End times doom and gloom

[The Nehor]

1 hour ago, california boy said:

You do realize that your judgement of the world moving further from God is just as baseless as your claims of wickedness.  You really have no idea what is in the hearts of most people on earth.  

A lot of cholesterol?

[Nofear]

8 minutes ago, juliann said:

That was my point. JS thought he was in the last days. And he was wrong. Just as every Mormon of every generation who has thought the same thing was wrong. And we will be just as wrong because what everyone seems to forget is no one knows.  And none of the "signs" (which are so vague they are almost useless) are any worse than in any other era. Get back to me when we have anything approaching the Plague or the World Wars going on.

To add to juliann's point,

"And in that day shall be heard of wars and rumors of wars, and the whole earth shall be in commotion, and men’s hearts shall fail them, and they shall say that Christ delayeth his coming until the end of the earth." D&C 45:26

Whole earth, heart's fail because we think the Lord isn't coming soon enough ... neither criteria is being met. The world might be getting worse midst the woes of so many positive "metrics". While things are definitely going to get a whole lot worse than they are now... someday. I personally find little to negative value in premature doomin' and gloomin'.

[SamuelTheLamanite]

26 minutes ago, juliann said:

That was my point. JS thought he was in the last days. And he was wrong. Just as every Mormon of every generation who has thought the same thing was wrong. And we will be just as wrong because what everyone seems to forget is no one knows.  And none of the "signs" (which are so vague they are almost useless) are any worse than in any other era. Get back to me when we have anything approaching the Plague or the World Wars going on.

Please  help me understand where you are coming from.  Is God wrong? Can prophets tell the difference between spiritual revelation and their own emotion? 

The name of our church is "Latter-Day saints". In French the name of the church is "Des Derniers Jours" which means "Last days". In Japanese the name of the church has "末ス" which means "the end"   In Spanish the name of the church is "Últimos Días" which means "last days".  In Portuguese the name of the church is "dos Últimos Dias" which means "last days".

I believe in the church, the scriptures, and the prophets. No one knows the exact time of the second coming, but it is near.

Edited March 16, 2018 by SamuelTheLamanite

[The Nehor]

12 minutes ago, Nofear said:

To add to juliann's point,

"And in that day shall be heard of wars and rumors of wars, and the whole earth shall be in commotion, and men’s hearts shall fail them, and they shall say that Christ delayeth his coming until the end of the earth." D&C 45:26

Whole earth, heart's fail because we think the Lord isn't coming soon enough ... neither criteria is being met. The world might be getting worse midst the woes of so many positive "metrics". While things are definitely going to get a whole lot worse than they are now... someday. I personally find little to negative value in premature doomin' and gloomin'.

I think He has not come son enough. One more person saying it will make it plural and prophecy fulfilled.

[juliann]

19 minutes ago, SamuelTheLamanite said:

Please  help me understand where you are coming from.  Is God wrong? Can prophets tell the difference between spiritual revelation and their own emotion? 

The name of our church is "Latter-Day saints". In French the name of the church is "Des Derniers Jours" which means "Last days". In Japanese the name of the church has "末ス" which means "the end"   In Spanish the name of the church is "Últimos Días" which means "last days".  In Portuguese the name of the church is "dos Últimos Dias" which means "last days".

I believe in the church, the scriptures, and the prophets. No one knows the exact time of the second coming, but it is near.

You are steadfastly refusing to respond to the very obvious fact that every generation since Christ has claimed they will see the second coming.  You are question begging. 

No one knows means no one knows! Near or far. The only thing we can know is that every generation has thought it would happen and they were wrong.  

[pogi]

Quote

You really have no idea what is in the hearts of most people on earth.  

46 minutes ago, The Nehor said:

A lot of cholesterol?

43 minutes ago, Nofear said:

"And in that day...men’s hearts shall fail them

Nehor nailed it.  We have seen a fulfillment of prophecy!

Edited March 16, 2018 by pogi

[SamuelTheLamanite]

18 minutes ago, juliann said:

You are steadfastly refusing to respond to the very obvious fact that every generation since Christ has claimed they will see the second coming.  You are question begging.

