That Ye Be Not Troubled

I believe that one of the most important chapters of scripture is Joseph Smith Matthew that we have in the Pearl of Great Price. We are warned of the sobering things that will happen in the last days. These include false Christs, wars, rumors of wars, nations and kingdoms that rise up against other nations and kingdoms, famines, pestilences, earthquakes, men whose love will wax cold, the sun whose light will be darkened, the moon whose light won’t shine, stars which will fall from heaven, and an enigmatic “abomination of desolation” foretold by Daniel the prophet. All of that sounds sobering indeed! But the Lord didn’t say these things to make us scared; rather, He told us so that we wouldn’t be scared. He declared, “Behold, I speak these things unto you for the elect’s sake; and you also shall hear of wars, and rumors of wars; see that ye be not troubled, for all I have told you must come to pass; but the end is not yet. Behold, I have told you before” (JSM 1:23-24). He wanted us to be aware of what would happen in the last days so that we would not be troubled. We would know that it had all been prophesied. In other words, when things look scary we can say, “Well, this is exactly what Jesus said would happen!” And if He was right about the difficulties, then He must be right about the ending: “The powers of the heavens shall be shaken, then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn; and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory…. For the Son of Man shall come, and he shall send his angels before him with the great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together the remainder of his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (JSM 1:36-37). When we are tempted to be scared by current events, we can rest assured that all the difficulties of our day were foretold by the Savior, and His promise is that in due time He will indeed return.

               The Savior said something similar to His apostles at the Last Supper. Warning specifically of the persecution they would face for bearing witness of Him, He told them, “Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me.” He then explained why He was warning them of all these difficulties that awaited them: “These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended. They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me. But these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them. And these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you” (John 15:20-21, 16:1-4). In other words, when they were being threatened and persecuted by the world, they were to say to themselves, “Well, this is exactly what He told us would take place!” Instead of destroying their confidence and faith, the persecution they received would be a testimony to the disciples that the Savior knew exactly what was going to happen. Hence Luke could describe them this way after one such bout of persecution: “And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name” (Acts 5:41). Perhaps part of why they could rejoice is that their suffering was one more testimony that the Savior was exactly who He said He was. The Savior summed up His message this way to them, “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Whenever we face difficulties, especially difficulties associated with our choices to follow Him, we should remember that He told us that would happen. And instead of wondering why such a thing would happen, we can be of good cheer knowing that if He overcame the world, we can too through our faith in Him.