of Israel.  Second, we are supposed to restore Israel to the lands of their inheritance (not just talking about Jerusalem, here).

   19.  The Times of the Gentiles will be fulfilled (i.e., their day of grace has passed) when, after having received a fulness of the gospel, "they receive it not . . . and turn their hearts from me because of the precepts of men" (D&C 45:28-29).  I am here to witness that the Times of the Gentiles are concluding as we speak.

   20.  I know this is delicate, but let's not shy away from hard truths: the modern Church has chosen "abominations" over the gospel of Christ; to be specific, Jacob describes in Jacob 2 several sins we have nursed, raised to maturity, and institutionalized as part of our faith: (1) the abominable sin of inequality; (2) the abominable sin of polygamy; and (3) the abominable sin of racism.  

   21.  Any gentiles who repent can be "numbered among" the remnant of Jacob (and the Lamanites).  That's the group we want to be associated with in the end times.

   22.  It is really stunning when we see the big picture laid out in prophetic scripture: the Lord restores a Church among the gentiles through Joseph Smith and commissions that Church to seek out and "restore" his people, the Lamanites, as nursing fathers.  Then, after the Lamanites have been restored to the covenants of old, they shall bring about the New Jerusalem.  So all along it was never the gentiles' job to build Zion alone.  We can't do it ourselves.

   23.  Isaiah spells out end-time events better than anyone.  He describes how Egypt (the United States) will collapse.  Our military and political leaders will be powerless to prevent a foreign nation from taking over.

   24.  Isaiah also describes how we can't get clean water and reasons why we won't be able to grow food.  This leads to horrific events and destruction.

   25.  Despite the harrowing portrayals of the future, the Lord tells us to "be not troubled."  Why?  Because He is working a marvelous work and wonder.  He is fulfilling promises made of old.  The Lord will raise up men and women who are prepared for such thrilling times.  It is going to be worth sticking around to behold his hand.

Conclusion

Remember, regardless of the confusion happening in this world, we have a window into heaven. 

   The kingdom of God is within us. 

Everything that is happening here on earth is part of a broader context that includes higher kingdoms, principalities, and dominions.