“Grampa, you got to see the new century in.  You got to see the beginning of a new millennium.  What was it like?  Was it exciting?”

“Well, yes, there was a lot of excitement.  A new millennium only happens once every 1,000 years.  I was 52.  I had expectations of living a long time yet.  I had seven grandchildren, and expectations of having many more.  You hadn’t happened yet.  What year were you born?”

“2002.”

“Then you don’t have any memories at all of a world without technology, do you?”

“No.  Why was everyone excited?”

“No one knew just what would happen when the calendar rolled from 1999 to 2000.  All the existing technology had been programmed to understand the 1900s, and many technicians feared that our clocks and machines and communication devices wouldn’t comprehend the switch to 2000.  Many people predicted that computers worldwide would shut down, and that the whole world would go dark.  They even had a name for the catastrophe that the shutdown might cause.  They called it Y2K.”

“What does Y2K mean?”

“K stands for 1,000.  Y signifies year.  Y2K means ‘year two thousand.’  Many people were predicting that everything would be thrown into such disarray that life as we know it would end.”

“What happened?”

“Nothing.  It was a big letdown for the doom-sayers.”

“Grampa, what do you think about the predictions the presidential candidates are making in 2019 about our future?  One said this week that the experts say we have just 12 years left to reverse the climate change that humans are causing through pollution and carbon emissions.  Another said we only have 10.  What’s going to happen?  Are the dangers real?  Do they know what they’re talking about?”

“They’re doomsayers like the Y2K people.  There will always be doomsayers with their own agendas to preach, but they’re listening to the wrong voices.  There were a lot of people before the turn of the century who were predicting that the year 2000 would bring the Savior’s Second Coming and the start of His millennial reign on Earth.  Their reasoning was that it was going to be exactly 2000 years since His birth, so if He was really coming, that would be the time He’d choose.  That didn’t happen, either.”

“When is the Second Coming going to happen, Grampa, and what will it be like?”

“The time is approaching, and probably faster than we think; but conditions aren’t right yet.  There are still prophecies that need to be fulfilled.  They could be fulfilled rapidly.  The fact of the matter is that no one knows just when the Lord will come again.  We just know that He’s coming, that He’ll come suddenly, and that we need to be ready.

“Our presidential candidates are pointing the finger of blame about world conditions at pollution and carbon emissions and climate change.  They claim that the use of fossil fuels is dooming the world to destruction because of the rise of carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere which is warming the Earth.

“They’re right that catastrophe and destruction are on the horizon, but the reality is that they themselves are the pollutions that will cause it.  One party in this upcoming election has 25 candidates vying for the nomination.  One and all loudly demand the right to kill babies through abortion.  One of the candidates is homosexual, and all the rest unitedly promote gay marriage as an acceptable and normal thing.  Their party has written a disbelief in God into their platform.

“The other party is led by an immoral, egotistical man without an ounce of humility.  The nation is awash in illegal drugs that destroy countless lives.  Our laws and the Constitution are being taunted and attacked.  The police are being accused of being the cause of our problems while criminality runs rampant in some areas.

“How long can the Lord allow this to go on!?”

“Listen to what I just read in the Book of Mormon, Grampa.  These are Alma’s last words:  ‘And he said:  Thus saith the Lord God—Cursed shall be the land, yea, this land, unto every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, unto destruction, which do wickedly, when they are fully ripe; and as I have said so shall it be; for this is the cursing and the blessing of God upon the land, for the Lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance.’

“I think the Lord is letting the people ripen, and fill up their cup of iniquity.”

“You asked what the Second Coming will be like.  I’ve been thinking about that.  Hurricane Dorian just hit the Bahamas several days ago as a category 5 storm.  It hit Abaco Island with 185 mile per hour winds, and stalled there for two days.  I can’t imagine what those people went through.  A newscaster stood in the midst of the destruction a couple of days ago and said, ‘There is nothing left for as far as the eye can see.  The smell of death is in the air.’

“That caused me to think about the storm the Nephites experienced at the death of Christ.  Surely it was similar, except that the Nephite storm was accompanied by earthquakes and thunder and lightning and tornadoes and thick darkness.  I wonder if the vapors of darkness that they felt weren’t caused by volcanic ash and dust in the air.”

“Could there ever be another storm like that?”

“I’m sure there will be.  Here, open my Book of Mormon to 2 Nephi 27:1-2, and read it to me.”

