What if during conference this weekend President Monson announced that the Second Coming of Christ was imminent, even at the door? What would you do?
I heard a quote from Joseph Smith quoting Amos 3:7. He said that if "surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secrets unto his servants the prophets" why wouldn't he tell the prophet of his return. I think it is a valid point. I don't care if he does one way or the other, but I do think it seems like the prophet would know when it was soon. He is going to come like a thief in the night, but overall he would still have this type of arrival even if the President of the Church said it was soon. With 13,000,000 members out of 6 billion people I don't think many people on the earth would know about it. And even if they did know about it, they would just make fun of us probably and say, "Oh, one more religion trying to predict the day, it will be funny when they are wrong!"
I am not trying to say anything about the roles of prophets or anything like that. I am just asking this question: If President Monson said Christ was coming "very soon" what would you do for the rest of the weekend? Or week? Or year?
Although we know he is coming soon, I am not really sure what I would do if it was extremely imminent (besides repenting a little more. I repent consistently now, but clearly everyone would make a conscious effort to do it a little more earnestly). I know one thing I would do though, I would go by some food storage immediately, just because there are going to be some crazy times before he comes again. We have a little, but not a lot.
So what do you think? Would you quit your job? Would you move back to be around your parents? Would you apologize to people you haven't apologized to? Would you forgive those who need your forgiveness? Would you give more of your goods to the poor? Would you make a more conscious effort to say I love you? Would you bear your testimony to loved ones who should have heard it a long time before?
What would you do?
Love you guys
3 years ago
15 comments:
I’m not sure what I would do.
But your question raises a related one, which I may as well add to the mix. If you had one of those nifty Staples Easy Buttons, and if you knew that pushing it would inaugurate the millennium, would you?
We talk about wishing for the Second Coming, we pray for Christ’s speedy return, and we know that we should earnestly desire it. But do we, really? Sometimes I wonder. And I don’t mean that we perhaps don’t always desire it because we’re not ready for it—not good enough, not prepared enough, etc. I mean that we perhaps don’t always desire it because we can’t actually imagine a life different from the one we presently live.
It’s easy enough to sing about wanting to serve a king. But I sometimes wonder whether in our heart of hearts we truly want to be servants—to yield up our wills so completely.
I hope I’m wrong. Indeed, I pray I'm wrong, but . . . What do you think?
Oh bummer. I think he's right. LOL.
Matt, my first thought on this (and I mean my very very first thought) upon reading this post was, "Nothing." I would probably do very little different. At that point, honestly, what can you really do?
And I seriously doubt that's going to happen this weekend anyway.
A) We have too much to do
B) My patriarchal blessing seems rather clear about the fact that I'm going to die before it happens, and I have absolutely no intention of dying this weekend. :)
And Matt, while you're at it, how 'bout you answer your own question? What would YOU do?
Go buy food. Now. Really.
Makayla, my patriarchal blessing says that maybe, possibly, probably I would witness the second coming of Jesus Christ. That was 27 years ago. I'm now 53.
I remember years ago, for FHE when the now grown-up kids were little, making a list of all the events that were to precede the second coming. T'was a long list. I've seen many come to past, but not quite enough to make me expect the second coming this week-end.
It depends, if I thought it would be a couple of days away I would first thank the good Lord that it was going to be before I had to catch up in Spanish class. Then I would spend time with family, and call people, say thank you a lot and some more sorries (even though I have already said both, I would do it again for good measure).
I would buy food storage though, because I think food will be the most valuable commodity as time gets rough, and seeing my kids starve would be one of the worst feelings in the world.
I do repent quite often though. I am someone who thinks sincere repentance, even on the death bed, is valid, so I think lots of people would repent. But I can honestly say I repent very regularly and feel honest sorrow for my sins. So repentance wouldn't be worrying me.
Overall, I would just try to acquire food for my family. That would be most important to me. If it was really soon I would forget about all of the unimportant stuff like school and work and focus on people. I try to do that anyway, but I have to provide, which isn't debated at all.
But, the Church, last time I heard, recommends that apartment dwellers have a 72 hour kit, which we do .
And I don't think it will happen this weekend either, at all in fact. It was just something I was wondering about. I thought "hey, it could happen." It won't, but it could.
LOL - Carole... Good to know. Really, I got my blessing when I was 13, and I was totally petrified that I was going to die really young or something. My mom, who came with me when I was given the blessing, talked about the several ways that particular aspect of it could be interpreted (she didn't think it necessarily meant I was going to die first), and of course, I agree - you sort of see different things in different ways as you go along, but I still think it sounds like I'm going to die first. Lol. I don't actually care either way...
P.S. Matt - I think you are a really good dad. I read your law school post too and wished I had some really good advice (I don't), but it's impressive how careful and deliberate you and Kylee are about the way you're raising your family. The way you talk about them says a lot of very good things about you. And Steve Walker likes you to boot. He told me you're almost as much of a left-field thinker as I am (whatever the heck THAT means!)
I think I would repent more, apologize more and like you build up my food storage...in fact and lately I have been planning this, I would not only get our 72 hour kits but I would learn how to do every thing I could the old fashioned way...like make bread, Learn how to keep foods w/o refridgeration, etc.
I also think that for anyone paying close enough attention, you'll have a pretty good idea (within weeks, possibly days) of when the second coming will happen. there are some pretty specific things that are supposed to happen days before christ will come....At least I think there are if I've understood the scriptures correctly. not to say that many of us will actually be aware of them when they happen but yea....
I think that some of us living today will see the second coming. Things could get much worse pretty fast.
If I was to guess, I would say it will happen in our lifetime, but then again, I bet every generation has said that since the time of Christ.
