Saints Civil War Prophecy

Viewpoint on Mormonism, the program that examines the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from a Biblical perspective. Viewpoint on Mormonism is sponsored by Mormonism Research Ministry. Since 1979, Mormonism Research Ministry has been dedicated to equipping the body of Christ with answers regarding the Christian faith in a manner that expresses gentleness and respect. And now your host for today's Viewpoint on Mormonism. The book Saints, No Unhallowed Hand, highlight a false prophecy given by the founder of the Mormon Church, Joseph Smith. Welcome to this edition of Viewpoint on Mormonism.

I'm your host, Bill McKeever, founder and director of Mormonism Research Ministry, and with me today is Eric Johnson, my colleague at MRM. We again are looking at the book Saints, No Unhallowed Hand, which covers the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1846 to 1893. And now we're getting into the time period of the Civil War. And this book is going to specifically talk about Joseph Smith's revelation that he gave on December 25th, 1832. On page 299 of the book, it talks about South Carolina seceding from the United States.

It withdrew from the nation, the book says, fearing the recent election of Abraham Lincoln to the United States presidency would alter the economic and political balance of power in the country and lead to the end of slavery. It continues, Wilford Woodruff immediately recognized the alarming event as a fulfillment of a revelation Joseph Smith had received 28 years earlier. On Christmas Day, 1832, the Lord had warned the prophet that a rebellion would soon begin in South Carolina and end in the death and misery of many people. Now, when you read that, Eric, and you read it carefully, it has Wilford Woodruff. Now, Wilford Woodruff would later become the fourth president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

He would also be the one who signs the manifesto declaring to the United States that the LDS Church is no longer going to solemnize plural marriages. That aside, it says that Woodruff immediately recognized the alarming event as a fulfillment of a revelation Joseph Smith received 28 years earlier. If you look back, however, 28 years earlier, we really find that Joseph Smith is merely just giving his opinion regarding an article he no doubt read in the Painesville Telegraph.

Painesville was a town near Kirtland, Ohio, where the Mormons were headquartered at the time. It was no secret that South Carolina was unhappy in its relationship with the rest of the United States, and they had been threatening that they were going to leave the United States. When exactly they were going to actually do that was unknown. But Smith comes out with this prophecy in 1832, and notice it says here that the Lord had warned the prophet that a rebellion would soon begin in South Carolina and end in the death and misery of many people. The death and misery of many people, of course, referring to the Civil War that would begin officially, you could say, in April of 1861. But here's the part that puzzles me. Why would the scholars putting together this book, Saints, No One Hallowed Hand, with this paragraph taken from section 87, where we find Joseph Smith's prophecy on war, as it's known officially, although it's been understood to mean his prophecy regarding the Civil War.

What does it say on page 300, Eric? It says, quote, with the sword and by bloodshed, the inhabitants of the earth shall mourn, the Lord had declared, and with famine and plague and earthquake and the thunder of heaven and the fierce and vivid lightning also shall the inhabitants of the earth be made to feel the wrath and indignation and chastening hand of an almighty God until the consumption decreed hath made a full end of all nations, end quote. Let me just ask a simple question based on what you read. Did the inhabitants of the earth really mourn over our American Civil War? Now, no doubt, a lot of people in the United States were mourning over the horrible loss of life and the destruction of property because of our American Civil War.

But it says in the prophecy, it would be the inhabitants of the earth. It sounds like this statement is going far beyond the borders of the United States to include everyone on the earth. Did everyone on the earth mourn over our American Civil War? Did everyone on the earth even know about our American Civil War? Were people in China mourning over our Civil War? Were people in Argentina mourning over our Civil War? And did they also experience famine and plague and earthquake and the thunder of heaven, fierce and vivid lightning that they could attribute to our American Civil War? You see, famine and plagues and earthquakes, thunder and lightning are common occurrences living in a fallen world. Did they attribute these things that they may have experienced in their part of the world to, uh oh, boy, something must be going on in the United States. I'll bet you it's because of that rebellion in South Carolina.

I highly doubt it. So if this stuff really didn't happen as a result of God's pouring out his wrath on the United States, how is this really a fulfillment of prophecy when it says that the earth would be made to feel the wrath and indignation and chastening hand of an almighty God until the consumption decreed hath made a full end of all nations? Did the American Civil War bring a full end to all nations?

No. In fact, there are a lot of details in Joseph Smith's prediction, which is found in Section 87 of the Doctrine and Covenants, that did not come to pass at all. It talks about the war pouring out upon all nations. That did not happen. It just did not happen. There are too many details in this prophecy that did not happen to come to the conclusion that this shows that Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God.

