244.1: The Second Coming of Jesus (D&C Gospel Doctrine Lesson 21, Updated)
“Looking Forth for the Great Day of the Lord to Come”
Manual Goal: To help class members understand and recognize the signs of the Second Coming and prepare for “the great day of the Lord to come” (D&C 45:39).
EGD Goal: To help class members live in such a way that they are prepared independent of when Jesus returns.
Outline
- Framing
- Discussion of new resources
- Productive Sunday Schooling
- What difference does the Second Coming make in our lives?
- Being ready for, looking forward to, vs. depending on
- If we are prepared we shall not fear
- Our pre-second coming task: Building Zion
- Lesson: Jesus Once of Humble Birth
- I don’t know how productive some of this will be, but it is important, so I would encourage you to include these points if possible.
- Still focus on preparedness and accountability. The world is scary, but if we are prepared, we can find peace almost no matter what happens.
- Spiritual preparedness
- Emotional Preparedness
- Physical Preparedness
- History of the Second Coming
- Apocalypticism and Judaism
- Millenarianism in Christianity (Chiliasm was seen as a heresy, Revelation was the last book accepted into the NT for this reason)
- Millenarianism in the early Church (Joseph and other early leaders thought Jesus would return in their lifetime
- The apocalypse we *do* know is coming
- Overview of full episode
- Conclusion: Be prepared; “First and second comings” in our own lives.
Flow of Second Coming Episode: Jesus, Once of Humble Birth has long been one of my favorite hymns. (Juxtaposition of humble submission and conquering vindication)
Plus, Second Coming is exciting! Blockbuster action movie gospel topic.
Arrival delayed… for 2000 years.
Second Coming excitement now (Patriarchal blessings, biggest question I had was whether would be alive at second coming, Harold camping)
Second coming excitement in early church
Second coming excitement in Jesus time (Yup).
Historical roots:
Psychological roots: Longing for everything to be set right, God coming and fixing everything
Talk about submission and vindication in our own lives
Theology: (bring up idea of second coming down the rabbit hole)
Talk about the actual apocalypse that is coming very soon (end of fossil fuels, race to the death between innovation and cataclysm)
(our entire global way of life is fueled and funded by fossil fuels) Exploitative, I think building Zion is about creating ethical, sustainable ways of being)
Conclusion: Dedicating our lives to bringing Zion
Win-win preparation:
Framing
This may seem a bit irreverent, but the core issue of the Second Coming comes down to this: Who is responsible for cleaning up our messes, we or Jesus?
The answer is us, whenever Jesus may be showing up.
Discussion of new resources
Lesson 21:“Looking Forth for the Great Day of the Lord to Come”
- “Peace and War”:This article gives context to the revelation now found in Doctrine and Covenants87 and discusses how the early Saints responded to prophecies about destruction before the Second Coming. The idea of the Second Coming includes 1) Jesus’ actual return, 2) the peace and thriving that will reign after his return, and 3) the violent, troubling time before his return. This wording creates some distance in prophecies about the Second Coming: “The revelations taught that widespread destruction would precede the Lord’s Second Coming, and the frequency of references to destruction in the revelations prompted many Latter-day Saints to conclude that the Second Coming must be imminent” Worthwhile resource. This is true… people have expected the Second Coming to occur in their lives for over two thousand years! Scripture, especially Revelation, has caught in our imagination, encouraging us to map those descriptions onto current events. This should make us cautious about the idea that the Second Coming will come soon.
“Likening the Scriptures”: This quote from Joseph Fielding Smith in a letter to his son during World War II emphasizes the promise of peace in the Millennium. Very brief, though it does have an amusing addition to Isaiah with the suggestion that we will make tractors out of tanks
Productive Sunday Schooling
What difference does the Second Coming make in our lives?
Being ready for, looking forward to, vs. depending on
(We should be ready, can look forward to, but *cannot* depend on. That’s the beauty of the gospel though. The right approach works no matter what)
If we are prepared we shall not fear
Our pre-second coming task: Building Zion
Lesson: Jesus Once of Humble Birth
I don’t know how productive some of this will be, but it is important, so I would encourage you to include these points if possible.
Still focus on preparedness and accountability. The world is scary, but if we are prepared, we can find peace almost no matter what happens.
Spiritual preparedness (Ready for judgment… we face our own judgment every day, ourselves and we are judged by the natural consequences of our behaviors)
Emotional Preparedness (How well can we handle and manage our emotions? How well do we cope when things don’t turn out as we expect [parenting is good training for this]. How do we handle emotional distress? Crisis?)
Physical Preparedness (As much health and self-sufficiency as possible, which will of course differ based on our circumstances and abilities)
History of the Second Coming
Second Coming in the church: I remember discussing patriarchal blessings with my friends, and what I most wanted to know is whether it said they would be alive in the second coming or not! (Mine suggests I will die immediately before, if you are curious)
President Packer on the Second Coming:
“Sometimes you might be tempted to think as I did from time to time in my youth: “The way things are going, the world’s going to be over with. The end of the world is going to come before I get to where I should be.” Not so! You can look forward to doing it right—getting married, having a family, seeing your children and grandchildren, maybe even great-grandchildren.” (And once we are out that far, we are talking about our own lifespan as much as Jesus’ timeline)
Apocalypticism and Judaism
Millenarianism in Christianity (Chiliasm was seen as a heresy, Revelation was the last book accepted into the NT for this reason)
Millenarianism in the early Church (Joseph and other early leaders thought Jesus would return in their lifetime
The apocalypse we *do* have a timeline for: the end of fossil fuels. (Read Forbes article) (With Mason’s nuance, but things *are* going to change and we can’t anticipate how) The root of Apocalypticism is the division into “this world” and “the world to come” and that is precisely the point we are approaching. I am skeptical that it is a coincidence that we are running out of fossil fuels, which required hundreds of millions of years to develop, at just about the same time we developed technology to transcend them. I believe this is a divinely guided process and it is important to embrace it.
Overview of full episode (The role of the Second Coming in Church culture; timing of the Second Coming; Millennium; history of belief in the Second Coming)
Conclusion: Be prepared; “First and second comings” in our own lives.
live as if we would be ready tomorrow (never know how long we have on earth anyway), but never count on Second Coming as part of our planning! If we are ready for anything, we will not fear. And we will end up learning needed skills. ? Like gardening and budgeting!