When Mormon Prophecy Finds its Fulfillment
Mormonism is not silent on the subject of Bible Prophecy. If we were to put Mormon eschatology into a category, we could label them decidedly Pre-Millennial, Post-Tribulation. What that means is they believe Jesus will return after the Rapture/Resurrection at the Second Coming to set up his kingdom on the earth. They firmly believe the LDS church must go through the seven-year Tribulation.
I have sworn in my wrath, and decreed wars upon the face of the earth, and the wicked shall slay the wicked, and fear shall come upon every man; And the saints also shall hardly escape; nevertheless, I, the Lord, am with them, and will come down in heaven from the presence of my Father and consume the wicked with unquenchable fire (Doctrine and Covenants 63:33, 34).
Unfortunately, they are correct…they will go through the Tribulation. It probably also explains why so many sects within Mormonism tend to lean "prepper." Nevertheless, Fairlatterdaysaints.org, a Mormon Apologetics site that provides answers to tough questions for Mormons has much to say about the end times. Citing their Doctrine and Covenants (a select group of revelatory sermons serving as an addendum to the Book of Mormon), they say this regarding the timing of the Rapture: (emphasis mine)
It also states that "in the day of the coming of the Son of Man... cometh an entire separation of the righteous and the wicked" (D&C 63:53-54)—not before!
Again in D&C section 88 the Lord warns, "prepare the saints for the hour of judgment which is to come; that their souls may escape the wrath of God, the desolation of abomination which awaits the wicked both in this world and in the world to come" (DC 88:84-85).
"And the saints that are upon the earth, who are alive, shall be quickened and be caught up to meet him. And they who have slept in their graves shall come forth for their graves shall be opened; and they also shall be caught up to meet him in the midst of the pillar of heaven—They are Christ's, the first fruits [of the resurrection], and they who shall descend with him first, and they who are on the earth and in their graves, who are first caught up to meet him... (D&C 88:96-98). Thus begins the resurrection of the just and the millennial reign of Christ on the earth (see DC 88:99-101; Revelation 20:4-6). Those who are caught up are not taken into heaven but reign "with Christ a thousand years" on the earth.[3] Thereafter, "they shall reign forever and ever" with him (Revelation 22:4-5).
As it is not my intent here to bash Mormonism for all the errant and heretical doctrines they promote, my intent is to serve as a warning to those who remain after the Pre-Tribulation Rapture of the Church. After the Rapture, those who are of age within the Latter Day Saints movement will be left behind.
Some of the most wonderful people I’ve ever met have been those from the Mormon faith. I mean, these people were such decent and honest people that they would put most Christians to shame. Yet, however wonderful these people are, they are being wonderfully deceived by a belief system that has some MAJOR doctrinal problems. Although outside the purview of this article, I will list the four major damnable heresies Mormonism promotes as true, and why they are NOT Christian. These sources are from LDS material:
Promotes works-based salvation (salvation by grace through faith is insufficient without the full efforts of the one being redeemed - 2 Nephi 25:23)
Promotes the idea of polytheism (i.e., the existence of multiple gods) (Source)
Promotes the idea that God (the Father) was once a flesh and bone man as taught by Joseph Smith and Lorenzo Snow (Source)
Denies the Trinity, and the divine nature of Christ as being co-equal with the Father (Jesus inherited his divinity from the Father [Source])
See here for an in-depth, cited, and well-researched expansion on each of these by a non-LDS apologetics ministry.
Mormons will be left behind primarily because of the issues they have with who Jesus really is, and what salvation really means. The world presents many variations of Jesus. Religions offer many different types of Jesus. The ONLY Jesus who can save you, is the Jesus of the Holy Bible. This is not my opinion, Holy Scripture is very clear that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life and that no man comes to the Father, but through Him (John 14:6).
The Bible is also clear that our salvation is by grace through faith, not of works, lest any man should boast (Eph. 2:8-9). There is nothing we can add to what Christ did on the cross. His grace is sufficient, His sacrifice perfect. If man could save himself through any other means, Jesus needn’t come in the first place to die a humiliating and painful death on the cross (Matt. 26:39). Jesus, being fully God and co-equal with the Father, took on the form of a man through the incarnation (the Holy Spirit overshadowing Mary), and also became fully man. It is this divine hypostatic union, by which Jesus became our Kinsman Redeemer to become the ONLY one worthy in all of existence, to claim the sealed Scroll from the right hand of the Father (Rev. 5).
After the Rapture, the world will be reeling from the second and third-order effects of millions of people suddenly disappearing. First of all, the world will be in shock at what just transpired. It will be like science fiction just became science faction and there will be a quick rush to say (by the media and government officials) that it was aliens or Gaia.
