The Anti Christ

[Monster]

People have been predicting the end for 2000 years based on the same interpretation of scriptures we read now. Every generation predicts it is coming soon. Generally people think it will be within the next 50 years. Many of the things you see are self fulfilling prophecies. Take the existence of Israel for example. It may never have been if it had not bee for Harry Truman an evangelical believing he was helping to usher in prophecy of the end times. He read the scripture then goes about helping to establish it. Much of western civilization has been developed based on the bible. So it is never hard to see the fulfillment of prophecy when a believer molds their lives to mimic what the bible says.

Also we think the world is so bad now. That is a completely false concept. By most measurable statistics we are better off as a percentage of the population than ever before. Less people are likely to die by a violent act than anytime in history. Believe it or not hunger is less of a problem today than it is ever has been. I am not saying the world is wonderful, but it is not going to hell either.

Even Boyd Packer said in a recent conference that your kids kids and grandkids would be around before the end. Personally I think it is all fear mongering to dwell on the end times like we do.

[Questing Beast]

@Monster: I agree, the world as a whole is better than at any other time in our short history, and is getting better daily. The violence still thrashing about is caused by the death throes of fundamentalism in all its forms, including tyranny. People have momentum for change, thanks largely to the West (especially the success of "the American experiment" and its imitators). Technology is increasing at a phenomenal rate, with the hope that hunger will indeed become a thing of the past, as it has effectively been for virtually all Americans for well over a hundred years. We compare our standard of living with our grandparents: and while they lacked variety and abundance they never starved to death or even came close to it. Now we are eating ourselves to death! That will stop too, because education on how to be moderate in an environment of almost limitless abundance will alter our habits; we do want to be happy, after all, and overfed, sick people are not very happy. On sin: we still hear weekly in our church meetings how the world is becoming more wicked, or at least the wicked are becoming more wicked. Examples are offered, usually the Internet and the "pornography plague", etc. But I look around me at the people who populate one of the "most wicked cities" in the earth, SLC (yes, I was taught as a youth that SLC would become one of the wickedest cities in the "last days"), and I see good everywhere predominating. SLC is arguably better in every measurable way than it has ever been, and I mean crime rate, economy and quality of life, The air is cleaner, the streets are better maintained, the atmosphere is friendly and secure. Yes, not perfect by a long shot, but compared to other places and earlier times, far in advance of any other place or time in our shared history. I believe that we are in the early stages of fulfilling our own prophecies about a Millennial reign of peace and the good life for everybody. We the people of this planet will create our own peace and paradise. That is how we "play gods". It is what we were put here to learn how to do together....

Edited March 23, 2013 by Questing Beast

[CASteinman]

Even Boyd Packer said in a recent conference that your kids kids and grandkids would be around before the end. Personally I think it is all fear mongering to dwell on the end times like we do.

These are the end times. That is part of our message.

[Questing Beast]

The "end times" are taking a ponderously long time, then. C. two thousand years, and counting....

[thesometimesaint]

The "end times" are taking a ponderously long time, then. C. two thousand years, and counting....

It took 1830 years for it to go from tomorrow to today. On a practical level it doesn't matter if it is the "End Times" for this world or just us individually if the end result is still the same.

[Stargazer]

I have difficulty with "Mormon Doctrine" because, IMO, it contains too much of McConkie's own personal opinions and speculations... I think the title is misleading because he was asked by Church Leaders to make revisions, and while he did make some changes I understand there are still some areas that are "McConkie." I stopped using it years ago... Yes, there's still much that is accurate but I simply don't use it.

GG

My personal name for Mormon Doctrine is "McConkie Doctrine." I wish it would go out of print.

[blackstrap]

To be anti-Christ one must be Against Christ. Is Richard Dawkins an anti-Christ? I think he fits the definition. How about a pastor who preaches Christ on Sunday but personally does not believe in the historicity or the divinity of Christ?What about the LDS member who encourages another member to invest in what he knows is a ponsi scheme? Do those who seek to cover their sins and reject the atonement fall into the anti-Christ catagory?

The Bible does speak of a specific individual who carries the Anti-Christ banner. History has given the world quite a few men who might fit the bill. I don't think we have seen the Big Feller yet!

[CASteinman]

My personal name for Mormon Doctrine is "McConkie Doctrine." I wish it would go out of print.

It is out of print, I heard.

But it is a valuable work.

[MormonMason]

The antichrist that the early Christians were expecting already came in his own lifetime. That is why John said that they could know that it was the last hour. He even identified antichrist as a specific group of people.

Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour.

They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of they belonged to us.

(1 John 2:18-19)

[CASteinman]

To be anti-Christ one must be Against Christ. Is Richard Dawkins an anti-Christ? I think he fits the definition. How about a pastor who preaches Christ on Sunday but personally does not believe in the historicity or the divinity of Christ?What about the LDS member who encourages another member to invest in what he knows is a ponsi scheme? Do those who seek to cover their sins and reject the atonement fall into the anti-Christ catagory?

The Bible does speak of a specific individual who carries the Anti-Christ banner. History has given the world quite a few men who might fit the bill. I don't think we have seen the Big Feller yet!

I would say that Dawkins is anti-Christ and the other people you mention are not anti-Christ. They are all sinners.. but aren't we all?

