For a long time I've been of the strong opinion that Christ's second coming (when He returns to Earth to reign for a thousand years of peace) will not happen during my lifetime. So often when I hear members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints talk about the second coming they believe that it's almost here and how they expect it to happen sometime very soon- probably before they die. Why do they believe this?
In the 10th Article of Faith it states, "We believe... that Christ will reign personally upon the earth; and, that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory." Joseph Smith wrote the Articles of Faith in 1842, twelve years after the Church was restored upon the earth, but he never said when Christ would return. Since the restoration many saints also believed that Christ's second coming would happen during their life time, but how many generations have passed away since then?
Nowhere has the Church, the prophets, apostles, or the Lord stated when Christ will come. What we do know is that the second coming of Christ will come in the Lord's "own due time" (see D&C 43:30) and Jesus himself said:
Christ compared the time before His coming with the days of Noah before the flood. At that time, all the righteous were taken to heaven (with the City of Zion/Enoch or later translated) and by the time of the flood there were only eight righteous people upon the earth. The wickedness of the world was "ripe for destruction" (see Alma 10: 19 and Hel. 13: 14).
Now to clarify, I am not saying that we should "eat, drink, and be merry" and then repent later, that's not what I'm saying at all. When we die (which can happen at any time) that is when our time of mortal probation is over and we will be judged based upon the choices we've made during our lives.
What I am saying, is that I believe there is a common misconception in the "culture" of the Church (not the doctrine of the gospel of Jesus Christ) where members believe the second coming of Christ is right around the corner- and I just don't believe that. What do you believe?
I've just "scratched the surface" of why I believe this. There are still so many other reasons why I believe there is still yet to be many, many more years before Christ's second coming. What's your opinion? Share your thoughts about this in the comments!
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Previous poll: Which Tribe of Israel Are You From?
In the 10th Article of Faith it states, "We believe... that Christ will reign personally upon the earth; and, that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory." Joseph Smith wrote the Articles of Faith in 1842, twelve years after the Church was restored upon the earth, but he never said when Christ would return. Since the restoration many saints also believed that Christ's second coming would happen during their life time, but how many generations have passed away since then?
Nowhere has the Church, the prophets, apostles, or the Lord stated when Christ will come. What we do know is that the second coming of Christ will come in the Lord's "own due time" (see D&C 43:30) and Jesus himself said:
"But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.In this same chapter of scripture Christ also taught some of the signs that will be given before He returns. Some of these signs are starting to be fulfilled but it's only the "beginning of sorrows" (vs 8). So many people think that the world is so wicked that it's about ready to be destroyed, but in my opinion it's not even close!
"But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be" (Matthew 24:36-37).
Christ compared the time before His coming with the days of Noah before the flood. At that time, all the righteous were taken to heaven (with the City of Zion/Enoch or later translated) and by the time of the flood there were only eight righteous people upon the earth. The wickedness of the world was "ripe for destruction" (see Alma 10: 19 and Hel. 13: 14).
Now to clarify, I am not saying that we should "eat, drink, and be merry" and then repent later, that's not what I'm saying at all. When we die (which can happen at any time) that is when our time of mortal probation is over and we will be judged based upon the choices we've made during our lives.
What I am saying, is that I believe there is a common misconception in the "culture" of the Church (not the doctrine of the gospel of Jesus Christ) where members believe the second coming of Christ is right around the corner- and I just don't believe that. What do you believe?
I've just "scratched the surface" of why I believe this. There are still so many other reasons why I believe there is still yet to be many, many more years before Christ's second coming. What's your opinion? Share your thoughts about this in the comments!
Next poll: Have You Read the Old Testament?
Previous poll: Which Tribe of Israel Are You From?
I’m 64 and my Patriarchial Blessing says nothing about the 2nd coming. My children’s talk of difficult times and how they will help ease suffering, and that they will help prepare for the 2nd coming, but I don’t know if it will be in their lifetime, either. Maybe my grandchildren will. The youth today seem to be very strong.
I wish. The planet is just not as the days of Noah. Just isn’t. I don’t think the extent of wickedness will ever exactly be as in the days of Noah. It can’t. The Church has been restored and the leadership of the Church alone stand as an imoveable force for righteousness. Let alone all the stahlwart members at large. The sins of the world are as they were, but righteousness abounds too. And that is the difference. So what does this mean? We wait. And we prepare.
