In tbe 70s I believed that in the future it would become more strict in the church as we approached the millenium.More doctrine would be revealed and those who were weak in their testimonies would fall by the wayside leaving the church stronger in the process. What has happened?
>> In tbe 70s I believed that in the future it would become more strict in the church as we approached the millenium.
>> More doctrine would be revealed and those who were weak in their testimonies would fall by the wayside leaving the church stronger in the process.
>> What has happened?
1) There is no millennium approaching and the dear leaders know it.
2) No one is getting any doctrine revealed to them and the dear leaders know it.
3) People are falling by the wayside and leaving the church because they figured out it wasn't what it claimed. See 1 and 2 above. It's getting stricter because it false, not because its true.
When I was a kid we were taught often that the second coming and millenium were just around the corner/any day now---like they have always been haha-- and that much would be expected of us as there would be so much work to do in the millenium where you will do the Lord's work tirelessly and joyfully for a , ta da, thousand years! Yay!
And yes, it has always been taught that in the end times, many would fall away, even the very devout and faithful. So clearly this is the end times, haha, cuz they are dropping like flies. Haha again. The faithful are flooding out the doors so Jesus is on his way!
And that is why my family is surer than ever that the end is near and they are thinking about how they are going to decorate their mansions that are being prepared for them in heaven. I see lots of white. Yes, white. And Marble. And Crystal--lot's of crystal.
It's just all so weird now these decades and decades later. The church is stricter but even more, it's totally more whacked out than ever. They have gone from peculiar people to WTF-on-steroids.
And we all can assume now that 500 years from now they will still be claiming that they are in those fabled "end times" and Jesus is a-commin'.
As I was growing up in the 70's, I would often hear members of my ward talk about the imminence of the Second Coming--that it could happen literally at any time; however, I had been taught that there were many, many prophecies that had to be fulfilled before Christ could return, so whenever I heard these claims of an immediate return of Jesus and follow-on Millennium I would think, "Huh? What church do YOU belong?" A couple of decades seemed like a reasonable time frame for everything that had to happen first, and the year 2000 seemed just about right--a year which fit in nicely with the exactly 6,000 year "temporal" history of the earth ("The Fall of Man" occurring in just about the year 4,000 B.C.), and a nice round number itself.
Wasn't it Talemage who said that there were some in the audience (1916) who would live to see the 10 lost tribes come out of the north countries with their bibles and show up in the everlasting hills.
That certainly didn't happen!
Then there was the saturdays warrior hooooopla! about the "chosen generation" and the quiet hush that would echo all across the hosts of heaven as the chosen ones entered. Chosen for what reason? it was speculated they resisted the easy access to porn, and spanking the monkey. (as if the other generations didn't do that too?)
That was basically the time line they talked about. I waited for it that night, Y2K. I sat on my couch and hoped it would end, but knowing it wouldn't. And here I am 19 years later. Hard to believe it is 2019!!!
I must have been one of the weak as I fell by the wayside. And if that is what it is, I'm thrilled. I'm the unclean, the apostate, etc.
The church is nothing like I believed it was and it is getting much worse.
The Millenium has been and gone, it was 19 years ago. I've been through the end of the world twice already (2012 too).
The spirit of Joseph is weak in these people. They're execs not visionaries. Functionaires. Bureaucrats. Smith had a charm that drew some to him. They lack charm. Smith was imaginative. They are not. He produced new scripture. They do not.
What I can say is that we "live in interesting times" like the old Chinese curse. No one knows where all this technology is leading. Social media is already warping people's minds. God knows what VR will do. The stuff they teach in schools more often consists of trying to shift theie opinions than teaching them free thought and science.
Whoosh. You seem to have missed entirely the point of the OP.
The subject at hand is the Mormon Millenium which refers to the thousand year reign of Jesus on Earth after the second coming. It has nothing to do with the year 2000 that you refer to or anything else in your post. This is about Mormonism which you seem to know little about.
The Mormon Millenium:
The thousand years of the Millennium will be ushered in when the Savior comes in power and glory.
The earth will be renewed for the millennial day.
The earth will be transfigured and receive its paradisiacal glory
The earth will rest for a thousand years from the wickedness that has been upon it
The Millennium will be a time of peace.
Satan will be bound, unable to tempt mankind during the thousand years of millennial peace
The violence of both man and beast will cease during the Millennium
In the Millennium children will grow up and live upon the earth until they are one hundred years old
During the Millennium, the Lord will “turn to the people a pure language”
During the Millennium the Savior will reign personally on the earth.
The millennial government is under the administration of the Savior and His righteous Saints
olderelder Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > In the '70s my vision of the future was very > simple. > > 1. Finish my f-ing mission.... > 8. Be happy
I hope you have achieved 1thru 8 and then some! :)
In a lot of ways it's much less strict than it was when I was a kid.
There are maybe two areas that I can think of where it became stricter: (i) the type of clothing that males can wear in church; and (ii) the range of "gospel subjects" and church history subject matter that could be freely discussed.
Requiring all males to wear white shirts is more cult-like and stricter. But it's fairly superficial. If I was a true believer, wearing a white shirt would be an easy way to show my dedication and virtue.
But in most other areas, it's just become more wishy-washy, mainstreamish and stingy at the same time.
A lot of the funner programs have been cut. But I don't see that as becoming stricter. I see it as becoming cheaper and stingier.
Black people can now have the priesthood and go to the temple. That's less strict than things were prior to June 1978.
Women don't have to wear veils in the temple and take oaths of submission to their husbands. That's less strict than when they had to do that.
Tithing requirements are about the same as always. No change.
No more bloody penalty oaths acted out with disembowelment and throat slitting gestures. It's sort of less strict now that you don't have to do that. Fortunately, they apparently weren't in the practice of actually enforcing those oaths anyway.
Fewer meetings at Church. Sort of less strict. You're supposed to make up for it with more church-related garbage at home...on the honor system. But this all seems to fall more into the cheaper and stingier category.
On balance, I don't think the Church has become stricter. I think it's just becoming emptier. Most of the strange and fantastical things that once were believed in are much harder to believe in, so all that's left is the routine, procedural crap that was always there, but was decorated with fancy beliefs. It just seems stricter because the fancy beliefs are falling off.
In the 1970s I was in high school, graduated, went to work at Thiokol where I met my current boyfriend. I viewed the future as getting married to a "righteous man" and getting married in the temple. No, I didn't want a leader--absolutely not. I just wanted my family forever. My greatest DREAM. I actually wanted 8 children. It is good I only had 2.
You could have NEVER told me what the future held.
My life has been ENTIRELY about "Life happens while we're making plans." I don't make plans anymore.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/31/2019 08:17PM by cl2.
I keep wondering how many thousands of years need to go by before some leader in the Christian community finally says, "Gee, maybe he's not coming back?"
In the future, I can see doctrine changing over time, where they re-interpret the scriptures about the Second Coming of Christ to be symbolic.
As usual, the LDS Church will take much longer than other churches to get on board with the idea, but eventually they probably will.
The end will come at the end. The church never officially said when it would although members had it in thier brains it would be 2000 thanks to the prophet cleon skousen.
Mormonism has been trying to catch up with science and reality for some time. Their efforts are clumsy and slow to produce change. Yet prophecy is how they claim they run things. Their odious supreme patriarch on Kolob is a slow learner.