We have heard a lot about Oliver Cowdery’s Letter VII that Jonathan Neville has written a book about. It verifies as a FACT, [according to Oliver] that the Hill Cumorah is the place that Joseph received the gold plates and the same hill is where the final battles of the Nephites happened, unlike the Mesoamericanists believe.

[Note: President Cowdery wrote essays as letters to W.W. Phelps, who was living in Missouri at the time. Below Oliver is referring to what is now State Route 21, the road that runs directly in front of the Hill Cumorah Visitors Center today]

Oliver says, “…Here, between these hills, the entire power and national strength of both the Jaredites and Nephites were destroyed. By turning to the 529th and 530th pages of the Book of Mormon, you will read Mormon’s account of the last great struggle of his people, as they were encamped round this hill Cumorah. In this valley fell the remaining strength and pride of a once powerful people, the Nephites—once so highly favored of the Lord, but at that time in darkness, doomed to suffer extermination by the hand of their barbarous and uncivilized brethren. From the top of this hill, Mormon, with a few others, after the battle, gazed with horror upon the mangled remains of those who, the day before, were filled with anxiety, hope, or doubt.” Oliver Cowdery’s Letter VII Joseph Smith Papers “Letter VII,” LDS Messenger and Advocate, July 1835, 1:155–159 . 

Oliver wrote 8 letters at Joseph Smith’s request to WW Phelps to tell the world on paper what the beliefs of the Church were. The anti-Mormon book Mormonism Unvailed came out in 1834 and Joseph wanted a correct explanation of church doctrine and what had really happened. WW Phelps wrote many letters back to Oliver. By writing letters they would not have to go through the expense of printing the words, as it was much less money to send letters back and forth through the postal service.

The rest of this blog will tell you what WW Phelps wrote to Oliver in WW Phelps’s Letter #II

W.W. Phelps, in Letter XII of writing to Oliver Cowdery, said about the Hill Cumorah, “I want to drop an idea or two about Cumorah. Yes, Cumorah which must become as famous among the Latter-day Saints as Sinai was among the former saints… the history of the first settlers of America; even the book of Mormon, preparatory gathering from Cumorah: Glorious spot… Cumorah, the artificial hill of North America is well calculated to stand in this generation as a monument of marvelous works and wonder. Around that mount died millions of the Jaredites; yea, there ended one of the greatest nations of this earth. In that day, her inhabitants spread from sea to sea, and enjoyed national greatness and glory, nearly fifteen hundred years . . . An angel came down from the regions of glory and told that a record was hid in Cumorah.” Latter Day Saint’s Messenger and Advocate, July 1836, p. 341. See my blog about the artificial hill of North America here.

This blog is dedicated to my

White Lamanite brother Mike “Painted Pony” LaFontaine (Chippewa) and my
White Lamanite Sister Betty “Red Ant” LaFontaine (Navajo)

PS: They weren’t supposed to marry outside of their tribe according to their parents, but that was between them and the Lord. I’ll bet many of you Gentiles married outside of your tribe as well, right? Great things happen as long as you follow the Lord.

 

LETTER NO. II. From WW Phelps Liberty, Mo. Nov. 6, 1834.

DEAR BROTHER:

I am one, but the world has many, and the many so various and extensive that every mind and body may have its portion, and satisfaction, even of truth: wherefore I continue the sketches of the western wilds. And let me begin with that section of land which lies between the Missouri river, and the north western counties of this State. This fine tract of territory embraces land enough for two or three counties, and contrary to the observation which I wrote you last August about it, there will be a further effort for annexation to this State, as soon as matters can move.

The appearance of this tract, as far as I know, is much the same, of the other contiguous country, as described in my last: Extensive prairies, fringed with timber upon the streams. The streams have generally a small assortment of fish, such as large cat, carp, buffalo—shad, hickory—shad, gars, and a few other small pan fish. About three or four miles west of the boundary line, there is a beautiful creek of living water, pebble bottom, running northwardly and empties into the Little Plat.. It is called “Tod’s Creek,” and is sufficient for light mills. Passing some dry branches, in dry times, the Little Platt comes next, and a fine looking river it is, too, about eight or ten rods wide, with a grand fall for mills, of say six or seven feet, at the ford and ferry. Like other western waters, however, it sometimes rises very high, (fifty or sixty feet,) on short notice; and to use it for mill privileges and purposes, would require a stamina and capital equal to what brought the grand canal, by an aqueduct across the Genesee at Rochester, New York.

On the great garrison road, near five miles westerly of the Platt, is a precious rivulet, called “Clear Creek,” along which the Indians camp, in hunting seasons, by scores.—This route to the garrison, from the Platt west, is timber land, and has fine appearance: in fact, from what I can learn, some of this section looks as rich and fertile as Jackson. At the distance of sixty or eighty rods from Clear Creek, as you come down upon the Missouri bottom, is a Jordan—like, deep sluggish stream, bridged, named “Bee Creek,” from the great quantities of bees that have been found in its woods. The Missouri bottom from this creek to the garrison, about three miles, is covered with an unparalleled phalanx of rushes, four or five feet high, presenting one of the stiffest pastures I ever beheld. The cattle live and fatten upon these rushes, year in and year out, without any other fodder. One Mr. Martin, who has a permit from the garrison, has the benefit of all this spontaneous feed, together with a farm and ferry at the Platt, a farm and ferry at the Missouri, opposite the garrison, and a boarding house in the garrison, or cantonment, more properly, an account of which will be given hereafter. This permission with the facilities, without money or price, gives him a chance to amass a fortune with little trouble, little competition, and in a little time.

But to my subject. The last Congress, if I am not mistaken, extended the limits, jurisdiction and laws, of the territory of Michigan, to all “the district of country north of the State of Missouri, and west of the Mississippi,” so that the “far west,” or western world of territory, laid down on some of the maps, as the Missouri Territory, is now bounded, south by the Arkansas Territory; and Mexican States; west by the Rocky Mountains: north by the British line, as it shall be established according to the treaty of Ghent, cornering on the north—east, at the Lake of the Woods: and east by Michigan Territory, and the State of Missouri: comprising more land than did the old “Thirteen United States,” and may emphatically be called the heart of North America. It is about nine hundred miles long and eight hundred miles broad, containing, at estimates, four hundred and sixty millions, and eight hundred thousand acres, spread over thirteen degrees of north latitude, and embracing all the beauty and variety of season and climate, that may be found from the south line of Virginia, to the gulf of St. Lawrence! It is a great place, and every thing about it is GREAT. The Missouri, than which a large or more dreadful river, (with its muddy face always scowling,) is not on earth, rushes rapidly from near the 49th to about the 39th degree of north latitude, hurrying along with it, its numerous relatives, and tributaries, from the vast prairies, that lay spread out like an empire, and passes into the State of Missouri, as the President of rivers.

Notwithstanding, this great country may be ranked as a part of the realm of the United States, yet, the title to the land, is held by the Indians that hunt upon it; or, at least, the most of it, is theirs; and as the general government, has already commenced gathering and settling the various tribes upon the south eastern limits of this grand region, I shall be justified on that point, and because we have the word of the Lord, that these Indians are a remnant of the seed of Joseph, I certainly shall write truth, on another point, when I call it THE LAND OF ISRAEL. Time will tell whether the United States will be so humane as to gather all the wandering tribes of the forest, and extinguish their title to such lands as they do not want. If the government should succeed in its philanthropic operation to ameliorate the condition of the Indians, and honorably purchase much of their land: if the Lord should permit timber to grow upon the prairies, like corn stalks upon the cultivated fields, so that towns and cities might speckle the west as they now do the east, still, when “Jacob takes root,” according to the prediction of Isaiah, “and blossoms and buds and fills the face of the world with fruit,” this country will then be The Land of Israel. page 34
I should do injustice to the subject, were I to omit a notice of the Indians that inhabit the territory, of which I am writing. When I was at the garrison, I saw a noble looking, portly Indian, dressed and harnessed in fine style for hunting, and for the life of me, I could not help composing the following lines for

THE RED MAN.
O stop and tell me, Red Man, “And long they’ve liv’d by hunting,
Who are ye? why you roam? “Instead of work and arts,
And how you get your living? “And so our race has dwindled
Have you no God;—no home? “To idle Indian hearts.
With stature straight and portly, “Yet hope within us lingers,
And decked in native pride, “As if the Spirit spoke:—
With feathers, paints, and broaches, “He’ll come for your redemption,
He willingly replied:—— “And break your Gentile yoke:
“I once was pleasant Ephraim, “And all your captive brothers,
“When Jacob for me pray’d; “From every clime shall come,
“But oh! how blessings vanish, “And quit their savage customs,
“When man from God has stray’d; “To live with God at home.
“Before your nation knew us, “Then joy will fill our bosoms,
“Some thousand moons ago, “And blessings crown our days,
“Our fathers fell in darkness, “To live in pure religion,
“And wander’d to and fro. “And sing our Maker’s praise.”

Now, to my story again. Besides the Delawares, Shawnees, Kickapoos, Wyandots, Pottowattomies, Senecas, Osages, Choctaws, Cherokees, Kaskaskias, Kansas, &c. &c. which our nation and the missionaries are domesticating as they are gathered, upon the southern limits of the land of Israel, the Pawnees, the Sioux, the Rickarees, the Mandans, the Nespersees, the Blackfeet, the Sacs, the Foxes, and many other tribes, rove and hunt from prairie to prairie, from river to river, from hill to hill, and from mountain to mountain, and live, and are blessed before the face of heaven daily as well as their contemporary whites; and, perhaps I may add, are as justifiable before God, as any people on the globe, called heathens. No church bell from its elevated steeple, rings “Go to meeting; it is Sunday,” while a dozen lesser ones, for stages and Steam boats, peal a ding dong “for parties of pleasure, as a holiday,” among these rude sons of the west.—And it is a difficult matter to make one soul of them believe the Great Spirit ever said, “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy,” while they know, that the majority of the white nation, use it for a holiday. No politicians boast of freedom and equal rights, while thousands are imprisoned for debt, or are in bondage: No; when the tribes are at peace, the Indian is free; his land is free; his game is free; his time is free, and all is free.

But the glory of the whole matter is yet to be told; and that is, that the hour is near, when the Lord will gather his elect, even Israel; that the righteous may come flocking to the standard of God like doves to the windows. This is the glory of the children of the promise. This is the expectation of the faithful. This is they joy of the saints, that they may be gathered and live and reign a thousand years on earth with Christ. And who would not be full of hope, faith, and charity, at such a grand prospect. Or in other words, Is there an heir of the celestial kingdom, that would take this world as a mite towards the glory and blessings, after much tribulation, that he can receive in the one to come? No!

The generations generally, except the saints, as they have passed by, from the beginning, have had their measure, of glory, fame and power, because they have eagerly sought for it—but where are the mightiest of them? Numbered with the dead! The Nephites who once had the Lord personally among them, where are they? Numbered with the dead! And the present generation, with the knowledge of six thousand years in advance, after a little, where will all its chiefest be? Numbered with the dead! O grave! grave! how many mysteries thou hidest!—but the hour of revelation is nigh, and who is prepared to hear it? And the time to renew the earth is not far off, and who will then possess it? And the time is soon at hand, when the Lord can be seen, and who shall see him? Yea, who can enjoy all these sublime privileges? The pure in heart.

No wonder the Saints endured martyrdom! No wonder the Son of God suffered upon the cross, it was for the sake of eternal life in a world of perfection, where the order and the power, and the realm, are unchangeable, and the enjoyment unutterable, (in this world.) Away with crowns and kingdoms; away with grandeur and gold; away with fame and fassions [fashions]—all are vanity: seek first the kingdom of heaven and its righteousness, and when the Lord comes, the riches of eternity will be given to the saints; and the curse will be taken off of the earth, and the land will yield its increase, and the whole world will become the garden of God and his people. The land of the north, the land of the east, the land of the south, and the land of the “West,” will be the land of Israel, the home of the blessed, and the seat of the beloved city: and though oceans shall roll back, and mountains sink down; though worlds may be created, and disappear, and ages come and go, yet, amidst my littleness, and nothingness, compared with the vastness of God’s works, I hope to enjoy an inheritance in that city.

As ever, W. W. PHELPS.

To OLIVER COWDERY, Esq.

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Read the Annotated Book of Mormon. It includes dozens of stories about the Native American Indians and their rightful inheritance of the Land of Joseph which is the United States of America. As the scripture below says the Lamanites are a remnant of the Jew.

D&C 19:26-27: “And again, I command thee that thou shalt not covet thine own property, but impart it freely to the printing of the Book of Mormon, which contains the truth and works of God.

Which is my word to the Gentile, that soon it may go to the Jew, of whom the Lamanites are a remnant that they may believe the gospel, and look not for a Messiah to come who has already come.”

The Last Words of Moroni
Mark E. Petersen Oct 1978

“When finished with the record, Moroni was to hide it up in that same Hill Cumorah which was their battlefield.” Mark E. Petersen

“Last week we passed one of the most significant anniversaries recognized by our Church. It marked the visitations of the Angel Moroni to the Prophet Joseph Smith, preliminary to the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ in our day. (JS—H 1:28–65.)

Moroni came back from the dead, a resurrected man!

He had lived in America some fifteen hundred years ago and was the sole survivor of his people in a series of tragic battles which took many lives.

He had witnessed the destruction of his whole nation, including his own family. In bitter vengeance their enemies had vowed their complete annihilation, and now this threat was accomplished.

Moroni’s father was commander of the armies of this ancient people, known as Nephites. His name was Mormon. The war of which we speak took place here in America some four hundred years after Christ. (See Morm. 6.)

As the fighting neared its end, Mormon gathered the remnant of his forces about a hill which they called Cumorah, located in what is now the western part of the state of New York.

Their enemies, known as Lamanites, came against them on this hill. Of that dreadful event Mormon wrote:

“My people, with their wives and their children, did now behold the armies of the Lamanites marching towards them; and with that awful fear of death which fills the breasts of all the wicked, did they await to receive them.

“… Every soul was filled with terror because of the greatness of their numbers.

“And it came to pass that they did fall upon my people with the sword, and with the bow, and with the arrow, and with the ax, and with all manner of weapons of war.

“And it came to pass that my men were hewn down, yea, even my ten thousand who were with me, and I fell wounded in the midst.” (Morm. 6:7–10.)

Then he spoke of other leaders serving with him in the Nephite army, all of whom had fallen with the forces under their command. He accounted for about a quarter of a million Nephite soldiers killed in that final encounter at Cumorah.

He mourned over this great loss and wrote:

“My soul was rent with anguish, because of the slain of my people, and I cried:

“O ye fair ones, how could ye have departed from the ways of the Lord! O ye fair ones, how could ye have rejected that Jesus, who stood with open arms to receive you!

“Behold, if ye had not done this, ye would not have fallen. But behold, ye are fallen, and I mourn your loss.

“O ye fair sons and daughters, ye fathers and mothers, ye husbands and wives, ye fair ones, how is it that ye could have fallen!

“But behold, ye are gone, and my sorrows cannot bring your return.

“O that ye had repented before this great destruction had come upon you.” (Morm. 6:16–20, 22.)

Why were the Nephites destroyed?

They had been told that it was a privilege for anyone to live on the American continent, for it is a promised land, and those who reside here must abide by the rules that God decreed pertaining to it.

Only those who are willing to serve Jesus Christ, who is the God of this land, may remain here. Others will be swept off. (See Ether 2:10–12.)

The Nephites knew this, but with malice aforethought, they reveled in sin and rejected the teachings of Christ.

Having failed to meet the conditions by which they could remain on this promised land, they were swept off, and with great violence.

At the time Mormon recorded the details of this dreadful tragedy, he said that only twenty-four remained alive of all the men, women, and children of the Nephites. These surviving few were themselves killed the next day—with one exception, Moroni, whom the Lord spared to close up the written record.

When finished with the record, Moroni was to hide it up in that same Hill Cumorah which was their battlefield. It would come forth in modern times as the Book of Mormon, named after Moroni’s father, the historian who compiled it.

Realizing the importance of completing it, this lone survivor wrote: “I, Moroni, do finish the record of my father, Mormon” (Morm. 8:1).

Then he wrote a description of the last battle and added: “I … remain alone to write the sad tale of the destruction of my people. …

“Therefore I will write and hide up the records in the earth. …

“My father hath been slain in battle, and all my kinsfolk, and I have not friends nor whither to go; and how long the Lord will suffer that I may live I know not.” (Morm. 8:3–5.)

