Failed Mormon Second Coming Predictions
Posted: Mon May 25, 2026 6:58 pm
This is apparently a sore subject for Daniel Peterson in the recent comment section of his blog. Not surprising, seeing as how these end time predictions are (in my opinion) merely low brow superstitions. They don’t exactly elevate Mormonism to the soaring sophisticated heights that DCP wants to loft his quaint, provincial religion into.
Even as recently as the 1980s, the church has been dabbing in predictions:
Dans answer to this is that Joseph Smith’s prophesy was conditional on his survival. Implying that the mob which killed him literally prevented the second coming of Christ. Quite the feat for a few yokels.Joseph Smith told a group of elders on Feb. 14, 1835, that they were “called to go forth and prune the vineyard for the last time, before the coming of Christ, even 56 years should wind up the scene” (History of the Church, Vol. 2, p. 182, and quoted by B.H. Roberts in the October 1890 General conference). Many church members believed Smith and marked their calendars for 1891. They did not forget. They came to the October 1890 General Conference looking for guidance on how to prepare for the end.
This was not a fringe group. George Q. Cannon said: “A great many anticipations have been indulged in connection with that year.” The stress level prompted 10 speakers to talk on the Second Coming. They used various tactics to downplay and dismiss Smith’s 1835 statement. Cannon even attempted to conflate the 1835 statement with a separate, more ambiguous statement that Smith made on April 2, 1843, recorded in D&C 130:14-17. Yet these statements were made eight years apart and are not the same.
By the end of the conference, Cannon stated explicitly that Jesus would not come in 1891 or 1892. Still, Lorenzo Snow said the Second Coming would be “soon.”
Even as recently as the 1980s, the church has been dabbing in predictions:
The church really should stick to telling teenagers in the temple baptismal font that they’re the chosen generation who will see Christ return. When they put it in writing like this, they’re just begging to be mocked.On April 6, 1983, Elder Featherstone drafted a letter addressed to twenty- first century members of the Church. It would be deposited in a time capsule at the dedication of the Atlanta Georgia Temple presumably, like other Church time capsules, to be opened fifty years later. This powerful document predicts the millennial ministry of the Savior and the future success of the Saints’ missionary labors in the American South. The opening paragraph describes what Featherstone believed the experience of these future Latter-day Saints would be like fifty years in the future.
Those of you who read this letter have witnessed the second coming of Christ, the day for which we have long awaited. What a glorious experience to live in the day when our Lord, our Redeemer, the very Son of God is reigning personally upon the earth. We can imagine what General Conference must be like, to have the Savior address the people. … Oh what a blessed generation you are and must be.2
Featherstone notes that in his own time the Church was facing great adversity. “I believe we are on the very threshold of great trials. The darkest clouds in the history of the world are on the horizon.”3
