Why I Stopped Following Anyone's Second Coming Timeline

Over the years I have read dozens of Second Coming timelines, and probably a lot more than that. Some come in books, some in charts passed around at church, and more and more of them now come in videos and podcasts. Every one of them lays out a certain list of events that has to occur before Jesus Christ appears to the whole earth. This happens, then that happens, then the next thing, and then He comes. They are very confident in their order. And most of them have one thing in common. They say it is all going to be over in two or three years. Well, I have watched a lot of those two or three years come and go.

A few days ago someone asked me what timeline I'm going by. I told him I've thrown them all out. I follow no one's timeline.

And I'm in good company, because the Savior Himself said...

But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. (Matthew 24:36)

I'm not going to argue here about whether that leaves room to know the year or the month. I'm simply not going to set one. But I do want to tell you why I threw the timelines out, because it isn't that I think we can know nothing. It's that I believe everyone building these timelines is ignoring the one timeline God already gave us.

The Timeline Everyone Skips

The Bible does give us a timeline of the last days. It's in Revelation chapter 6, and it is the seven seals. That's it. That's the timeline. John watched the Lamb open them one at a time, in order, and he told us what happens when each one opens...

And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see. And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer. (Revelation 6:1–2)

Then the red horse of war. Then the black horse of famine. Then the pale horse of death and plagues. Then the martyrs of the fifth seal. Then the sixth seal, with the great earthquake, the sun turned black, the moon as blood, and the stars falling. Then the half hour of silence, and then the seventh seal, with events so cataclysmic that no one really has any idea how dramatic they are going to be. Every other prophecy about the last days has to fit somewhere inside those seven seals. The four horsemen are not a side detail of the last days. They are how the last days begin.

So why does everyone skip it? I think it is because most people were taught that the seals are behind us. I was taught that too. I grew up hearing that a day with the Lord is a thousand years, and that each seal stood for a thousand years of the earth's history, because the Doctrine and Covenants tells us the book John saw...

...contains the revealed will, mysteries, and the works of God; the hidden things of his economy concerning this earth during the seven thousand years of its continuance, or its temporal existence. ... the first seal contains the things of the first thousand years, and the second also of the second thousand years, and so on until the seventh. (Doctrine and Covenants 77:6–7)

Six seals meant six thousand years, which put us right at the doorstep of the seventh. Then someone took the half hour of silence in heaven and turned it into twenty-one years, and we were told the Second Coming would be in 2021. Did it happen? No. But look carefully at what that revelation actually says. It tells us what the book contains. It does not say that opening a seal is a thousand years of history. The seven seals are events that occur before the opening of the book containing the seven-thousand-year history of the earth. Not one of them has been opened yet. I go into great detail on this in the chapter I give away for free, and you can download it here, read it, listen to it, or download the PDF.

Almost every time General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints comes around, we hear people claiming that this is the one. This time the prophets are going to say something about the Second Coming, and we need to get ready. Then conference comes and goes, and it doesn't happen. The prophets and apostles don't hand us a new timeline. They never have. They don't change anything. They keep pointing us back to the scriptures, and the scriptures already gave us the timeline.

Inside the Seals, Chaos

Now here is the part I want to be very careful with, because I don't want anyone to misunderstand me. The seals open in order. That is the overall timeline. But inside those seals, there is no neat order at all. There is absolute chaos.

Years ago I had a dream that taught me this. In the dream I was handed a large, beautiful book with a red velvet cover. When I tried to open it, it fell apart in my hands, and the pages scattered all over the table and the floor. I hurried to gather them up and put them back in order, trying to figure out which was the front and which was the back and which page went first. I couldn't. The pages were pictures of wars, earthquakes, tsunamis, riots, plagues, floods, erupting volcanoes, and hurricanes, all drawn in an unusual style, and none of them had any order. My father, who had passed away nine years before, was standing there with a stern look on his face, and he told me, "Destruction is imminent." I asked him if I had heard him right, and he said it again. "Destruction is imminent!"

What I took from that dream is that every prophesied destruction is coming, and they will not come one after another so that somebody can chart them out on a timeline. Wars, famines, plagues, earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis will be happening all over the earth at various times, overlapping one another. I believe much of that chaos will be most intense in the sixth and seventh seals, but I don't limit it to them, because it may affect every one of the seven seals. No one can neatly catalog it. That is the real problem with every one of those timelines I've read. They try to put the pages of that book back in order, and they can't.

So there is an order, and there is chaos, and both are true at the same time. The seals give us the frame. What happens inside that frame, and when, is in the Lord's hands.

