Do you know anything about a Mormon being in charge before there can be a second coming? Had a friend who had once belonged to the faith try to explain, but we didn’t have time for a full discussion and have not been able to find information on what she was trying to tell me.
Not to be confused with the White Salamander...
Do you know anything about a Mormon being in charge before there can be a second coming?
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I know many Mormons who believe this but nailing down anything as official LDS doctrine (even if it is in their books, their prophets teach it, members believe it) can be a hairy proposition. That said, some Mormons will deny their church teaches this, but there is good evedince that they do not know their own church’s teachings as well as they think.
The idea comes from a combination of a couple of doctrines, first their leaders have taught about a prophecy given my Joseph Smith about his own run for POTUS in 1844, however since it didn’t come to pass, it has been extended to a future event. This is called the White Horse Prophecy. The link below has a lot of details.
http://www.utlm.org/onlineresources/whitehorseprophecy.htm
The second part of this is the LDS teaching that Jesus will rule from Missouri during the millennium and have the leaders of the LDS as his ‘assistants’. This also ties into Joseph Smith and Brigham Young’s theocratic rule and ambitions.
The idea that a Mormon would be in charge before the second coming is put forth directly by Bruce R. McConkie, and LDS apostle in his “Messiah” series. The idea is that with the constitution ‘hanging by a thread’, the ‘elders of Zion’ (Mormons) will ride in and rescue the US and will eventually lead to the second coming and an LDS theocracy run from MO led by Jesus Christ himself.
From: http://www.utlm.org/onlineresources/letters_to_the_editor/2003/2003december.htm
“Mormonism teaches that when Christ returns the LDS Church leaders will be acting under his direction to run the governments of the world. When the Mormon prays “thy kingdom come” he is praying for the time when Mormonism will rule the world, under Christ. The Mormon teaching is that Christ’s return will be post-tribulation, pre-millennial. The righteous dead will take part in the first resurrection at this time, the wicked will come forth in the second resurrection at the end of the millennium.
The Mormons do not have a concept of the rapture of the believer at the time of Christ’s return. The wicked will die and those who are moral will stay on earth in a mortal condition. Some of the purposes of the millennium are to catch up on all the baptisms and temple marriages needed for the dead, so that they may have the same opportunities to accept Mormonism as the living. At the end of the millennium they believe Satan will be loosed for a short period. (See Mormon Doctrine, by B. McConkie, 1979 ed., pp.74, 492-501, 687-698 and Encyclopedia of Mormonism, vol. 2, pp.737-739, 906-907.)]”
Hope this helps.