Face the Days of Tribulation with Confidence

As I have awoken to the power of the scriptures and the doctrines they contain over the last few years, I've come to recognize some Taboo Doctrines among casual members of the church. These subjects are avoided in lessons, sacrament meeting addresses, and conversation because they are either controversial or have a tendency to invoke fear.

There is one doctrine in particular that I have come to think of as the Elephant in the Room. We all know it's there, and no one talks about it. Ever. As I have tried to bring it up at different family or social gatherings over the last few years, I've observed some interesting and telling behaviors that indicate this doctrine is widely misunderstood, consequently leaving us in fear, and putting us squarely on the advesaries' turf. It's like what Hermione Granger said "fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself". I write about this feared 'taboo doctrine' hoping that we can begin to acknowledge the elephant in the room and gain confidence to defeat it as we will surely face it together. 

In scriptural terms, the elephant goes by many names: "The Days of Tribulation" (Matthew 24:29; Doctrine and Covenants 29:8); “Days of Sorrow” (Doctrine and Covenants 136:35); “Abomination of Desolation”(Daniel 9:27; Daniel 11:31; Daniel 12:11; Mark 13:14; Doctrine and Covenants 84:117), “Great and Terrible Day of the Lord” (Joel 2:31; Malachi 4:5), “Day of the Lord”(Zephaniah 1:14; Amos 5:18; Jeremiah 46:10; Doctrine and Covenants 87:8; Joel 1:15); “The Time of the Heathen” (Ezekiel 30:3); “Day of the Lord’s Anger”(Zephaniah 2:3). (See also Ezra Taft Benson's talk on Tribulations here). We are under command to "[set] forth clearly and understandingly the desolation of abomination in the last days" (Doctrine and Covenants 84:117), or in other words, teach and understand this doctrine!

Reading the scriptures above will teach you that it is a seven year period preceding the Second Coming when all the latter-day bad stuff happens that we tend to think of like the earthquakes, tornadoes, tsunamis, plagues, civil war, famines, etc. This time period will commence within the LDS church, and I would presume will be marked by some natural event in Salt Lake City, based upon this text from Doctrine and Covenants 112: 24-26 "And upon my house shall it begin, and from my house shall it go forth, saith the Lord"

There is some speculation about the duration of the Days of Tribulation actually being seven years, because there is no single scripture that says "seven", but there are many references to 3.5 years. From my research, most Christian scholars agree to seven years on the following premise:

The "Abomination of Desolation" discussed in Daniel 12:11-13, is clearly 3.5 years. Another 3.5 year period called the Great Tribulation was mentioned by John the Revelator (see Revelation 12:6,14). The Savior tied both of those events together in Matthew 24:15-21, first mentioning "the abomination of desolation" from Daniel, and then in verse 21 he says "then shall be great tribulation". This narrative of the Savior suggests two separate but connected events totaling 7 years. I have found this pattern of scattered clues among scriptures to be a familiar technique used by the Lord. When I speak of the Days of Tribulation, I am referring to both 3.5 year intervals as one seven year time period.

Isaiah taught us that during the tribulations a lot of people will be taken from the earth. In fact, he used several analogies like a small number of animals able to feed the entire population, hewn forests, scarce gold, small children being able to count the remainder, and the gleaning following a harvest, all to describe the huge number of fatalities that will occur (see Isaiah 7:20-22, Isaiah 10: 18-19; Isaiah 13: 12-13; Isaiah 24: 6; Isaiah 24:13-14). 

If I were to summarize the elephant in the collective minds of others based upon my observations and the responses I've heard it would be something like this: "Things will get bad, but fortunately it won't be in my lifetime; but if so, I hope I die quickly". Seriously, I've heard that part about just giving up on life more times than I care to relay here.

If you also want your life to end before those days come upon you, please listen up! There is a difference between wanting death to escape trials (taking the easy route) and not fearing death because of our spiritual confidence that we are living the gospel, and know what's on the other side of the veil.

Living in fear of the Days of Tribulation is giving in to one of the adversaries' greatest deceptions, undermining God's tremendous power and ability to intervene in our lives. If Lucifer can get holders of the holy priesthood, and covenant making people to give up and die when their spiritual powers are needed the most, he may gain some measure of success, or so he supposes.

If you have made covenants with God and would rather die than face difficult times, then with all due respect, you may be trifling with your covenants, and do not likely understand the power and significance of the Abrahamic Covenant and God's obligation to save his posterity, nor can you truly believe in the enabling and empowering aspects of Jesus Christ's atonement.

It is said that ignorance breeds fear. To change your view from the adversarial fear-based perspective, to a more perfect view based on faith, hope, and charity, I suggest that you become confident in your understanding of the doctrines surrounding these events by studying the scriptures.

You might ask the question, "Why would the Lord allow these things to happen?" Then study the conditions that must exist in a Millennial or Terrestrial world from Doctrine and Covenants 88. You will see that it is not physically or spiritually possible for Christ to come back to rein on this earth in its current Telestial condition.

You could ask yourself "Who will the Lord spare, and who will be destroyed?" While more challenging to answer, the scriptures will teach you there are two churches: the Church of the Lamb of God, and the church of the devil, and the Lord will bless and protect those who stand for him.

If you are afraid of death, you might invest your time in a study of the Plan of Salvation, firstly from the scriptures. You may come to find as I have that mortal death is not the thing to fear the most, as we mortals tend to think. Mortal death is merely a birth back into our real lives. The thing we should fear the most is spiritual death.

You might also consider reading some books that have helped my wife and I gain confidence in how splendid the spirit world is. We really enjoyed Sarah Menet's "There is No Death", Lance Richardson's "The Message", Betty J. Eadie's "Embraced by the Light", Suzanne Freeman's "Led by the Hand of Christ"; Julie Rowe's "A Greater Tomorrow", and others (ask me if you want more titles). Their consistency and unique accounts of the other side of the veil were reassuring for us, and helped us to see that death is not the terrible event it is made to be in our temporal focused culture.

I'm not afraid of the Elephant. I don't fear death by plague, famine, earthquake, by foreign troops, or otherwise anymore. I have been sealed to my family in the temple for eternity, so what is there to lose, other than all the material possessions I've accumulated throughout life?

If there is anything to fear, it is in disappointing my God; giving up before I have a chance to prove myself to him; not becoming what He intended for me to become; and ultimately arriving at his altar with little or nothing to put upon it because I sought riches, or because I sought death before going through the challenges that he intended to contribute to my exaltation.

If we boldly face what appear to be the giant tribulations of the last days, we like David and his giant will overpower them in the name of the God of Israel, under the power of his promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We can and will overcome the elephant tribulations if we begin to acknowledge they lie on our doorstep and not some ephemeral horizon of the future. We must arm ourselves with righteousness and the power of God (1 Ne. 14:14), and confidently face what lies ahead knowing in whom we trust.