Looking Forth for the Great Day of the Lord to Come - Lesson 21 Scriptures and Quotes

Doctrine and Covenants 59:15-16

Doctrine and Covenants 61:36-39

Reading 1 - [S]ometime 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.” We then talked about being Latter-day Saints. I said, “Yes, Elder, we are in the last days, but there is really nothing new about that. The promised Second Coming of the Savior began with the First Vision of the Prophet Joseph Smith in 1820. So we already have about 184 years of experience seeing the Second Coming and the last days unfold. We can be certain that we are in the last days—years and years of them,” I said . . . . (Terror, Triumph, and a Wedding Feast, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, fireside address at Brigham Young University on 12 September 2004)

Reading 2 – Doctrine and Covenants 45:44

Reading 3 – Doctrine and Covenants 29:9-11

Reading 4 – Doctrine and Covenants 88:89-95

Reading 5 – Doctrine and Covenants 49:6-7

Joseph Smith said:  "Jesus Christ never did reveal to any man the precise time that he would come. Go and read the scriptures, and you cannot find anything that specified the exact hour he would come; and all that say so are false teachers." (HC, 6:254)

Reading 6 – Doctrine and Covenants 88:95-97

Doctrine and Covenants 29:13

Reading 7 - Doctrine and Covenants 101:23-34

Reading 8 – Doctrine and Covenants 45:58-59

Reading 9 – Doctrine and Covenants 101:22-23

Doctrine and Covenants 133:4-5

Reading 10 – President Gordon B. Hinckley taught: “How do you prepare for the Second Coming? Well, you just do not worry about it. You just live the kind of life that if the Second Coming were to be tomorrow you would be ready. Nobody knows when it is going to happen. … Our responsibility is to prepare ourselves, to live worthy of the association of the Savior, to deport ourselves in such a way that we would not be embarrassed if He were to come among us. That is a challenge in this day and age” (Church News, 2 Jan. 1999, 2).

President John Taylor said:  "The judgments will begin at the house of God. We have to pass through some of these things, but it will only be a very little compared with the terrible destruction, the misery and suffering that will overtake the world who are doomed to suffer the wrath of God. It behooves us, as the Saints of God, to stand firm and faithful in the observance of his laws, that we may be worthy of his preserving care and blessing." (JD, 21:100.)

Signs of the Second Coming – Reference Only

a)      Positive Signs

i)        D&C 45:9; 133:57–58. (The fullness of the gospel will be restored.)

ii)      D&C 45:66–71. (The New Jerusalem will be built. Zion will be built.  It will be a place of peace and safety for the righteous in the last days.)

iii)    D&C 65:2–6. (God’s kingdom will be established on the earth.)

iv)    D&C 110:11–16. (Priesthood keys will be restored.)

v)      D&C 133:8–9, 36–39. (The gospel will be preached throughout the world.)

vi)    D&C 45:24-25; see also D&C 45:43; D&C 45:51-53 (The Jews will be gathered to Jerusalem and will recognize Christ as their Messiah) - "But they shall be gathered again" (D&C 45:25; see also D&C 45:43). Joseph Smith: "Judah must return, Jerusalem must be rebuilt, and the temple . . . It will take some time to rebuild the walls of the city and the temple, etc.; and all this must be done before the Son of Man will make his appearance." (TPJS, p286)

vii)  D&C 133:26-27, 30-32 (The Ten Tribes will Return)- President Wilford Woodruff:  "All that God has said with regard to the ten tribes of Israel, strange as it may appear, will come to pass. They will, as has been said concerning them, smite the rock, and the mountains of ice will flow before them, and a great highway will be cast up, and their enemies will become a prey to them; and their records, and their choice treasures they will bring with them to Zion. These things are as true as God lives." (JD, 21:301)

b)      Negative Signs

i)        D&C 29:15; 88:91. (There will be great weeping, despair, and fear. Men’s hearts will fail them.)

ii)      D&C 29:16; 45:31; 112:24. (There will be famines, scourges, sickness, and desolation.)

iii)    D&C 34:9; 45:40–42; 88:87. (There will be signs and wonders in the heavens and in the earth.)

iv)    D&C 45:26; 63:33. (There will be wars and rumors of wars, and the whole earth will be in commotion.)

v)      D&C 45:27. (The love of men will become cold, and iniquity will abound.)

vi)    D&C 45:33; 88:89–90. (There will be earthquakes, tempests, and great waves of the sea. Men will harden their hearts against God and fight each other.)