As he wrote his fateful words, he said again that his people were annihilated because they loved wickedness, rejected the counsel of God, and gave themselves over to seeking wealth and corruption. This made up the deadly concoction which brought about their extinction.

Had not the Lord said to them, as he says to us now, that America is a choice land and that those who live here must obey God or be swept off? And had he not kept his word to those rebellious Nephites, now totally wiped out? So it is that today’s archaeologists find the ruins which are silent witnesses to the greatness that once was theirs.

In closing his record, and knowing that it would come to us, Moroni pleaded with us, the modern inhabitants of this land, to escape the kind of tragic end which had obliterated his people. He said:

“Behold, I speak unto you as if ye were present, and yet ye are not. But behold, Jesus Christ hath shown you unto me, and I know your doing.

“And I know that ye do walk in the pride of your hearts; …

“Ye do love money, and your substance, and your fine apparel.” (Morm. 8:35–36.)

In prophecy also he spoke of the tragic moral pollutions which would engulf many modern Americans. He asked why we are so foolish as to revel in sin, why we would reject the Christ, and thereby invite disaster.

“Why are ye ashamed to take upon you the name of Christ?” he asked, speaking to modern America, knowing full well that many might profess to believe in him and yet refuse to do his works (Morm. 8:38). It is by engaging in his works that we truly take his name upon us. It is not through lip service. Moroni knew that faith without works is dead. And so likewise should we.

He made it clear that advance warning is given to us who live today through the very book which he and his father had written and which he was now about to bury in Cumorah. It would be published in our day to give us that warning.

Describing our day, he said the book would come forth when millions deny the power of God, when the world would be in turmoil, with earthquakes, violent storms, wars, and rumors of wars in many places. (See Morm. 8:26–34.)

He said it would be in a time of great pollution (see Morm. 8:31). Isn’t it interesting that he would speak of great pollution on the earth? Does it remind you of the claims of our modern ecologists?

He said also that it would be in a time of extensive crime, of murders, robberies, lies, deceptions, and immorality. Think of those words in terms of today’s cover-ups, bribes, thievings, embezzlements, and other fraudulent practices among individuals, in business, and also in government. Hasn’t dishonesty almost become a way of life with many people?

Think, too, of the epidemic of social diseases sweeping the nations in the wake of their vast immorality. What frightful pollutions these things are!

Before his death, Mormon wrote that his record would, of course, be a warning to those he called Gentiles, but that it would be a blessing to the Lamanites. Also he said that it would come with a special message to the Jews. For them it was published that they “may be persuaded that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God; that the Father may bring about, through his most Beloved, his great and eternal purpose, in restoring the Jews, or all the house of Israel, to the land of their inheritance, which the Lord their God hath given them, unto the fulfilling of his covenant” (Morm. 5:14). Consider the current significance of that scripture!

Mormon then wrote directly to us as modern Americans who now occupy this promised land and said: “How can ye stand before the power of God, except ye shall repent and turn from your evil ways?

“Know ye not that ye are in the hands of God? Know ye not that he hath all power, and at his great command the earth shall be rolled together as a scroll?

“Therefore, repent ye, and humble yourselves before him, lest he shall come out in justice against you.” (Morm. 5:22–24.)

Can we ignore such a warning, directed specifically at this generation?

Moroni joined his father with this: “Who can stand against the works of the Lord? Who can deny his sayings? Who will rise up against the almighty power of the Lord? Who will despise the works of the Lord? Who will despise the children of Christ?

“Behold, all ye who are despisers of the works of the Lord, for ye shall … perish.” (Morm. 9:26.)

It should be remembered that these men wrote to us out of the desperation of the event they were passing through as the Nephites were being wiped off the face of the earth. They knew that we live here now under the same conditions that were given to them.

As Moroni wrote his last testimony, he realized how important his book would be to our generation. He asked that we read it and believe it. So he pleaded:

“I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost” (Moro. 10:4).

These were among his very last words. His pen had already inscribed this frightening but divine warning about America:

“This is a land which is choice above all other lands; wherefore he that doth possess it shall serve God or shall be swept off” (Ether 2:10).

He gave us the lesson of the annihilation of the Nephites as a case in point. He wrote similarly of the tragedy of the Jaredites. It was another case in point. Do we realize that this same kind of destruction can come upon us, and for the same reason?

So this is the message of Moroni. He came back from the dead to deliver it—in these modern times.

His people were Americans, too. His words constituted a people-to-people message, ancient Americans speaking to modern Americans. Theirs was the voice of bitter experience seeking to persuade us to avoid the dreadful conditions which engulfed them.

Moroni announced that he will face us on Judgment Day in defense of his words (see Moro. 10:27). This he will do, together with his book, for out of the books we shall be judged, and the Book of Mormon is one of those books.

We now have it in our hands. It is published to the world. It carries God’s message to all. It gives full and fair warning to this generation, and the warning is true!

Read it! Believe it! Pray over it! Obey its counsels! It can lead us unerringly to Christ!

The last words of Moroni! Dare we forget them? God grant that we never will, I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.”

Mark E. Petersen Oct 1978

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The Book of Mormon Current as the Daily News! 10-Pack of DVD’s

Share with friends special: Let your family know what challenges we face in the last days. Help all to prepare for the coming of the Lord, by fasting praying and sharing the Gospel with others. These make great gifts!

Retail $20 Each
10 DVD’s for just $50

Brand-New DVD by Rod Meldrum 2 hours. Using the two quotations below as a guide, author Rod Meldrum explores some of the Book of Mormon prophecies that pertain to our day and compare them directly with news headlines from the mainstream media of the USA. WE STILL HAVE TIME! Purchase 10 copies of the same DVD to share with your friends and you will receive a huge discount. Let’s share the message!

The Book of Mormon Current as the Daily News!(One Video)

Elder Gordon B. Hinckley, 1st Counselor to President Ezra Taft Benson, proclaimed that the Book of Mormon “is as current as the morning newspaper”, “in its descriptions of the problems of today’s society.” The Power of the Book of Mormon, Ensign June 1988

The American Prophet Moroni testified that “Jesus Christ hath shown you unto me, and I know your doing.” Mormon 8:35

Using these two quotations as a guide, author Rod Meldrum explores some of the Book of Mormon prophecies that pertain to our day and compare them directly with news headlines from the mainstream media of the USA.

To understand the signs of our day, we must read the Book of Mormon!

The Book of Mormon Prophets warned a very specific nation about the consequences of being wicked, upon God’s Promised Land. In Rod Meldrum”s latest DVD, he clearly demonstrates how the Book of Mormon is as “Current as the Daily News.”

In his 2-hour presentation Rod discusses the 4 Sacred Covenants that George Washington invoked at St. Paul’s Cathedral during his inauguration – the same sacred ground the New York Twin Towers collapsed on during 911. Take a trip through current news headlines and see why America’s promised blessings are now being revoked, leaving her in grave peril and judgment from God. With this warning will the people living in our nation, foretold by ancient prophets in the Book of Mormon still serve Jesus Christ, the God of this sacred covenant land?

The Key to a Happy Society

Today we are seeing riot’s, protests, and vandalism in the streets of many of our big cities in the United States of America. Even here near my home in Salt Lake City we see much unrest. Part of our constitution of coure is “the right to protest” when we feel our government has gone too far. There is however a huge difference between a “protest” and a “riot.” We recently saw on the streets of Minneapolis a white policeman apparently murder a black man as we all watched in horror that terrible video tape of the policeman kneeling on the neck of George Floyd for over 7 minutes and latter knowing he died. That is terrible no matter what race or religion you are. You hear in the streets all about “black lives matter” and racism. I believe all lives matter and race has less to do with our problems than disobedience to God and lack of love in our society. The Lord knows the problem and as we read below we will understand the problem and be able to do more about it in our own lives. I believe the basic problem is a lack of the most important society on earth, The Family! Having a father and mother with children has been proven to be the most perfect recipe for happiness. As David O. McKay said, “No success in life can compensate for failure in the home.” When the family is broken up, society becomes vulnerable. Especially without a father in the home. I say that because the vast majority of broken homes have the father absent. No man in the home for children to look to for advice, protection, and discipline. Children are being short changed. The mother is overwhelmed. Her constant nurturing and loving takes a back seat when she also has to support and protect her children. For the first time in many years the U.S. replacement rate of children born is down to 1.6 children per couple. We know it takes 2.1 children per couple to sustain a proper growth rate for success in any society.

U.S. Births Continue to Fall, Fertility Rate Hits Record Low

A new CDC report shows longstanding trends in U.S. births continued in 2019. By Gaby Galvin, Staff WriterMay 20, 2020

The U.S. saw nearly 3.75 million births in 2019.(GETTY IMAGES) THE NUMBER OF BABIES born in the U.S. hit the lowest level in more than three decades in 2019, continuing a five-year downward trend, according to a new federal report. The report on provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates notable birth and population measures reached record lows in 2019. American women, for example, are now projected to have about 1.71 children over their lifetimes – down 1% from 2018 and below the rate of 2.1 needed to exactly replace a generation. “The (total fertility) rate has generally been below replacement since 1971 and consistently below replacement since 2007,” the report says. In all, the U.S. saw nearly 3.75 million births last year, down 1% from 2018 and the lowest level since 1985, according to the CDC. Births fell among women of most races, though they rose 3% for women who were Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander. Births remained largely level for Hispanic women. https://www.usnews.com/news/healthiest-communities/articles/2020-05-20/us-births-continue-to-fall-fertility-rate-hits-record-low

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What can we do? Keep the Commandments!

“And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” Genesis 1:28 “…inasmuch as parents have children in Zion, or in any of her stakes which are organized, that teach them not to understand the doctrine of repentance, faith in Christ the Son of the living God, and of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of the hands, when eight years old, the sin be upon the heads of the parents.” D&C 68:25

Proclamation on the Family

“…Husband and wife have a solemn responsibility to love and care for each other and for their children. “Children are an heritage of the Lord” (Psalm 127:3). Parents have a sacred duty to rear their children in love and righteousness, to provide for their physical and spiritual needs, and to teach them to love and serve one another, observe the commandments of God, and be law-abiding citizens wherever they live. Husbands and wives—mothers and fathers—will be held accountable before God for the discharge of these obligations. The family is ordained of God. Marriage between man and woman is essential to His eternal plan. Children are entitled to birth within the bonds of matrimony, and to be reared by a father and a mother who honor marital vows with complete fidelity. Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities. By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families. Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children. In these sacred responsibilities, fathers and mothers are obligated to help one another as equal partners. Disability, death, or other circumstances may necessitate individual adaptation. Extended families should lend support when needed. We warn that individuals who violate covenants of chastity, who abuse spouse or offspring, or who fail to fulfill family responsibilities will one day stand accountable before God. Further, we warn that the disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets. We call upon responsible citizens and officers of government everywhere to promote those measures designed to maintain and strengthen the family as the fundamental unit of society.” (Read the first part of the Proclamation at the end of this blog) This proclamation was read by President Gordon B. Hinckley as part of his message at the General Relief Society Meeting held September 23, 1995, in Salt Lake City, Utah.

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The Man is Without the Woman

“Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord.” 1 Corinthians 11:11

Elder Thomas S. Monson said, “To quote the Master: “Ye are the salt of the earth. … Ye are the light of the world. … Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” (Matt. 5:13–14, 16.) In stark and glaring contrast to this spirit are the tenor of our times, the demands of our day, and the goals of our generation. Look about you. Listen to the many voices, each competing for a listening ear. What do you see? What do you hear? The topic: women’s liberation. Recently I read with interest feature articles that appeared in five widely circulated American publications. All presented information regarding the subject of women’s liberation. Several of the articles called attention to the fact that 1970 marked the fiftieth anniversary of the right of women to vote in the United States. And from this base came a description of the goals and demands that are now being made by some women: free abortion, free child care, and equal employment. One piece suggested that women should literally demand these things. This article then went on to describe much of Friedrich Engles’ philosophy. Engles, you will recall, was a colleague of Karl Marx and spoke out with irony and force against much of family life. He referred to marriage as a dreary mutation of slavery, urged its abolition, and suggested a public responsibility for the upbringing of children. In another magazine there was a report dealing with “The Motherhood Myth.” This article debunked the idea that there is anything particularly fulfilling and satisfying about being a mother. It quoted one psychiatrist who suggested that people should move from planned parenthood to planned unparenthood and that it would be more loving to children not to have them. The author of the article, a senior editor of the magazine, concluded: “If God were still speaking to us in a voice we could hear, even He would probably say, ‘Be fruitful. Don’t multiply.’”

Such idiotic and blatantly false philosophy must not be entertained or believed. For God has spoken. Indeed, he has spoken in a voice clearly understood by those who have ears to hear and hearts that know and feel…

What the modernists, even the liberationists, fail to remember is that women, in addition to being persons, also belong to a sex, and that with the differences in sex are associated important differences in function and behavior. Equality of rights does not imply identity of functions. As Paul the apostle declared: “… neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord.” (1 Cor. 11:11.)” The Women’s Movement: Liberation or Deception? By Elder Thomas S. Monson Of the Council of the Twelve https://byustudies.byu.edu/content/mormon-feminism-essential-writings “We do not want our LDS women to be silent partners or limited partners in that eternal assignment! Please be a contributing and full partner” (“Privileges and Responsibilities of Sisters,” Ensign, Nov. 1978, 106). https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/eternal-marriage-student-manual/equality-of-men-and-women?lang=eng

Elder Russell M. Nelson

“Opportunities for development of spiritual and intellectual potential are equal. Masculinity has no monopoly on the mind, and femininity has no exclusive dominion over the heart. The highest titles of human achievement—teacher, educated professional, loyal employee, faithful friend, student of the scriptures, child of God, disciple of Christ, trusted companion, loving parent—are earned under a uniform requirement of worthiness” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1989, 25; or Ensign, Nov. 1989, 21).

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Out-of-Wedlock Births is a Problem

Children growing up in single-parent families typically do not have the same economic or human resources available as those growing up in two-parent families. Compared with children in married-couple families, children raised in single-parent households are more likely to drop out of school, to have or cause a teen pregnancy and to experience a divorce in adulthood. This indicator is included in the KIDS COUNT Child Well-Being Index. Read the KIDS COUNT Data Book to learn more: http://datacenter.kidscount.org/publications.

OPINION: WASHINGTON SECRETS

77% black births to single moms, 49% for Hispanic immigrants

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/77-black-births-to-single-moms-49-for-hispanic-immigrants by Paul Bedard | May 05, 2017

Race isn’t the problem, out-of-wedlock births are

The cause of disproportionate crime and poverty rates among blacks in Baltimore and the U.S. is the continued degradation of the nuclear family. The out-of-wedlock birth rate among blacks is 72 percent, comparted to 54 percent for Hispanics and 29 percent for whites. https://www.baltimoresun.com/opinion/readers-respond/bs-ed-baltiimore-race-letter-20150318-story.html

Unintended Pregnancy in the United States

Unintended pregnancy rates are highest among low-income women (i.e., women with incomes less than 200% of the federal poverty level), women aged 18–24, cohabiting women and women of color.² Rates tend to be lowest among higher-income women (at or above 200% of poverty), white women, college graduates and married women. https://www.guttmacher.org/fact-sheet/unintended-pregnancy-united-states

THE FAMILY

A PROCLAMATION TO THE WORLD The First Presidency and Council of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints We, the First Presidency and the Council of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, solemnly proclaim that marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and that the family is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children. All human beings—male and female—are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny. Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose. In the premortal realm, spirit sons and daughters knew and worshipped God as their Eternal Father and accepted His plan by which His children could obtain a physical body and gain earthly experience to progress toward perfection and ultimately realize their divine destiny as heirs of eternal life. The divine plan of happiness enables family relationships to be perpetuated beyond the grave. Sacred ordinances and covenants available in holy temples make it possible for individuals to return to the presence of God and for families to be united eternally. The first commandment that God gave to Adam and Eve pertained to their potential for parenthood as husband and wife. We declare that God’s commandment for His children to multiply and replenish the earth remains in force. We further declare that God has commanded that the sacred powers of procreation are to be employed only between man and woman, lawfully wedded as husband and wife. We declare the means by which mortal life is created to be divinely appointed. We affirm the sanctity of life and of its importance in God’s eternal plan…”

“The prophet which prophesieth of peace, when the word of the prophet shall come to pass, then shall the prophet be known, that the Lord hath truly sent him” Jeremiah 28:9

When a prophecy is fulfilled, that is a true test which has been applied through the ages to identify those who truly speak in the name of God. Joseph Smith is such a Prophet.

