Who said the following?

[Still_Small_Voice]

"God has held you in reserve to make your appearance in the final days before the second coming of the Lord. Some individuals will fall away; but the kingdom of God will remain intact to welcome the return of its head--- even Jesus Christ. While our generation will be comparable in wickedness to the days of Noah, when the Lord cleansed the earth by flood, there is a major difference this time. It is God has saved for the final inning some of His strongest children, who will help bear off the kingdom triumphantly...."

"... Make no mistake about it-- you are a marked generation. There has never been more expected of the faithful in such a short period of time than there is of us" (The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson [1988], 104-5)

I see nothing in the above quote that means the Second Coming of the Lord will be within the generation of the people living in the year 1988. We are living in the last days before the coming of the Lord but we also could be preparing our children to raise the generation that will meet the Lord.

I think the Second Coming of the Lord will very likely be within the next 200 years but I now don't agree with setting dates. Saying the Second Coming will happen by such and such a date is setting yourself up for disappointment.

Likely in the next 80 years you will pass on into the spirit world and meet the Lord there. One never knows the day of his death so it is good to live righteously and prepare for the inevitable day of your death.

[Hemidakota]

Hmm....

Here what Joseph Smith stated as great example of the last days -

Whatever you may hear about me or Kirtland, take no notice of it; for if it be a place of refuge, the devil will use his greatest efforts to trap the Saints. You must make yourselves acquainted with those men who like Daniel pray three times a day toward the House of the Lord. Look to the Presidency and receive instruction. Every man who is afraid, covetous, will be taken in a snare. The time is soon coming, when no man will have any peace but in Zion and her stakes.

I saw men hunting the lives of their own sons, and brother murdering brother, women killing their own daughters, and daughters seeking the lives of their mothers. I saw armies arrayed against armies. I saw blood, desolation, fires. The Son of Man has said that the mother shall be against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother. These things are at our doors. They will follow the Saints of God from city to city. Satan will rage, and the spirit of the devil is now enraged. I know not how soon these things will take place; but with a view of them, shall I cry peace? No; I will lift up my voice and testify of them. How long you will have good crops, and the famine be kept off, I do not know; when the fig tree leaves, know then that the summer is nigh at hand. ('Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith', by Joseph Fielding Smith, Joseph Smith, page 161)

Nor we see people enter a city where they are taken and raped by the same gender for lust as a daily ritual as it was done in Sodom. There is alot more that could be added but dwelling on such thoughts of tomorrow is not conducive for the holiday spirit. Edited December 28, 2009 by Hemidakota

[MarginOfError]

Did the people know at that time how bad it was? Nope.

How many horrible things happen that you never hear of? I would easily say 3 times more.

Well, that's kind of the point isn't it. The world has been pretty wicked in the past, but we--and to some extent the people of the time--don't fully grasp just how wicked people were because it isn't so broadly reported. There's a huge question about whether the world is any more wicked now than it has been in the past, or if we're just exposed to more reports of the wickedness.

A good parallel to consider: We hear some people talk about how we must be in the latter-days because of the clear increase in the number of natural disasters. But, when you look at the numerical data, there are no more natural disasters now than there were in earlier periods of history. We just hear about more of them now, and we hear about them for longer. This effect is amplified by the fact that we now build more buildings (and more expensive buildings) in locations that are prone to natural disasters, such as on the coast and on river banks. So when the natural disaster occurs, we see larger reports of damage.

In essence, we aren't necessarily seeing more natural disasters--we're just experiencing a bit of recall bias. Same thing with wickedness. There is very little evidence that the world now is much more wicked than it has been in ages past.

What's more, with the exception of Noah's time, there has never been a time when the whole world was so wicked that it warranted annihilation. Since Noah's time, there have only been pockets of society that have reached that pinnacle of wickedness. And even then, these places were only destroyed when they were entirely devoid of righteous people.

I recommend you read over some of the materials I posted earlier. There's a lot that needs to happen before the Christ makes his final return. The only way I can comprehend saying that the Second Coming is 'close' is by using a very loose definition of the word 'close.'

Although, I would be interested in knowing what your interpretation of "it will happen soon" is.