The truth is, Jesus will come and take His bride (the Church) home just as He has promised (John 14:1-3). Not just the Church but also those who are not of age (the age of accountability), and the mentally invalid (i.e., those who are incapable of making decisions on their own behalf). Bottom line, when the great disappearance happens, just know that it was Jesus who came to take His bride home, not anyone else. If you are still here, it is because your salvation was not true, and you have been following the wrong Jesus (Matt. 24:3-5).
So what happens after the Rapture?
Well, there will literally be seven to ten years of hell on earth. Most of the world’s population will not survive. There will be 21 divine judgments unleashed upon the earth, and just know from the outset, these judgments are from God. More than likely, the internet will be shut down or heavily censored by the elite to control the message they want to send out. We are seeing that even now with social media platforms censoring conservatives and Christians seemingly at will. Now magnify that censorship by 1,000 and the whole world’s access to the internet will mirror that of today’s communist China.
Your church leaders will attempt to come up with some explanation as to why many are missing and they are not. This is called deflection. They will seek to spin the disappearance as a negative thing- it is not. It was the Rapture of the Church. While the word rapture is not in our English bibles, the English equivalent is the words “caught up,” which we get from the Greek word harpazo.
We get the word Latin word rapture from the Greek word harpazo by way of the Latin translation of the Bible by Jerome in the 4th-century. He used the word rapio to convey the sentiment of the words “caught up.” The first major usage of the English transliteration of rapturo, was in 1739 by Reverend Philip Doddridge in a commentary he wrote on the New Testament. This word rapture was later used by the Rev. John Gill in 1748 and has been used ever since. All that to say, the Rapture of the Church is real, and the events which will follow are also real.
Author’s Note: The Pre-Tribulation Rapture has been taught long before Doddridge and Gill in the 1700s. See here for more historical references.
Understandably, if any Mormon reads this before the Rapture, it will likely be shrugged off as nonsensical. However, please take care to note that most prophecy seems nonsensical until it happens. After the Rapture (or the great disappearance), this will make more sense. This has all been foretold. It’s not happenstance. It’s not aliens or Gaia. It was Jesus taking His church home to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb (Rev. 19:1-10).
The Church (Greek-ekklesia- called out assembly) is not a denomination. It is not Roman Catholic, Protestant, or Mormon. The Church is the universal, corporate, unified body of believers from the Pentecost (Acts 2) until the Rapture, who are sealed by the Holy Spirit until the day of redemption (Matt. 16:18, Ephesians 1:13-14, 4:30, 5:23). As a reminder, the rapture itself is a signless, imminent event. No man knows when this will happen exactly, primarily, because no one knew when Israel was going to be revived as a nation. But since that happened, watching believers can see the season approaching (1 Thess. 5:1-4, Hebrews 10:25). Furthermore, some of Jesus' final words to us is that we should know roughly when it is about to happen because of the signs of the Tribulation piling up all around us.
Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent. Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you. Revelation 3:3
The Prophetic Timeline
The Pre Tribulation Rapture- this just happened. The Church is rescued and evil is no longer restrained on the earth.
The Time Gap- we don’t know how long this gap will last, perhaps months or even a few years, but there is a window of time between the Rapture and the official start of the Tribulation. While we can't be dogmatic about where the Bible is silent, there are a number of things that must happen (logically and logistically speaking) that simply can't be done in seven years. During the gap, there are some things we think will likely happen:
1. Pt. I-The Sunni Muslim nations surrounding Israel take advantage of the global chaos and launch an attack against her, and are defeated greatly expanding Israel’s present borders (Psalm 83). Pt. II- Russia, Turkey, Iran, Libya, and Sudan (Gog and Magog) will attempt to invade Israel to take her vast natural gas fields and her great wealth. God supernaturally defeats them. (Ezekiel 38-39). These two events fundamentally destroy Islam as both a belief system and as a political power bloc. It is at this point, presumably, the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa Mosque is destroyed, clearing the way for Israel to begin to rebuild her third temple on the Temple Mount.
2. After the Rapture, the world economic system will collapse due to the collapse of the United States. The world will have to reorganize into ten regional powers. This global system becomes known as The Beast and is aided by advanced technologies (5-6G networks backed by Artificial Intelligent or Quantum based systems) that will monitor all activity on the earth. After the Rapture, there will also be a great push to unite all the religions of the world into one, ecumenical belief system.
