I don’t know about you, but I’ve been getting ‘end of the world’ vibes for a few years now. Ever since the onset of Covid, the world seems to have been getting crazier and crazier. To be honest, there was a fair amount of turmoil before Covid, too, but since then the world has gone way beyond anything I expected to see. At times, world events appear almost surreal even.

Within Christian circles, there seems to have been a general uptick in a sense that ‘the end is nigh’. Within LDS circles there was a big fuss about an obscure prophecy from apocryphal literature, named Ezra’s Eagle, a couple of years ago. It always seemed unlikely to me, but a lot of people appeared to take it pretty seriously. The so-called ‘prepper movement’ also seems to like it’s grown in both the number of people involved and its intensity. We’ve seen eclipses and other solar events linked to biblical prophecy of the end times.

Added to this, I’ve seen a lot of comments and online groups from people who have ‘woken up’. Now, as I’ve written about before, we do all need to awake, but given many of these ‘awake’ people appear to espouse very different ideas from each other I’m not sure they’ve all ‘awoken’ to the same thing. This is another reason we need to be able to discern between truth and error. It’s easy to supposedly awaken to something ‘big’, only to have been duped by enthusiasm or spectacular claims.

With all of that said, I don’t believe the second coming of Jesus is imminent – i.e. within the next couple of years. Don’t get me wrong, I would truly love to be incorrect on this. I would be delighted if He came today. And world events have come along so far and so fast, that it’s entirely possible for all the ancient prophecies to be fulfilled in short order. But I just don’t think it will happen.

The reason is simple. Because so many people are expecting it.

It’s not a new thing for Christians to be anticipating the end of the world in their days. It looks as though the first Christians after Jesus’s ascension into heaven thought His second coming would happen during their lifetimes. Many people involved in the medieval crusades apparently believed they were working in advance of the impending second coming. The black death that spread across Europe must have made many believe the end was nigh indeed. And when you look at the combination of deadly plagues and worldwide war, a great many indeed must have believed Jesus’s second coming would come soon after the first World War in the early 20th century.

By now, you’ve probably come across the news that many military leaders in the United States are telling their subordinates that Donald Trump has been appointed by God to lead the world to Armageddon. To me, it’s terrifying that anyone could believe this in an age of nuclear weapons. In another post, I may discuss why that is completely wrong thinking in any case.

But for me, all the talk about the end times, and many American Christian Nationalists calling Trump God’s appointed to lead us there just proves it untrue.

Why?

Because scripture tells us that a great many believers will lose faith in Him. They will believe that if He was going to return, He would have done so by now and will give up hope.

Near the end of His mortal life, the disciples asked Jesus about the end of the world. Within His answer, Jesus spoke of a wicked man who thinks Christ has delayed his coming and gives in to his basest impulses (Matthew 24:48). In the Doctrine and Covenants, the Lord elaborates:

‘And in that day shall be heard of wars and rumors of wars, and the whole earth shall be in commotion, and men’s hearts shall fail them, and they shall say that Christ delayeth his coming until the end of the earth.’ (D&C 45:26) In other words, people will come to the conclusion that mankind will finally annihilate our own species – God is not going to intervene.

This is the prophecy in the scriptures. I believe the scriptures. Most Christians won’t be eagerly awaiting Him, they will have given up.

And so I don’t believe the Saviour’s second coming to be very near. Those who think it is and are planning for it, preparing for it imminently, or even trying to get the prophesied wars started, will live to regret their decisions. Most will lose their faith because it was based on the wrong thing. The rapture will not happen this year, or next, or the year after.¹

Don’t get me wrong, we need to always be ready to meet Him. After all, mortality is a fragile thing and any of us could be called to meet Him tomorrow. But we don’t prepare for Him through war. Or through politics. Or with argument. Or with selfishness. Or by revenge, or holding grudges. We don’t prepare for Him by building up food reserves (as wise as that might be if that is possible), or by stockpiling ammunition. We don’t prepare for Him by hating others and refusing to share what we have.

Rather, we prepare for Him by living this life in the way He taught us. By loving our neighbour. By looking after the vulnerable. By not hoarding riches, but rather giving to the poor. By clothing the naked. By visiting the fatherless and the widow. By visiting those in prison or the lonely. By trying to be like Him, the Prince of Peace. That is how we prepare for Him.

If we do those things, whenever He comes we will be ready. And if He doesn’t come during our lifetimes, we will be prepared to meet Him in the next.

© Copyright Jeffrey Collyer 2026

1. As it happens, I don’t believe in the rapture in the way it is talked about in many Christian circles anyway. I believe the relevant passage of scripture is misinterpreted. But I’m using the word here as a way to convey that I don’t believe the second coming will be for a good few years yet.