Natural Calamities and Repentance

I've been studying the Doctrine and Covenants the last few months, but yesterday's study really caused me to have a very, very strong Ah-ha Moment. I'm going to try to articulate it here.

I read the words of God in section 45 which seems to focus on the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and what we should be doing. Accompanying this reading, I studied words of prophets and apostles in "Section 45 'Looking Forth for the Great Day of the Lord'" from the Doctrine and Covenants Student Manual.

It was the combination of these two readings that created my Ah-ha Moment.

The majority of people know that Christians believe that signs of the Second Coming include wars, earthquakes, famines, pestilences, troubles in divers places (Matt. 24:7; Mark 13:8; Luke 21:11; D&C 45:33; JS-M 1:29). There are a lot of other signs, but these are just a few.

In the manual, Elder Bruce R. McConkie was quoted as saying,

“There will be earthquakes and floods and famines. The waves of the sea shall heave themselves beyond their bounds, the clouds shall withhold their rain, and the crops of the earth shall wither and die.
“There will be plagues and pestilence and disease and death. An overflowing scourge shall cover the earth and a desolating sickness shall sweep the land. Flies shall take hold of the inhabitants of the earth, and maggots shall come in upon them. (See D&C 29:14-20.) ‘Their flesh shall fall from off their bones, and their eyes from their sockets’ (D&C 29:19).
“Bands of Gadianton robbers will infest every nation, immorality and murder and crime will increase, and it will seem as though every man’s hand is against his brother.
“We need not dwell more upon these things. We are commanded to search the scriptures where they are recounted with force and fervor, and they shall surely come to pass.”

This paints a warning to all of us. We are being warned by that the Second Coming of the Lord is near, even at the door (D&C 110:16). God warns people to repent, but then their hearts are too hard that they don't listen to prophets and can't feel the Holy Ghost then God has used natural calamities to warn people and call them to repentance throughout the ages. One such example comes from Nephi, the son of Helaman, when he said, "O Lord, do not suffer that this people shall be destroyed by the sword; but O Lord, rather let there be a famine in the land, to stir them up in remembrance of the Lord their God, and perhaps they will repent and turn unto thee" (Helaman 4:11).

Even in other ancient religions, people believed that volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, famines, and storms were their gods. Of course we know that natural disasters are a type of science, but God knows and understands science a whole lot better than us.

President Joseph Fielding Smith, quoted in the manual, said:

"So many seem to think and say, and judging by their actions they are sure, that the world is bound to go on in its present condition for millions of years before the end will come. Talk to them; hear what they have to say—these learned men of the world. ‘We have had worse times,’ they say. ‘You are wrong in thinking there are more calamities now than in earlier times. There are not more earthquakes, the earth has always been quaking, but now we have facilities for gathering the news which our fathers did not have. These are not signs of the times; things are not different from former times.’ And so the people refuse to heed the warnings the Lord so kindly gives to them, and thus they fulfill the scriptures.”

What scriptures did they fulfill? I think one of those is D&C 45:33:

"And there shall be earthquakes also in divers places, and many desolations; yet men will harden their hearts against me, and they will take up the sword, one against another, and they will kill one another" (italicizes added).

Natural calamities are used by God to call people to repentance when their hearts are too hard to listen to Him in any other way. What does it mean when our hearts have become so harden that we think that natural disasters are normal?

President Joseph Fielding Smith was also quoted in the manual as saying,

"One of the great failings of mankind is to ignore warnings of punishment for sin. In all ages of the world it has been the peculiar belief of men that the sayings of the prophets were to be fulfilled in times still future. That is true of the people today."

We need to make sure that we are taking heed of the warnings God has given us through the words of prophets, scriptures, and natural calamities. We need to repent. We need to make sure we are doing good. We need to do it now.