If you haven’t listened to Christian Homestead, I would recommend it. He comes up with some pretty amazing things. I am always fascinated by what I learn from him. Where he has the time to figure all this stuff out, I don’t know. But, I’m going to share something he shared today.
Here is the video:
In this particular video, he is talking about a Fireside given by Elder Ballard at BYU-Idaho in 2010. There was an article about the fireside written in the Church News. Here is the link: Elder M. Russell Ballard at Brigham Young University-Idaho fireside: ‘Treasure truth and prepare for the future’ – Church News (thechurchnews.com)
Ender Ballard declares directly that we are in the last days.
For me, I think that provides some comfort. Why? I have convinced myself that we are in those days. I have been planning and preparing for what is expected to come. I believe their statements validate my faith and the direction I am traveling.
Elder Ballard gives a few reasons for why we are in the last days, and they may be the strongest examples. But, there are many more and as we get closer the number of signs will increase. I just hope that we keep our eyes open. That we are not blind to the things that are in front of us.
To prevent spiritual blindness, we need to live by faith. We need to be continually drawing close to God and nourishing our testimony. I have seen so many fall away. It seems to always start one of of two ways. One, they are not reading the scriptures and praying. Two, they start to question the doctrine of the church or the prophet.
In the last days the only way you will know the truth is through the Holy Ghost. You must know how to recognize and feel the Holy Ghost.
“I want to try to pull this together, not to frighten you but to wake you up,” Elder Ballard said. “We’ve got to be so solidly anchored in our testimonies of the gospel of Jesus Christ that, regardless of what may come next, we will not waffle; we will stand firm in our belief; we won’t question the doctrines that are part of our belief.“
Elder Ballard encouraged students to view their time at BYU-Idaho as an opportunity to prepare for the time when they’ll be out of school and subject to bombardment by a new brand of spiritual buffetings.
“Soon you’ll graduate and you’ll go forth and get married, if you’re not married already, and you’ll have a family,” he said. “Wherever you settle, you be sure that your knowledge of the Restoration and your acceptance of these things which are true are deeply embedded in your heart, in your mind [and] in your soul so that whatever wind blows against you, you will not succumb nor will you become casual or even indifferent.”
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According to Elder Ballard, students can inoculate themselves against spiritual indifference via a zealous study of revealed truth.
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Excerpting entire passages of scripture from Matthew 24, 2 Nephi 28 and Mormon 8, Elder Ballard firmly established that ancient prophecies regarding the last days preceding the Savior’s second coming aren’t just being fulfilled but are coming to pass at an accelerated rate.
“I’m telling you what the Savior said would be the signs of the acceleration towards that day when He shall come,” he said. “We could stay here for a couple of hours talking about all of the prophecies of what will occur in the last days. We’re in the last days — you can quote me on that. And it is moving more rapidly.”
Conditions that Elder Ballard specifically cited as fulfillment of prophecy and signs of the times include “pornography and how real affection and how true and real love are being disturbed by Satan and his minions” (see Matthew 24:12); “an acceleration of the gospel going to all nations” (see Matthew 24:14); and how “Mother Nature is letting its power be seen throughout the world at a more accelerated pace” (see Mormon 8:30-31).
Elder M. Russell Ballard at Brigham Young University-Idaho fireside: ‘Treasure truth and prepare for the future’ – Church News (thechurchnews.com)
To emphasize, the times in which we live. President Nelson declared nine years later that “Time is Running Out.”
Now, as President of His Church, I plead with you who have distanced yourselves from the Church and with you who have not yet really sought to know that the Savior’s Church has been restored. Do the spiritual work to find out for yourselves, and please do it now. Time is running out.
“Come, Follow Me” (churchofjesuschrist.org)
I was blind in my youth. I know what it is like to have the gospel in front of your face and not recognize it or the hand of God in your life. I have felt in my own life how easy it is to accept and live contrary to the commandments of God. I understand how you can be blinded to a true understanding of right and wrong and justify wrong as right. Our physical bodies must be mastered. This starts with our hearts and our minds being turned to God.
Surely we have little time to do this.