What do u think the world has become of in this present state?

Answer 1

What an odd day we live in! It is a day of irony, a time of sharp contrasts. At the close of the twentieth century and the last millennium, President Gordon B. Hinckley pointed out: "Now the curtains are gradually closing on this notable and exceptional century. In one respect it has been a shameful period in the history of the world. It has been the worst of all centuries, with more of war, more of man's inhumanity to man, more of conflict and trouble than any other century in the history of the world. . . ."But in a larger sense," President Hinckley continued, "this has been the best of all centuries. In the long history of the earth there has been nothing like it. . . . This is an age of greater understanding and knowledge. . . . The miracles of modern medicine, of travel, of communication are almost beyond belief. All of this has opened new opportunities for us which we must grasp and use for the advancement of the Lord's work."

And so it is on many fronts. It is the best of times and the worst of times. It is a day of great affluence, when men and women live in finer homes and enjoy more leisure moments than ever before; at the same time, more than ever before, it is a day of spreading starvation, a time when little children cry themselves to sleep amid the piercing pangs of hunger.

It is a time of information explosion, a day when we can access volumes of data in a matter of seconds; in contrast, it is a day when few of earth's inhabitants possess the discernment and sense of priority so needed in making wise and judicious decisions. Millions upon millions of people fill the ranks and pews of Christian churches today, with more persons of faith professing a belief in Jesus Christ than ever before; and yet there are greater pockets of unbelief, of professed atheism, and of creeping relativism than the planet has ever experienced.

The restored gospel, delivered to earth through the instrumentality of Joseph Smith in the nineteenth century, is spreading to all parts of the earth, and the Saints of the Most High are found on tiny islands and in booming metropolises everywhere. But our numbers remain extremely small when compared to those "who are only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it" (D&C 123:12). That is, in spite of phenomenal Church growth for which we feel to express gratitude to our Lord the famine for the word of God is not abated; many still "wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east"; they "run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and [do] not find it" (Amos 8:11-12).


We live in the dispensation of the fulness of times, the dispensation of dispensations; this is the final age of earth's history, in which the fulness of the gospel, including its poignant truths and its attendant powers, is on earth once again. Our dispensation represents, as it were, the ocean of divine truth into which all the revealed rivers of the past flow. The prophets or covenant spokesmen from the beginning have looked forward to and testified of our time. As the apostle Peter taught on the day of Pentecost, this final stage of salvation history brings to pass the "restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began" (Acts 3:21). It is a terribly significant day, a day of destiny. And we have a date with destiny.
It just may be that the present generation of Saints is the most scripturally literate, the most spiritually mature, and, in general, the best prepared of any generation in history. At least that's my perspective as a religious educator for the last thirty years. When I think back on my youth and think of what we knew about the scriptures then and how often we used them in sermons and classes (we didn't know much and we didn't use them very often!), I can see clearly what a difference the new LDS editions of the scriptures and the scriptural training provided by the Church Educational System have made. That perception is juxtaposed against the stark reality that sin and vice and perversion now make their way into our homes and our personal lives more readily than ever before. While the knowledge and power of our Savior is now penetrating every continent and visiting every clime and country, the diabolical teachings of the "god of this world" are broadcast on television, in the movies, in magazines, and through the internet.

In short, this is a day that easily confuses and confounds most of earth's inhabitants. It is, in fact, a singular time, an unusual era that will require singular and unusual souls to engage the contradictions and bring order out of spreading chaos. That's the task before us, a daunting task to be sure. But I believe we're up to it. With divine assistance, we can handle it. We need not fret or fear, for truly "they that be with us are more than they that be with them" (2 Kings 6:16). Our God is our ally, and he will stand by us as we face what would otherwise be insurmountable odds. We are not here by chance but rather by design, as a part of a grand plan of salvation. We are not novices in regard to either championing eternal things or confronting organized evil. Rather, we are seasoned veterans, for we already have under our belt the experience (though veiled from conscious memory) of standing valiantly on the side of Elohim and Jehovah and opposing the forces of Lucifer in a distant past. John the Revelator thus noted that the faithful in the first estate overcame the father of all lies "by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony" (Revelation 12:11).


In speaking to the saintly Job, the Lord Jehovah asked this penetrating question: "Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. . . . When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?" (Job 38:4, 7). Many of us, having passed through personal or family turmoil, or having witnessed unspeakable tragedy in our time, might be prone (in our weaker moments) to ask: What was all the shouting about? Knowing what we know, we inquire: What were the sons and daughters of God so excited about? Why were they so eager to come to earth, especially when they may well have been aware of the pain and frustration and heartache and irony associated with this life?
Once again, despite the odds, despite the strength and sophistication of evil and the prevailing trauma in mortality, we can make it to the end of the road of life, and we can do so with quiet confidence and assurance. "Who are you?" President Harold B. Lee once asked the Saints. "You are all the sons and daughters of God. Your spirits were created and lived as organized intelligences before the world was. You have been blessed to have a physical body because of your obedience to certain commandments in that premortal state. You are now born into a family to which you have come, into the nations through which you have come, as a reward for the kind of lives you lived before you came here and at a time in the world's history . . . determined by the faithfulness of each of those who lived before this world was created."

Such understanding can fortify us against surrendering to the devil or resigning ourselves to defeat at the hands of a cruel and seemingly unfair world. "Now, my brethren and sisters," President Hinckley implored, "the time has come for us to stand a little taller, to lift our eyes and stretch our minds to a greater comprehension and understanding of the grand millennial mission of this, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This is a season to be strong. It is a time to move forward without hesitation, knowing well the meaning, the breadth, and the importance of our mission. . . ."We have nothing to fear. God is at the helm. He will overrule for the good of this work. He will shower down blessings upon those who walk in obedience to His commandments. Such has been His promise. Of His ability to keep that promise none of us can doubt."

Most of us can deal with any how if we simply know why. We are able to move on, to move ahead, through gaining perspective, through coming to see things, at least to some degree, as God does. . . . It's about finding light in a darkening world; leaning upon certainty when so many things are uncertain; becoming more sensitive to evil without being obsessed about it; acting responsibly in a society that refuses to take responsibility; discovering reservoirs of faith and courage at those times when we feel so very weak and alone and helpless; and living happily and peacefully in the midst of prolonged misery.

Answer 2

i ought to say international conflict I yet you are able to make a case for both. i imagine international conflict II proved that economic power and military power were one and an same ingredient. The Civil conflict proved it as well. In both wars, the area that had the tactical benefit and a more effective experienced military ended up dropping in the destiny to fighters who had more effective inhabitants and a more effective commercial output. the U. S. exceeded the united kingdom around the turn of the century in words of economic output and there is not any reason to doubt that it does no longer have grew to develop into WWI faster if it had joined before, or that it ought to have lost a conflict to any u . s . on the instantaneous, including Britain or Germany. WWI also devastated a technology of adult males in Europe, nonetheless the outcome on cities replaced into no longer as undesirable as WWII. more effective importantly, the German economic equipment replaced into crippled both via the conflict and reparations, and the conflict expenditures that the united kingdom and France owed to the U. S. ensured that the U. S. had dominant monetary clout as well. i do not imagine each person ought to heavily argue that on the eve of international conflict II, or at any element in the course of the interwar era, that the different unmarried u . s . replaced into more effective powerful than the U. S. militarily or economically.

Answer 3

a mess....real mess