Prophecies of Joseph Smith

While most of the revelations Joseph Smith received gave instructions, counsel, and doctrinal teachings or recovered sacred stories from the ancient past, a few contained historically specific prophecies about impending events. Those that did usually focused on global events leading up to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ or on specific endeavors in which the Saints were commanded to participate. One of Joseph Smith’s most well-known millennial prophecies related to the American Civil War. On December 25, 1832, Joseph Smith received a revelation prophesying that a war between the northern and southern U.S. states would begin in South Carolina and that wars and uprisings throughout the earth would finally result in the “end of all Nations” at the time of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. At the time the revelation was received, South Carolina and the federal government of the United States were involved in a dispute, but it was peacefully resolved the next March. Years later, Joseph reiterated his prophecy that war would break out in South Carolina over slavery debates, as it did nearly 20 years after Joseph Smith’s death. Source: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

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Joseph Smith has had over 400 prophesies as shown in a book by Duane Crowther called “The Prophesies of Joseph Smith.” We understand the first prophecy to be in 1823 and the last one to be June 26, 1844 at Liberty Jail as you see both of them below. What mortal man could be correct that many times over such significant issues? Only a Prophet named Joseph Smith the Prophet and Seer in this Last Dispensation.

You will find many more prophecies at the end of the Civil War Prophesy information below.

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First Shots of the Civil War Fired at Fort Sumter

“In late 1860 and early 1861, South Carolina and other southern states withdrew from the Union. They formed a new nation called the Confederate States of America. But Abraham Lincoln, the president of the United States, said the southern states did not have right to secede. And he said he would not accept the South’s demand to remove U.S. soldiers from South Carolina. The soldiers defended a base in Charleston Harbor called Fort Sumter. So, Confederate leaders ordered an attack. Just before sunrise on April 12, 1861, a shell exploded above Fort Sumter. It was the first shot fired in the American Civil War.

Major Robert Anderson led the small force of U.S. soldiers at Fort Sumter. Anderson could not use his most powerful cannons to answer the Confederate attack. The cannons were in the open at the top of the fort, where the gunners were not protected. Too many of his men would be lost if his force tried to fire these guns. So Anderson had his men fire smaller cannons from better-protected positions. These, however, did not do much damage to the Confederate guns. A big cloud of smoke rose high in the air over Fort Sumter. U.S. Navy sailors could see the smoke a few miles outside Charleston Harbor. They were protecting a ship bringing food for the men at Sumter. But neither the sailors nor the food could reach the fort to help Major Anderson. Confederate boats blocked the entrance to the harbor. And powerful Confederate guns could destroy any ship that tried to enter.

Confederate shells continued to smash into Sumter throughout the night and into the morning of a second day. The fires burned higher. Smoke filled the rooms where U.S. soldiers attempted to fire their cannons. About noon, three men arrived at the fort in a small boat. One of them was Louis Wigfall, a former United States senator from Texas, now a Confederate officer. He asked to see Major Anderson. “I come from General Beauregard,” Wigfall said. Beauregard commanded the Confederate troops in Charleston. “It is time to put a stop to this. The flames are raging all around you. And you have defended your flag bravely. Will you leave, sir?” Anderson was ready to stop fighting. His men had done all that could be expected of them. They had fought well against a much stronger enemy. Anderson said he would surrender if he and his men could leave with honor. Wigfall agreed. He told Anderson to lower his country’s flag and the firing would stop. Down came the United States flag. And up went the white flag of surrender. The battle of Fort Sumter was history. More than 4,000 shells had been fired during the 33 hours of fighting. But no one on either side had been killed – yet. This is The Making of a Nation from VOA Learning English. Frank Beardsley and Kelly Jean Kelly wrote this report.

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“Have We Not Had a Prophet Among Us?”: Joseph Smith’s Civil War Prophecy

Scott C. Esplin

A month following the artillery rounds fired at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, signaling the start to the Civil War, the Philadelphia Sunday Mercury remarked, “We have in our possession a pamphlet, published at Liverpool, in 1851, containing a selection from the ‘revelations, translations and narrations’ of Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism.” Citing what is now Doctrine and Covenants 87, the paper continued, “The following prophecy is here said to have been made by Smith, on the 25th of December, 1832. In view of our present troubles, this prediction seems to be in progress of fulfilment, whether Joe Smith was a humbug or not.” Though early in the war’s advancement, the paper nevertheless speculated about the prophecy, concluding, “The war began in South Carolina. Insurrections of slaves are already dreaded. Famine will certainly afflict some Southern communities. The interference of Great Britain, on account of the want of cotton, is not improbable, if the war is protracted. In the meantime, a general war in Europe appears to be imminent. Have we not had a prophet among us?”[1]

Using Doctrine and Covenants 87 as proof of Joseph Smith’s prophetic nature, however, is only part of the section’s history. The prophecy’s use has changed over time, reflecting prophetic reinterpretation, geopolitical developments, and shifts in Church relations with the world. The receipt, recording, and publishing of section 87 reveals much about the Church, including how it uses Joseph Smith’s prophesies, how that use changes over time, and how it interacts with society. At the same time, society’s reporting of section 87 reflects reaction to the message of Mormonism and its central tenet, modern revelation.

Receiving, Recording, and Publishing the Revelation

Most analysis of Doctrine and Covenants 87 focuses on the historical context that led to its receipt.[2] Like so many other revelations of the Prophet, the section, received on December 25, 1832, is rooted in the history of his day. Unfortunately, Joseph Smith’s only surviving journal from the period reveals nothing of the event. Its daily entries, which began on November 28, 1832, inexplicably end after little more than a week, only to resume again ten months later on October 4, 1833.[3] However, working on the History of the Church a decade later in Nauvoo, Willard Richards penned, on behalf of the Prophet, an introduction to the section: Appearances of troubles among the nations became more visible this season than they had previously been since the Church began her journey out of the wilderness. The ravages of the cholera were frightful in almost all the large cities on the globe. The plague broke out in India, while the United States, amid all her pomp and greatness, was threatened with immediate dissolution. The people of South Carolina, in convention assembled (in November), passed ordinances, declaring their state a free and independent nation; and appointed Thursday, the 31st day of January, 1833, as a day of humiliation and prayer, to implore Almighty God to vouchsafe His blessings, and restore liberty and happiness within their borders. President Jackson issued his proclamation against this rebellion, called out a force sufficient to quell it, and implored the blessings of God to assist the nation to extricate itself from the horrors of the approaching and solemn crisis. Prefacing the text of the revelation itself, Richards concluded on behalf of the Prophet, “On Christmas day [1832], I received the following revelation and prophecy on war.”[4] While world events, including cholera and plague, clearly contribute to the context, the revelation is most connected to the Nullification Crisis of 1832–1833. Latter-day Saint historian Donald Cannon summarized the conflict as follows: This crisis grew out of the tensions existing between various geographic sections of the pre-Civil War United States. Specifically, the South felt itself threatened by the North. The state of South Carolina was the center of the unrest generated by this controversy. Southerners, and particularly South Carolinians, felt oppressed and disadvantaged by the high protective tariff of 1828, the so-called “‘Tariff of Abominations.”‘ This tariff imposed heavy duties on foreign manufactured goods, which favored the industrial North, while at the same time it worked against the interest of the agrarian South. In addition to the economic problems, the South was becoming increasingly wary of the nascent antislavery movement in the North. In order to protect itself from these threats, South Carolina passed an Ordinance of Nullification.[5]

That ordinance, founded on a philosophy of states’ rights, argued that because the states had created the federal government, an individual state could declare a federal law unconstitutional, something the state of South Carolina did on November 24, 1832, to the Tariff Act of 1828, together with its companion, the Tariff Act of 1832. Prohibiting the collecting of duties in the state after February 1, 1833, the stage was set for conflict. Clearly influenced by this issue, Joseph Smith received the revelation.

Though compromise was achieved and conflict averted in February 1833, the word of the Lord reached beyond the Nullification Crisis that precipitated it. An early reference to the revelation came little more than two weeks after its receipt when the Prophet referred to it in a January 4, 1833, letter to N. E. Seaton, editor of a Rochester, New York, newspaper. “I am prepared to say by the authority of Jesus Christ,” the Prophet declared, “that not many years shall pass away before the United States shall present such a scene of bloodshed as has not a parallel in the history of our nation; pestilence, hail, famine, and earthquake will sweep the wicked of this generation from off the face of the land.”[6]

Beyond referring to the warnings contained in the revelation, the recording of the text itself is unique. The revelation appears multiple times in what is known today as “Revelation Book 1” (also known as the “Book of Commandments and Revelations”), a collection containing revelations received between 1828 and 1834, and once in “Revelation Book 2” (formerly known as the “Book of Revelations” or the “Kirtland Revelation Book”), a volume containing revelatory text generally received by the Prophet between 1832 and 1834.[7] However, recording text in a scriptory book and disseminating it are two different matters. Importantly, the revelation, as recorded in Revelation Book 2, lacks the crosshatched symbol found at the beginning of the section that preceded it (D&C 86), together with the phrase “to go into th[e] covenants,” an indication that D&C 86 was approved for publication in the 1835 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants while section 87 was not. In fact, though recorded in multiple places, the revelation remained unpublished for nearly two decades and noncanonized for nearly forty-eight years. While it was unpublished, the full text of section 87 was not unknown. In addition to his 1833 letter, the Prophet also publicly confirmed the revelation more than ten years later in a meeting in Ramus, Illinois, on April 2, 1843 (see D&C 130:12–13). Furthermore, he allowed the entire revelation to be copied by multiple individuals. A year into the Civil War, Wilford Woodruff affirmed, “I copied a revelation more than twenty-five years ago, in which it is stated that war should be in the south and in the north, and that nation after nation would become embroiled in the tumult and excitement, until war should be poured out upon the whole earth, and that this war would commence at the rebellion of South Carolina, and that times should be such that every man who did not flee to Zion would have to take up the sword against his neighbor or against his brother.”[8] A decade later, Woodruff added, “I wrote this revelation twenty-five years before the rebellion took place; others also wrote it.”[9] In addition to Woodruff’s personal copy, historian Robert Woodford identified eight other manuscript copies of the prophecy on war, including reproductions in the handwriting of William W. Phelps, Thomas Bullock, Willard Richards, and Edward Partridge.[10] The most prominent individual regularly using a prepublication copy of this revelation was Orson Pratt, who later recalled, “When I was a boy, I traveled extensively in the United States and the Canadas, preaching this restored Gospel. I had a manuscript copy of this revelation, which I carried in my pocket, and I was in the habit of reading it to the people among whom I traveled and preached.” Continuing, Pratt detailed the response he received to this message, “As a general thing the people regarded it as the height of nonsense, saying the Union was too strong to be broken; and I, they said, was led away, the victim of an impostor. I knew the prophecy was true, for the Lord had spoken to me and had given me revelation. I knew also concerning the divinity of this work. Year after year passed away, while every little while some of the acquaintances I had formerly made would say, ‘Well, what is going to become of that prediction? It’s never going to be fulfilled.’ Said I, ‘Wait, the Lord has his set time.’” Concluding his experience, Pratt summarized, “By and by it came along, and the first battle was fought at Charleston, South Carolina. This is another testimony that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of the Most High God; he not only foretold the coming of a great civil war at a time when statesman even never dreamed of such a thing, but he named the very place where it should commence.”[11]

He suffered the revelations to be printed just when He saw proper!

In spite of its prominence, the revelation itself was never formally published in Joseph Smith’s lifetime. As noted, the Prophet and the rest of the scripture committee did not mark it for publication in the 1835 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants, nor was it included in the 1844 Nauvoo edition. In 1860, Brigham Young explained, “That revelation was reserved at the time the compilation for that book was made by Oliver Cowdery and others, in Kirtland. It was not wisdom to publish it to the world, and it remained in the private escritoire.”[12] Nine years later, Orson Pratt further explained the omission of this section from early editions of the Doctrine and Covenants, “Why did not the revelations in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants come to us in print years before they did? Why were they shut up in Joseph’s cupboard years and years without being suffered to be printed and sent broadcast throughout the land? Because the Lord had His own time again to accomplish His purposes, and He suffered the revelations to be printed just when He saw proper. He did not suffer the revelation on the great American war to be published until some time after it was given.”[13]

Joseph’s revelation was not only originally excluded from published scripture, it was also excluded from other public records. For example, though the manuscript version of the history of Joseph Smith, authored in Nauvoo in the 1840s, includes both the entire text of the revelation and the background the led up to it, the published accounts of the same history that appeared in Nauvoo’s Times and Seasons and later in Britain in the Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star both printed the background of the section but omitted the revelation itself.[14]

The Pearl of Great Price, containing the first published account of the prophecy on war, rolled off the Church’s Liverpool presses on July 11, 1851.

While missionaries relied on manuscript copies of the text for decades, Church leaders finally moved to formally publish the revelation prior to its fulfillment, a development later stressed by Wilford Woodruff, “It was published to the world before there was any prospect of the fearful events it predicted coming to pass.”[15] Ironically, the first publication of the revelation occurred outside the continent where the Civil War began. In 1850, Church membership worldwide numbered more than fifty-seven thousand, nearly thirty-one thousand of whom lived in Great Britain.[16] Orson Pratt, the individual who seemingly used the prophecy on war most emphatically, presided over the British Mission from August 1848 to February 1851. The day Pratt left for America, his successor, fellow Apostle Franklin D. Richards, wrote his plan “of issueing a collection of revelations, prophecies &c., in a tract form of a character not designed to pioneer our doctrines to the world, so much as for the use of the Elders and Saints to arm and better qualify them for their service in our great war.” Included in the proposed publication later named the Pearl of Great Price was “the destiny of the American Union . . . Joseph’s prophecy of the Union,” a copy of which Richards indicated he received from Orson Pratt while in Liverpool.[17] The Pearl of Great Price, containing the first published account of the prophecy on war, rolled off the Church’s Liverpool presses on July 11, 1851. Noting that “a smaller portion of this work has never before appeared in print,” the book’s preface stressed that the contents, including what it called “A Revelation and Prophecy by the Prophet, Seer, and Revelator, Joseph Smith. Given December 25th, 1832” were designed primarily for members. “Although not adapted, not designed, as a pioneer of the faith among unbelievers,” editors acknowledged, “still it will commend itself to all careful students of the scriptures, as detailing many important facts which are therein only alluded to.”[18] As British converts and returning missionaries immigrated to America, the Pearl of Great Price, together with its published account of the prophecy on war, became more familiar to the American Church membership. Ultimately, Orson Pratt again affected the history of the revelation when, as editor of the 1876 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants, he added it to that text for the first time. Two years later, he edited the first American edition of the Pearl of Great Price, keeping the revelation on war in both texts.[19] In the Church’s general conference on October 10, 1880, revised editions of both the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price, each containing this revelation, were formally canonized. President George Q. Cannon, who as a youth anticipated the section’s fulfillment, declared at the time, “I hold in my hand the Book of Doctrine and Covenants and also the book The Pearl of Great Price, which books contain revelations of God. In Kirtland, the Doctrine and Covenants in its original form, as first printed, was submitted to the officers of the Church and the members of the Church to vote upon. As there have been additions made to it by the publishing of revelations which were not contained in the original edition, it has been deemed wise to submit these books with their contents to the Conference, to see whether the Conference will vote to accept the books and their contents as from God, and binding upon us as a people and as a Church.”[20] With that action, Joseph Smith’s prophecy on war became scripture.

Confirmation and Condemnation—The Prophecy during the Civil War

While the prophecy on war was working its way to publication and ultimately canonization from 1851 through 1880, the section experienced its most emphatic use as the conflict it prophesied erupted in South Carolina in 1861. The use of Joseph Smith’s prophecy prior to as well as during the Civil War reflects the Church’s feelings about the conflict, its relationship towards the government of the United States, its millennial fervor, and most importantly, its feelings for the prophetic ministry of Joseph Smith.

