The Church, which administers the gospel, and the Saints who have received the gospel, must be independent of all the powers of earth, as they work out their salvation- temporally and spiritually- with fear and trembling before the Lord!
Be it remembered that tribulations lie ahead. Peace has been taken from the earth, the angels of destruction have begun their work, and their swords shall not be sheathed until the prince of Peace comes to destroy the wicked and usher in the great Millennium...
We must maintain our own health, sow our own gardens, store our own food, educate and train ourselves to handle the daily affairs of life. No one else can work out our salvation for us, either temporally or spiritually.
We are here on earth to care for the needs of our family members. Wives have claim on their husbands for their support, children upon their parents, parents upon their children, brothers upon each other, and relatives upon their kin.
It is the aim of the Church to help the Saints to care for themselves and, where need be, to make food and clothing and other necessities available, lest the Saints turn to the doles and evils of Babylon. To help care for the poor among them the Church must operate farms, grow vineyards, run dairies, manage factories, and ten thousand other things- all in such a way as to be independent of the powers of evil in the world.
We do not know when the calamities and troubles of the last days will fall upon any of us as individuals or upon bodies of the Saints. The Lord deliberately withholds from us the day and hour of his coming and of the tribulations which shall precede it- all as part of the testing and probationary experiences of mortality. He simply tells us to watch and be ready.
We can rest assured that if we have done all in our power to prepare for whatever lies ahead, he will then help us with whatever else we need... We do not say that all of the Saints will be spared and saved from the coming day of desolation. But we do say there is no promise of safety and no promise of security except for those who love the Lord and who are seeking to do all that he commands.
Bruce R. McConkie, April 1979
Some of those commandments from recent prophets include spending purposeful time with our families in a weekly family home evening and daily prayers and scripture study; storing as much as a year's supply of food, water, and even fuel; worshiping in the temple and searching out our kindred dead to do ordinances for; serving others and being a "light" to show a better way to live in a determined effort to follow the Savior's example; and listening for further instructions from living prophets and the Holy Ghost. This isn't about doomsday hysteria- quite the opposite. "If ye are prepared ye shall not fear."
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