Why Armaggedon?

Why is Armageddon--speaking broadly of the widespread destruction and death in the last days--necessary? Why would a loving and merciful God allow such pain, suffering and death?

God's purpose is to produce a people worthy and capable of having "the tabernacle of God ... with men, ... [so that] he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God." Rev. 21:3. And, a people that are worthy of the power and responsibility of being "heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ." Romans 8:17. Obviously, this requires a people that are repentant and meek, and pure in heart. See, e.g., Matt. 5:8; Heb. 10:22; 3 Nephi 12:8; 1 Timothy 1:5.

However, we live in a period of great evil. "But as the days of Noe [i.e. Noah] were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." Matt. 24:37. See also, generally, 2 Peter 3; Jude 1:14-25. What was it like in the days of Noah? In Genesis, it states that "the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." Gen. 6:5. And "[t]he earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence." Gen. 6:11. Just as in the days of Noah, wickedness will be so rampant that the only course available will be to destroy the wicked in order to save the good. Thus, the second coming of Christ is His opportunity to separate the "wheat" (i.e., the good) from the "tares" (i.e., the evil), and destroy the tares. See Matt. 13: 24-30. See also D&C 86; D&C 101:65 (providing further explanation of the parable of the wheat and tares).

This is not only wickedness in the sense that most people think of it--as specific sinful conduct--but also the philosophies and world views that underlie wickedness. President Ezra Taft Benson stated this about the coming conflict of the last days:

Momentum is gathering for another conflict--a repetition of the crisis of two hundred years ago. This collision of ideas is worldwide. Another monumental moment is soon to be born. The issue is the same that precipitated the great premortal conflict--will men be free to determine their own course of action or must they be coerced?

(quoted from Yorgason, Blain and Brenton Yorgason, Spiritual Survival in the Last Days (1990), p. 35). He is, of course, speaking of the great war in heaven where Satan was able to draw away 1/3 of the heavenly hosts to follow him. Satan's goal was to exalt himself above God and take the Father's glory as his own. To achieve his goal, he came up with a seemingly laudable plan to save every soul, by forcing everyone to be good; in contravention to Christ's plan that people be given free will to choose good or evil. Undoubtedly he convinced many of the Heavenly Hosts to try and support him by arguing that saving all souls, such that not one was lost, was worth the sacrifice of free agency.

In K. Eric Drexler's classic Engines of Creation, he discusses the concept of "memes," which he defines as "[a]n idea that, like a gene, can replicate and evolve. Examples of memes (and meme systems) include political theories, proselytizing religions, and the idea of memes itself." Engines of Creation (1986), p. 288. See also Id. at 35 ("examples of memes are tunes, ideas, catch-phrases, clothes fashions, ways of making pots or of building arches"). That is, "ideas mutate, replicate, and compete. Ideas evolve." Id. at 35. He further explains:

Memes replicate because people both learn and teach. They vary because people create the new and misunderstand the old. They are selected (in part) because people don't believe or repeat everything they hear. As test tube RNA molecules compete for scarce copying machines and subunits, so memes must compete for a scarce resource--human attention and effort. Since memes shape behavior, their success of failure is a deadly serious matter.

Id. Unfortunately, "[e]xperience shows that ideas evolved to be successful replicators need have little to do with the truth." Id. at 37. The wicked are repositories and carriers of these harmful memes.

Evil memes ultimately kill their hosts because it causes them to "call evil good, and good evil" and "put darkness for light, and light for darkness" and "bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter." Isaiah 5:20. That is, they reject good memes in favor of evil memes. Evil memes lead to evil practices which lead to evil consequences. What makes this age different, in my view, is that not only are evil memes spread more rapidly and thoroughly by means of mass media, but they have become institutionalized in our education systems, bureaucracies, and laws. Thus,the second coming will not only see the destruction of the wicked, but the end of all nations. See Jer. 30:11; D&C 87:6.

The only way to destroy the evil memes is to expunge them. For the righteous, the trials of the second coming will allow the Lord to chasten his people, and permit them to repent and put aside the evil memes they may hold. For the wicked who refuse to repent, these same events will bring utter ruin and destruction. "Although the righteous have no guarantee of escape [from the trials and tribulations of the last days], the wicked have no hope." (Gerald N. Lund, The Coming of the Lord (1971), p. 80).