I have noticed, lately, (and maybe it's only me) that there has been some emphasis from the General Authorities about the Last Days and the Second Coming of the Lord. Two talks in the last conference, for instance, reiterated the need to have food/supply storage and personal spiritual preparedness as end times approach.
I have been emphasizing our need to start using the storage we currently have, as we have had to toss out much of what we had stored due to its being outdated and/or just nasty smelling. I doubt we will ever use all the wheat we have stored, so we are back to grinding and baking (we being Olivia, of course). We need to reassess everything else and update some of the things we lack.
Because of the emphasis that I have perceived, I recently began listening to Gerald Lund's book The Second Coming of the Lord, which is an updated version of the one he wrote in 1971 entitled The Coming of the Lord. There is much to learn about, and much is missed just listening because of competing distractions, but I am enjoying the insights. One thing that struck me is that the Lord made it clear that we are supposed to be aware of the signs of the times; actually, we are commanded to do so, even though it has been 2000+ years since He said he would return in glory. The other thing that struck me is the myriad times the scriptures mention the Second Coming with either positive or negative connotations. Brother Lund is asked why talk about the negative aspects, as fear is not a great motivator. He answers with a quote by Elder Todd D. Christofferson stating that if we are aware of a danger and fail to warn, it would be negligent (such as warning a child about putting a hand into a fire). The positive things are mentioned more often in the scriptures, and he dwells more on the positive in his book, while not neglecting the warnings.
Can we calculate the date of His return? No. We live in a time of precise calculations. Olympic events are timed to the 1000th of a second. I am lost if there is not a clock in the room where I happen to be at any given time. That was certainly not the case in the days when Jesus told his disciples of his coming. It wasn't even the case in Joseph Smith's day. Even though clocks and pocket watches were available, they typically existed in the homes and vests of the wealthier class. People spoke in rounded times; approximations. Even now, if something happened 990 years ago, it would not be unusual to say it was a thousand years ago. We often state that certain things that occurred during the restoration, such as the first vision, the visitations in the Kirtland temple, the restoration of the Aaronic and Melchizedek priesthoods happened about 200 years ago. Because we know the dates or approximate dates, we could be much more precise, we still round up or down. Is one earth day exactly equal to 1000 years to the Lord? We don't know, but likely it is an approximation. There has not been a generation since the resurrection of Christ that did not believe that the second coming of the Lord was at the door. Why should be believe it now? Because the prophet Joseph was told that this is the last dispensation, that the time is soon. As we see, 200 years have passed, so soon is relative. With signs of the times being fulfilled rather rapidly, it is unlikely that it will be another 1,000 years. The important thing is to be prepared and to know the signes.