References to this revelation increased as war clouds loomed on the national horizon in 1860. Referring to the role South Carolina played in leading the insurrection, Orson Hyde noted in October 1860: On the 25th day of December, 1832, the Lord spoke to Joseph Smith, and said—“Verily, thus saith the Lord, concerning the wars that will shortly come to pass, beginning at the rebellion of South Carolina, which will eventually terminate in the death and misery of many souls. The days will come that war will be poured out upon all nations, beginning at that place.” The Democratic party found it necessary to call a convention of delegates to nominate a successor to President Buchanan. No place but Charleston, South Carolina, could be agreed upon as the place for that body to assemble in. A most unlikely place, indeed!—entirely out of the political centre—a small town of about twenty or twenty-five thousand white inhabitants, accomodations very limited for such a body of men, and at a half-dozen prices. But to South Carolina they must go; for the prophecy, twenty-seven years before, said that the serious troubles of the land should begin at that place. The Democratic party of administration fell upon that stone of present revelation, and, according to our Saviour’s words, they must be broken. They had to go to Charleston to break. They did go there, and there they did break into several pieces—split asunder.[21] For others, like Orson Pratt, the role South Carolina would play in secession seemed to be key. A decade after the war began, Pratt recalled, “When they were talking about a war commencing down here in Kansas, I told them that was not the place; I also told them that the revelation had designated South Carolina, ‘and,’ said I, ‘you have no need to think that the Kansas war is going to be the war that is to be so terribly destructive in its character and nature. No, it must commence at the place the Lord has designated by revelation.’” Pratt told their response, “What did they have to say to me? They thought it was a Mormon humbug, and laughed me to scorn, and they looked upon that revelation as they do upon all others that God has given in these latter days—as without divine authority. But behold and lo! in process of time it came to pass, again establishing the divinity of this work, and giving another proof that God is in this work.”[22] Still others continued to use the prophecy in missionary opportunities, seeking to warn eastern inhabitants while proving that Joseph Smith was a prophet. George Q. Cannon recalled his experience just months before the outbreak of the war, In 1860, Brothers Orson Pratt, Erastus Snow, myself, and others, were going on missions, and we arrived at Omaha in the month of November of that year. A deputation of the leading citizens of that city came to our camp and tendered to us the use of the Court House, as they wished to hear our principles. The invitation was accepted, and Elder Pratt preached to them. During the service, there was read the revelation to which I have referred—the revelation concerning the division between the South and the North. The reason probably, for reading it was that when we reached Omaha, the news came that trouble was alreading [sic] brewing, and several States were threatening to secede from the Union. Its reading made considerable impression upon the people. A good many had never heard of it before, and quite a number were struck with the remarkable character of the prophecy. It might have been expected, naturally speaking and looking at it as men naturally do, that the reading of such a revelation, at such a time, when the crisis was approaching, would have had the effect to direct men’s attention to it, and they would be led to investigate its truth and the doctrines of the Church and the foundation we had for our belief. But if there were any converted in that audience I am not aware of it. Good seed was sown, but we did not remain to see what effect it produced. The revelation being so remarkable, and the events then transpiring being so corroborative of its truth, one might naturally think, as there were present on that occasion the leading and thinking portion of that community, that a great number would have been impressed with the probability of its truth, and would have investigated and joined the Church.[23]

Missionary use of the revelation may have been the motivation for Orson Pratt’s arranging to have it published in the New York Times. During the war’s infancy, the newspaper reproduced the prophecy in its entirety on June 2, 1861, with a brief introductory commentary, “Elder Orson Pratt desires us to publish the following extract.”[24]

Though the Church certainly emphasized the prophecy the most, not all Civil War era references came from Latter-day Saint sources. As the war approached, an increase in its use from Latter-day Saint pulpits led observers to report the prediction. In 1858, San Francisco’s Daily Evening Bulletin published an account from its “Special Correspondent” in Utah, detailing talk of a “prophecy, the fulfillment of which [is] near at hand, . . . in which Joseph declared that the time should come when this nation should divide—when the South should rise up against the North, and the North against the South.” Calling the address “disjointed and incoherent,” the reporter downplayed the prediction as “full of holes as is a broken net.”[25] In a similarly negative tone, a correspondent reported in the New York Times Orson Pratt’s 1860 use of the prophecy. “At this fearful picture” painted by Pratt, the reporter cynically noted, “I saw upon every countenance a deep settled smile of malignity and savage delight, as the traitorous fiends glutted their imaginations upon the blood of my countrymen.”[26] As war approached, The New York Herald recorded another of Pratt’s talks involving the prophecy, causing the reporter to go “hunting for it for two days” and calling his interpretation of South Carolina’s pending actions “a very facetous turn and interpretation.”[27] Apparently those with faith in Joseph Smith’s ministry saw one thing in the prophecy, while those who doubted his calling found something very different. For the Saints, the escalation of conflict between North and South was vindication of Joseph Smith’s words. “The revelation upon this subject had been written; it had been published. It was well known to the great bulk of the Latter-day Saints years previous to this,” George Q. Cannon later recalled. “I, when quite a child heard it, and looked for its fulfillment until it came to pass. And this was the case with the body of the people who were familiar with the predictions which had been uttered by the Prophet Joseph Smith.”[28] Later, he further speculated, “I suppose there is not a boy who has been brought up in this community who did not know of the revelation years before it was published, and, still longer, before it was fulfilled.”[29] Latter-day Saint newspapers may have contributed most to Cannon’s conjecture that all were familiar with the prophecy. Orson Pratt’s short-lived Washington, DC, periodical, The Seer, produced the first newspaper account of the text in April 1854. Under the heading, “War,” Pratt cited the Pearl of Great Price account of the revelation, adding personal and scriptural commentary regarding its fulfillment.[30] In addition, Great Britain’s Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star influenced interpretation of Joseph Smith’s prophecy as the United States raced to war. The paper made repeated reference to the revelation as war clouds gathered. In January 1860, the British periodical published the text, noting, “We have not quoted this revelation with the view to attempt to do justice to its many points and wonderful predictions; for, though but short in its wording, it is so full of matter, that a series of articles would not be too much to bring out its points and predictions, glancing at events since it was given in 1832, and looking into the dark future directly before us. The time is coming, and seems near at hand, when not only this revelation, but many others of Joseph’s revelations and prophecies must be brought before the world, and their truth forced upon nations by the course of events and the fulfilment of those prophecies.”[31] Indeed, the tenor of Civil War references to Joseph Smith’s prophecy highlights the conflict as a condemnation upon the nation for having rejected the Lord. An ocean away from the fray, the most pointed attacks came from the British Church press. “That nation was once under ‘the special protection of Divine Providence,’ and God sent to them a ‘special’ message and a ‘special’ day of opportunities by one of the greatest of Prophets,” the Millennial Star opined in 1860. “But they rejected him, and the special message, and their special day of opportunities; and the cry of Saints, with their wrongs and their repeated drivings, and the cries of the blood of Saints and the blood of Prophets and Apostles, and finally, the injustice of the intended exterminating Utah Expedition, and the pleadings of the last exodus of the Church have gone up into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. . . . Because of their many ‘demerits’ and special sins, they have lost ‘the special protection of Divine Providence.’ The dark day of the United States has indeed come.”[32] As Southern states formally seceded throughout the winter of 1860–61, the paper reprinted the entire prophecy once more, laying the blame again at the feet of a nation who had rejected God’s word. Noting that “slavery on the one side and fanatical hostility on the other were some of the means” which led to war, the paper concluded, “But it was not the operation of these evils alone that brought so speedily the fulfillment of this prophecy. . . . It was crime the most gross and terrible in its consequences of any that man can commit. It was the shedding of the blood of innocence—it was the murdering of Prophets and Apostles and Saints. Whenever a man or nation was guilty of this crime in ancient times, the retributive justice of the Almighty speedily followed them, and their downfall was sure.” Emphasizing its distance from the conflict, the paper concluded, “Who can behold what is now taking place in that land and not feel that the Lord’s hand is in the events that have transpired? What power but His could so signally have brought to pass his word spoken by his Prophets?”[33] Still smarting from the 1858 invasion by federal troops, Church leaders in Salt Lake likewise connected the Prophet’s revelation to national condemnation. “The ‘harmonious democracy’ that undertook to destroy this people,” Brigham Young blasted on the eve of war in October 1860, “broke in pieces in the State where the Lord, twenty-eight years ago, on the 25th of next December, revealed to the Prophet Joseph that the nation would begin to break. But I do not wish to make a political speech, nor to have anything to do with the politics and parties in our Government. They love sin, and roll it as a sweet morsel under their tongues. Had they the power, they would dethrone Jehovah; had they the power, they would to-day crucify every Saint there is upon the earth; they would not leave upon the earth one alive in whose veins runs the blood of the Priesthood. . . . They are broken in pieces. Do I wish to predict this? No, for it was predicted long ago.”[34] Interpreting the nation’s woes as condemnation for persecuting the Saints was so pervasive that even non-Mormon sources repeated the accusation. Mormons believe “the United States Government is being chastened for its sin of persecuting the Latter Day Saints,” a Colorado newspaper reported in 1862. “The nation, totally regardless of law and order, ran wild, and the natural result of such a state of things, was the Southern rebellion,” it continued. “The only means of cure,” the newspaper claimed, “is for the nation to go right back to where it commenced—to repair the wrongs from the beginning—that is, to reinstate the Mormons in their possessions in Missouri.”[35] As the conflict continued, however, leaders eventually downplayed this rhetoric, emphasizing the revelation as a sign of Joseph Smith’s prophetic mission while trying to maintain loyalty to the Union. In 1864, Brigham Young stressed the Prophet’s prophecy as well as the consequences of sin: The war now raging in our nation is in the providence of God, and was told us years and years ago by the Prophet Joseph; and what we are now coming to was foreseen by him, and no power can hinder. Can the inhabitants of our once beautiful, delightful and happy country avert the horrors and evils that are now upon them? Only by turning from their wickedness, and calling upon the Lord. If they will turn unto the Lord and seek after Him, they will avert this terrible calamity, otherwise it cannot be averted. There is no power on the earth, nor under it, but the power of God, that can avert the evils that are now upon and are coming upon the nation. However, Young also expressed concern for the suffering: It is distressing to see the condition our nation is in, but I cannot help it. Who can? The people en masse, by turning to God, and ceasing to do wickedly, ceasing to persecute the honest and the truth-lover. If they had done that thirty years ago, it would have been better for them to-day. When we appealed to the government of our nation for justice, the answer was:—“Your cause is just, but we have no power.” Did not Joseph Smith tell them in Washington and Philadelphia, that the time would come when their State rights would be trampled upon? Joseph said, many and many a time, to us,—“Never be anxious for the Lord to pour out his judgments upon the nation; many of you will see the distress and evils poured out upon this nation till you will weep like children.” Many of us have felt to do so already, and it seems to be coming upon us more and more; it seems as though the fangs of destruction were piercing the very vitals of the nation.[36] As the war neared its end in 1865, Church leaders emphasized that talk of the prophecy did not demonstrate disloyalty to the union. “We frequently hear, ‘You are not loyal,’” John Taylor observed. “Who is it that talks of loyalty?” he countered. “Those who are stabbing the country to its very vitals. Are they the men that are loyal? . . . We will stand by that constitution and uphold the flag of our country when everybody else forsakes it. We cannot shut our eyes to things transpiring around us. . . . But did not Joseph Smith prophecy that there would be a rebellion in the United States? He did, and so have I scores and hundreds of times; and what of that? Could I help that?,” Taylor concluded. “Could Joseph Smith help knowing that a rebellion would take place in the United States? Could he help knowing it would commence in South Carolina? You could not blame him for that.”[37]

Joseph Smith’s revelation on war was also presented as proof of the Prophet’s divine calling. “These things ought to be a warning to us. We comfort our souls sometimes on the fulfillment of the prophesies of God,” John Taylor noted in October 1863. “We say ‘Mormonism’ must be true because Joseph Smith prophesied thus and so concerning a division of this nation, and that the calamities which are now causing it so mourn should commence in South Carolina. That is true, he did prophecy that, and did foretell the events that have since transpired, and did tell where the commencement of those difficulties should originate. Well if this is true, are not other things true.”[38] Brigham Young similarly observed, “There is no man can see, unless he sees by the gift and power of revelation, that every move that has been made by the Government has been made to fulfil the sayings of Joseph Smith the Prophet, and all earth and hell cannot help it. The wedge to divide the Union was entered in South Carolina, and all the power of the Government could not prevent it.”[39] Of course, not everyone reached the same conclusion. Colorado’s Tri-Weekly Miner Register countered, “[Mormons] regard it as proof positive that Joseph Smith was a true prophet of the Lord, because that his prophecy is now being fulfilled to the letter. The old Abolition party might, perhaps, have the same reason for believing their leaders to be divinely inspired, for who does not remember . . . to have listened to prophecies in substance exactly the same as this one, from the lips of the earnest apostles of emancipation.”[40]

In spite of a skeptical nation’s response, Church leaders continued to turn to this section as evidence even after the war ended. A generation later, George Q. Cannon declared, “God has sent a mighty Prophet who predicted, among other things, the civil war that took place in 1861. It is on record in this book (the Book of Doctrine and Covenants). Joseph Smith warned this nation of it—twenty-eight years before it occurred. He told them the cause of it, and the consequences that would follow. This great Prophet has been in their midst, and they have slain him, and have destroyed as far as possible those who believe in his doctrine. God will hold this generation to a strict accountability for these acts.”[41]A Changing Emphasis—Post Civil War Use of the Prophecy With the conclusion of the Civil War in April 1865, Joseph Smith’s prophecy entered a new phase. While Church leadership continued to reference the revelation, using its fulfillment as proof of the Prophet’s divine calling, they also began noting that the section went much further. Nearly twenty years after the war’s final shots, B. H. Roberts characterized the changing use of the prophecy. “Thus you see this prophecy, so far as we have read it, has been minutely fulfilled—fulfilled in every particular,” Roberts declared. Turning to future fulfillment, he continued, “And the rest of it will be, so fast as the wheels of time shall bring the events due; and the fulfillment of these prophecies prove beyond controversy, that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God, and ‘spake as he was moved upon by the Holy Ghost.’”[42] The same year, Joseph F. Smith noted that only “a portion of that revelation has been literally fulfilled.”[43] Increasingly, attention turned to future conflicts in the last days. “This great war,” said Orson Pratt following the conclusion of the Civil War, “is only a small degree of chastisement, just the beginning; nothing compared to that which God has spoken concerning this nation, if they will not repent.”[44]

Following the conclusion of the Civil War, Church leaders increasingly looked beyond the first part of the section to the latter half, which prophesies conflicts that will culminate in “a full end of all nations” (D&C 87:6). Reflecting the apocalyptic fervor of the day, Orson Pratt answered the question, “Do you really believe that such judgments are coming upon our nation?” declaring, “I do not merely believe, but I know it, just as well as I knew, twenty-eight years before it commenced, that there would be war between the North and the South. . . . We know that these judgments are coming with the same certainty that we knew concerning the war of the rebellion.”[45] John Taylor made a similar interpretation, “Were we surprised when the last terrible war took place here in the United States?” Taylor queried. “No; good Latter-day Saints were not, for they had been told about it. Joseph Smith had told them where it would start, that it should be a terrible time of bloodshed and that it should start in South Carolina. But I tell you today the end is not yet. You will see worse things than that, for God will lay his hand upon this nation, and they will feel it more terribly than ever they have done before; there will be more bloodshed, more ruin, more devastation than ever they have seen before. Write it down! You will see it come to pass.”[46] Indeed, in the decades following the war, Church leaders seemed to echo Orson Pratt’s interpretation: “That war that destroyed the lives of some fifteen or sixteen hundred thousand people was nothing, compared to that which will eventually devastate that country. The time is not very far distant in the future, when the Lord God will lay his hand heavily upon that nation. ‘How do you know this? inquires one.’ I know from the revelations which God has given upon this subject,” Pratt countered. “I read these revelations, when they were first given. I waited over twenty-eight years and saw their fulfillment to the very letter. Should I not, then, expect that the balance of them should be fulfilled? That same God who gave the revelations to his servant Joseph Smith in regard to these matters, will fulfill every jot and every tittle that has been spoken, concerning that nation.”[47]

