Signs of the Times

lundbaek · Profuse Pontificator

Signs of the Times

arbilad · Head Chef

I think it is definitely time to get our houses in order, so that we're ready for anything that comes down the line. I remember a talk in General Conference about that. I forget who said it, or which conference it was in. But he mentioned that the world is like a train speeding up. In the past, people have gotten away with getting off and playing at the stops. But increasingly the train is stopping for less and less time, and going faster in between stops. There is less time for those who goof off at the train stops, and soon they will be left behind.
I think, politically, that the world will continue to become polarized. The fence sitters will have to increasingly choose whether they're on the good side or the bad side. There'll be less room for members of the church to indulge in various worldly sins "just a little". Morality will become increasingly unpopular, and those who continue to choose to be moral will have to have a stronger conviction of the correctness of their choice.

bokbadok · Senior Bucketkeeper

I agree. And yet what if it goes on and on for years, nay decades more? How bad is it really gonna get before it's all over?

arbilad · Head Chef

I don't like to think about how bad things can get, especially when you consider how far Nephite civilization sunk before it was destroyed.

lineuponline · Veteran Member

arbilad wrote:

I don't like to think about how bad things can get, especially when you consider how far Nephite civilization sunk before it was destroyed.

Amen to that, though I fear there was a BIG reason Moroni included Moroni chapter 9.

lineuponline · Veteran Member

The pattern I've noticed throughout the Book of Mormon and the Bible is that civilizations aren't destroyed until they murder (or attempt to murder) the Lord's chosen messengers. Sometimes it's not just civilizations that murder the prophets, but also the Lord's Church's leadership ... as we know Israel did MANY times ... including Jesus of course. Also before the people are completely destroyed, the righteous are either cast out, led away, or murdered.

If scriptural history is any indicator like the writings of Isaiah, then I am led to believe that the unbelievable will occur just prior to Armageddon, yet I know that the prepared of the righteous will be spared somehow via the warnings of the Spirit to escape the calamities like King Benjamin's father. (D&C 45: 56-57)

Overall: "if ye are prepared ye shall not fear." Yes, food storage is critical.

fear of shiz · Profuse Pontificator

Or, maybe now is not the season for those warnings. Maybe the season of the Cold War was one in which the Lord's servants needed to especially sound that warning. But that threat is gone, and it is a time now for the Church to expand and to preach in new countries and to build up the Kingdom. Maybe it is still appropriate to have food storage, in case of unemployment or local disaster, and of course I support the study of sound government. But maybe now is not the time to hunker down and prepare for the end. Maybe now is the time to be out there in our communities "letting our lights shine."

arbilad · Head Chef

fear of shiz wrote:

Or, maybe now is not the season for those warnings. Maybe the season of the Cold War was one in which the Lord's servants needed to especially sound that warning. But that threat is gone, and it is a time now for the Church to expand and to preach in new countries and to build up the Kingdom. Maybe it is still appropriate to have food storage, in case of unemployment or local disaster, and of course I support the study of sound government. But maybe now is not the time to hunker down and prepare for the end. Maybe now is the time to be out there in our communities "letting our lights shine."

You and I have quite a different worldview, Shiz. I imagine that you have as much trouble understanding my position as I do yours. Of course we should let our light shine, and we should go out and improve the world as much as we can.
But there are dire threats to our way of life and society. Besides such mundane things as skyrocketing gas prices, inflation, low wage growth, etc, we have more serious threats. Society around the globe is extremely immoral. I cannot think of a single society in scripture that became as corrupt and debase as ours that didn't get humbled, and in a major way.
Also, what do you think Pres. Packer meant when he said that society is in a downward spiral that it will not recover from?

lineuponline · Veteran Member

fear of shiz wrote:

Or, maybe now is not the season for those warnings. Maybe the season of the Cold War was one in which the Lord's servants needed to especially sound that warning. But that threat is gone, and it is a time now for the Church to expand and to preach in new countries and to build up the Kingdom. Maybe it is still appropriate to have food storage, in case of unemployment or local disaster, and of course I support the study of sound government. But maybe now is not the time to hunker down and prepare for the end. Maybe now is the time to be out there in our communities "letting our lights shine."

Politically you may be correct. However food storage is a MUST and is still stressed in General Conference as it was before ... at least as recent as 2004 by Elder Oaks.

http://www.lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,89-1-439-3,00.html

also http://scriptures.lds.org/en/dc/29/7-8#7 ... "to prepare their hearts and be prepared in all things against the day when tribulation and desolation are sent forth upon the wicked."

Mahonri · Senior Bucketkeeper

Has this sign happened?

not yet....

D&C 63:32-34

I, the Lord, am angry with the wicked; I am holding my Spirit from the inhabitants of the earth.
I have sworn in my wrath, and decreed wars upon the face of the earth, and the wicked shall slay the wicked, and fear shall come upon every man;
And the Saints also shall hardly escape; nevertheless, I, the Lord, am with them, and will come down in heaven from the presence of my Father and consume the wicked with unquenchable fire.