I laughed when I read your left field comment about Dr. Walker Makayla. He is a great teacher. And I get the distinct impression in class that I have viewpoints that many others don't in class, which doesn't bother me at all. But I think that Dr. Walker and I think a lot a like in many ways. He is just a fantastic teacher. My teaching awards so far in the English Department go to, in no particular order, Muhlestein, Cronin, Walker, Eastley. I thought they were, and are, exceptional teachers, each for their own reason. But I have absolutely loved the Bible as Literature class. It has been exceptional. I would recommend every BYU English student take that class their last semester.
And I appreciate the good Dad comment. It is amazing how much I love my little family. I put Mikelle to sleep tonight and I just watched her roll around in bed when she couldn't see me thinking about how much I love her. And when her and I prayed before she went to bed I prayed that I could be the kind of Dad that she needs. So much depends on me--it is sobering. I am excited for conference tomorrow to get some more direction on how to be a good parent.
In fact, almost every good aspect as a parent or person that I feel I have comes from my association with the Church and its good people. So, publicly, thank you Carole for helping me find it, I really appreciate it.
And I am excited to hear from Elder Eyring tomorrow. I know we are not supposed to have favorites, but he is mine :)
I am the kind of person that thinks that things will be HORRIBLE before the second coming. I think of my parents and Kylee's parents and they never faced anything insane like war or invasion of their home territory. I think that will happen at some point, and it will hit me very close to home, possibly even my home.
I also think evil will be regarded as good far more than it even is today. This scares me.
In response to Professor Muhlestein's perceptive first comment, I would say this:
I think you are right. In some ways I personify this attitude now. I think about if my whole family died. If just I died it would be easy to say, "well, my kids will have to grow up without a parent and my wife will be widowed" and it is obvious that this isn't an ideal situation. But if I think of all of us dying I would still say that I don't want it to happen--I want us all to live and experience life. I don't want to go now, I am excited to see what life has in store. And even though I am convinced that everything in the next life will be better I still want to stick it out for the rest of this life.
Why? It could be because I think this life is pretty good, at least for me. I love life! I am not trying to be optimistic when I say that either, I sincerely like it. I am excited to gather my family around in hard times and see if we can make it through. I am excited to have to deal with hard things (God, don't take that as a request for them).
And, I think it is largely what you eluded to--we don't know anything else. We have seen paintings, visions and angels, but we really don't know. The glimpses don't seem enough to make us think it is a comfortable enough place to forgo this existence just yet. We have faith, but we are still waiting it out.
There are moments when I want the Second Coming to happen quickly, but I do love this life. And if the next life is all temple work--to be honest--I always fall asleep in the temple, so I don't know if realistically I could work in the temple in the next life :)
See? Now that temple comment was a left-field comment. LOL.
Bible as lit, for me, has been enormously frustrating. Not because I don't like Steve - I absolutely do - but people in my class say the stupidest things. I'm not against people being in disagreement or anything, but when you can't back yourself up with at least SOMETHING that sort of sounds legit... augh. And my classmates are really nervous about addressing hard stuff (homosexuality, divorce, women in the church, blacks and the priesthood, the relationship between agency and divine intervention, how can someone do a really bad thing [like David] and still be a good person, etc.) and so they say stupid things like, "Well, I guess God knows what he's doing." Or, "I'm sure it will all work out in the end." Those things, while true, and things I say to myself when I've sort of pushed myself to the limit, are not things that should be said in a class like that- it's just an end all and a cheap way to say, "I don't know." Of course it can also be a manifestation of faith, which is fine, but I don't get that impression very often. The point of a class like that is to talk and ask questions - good questions, and not be scared to give honest answers.
Soap box over (especially since I'm preaching to the choir). Sorry. :)
And Steve does agree with you a lot. He said that too. But then again Matt, I don't know if you've noticed, but Steve likes people so much that he tends to kind of agree with everybody... LOL.
Get some wheat now. It's getting crazy expensive. Get a hand grinder. Learn to make bread now. Start small. Store stuff under your beds. The church started pushing food storage again last year with a new started kit. It's not just for the second coming. It's gotten us through hard times before, feeding us and other families. Remember the ice storm of '98? We made it through it at home, nine days without running water nor electricity, feeding us and another family and Kendall's dad because of our food storage. WE fed another family living with us due to the dad's unemployment in Whiting Maine, using food storage. Look at all the food recalls we're experiencing now, meats, lettuce, etc. Plan to grow your own food when possible. Teach your kids to do food storage by doing it. Their generation might be the one to benefit from it the most. And who knows, by that time, you might be living in their basement, right next to their food storage! :-)
Food storage's not just a good idea, it's an inspired program. When the family of six in Whiting moved out after six months, our food storage was totally gone. Kinda discouraging, but a couple of weeks later, a sister in our ward had to go to the nursing home, too disabled to stay home by herself. She gave us all of her food storage. We had more than we originally had six months earlier.
I am excited to get food storage, there would be great peace of mind behind it.
live everyday as if it is your last because it just might be, this is something you have no control over even though we make plans as if we do. do not go to bed wishing you had said or done something just do it. A family member always said (wether original or taken from someone else) "your smallest deed is greater than your biggest intention"
as a child i didn't have something to eat for every meal and i think i am more grateful for what i have because of it. Waste not, want not. For a lot of people hunger and a lack of shelter is a paycheck away, sadly through no fault of their own. i went without eating so my children could have a meal and/or seconds which is not exceptional at all but a reality.
pick and choose your battles carefully in life, we are in the days of the end and we do not get to decide what and when it happens just be strong in your faith and do your duty in life don't sit back and say i intend to to this again just do it!!!!!
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