Every generation of prophets? Does president Nelson believe the second coming will happen in his life time? Nobody knows when, but the time is near. How do I know it is near? Because D&C 77:6 talks about seven thousand years. The last one thousand years are going to be the millennium.  The Fall happened six thousand year ago, so it means the second coming can't be far.

18 minutes ago, juliann said:

No one knows means no one knows!

Okay no one knows, so you can't say we are not in the last days.

18 minutes ago, juliann said:

You are steadfastly refusing to respond

I did. It is your turn to respond to my questions. Why is the name of the church in many different languages the "last days"?

Edited March 16, 2018 by SamuelTheLamanite

[pogi]

1 hour ago, SamuelTheLamanite said:

The united states shouldn't tolerate pornography. If you think prohibition doesn't work then why have any laws at all? Laws would be useless if prohibition doesn't work. 

Countries like Kuwait or Macau that punish pornography are very prosperous and religious. If pornography doesn't stop in the US, wickedness and sexual violence is going to rise in the US. In all general conferences our general authorities keep warning us about the dangers of pornography. 

One in three women in pornographic videos are sex slaves or were forced to do it. Pornography is sex slavery. With the rise of so much pornography we can't say our world is getting better.

No, what the United States shouldn't tolerate is the further restrictions of personal liberties.

I have a response, but you are going to have to wait, along with Hamba.

Does anybody else have the problem of the site not posting some responses and not others for no apparent rhyme or reason?  Luckily I saved it, but it will not post it no matter how I try.  

[Calm]

16 minutes ago, pogi said:

No, what the United States shouldn't tolerate is the further restrictions of personal liberties.

I have a response, but you are going to have to wait, along with Hamba.

Does anybody else have the problem of the site not posting some responses and not others for no apparent rhyme or reason?  Luckily I saved it, but it will not post it no matter how I try.  

Do you use links?  You might check the urls for problems.

Also make sure you change everything to plain text if you are quoting and links as "display as link" rather than embedding videos or anything else, including other threads on this board.

[SamuelTheLamanite]

23 minutes ago, pogi said:

No, what the United States shouldn't tolerate is the further restrictions of personal liberties.

I have a response, but you are going to have to wait, along with Hamba.

Does anybody else have the problem of the site not posting some responses and not others for no apparent rhyme or reason?  Luckily I saved it, but it will not post it no matter how I try.  

The other day when I was attacking pornography it happened to me too. I think there are some w0rd$ that are not @ll0wed, so you have to chan-ge them a bit. It may be just one single word, so you have to keep trying to find it.

One in three women on pornographic videos were forced to do it, that is slavery, not personal liberty. Pornography is criminal because in too many videos women are getting r@ped. A new law in Minnesota makes backside groping "punishable by up to a year in prison and a $3,000 fine". I praise the new law in Minnesota and I hope in the future we have severe punishments for porn use in our country because pornography is much worst than backside groping. The victims are real.

 

Edited March 16, 2018 by SamuelTheLamanite

[pogi]

3 minutes ago, Calm said:

Do you use links?  You might check the urls for problems.

Also make sure you change everything to plain text if you are quoting and links as "display as link" rather than embedding videos or anything else, including other threads on this board.

I have tried removing all links and graphs, made it all plain text...still nothing!  It is frustrating. But thanks for the help. I'll continue to mess around. 

[pogi]

4 minutes ago, SamuelTheLamanite said:

One in three women on pornographic videos were forced to do it, that is slavery, not personal liberty. 

CFR

Do you also recognize that there are very legal and legitimate corporations out there too?  And a very legal demand?

P.S. If you think it is bad right now (forcing women/trafficking) just wait until you see what happens when you push the industry underground! 

  

[MiserereNobis]

1 hour ago, pogi said:

No, what the United States shouldn't tolerate is the further restrictions of personal liberties.

I have a response, but you are going to have to wait, along with Hamba.

Does anybody else have the problem of the site not posting some responses and not others for no apparent rhyme or reason?  Luckily I saved it, but it will not post it no matter how I try.  

