President Joseph Fielding Smith raised a prophetic warning urging people of all faiths to prepare for the coming of the Lord. He taught of the necessity of repenting and of understanding the signs of the times and the prophecies of all, that at the coming of the Savior we might not be found unprepared. President Smith also warned that protection in the last days would come through personal obedience to God's commandments and that the Second Coming would not be delayed by our unrighteousness. "Do not think that the Lord delays his coming, for he will come at the appointed time, not the time, which I have heard some preach, when the Earth becomes righteous enough to receive him. Christ will come in a day of wickedness, when the Earth is ripe in iniquity and prepared for the cleansing. We see the signs as we see the fig tree putting forth her leaves. And knowing this time is near, it behooves me, and it behooves you and all men upon the face of the Earth to pay heed to the words of Christ, to his Apostles, and watch. For we know not the day nor the hour, but I tell you this: it shall come as a thief in the night, when many of us will not be ready for it.