Put on the Armor of Light

I’ve listed here a few yes-or-no questions about the last days and Christ’s Second Coming based on Matthew chapter 24 and other scriptures. How many questions would you say deserve a yes?

The yeses are a strong indication of how close we are getting to the actual winding up scene. I’ll let you be your own judge, but I think it’s safe to say were getting really close. What does that mean in terms of days, months, and years? I don’t know. But I do know this: Now is the time to get ready.

1. Are you hearing of wars and rumors of wars? (Matthew 24:5–6.)
2. Are there famines, earthquakes, pestilences, tempests, and waves themselves heaving beyond their bounds (tsunamis) in various places? (Matthew 24:7; Doctrine and Covenants 88:89.)
3. Have false Christs and false prophets appeared, deceiving people, including the very elect? (Matthew 24:5, 11, 23, 24.)
4. Are the saints hated in all nations for His name’s sake? (Matthew 24:9.)
5. Are there many who are offended, betraying one another, and hating one another? (Matthew 24:10.)
6. Does iniquity abound? (Matthew 24:12.)
7. Has the love of many waxed cold? (Matthew 24:12.)
8. Has the gospel been preached in all the world as a witness? (Matthew 24:14.)
9. Has the “abomination of desolation” appeared—the pollution of the holy temple and likely the setting up of an idol therein? (Daniel 11:31; Daniel 12:11; Matthew 24:15.)
10. Has a great tribulation appeared, “such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time”? (Matthew 24:15.)
11. Are there signs in the heavens? (Luke 21:11.)
12. Has the sun been darkened, the moon refused to give her light, and the stars fallen from heaven? (Matthew 24:29).
13. Has the earth reeled to and fro as a drunken man? (D&C 45:48; 88:87.)
14. Has the antichrist, the Son of Perdition, been revealed? (2 Thessalonians 2:14.)
15. Have the angels sounded their trumpets for all the world to hear? (Matthew 24:31.)
16. Has the sign of the coming of the Son of Man appeared? (Matthew 24:27, 30.)

I give about half of these questions a yes, and believe in my heart that the other half could happen pretty quickly, as a “thief in the night” (2 Peter 3:10; Doctrine and Covenants 45:19).

But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is. For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch. Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch. (Mark 13:32–37.)