In addition to looking for future fulfillment, Church leaders also connected the revelation to other Joseph Smith prophecies, warning that they too would be fulfilled. “Just as sure as the Lord lives,” Brigham Young declared in 1868, “we are going to see times when our neighbors around us will be in want. But some may say, here have ten years, twenty years, thirty years gone, and the sayings of Joseph and the Apostles have not all come to pass. If they have not all been fulfilled, they all will be fulfilled. When we saw the flaming sword unsheathed in the terrible war between the north and the south, we could see in it the fulfillment in part of the prophecies of Joseph. But when peace comes for a short time we forget all about it, like a person who comes into the Church because of seeing a miracle.”[48] Wilford Woodruff reached a similar conclusion, citing the prophecy in 1881 while declaring, “Joseph Smith was a true Prophet of God. . . . That revelation was published to the world broadcast, and I merely refer to it because it is a thing that is clear to the minds of all men. All the revelations in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, the Bible, and the Book of Mormon, will have their fulfilment in the earth.”[49] While Church leaders discussed the future, others skeptically challenged the prophecy’s past. Aware of its acceptance among the Mormon faithful, the Salt Lake Tribune attacked the prophecy in 1874, claiming that Joseph merely used the succession crisis of 1833 as “a splendid show to build up a cheap reputation as a Prophet.” When war failed to immediately follow, the “unfortunate turn in affairs sent the inspired document to its tomb in the archives of the Church, there to await resurrection should circumstances ever favor,” something the paper claimed the “half crazed fanatic” Orson Pratt did beginning in 1854.[50] Brigham Young’s estranged wife Ann Eliza Young used the revelation to rile up an audience in San Francisco, claiming the “memorable prophecy of Joseph Smith that civil war would work the destruction of the United States” was “promulgated” by the Church so that “when the rebellion finally broke out the Mormons exulted greatly, and held a jubilee to congratulate over the expected destruction of the Government and total slaughter of the male population, when the Church would at once assume supreme control of the country.”[51] Others, like Chicago’s Daily Inter Ocean newspaper, refused to directly confront the revelation. When asked, “Is it true that Joseph Smith predicted about the war of rebellion, and where it would commence?” the paper dodged an answer by tersely responding, “some of our readers may be able to contribute to this . . . query.”[52] In the South, the News and Observer in Raleigh, North Carolina, warned inhabitants of “two ‘unrighteous pastors’ spreading their doctrines in Wake County.” These Mormon Elders were circulating a pamphlet containing what “purports to be a prophecy made by Smith in 1832,” but which, after republishing the revelation in its entirety, the paper concluded, “No proof whatever of the authenticity of this prophecy is given. It is certainly an imposition on the credulity of intelligent people.”[53] Most viciously, Maine’s Bangor Daily Whig & Courier called for the extermination of the Church over its Civil War stance. “The Mormon leaders have discovered and published the ‘singular fact,’ that they have among them a prophetic account, written thirty-three years ago, of the great war between the North and South,” the paper sarcastically announced. “This is a fair specimen of the teachings of the Mormon Church,” it continued. “The audacious blasphemy of the leaders, and the wicked social practices of the people, should condemn them, were miracles wrought now a days, to the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah. The next best thing that can befall them is the vengeance of Congress, which, by the way, is no trifle. Measures should be taken for the thorough eradication of this monstrous and growing evil.”[54] Though the nation followed through, in some measure, with “vengeance” against the Church, the two parties eventually reconciled themselves. The way the section has been used, therefore, reflects the changing relationship between the Church and society. Over time, the insinuation that the American Civil War was a chastisement for the nation rejecting the Latter-day Saint message has been downplayed. In 1981, Ezra Taft Benson characterized the softened tone. “The desire of the Prophet Joseph Smith was to save the Union from that bloody conflict,” Benson declared.[55] The change in church and state relationships coincided with a decline in millennialism within the Church at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries.[56] The de-emphasis on the imminence of the millennium seems to have lessened the influence of this prophecy. In fact, whereas it was featured prominently throughout much of the nineteenth century, the prophecy was not cited in general conference in the first decade of the twentieth century and used only once in the second. Eventually, apocalyptic references to the “chastening hand of an Almighty God” making “a full end of all nations” (D&C 87:6) dropped off significantly, replaced by messages of salvation present in the revelation. Furthermore, as subsequent conflicts have occurred, section 87 has been reinterpreted to reflect geopolitical tensions. “It received its widest coverage at the time of the Civil War,” Robert Woodford noted, “but it was revived again when the First World War began and seems to receive some mention with just about every war since then.”[57] Former Presiding Bishop Joseph L. Wirthlin exemplified the expanded interpretation section 87 has received. “In many cases,” Wirthlin declared, “I am quite sure we all think this has to do particularly with the slaves in the Southern States, but I believe, brethren and sisters, that it was intended that this referred to slaves all over the world, and I think of those, particularly in the land of Russia and other countries wherein they have been taken over by that great nation and where the people are actually the slaves of those individuals who guide and direct the affairs of Russia and China, and where the rights and the privilege to worship God and to come to a knowledge that Jesus Christ is his Son is denied them.” Connecting to post–Civil War conflicts, Wirthlin continued: In the matter of famine and plague and earthquakes, we can go back to World War I, where 40,000,000 individuals lost their lives either through the war or through famine or plague. And in the world war just passed wherein our own nation was involved, we lost 408,789 of our men. In Korea, we lost 33,629. The Prophet Joseph gave us this marvelous revelation in 1832. The Civil War came in 1861; the war between Denmark and Prussia in 1864; Italy and Austria in 1865 and 1866; Austria and Prussia in 1866; Russia and Turkey in 1877; China and Japan in 1894 and 1895; Spanish-American in 1898; Japan and Russia in 1904 and 1905; World War I in 1914–1918; then the next war was a comparatively small one, Ethiopia and Italy, when the people in that land of Ethiopia were taken over and controlled by Italy. I am grateful to the Lord that they now have their freedom. Then, the World War just passed and, of course, the Korean War.[58] A generation later, Elder Neal A. Maxwell reached a similar interpretation, “War has been the almost continuing experience of modern man. There have been 141 wars, large and small, just since the end of World War II in 1945. As the American Civil War was about to begin, the Lord declared there would be a succession of wars poured out upon all nations, resulting in the ‘death and misery of many souls’ (D&C 87:1). Moreover, that continuum of conflict will culminate in ‘a full end of all nations’ (D&C 87:6).”[59] The section’s references to additional wars led to one of the most interesting conflicts over the use of Joseph Smith’s prophecy. During debate regarding the League of Nations following the end of World War I, Utah senator and Apostle Reed Smoot apparently used the prophecy to lobby against the treaty’s passage. Fellow Apostle James E. Talmage recorded in his journal, “There is much agitation throughout the land over the question of the adoption of the Covenant of the League of Nations, and the ratification of the Treaty of Peace. Through an unwise and unwarranted misapplication of Scripture, many sensational newspapers are claiming that the ‘Mormon’ Church is opposed to the adoption of the Covenant of the League of Nations. Senator Reed Smoot tried to apply certain passages from the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine & Covenants to show that war is yet to come, and therefore that the League of Nations cannot be regarded as a preventative of war. We regret this misrepresentation, upon which the sensational press has seized.” In a newspaper account that had apparently reached four million readers, Smoot claimed, “You evidently think that when this covenant is ratified we will have no more wars. Do not be deceived, for such will not be the case. If so, the revelations of Prophet Joseph Smith as recorded in the Doctrine and Covenants are not true. I ask you to read the many passages of the Book of Mormon referring to this nation, as well as the many revelations given to the Prophet Joseph Smith, as to the destiny of the same.” A supporter of the League, Talmage retorted, “In this connection it is proper to say that the First Presidency and all members of the Quorum of the Twelve now at home hold unanimously that there is nothing to be found in the standard works of the Church that can in any reasonable way be construed as in opposition to the proposed League of Nations.”[60] Though the United States ultimately failed to join the League, the view that section 87 ought not to be used to lobby against it carried the day when, in the subsequent general conference, Talmage observed that “a point emphasized by all [speakers] was that none of the Scriptures accepted by the Church are in any way opposed to the adoption of the proposed League of Nations, but that on the contrary it is the duty of the Church to raise an ensign of peace and to proclaim peace among the nations.”[61] The controversy over Smoot’s application of the prophecy to international politics highlights a final shift in the section’s use. Indeed, as the Church has become more international, the message of section 87 has broadened. Importantly, focus has turned to the gospel as the means of salvation from calamity. Even as the Civil War began, the Millennial Star declared, “What the length of the period may be before all these things be fulfilled, we cannot say; but this we can say, and verily know, that the rebellion of South Carolina is the beginning of wars which will surely ‘terminate in the death and misery of many souls’ and in the ‘consumption decreed,’ which is to make ‘a full end of all nations.’ These events convey this warning—one more powerful to the people of God and to all the world than any mortal voice is capable of giving—‘Stand ye in holy places, and be not moved, until the day of the Lord come; for behold it cometh quickly, saith the Lord. Amen.’”[62] Apostle Marion G. Romney summarized this emphasis, noting that “the Lord’s purpose in revealing these unhappy impending calamities was not to condemn but to save mankind is evidenced by the fact that with the warning he identified the cause and revealed the means by which the calamities may be turned aside.”[63] Indeed, the greatest focus in recent decades has been on the phrase in the prophecy encouraging Church members to “stand ye in holy places, and be not moved” (D&C 87:8). Harold B. Lee, Marvin J. Ashton, Neal A. Maxwell, Dallin H. Oaks, Gordon B. Hinckley, Thomas S. Monson, and scores of other General Authorities have all cited D&C 87:8 in the past four decades.[64] Each emphasized that, in spite of difficulties ahead, safety can be found in righteousness. In many ways, Spencer W. Kimball’s 1979 plea typifies current use of Joseph Smith’s prophecy on war. “Our constant prayer and our major efforts,” Kimball announced, “are to see that the members are sanctified through their righteousness. We urge our people to ‘stand in holy places’ (D&C 87:8).”[65]Conclusion

The use of Joseph Smith’s “revelation and prophecy on war” has changed alongside the Church that continues to revere it. Unbounded by time, it reaches beyond the Nullification Crisis that precipitated it, the division between Southern and Northern States it most famously predicted, and even periods when war has been “poured out upon all nations” (D&C 87:3). The history of its receipt, recording, and publication demonstrates how the Church and its leaders have used it as a proof of Joseph’s prophetic mantle, a condemnation for a disobedient nation, a warning of future calamity, and even a reason to question international peace efforts. At the same time, the world has reacted with varying levels of wonder, skepticism, cynicism, or ridicule to the notion that a New York farm boy could know the future. However, though the revelation points to a time when the “chastening hand of an Almighty God” will make “a full end of all nations” (D&C 87:6), it also provides a singular solution for escaping the Lord’s wrath (see D&C 87:8). Standing in holy places, Saints have continually benefited from a prophecy on war, delivered to a Prophet of God on Christmas Day, 1832, by the Prince of Peace.Notes—

[1] “A Mormon Prophecy,” Philadelphia Sunday Mercury, May 5, 1861, cited in Robert J. Woodford, “Historical Development of the Doctrine and Covenants” (Ph.D. dissertation, Brigham Young University, 1974), 2:1110, emphasis added. [2] Nearly every Doctrine and Covenants commentary discusses the Nullification Crisis of 1832. For examples, see Hyrum M. Smith and Janne M. Sjodahl, Doctrine and Covenants Commentary (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1967), 533–34; Lyndon W. Cook, The Revelations of the Prophet Joseph Smith (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1985), 180; Stephen E. Robinson and H. Dean Garrett, A Commentary on the Doctrine and Covenants (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2004), 3:84–85; Steven C. Harper, Making Sense of the Doctrine and Covenants: A Guided Tour through Modern Revelations (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2008), 310. [3] Dean C. Jessee, Mark Ashurst-McGee, and Richard L. Jensen, eds., Journals, Volume 1: 1832–1839, vol. 1 of the Journals series of The Joseph Smith Papers, ed. Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, and Richard Lyman Bushman (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2008), 11. [4] History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, ed. B. H. Roberts, 2nd ed. rev. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1980), 1:301. This citation uses Roberts’s published edition of History of the Church. Interestingly, the manuscript version in Willard Richards’s hand is nearly identical, except in one significant instance. The original states, “The people of North Carolina, in convention assembled ,” over the top of which someone clearly corrected, “The people of South Carolina, in convention assembled . . .” This error appeared in its original printing in the Times and Seasons on November 1, 1844 and the subsequent British reprinting in The Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star on July 3, 1852. [5] Donald Q. Cannon, “A Prophecy of War (D&C 87),” in Studies in Scripture, Vol. 1: The Doctrine and Covenants, ed. Robert L. Millet and Kent P. Jackson (Sandy, UT: Randall Book, 1984), 335; for an extended analysis, see William W. Freehling, Prelude to Civil War: The Nullification Controversy in South Carolina, 1816–1836 (New York: Harper & Row, 1965). [6] History of the Church, 1:315. In addition to section 87, this statement by the Prophet may have been influenced by earlier revelations referring to destruction upon the American continent, including D&C 38:28–29, 42:64, and 45:63–64. Seaton apparently only published a portion of Joseph’s message in his newspaper, which drew the ire of the Prophet (see History of the Church, 1:326). [7] Determining which copy is the earliest is problematic because the records were kept simultaneously. Revelation Book 1, kept by John Whitmer and used in Missouri during the publication of the Book of Commandments, generally appears to be the more complete record because it contains some revelations missing from Revelation Book 2. However, this particular revelation would have been delivered to Whitmer, as he was in Missouri while the Prophet was in Ohio in December 1832. Revelation Book 2, on the other hand, was kept in Kirtland by Joseph Smith and his scribes during the time this revelation was received. Interestingly, for some reason Oliver Cowdery made a second copy of the revelation, including it as the last item in Revelation Book 1, dated July 3, 1835. Also, though dated December 25, 1832, in Revelation Book 2, the text itself was likely copied into that collection by the Prophet’s scribe, Frederick G. Williams, sometime later because Williams referred to himself as “counceller” to Joseph Smith in the line immediately preceding this section. He was not appointed to that position until January 22, 1833. Robin Scott Jensen, Robert J. Woodford, and Steven C. Harper, eds., Revelations and Translations, Volume 1: Manuscript Revelation Books, vol. 1 of the Revelations and Translations series of The Joseph Smith Papers, ed. Dean C. Jessee, Ronald K. Esplin, and Richard Lyman Bushman (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 2009), “Revelation Book 2,” 5-6, 290-1, 380-3, 409, and 476-9. [8] Wilford Woodruff, in Journal of Discourses (London: Latter-day Saints’ Book Depot, 1854–86), 10:13. Woodruff’s writing down of the revelation was an idea he frequently repeated (see Journal of Discourses 10:219, 14:2, 22:175, and 24:242). [9] Woodruff, Journal of Discourses, 14:2. [10] Woodford, “Historical Development of the Doctrine and Covenants,” 2:1112–14. Of the eight copies, two are identified in Phelps’s hand (with a third also possibly his), two in the hand of Thomas Bullock, one each by Willard Richards and Edward Partridge, and a final one that is unidentified. [11] Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses, 18:224–25. Like Woodruff, Pratt frequently referred to his use of this section (see Journal of Discourses 13:135, 18:340–41. [12] Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 8:58. An escritoire is a writing desk. [13] Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses, 13:193–94. [14] See “History of Joseph Smith,” Times and Seasons, November 1, 1844, 688; “History of Joseph Smith,” Latter-day Saints’ Millennial Star, July 3, 1852, 296. [15] Woodruff, Journal of Discourses, 14:2. [16] H. Donl Peterson, The Pearl of Great Price: A History and Commentary (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1987), 9. [17] Franklin D. Richards to Levi Richards, February 1, 1851, cited in Peterson, Pearl of Great Price, 11, emphasis in original. See also Journal History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint, April 10, 1896, 6, Church History Library, http://ldsarch.lib.byu.edu/CD%20Volume%202/Disc19/v322-323/seg8.htm. [18] Preface to the Pearl of Great Price (Liverpool, 1851), cited in Peterson, Pearl of Great Price, 13–15. [19] To eliminate duplication, the revelation on war was finally removed from the 1902 Pearl of Great Price edition (see Peterson, Pearl of Great Price, 23). [20] Journal History, October 10, 1880, 4, http://ldsarch.lib.byu.edu/CD%20Volume%202/Disc8/v135-137/seg25.htm. [21] Orson Hyde, Journal of Discourses, 8:236. [22] Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses, 13:135. [23] George Q. Cannon, Journal of Discourses, 21:265–66. Like Woodruff and Pratt, Cannon made frequent reference both to this revelation and to his experience with it (see Journal of Discourses 12:41, 22:135, and 23:104–5). [24] “A Mormon Prophecy,” New York Times, June 2, 1861, 3. [25] “Continuation of Letter from Great Salt Lake,” Daily Evening Bulletin, July 23, 1858. [26] “Affairs in Utah,” New York Times, June 7, 1860, 1. [27] “Interesting News from Utah,” The New York Herald, November 18, 1860, 2. [28] George Q. Cannon, Journal of Discourses, 22:135. [29] George Q. Cannon, Journal of Discourses, 23:104. [30] “War,” The Seer, April 1854, 241–47. [31] “The Dark Day of the United States,” Millennial Star, January 28, 1860, 51. [32] “The Dark Day of the United States,” Millennial Star, January 28, 1860, 52–53. [33] “Division of the United States—Causes Which Have Hastened It,” Millennial Star, February 16, 1861, 100–101. [34] Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 8:195. [35] “Mormonism and the War,” Tri-Weekly Miner Register, October 15, 1862. [36] Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 10:294–95. [37] John Taylor, Journal of Discourses, 11:92–93. [38] John Taylor, Journal of Discourses, 10:278. [39] Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 9:367. [40] “Mormonism and the War,” Tri-Weekly Miner Register, October 15, 1862. [41] George Q. Cannon, Journal of Discourses, 24:140. See also George Q. Cannon, Journal of Discourses, 25:176. [42] B. H. Roberts, Journal of Discourses, 25:143. Interestingly, not only did B. H. Roberts characterize the changing use of D&C 87, he had a hand in changing slightly the wording of the text itself. Early print versions of D&C 87 concluded verse 3 with the phrase, “and thus war shall be poured out upon all nations” (emphasis added). During the height of World War I, Roberts remarked in the October 1916 General Conference, “It reads in the current print of the Doctrine and Covenants ‘and “thus” war shall be poured out upon all nations.’ But when revising the History of the Church some years ago, we found that in the manuscript, it read ‘then,’ that is, when Great Britain shall call upon other nations to defend herself against other nations, ‘then war shall be poured out upon all nations,’” thereby applying the verse to the present conflict. B. H. Roberts, in Conference Report, October 1916, 141. The Church changed the wording from “thus” to “then” beginning with the 1921 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants. See B. H. Roberts, A Comprehensive History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1948–57), 1:300–301. “Then” is, indeed, in the manuscript version of the History of the Church, as penned by Willard Richards in Nauvoo. However, earlier manuscript copies preserve both options. “Then” is used in John Whitmer’s version of the revelation, found in Revelation Book 1, but “thus” is used in Oliver Cowdery’s later copy in the same book and in Frederick G. Williams’s version recorded in Revelation Book 2. See note 7 and Jensen, Woodford, and Harper, eds., Revelations and Translations, Volume 1: Manuscript Revelation Books, 5–6, 290–91, 380–81, and 478–79. [43] Joseph F. Smith, Journal of Discourses, 25:97. [44] Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses, 12:344. [45] Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses, 17:319. [46] John Taylor, Journal of Discourses, 20:318. [47] Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses, 20:151. [48] Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 12:242. [49] Wilford Woodruff, Journal of Discourses, 22:175; see also Wilford Woodruff, Journal of Discourses, 24:242 and George Q. Cannon, Journal of Discourses, 22:178. [50] “The Prophet Joe Smith,” Salt Lake Tribune, April 8, 1874, 2. [51] “The Mormon Faith,” Daily Evening Bulletin, October 12, 1874. [52] “Author of the Book of Mormon,” The Daily Inter Ocean, June 11, 1881. [53] “Mormon Priests,” News and Observer, March 27, 1895, 5. [54] “Mormon Prophecies,” Bangor Daily Whig & Courier, March 2, 1867. [55] Ezra Taft Benson, in Conference Report, October 1981, 83. [56] See Thomas G. Alexander, Mormonism in Transition: A History of the Latter-day Saints, 1890–1930 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1986), 288–290. See also Grant Underwood, The Millenarian World of Early Mormonism (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1993). [57] Woodford, “Historical Development of the Doctrine and Covenants,” 2:1109. [58] Joseph L. Wirthlin, in Conference Report, October 1958, 32–33. [59] Neal A. Maxwell, in Conference Report, October 1982, 96. [60] James E. Talmage, September 17, 1919, James E. Talmage Diary, in James Edward Talmage Collection, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT. [61] James E. Talmage, October 3, 1919, James E. Talmage Diary, in James Edward Talmage Collection; L. Tom Perry Special Collections. [62] “Division of the United States—Causes Which Have Hastened It,” Millennial Star, February 16, 1861, 102. [63] Marion G. Romney, in Conference Report, April 1965, 104. [64] See Harold B. Lee, in Conference Report, October 1971, 62; Marvin J. Ashton, in Conference Report, April 1974, 52; Thomas S. Monson, “Pathways to Perfection,” Ensign, May 2002, 99; Neal A. Maxwell, in Conference Report, October 2002, 17; Dallin H. Oaks, in Conference Report, April 2004, 8; Gordon B. Hinckley, in Conference Report, October 2005, 65–66. [65] Spencer W. Kimball, in Conference Report, April 1979, 115. https://rsc.byu.edu/civil-war-saints/have-we-not-had-prophet-among-us-joseph-smiths-civil-war-prophecy

