7 A final word

Whenever some natural calamity occurred when I was a boy, my mother always used to say that it was the last days. I thought of that in light of this past week's earthquake in Haiti.

The scriptures do make it clear that earthquakes in diverse places are among the signs of the times that signal we are in the last days (see such passages as Matthew 24:7; Mark 13:8; Luke 21:11; 2 Nephi 27:2; Mormon 8:30; D&C 45:33; D&C 87:6, for example). There have been earthquakes throughout recorded history, and some of them have caused great destruction and suffering. But, as one of the signs of the times, I suppose the prophecies are suggesting that in the last days there will be more of them. And perhaps more powerful. And perhaps in places we are not used to seeing them.

The Lord has promised that after the nations of the earth have pretty thoroughly rejected the testimony of His latter-day servants, then he will send earthquakes and other calamities upon the inhabitants of the earth: "For after your testimony cometh the testimony of earthquakes" (D&C 88:89).

At His second coming the Lord will plead tenderly with His wayward children: "Hearken, O ye nations of the earth, and hear the words of that God who made you.

"O, ye nations of the earth, how often would I have gathered you together as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, but ye would not!

"How oft have I called upon you by the mouth of my servants, and by the ministering of angels, and by mine own voice, and by the voice of thunderings, and by the voice of lightnings, and by the voice of tempests, and by the voice of earthquakes, and great hailstorms, and by the voice of famines and pestilences of every kind, and by the great sound of a trump, and by the voice of judgment, and by the voice of mercy all the day long, and by the voice of glory and honor and the riches of eternal life, and would have saved you with an everlasting salvation, but ye would not! (D&C 43:23-25; emphasis added).

Someone asked me a couple days ago if I thought God had caused this week's earthquake in Haiti. I do not presume to understand all of God's purposes, but my gut tells me no, He did not specifically cause the earthquake. Rather, I suspect, the earthquake was simply a result of nature's laws operating as they do in this fallen world in which we live. Plate tectonics and such.

We are in this mortal classroom, after all, as a part of an elaborate test designed to test and refine and cause us to make choices about what deep down inside us we really want to be. The Lord does not delight in the suffering or destruction of His children, but He clearly uses the results of our human agency, which He will not abridge, along with the events and operations of nature to accomplish His divine purposes: "And thus, with the sword and by bloodshed the inhabitants of the earth shall mourn; and with famine, and plague, and earthquake, and the thunder of heaven, and the fierce and vivid lightning also, shall the inhabitants of the earth be made to feel the wrath, and indignation, and chastening hand of an Almighty God, until the consumption decreed hath made a full end of all nations" (D&C 87:6).

One of His purposes, as my good wife reminded me, is to see how we will respond in aiding and helping and comforting and serving those who suffer as a result of natural and man-made calamities.

But Mom was right after all. We are living in the last days.