It's generally a reference to "latter days", which actually just means "modern times" and not "last days". I think church leadership likes to play up the "last days" aspect to keep the masses riled.
That's not how it was presented to me. I was told that the 2nd coming would be in my lifetime and that we would all have to hie off to Missouri to be with our own kind and to make it easier for Jesus to round us up to help him out.
Of course JS also said the 2nd coming would be in HIS lifetime. The only reason that didn't happen is because he was murdered. So it should have happened in what would have been his life span, right? Yep, that's the ticket.
Right up until it didn't happen. Well, the atrocity of his murder threw everything out of kilter. It'll happen in the lifetime of the next generation. And so it goes on and on in perpetuity so that when the earth does explode or burn or whatever, the Mormons will have been right. The Mormons always find a way to think they were right all along.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/25/2017 11:30AM by jane.
I don't know whether JS knew the difference between "latter-day" and "last days", but I do know that my wife and her family use the two interchangeably as though they were the same. They were told the same as you and believe that "latter-day" in LDS means the end is nie, though a little delayed because of JS's murder.
I have also heard speakers at SM allude to the 2nd coming just around the corner because "latter-days" in the church's name must mean these are the "last days". And I'm thinking, "You keep using this term. I do not think it means what you think it means."
People who think their lives or the world suck often hope that some magical event will occur and transform their miserable existences into something glorious.
In christian "culture," that means hoping magic Jesus will come back as soon as possible, kill/punish all the "sinners," and magically transport the believers to their heavenly paradise. As soon as possible. Any day now. Yep, any day now...
>>People who think their lives or the world suck often hope that some magical event will occur and transform their miserable existences into something glorious.
I call it, "the Lottery." ;) But since I have a good layman's grasp of probability, I assume that I will be gainfully employed for the next six years or so.
I wondered about that 60 years ago when a buddy of mine's older sister was told in her patriarchal blessing that she'd raise her children in the millennium...and so the last days are happening soon, right?....and then she croaked in her 30's....and I'm thinking WTF?....and that got me thinking that the Gaaawspell is a load of horseshit....3 years before I got ordained a deacon....so I just went through the motions after that.
Because the time to repent, and pay your 10%+ is always now.
It also allows Mormons to play this game with each rising generation of youth. They have been "held in reserve" as "valiant spirits" ready to do immortal combat with our friend Stan. Isn't that special!
Same reason that this is the last day of your life. Until tomorrow. It will always work for you and one day it will be true.
Same as these being the last days. Until next century. Then it will be obvious that these weren't but it absolutely will be then. And some day we really will destroy the world one way or the other. (WE will, not God), and they will be right.
I HATED THIS when i went to church its a total fear tactic to keep people scared and continue to go to church and giving their money. They used to say this ALL the time in the late 90s and it kind of worked in a way i quit trying because i thought the world was literally going to end before my life began.
The last days was heavily emphasized in the church's beginnings which was coupled with the need for the "gathering to Zion" teaching. From my standpoint there is no end of the world in our future but their could be occurrences and disruptions to life as we know it that could resemble fulfillment of end time prophecies to the believer.
Right on Hie...miserable little lives...so many things just get repeated over and over they take on a life of their own...in reading the SF Whitney deal a few days ago it became abundantly clear...blood will run in the streets and the lama items will kill everyone...yup plugs love that one and still yap it up today...and yup they're still waiting cuz they are more special than regular morms...but it scares the kids...so WTH...stuff hollered in a drunken meeting almost 200 years ago still going strong...same with the Missouri BS
Plygs have kept alive many things of their leaders concocting...such as white lamanites in south America quarrying white stone that will be barged up the river to independence for the big hogon...they really liked the ones about seven women taking hold of one man saying we will make our own clothes and feed our selves just give us your name to take away our reproach..sort of how they do things today really....then the Indians will try everyone by offering their daughters as wives...if you refuse you'll be speared or some such..your shirt will be ripped open...no Grammies you die ....oh yeah...this is high level crazy here boy...gotta love those last days stories if your packing a pair and shave every day...so let's stay sharp...someone keep a sharp eye out for those barges...eh...
or it was suggested, the end would come about the time I turned 40, which would have been around 2000. With all the fear being dished out then, I sat on my sofa at midnight January 31, 1999, hoping it would end, but knowing that it wouldn't.
Sometime in the 1990s, I read something in Dialogue about the early days of the church and a lot of the women leaving their husbands to be sealed to church leaders as they had been told the end was near.
A lot of articles I read in Dialogue and Sunstone really opened up by eyes. I was already on my way out, but these certainly helped.