More Prophesies of Joseph Smith

These pictures below come from a video at the link below and from a great book by Crowther shown here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_M_3Dm2UwuQ Click on any picture in the gallery to view.

Ultimately, what did Joseph accomplish? By the gift and power of God, he translated the Book of Mormon which revealed who the Native Americans are, their heritage of prophets and priests, of repentance and righteousness, and of pride and destruction. It discloses promises to this remnant of Israel, so diligently sought by their ancestors and vouchsafed by the covenants of the Lord. It proclaims their glorious future in the face of their state of poverty. In a personal way, Joseph seemed to feel a kinship to this people whose culture was so very distant from his own. He knew he and they were both descendants of Joseph of old, the son of Israel. He knew that Joseph of old, their prophet ancestor, had foretold that a mighty seer would be raised up from his posterity to bring to pass much restoration to the remnant of his seed (2 Nephi 3:6–12). From his early tutoring by Moroni to his personal visits with numerous Native American chiefs, Joseph Smith sought to bring to this chosen people the glad tidings of the restoration.

But what did he [Joseph Smith] see in the way of fulfillment for his efforts? In mortality he saw very little, but in vision he must have seen the Lamanites “blossom as a rose” (D&C 49:24). Byron R. Merrill, “Joseph Smith and the Lamanites,” in Joseph Smith: The Prophet, The Man, ed. Susan Easton Black and Charles D. Tate Jr. (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1993), 187–202

“It appears that even Brigham Young, the second president of the Mormon church, was influenced by the superstitions of his day. In a sermon delivered June 17, 1877, he stated:

These treasures that are in the earth are carefully watched, they can be removed from place to place according to the good pleasure of Him who made them and owns them…. Orin P. Rockwell is an eye-witness to some powers of removing the treasures of the earth. He was with certain parties that lived nearby where the plates were found that contain the records of the Book of Mormon. There were a great many treasures hid up by the Nephites. Porter was with them one night where there were treasures, and they could find them easy enough, but they could not obtain them…. He said that on this night, … they dug around the end of a chest…. One man who was determined to have the contents of that chest, took his pick and struck into the lid of it, and split through into the chest. The blow took off a piece of the lid, which a certain lady kept in her possession until she died. That chest of money went into the bank. Porter describes it so [making a rumbling sound]; he says this is just as true as the heavens are … to those who understand these things, it is not marvelous…. I will take the liberty to tell you of another circumstance … Oliver Cowdery went with the Prophet Joseph when he deposited these plates…. the angel instructed him to carry them back to the hill Cumorah, which he did. Oliver says … the hill opened, and they walked into a cave, in which there was a large and spacious room. … They laid the plates on a table; it was a large table that stood in the room. Under this table there was a pile of plates as much as two feet high, and there were altogether in this room more plates than probably many wagon loads; … there is a seal upon the treasures of earth; men are allowed to go so far and no farther. I have known places where there were treasures in abundance; but could men get them? No (Journal of Discourses, vol. 19, pp. 36-39).

“The Greatest Book in the World”
by President Ezra Taft Benson

“I think we have a real challenge today to have our families read the Book of Mormon. We find the answer to practically every problem in the world in the Book of Mormon; there is no question about it.

In the little more than two years since he became president of the Church, President Benson has spoken of the Book of Mormon in every general conference, and has admonished members in addresses at 14 regional conferences to read and heed its words.

In his opening address to the April 1986 general conference– his first general conference as prophet– he said, “Because we have treated lightly the Book of Mormon, the Lord has stated in the 84th section of the Doctrine and Covenants that the whole Church is under condemnation. (See D & C 84:56-57.)

“Now we not only need to say more about the Book of Mormon, but we need to do more with it,”

“The Book of Mormon has not been, nor is it yet, the center of our personal study, family teaching, preaching, and missionary work. Of this we must repent.“

In his October 1986 general conference address, President Benson said, “The Book of Mormon must be re-enthroned in the minds of our people. We must honor it by reading it, by studying it, by taking its precepts into our lives and transforming them into lives required of the true followers of Christ.”

“The major mission of the Book of Mormon, as recorded on its title page, is ‘to the convincing of the Jew and the Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the eternal God, manifesting Himself unto all nations.’

“The honest seeker after truth can gain the testimony that Jesus is the Christ as he prayerfully ponders the inspired words of the Book of Mormon.” Church News Jan 2, 1988 President Ezra Taft Benson

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Below are a few testimonials about the Annotated Book of Mormon by David Hocking and Rod Meldrum. If you would like to say something about that wonderful book, please send your response to riannelson@aol.com Thanks for your support.

Annotated Edition of the Book of Mormon Testimonials

Dear Rod,

Today is Thanksgiving Day. I want you to know how grateful I am for you and the work that you and your friends are doing to bring the Book of Mormon to life in new and interesting ways. I started reading The Annotated Version last month and I’m almost finished. I have enjoyed the experience beyond description. I’ve gained a new appreciation for the Law of Moses, the Jews and their traditions, the American Indians and of course the geography and evidences of this promised land where it all happened.

Because of your recent work, I’ve also gained a new appreciation for the prophet Mormon. I’ve read the Book of Mormon many times, and I know the stories well, but this time it was different, and as I read Moroni’s account of his father’s death I could not control my emotions – and you know I’m not an emotional person! 

I felt such sadness for this man who had been sharing the amazing story of the Nephites and inserting his helpful comments along the way. This man who wrote with apparent admiration of all the prophets who preceded him, even naming his own son after one of his hero’s, Captain Moroni. This man who explained again and again and again that “thus we see” how the Lord blesses those who remember him and destroys those who do not. This man WHO KNEW EVERYTHING, died a disappointing death in a failed effort to save his own people by bringing them to Christ – and it made me cry.

When I joined you on that Book of Mormon tour of the heartland back in 2012, I told you that you that you had changed my life. I’ve felt that way ever since and even more so now, after reading the Annotated Book of Mormon. On this Thanksgiving Day, I just wanted to reaffirm my appreciation for you. I don’t personally know most of your associates in this great work (though I have read many of their books), but please tell them thank you for me. I know that you, and they, are changing lives and bringing people to Christ every day. God bless you all.

Clark T.

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Rod was blessed to have a world-class dinner with William and Barbara Garner when he visited Raleigh, NC last year.  Barbara is a super-charged “missionary” for the Heartland Model and the Annotated Edition of the Book of Mormon. She sent me this encounter she had with Church friends whose parents are not members:

I wanted to tell you that I went to our friend’s house yesterday, Karen and Woody Woodall!  She bought one of your spiral narratives BABOM (before the Annotated Book of Mormon:))   Her 90 year old father and almost that old mother are visiting from Ohio where Karen grew up!  Her parents are Protestants, not Mormon, but Woody and Karen have been trying to convert them since they joined 40 years ago!

Anyway, Karen had wanted me to come over and show them the ABOM and talk to them about the Mound Builders and the Heartland Model. They have been here for a few weeks but we have been unable to get together because her Dad has had an UTI and has just gotten better.  Karen told me at Church Sunday about how disappointed her Mom was that I had not been able to come.  So yesterday I texted Karen and asked her if I could come over and talk to her Mom for just an hour.  Her Mom was so excited!  I went over about 2:00 and only stayed a little over an hour!  But her Dad did join us! 

It was magical!  I took my trip-fold display chart so I could explain Joseph, Ephraim, and Manasseh coming over to Joseph’s promised land, the New Jerusalem!  And then I opened your Book!!  They were SOOOO intrigued!  Her mother said at least three times how interesting all of this is!!  Just like my brother-in-law, Craig!  We went through as much as I could cover in an hour!  But both of them were able to follow what I was saying without getting lost!!  And both asked questions and just responded so beautifully!  I pulled up a chair and sat right in front of them, turning the pages of the Book which was in my lap!  Once in a while, they would get even closer so they could see something that peeked their interest even better!   It was magical!

To make a long story longer, Karen texted me after I left.  Her Mom told her, “I can see myself being a Mormon.”  Karen said in 40 years she had NEVER said anything remotely close to that!!  She told me that both her Mom and Dad want the ABOM, so Karen will be calling you to get a copy soon.  And, they are going to go home and drive to southern Ohio to see some of the mound museums…when Karen and Woody take them home!!!  They left this am!! The Annotated Book of Mormon is magical!!  Simply magical!!

William and Barbara Garner

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Hi Rod and Tonya:  I showed the new Book of Mormon to the manager of our Deseret Bookstore. He was very excited to see the Heartland evidence incorporated.  He will be carrying the book and placed an order from the warehouse while I was there today.  Thanks again for all your dedication to bring for the real location of the Book of Mormon activities. By going on the tour last September, it makes the new Book of Mormon come alive. God bless you! 

Adrian A.

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I love, love, love it! I hope you make an app for it, I will buy it too. I recommed it to everyone! Annotated Edition of the Book of Mormon (Leather Bound) An IMAX-LIKE Book About Jesus Christ and the Americas
Customer rating 5.0/5.0

By D. Hansen

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I have a large library of religious books, but The Annotated Edition of The Book of Mormon is the most Techni-colored, high-fidelity, high-definition, highly-researched, testimony-building, multi-dimensional roller-coaster ride through the religious history of ancient America (and the World for that matter). There are many, but it’s MAIN PURPOSE is to convince every reader that JESUS IS THE CHRIST, manifesting Himself to all nations. And for me it does that in a magnificent way.

S. Elkins

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I’ve always felt the promised land is this blessed & free land of America. Thank you for all the hard work you’ve done

Jared B

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The leather cover and the gold edges are very nice and of good quality. I wish I could say the same for the annotated text and pictures. I like the format having quotes from God in red ink, quotation marks of direct quotes and listing some of the chiasms where they occur. I also like the side quotes of apostles and prophets on relevant topics. What I really don’t like is the blatant deceitful tactics used by the authors to try to force their opinion of the BofM taking place in the “heartland” of the US. I’m not opposed to the possibility of it taking place there but Mesoamerica has much stronger evidences. Hocking et al have gone too far in trying to force their case. The first page I opened was page 287 where it’s suggested that Giant City State Park in Illinois is where Captain Moroni fortified the cities with ditches and walls. The problem is that this was built at least 700 years after Moroni and the ditches are on the inside of the walls, not the outside. This fortification was not used for defense. Another example is on page 459 where Hocking tries to convince the readers that the Jaredites lived in Indiana by drawing attention to large skeletons. The picture shown is of an extra large skeleton of an Irishman named Charles Byrne who died in 1783. Why would they put this undocumented picture in the Book of Mormon other than to try to make you think it’s of a Jaredite? These 2 examples is just the tip of the iceberg of errors and deceitful practices. You should question every “annotation” that is given. I’m disappointed in the authors and the FIRM Foundation for their bad practices and I’m disappointed in Deseret Book for not doing their due diligence before selling such a sloppy and misleading book.

Raelynn Feb 26, 2020

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I love the Annotated Book of Mormon and have given away over 9 copies to close friends and loved ones. I am proud to leave a review for this book. I love how the text is laid out in an easy to read format (paragraph form) that is color-coded. I am grateful that it is a red-letter edition so that I can show visually to friends not familiar with the Book of Mormon can see that it is a Christ-centered book I appreciate that it shows when Old Testament passages are quoted. Most of all I am grateful that I can use this book to answer questions that my children have about the text. I use this book to help fortify my son and daughter so that they are prepared to answer questions that their friends might have about the Book of Mormon. If you live in the area and have questions about the Annotated I would be glad to let you borrow mine to take a look at before you buy it. Wonderfully done

Mark In Palmyra Jan 9, 2020

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What a great blessing this book has been. Some things I had already known, some additional insights and knowledge that i can pass on for my children and grandchildren. Absolutely Love this gift from my wife.

Paul Dec 30, 2019

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It is a religious, spiritual, historical, archaeological, antiquities study all blended into one pictorially informative, easy-to-read and understand book. I have never seen or read an LDS scripture text this interestingly presented, thoroughly researched, and comprehensive. As a church leader once said: you can learn more from This Book about living an abundant and happy life, about the true nature of God and Man, the purpose of the universe and the future of this earth and all nations. And this book lights up one’s knowledge and understanding like the Texas sun in the middle of July.

