I don't agree that we are that far away. Things are speeding up. That's why this time is called the hastening, aside from the fact that the work of family history and temple work is hastening.A Simple Man wrote: ↑August 25th, 2017, 3:26 pm Based on what I have learned, I make the above statement as my personal opinion and will offer my reasons for why this is the case. In the human perspective, I believe we actually have a long, long way to go before His coming.
PART I
Prior to the Second Coming there are three periods of missionary efforts to fully complete before His coming,
and the fourth will have already begun.
1. The Times of the Gentiles.
2. The Mission to the House of Israel.
3. The Mission to the Heathen Nations.
4.The Final Mission To All Mankind which will begin immediately prior to the His second coming and continue throughout the millennium.
1. The Times of the Gentiles began with the restoration of the gospel in 1830 and the launching of the missionary efforts throughout the world to primarily the Christian nations. Now, nearly 200 years later from its beginning, we continue to live in the Times of the Gentiles.
So what specific event will signify the end of this very important time period?
Briefly, it is the calling home of the missionaries from the so-called Christian nations of the earth because of their wickedness and unreceptive attitude towards the gospel. Let me be more specific. They will be called home because they are in danger. Anyone faithful to this gospel will risk persecution.
According to apostle Orson Pratt, even our meeting houses will be shut down as part of this persecution.
My guess is that the Church will be branded as promoting hate speech and intolerance.
If this happens, I suppose members will meet in one another’s homes for some semblance of church meetings.
And what will the consequences be to the world for having had the gospel messengers taken from amongst them?
The answer is found in the scriptures. There will be war, famine, pestilence, disease, earthquake, tidal waves, etc.
By these means the Lord will preach His own sermon to the world.
Other details surrounding this event will be discussed in part II.
2. Following the Times of the Gentiles, we will enter what President Kimball termed “The Great Day of the Lamanite.”
This great day will be the time their great conversion as a people and their great “blossoming as a rose.” Up to that time, their conversion and blossoming will have been limited by comparison of what will come.
And thus, will be further fulfillment of Jesus’ words: “Those who are first shall be last, and those who were last shall be first.”
* * * * Now here is an important part.
IF this Great Day of the Lamanite lasts anywhere near as long as the Times of the Gentiles, then we are AT THE VERY LEAST 200 years away from the Second Coming.
3. Following this Mission to the House of Israel, and after the Battle of Armageddon and the great Jewish conversion at Christ’s brief appearance at the splitting of the Mount of Olives, will begin the Mission to the Heathen Nations of the world. And who knows how long that mission will last?!
And so the Second Coming is even further delayed.
4. Lastly, will be the Final Mission to All of Mankind. This will take place immediately preceding the Second Coming and throughout the Millennium after the Lord’s Second Coming.
In this entire timeline, it is important to realize that our generation is but one link in a chain containing many links. The important thing is that we maintain and fortify our link.
Our posterity will have their own generational links to maintain and fortify.
PART II
So what COULD happen in the lifetime of our generation and what does it look like?
A. Prior to the end of the Times of the Gentiles, the United States will have been victorious against Russia and her allies in World War III. As to whether the Solis Cardisto account of this war is an accurate depiction, I cannot say.
But I do think that a ground invasion by Communist forces from around the world, and all the tragedy, suffering and abuse that will come with it, will be part of America’s cleansing.
B. We could see the missionaries called home from the so-called Christian nations, thus actually fulfilling the Times of the Gentiles.
This is when the Lord will begin to preach his own sermon to the world. . . the United States included.
There will be great geologic cataclysms, famine and war that will eventually end all nations.
Speaking specifically to the United States, this is when a massive civil war will break out, causing the entire fall of government on both the state and federal level. However, according to the writings of the modern day apostles and prophets, this will not be a war like unto the first civil war, the North vs. the South. It will be a war of state against state, city against city, neighborhood against neighborhood and family against family.
And it will be tremendously bloody. Perhaps maybe even like unto Book of Mormon depictions wherein the warring peoples left the corpses of the dead upon the open ground to become prey to the worms, birds and beasts.
Do you remember the promise that the Lord made to the brother of Jared regarding the Promised Land?
Well, America is going to more greatly feel the hand of God’s justice. America will be cleansed.
