30 And
again, because iniquity shall abound, the love of men shall wax cold; but he
that shall not be overcome, the same shall be saved.
31 And
again, this Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world, for a
witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come, or the destruction of
the wicked;
32 And
again shall the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, be
fulfilled.
33 And
immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun shall be darkened, and
the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and
the powers of heaven shall be shaken.
34 Verily,
I say unto you, this generation, in which these things shall be shown forth,
shall not pass away until all I have told you shall be fulfilled.
35 Although,
the days will come, that heaven and earth shall pass away; yet my words shall
not pass away, but all shall be fulfilled.
36 And,
as I said before, after the tribulation of those days, and the powers of the
heavens shall be shaken, then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in
heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn; and they shall see
the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory;
37 And
whoso treasureth up my word, shall not be deceived, for the Son of Man shall
come, and he shall send his angels before him with the great sound of a
trumpet, and they shall gather together the remainder of his elect from the
four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.(Joseph Smith—Matthew
1:30-37)
These verses describe
a sequence of events to watch for:
1) Iniquity
abounding, causing love to turn cold,
2) The
gospel preached to all nations
3) The
destruction of the wicked, the abomination of desolation
4) The
sun and moon darkened, stars falling from heaven, powers of heaven shaken
5) All
fulfilled in a generation
6) Christ
comes in heaven
One thing that would
confuse me about this sequence is that I would read about the destruction of
the wicked (v31-32) and automatically assume that was because Christ came and
destroyed them. Then, it would puzzle me that Christ’s coming is mentioned
apparently again in v36 as though it hadn’t happened yet.
I have since figured
out that Christ’s coming is not at the destruction of the wicked described in
v31-32. The destruction happens because the wicked will be destroying each
other. This follows a pattern that is seen in history when the gospel is
preached and rejected. Mormon observed the wicked Nephites in his day who rejected
the truth were destroyed by wicked Lamanites. (Christ didn’t have to come to do
that.) The wicked Jews were destroyed by the Romans in 70AD; Christ didn’t have
to come to do that.
It’s kind of a scary
thing to think about, but I think v34 gives some comfort when it says these
things will happen in the space of one generation. Depending on how long a
generation is defined, that is 30-60 years.
Something else I
notice from these verses is that the gospel is preached to all nations, but by the time Christ comes,
all the tribes of the earth mourn. So
nations will have been broken down into tribes by all the destruction and
tribulation, much like the Nephite government was broken into tribes.
Along with these
difficult things, I think it is worthwhile to point out what we are told we
need to do. I like noticing the counsel because it helps me feel less powerless
and more hopeful that the tribulations can be survived and turn for our good,
like a refiners fire.
Verse 30 tells us
that while iniquity abounds and love waxes cold, “he that shall not be
overcome, the same shall be saved.”
It is going to be a struggle for everyone,
but if we don’t give up and don’t allow ourselves to be overcome, we’ll be all
right. So whatever you do, don’t give up!
Verse 31 tells us the
gospel will be preached as a witness to all nations. That implies being a part
of missionary work will help us. We can
be good examples, stand for the right, testify to how living gospel principles
has blessed us, and share the gospel.
Verse 32 seems scary
because of talking about the abomination of desolation, and it doesn’t seem to
have instruction about what to do there, but I notice that there is a similar
prediction in v12 that does have
something applicable, and it may help in the future as well.
When you, therefore, shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of
by Daniel the prophet, concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, then you shall
stand in the holy place; whoso readeth let him understand. (v12)
So when we see
the abomination of desolation, stand in
the holy place. To me that
means that the more uncivil and murderous people become, the more we need to
resist the anger and be kind, and seek out our refuge in the temple, and make
our homes sacred places, and meet with the Saints. Countering the anger and violence with peace and kindness is
not easy. Here in the United States we’ve seen lots of incivility surrounding
our last election and “abomination of desolation” evokes so much worse than
that. But goodness has to be counter-cultural.
Verse 35 assures
us that Christ’s words will all be fulfilled, so we will have much to look
forward to, watching for those signs and events to take place.
Verse 37 tells
us that whoso treasures up Christ’s word will not be deceived, so reading and
cleaving to the principles and doctrines found in the scriptures will save us
from being beguiled by the ways of the world that would flatter us away to
destruction.
So our safety
comes from:
·
Not giving up
·
Participating in
missionary work
·
Stand in the
holy place
·
Watch for the
signs of Christ’s coming
·
Treasure up
Christ’s word
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