All LDS families, seminary teachers and students, Sunday school teachers and fellow Christians, Priests, Pastors, evangelicals, and Rabbi’s can be spiritually uplifted and strengthened in their testimony of our Savior by reading this Annotated Edition.

• TMS
• Dec 28, 2019

I enjoyed taking a walk through the book of Mormon in a way I had never done before. This book included maps, pictures of places, artifacts, quotes from modern day prophets and wonderful insights, etc. It created a spiritual experience in which I felt the Book of Mormon come to life. Better than I could’ve hoped for!

• SpencerM
• Dec 23, 2019

I’ve struggled in the past putting all the pieces together when reading the Book of Mormon. Timelines, who’s speaking in particular verses (first person, an angel, the Lord, etc). Never again with this book! The text is color coded depending on who’s speaking! Also, while it is still organized in the normal chapters and verses, it is also structured in more of a story format that really helps with the overall narrative. There are also tons of useful images, maps, and other info. The BEST Book of Mormon study guide / companion, I could ever recommend!! Fascinating Information

• LNM
• Dec 20, 2019

This book is beautifully bound and full of fascinating information that complements your Book of Mormon study. The articles, diagrams, pictures, and maps are woven right in between the pages of the Book of Mormon which enhances your reading by gaining a clearer understanding of things taught. I love using this book to study the Book of Mormon. I highly recommend it. Wonderful book with great information

• Great book for families!
• Dec 14, 2019

This is a wonderful book, especially for families. Not only do you get the scriptures in a different light but the pictures and and maps are so helpful to connect everything! Would highly recommend!

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Allen C. Christensen. Before Zion: An Account of the Seventh Handcart Company. Springville, Utah: Council Press, 2004. x, 356 pp.

The mention of the Mormon handcart trek west inevitably brings associations of the ill-fated Willie and Martin handcart companies. Theirs was a tragic tale, filled with suffering, starvation, and death as they sought to make their way to Utah. These two companies, however, were only two of ten who came to Utah between 1856 and 1860.

Allen Christensen has written the history of the seventh handcart company, which traveled farther and faced its own challenges to reach Zion.

This company has been largely unknown, not only overshadowed by the great tragedy of the Martin and Willie companies but also because it was made up primarily of Scandinavians. Hence, their story was less accessible to English speakers. Christensen, a great-grandson of company member Niels Christensen, preserves both the story and the legacy of this company
through the use of company member journals, letters to family members, and histories written about the church and Scandinavia.

Christensen’s purpose is to portray these pioneers’ emigration as “an eloquent testament to their acceptance of the divinity of the restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ” (136).

In the first part, “Scandinavian Beginnings,” Christensen sets the stage for the departure of the Seventh Company by describing missionary efforts in Scandinavia during the early 1850s. While the work was slow at first, given the power of the Lutheran clergy, the missionaries began baptizing converts, who in turn began planning on going to Zion. Saints from Norway and Sweden sailed to Copenhagen, where they joined with Danish converts in sailing to Liverpool on April 17, 1857, during the first leg of their long voyage. They landed in Liverpool on April 22 and left for America three days later, landing in Philadelphia on May 30 and traveling by train to Iowa City.

The second part of the book, “Handcarts West,” covers their departure from Clear Creek, Iowa, on June 12 under the direction of Captain Christian Christiansen. Their travel coincided at times with the march of the Utah Expedition before the tired pioneers pushed hard to get ahead of Johnston’s Army. They reached the Salt Lake Valley on Sunday, September 13, grateful for their safe arrival. After the company’s arrival, the members began settling in different areas throughout Utah Territory, spanning present-day Davis and Box Elder counties all the way to Sanpete County.

While every member of the Seventh Company is listed on the ship roster in the first appendix, Christensen focuses specifically on several individuals and their challenges during the trek. Anna Marie Sorensen, halfway through the trek, gave birth one night and continued walking the next day. Margrette Ohlsen Englestead Hansen was widowed for the second time during the trek west. Lars and Ane Pedersen and Anders and Ingerline Jensen each buried a baby at sea while sailing across the Atlantic.

In addition to the hardships endured by different members of the company, Christensen also writes about what they did afterwards. Many members of the Seventh Company were farmers, a trade that was much needed at that time in Utah. In addition, several of the company’s men were skilled craftsmen who put their talents to good use, including helping to build the Manti Temple.

The influence of the Seventh Company continues even today. In the book’s epilogue, Christensen outlines what happened to the descendants of members of the company. His own great-grandfather, Niels Christensen, has many descendants active in the LDS faith, with some serving as stake presidents, bishops, mission presidents, and in many other callings. Other members of the company also have faithful families, undoubtedly inspired by what these Scandinavian pioneers went through to reach Zion.

The following account comes from pages 231-232 of the above book.

“Accounts tell that one morning after the 7^th Company had been without meat for several weeks, they passed a large, fat ox which had been left behind by the army. A loaded wagon had crushed its foot. The army gave them the ox for meat. Niels Christensen remembered the army gave them the ox with the understanding that the pioneers would butcher and dress it for half of the carcass, and that the soldiers would pick up their half the next evening. During the night heavy rain fell; the ground was so muddy that the supply wagons could move only slowly. The saints pulled their light handcarts out onto the grass alongside the trail. That day some Indians carried the women and children  across the stream on the backs of their ponies. That night, however, under the cover of darkness, the Indians drove off the horse which pulled the U.S. Army’s supply wagons. By the next evening the pioneers were so far ahead of the army, the 7^th Company did not see them again. The hungry Scandinavian saints ate the hole carcass.

Descendants of Jacob Bastian remembered that Jacob and another company member had been sent to get the lame ox. Jacob was beginning to understand English at a level where he could understand the gist of what was going on said; he even spoke a little English by this point in the journey. Gertrude had learned English in school. She interpreted for him and must have been his English tutor. While he and the other man were there, a rider came galloping in from the west carrying a wild tale of some alleged Mormon atrocity. Jacob’s companion spoke no English. Jacob has the distinct impression that he should remain silent and act as though he did not understand. The conversation became agitated and nasty. There were those who wanted to kill Jacob and the other fellow on the spot, and then destroy all of those “wretched Mormons!” Among those solders was a Sergeant Anderson, a Swedish American. He challenged his comrade in arms saying: “What is the matter with you men? You are beginning to behave like bloodthirsty savages. These people could not have anything to do with that. They are immigrants. They don’t speak English. They are even ignorant of their present danger. You know they have traveled peacefully ahead of us for miles. I will kill the first man who molests them.” So persuasively confronted, their passions cooled. The Scandinavians were given the lame ox and the pioneers went west.”  
Before Zion: An Account of the 7^th Handcart Company. Taken from pages 231-232 Allen C Christensen Author and copyright holder Permission is given Rian Nelson to quote the foregoing in his blog.

Before Zion: An Account of the Seventh Handcart Company by Allen C. Christensen

Though young in the Church, the Scandinavian Saints of the seventh handcart company left their farms and shops to follow the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. They taught His gospel throughout Denmark, Norway, and Sweden where they were beaten by mobs, jailed, and survived on diets of bread and water; they, like Peter and John, were grateful to be counted worthy to suffer in Jesus’ name.

But the trek west would stretch this group of farmers and artisans further still, as they placed their all on the altar of sacrifice in their quest for Zion.

The members of the 7th Company were ordinary people who by virtue of their faith in the gospel became remarkable people who accomplished extraordinary things. This is their story. Purchase Here: or Here

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Mormon Pioneer Emigration Facts
Christine T. Cox, Manager of Visitor and Reference Services 6 March 2018

Joseph’s Remnant: Lamanties in Today’s America

Here is another fantastic book by Allen C. Christensen.

Allen Christensen’s new book (2019) titled, Joseph’s Remnant: Lamanties in Today’s America, involves biographical sketches of a number of Native American Latter-day Saints. Their lives and their struggles to achieve are many and varied. Aspects of their several tribal cultures are also considered as well as their long overlooked contributions as America’s first citizens. He includes real stories about Elder Larry Echo Hawk, Franklin Keel, Betty “Red Ant” LaFontaine, Delores Kahkonen and many others. 240 pages

Joseph’s Remnant: An Introduction by Allen C. Christensen Buy Here

-Home Teaching vs Ministering-
-Duty vs Love-

“The Savior’s ministry exemplifies the two great commandments: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind” and “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Matthew 22:37, 39). In that spirit, Jesus also taught, “Ye are they whom I have chosen to minister unto this people” (3 Nephi 13:25)… The separate programs of home teaching and visiting teaching are now a coordinated effort referred to as “ministering,” overseen by the elders quorum and Relief Society presidencies under the direction of the bishop. Ministering is Christlike caring for others and helping meet their spiritual and temporal needs.” The First Presidency April 2, 2018. Russell M. Nelson, Dallin H. Oaks, Henry B. Eyring.

“Brothers and sisters, as the work of quorums and auxiliaries matures institutionally, it follows that we should mature personally as well—individually rising above any mechanical, function-without-feeling routine to the heartfelt discipleship articulated by the Savior at the conclusion of His earthly ministry. As He prepared to leave His still-innocent and somewhat-confused little band of followers, He did not list a dozen administrative steps they had to take or hand them a fistful of reports to be filled out in triplicate. No, He summarized their task in one fundamental commandment: “Love one another; as I have loved you. … By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another… The primary purpose in this ministering idea will be, as was said of the people in Alma’s day, to “watch over their people, and … nourish them with things pertaining to righteousness… I should stress that this expansive new view does not include the sorry statement I recently saw on an automobile bumper sticker. It read, “If I honk, you’ve been home taught.” Please, please, brethren (the sisters would never be guilty of that—I speak to the brethren of the Church), with these adjustments we want more care and concern, not less.” Jeffrey R. Holland April 2018

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How are we living? Are we striving to live the Higher Law?
Higher Law vs. Lower Law
Consecration vs Tithing
Celestial Marriage vs. Temporal Marriage
Spirit of the Law vs Letter of the Law
Ministering vs Home Teaching
Law of the Gospel vs Law of Moses
Love vs Duty

Priesthood Ministering- TEND TO, CARE FOR, TAKE CARE OF, LOOK AFTER, NURSE, TREAT, ATTEND TO, SEE TO, ADMINISTER TO, HELP, ASSIST AND MORE

The Savior Jesus Christ came to earth to minister to others, spending His days in their service and giving His life for their salvation. Matthew 20:27-28 “And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.”

What would the Savior do if He was in your Ward? (Minister)

3 Nephi 19:2, 7-8 “And it was noised abroad among the people immediately, before it was yet dark, that the multitude had seen Jesus, and that he had ministered unto them, and that he would also show himself on the morrow unto the multitude. And the disciples did pray unto the Father also in the name of Jesus. And it came to pass that they arose and ministered unto the people. And when they had ministered those same words which Jesus had spoken—nothing varying from the words which Jesus had spoken—behold, they knelt again and prayed to the Father in the name of Jesus.”

Moroni 7:22 “For behold, God knowing all things, being from everlasting to everlasting, behold, he sent angels to minister unto the children of men, to make manifest concerning the coming of Christ; and in Christ there should come every good thing.”

I believe ministering requires a passion. What was the Savior’s passion? (Moses 1:39) We are blessed with the Priesthood and the Gospel, but do we have a PASSION for MINISTERING? Is it Duty or Love? What is your passion? School, cars, dolls, computers, vacations, service, writing? Why are these your passions and how can you make MINISTERING your passion? With the Spirit of the Lord in our hearts, WE WILL BECOME PASSIONATE especially about MINISTERING. They go hand in hand.

My passion is Lamanites, The Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith! I want to minister to them, for them and about them.  I am trying to develop this same passion into being a better person.

My parents both served missions in 1951 to the Lamanites, Hopi, Navajo, Apache, and Isleta tribes of Arizona and New Mexico. I served a mission in Fiji among the Polynesian Lamanites. My son served the Lamanites in Alaska. I have a great love for the Lamanites and feel it is my Duty, I mean Love, to share the Gospel with them. Again this Passion requires love, not duty.

How many of you know about Zelph? Or Onandagus? Did you know Onandagus was a Book of Mormon Prophet? I only recognized this story about 7 years ago, and it has added to my testimony of service to the Lamanites. I know Zelph lived and was a great warrior serving the Nephites against all evil. I know Onandagus was a book of Mormon Prophet as Wilford Woodruff described below:

“During our travels we visited many mounds thrown up by the ancient inhabitants, the Nephites and Lamanites. This morning, June 3rd, we went on to a high mound near the river. From the summit we could overlook the tops of the trees as far as we could see. The scenery was truly beautiful. On the summit of {41}the mound were stones which presented the appearance of three altars, they having been erected, one above the other, according to the ancient order of things. Human bones were seen upon the ground. Brother Joseph requested us to dig into the mound; we did so; and in about one foot we came to the skeleton of a man, almost entire, with an arrow sticking in his backbone. Elder Milton Holmes picked it out, and brought it into the Camp, with one of the leg bones, which had been broken. I brought the thigh bone to Missouri. I desired to bury it in the Temple Block in Jackson County; but not having this privilege, I buried it in Clay County, Missouri, near the house owned by Col. Arthur and occupied by Lyman Wight.”

“The arrowhead referred to is now in the possession of President Joseph F. Smith, Salt Lake City, Utah. “Brother Joseph,” continues Wilford, “feeling anxious to learn something of this man, asked the Lord, and received an open vision. The man’s name was Zelph. He was a white Lamanite, the curse having been removed because of his righteousness. He was a great warrior, and fought for the Nephites under the direction of the Prophet Onandagus. The latter had charge of the Nephite armies from the Eastern sea to the Rocky Mountains. Although the Book of Mormon does not mention Onandagus, he was a great warrior, leader, general, and prophet. Zelph had his thigh bone broken by a stone thrown from a sling, but was killed by the arrow found sticking in his backbone. There was a great slaughter at that time. The bodies were heaped upon the earth, and buried in the mound, which is nearly three hundred feet in height.” Wilford Woodruff History of his Life and Labors as Recorded in his Daily Journals by Matthias F. Cowley Release Date December 19, 2014 [EBook #47703]

This knowledge of Zelph and Onandagus has inspired me with a new passion of love to share with others this amazing yet seldom told story. You can read more about it in the Joseph Smith Papers Here.

Thomas Mayhew Patriarch to the Indians 1593-1682

I am a direct descendant of Governor Thomas Mayhew, the Elder (March 31, 1593 – March 25, 1682) through my father’s mother. Mayhew established the first English settlement of Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket and adjacent islands in 1642. He is one of the editors of the Bay Psalm Book, the first book published in British North America. His assistant Peter Foulger was the grandfather of Benjamin Franklin.

The Mayhews had great success in regard to Indian policy. Because of the fair treatment of the Indians there, the colony was protected from the bloodshed that occurred elsewhere, in King Philip’s War. In 1646, the General Court of Massachusetts directed the religious leaders of the colony to select two among them to serve as missionaries to the natives. Three prominent names appear. They are: John Eliot (known as the Apostle to the Indians); Thomas Mayhew (Patriarch to the Indians); and Eleazar Wheelock, who established “Doctor Wheelock’s Academy for the promotion of Christianity and civility among the savage Indians of this continent” (now known as Dartmouth College).

There is a stained glass window in the baptismal font in the National Cathedral in Washington D.C. depicting Rev. Thomas Mayhew Jr. baptizing an Indian named Hiacoomes. Experience Mayhew (1673-1758) was a New England missionary to the Wampanoag Indians on Martha’s Vineyard and adjacent islands. He is the author of Massachusett Psalter (a rare book like Bay Psalm Book and Eliot Indian Bible). He married Thankful, daughter of Thomas Hinckley, Governor of Plymouth Colony. This heritage has rubbed off on me and instilled a Passion, not a Duty to Love the Indians and serve them and teach them. Wow what a passion I have for these wonderful ancestors. I am sure each of you can find a deep passion of love to overtake that feeling of duty we ofttimes feel.

SIGNERS OF THE BOOK OF THE LORD’S COMMANDMENTS

Joseph Smith needed someone to step up and testify of his revelations. Eleven men had testified earlier to the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. All 11 had seen the plates. Three had seen an angel, handled the plates and heard the voice of God. But in November of 1831 there was a new need for boldness. Who would put their names and reputations on the line? Who would stand up and let the world know that they knew that a collection of Joseph’s revelations, the Book of Commandments, was true? For 178 years the names of these testifiers were unknown. Their names were erased from memory. Now, with the publication of the latest volume of the Joseph Smith Papers: “Revelations and Translations: Manuscript Revelation Books,” their names are made known to the world. I am thankfully related directly to one of those signers, Peter Dustin through by mother’s mother.  Because of this, my LOVE not Duty give me the passion to represent Peter Dustin as he bore his witness of Joseph’s divine revelations.

