While signs of the last days before the Savior’s Second Coming include destruction and hardships, there are also several blessings, as Robert L. Millet shares in his book “Living in the Eleventh Hour: Preparing to the Glorious Return of the Savior” (Deseret Book, $19.99).
“Without burying our head in the sand and pretending that everything is wonderful, we can choose to be optimistic and acknowledge that there are noble people and great moments all about us, if we look for them,” Millet wrote in response to questions from the Deseret News. “We really ought to be aware of the traumas and the tragedies in our world, but we ought not fixate on them.”
In “Living in the Eleventh Hour” and its companion book, “Living in the Millennium” (Deseret Book, $19.99), Millet takes a direct and concise look at the signs of the last days, the Second Coming and also the Millennium. Millet, a professor emeritus of ancient scripture and a former dean of religious education at Brigham Young University, sticks closely to the scriptures and words of the prophets and general authorities of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as he carefully goes through each sign or event. While the subject matter is scholarly, Millet shares it in a thoughtful and understandable way in both books, which are each less than 150 pages in length.
In “Living in the Eleventh Hour,” Millet delves into each prophecy, both those of blessings and those of destruction, one by one, and shares a few personal experiences along with what readers can do now to continue to prepare for the Second Coming.
“Living in the Millennium” is divided into three parts — before, during and after the Millennium.
Millet said that he had noticed that the last days had received a lot of attention in the last few years.
“Some of it is fascinating, some helpful, and some problematic, in terms of what the scriptures and the prophets have had to say relative to the last days,” Millet wrote. “This is a topic that lends itself, unfortunately, to wild speculation and colorful sensation.”
In addition to writing a book that would deal with preparing for the Second Coming as with looking at the information available about it, Millet wanted it to “motivate us to put our individual houses in order without promoting panic or fostering fear or fatalism.”
In the introduction to “Living in the Eleventh Hour,” Millet writes that “the greatest preparation we can make today as we anticipate tomorrow is to attend to the small and simple things that come before us each minute and hour of every day.”
Millet said that as he was writing, he found himself reflecting on three ideas. First, that “private victory always precedes public success,” from Stephen R. Covey. The second is from President Joseph Fielding Smith: “To do well those things that God ordained to be the common lot of all mankind is the truest greatness” (see “Gospel Doctrine,” 1971, page 285). And the third was the Savior’s statement to those who used their talents wisely: “Thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord” (see Matthew 25:21, 23).
“I am fully persuaded that it is the little things that transform human nature and prepare us for ‘the great day’ of the Lord’s coming — small and often unnoticed acts of Christian service, consistent focus on the family, daily personal and family devotionals, and faithfulness in our assignments in the church,” Millet said.
In “Living in the Eleventh Hour,” Millet shares an experience he had as a bishop of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when a less-active couple, seeing the need for more spirituality in their family, came to him asking for help.
At Millet’s every suggestion to them — reading their scriptures consistently, regular family prayers, family home evening and church attendance — the couple had a reason why they couldn’t. But they still wanted the Spirit in their home.
It was then, Millet writes, that he “began to grasp some of the profound messages of the parable of the ten virgins” and that there were some things that couldn’t be simply shared and that individuals had to do themselves to be prepared.
As he wrote, Millet ran into several challenges — one was keeping the books short so that readers could engage in them and complete them quickly, and another was how to best divide the content for each book.
Another dealt with the signs and prophesies and “to avoid trying to create a defined sequence of the signs of the times, to devise a formula or the one and only list of what would take place when,” Millet wrote. “My experience as a religious educator for 40 years is that the revelations do not allow us to come up with an exact schedule of events, and so I needed to attend less to chronology and more to doctrine and personal application.”
A fourth one was “to be as true to the prophetic word as I could be.”
Millet said that he looks forward to the Second Coming.
“And yet I want to be prepared for that time, and so I cannot obsess over the future,” Millet wrote, adding that there are many things to do today to help reach out to others. “It’s a real privilege to live on the earth as the message of the restored gospel goes to all the world through an ever-increasing number of missionaries, as temples begin now to dot the land, and as the Lord begins to hasten his work. In short, it’s a great time to be alive!”
If you go ...
What: Robert L. Millet book signing
When: Friday, Nov. 28, 11 a.m.
Where: Deseret Book, Ft. Union, 1110 Fort Union Blvd., Midvale
Web: deseretbook.com/misc/store_events/index.html
Email: rappleye@deseretnews.com Twitter: CTRappleye