Hank Smith: 00:04 Hello, my friends. Welcome to another followHIM Favorites. My name is Hank Smith, and I’m here with the incredible John Bytheway. Welcome, John Bytheway.

John Bytheway: 00:11 Hi Hank.

Hank Smith: 00:12 It’s a good day. John, we’re going to take on a single question from this week’s Come Follow Me lesson. This question gets a lot of attention, John. It’s when is the second coming, and what does Jesus have to say about that? So we’re in Matthew 24 and 25. How do you answer that question?

John Bytheway: 00:28 I let Jesus answer it. Cause yeah, if we had the answer to that. Let’s see, Matthew 24:36: “But of that day and hour, knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.” So thank you for joining us on followHIM.

Hank Smith: 00:44 Yep.

John Bytheway: 00:46 But why are these parables here? He wants to give us some hints, some things to watch for, some signs.

Hank Smith: 00:52 Yep. Some instructions. I think it’s important to know that verse, John, because there’s many people out there who claim that they do know when the second coming will be. But I think we can trust Jesus when he says, “I promise you, nobody knows. Not the angels, nobody, just the Father. Just the Father knows.” And that can keep us on the right path. But what instruction has he given us along with that?

John Bytheway: 01:14 Well, in Matthew 25, we have some parables of preparation. I think that helps us to say, “Hey, it’s coming, but here’s some ways that you might know, and here’s what you ought to be doing in the meantime.” So which one do you like in there, Hank?

Hank Smith: 01:29 Yeah, I am a big fan of the Parable of the Talents. I just think this can help us so much in preparing for the second coming. Most people know this story. A guy with a lot of money is going away for a while, so he gives his money to financial people, and he says, “Please grow this.” He gives one guy five talents, that’s five lifetimes worth of money. He gives another guy two talents, he gives another guy one talent, and he says, “Go to work. I’ll be back.” And obviously coming back is the second coming. And the guy with the five turns it into 10, the guy with the two turns it into four, and the guy with the one did nothing.

  02:03 And of course the guy with the one got in trouble for being lazy. But I really like this other lesson that the guy with the five ended with 10, the guy with the two ended with four, didn’t even get to where the first guy started, yet they get the exact same reward. So that tells me in my own preparations for the second coming, that I don’t have any way to judge anyone else. I don’t know where they started from. I end up just working hard myself and cheering on everybody else.

John Bytheway: 02:27 I like that a lot. I like the idea that we all had different starting lines. And my dad joined the church at 24. Never had a youth conference, never went to a youth fireside. They never had that. Or a family home evening.

Hank Smith: 02:38 It’s a different starting line.

John Bytheway: 02:40 Yeah. Another one is the parable we all know of the 10 virgins, or sometimes we call it the wise and the foolish virgins. And you’re going to take your lamp, so you should be prepared with enough oil. Well, the bridegroom tarried, it says in verse five. What does tarried mean?

Hank Smith: 02:56 He took longer than they thought he would.

John Bytheway: 02:58 Longer than they thought. And so they slumbered and slept. I guess this is a warning not to slumber and sleep when you’re supposed to be watching, so that you can be ready. And at midnight there was a cry made. “The bridegroom cometh go ye out to meet him. And all the virgins arose, trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said, ‘Give us of your oil. Our lamps are gone out.'” And boy, this is tough because I remember I used to read it as a kid and think, well, that’s so stingy. Why didn’t they share?

Hank Smith: 03:25 Just share, yeah.

John Bytheway: 03:26 And I think we’ve heard lots of applications to this. I love President Kimball’s, is “I can’t share my preparation with you. I can’t share a lifetime of honesty with somebody else. I can’t go to the Judgment and say, ‘Listen, I was kind of crooked in my life. Can you lend me some of your integrity?'” There’s some things that are shareable and some things that are not. So that’s how I think of it. So be ready. And I guess the big message is, just don’t worry so much about when Christ will come, but come unto Christ so that you’ll be ready no matter when.

Hank Smith: 03:59 That’s beautiful. Thank you, John. We hope you’ll join us on our full podcast. We’re talking about both of these chapters with Dr. Avram Shannon. I think you’d love what he has to say about these. So come find followHIM wherever you get your podcasts, and then join us next week. We have another followHIM Favorites.