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Fear mongering: The Mormon Second Coming
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Not pictured: Billions of charred corpses.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is an end-of-days religion, committed to the idea that Jesus' return is imminent. Although the LDS Church makes no prediction about when this will happen, it scripture does emphasize how near it is. The hour of Christ's coming "is nigh," and "close at hand." (D&C 133:17, 104:59, 106:4, 110:16.)
Joseph Fielding Smith warned about the world we live in:
To the world I say: These are the last days. They are days of trouble and sorrow and desolation. They are days when Satan dwells in the hearts of ungodly men, when iniquity abounds, and when the signs of the times are being shown forth. And there is no cure for the ills of the world except the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Ezra Taft Benson delivered a talk in 1979 where he proclaimed that for 6,000 years, God has held this generation in reserve to fight in the "final inning."
And that is where you come in, for you are the generation that must be prepared to meet your God. All through the ages the prophets have looked down through the corridors of time to our day. Billions of the deceased and those yet to be born have their eyes on us. Make no mistake about it--you are a marked generation.
Benson assures us that the forces of evil are organizing and mounting against us and that the last days will be as wicked as the days of Noah. But this is offset by the restored gospel, priesthood holders, and the forces of righteousness. He warns that "the showdown is fast approaching," an idea reflected in Saturday's Warrior, a popular LDS musical.
According to the Gospel Principles manual, the last days are prophesied to be full of "terrifying and dreadful" disasters:
Wickedness is everywhere. Nations are constantly at war. Earthquakes and other calamities are occurring. Many people now suffer from devastating storms, drought, hunger, and diseases. We can be certain that these calamities will become more severe before the Lord comes.
The Gospel Principles manual also says that "faithful followers of Christ will know what the signs are and will be watching for them (see D&C 45:39). If we are obedient and faithful, we will study the scriptures and know of the signs."
Dallin H. Oaks gave this talk in 2004 about preparing for the last days with this warning:
These signs of the Second Coming are all around us and seem to be increasing in frequency and intensity. For example, the list of major earthquakes in The World Almanac and Book of Facts, 2004 shows twice as many earthquakes in the decades of the 1980s and 1990s as in the two preceding decades (pp. 189–90). It also shows further sharp increases in the first several years of this century. The list of notable floods and tidal waves and the list of hurricanes, typhoons, and blizzards worldwide show similar increases in recent years (pp. 188–89). Increases by comparison with 50 years ago can be dismissed as changes in reporting criteria, but the accelerating pattern of natural disasters in the last few decades is ominous.
Mormonism is committed to the idea that the world is a bad place and will only continue to get worse. This must be the case, or these can't be the latter days. (Incidentally, it's a myth that earthquakes are increasing, according to The US Geological Survey.)
On a personal note, my father watched for "the signs" and started to put together a scrapbook filled with newspaper clippings of natural disasters and other "evidences" that Christ would be coming soon. Beyond the approaching wars, famines, and other disasters I would need to survive, he made certain that I knew that Christ's coup de grâce was to burn all the wicked to death, (3 Nephi 25), and that there would be no escape. So be good. Or God will get you. The calamities of the last days are at least part of the reason that the LDS Church encourages members to stock up on food and supplies.
It follows the pattern of any good con: convince people of a problem that does not exist, and then offer the only solution to that problem. The LDS church is asserting that terrible things will happen in the near future, and if you don't want to die a horrible death when Christ returns, you'd better accept the restored gospel and pay your fire insurance.
For all the pessimistic doom and gloom that Mormonism expects, the world is in a better place than any other time in history. LDS leaders bemoan the violence depicted in movies and television, forgetting that not even 200 years ago, entertainment included attending public hangings. Not long after the time of Christ, people cheered from the benches as they watched gladiators slaughter each other.
Crime and violence are decreasing. Gone are the days of "frontier justice" and to-the-death duels. There are horrors in the world, to be sure, but compared to history, today is the safest and most secure day of human civilization. This is a time of human rights and democracy. There actually exists such a thing as war crimes.
We hear about horrible events in the news, but put it into perspective: one man kills his family and it gets national attention. This isn't a sign of crumbling civilization, it's a sign that an entire country is horrified at such a thing. If we weren't, it wouldn't be worth the airtime.
The LDS church wants us to anticipate the day the wicked are burned. Instead, we have every reason to be hopeful and optimistic. Jesus can take his time; we're doing just fine.
Ironically, it's the self-fulfilling aspect of the Second Coming we might need to be most concerned about. The thing we should fear most is ourselves: our own overpopulation, our own warring, our own consumption of resources. It's entirely possible that we will destroy ourselves, but as long as the majority of the population sees each sign of our own extinction as a sign of the Second Coming, what real motivation is there to fix anything? Who's going to care about global warming when an increase in natural disasters and famine is exactly what everyone is expecting to happen?
There must be a radical shift in the way we think if we're going to ensure our long-term survival. Some morbid certainty that the world will end, perhaps in our own lifetime, is not the way to do it.
Email Jonathan: slcfreethinking@gmail.com
Read Jonathan's other articles on science and religion
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