The signs are multiplying. The calls to readiness are no longer subtle. In this episode, drawn from a sacrament address delivered on 12 January 2025, The Quiet Dissident walks us through the escalating urgency with which President Russell M. Nelson and other prophets have declared that “time is running out.”

But what does readiness look like? And how can ordinary disciples prepare in a world so steeped in idolatry, distraction, and decline?

Anchored in scripture and the living witness of apostles and prophets, this message outlines three temple covenants—obedience, sacrifice, and the gospel of Jesus Christ—as successive stages in the process of alignment between our will and God’s. It calls listeners not merely to avoid breaking these covenants, but to fulfil them. Not just to be bound by covenant, but to be transformed by it.

Using vivid metaphor and scriptural exposition, this episode confronts us with the hard, hopeful truth that to prepare for the Lord’s return is to be remade. Not in abstraction, but in ritual, sacrifice, and Spirit-sealed ascent.

This is not a sermon of scolding or alarm—it is a call to rise. A call to become the kind of people who could survive—and abide—the presence of the Holy One.

Come prepared to rethink what it means to keep a covenant. And to remember that the power is not in the rite alone, but in the fulfilment, sealed by the Holy Spirit of Promise.

You'll find the full essay, scriptural citations, and referenced sources at the following link: https://hopeinchrist.substack.com/p/preparing-for-the-lords-return

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Your brother in Christ,
The Quiet Dissident

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Whether you’re a seminary teacher, a curious Christian, or a Latter-day Saint seeking substance, Hope in Christ offers scripture-anchored exegesis for serious discipleship in the last days. Each episode invites you to see more clearly, stand more firmly, and walk more humbly—toward Zion, and with Christ.

In this penetrating sermon, originally delivered in a Latter-day Saint sacrament meeting, The Quiet Dissident turns our attention from dramatic last-days events to something even more sobering—last-days conditions. Rather than speculating about comets or calamities, this episode centres on the spiritual diseases prophesied to spread across the earth before the Lord's return.

Drawing heavily from Isaiah and the Book of Mormon, this sermon excavates the ancient gods that ensnared Israel—Baal, Ashtoreth, and Molech—and reintroduces them as very modern idols: prosperity, pleasure, and power. These are not abstract threats. They are pervasive spirits, influencing personal choices, public policy, and even global norms.

The episode opens with Isaiah 2:8 and D&C 1:16, not as antiquated relics, but as piercing diagnoses: “Their land is full of idols… they walk every man in his own way.” These idols are no longer statues but ideologies—self-made identities, self-referential truths, and self-worshipping systems.

You'll hear a stirring unpacking of how Baal’s materialism, Ashtoreth’s moral relativism, and Molech’s disdain for life are echoed today—in advertising, legislation, and even in what passes for progress. With prophetic citations from Ezra Taft Benson, Neal A. Maxwell, and Russell M. Nelson, this episode challenges listeners not just to recognise these gods—but to renounce them.

If you’ve felt unsettled by the shifting sands of modern morality, or if you’ve wondered how best to “stand as witnesses of God at all times,” this episode is both a wake-up call and a comfort. It frames the last days not as something merely to survive, but as a season that demands spiritual discernment, covenantal clarity, and unwavering discipleship.

It ends where all true warnings should—with an invitation: to repent, to align, to prepare, and to hope in Christ.

You'll find the full essay, scriptural citations, and referenced sources at the following link: https://hopeinchrist.substack.com/p/conditions-of-the-last-days

If your means permit, please consider supporting this work through a paid subscription.

Your brother in Christ,
The Quiet Dissident

Support with a Paid Subscription: https://hopeinchrist.substack.com/subscribe
Follow on X, Instagram, Pinterest: linktr.ee/thequietdissident

Whether you’re a seminary teacher, a curious Christian, or a Latter-day Saint seeking substance, Hope in Christ offers scripture-anchored exegesis for serious discipleship in the last days. Each episode invites you to see more clearly, stand more firmly, and walk more humbly—toward Zion, and with Christ.