Question for LDS?

Question

Why did Alma not know when Christ was coming (Alma 13:21-26) even though he possessed plates and Lehi and Nephi had written precisely when he would arrive?

Andrew J.....if the BOM was correct, wouldnt the next arrival of Christ be the 3rd coming?

Answer 1

They didn't write or know precisely when he would arrive... Jesus has never told anyone precisely when he will come again.

Answer 2

Lehi and Nephi didn't know the precise time of Christ's coming--Nephi had a vision of Mary, the mother of God, and that the Messiah would be born. 1 Nephi 11.

What Alma states is comparable to us knowing that these are the "last " days--but are the last days to be had within our lifetimes, or the next generation, or the next?

There is no "3rd coming." Christ came into the world once, atoned for it, returned from death, and then promised to return again in the time of the reserrection

Answer 3

Vigilant believers on both hemispheres recognized the signs of the times during Christ's first coming but didn't know the exact day until it actually arrived, and the same is true now for His Second Coming. 600 years from the time Lehi left Jerusalem doesn't mean 600 years right to the day. Even now, all we know is that most of the signs are now present for the Second Coming, but we won't know the exact year until rainbows no longer appear in the sky. If an exact day were known for either advent, people would wait for that day to repent rather than living righteously in preparation for an advent that could come at any time, which is to our advantage, promoting spiritual living.

Answer 4

Samuel the Lamanite may have been the only prophet to accurately pinpoint the birth of Christ when he predicted the Messiah's arrival in five years.

Added note: 3 Nephi 1: 13 is most explicit when the Lord reveals to Nephi, the grandson of Helaman, that He will appear on the morrow at A.D. 1.

Answer 5

Interesting question. I look forward to the answers.