 This has happened to me before. Through experimentation, I found out that my post contained too many blacklisted words. I was discussing a monthly card game with my friends and I guess it was just too wicked for this site, ha! 

 In fact, it happened right now with this post. I put the name of the card game and it wouldn’t let me post.

Edited March 16, 2018 by MiserereNobis

[pogi]

On 3/14/2018 at 11:26 PM, SamuelTheLamanite said:

It must stop immediately! Our country needs to declare porn a health crisis and make it illegal.

On 3/15/2018 at 4:58 PM, Hamba Tuhan said:

'Did Prohibition Really Work? Alcohol Prohibition as a Public Health Innovation'

Ok, I made it work.  Reworded a paragraph and voila!

See the new thread for my response. 

[SamuelTheLamanite]

On 3/16/2018 at 1:58 AM, Calm said:

Looks like you are on limited now, happens to posters who create too many threads on pretty much the same topic.

What do I need to do so you can get me off limited?  I can't correct my bad spelling and grammar on previous posts. For me it is very important to defend the truth of the gospel and I can't do it without correcting my spelling and grammar. I didn't know you could lose your good standing here.

If there is something I could do please let me know.

Edited March 17, 2018 by SamuelTheLamanite

[JLHPROF]

8 minutes ago, SamuelTheLamanite said:

What do I need to do so you can get me off limited?  I can't correct my bad spelling and grammar on previous posts. For me it is very important to defend the truth of the gospel and I can't do it without correcting my spelling and grammar. I didn't know you could lose your good standing here.

If there is something I could do please let me know.

Virtually never happens.  They leave people on limited once they're there.

Encourages the rest of us to follow board rules and good rules of discussion.

[SamuelTheLamanite]

25 minutes ago, JLHPROF said:

Virtually never happens.  They leave people on limited once they're there.

Encourages the rest of us to follow board rules and good rules of discussion.

I wasn't aware defending the church was against the board rules. It's okay only God knows the intentions of my heart and that is all that matters. For we believe in being saved "after all we can do".

This board is one of the biggest Mormon boards online, but I am satisfied with everything I did here.

So it's okay JLHPROF you don't have to get me off limited. You or who ever.

Edited March 17, 2018 by SamuelTheLamanite

[SamuelTheLamanite]

If someone knows of a good Mormon message board where I can share my views of the gospel please let me know.  Participating in online forums is good for your mental health 

Quote

Online discussion forums have benefits at individual and society level

They are positively linked to well-being for stigmatised group members.

Online discussion forum use is linked to offline civic engagement in related areas.

Online discussion forums are of greater applied importance than has been realized

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S074756321500268X

Edited March 17, 2018 by SamuelTheLamanite

[JLHPROF]

33 minutes ago, SamuelTheLamanite said:

I wasn't aware defending the church was against the board rules.

It's not what you say, it's how you say it.  Many here are staunch defenders and believers.  Some even more TBM than you appear to be.

But the board has rules.

[The Nehor]

3 hours ago, SamuelTheLamanite said:

What do I need to do so you can get me off limited?  I can't correct my bad spelling and grammar on previous posts. For me it is very important to defend the truth of the gospel and I can't do it without correcting my spelling and grammar. I didn't know you could lose your good standing here.

If there is something I could do please let me know.

They had an amnesty for Limited posters a while back. Doubt they will repeat the experiment. You can still post but you have a limit per day and you cannot start new threads.

2 hours ago, SamuelTheLamanite said:

I wasn't aware defending the church was against the board rules. It's okay only God knows the intentions of my heart and that is all that matters. For we believe in being saved "after all we can do".

This board is one of the biggest Mormon boards online, but I am satisfied with everything I did here.

So it's okay JLHPROF you don't have to get me off limited. You or who ever.

You were not put on Limited for “defending the church”. You were out on Limited for “breaking the board rules”. Unless JLHPROF is a mod they cannot change your status.

2 hours ago, SamuelTheLamanite said:

If someone knows of a good Mormon message board where I can share my views of the gospel please let me know.  Participating in online forums is good for your mental health 

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S074756321500268X

This is the best one I know of.