My patriarchal blessing blesses me that I will be in the first resurrection — means to me that I will be dead by then.
My patriarchal blessing says nothing about the 2nd coming – and I’m 54. My son’s does, however.
This poll is kinda useless without knowing the age distribution of the people voting. A lot of young people voting yes is much more meaningful than people of all ages voting yes.
It’s important to note that the events in The Book of Mormon before Christ’s coming to the people on the American continent is considered a warning about the Second Coming as well. Namely, there will be a mass exodus from belief in God to people mocking and persecuting those who continue to believe. We see the beginning of this in TV shows now, as the message to “put our religious superstitions behind us” is constantly being proposed to us.
The ‘Nearness Syndrome’ has been around for a long time. New Testament leaders had to deal with the disappointments and perplexities of many early Saints that believed the Parousia was immanent.
Concerning the end time and his second advent Jesus is reported to have said, ‘this generation shall not pass before these things shall be fulfilled.” [see Matthew 24]
It would be hard to fault anyone hearing that took away from it the idea that Jesus was referring to themselves.
Since it didn’t happen as expected, and still hasn’t, we know that Jesus was not passing on a piece of simple information.
Paul’s urgency in establishing the Church in Gentile Nations speaks to his understanding that the Parousia would not be long delayed.
However, as time went on and many of the ‘this generation’ had died without witnessing Christ’s triumphant return to claim his Kingdom, it was evident that either Jesus was misreported or misunderstood.
That understanding having matured in their minds, two of the Lord’s apostles, John and Paul, sought theological explanation for the error of belief and methods of dealing with the perplexity that came in the wake of this realisation.
Paul, who was a master at on-the-hoof theology informed the Church that reports of an early return to earth by the glorified and exalted Jesus Christ were to be treated as ill-founded rumours, even when ‘proof’ was offered in the form of either gossip [internet chat], or written, ‘by letter as if from us [Apostles].’
Paul effectively makes-over the literal expectation that brought disappointment in the failure of immediacy of Christ’s descent for the troubled saints the, by re-designing the scenario of the fate of those saints of ‘this generation’ that are dead without seeing fulfilment, and the understandable rumblings of those that have buried their kin without realising the glorious promise that has turned, or is in process of turning, into bitterness at the failure of the divine promise.
The major danger to faith being that Jesus either didn’t tell the truth, or that he was not divine and, therefore, made promises the keeping of which were outside whatever powers he had.
In Thessalonians, Paul says that they should not worry, for though their Christian kin are dead, when Christ comes they will be raised up to meet him in the air.
Although Paul’s restructured sequence of events does not align perfectly with the prevailing notion of expectation, since the result is parallel, the theology puts at rest the doubts and anxieties of a people who had begun entertaining doubts about the divine promises.
John takes a different direction. Whereas Pauline eschatology is always a future event that will take place at the return of Jesus, John moves the even out of the future and into the immediate present, and this displays the remarkable genius of John who, although recognised as an inspiring spiritual writer, is overlooked as a theologian, yet his remarkable doctrine of ‘realised eschatology’ is at the heart of many of the Christian religious movements of our age that insist that you can be saved in a nanosecond by an ‘encounter’ with Jesus.
They owe John a massive debt for their slender and insubstantial credo, but John is in no way responsible for their abandonment of 99% of the teachings of Jesus in favour of the 1% that they think they comprehend, but which they signally fail to understand.
John has two major purposes in writing his Gospel: First, the establishment of the humanity and divinity of Jesus in the face of the Gnostic Stew that was overwhelming the struggling Church, and, second, he faced the same problem as did Paul in explaining to survivors and the children of the survivors of ‘this generation’ that had ‘passed away’ without any of the ‘things’ and events having been ‘fulfilled.’
John’s solution to this is the develop ‘realised eschatology.’ John’s Gospel is a book about Jesus the Messiah in which what happened is less important than what it meant.
John presents the readers to certain events in the life of Jesus in which he brings the reader to stand before Jesus and witness the things – signs – wonders – miracles – that Jesus brings about.
