SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH – September 28, 2015 (Gephardt Daily) – LDS author Julie Rowe, the woman whose books are said to have incited doomsday fears among some members of the Mormon faith, says she’s stepping out of the limelight to attend to her family.
Rowe posted the statements on her website late Sunday.
“I need to focus on my own family, my own health, and my own duties, obligations, and responsibilities,” she wrote.
The author gained worldwide attention in recent weeks when followers said doomsday scenarios described in two of her writings were beginning to come true.
Social media networks saw spikes in traffic with extended threads on Reddit talking about Rowe’s apocalyptic visions, and whether they were officially tied to the LDS Church.
Others spoke of the anxiety they and their families were undergoing, including unconfirmed reports as many as ten thousand followers sold homes, property and cashed in retirement plans in anticipation of the coming apocalypse.
The anxiety intensified when Rowe recently posted a blog intimating the end was near. “We are getting very close,” she wrote.
In early September, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issued a warning to its ‘Seminaries and Religious Institutes’ under the heading ‘Spurious Materials in Circulation.’ The Church’s accompanying ‘Publication Caution’ is as follows:
Publication Caution: A Greater Tomorrow: My Journey Beyond the Veil Additional Information: [August 31, 2015] In 2014, Spring Creek Book Company published A Greater Tomorrow: My Journey Beyond the Veil by Julie Rowe (see shaded box for Amazon’s description of the book). Although Sister Rowe is an active member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, her book is not endorsed by the Church and should not be recommended to students or used as a resource in teaching them. The experiences she shares are her own personal experiences and do not necessarily reflect Church doctrine or they may distort Church doctrine.
In the the week immediately prior to the blood moon eclipse, the LDS Church issued a statement in response to media inquiries about Rowe’s writings and her apocalyptic visions.
“The Church encourages our members to be spiritually and physically prepared for life’s ups and downs. For many decades, Church leaders have counseled members that, where possible, they should gradually build a supply of food, water and financial resources to ensure they are self-reliant during disasters and the normal hardships that are part of life, including illness, injury or unemployment.
“This teaching to be self-reliant has been accompanied by the counsel of Church leaders to avoid being caught up in extreme efforts to anticipate catastrophic events.
“The writings and speculations of individual Church members, some of which have gained currency recently, should be considered as personal accounts or positions that do not reflect Church doctrine.”
This is not the first time in recent history that LDS leaders have dealt with concerns over doomsday prophecies. In October, 2001, LDS President Gordon B. Hinckley addressed the issue just one month after the 9-11 terrorist attacks.
“I cannot dismiss from my mind the grim warnings of the Lord as set forth in the 24th chapter of Matthew,” Hinckley said.
“I am familiar, as are you, with the declarations of modern revelation that the time will come when the earth will be cleansed and there will be indescribable distress, with weeping and mourning and lamentation.
“Now, I do not wish to be an alarmist. I do not wish to be a prophet of doom. I am optimistic. I do not believe the time is here when an all-consuming calamity will overtake us. I earnestly pray that it may not. There is so much of the Lord’s work yet to be done. We, and our children after us, must do it.”