[Marginal Gains]

16 hours ago, JLHPROF said:

Righteousness is measured by closeness to God, wickedness by distance from God.  If you think I'm self-righteous you have no idea how far from God I generally feel, but I am working on fixing that.  The world on the other hand seems extremely pleased with itself for moving further from God, as evidenced in a small way by your post.

 

Your righteousness is measured by you by how far you feel you are from your interpretation of what your particular brand of believed in supernatural entity may or may not want you to do or not do.

Your self righteousness is contained within your inherent position that your God is The God and that your interpretation of what your God wants is The interpretation of what The God wants.

[SteveO]

I do think we live in times of plenty, and amazing technological marvels.  It's a blessing--but also a curse.

For the first time in human history, more people are dying from the effects of overeating/obesity than starvation/malnutrition--even in "developing" countries.  We're living longer, but people seem to accumulate more health problems as they age so that quality of life degrades with the longevity.

We're more connected than ever thanks to technology, but ironically made only more lonely and isolated by it.  I read England now has a "Minister of Loneliness" to address the problem.

My home state of Wisconsin is being so devastated by the opioid epidemic that overwhelmed ambulances at one time considered not responding to repeat OD's.  I hear its worse in other areas around the US.

Financial debt is absolutely crushing people.  A trillion dollars in student loans, and the average credit card debt per owning household is around $15K.

I read a very raw article a few weeks ago from the New York Times about how some schools have begun education on pornography--not to expose students to it, but because a disturbing number of young people aren't comprehending that what they are seeing isn't real.  A small, but again disturbing number of young men aren't sexually aroused by their partners, and prefer porn to the real thing.  "Doll brothels" are having success, as men are not only uninterested in the relationship side of sex--they don't even want to deal with an actual woman.

I'm not saying that all this and a number of other things makes us worthy of hellfire and brimstone anytime soon.  Kids have always been punks, and adults have always been obnoxiously pessimistic about the up and coming youth.  But I think what the above indicates are distractions.  We're told "man shall not eat by bread alone", and if we're too distracted to remember to feed our spirits--we'll reap unhappiness.  And we see that.  I've read of the "quarter life crisis" of young adults who are lost, lonely, confused, stressed, etc.  Depression and suicide is on the rise in almost every demographic, but most especially with teens.  We have more opportunity today than ever before to be happy, and live fulfilled lives...and it seems so few of us are doing so.

I'm fortunate to be at a point in life where I'm not wishing for the end, its pretty exciting time for me.  And I'm not going to speculate on a date.  But there are some ominous storm clouds on the horizon around the globe. The next major war fought in the Middle East will be over water rights.  I don't see an unbroken UE in the next decade, as the world trends towards tribalism.  Robert Kaplan's "The Coming Anarchy" which he wrote sometime in the 90's is an unsettling read.  The drug cartels, who represent in my mind the purest form of evil currently in existence, seem unstoppable.  Human trafficking is depressingly prevalent, especially with children.  And I'm sure we could spend all day with this. 

We're just in a strange time, and there's a lot "new" of which we have yet to see the ultimate consequences.  Maybe they're just growing pains and we'll figure out how to cope and adapt.  Humans are good at that.  But  I don't know.  Just my $.02. 

I'm at work...I should probably...you know..."work".    

 

 

 

[california boy]

2 hours ago, SteveO said:

I do think we live in times of plenty, and amazing technological marvels.  It's a blessing--but also a curse.

For the first time in human history, more people are dying from the effects of overeating/obesity than starvation/malnutrition--even in "developing" countries.  We're living longer, but people seem to accumulate more health problems as they age so that quality of life degrades with the longevity.

We're more connected than ever thanks to technology, but ironically made only more lonely and isolated by it.  I read England now has a "Minister of Loneliness" to address the problem.

My home state of Wisconsin is being so devastated by the opioid epidemic that overwhelmed ambulances at one time considered not responding to repeat OD's.  I hear its worse in other areas around the US.

Financial debt is absolutely crushing people.  A trillion dollars in student loans, and the average credit card debt per owning household is around $15K.

