What is the Sign of Thy Coming?

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Timeless Wisdom

Elder Holland I know that many of you have wondered in your

hearts what all of this means regarding the end of the world and your life in it.

Many have asked, “Is this the hour of the Second Coming of the Savior and all that is prophesied surrounding that event?”

Indeed, sometime not long after 9-11, I had a missionary ask me in all honesty and full of faith, “Elder Holland, are these the last days?” I saw the earnestness in his face and some of the fear in his eyes, and I wanted to be reassuring.

I thought perhaps an arm around him and some humor could relieve his anxiety a little. Giving him a hug, I said, “Elder, I may not be the brightest person alive, but even I know the name of the Church.” 

Signs of timesWhen you

look towards the future, what do you see?

Three Chapter Lesson

Matthew 23- Condemnation of the Pharisees

Matthew 24-

The result: What will happen and when to look for it (the Olivet Discourse)

Matthew 25-

How to prepare

Matthew 23 JST

Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes; and of them ye shall kill and crucify; and of them ye shall scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city;

That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel, unto the blood of Zacharias, Son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.

Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.

Ye bear testimony against your fathers, when ye, yourselves, are partakers of the same wickedness.

Behold your fathers did it through ignorance, but ye do not; wherefore, their sins shall be upon your heads.

Then Jesus began to weep over Jerusalem, saying,

O Jerusalem! Jerusalem! Ye who will kill the prophets, and will stone them who are sent unto you; how often would I have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and ye would not.

Behold, your house is left unto you desolate!

History of JerusalemIgnore the Prophets- Disobedience

Kill the Prophets, Ignore the Poor

Jerusalem Destroyed by Babylonians, 586 BC(Abomination of Desolation)

Ignore the Prophets- Disobedience

Kill the Prophets, Ignore the Poor

Jerusalem Destroyed by The Romans, 65-70 AD

Will it happen a third time?

Matthew 24 Olivet Discourse

So important, parts of it are recorded in three different places!

Matthew 24

Pearl of Great Price (JS-Matt 24)

Doctrine and Covenants 45

The questions that prompted the revelation:

Matt 24:1-3

D&C 45:16-24

Look through either Matt 24 or JS-M 1

What stands out, for you, as already happening?

The Plain and Precious Truth Restored

What will happen at “the moment”?

D&C 45: 34, 48-53

Brigham Young

"Do not be too anxious for the Lord to hasten his work and don’t be in a hurry to see the overthrow of the wicked.

Let our anxiety be centered upon this one thing:

the sanctification of our own hearts, the purifying of our own affections, the preparing of ourselves for the approach of the events that are hastening upon us.“

How to Prepare.Matthew 25

The Ten Virgins (1-13)

Elder Dallin H. OaksThe arithmetic of this parable is chilling. The ten virgins obviously represent

members of Christ's Church, for all were invited to the wedding feast and all knew what was required to be admitted when the bridegroom came.

But only half were ready when he came. . . . We need to make both temporal and spiritual preparation for the events prophesied at the time of the Second Coming. And the preparation most likely to be neglected is the one less visible and more difficult—the spiritual.

A 72-hour kit of temporal supplies may prove valuable for earthly challenges, but, as the foolish virgins learned to their sorrow, a 24-hour kit of spiritual preparation is of greater and more enduring value."11

What would prepare us the most?

Scanning the headlines?

Or scanning our heart?

Watching for Signs of the Times?

Or guarding against the Sins of the Times?

Fearing Armageddon?

Anticipating Adam Ondi Ahman?

Ignoring the Prophet in order to ‘fit in’?

Obeying the Prophet in order to ‘stand out’?

Signs of the Times

The Signs of the Times are found in our faces

each time a weary world sees something “different” in us.

The Signs of the Times are found in the lives of

Saints trimming their lamps in preparation for the coming of the Bridegroom.

Finally, Signs of the Times are found in hearts filled with hope who view the fig leaves with growing anticipation and joy.

Robert L. MilletTo read the signs of the times in our day is to read

the signs of wear and tear in the countenances of those who have chosen to love…questionable causes.

Error and wickedness take their terrible tolls upon the hearts of those who choose divergent paths; the wheels of waywardness grind away slowly but inexorably to produce a type of demented character that will never know peace of mind.

To read the signs of the times in this era of time is to make a decision in favor of Zion…or in favor of Babylon…Each city, Zion and Babylon, makes definite requirements of its citizens, and as the end approaches, each community will insist upon the total devotion and consecration of its municipals.

To read the signs is to recognize that in the future fewer and fewer Latter Day Saints will be “lukewarm”; that the myopic and the misguided of the religious world will grow in cynicism and confusion; that the ungodly will, as time goes by, sink ever deeper into a despair known only to those who revel in iniquity; and that wickedness will widen and malevolence multiply until the citizens of Babylon seal themselves to him who is the father of all lies.

(Eye Single to the Glory of God, p. 102)