Below is the link to the transcript of the talk:
http://LDS.org/general-conference/print/2011/10/counsel-to-youth/?lang=eng
We all know that Packer, during his decades-long ministry as a general authority/apostle in the Church, has made his fair share of controversial remarks. He’s expressed many "personal" opinions over the years (most Church leaders do on certain issues), some of which have generated reactionary outrage and even accusations of hatred on the part of Packer toward certain groups or persons.
I’m not a scholarly expert on Packer, his life, his motives, his thoughts, or even on his vast anthology of documented and recorded discourses. But, I have read and re-read his talk from last Saturday, and just can’t find where those who choose to be offended are fueling up their feelings of offense.
One criticism I’ve heard is that Packer, in his talk, contradicted what has seemingly been a common promise in the patriarchal blessings of the Saints, namely, that a person will be blessed to live to see the Second Coming, or to be alive during the Millennium. In the last two lines of his talk, Packer said:
Sometimes you might be tempted to think as I did from time to time in my youth: “The way things are going, the world’s going to be over with. The end of the world is going to come before I get to where I should be.” Not so! You can look forward to doing it right—getting married, having a family, seeing your children and grandchildren, maybe even great-grandchildren.
I don’t know why some LDS have become irate over these comments or why they insist they are incongruous with promises contained some patriarchal blessings. You’d think that people have more important work and concerns to attend to.
Are they really hoping that Jesus comes before their mortal deaths? Will that somehow, in their own minds, validate the high degree of spiritual valiance they ascribe to themselves? Are they desperately hoping to proverbially flip off the world and give a collective, “I told you we Mormons were right,”? Perhaps.
From what I understand (and my understanding is admittedly limited), many Saints even during the early days of the Church were promised in their patriarchal blessings that they would live to see the Savior come and claim his kingdom. Many of them probably assumed, at least initially, that such promises meant that they’d be alive in mortality until the Second Coming. Even Joseph Smith speculated that coming of the Savior would probably occur within a few short decades.
In the Doctrine and Covenants 130, we read of some clarifications offered by Joseph Smith in response to a lesson or sermon about the coming of the Savior that Elder Orson Hyde had presented at a meeting on April 2, 1843 in Nauvoo.
D&C 130:14-17 are as follows:
14 I was once praying very earnestly to know the time of the acoming of the Son of Man, when I heard a voice repeat the following:
15 Joseph, my son, if thou livest until thou art eighty-five years old, thou shalt see the face of the Son of Man; therefore alet this suffice, and trouble me no more on this matter.
16 I was left thus, without being able to decide whether this coming referred to the beginning of the millennium or to some previous appearing, or whether I should die and thus see his face.
17 I believe the coming of the Son of Man will not be any sooner than that time.
I’m sure many members of the Church who heard the Prophet speak on this occasion immediately marked on their mental calendars that Jesus Christ would return to the earth to usher in the Millennium in the year 1890, when Joseph Smith would be 85 years old.
What were people hoping Packer would say in his talk about the issue? Did they want him to say something like, “The end is nigh. Hope is lost. Most of you will not live through the commotion and turmoil of the next ten years. So, just set aside your dreams and goals and cower down in your bunkers and hope that when your food storage is exhausted and death approaches, it takes you quickly so that your suffering is minimized. To you youth out there, the end is coming so just give up on those college and career plans. For you young married couples, the end is just about here, and the world is far too dangerous of a place now to bear and raise children, so don’t even try. For those of you unlucky enough to survive the upheavals, I recommend you start building those handcarts and grow some livestock for the trek to Jackson County.”?
Maybe some folks in the Utah Mormon corridor really want to hear something like that from Church leaders. Maybe they want the apostles and prophets to be bold in their predictions, like Harold Camping of http://www.FamilyRadio.org
I would like to imagine that if there truly is a Millenium, that people will continue to work during the Millennium, although I don’t suppose the economy will be quite like it is now. People will continue to cultivate crops and consume food. Clothing will be still be manufactured. People will still produce works of art, masterpieces of literature and music, and memorable entertainment. Pink Floyd will be fully reunited, including a sober and genius Syd Barrett, and release seven ground-breaking masterpiece albums right in a row. I expect people will still engage in recreational activities, travel, and vacations. I hope that competitive sports will continue to be played for recreational purposes. People will hike, fish, and enjoy the beauty of nature. Homes and buildings will continue to be constructed. Students will continue to learn at institutes of higher education. Parents will continue to bear and raise children. Life during the Millennium will much resemble the positive aspects of life as we now know it. Perhaps BYU will even finally be invited to join a BCS conference during the Millennium.
The world has countless problems and it can be frightening to just read or watch the news. But there is also remarkable selflessness and goodness. I for one am glad that Packer took a step (albeit a small one) in trying to distance the Church from the gospel of doomsday.