False Doctrine/Second Coming

We Have to Be Righteous Enough before Christ Will Return

Here's a little absurdity. I would assume that the genesis of this little nugget is by way of analogy with the City of Enoch, in conjunction with the known need to create a Zion society in Jackson County, Missouri before the second coming.

When we become ripe in iniquity, then the Lord will come. I get annoyed sometimes at some of our elders who when speaking say the Lord will come when we all become righteous enough to receive him. The Lord is not going to wait for us to get righteous. When he gets ready to come, he is going to come — when the cup of iniquity is full — and if we are not righteous then, it will be just too bad for us, for we will be classed among the ungodly, and we will be as stubble to be swept off the face of the earth, for the Lord says wickedness shall not stand. Do not think the Lord delays his coming, for he will come at the appointed time, not the time which I have heard some preach when the earth becomes righteous enough to receive him. I have heard some men in positions and places of trust in the Church preach this, men who are supposed to be acquainted with the word of the Lord, but they failed to comprehend the scriptures. Christ will come in the day of wickedness, when the earth is ripe in iniquity and prepared for the cleansing, and as the cleanser and purifier he will come, and all the wicked will be as stubble and will be consumed.

Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, ed. Bruce R. McConkie (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1954-56), 3:457.

No Man Knows The Day or The Hour of The Second Coming

To understand the source of this idea, one need only look to the new testament.

But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.

Matthew 24:36

Mark 13:32 is similar.

Applying just a little reason, it is clear that what no man knew at that time, might be known later, and, in fact, this is exactly what Joseph Smith, Jr. explained.

Did Christ speak this as a general principle throughout all generations? Oh, no, He spoke in the present tense. No man that was then living upon the footstool of God knew the day or the hour. But He did not say that there was no man throughout all generations that should not know the day or the hour. No, for this would be in flat contradiction with other scripture. For the prophet says that God will do nothing but what He will reveal unto His servants the prophets. Consequently, if it is not made known to the prophets, it will not come to pass.

Joseph Smith, Jr., cited by Grant Underwood, "The Prophet Joseph Smith’s Use of the Old Testament", Ensign, August, 2002.