The One Thing to Watch For

If we can't chart the chaos, what can we know? We can know where it starts. The first seal opens with a rider on a white horse who goes forth conquering and to conquer. Who is that rider? Now I want to be honest with you about this next part. This is what I believe, and I know I stand mostly alone in it. I'm not a general authority, and I don't hold any priesthood authority over anyone. But after years of study, I believe the rider on that white horse is Donald Trump, and that the one thing we need to be watching for right now is his calling from God. When he receives that calling and goes forth helping establish the political kingdom of God, I believe the first seal will be opened, and we will know exactly where we fit in the Book of Revelation. That claim is the subject of my entire book, and I lay out the scriptures behind it there. You don't have to take my word for it. Study it out and decide for yourself.

Until that happens, nothing on the news is one of the seals.

I understand why people think otherwise. Everybody can feel something going on. Donald Trump has had a dramatic effect on the whole world. We see the wars in Iran and the war between Russia and Ukraine. We see Christians being slaughtered in Africa, and the tension between China and Taiwan. We see the commotion in England and across Europe, and the uproar over what the globalists have done on purpose to upset long-entrenched communities. Even the earth itself seems restless. The weather patterns are strange, and we keep hearing about earthquakes and volcanoes. The Atlantic has gone almost completely quiet this hurricane season, while the Pacific has had several hurricanes churning at the same time. There is a lot going on in the world, and people feel it.

These things are real and they are serious. But they are not Revelation chapter 9, and this is not Armageddon. Armageddon is the last great event of the seventh seal, and we haven't seen the first one yet. Most of what has been prophesied is still ahead of us, and you can see for yourself how much is still ahead.

That is why I don't get caught up in the screaming headlines. There is a constant barrage of YouTubers, podcasters, and Facebook groups all pronouncing that Jesus Christ is coming any day now, and those videos get a million views in a matter of days. I just don't think it's right that people make these outrageous claims for views and likes. But once you understand the timeline God gave us, you can look at any of it and ask one simple question. Has the first seal opened yet? Even if you don't agree with me about who the rider is, that question still works. If the answer is no, and it is no, then we are not in the seven seals yet. I'm not giving you a date. I'm telling you what to watch for, and when it happens, you won't need me or anyone else to point it out. It will be unmistakable.

Why I Prepare Now

So if the first seal hasn't opened, does that mean we can relax and prepare later? No. It means the opposite.

When that first seal opens, it starts a tremendous series of cataclysmic events. World wars. Famines. Plagues. Persecution. Once that begins, it may be too late to prepare. You will not be able to run down to the store and pick up a year's supply of food when the second seal has taken peace from the earth. So my urgency to prepare has nothing to do with a date. It comes from the commandment to be prepared, and that commandment is for right now, whether the first seal opens next year or many years from now. The Lord attached a promise to it...

...but if ye are prepared ye shall not fear. (Doctrine and Covenants 38:30)

We are commanded to be prepared now.

I believe that with all my heart. I have a whole chapter on it in my book, and I serve as our stake emergency preparedness specialist. I'm very much into preparing for everything, the events of the last days and everything in between, from the loss of a job or an illness to a local disaster.

But I've also seen what the wrong timelines do to people. I have a friend who deeply regrets how he prepared. For years he followed everybody's timeline, and every one of them said things were going to end in two or three years. So he poured everything into getting ready for the end and didn't invest a thing for the future. He realizes now that if he had taken some of that money and invested it, he would have a nice retirement today. I've seen others put off buying a home or getting a good education for the same reason. That's the fallacy of those timelines! He should have gotten his year's supply of food and invested for the future at the same time. He didn't, because he believed the wrong timelines instead of the one in the Bible.

In the April 1950 General Conference, Elder Richard L. Evans told a story about President Wilford Woodruff. He was once asked what he would do if he knew the Lord was coming tomorrow, and his answer was that he would live as if it were tomorrow, but he would still be planting his cherry trees. That is great advice. Get prepared now, and keep planting. Get your food storage in order, and keep investing in your family, your work, and your future. When you follow the timeline God gave us, you can do both, because you're not waiting on a date. You're watching for an event.

Seeing Things in Order

That is why I stopped following anyone's timeline. I follow the one in Revelation 6. It tells me the order of the seals. My dream told me not to expect order inside them. And the commandment tells me to be ready now. Once you see it that way, you don't have to live in fear, you don't have to fall for podcasters chasing clicks, and you don't have to put off getting ready. If you want to see how I believe these events will unfold, it is all laid out in my book.

In the meantime, I'll keep my preparations up to date, I'll keep planting my own cherry trees, and I'll keep watching for the one event that starts it all. When the first horseman goes forth, we will all know exactly where we stand.

In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

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Keep Reading

• The One Framework That Keeps You From Being Deceived
• What Happens When Each of the Seven Seals Is Opened?
• How Many Second Coming Prophecies Have Actually Been Fulfilled?