It’s will just be a repeat pattern from the Book of Mormon.
C. But it is not all bad news. The Lord has prepared a place to hide up His People and anyone else who will not take up the sword against their neighbor. It is here in the mountains and valleys of the Rocky Mountains.
But here too we will not be free from grave challenges. According to the modern prophets, it will be near famine if not all out famine conditions there because so many people will have fled to the Mormons to be fed.
Also, it is my opinion that it is during this time of civil war when the Lord’s prophecy from the Book of 3rd Nephi regarding the Lamanite people going “amongst the Gentiles as a lion goes through a flock of sheep” will be fulfilled. For amidst the civil war, its occurrence will be unable to be resisted.
Following this civil war, when the promised land of America has been cleansed, it is my opinion that then is the day when the prophesied great conversion and “blossoming as the rose” for the Lamanite People will go full throttle. Then some time during that period is when the New Jerusalem will be built.
In closing, I encourage the reading of Prophesy, Key To The Future by Duane Crowther.
This book has provided a great deal of the information and opinion that I have shared.
Here is a link to this years updated version.
https://www.amazon.com/Prophecy-Key-Fut ... the+future
It's an acceleration. All it takes is for the rising generation of people to apostatize from all that is good, not just in our Church, but in the so-called Christianity, for their youth to apostatize from their religions. And then, in the scriptural definition of fullness of iniquity is a physical separation of the righteous from the wicked. All we need is for the more righteous people's rights to continue to be robbed from them, and their property to be taken from them, to the degree, that they flee from the more wicked geographical areas to be among the righteous and get away from the wicked. Then the missionary efforts done by regular young people cease because it is no longer safe, and they are called home.
So, with the wicked concentrated in geographic areas, you have fulness of iniquity in those areas. Then, as prophesied by Joseph Smith, you have city against city, state against state, as a civil war where the wicked destroy the wicked, and the more wicked part of the Lamanites destroy the wicked Gentiles who are in their fulness of iniquity. As prophesied by Heber C. Kimball, the last destruction of the wicked Gentiles of this nation are destroyed in the Great Lakes area in Upstate New York, following the pattern of ancient times, and Upstate New York becomes yet again a battle ground.
With the collapse of our country which holds the world together, the rest of the societies of the world collapse. A dictator in the middle east, probably in Turkey (Erdogan?), takes advantage of the power vacuum with the lack of the United States and Russia to stop him, and he goes against Jerusalem. Two of our general authorities stationed in the middle east hold him off for a time by pure priesthood authority.
With all of this anarchy and destruction comes worldwide collapse of the social order, where the governments of all nation states collapse. Then the righteous, like in 3 Nephi, basically have to barricade themselves to some degree in centralized locations, much like the classic Road Warrior scenario with the righteous barricaded in with their food storage and other resources.
Then, when the wicked, having no storage of food and resources in those areas die off and self destruct, and are destroyed in natural disasters. Then the righteous, being no longer caged in, are able to take possession of the land again and, then a new social order arises, the Kingdom of God, at which point, a revelation is received for the New Jerusalem Temple to be built, and the Adam Ondi Ahman conference to take place.
The ten tribes will return to the truth from their apostate condition in Kurdistan, Northern Asia, and Eastern Asia, and will learn of their identities. There will be a revelation for them to have a mass exodus to North America.
The last missionaries are sent out for a time, 144000 in number (some from the ten tribes exodus from the other tribes), high priests who are mostly older individuals, but who may be translated in order to protect them from the wicked that they must face. They will gather the rest of the people that will come to the LDS Church, while the regular sectarian Christians, who are good people living among the Mormons will continue gather in those who are righteous enough to abide the day, but who will not believe in Mormonism. When all of the good people are gathered in by either the Mormons or Christians or any other good group worthy of abiding the day, will all be physically gathered, separated geographically from the wicked.
While the righteous are once again able to possess the land without fear, still quite a number of wicked people still exist and are ripe for destruction. Then, at some unspecified time after that, then comes the burning. This can all easily happen in less than two or three decades. The signs in the heavens are here. The signs in the earth and in the weather are here. Let's just go ahead and embrace that it is not far distant, in my opinion.