On the strength of what he/she sees [imaginatively, led by the descriptive text] Jesus do the reader is challenged to determine there and then whether Jesus is divine, whether he is the Son of God, whether he is the Saviour, whether Jesus has the power to bring the reader from the darkness into the light; to raise him from being a being of this earth ‘below’ into a being belonging to heaven ‘above;’ and whether Jesus can move the reader from his present mortality the end of which is death, into immortality, and Eternal Life, even exaltation, no less.
Now, Jesus will not come to satisfy the results of a poll, but he will come when the conditions that he laid out two thousand years [and more] ago are fulfilled, and then it will be the father, not the Son, that shall say, “It is time. We will wind up this present world, and change it into what it is destined to become.
The part that we must play is to make the best of this life and prepare for that life that is to come.
Whether we will be alive when the Saviour comes, or whether we will be the eternal world makes no difference whatsoever to the blessings we shall receive if we continue to build up the Kingdom of God here on earth.
President Kimball has provided us with a sure guide as to what we must be doing during whatever remains of our mortality.
“We must cooperate completely and work in harmony one with the other. There must be unanimity in our decisions and unity in our actions.
After pleading with the Saints to ‘let every man esteem his brother as himself’ (D&C 38:24), the Lord concludes his instructions on cooperation to a conference of the membership in these powerful words:
“‘Behold, this I have given unto you as a parable, and it is even as I am. I say unto you, be one; and if ye are not one ye are not mine.’ (D&C 38:27.)”
If the Spirit of the Lord is to magnify our labours, then this spirit of oneness and cooperation must be the prevailing spirit in all that we do.
Moreover, when we do so, we are told by the Prophet Joseph Smith that
‘the greatest temporal and spiritual blessings which always come from faithfulness and concentrated effort, never attended individual exertion or enterprise.’
(Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 183.)”
Spencer W. Kimball, “Becoming the Pure in Heart,” Ensign, May 1978, 81
Polls do not and cannot determine doctrine nor influence Our father to do other that what he designs, purposes, and deigns to do.
Speculation in matters that are unrevealed lays open a fertile ground for Satan to plant his ideas, perplexities, disappointments, and disaffection.
“Be still and know that I am God”
Anyone has the opportunity to meet JESUS CHRIST at the time of his death because all of us will report to him when we die and HE will assign us either to spirit prison or paradise. This will happen to anyone at anytime because no-one control his own life.
It is not true that JESUS CHRIST doesn’t know when HE will come again. The scripture says, NO ONE KNOWS EXCEPT THE FATHER, even the day and the hour.
JESUS CHRIST for sure knows when he comes again but the day and the hour he knoweth not. Please review the Book of Revelation, when JESUS CHRIST revealed to John the Beloved that HE will come in the opening of the 7th seal. Why should he reveal something if he doesn’t know. But still is sustain the truth that the day and the hour is still a mystery because only the FATHER knows.
Now, we have the Doctrine and Covenants that reveals the meaning of the 7 seals in the Book of Revelation. This will unlock the mystery as to when JESUS CHRIST will come again and when will be the opening of the 7th seal.
The meaning of the seven seals is equivalent to a thousand year of dispensation per seal or a total of 7 thousand years. The first seal happened when JESUS CHRIST triumph over death and ascended to heaven and given the opportunity to open the book with 7 seals. The scripture says he is the only one worthy to open it because he triumphed over death. It is very clear that the opening of the first seal started after his resurrection. Since the 7 seals stands for 7 thousand years, therefore, there are 7 thousand years from the time of his death and up to his 2nd coming. And he said in the Book of Revelation that he is coming on the opening of the7th seal.
We are still on the beginning of the 3rd seal, please try to compare the Book of Revelation to see that it relates exactly to this time.
I can give you proof that, the time that passed since the
time of creation and up to the time of JESUS CHRIST’S birth is 12,000 years. We have already passed the 2 dispensation of two 6 thousand years and the other one and last 6 thousand years is not yet finished. It is the time that we are in right now. We are in the beginning of the 3rd seal, so we still have 3 seals to come (meaning 3,000 years) before the opening of the 7th seal (a time when JESUS CHRIST will come again).
