Preparing For The Second Coming

A little while ago I started reading the Book of Mormon backwards. It has been a fun experience because I am becoming more familiar with some of the latter end scriptures in the book. 

Right now I am in 3 Nephi and I have enjoyed reading the powerful teachings of the Savior.

Today I read about the events that led up to the coming of Christ in the Americas. 

Ezra Taft Benson said that we can use these scriptures as a pattern for the second coming of Christ. 

He said, 

"In the Book of Mormon we find a pattern for preparing for the Second Coming. A major portion of the book centers on the few decades just prior to Christ's coming to America. By careful study of that time period, we can determine why some were destroyed in the terrible judgments that preceded His coming and what brought others to stand at the temple in the land Bountiful and thrust their hands into the wounds of His hands and His feet." (Keystone of Our Religion)

So who were the ones who were spared?

"And it was the more righteous part of the people who were saved, and it was they who received the prophets and stoned them not; and it was they who had not shed the blood of the saints, who were spared." ( 3 N. 10:12)

Those who were spared:

• Were more righteous
• Received the prophets
• Didn't shed the blood of the saints

Another verse sheds further light on the lives of these people.

"But behold, the righteous that hearken unto the words of the prophets, and destroy them not, but look forward unto Christ with steadfastness for the signs which are given, notwithstanding all persecution - behold, they are they which shall not perish." (2 N. 26:8)

So how does this apply to us? 

It means that if we want to be spared at the Second Coming we must also be righteous, hearken unto the words of the prophets, be faithful unto Christ even during persecution, and not murder.