I read a very raw article a few weeks ago from the New York Times about how some schools have begun education on pornography--not to expose students to it, but because a disturbing number of young people aren't comprehending that what they are seeing isn't real.  A small, but again disturbing number of young men aren't sexually aroused by their partners, and prefer porn to the real thing.  "Doll brothels" are having success, as men are not only uninterested in the relationship side of sex--they don't even want to deal with an actual woman.

I'm not saying that all this and a number of other things makes us worthy of hellfire and brimstone anytime soon.  Kids have always been punks, and adults have always been obnoxiously pessimistic about the up and coming youth.  But I think what the above indicates are distractions.  We're told "man shall not eat by bread alone", and if we're too distracted to remember to feed our spirits--we'll reap unhappiness.  And we see that.  I've read of the "quarter life crisis" of young adults who are lost, lonely, confused, stressed, etc.  Depression and suicide is on the rise in almost every demographic, but most especially with teens.  We have more opportunity today than ever before to be happy, and live fulfilled lives...and it seems so few of us are doing so.

I'm fortunate to be at a point in life where I'm not wishing for the end, its pretty exciting time for me.  And I'm not going to speculate on a date.  But there are some ominous storm clouds on the horizon around the globe. The next major war fought in the Middle East will be over water rights.  I don't see an unbroken UE in the next decade, as the world trends towards tribalism.  Robert Kaplan's "The Coming Anarchy" which he wrote sometime in the 90's is an unsettling read.  The drug cartels, who represent in my mind the purest form of evil currently in existence, seem unstoppable.  Human trafficking is depressingly prevalent, especially with children.  And I'm sure we could spend all day with this. 

We're just in a strange time, and there's a lot "new" of which we have yet to see the ultimate consequences.  Maybe they're just growing pains and we'll figure out how to cope and adapt.  Humans are good at that.  But  I don't know.  Just my $.02. 

I'm at work...I should probably...you know..."work".    

 

 

 

In times past, spirits were thrown on this earth with little control over their lives. Thrown into slavery. Thrown into dire poverty. Thrown into plagues wiping out the family structure. Thrown into oppression. You get the idea.  Now free agency is finally at its peak. All the things you listed are now choices people are free to make. The plan of salvation is finally operating better than ever before. Seems hard to start calling this the worst of times.  You have the best chance you ever have had. What you do with it is up to you. 

[Teancum]

On 3/13/2018 at 11:08 PM, bsjkki said:

I've had a few circumstances that led to debating whether we live in the most wicked times in world history. My husband in High Priests gets frustrated with all the doom and gloom discussed in class i.e.. millennials are terrible, technology is evil, the world is in terrible shape...the end is near. I'm sure most of you have heard some of this type of talk before. I also had an argument that we don't live in the most wicked times in history. While there is wickedness in the world, there are a lot of good people and a lot of good things happening in the world. World hunger has lessened, women have more rights, poverty is decreasing. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/mar/17/aid-trade-reduce-acute-poverty  I also think back to the World Wars, Hilter, Stalin, child labor and infant mortality rates and wonder how people can think we have it so bad? The Gospel is on the Earth, we have a prophet, and busy temples around the globe. I don't think it is so awful out there. While we do have our challenges, I really don't see things as all doom and gloom. 

What is your opinion? While we may be living in the last days, are these the worst days so far? Why are some Mormons so negative about the state of the world?

 

Harvard professor and prolific author Steven Pinker disagrees with the pessimism and feels we are living in the best times ever overall for humans.  See here:

https://www.economist.com/news/books-and-arts/21737241-enlightenment-now-explains-why-doom-mongers-are-wrong-steven-pinkers-case-optimism

 

Though there are a number of academics who challenge Pinker's ideas.

[mnn727]

On 3/14/2018 at 8:23 AM, JLHPROF said:

I believe we are living in the worst days so far AND that there is much progress for good that has been made.

The advances of quality of life are obvious but don't offset the increase in societal wickedness and increasing separation of man from his creator.

Just because we have more access to things and labor saving devices does not mean man is improving, I agree, mankind is moving further and further from the path of righteousness