3. Out of the ten regional governments, three will be overthrown and one man (the Antichrist) rises to power. He will be aided by another known to us as The False Prophet. He will be able to do supernatural signs and wonders. They create a mark that is put on either the hand or forehead to buy or sell. DO NOT TAKE THIS. Remember, these two men will not appear evil at first. (Revelation 6, 13)
4. Two Witnesses also arrive during this time. They will have supernatural powers and will preach from Jerusalem for 3 ½ years. They cannot be killed or destroyed until the 3 ½ years are completed. (Rev. 11)
The Tribulation (Revelation 6:18) the official name for this is the 70th Week of Daniel (Daniel 9:27). It is a seven-year period, which God will unleash 21 divine judgments upon the earth. Over 1/2 of the world’s population dies as a result. The purpose for this time is laid out in Jeremiah 30:7-11 and Daniel 9:24. The Antichrist is given full authority to wage war against the saints and to overcome them (Rev. 13:7). There will be nowhere to hide. Only the Two Witnesses and the 144K Jews from the Twelve Tribes of Israel will be sealed and protected. The seas are turned to blood, fresh drinking water is turned to blood, and the sun and moon cease to give their light. A contract between the Antichrist and the nation of Israel begins the 21 judgments.
The Seven Seals (Revelation 6): 1/4 of the world’s population dies
1. The White Horse (Antichrist-false peace)
2. The Red Horse (War)
3. The Black Horse (Drought/Famine/Economic disaster)
4. The Pale Horse (Plague/Disease)
5. Martyrdom of those who refuse to worship the beast (slaughter of the Tribulation saints)
6. A Great Earthquake that causes such a geological disturbance, the dust and smoke obscure the sun, stars, and moon
7. Silence in Heaven
The Seven Trumpets (Revelation 8-11): 1/3 of the world’s population dies
1. Hail and fire mixed with blood
2. A great mountain cast into the sea and 1/3 of the oceans turned to blood
3. Wormwood- a meteor that poisons (makes bitter) a third of the fresh waters
4. A third of the sun, moon, and stars darkened (great cold, darkness)
5. First Woe (Demonic Locusts plague those who take the mark)
6. Second Woe (one-third of mankind killed by a demon-possessed army)
7. Third Woe (Lightning, Voices, Thunder, an Earthquake, and Great hail.)
The Seven Vials/Bowls (Revelation 16)
1. Grievous Sores on those who take the mark of the beast
2. The rest of the seas turn to blood
3. Rivers and fountains turned to blood
4. Great heat
5. Great darkness over the seat of Beast Kingdom
6. Euphrates River dries up
7. Massive earthquake and vast earth changes
The Battle of Armageddon (Revelation 19)
At the end of the seven years, the Beast’s armies, along with the kings of the east, gather in the Megiddo Valley (Israel) to try to destroy what remains of the Jewish people. The skies are rolled back and Christ returns in power and glory, followed by the Armies of Heaven (this is where the Church returns in victory with Christ). He destroys the armies gathered there. The Beast & False Prophet are cast alive into the Lake of Fire.
The Judgment of the Nations (Matthew 25)
Christ judges the remaining nations. Those who aided Israel during this 70th Week, are allowed entrance into the earthly, millennial kingdom, of which, Christ rules as the undisputed King. Those who attacked or did ill towards the nation of Israel (and her inhabitants), are cast into outer darkness and await judgment.
The Millennial Reign of Christ (Revelation 20)
Christ will reign upon the earth for 1,000 years. The world is released from the curse of sin and becomes a paradise. People will be given unnaturally long life spans. If a person does not choose to follow Christ, they will die at the age of 100. At the end of the 1,000 years, Satan is loosed for a season and is cast into the Lake of Fire.
The Great White Throne Judgment (Revelation 20:10-14)
The unsaved/unredeemed dead from all ages is brought before Christ and are judged according to their works. Everyone here not found in the Lamb's Book of Life is ultimately cast into the Lake of Fire because their works cannot save them. What is determined here is how severe their torment will be in the Lake of Fire for all of eternity. Death and hell are also cast into the Lake of Fire.
Eternity Future (Revelation 21-22)
A new heaven and new earth are created, as the former ones are passed away. For the redeemed, eternity future will be a glorious adventure. One filled with worship of God will being in His presence, exploration (seeing all that God has been working on these past two thousand years), of peace, joy, comfort, happiness, contentment, and love forever.
Rules for the Remnant
Do place your faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection.
A- Admit you’re a sinner and need a Savior (Romans 3:23, 6:23)
B- Believe in your heart that the Lord Jesus Christ died for your sins, was buried, and God raised Him from the dead (John 3:16, Romans 5:8)
C- Call upon the name of the Lord, trusting on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation (Romans 10:9-13)
Do NOT take the mark of the beast. This means you will not be able to buy or sell anything, but if you take the mark, you are damned forever. Better to struggle for a few years than to suffer for all eternity. (Revelation 14:9-11)
You will probably be martyred. The Beast’s systems will be vast; artificial intelligence, global surveillance, robotic weapon systems, as well as supernatural forces (demons) aiding them. Do not fear the first death (physical). Do fear the second death (spiritual). The first death is not the end, only the beginning of a glorious future with Christ. If you die spiritually as well, you will spend eternity in the Lake of Fire.
Endure to the end if you can. Run, hide, pray. If you survive the seven years, you will enter into the Millennial Kingdom.