[CASteinman]

The antichrist that the early Christians were expecting already came in his own lifetime. That is why John said that they could know that it was the last hour. He even identified antichrist as a specific group of people.

Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour.

They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of they belonged to us.

(1 John 2:18-19)

I view it this way also. As in 'the last hour' before the Gospel Light winks out into apostasy.

[EllenMaksoud]

I thought Bin Laden was BEHIND his wife, using her (one of them) as a shield? That was the version in the Medía anyway....

I do not dispute that. So much trauma has been in my life that it is too hard to watch some things. I only started to watch it to see how they portrayed Arabs in general. (Yes, in many ways I am Muslim sympathizer) I am all for exterminating terrorists like the rats they are, but right in front of wife and children, seriously?

[blackstrap]

I do not dispute that. So much trauma has been in my life that it is too hard to watch some things. I only started to watch it to see how they portrayed Arabs in general. (Yes, in many ways I am Muslim sympathizer) I am all for exterminating terrorists like the rats they are, but right in front of wife and children, seriously?

I doubt the military had much choice.The window of opportunity was quite slim,especially after their "advisor" gave the specifics as to when and where. A drone could have targeted the compound and eliminated everyone. The way it was done may not have been pristine but collateral damage was minimized.That said, I am sure the children of Bin Laden will be forever anti US but they probably would have been anyway.

[EllenMaksoud]

I doubt the military had much choice.The window of opportunity was quite slim,especially after their "advisor" gave the specifics as to when and where. A drone could have targeted the compound and eliminated everyone. The way it was done may not have been pristine but collateral damage was minimized.That said, I am sure the children of Bin Laden will be forever anti US but they probably would have been anyway.

[EllenMaksoud]

There is good reason that I was only on desk job in the Army. I like to think that if I were adequately provoked, I could kill. It is hard thing to have been Muslim. I had many friends from the Middle East. One, who is Saudi. One night we were talking on SKYPE while he was still in Saudi Arabia. He is young man and was still saying Beeply and Bepsi. In trying to encourage him one night, I mentioned that he could go to work for US Army as an interpreter. He was extremely angry with me and then I found out what he thinks about American Government and Military. We did not speak for a few days. I do not understand the etiology of the whole world situation, but I think the hate of the West springs from extreme poverty, jealousy, and bad government. I am not Heavenly Father, so do not know how to make the whole world just, and it breaks my heart. I am very certain that every member of our Military means to do good when they are deployed. Sometimes I think that the shaitun wants to see pain and injustice.

[bdouglas]

"Nearly 2000 years have come and gone since He said, 'I come quickly.'"-- Ivan, The Brothers Karamazov (maybe not a verbatim quote, but close)

[MormonMason]

"Nearly 2000 years have come and gone since He said, 'I come quickly.'"-- Ivan, The Brothers Karamazov (maybe not a verbatim quote, but close)

I've got no problem with that when we consider that a day to God is as a thousand years to man.

[Stargazer]

It is out of print, I heard.

But it is a valuable work.

Oh, come on. How valuable? Demonstrating that one should be cautious when reading GA-authored books?

[CASteinman]

Oh, come on. How valuable? Demonstrating that one should be cautious when reading GA-authored books?

No, it is valuable for instruction. It was highly corrected by a team of apostles and is now frequently used in the official curricula of the Church.

[Questing Beast]

...I am very certain that every member of our Military means to do good when they are deployed....

I wouldn't go so far as to assert that "every" US military personnel is worthy in his/her motives. But the vast majority are. We do have and have always had some bad apples in every war.

Some days I am filled with hope that the worst divisions between peoples in the world are behind us. The power of instant communication is so enabling of dispersing ignorance and disinformation. The truth will come out, especially the more there are who want it. And I believe that most people want the truth. Other days I despair and feel the worst is yet to come, that bigotry is just too prevalent still in the world to overcome it by communication and cooperation alone....

Edited March 27, 2013 by Questing Beast

[Calm]

The power of instant communication is so enabling of dispersing ignorance and disinformation.

And that much easier for lies and deception to be communicated as well unfortunately.

[Questing Beast]

Yes. But today is at least an ambivalent day, not a despair day, for me....

[strawberryfieldsforever]

I have read much about Satan & the Devil, but I am not sure I understood who Satan is/was.

Can someone please clarify, was Satan an actual human or an animal? If he was like he is described, beast/demon with a pointy tail and horns, where did he come from? Who made Satan? How did Satan come into being? What is the history of The Devil? Where is hell? Does anybody know where hell is physically? How does Satan still affect us today and if so, in what physical form does he take to do this?

[DarkScythe]

Satan was an angel of God but he grew wicked and arrogant. Given his position in the heavens, He was a position of Authority during this time but God Rule over him. Satan is bit of a changling. he will be whatever tempts you the best. And If you want an in depth mormon answer, study the Peal of Great Price. It has a lot of good answers that you will like.

[bjw]

In D&C 77:15 it mentions the two witnesses in Revelation 11:3 will be literal prophets that will be raised up and sent to Jerusalem. If the prophets are slain by the the antichrist and laid in the streets, then we can assume that the LDS church believes that we will have a literal Antichrist and Tribulation. I can imagine the prophets will be sent by the LDS church on a mission to Israel and will be killed somehow in the process.