Bill, I want to point out that you do have an article on this whole issue at MRM.org slash civil hyphen war if people want to see more, but we do have a link to the Painsville Telegraph so people can actually see the newspaper for themselves. But what's interesting, they're quoting from verse 7 of Section 87, Doctrine and Covenants, but as you're saying, there's a lot of other things that are not being fulfilled the way that he has laid this out in this prophecy that was put into the pearly great price in 1851 and later put into the Doctrine and Covenants. And you mentioned the idea that war being poured out upon all nations beginning at this place.

Well, that didn't happen, as you said. And what about Great Britain? As it is called, verse 3, and they shall also call upon other nations in order to defend themselves against other nations, and then war shall be poured out upon all nations. Great Britain didn't get involved the way that this prophecy says. So if you're going to have a prophecy that is going to be looked upon as something that came from God, then you're going to have to have more than just one fact that the Painsville Telegraph was able to tell him that there was a rebellion that was going to begin in South Carolina. And the Painsville Telegraph is a key instrument in this whole story, because on page 301, it says that South Carolina's dramatic exit from the United States had sparked widespread rebellion throughout the South. Now, South Carolina seceded from the Union on December 24, 1860.

But what does it go on to say in that paragraph, Eric, on page 301? In the months that followed, 10 more southern states left the nation, and the US government scrambled to fortify its military bases. Southern forces quickly seized all but the strongest forts, however, and President Abraham Lincoln recruited 75,000 soldiers to put down the rebellion. The force soon proved too small to handle the crisis. The force soon proved too small to handle what? The crisis. Now, when I read that, I thought, what an irony. The scholar who is writing this portion of Saints, no unhallowed hand, uses the phrase the crisis. Interesting that that was the name of the article that Joseph Smith read on Christmas Day in 1832 in the Painsville Telegraph.

It was called the crisis. Interesting connection there. But as we've been pointing out, a lot of what Smith predicts does not happen. It goes on on page 302 to talk about how Orson Pratt as a missionary was using this prophecy given by Joseph Smith as a tool of evangelism. As a young missionary in the 1830s, Orson had carried in his pocket a copy of Joseph Smith's prophecy on war, which he would sometimes read to congregations.

Most people thought it was nonsense back then, but it was having a different effect now. Orson read the revelation in public and arranged to have it published in the New York Times. Other newspapers also published the prophecy. But yet were they looking at the details that were in this prophecy? Just because Joseph Smith claims that there's going to be a rebellion with South Carolina, do you really think that's a unique prophecy? I think most people knew about that.

Now, you mentioned our website where we have a picture of the Painsville Telegraph, but it was published in other newspapers as well. There were numerous articles talking about the rebellion that was going on in South Carolina. I think everybody was pretty sure that if things did not change, South Carolina was definitely going to leave the Union, which it did. I don't consider that a real prophecy.

I just think that's common sense. Look at what's happening with the Nullification Act and other things that were going on at that particular time period. It seemed like a foregone conclusion that the southern states were certainly going to break away from the rest of the United States. So when this question is raised, have we not a prophet among us?

Okay, maybe somebody said that. Because if you read the details, you clearly see that Joseph Smith missed the mark in many areas. It goes on to say on page 304, after civil war broke out in the east, regular reports of bloody battles came west with the mail, the grim accounts told of hundreds, sometimes thousands of deaths. Some people in the church believe that God was punishing the United States for its treatment of the saints.

How would you answer that, Eric? I would tend to think more God was punishing the United States for the sin of slavery. Just as I feel God has every right to punish the United States now for our sin of abortion. So to say that this was because the United States was punishing the saints, certainly the only one that would draw that conclusion would be, of course, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

You see, folks, you've got to take all the details into account. You could argue, well, Smith was just using hyperbole, but that's not really how the prophecy was understood. And what's fascinating is we have talked to modern Latter-day Saints who will not say that this was only a prophecy regarding the American Civil War. Remember, they will say it's a prophecy on war. So when you read portions of, well, war will be poured out upon all nations, I've had Mormons tell me, well, that includes World War I and World War II. And there's no connection whatsoever with the Civil War and these other world wars that happened many years later.

No historian worth reading is going to say that World War I and World War II began with the rebellion in South Carolina. Thank you for listening. If you would like more information regarding Mormonism Research Ministry, we encourage you to visit our website at www.mrm.org where you can request our free newsletter, Mormonism Researched. We hope you will join us again as we look at another viewpoint on Mormonism. As with most Christian organizations, Mormonism Research Ministry depends on the generous financial support of friends like you. If you like what we do and how we do it, would you consider helping MRM meet its financial obligations? Merely go to our website, MRM.org. At the right, you'll see a donate button. Click there and follow the instructions. MRM is a Christian nonprofit 501c3 organization and your gifts are tax deductible. Not only that, they are greatly appreciated. Thank you for your support of this ministry.