“But, behold, in the last days, or in the days of the Gentiles—yea, behold all the nations of the Gentiles and also the Jews, both those who shall come upon this land and those who shall be upon other lands, yea, even upon all the lands of the earth, behold, they will be drunken with iniquity and all manner of abominations—

“And when that day shall come they shall be visited of the Lord of Hosts, with thunder and with earthquake, and with a great noise, and with storm, and with tempest, and with the flame of devouring fire.”

“Wow, that sounds just like what the Nephites went through at the death of Christ!”

“It does, doesn’t it?  That storm is recorded in 3 Nephi, chapter 8.  If you’ll turn to that page, I’ve listed other scriptures there in the margin that also indicate that there will be a great storm and cataclysm preceding the Second Coming.”

“Here’s the list:  2 Nephi 27:1-2, Isaiah 13:6-13, Joel 2:28-32, Joel 3:15-16, Moses 7:60-61, D&C 43:17-25, D&C 87:4-7, D&C 88:87-91, Zephaniah 1:14-18, and Helaman 14:20-27.  That’s a lot!”

“Do you know what I’ve decided?  It came to me the other day that the Y2K doomsayers and our polluted politicians all have their alarm clocks set to the wrong time.  Some of them thought the alarm would ring at 2,000 years from the birth of Christ.  Others are thinking it will be in 10 or 12 years.  The polluted politicians are among those who are ‘drunken with iniquity.’  They won’t acknowledge, and aren’t even aware, that the Lord’s Second Coming is imminent.  They’re right that a catastrophe is coming, but they don’t know that they’re a part of the cause, and they don’t know when it will happen.

“The fact of the matter is that no one knows when the Lord will come again, but I have a theory, and I think that it’s more sound than the others.

“The Lord seems to place special significance upon April 6th.  We know by revelation that April 6th was the day of His birth.  I think that it was also the day of His resurrection.  It was the day upon which He directed the Prophet Joseph Smith to organize the Restored Church 1,830 years after His birth.

“Two thousand years after His birth would have been 6 April 2000, but I think that the date we maybe need to focus on is 2,000 years after His death.

“3 Nephi, chapter 8, says that “the people began to look with great earnestness for the sign which had been given by the prophet Samuel, the Lamanite, yea, for the time that there should be darkness for the space of three days over the face of the land.

“’And there began to be great doubtings and disputations among the people, notwithstanding so many signs had been given.’

“Doesn’t that sound like the same thing that’s going on today?

“’And it came to pass in the thirty and fourth year, in the first month, on the fourth day of the month, there arose a great storm, such an one as never had been known in all the land.’  (3 Nephi 8:3-5).

“That would have been April 4th.  Christ died two days short of His 33rd birthday, and resurrected on April 6th.

“It came to me the other day (and this is my personal opinion) that the logical time for the Lord to come again would be 2,000 years after His resurrection.  That would place His coming at April 2034.  I don’t think His coming will be before that date.

“At this time 2,000 years ago Christ was 19 years old.  He was still preparing for His ministry.  He, and we, are now preparing for His Second Coming.  By those calculations we have something less than 14 years to be ready.

“The Lord places significance on certain dates, and on the time of the Passover.  It is surely not coincidental that the organizing of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was directed by God to take place on April 6, 1830, and that that day was also Passover.

“And it can’t be coincidence that the Savior and Moses and Elias and Elijah came to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery in the Kirtland Temple on April 3, 1836 to bestow their keys, and that that date was also Passover.

“Here is what I’m thinking:  I’m thinking that if April 4th, 2034 is the 2,000th anniversary of the Savior’s resurrection, then I’d bet that date is also Passover.”

“Let’s ask Google, Grampa.  I’m typing in the question, ‘When is Passover 2034?’ ... Look, you’re right!!  What does that mean?”

“It means that we have to be ready.  It means that we have to be worthy.  It means that the change that is necessary is repentance.  It means that the wicked are going to get worse.  It means that Satan knows his time is short.  It means that persecution is going to increase, and that we will have to bear up against it.  It means that the 10 tribes are going to come soon, and that missionary work as we know it will cease when the missionaries are called home because of unsafe conditions.  It means that you are going to see the Second Coming.  It means that you’ll live to be the age of a tree, and that you’ll be changed from mortality to a resurrected being in the twinkling of an eye.

“It means that if I make it to the age of 87, you won’t be having a funeral for me, and that you won’t have one, either.”