So, for someone to say that JESUS CHRIST will come before he die is not true. The truth is that, when he die he will meet JESUS CHRIST to give him the second judgement of his eternal life, whether he will be consigned to paradise of spirit prison.
Bro. Leonardo V. Pastedio
email add: leonardopastedio@yahoo.com
For anyone who needs further explanation please email to me, I will be happy to help you.
My Patricarcial blessing says I will be present on earth at the time of the second coming… Im 41.
It’s a hard thing to say. In my opnion it would take a little longer ’cause there are many profecies yet to be fullfilled. My Patriarchal blessing tells me that I’ll be in the first resurrection, so I suppose that I’ll be dead at that time.
No big deal. It’s beyond us!
Perhaps it’s because Church leaders have been telling us form day one that it’s right around the corner. Local leaders regularly point to the evil around us and say look see how bad things are. Kids of every generation are told they are chosen and select to usher in the 2nd coming. My Mo’s were told this, I was and my kids are now. No wonder members are confused. I was in a seminar where GA was lecturing who claimed that he read a blessing of someone which stated that he would be one of the two prophets to die in Jerusalem and be resurrected and control the weather. I find it hard to believe, rarely if ever are Patriarchal blessings so specific but if true he would be between 50 and 60 now.
Reading the revelations of various Prophets also outline many specific things that must occur before the 2nd coming, most of which have not.
Lastly, Church leaders have aded the new refrain lately that many prophecies repeat a number of times and just because one has been fulfilled once does not mean it won’t happen again, or many more times. I find this rather convenient and stretching but I hear it a lot lately and it’s in many LDS books now. I don’t like it because it sounds like a con man’s excuse. I would rather hear them say they simply don’t know and until the actually fulfilling version happens we won’t know and anything that happens that seems like fulfillment of a prophecy might just be coincidence. That would be more believable to me.
In the end it does not matter, live the most righteous life we can, do what the Prophet says and you don’t need to worry about when the Savior is coming.
Holding all things constant, the Second Coming will have to wait many generations. However, things in this world can change so fast. It could literally be around the corner.
If it does I’ll probably get to watch it on my I-phone or in the air while on JetBlue.
The question of the Second Coming has given rise to all sorts of ideas. The majority of these however really don’t examine the question from the Bible’s point of view. The Biblical account is at variance with most of these interpretations, and particularly with the Futurist explanation of prophecy which centers on the future rise of the anti-christ.
Jesus is coming again as most Evangelical Christians currently believe and we are in fact currently witnessing the actual Second Coming (in slow motion) even as I write this response. However, the prophesied events leading up to the Second Coming are taking place over a period of years and so many people do not notice them. They also do not notice because of the interpretation that they put on the words of the Bible, which is leading them to look for signs that are not going to happen.
Right at this time we are in the final events of the Sixth Bowl judgment. The full story can be read in the free book, “The Second Coming in slow Motion” found on SCRIBD at http://www.scribd.com/doc/14971456/The-Second-Coming-in-Slow-Motion
i would say that its possible for the second coming to be very soon …Israel is a strong but very vunerable nation nation right now, the wickedness of today is like the days of Noah….worse think abut how many stories we hear of real disguisting child rape and murder its rampant so many ohter things…Jesus said the most important commandment was this ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these….Israel coming to be that generation will not pass until the final judgement…
he is already comes just the human don’t know yet…
The scripture says, NO ONE KNOWS EXCEPT THE FATHER..
it’s true…because the soul of christ have been born in to a new born baby…all his 1st time come to earth memory all have been forgot …now he have to teach a new scripture for this new century human mind…
a secret never known by human their self…
this secret reveal after christ at 17 year old know by himself only..
& told by his father his soul never like the other..
the prof is in his eyes….
The Father ( GOD ) told him
u are the chosen..& u born in many century & many lifetime for each religion at every time u born for human
because of different beliefs, cultures, opinion & diffrents citizens/ So u have to born using human body as bodhitva in buddhist,christ in christian,nabi in islam & other name for other religion…
So they are just one.
human are just dont know the true fact of chosen one yet…
if human believe they are same person ( same soul ) then this world will not have this many different religious then will have peace because they will think they are all family even though what different in nationality.