Comments on: It is later than you think!

By: Gavin Guillaume

Gavin Guillaume — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 01:05:16 +0000

Funny story this past Sunday – our bishop was going to hold a youth fireside with the topic of “All Questions Answered – All Truth Revealed”, an open QA for the youth to submit questions anonymously on doctrine, practice, standards, etc. The bishop was standing with the clerks and one asked, “When is the hour of the Savior’s return?”, to which our bishop replied — “Just come tonight — all will be revealed.”

Maybe we’d get better GC viewership if they threw in teases like that.

By: Maht

Maht — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 11:38:10 +0000

The last Sunstone had a very interesting article about Mormonism and Transhumanism. What captivated me most about the article was the idea that the millennial prophecies could in someway be at least partially avoided by the collective LDS positive influence on the world. Jonah and Nineva is mentioned as the biblical precedent for such prophecy dodging (this was not the major theme of the article by any means).

I’m not propagating or implying a personal subscription to the possibly of such prophecy avoidance, but it has been food for thought. (Any thoughts from all ye blog dawgz?).

At any rate in my experience the worst fruit produced by the modern church member’s strong millennialist views is extreme apathy for current political/civic/humanitarian issues. Why care at all if Christ is coming THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW!

By: queuno

queuno — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 01:15:00 +0000

Ray (34) -

You’re a man after my own heart (raised in the thick of the AFC North).

By: queuno

queuno — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 01:13:45 +0000

Nick (39) -

Your account is one reason why I’m actually glad for the recent (last few years) emphasis on teaching from the assigned materials and heavily correlated “Teachings” series.

Priesthood is my favorite meeting of the block, and I hate it when some idiot ruins it by offering his personal philosophy, mingled with scripture.

By: J. Stapley

J. Stapley — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 01:08:28 +0000

Thank you, Matt B.

By: Joshua A.

Joshua A. — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 00:59:35 +0000

I think that the most significant portent of the millenium to date was the death of Dumbledore. In 51 hours 7 minutes (now 6 minutes) I’ll be well on my way to discovering more…

On a slightly more serious note, I find it interesting that American millenialist writers seem to somehow miss where Zechariah writes that ALL nations will be gathered against Jerusalem. To leave out the only nation that currently has a prayer of defeating the existing State of Israel is a conspicuous omission indeed.

By: Matt B

Matt B — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 00:27:05 +0000

What Carson’s describing is fairly typical dispensationalist fundamentalist “end times” theory, which, often to their surprise, rests upon relatively recent interpretive work. Many of those interpretations {Gomer = Germany and so forth} originate from British and American fundamentalist writers around the turn of the last century – John Nelson Darby kicked the whole thing off, but people like Louis Bauman and Arno Gaebelein followed up hard.

Ezekiel’s Gog, for example, is identified with the’ king in the North’ from Daniel 11, who could only be Russia. The identification of Gomer as Germany is fairly complicated, but has to do with tracing where, according to Jewish tradition, the heirs of Gomer (a descendant of Japheth) eventually settled. Eventually, Gomer is supposed to be forced into an alliance with Magog, which meant that the Nazi-Soviet pact made everybody very excited, until it fell apart.

Most of these identifications are made in the Scofield Bible, a favorite of the fundamentalists published around 1910 or so.

By: Lee

Lee — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 22:39:39 +0000

Ronito, I couldn’t agree more.

In our culture we see the wars in the middle east as signs of the times. Taken to the extreme its as if the bigger the mess we get in in Iraq the sooner Christ will come. In the words of Johnny Cash “its going by the book”. Johnny sings a good song but seeing armageddon as our ultimate fate will unfortunately make us passive and unrespondent to the conflicts of the middle east.
Call me a dreamer but wouldnt it be great if peace prevailed and we could avoid all the armageddon stuff.

By: Ray

Ray — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 22:37:55 +0000

Carson, Steve might have been rash, but you have to admit it was an amazing way to say what he said. At least I have to admit it, since I did a pretty good spit take when I read it.

By: Carson

Carson — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 22:27:46 +0000

Steve Evans,
Don’t be so rash

I just stated that it wasn’t the only reference, not that the references were accurate.