Joseph's 2nd Coming prophecy

[Palerider]

I was reminded on another website that R. M. Nelson made mention that the time for our preparations for the Second Coming are "running out".
The writer also posted the link below to a letter written by Joseph Smith to Noah Saxon for our perusal. I've pulled a few call outs for everyone's benefit. (My abridgement in red.)

After going on some time about various Mormon themes, Joseph finally works his way up to declaring authoritatively the crap load of destruction that is about to be unleashed on humanity. Among other things he states:

"And now I am prepared to say by the authority of Jesus Christ, that not many years shall pass away before....." all this horror will come to pass, including the Second Coming, so you all need to get yourselves baptized into the right church...
"For there are those now living upon the earth whose eyes shall not be closed in death until they see all these things which I have spoken fulfilled."


https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper ... ary-1833/1

So, taking Joseph's letter to Mr. Saxon into account, how much should we panic when hearing R. M. Nelson's scary declaration that time is running out?

[jfro18]

Man that's amazing... everyone focuses on the other Joseph prophecy if he lived to be 85 the second coming would happen, but this is even better.

[RubinHighlander]

"And now I am prepared to say by the authority of Jesus Christ, that not many years shall pass away before....." all this horror will come to pass so you all need to get yourselves baptized into the right church...
"For there are those now living upon the earth whose eyes shall not be closed in death until they see all these things which I have spoken fulfilled."

Seems like I grappled with this one in the past as a TBM and wrote it off as him talking about the civil war in the US and all the death and destruction from that. Always seems like there's an out for them somehow. But let's refer back to BKPs talk in 2011:

Sometimes you might be tempted to think as I did from time to time in my youth: “The way things are going, the world’s going to be over with. The end of the world is going to come before I get to where I should be.” Not so! You can look forward to doing it right—getting married, having a family, seeing your children and grandchildren, maybe even great-grandchildren. (“Counsel to Youth,” General Conference, October 2011)

Sound dramatic, drive home the fear, then move the goal posts to each new generation to keep them running on the gerbil wheel.

[Palerider]

Seems like I grappled with this one in the past as a TBM and wrote it off as him talking about the civil war in the US and all the death and destruction from that.

Yep, that might be a way to avoid the cogdis but if anyone reads the entire letter carefully, there's no doubt that Joseph is including the Second Coming in his authoritative pronouncement. Boyd be damned....

Besides.... he's dead now so we have to take Russell's word for what's going on.

Everyone panic!!!!

[deacon blues]

Joseph's prophetic letter to Noah Sexton came in a time (1833) when such warnings were common. William Miller (Adventist) had declared around 1822 that the revelations in Daniel pointed to an apocalypse in 1843. Joseph's first prophecy with a date ("56 years hence") that I'm aware of was at the calling of the 12 apostles in Feb. 1835. His later comments in the D&C seem to be hedging his 1835 prophecy by making it less certain than he had declared it in 1835. I think apocalyptic figures have used "the end is near" since before Christ to motivate people to get off their butts and obey. I encountered lots of such people on my mission to Los Angeles in 1975. All this makes me think of the boy who cried wolf. I wonder what God thinks? Of course D&C 19 reminds us that Mormon Jesus uses hyperbole to motivate sinners.

[Corsair]

Suppose there was some wacky time machine accident and you could send something into the past. Suppose that you could send a 2019 LDS almanac back to the saints living in Nauvoo, Illinois in 1843. Just send the cover and title page and a brief list of church events that year so they might somehow be convinced that it was real and reliable.

Do you suppose they would be surprised that Jesus had not returned? Would they be concerned that their great-great-great-great-great-grandchildren were dealing with a fallen world and not being raised in righteousness in the Millennium? How would they act simply knowing that the 2019 April General Conference will take place still hoping for a future Second Coming? They would know that the Second Coming was at least 200 years hence. Would that affect the decisions they made around everything else in regards to the early church?

Joseph Smith and all of his successors have continually used an imminent Second Coming as the impetus for following the wackier and more difficult commandments. Eschatological hubris shows up every decade or so in the church to some extent. Just last Sunday, President Nelson said "Time is running out" and the hint of the Second Coming shows up again. Time is running out, President Nelson. It's our own individual mortality and I just can't afford to spend more of it worrying about your concerns.

[moksha]

Following President Nelson's address, I imagine the survivalist Preppercon at the Sandy City Expo Center will feature the new Millenium Preparedness Kits for the Saints to purchase.

[wtfluff]

Wait a minute.

Haven't "prophets" been saying Jesus was coming back soon...

Well...

Since Jesus said he was coming back soon?

[moksha]

Following President Nelson's address, I imagine the survivalist Preppercon at the Sandy City Expo Center will feature the new Millenium Preparedness Kits for the Saints to purchase.

A thousand years worth of hard wheat, dried beans, and vacuumed-packed ammo keep much better in the Spirit Paradise dimension.

[Hagoth]

For there are those now living upon the earth whose eyes shall not be closed in death until they see all these things which I have spoken fulfilled."

You're reading this all wrong, Palerider. We just need to exhume all of those early saints to see if any of them were buried with their eyes still open.

[jfro18]

I always love this when we talk of how the church has always preached the current generation was going to usher in the second coming:

[Palerider]

You're reading this all wrong, Palerider. We just need to exhume all of those early saints to see if any of them were buried with their eyes still open.

Still waiting!?!?!?

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