The Great and Terrible Day

[Jeff Lebowski]

Is this really tomorrow's lesson topic? I think I will make a Bingo card with phrases and mark them off as the phrases are used in class:

1. Wars and rumors of wars (reference to terrorism, Iraq.....in the 80s, the proof was Russia and the Cold War, but this one adapts for each generation)
2. People will call good evil and evil good (references to homosexuality and Prop 8)
3. Temples to dot the Earth
4. Persecution of the Saints (reference to someone at work that said something mean about Mormons)
5. Someone will make reference to the "thief in the night" metaphor for the timing of the Second Coming

Nice list. I can add a couple.

- Earthquakes in diverse places ("Boy, we sure seem to have a lot of earthquakes these days."). This one always makes me chuckle. As if nobody is tracking the frequency of seismic activity.

- Can't tell the seasons ("This is the coolest May and June I can remember!")

Yawn...

[wuapinmon]

Just came from this lesson.....I hadn't seen this thread previously....my thoughts:

1. I wonder what it says in the original Greek for "terrible."

2. Jesus is NOT coming back in my lifetime nor that of my children.

3. [YOUTUBE]<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/96jFtzVa80A&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/96jFtzVa80A&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>[/YOUTUBE]

4. When someone commented that they day of the Lord is 'nigh,' I leaned over to my mom and said, "Paul was saying that 2,000 years ago." She responded, "but Paul wasn't infallible." My thoughts exactly. I dislike Paul as much as I dislike Augustine.

[Fiyero]

Why is it important to know the signs of the Second Coming?

From President Joseph Fielding Smith in The Signs of the Times p132:

"I know these are unpleasant things [the prophecies of destruction and suffering]. It is not a pleasant things even for me to tell you that ti is written in the scriptures. If the Lord has a controvesry with the nations, He will put them to the sword. Their bodies will lie unburied like dung upon the earth. That is not nice, but should we not know it? Is it not our duty to read these things and understand them? Dont' you think the Lord has given us these things tht we might know and we might prepare outselves through humility, through repentance, through faith, that we might escape from these dreadful conditions that are portrayed by these ancient prophets? That is why I am reading them."

This makes me think of the 2 Nephi scripture that essentially says "eat drink and be merry and in the end God will beat us with a few stripes but we will still be saved in his kingdom." If I lived righteously in the past and compiled a list of good deeds in the past, but afterwards hit a roadblock and decided to live differently, why should I feel secure in the great and dreadful day? When God says he will return to cleanse the earth, He means he will CLEANSE the earth. Why should a sinful person ride the coattails of who he used to be? The signs of the times are like a reminder to clean up your act and get yourself back in order.

[All-American]

The phrase "Great and Terrible Day of the Lord", as far as I can tell, comes from Malachi 4:5-6. It was originally in Hebrew, of course, but the Greek translation in the septuagint reads "ημεραν κυριου την μεγαλην και επιφανη". The last word, "epiphane," is the one translated as "terrible." It may not be that great of a translation. It means something more along the lines of "notable", or "remarkable", or even "glorious". It's the same word from which we get our English word "epiphany."

[All-American]

I would talk about Jonah because he prophesied all sorts of bad things that would happen to Ninevah. When they repented, none of those things happened.

One of the purposes of learning about the signs of the times is to be warned about what may befall us if we are not on the Lord's side. The calamities and destruction foretold in the scriptures are intended to turn the minds of God's children toward him and prepare the world for Christ's coming.

But just like the calamities that would befall Ninevah were revoked once they repented, I wonder if we as a world might avoid the foretold calamities. In fact, I wonder if this is already happening. As much as we hear of wars and rumors of wars, the truth is that we live in an era of unparalleled peace. The world has never known a time when so small a percentage of its inhabitants are able to live with little to no familiarity of the arts of war. We also live in a time of unparalleled prosperity. Never has so much been available for so many. This is not intended to minimize the very real suffering of very many out there, but I don't know that the world has ever lived in a better time than the present.

As I understand it, the destruction that is to befall the world before the coming of the Savior is intended to cleanse the world of the impure elements that cannot abide his presence. But we are a little stuck in the polarized view of the world, where all that can exist is either good or evil. Latter-day Saints perhaps do not appreciate the significance of the eschatological differences between our theology and that of others. We allow for a "terrestrial" state of being, where good and honorable people who may not have lived up to a "celestial" standard are still able to be in the presence of the Savior. Maybe this is a reachable standard after all.