In my opinion the desire and faith necessary to testify about Joseph’s Revelations was possibly more difficult than seeing an angel and the plates. The signers of the Book of Commandments had to have a solid faith in the Lord to feel the Spirit and absolutely know these Revelations were not of Joseph, but of the Lord himself. They based their witness of things they could not see. That is similar for us today. We haven’t seen the plates, but we have felt the Spirit and that Spirit has borne witness to us of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. Even some of the Apostles thought they could write Revelations on their own in similar words that the Savior used. they failed miserably. See D&C 67:4-9

Below is the testimony that was signed by these faithful brethren.

“The testimony of the witnesses to the Book of the Lord’s Commandments, which he gave to his church through Joseph Smith, Jr., who was appointed by the voice of the church for this purpose.

We, the undersigners, feel willing to bear testimony to all the world of mankind, to every creature upon the face of all the Earth and upon the islands of the sea, that God hath borne record to our souls, through the Holy Ghost shed forth upon us, that these commandments are given by inspiration of God and are profitable for all men and are verily true. We give this testimony unto the world, the Lord being our helper; And it is through the grace of God, the Father, and his son, Jesus Christ, that we are permitted to have this privilege of bearing this testimony unto the world, in the which we rejoice exceedingly, praying the Lord always, that the children of men may be profited thereby. Amen.”

Signers and Witnesses of the Book of Commandments below:
Sidney Rigdon
Orson Hyde
Wm. E. McLellin
Luke Johnson
Lyman Johnson
Reynolds Cahoon
John Corrill
Parley Pratt
Harvey Whitlock
Lyman Wight
John Murdock
Calvin Beebe
Zebedee Coltrin
Joshua Fairchild
Peter Dustin My 2nd Cousin 2 times removed.
Newel Knight
Levi Hancock; never to be erased
Thomas B. Marsh
Deseret News Article Here

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This article below was shared with me by a good friend named Ron Mann. Four of the five books written by William George Jordan were quoted in the Improvement Era at the request of the Prophet Joseph F. Smith. He had been introduced to them when he was in New York City. In fact he borrowed the Kingship of Self-Control from the person he was visiting and read it seven times that night. It was after that he had the four books printed in the Improvement Era. This article gives amazing insight to the Duty, vs Love idea. It all comes down to our own Self-Control, and what spirit is guiding us.

Heber J. Grant, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints said it best in a letter to WGJ about one of his books, the Power of Truth, when he wrote: “I know of no book of the same size that has made a more profound impression upon my mind, and whose teachings I consider of greater value.” Article here

About Ron Mann Here: Now, I want you to think about this. Ron worked directly for the leadership of both Houses of Congress. He worked directly for the President of the United States. He worked directly for the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. He worked directly for the President of the one of the largest corporations in America. And he worked directly for the President of the LDS Church. I bet no one in this room can think of another person who can claim what I’ve just described about Ron Mann.

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THE KINGSHIP OF SELF-CONTROL

By William George Jordan as printed in the The Improvement Era, Volume 11, page 751 January 1, 1908 Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Association

Duty is the most over-lauded word in the whole vocabulary of life. Duty is the cold, bare anatomy of righteousness. Duty looks at life as a debt to be paid; love sees life as a debt to be collected. Duty is ever paying assessments; love is constantly counting its premiums.

Duty is forced, like a pump; love is spontaneous, like a fountain. Duty is prescribed and formal; it is part of the red tape of life. It means running on moral rails. It is good enough as a beginning; it is poor as a finality.

The boy who “stood on the burning deck,” and who committed suicide on a technical point of obedience, has been held up to the school children of this century as a model of faithfulness to duty. The boy was the victim of the blind adherence to the red tape of duty. He was placing the whole responsibility for his acts on some one outside himself. He was helplessly waiting for instruction in- the hour of emergency when he should have acted for himself. His act was an empty sacrifice. It was a useless throwing away of a human life. It did no good to the father, to the boy, to the ship or to the nation.

The captain who goes down with his sinking vessel, when he has done everything in his power to save others, and when he can save his own life without dishonor, is the victim of a false sense of duty. He is cruelly forgetful of the loved ones on shore that he is sacrificing. His death means a spectacular exit from life, the cowardly fear of an investigating committee, or a brave man’s loyal, yet misguided, sense of duty. A human life, with its wondrous possibilities, is two sacred an individual trust to be thus lightly thrown into eternity.

They tell us of the “sublime nobleness” of the Roman soldier of Pompeii, whose skeleton was found centuries afterward, imbedded in the once molten lava which swept down upon the doomed city. He was still standing at one of the gates at his post of duty still grasping a sword in his crumbling fingers. His was a morbid faithfulness to discipline from which a great convulsion of Nature released him. An automaton would have stood there just as long, just as boldly, just as uselessly.

The man who gives one hour of his life to loving, consecrated service to humanity is doing higher, better, truer work in the world than an army of Roman sentinels paying useless tribute to the red tape of duty. There is in this interpretation of duty no sympathy with the man who deserts his post when needed; it is but a protest against losing the essence, the realness of true duty in worshiping the mere form.

Analyze, if you will, any of the great historic instances of loyalty to duty, and whenever they ring true you will find the presence of the real element that made the act almost divine. It was duty,—plus love. It was no mere sense of duty that made Grace Darling risk her life in the awful storm of sixty years ago, when she set out in the darkness of night, on a raging sea, to rescue the survivors of the wreck of The Forfarshire. It was the sense of duty, warmed and vivified by a love of humanity, it was heroic courage of a heart filled with divine pity and sympathy.

Duty is a hard, mechanical process for making men do things that love would make easy. It is a poor understudy to love. It is not a high enough motive with which to inspire humanity. Duty is the body to which love is the soul. Love, in the divine alchemy of life, transmutes all duties into privileges all responsibilities into joys.

The workman who drops his tools at the stroke of twelve, as suddenly as if he had been struck by lightning, may be doing his duty,—but he is doing nothing more. No man has made a great success of his life or a fit preparation for immortality by doing merely his duty. He must do that—and more. If he puts love into his work, the “more” will beeasy.

The nurse may watch faithfully at the bedside of a sick child as a duty. But to the mother’s heart the care of the little one, in the battle against death, is never a duty; the golden mantle of love thrown over every act makes the word “duty” have a jarring sound, as if it were the voice of desecration.

When a child turns out badly in later years, the parent may say, “Well, I always did my duty by him.” Then it is no wonder the boy turned out wrong. “Doing his duty by his son,” too often implies merely food, lodging, clothes and education supplied by the father. Why a public institution would give that! What the boy needed most was deep draughts of love; he needed to live in an atmosphere of sweet sympathy, counsel and trust. The parent should ever be an unfailing refuge, a constant resource and inspiration, not a mere larder or hotel, or wardrobe or school that furnishes these necessities free. The empty boast of mere parental duty is one of the dangers of modern society.

Christianity stands forth as the one religion based on love, not duty. Christianity sweeps all duties into one word,—love. Love is the one great duty enjoined by the Christian religion. What duty creeps to laboriously, love reaches in a moment on the wings of a dove. Duty is not lost, condemned or destroyed in Christianity; it is dignified, purified and exalted, and all its rough ways are made smooth by love.

The supreme instance of generosity in the world’s history is not the giving of millions by some one of great name; it is the giving of a mite by a widow whose name does not appear. Behind the widow’s mite was no sense of duty; it was the full, free and perfect gift of a heart filled with love. In the Bible “duty” is mentioned but five times; “love” hundreds.

In the conquest of any weakness in our mental or moral makeup; in the attainment of any strength; in our highest and truest relation to ourselves and to the world, let us ever make “love” our watchword; not mere “duty.”

If we desire to live a life of truth and honesty, to make our word as true as our bond, let us not expect to keep ourselves along the narrow line of truth under the constant lash of the whip of duty. Let us begin to love the truth, to fill our mind and life with the strong white light of sincerity and sterling honesty. Let us love the truth so strongly that there will develop within us, without our conscious effort, an ever-present horror of a lie.

If we desire to do good in the world, let us begin to love humanity, to realize more truly the great dominant note that sounds in every mortal, despite all the discords of life, the great natural bond of unity that makes all men brothers. Then jealousy, malice, envy, unkind words and cruel misjudging will be eclipsed and lost in the sunshine of love. The greatest triumph of the nineteenth century, is not its marvelous progress in invention; its strides in education; its conquests of the dark regions of the world: the spread of a higher mental tone throughout the earth; the wondrous increase in material comfort and wealth,-—the greatest triumph of the century is not any nor all of these; it is the sweet atmosphere of Peace that is covering the nations; it is the growing closer and closer of the peoples of the earth. Peace is but the breath, the perfume, the life of love. Love is the wondrous angel of life that rolls away all the stones of sorrow and suffering from the pathway.” Read more from William George Jordan here. 

William George Jordan 1864-1928 was an editor for The Ladies Home Journal, after which he edited The Saturday Evening Post (1888–89). From 1899 to 1905 he was the editor and vice-president of Continental Publishing Company. He was the editor of the publication Search-Light between 1905 and 1906.

The Lord speaking of a Bishop who has a duty to serve but more importantly, “he shall be set apart unto this ministry” D&C 107:74. Again Love as a minister is more important than duty.

As a full time missionary I was set apart as a minister of the Gospel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. After accepting my call I now had a duty to serve. However, my love and passion to serve is far more important than duty only.

Is it our Duty to Love, or Love that encourages Duty?
Living the Higher Law of the Lord requires Love and not Duty.

This is part 1 on a six part series of information from a man called Maggid ben Yoseif , who posts many articles of Jewish, Native American, and Christian information. The post is called Jerusalem Torah Voice in Exile. I will be adding my opinion of these articles in the next few months as I feel they are a good source of information. Although Maggid is not a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, his parallels and interpretation of Joseph Smith among the New York Indians is noteworthy. He says the Book of Mormon is fiction, but it is interesting how much value and credence he at times gives it. I feel we need to listen to others opinions to solidify our own feelings of truth.

My notes in orange below:

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Bio: Maggid ben Yoseif 

ELDERSGATE-BRIGHTSTAR Hebrew Native American Council; Gileadite School of Theological Research; House of Joseph Beit Din. Currently constructing Eldersgate Hebrew-Native American Council promoting restoration of Native American spiritual sovereignty on about 25 acres in rural Brightstar, Arkansas. However, we continue our intercession for the LAND wherever Creator takes us.

We also help ministries and pastors align w/ the “Spirit of Reconciliation” and with the “other flocks” in the Kingdom, especially Native American flocks influenced by the migration of 38 Athap(b)ascan Language Group nations. Traced to ancient pre-Jewish “Gilead” and widely assimilated across Turtle Island (the Americas) this Hebrew priesthood has “evolved” into an End-Times voice of Elijah THE Gileadite to help protect our LIVING Earth Mother, reconcile the factions of the House of Joseph and restore Native American spiritual sovereignty.

Research below links these nations with the migration of DAN, (the “Na Dene”) JOSEPH EAST M’NASHE and priests and Levites of GILEAD. Exiled from their home east of the Jordan River 17-23 years before the 10 Northern Tribes of Israel, unlike the 10 Tribes they were never severed from Covenant. Thus the Sundance and other Native ceremonial chants permute the Divine Name, YHW and H. Restoration of Native spiritual sovereignty is found in Scripture pertaining to purification lodges (sweats) in Hosea 2:18ff, a covenant with the four legged, winged and creatures who crawl to end “sword, bow and violence (FRACKING) in the Earth.” “Goring with the horn of a re’eim” (buffalo) found in Deut 33:15ff describes the buffalo horn used in the lodge by the “n’zir” (East M’nashe). Isaiah 49:6 refers to the RESTORATION — NOT SALVATION — of the “n’zirei Yisrael” as a major part of the assignment of the servant-messiah.

We are eager to share these and many other truths communicated by Elijah over the past 33 years, to lodge with elders and sundancers and perform ceremony that ministers to Mother Earth

A’Ho mitakuye oyasin
“All My Relations” – is a greeting from the Lakota (Sioux) people reflecting their worldview of oneness, interconnectedness, and harmony with all living things: people, animals, plants, even wind, rocks, and rivers. To most people, a “relation” means a family member – a blood relative.

Names:  ben Yoseif (son of Joseph) .  Although ben Yoseif is a “junior”, who shares the given name of his late father, neither are named “Joseph.”  Rather the name ben Yoseif was given by a bat Kol (voice from Heaven) in 1994, confirmed in Torah code of ben Yoseif’s father’s and his given name in 1998 and has been validated by a number of rabbis in Jerusalem since 2000. ben Yose’ (south of the border); Tohokwahu (used primarily between he and a few Hopi friends, this is ben Yoseif’s given name — Griffin or Lioneagle — in Hopi).

ben Yoseif holds a B.A. degree in journalism, an M.B.A. degree in business administration and the equivalent of a Ph.D in theology and advanced Pentateuch (Torah) including three years of study at the ORU Graduate School of Theology, where he pursued Hebrew and Aramaic.  More bio information here:

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Joseph Smith knew the Iroquois

There is a belief that the Iroquois Nation played an important role in the life of Joseph Smith. He lived in an area with many Iroquois chiefs and may have even met many of these great men. Ganargua Creek (Mud Creek) was a primary stopover point for the Iroquois on their trade routes.  Joseph Smith also had an interest in the creek after hearing a speech from Seneca Indian Chief Red Jacket at Palmyra in 1822.

Many historians believe that Iroquoian ideas of federalism, and balance of power directly influenced the US system of government. Benjamin Franklin admired native American government structures. In 1744, Canassatego advocated in Washington the federal union of the American colonies. See Here

The Iroquois or Haudenosaunee (People of the Longhouse) are a historically powerful northeast Native American confederacy. They were known during the colonial years to the French as the Iroquois League, and later as the Iroquois Confederacy, and to the English as the Five Nations, comprising the Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga, and Seneca. After 1722, they accepted the Tuscarora people from the Southeast into their confederacy and became known as the Six Nations.

Names and Tribes of the Iroquois

“The Iroquois or Haudenosaunee. (“People of the Longhouse”) are a historically powerful northeast Native American confederacy in North America. They were known during the colonial years to the French as the Iroquois League, and later as the Iroquois Confederacy, and to the English as the Five Nations, comprising the Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga, and Seneca. After 1722, they accepted the Tuscarora people from the Southeast into their confederacy, as they were also Iroquoian-speaking, and became known as the Six Nations.

The Iroquois have absorbed many other individuals from various peoples into their tribes as a result of warfare, adoption of captives, and by offering shelter to displaced peoples. Culturally, all are considered members of the clans and tribes into which they are adopted by families.

The historic St. Lawrence Iroquoians, Wyandot (Huron), Erie, and Susquehannock, all independent peoples, also spoke Iroquoian languages. In the larger sense of linguistic families, they are often considered Iroquoian peoples because of their similar languages and cultures, all descended from the Proto-Iroquoian people and language; politically, however, they were traditional enemies of the Iroquois League.[2] In addition, Cherokee is an Iroquoian language: the Cherokee people are believed to have migrated south from the Great Lakes in ancient times, settling in the backcountry of the Southeast United States, including what is now Tennessee” Wikipedia

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Part III: Haudenosaunee Corn Clan Mother first to propose ‘moneyless society’ Six Nations ties to Smith family examined

by Maggid ben Yoseif / © 2010 Jerusalem Torah Voice

“If the European settlers, including followers of Joseph Smith had listened to the Yagowaneh of the Haudenosaunee, there may not be an economic recession at this writing, no Federal Reserve System even a currency other than money running this nation.

Elements of the Book of Mormon and Smith’s later doctrine of the Law of Consecration agree with the “moneyless society” taught by the Yagowaneh (YAH-GO-WAN’-EH), the Corn Clan Mother.  This was also the lifestyle among the Haudenosaunee (HO-D’NO-SAW-NEE) also known as the Iroquois or Six Nations for centuries before the Europeans arrived.   The Europeans’ failure to adopt the moneyless society and other tenets of the Great Law has resulted in the present usury-driven capitalism regulated by the suppliers of money.  Consequently, we have a system that takes advantage of the impoverished and the wage-earner, which was never the America envisioned by Native Americans or our Peacemaker.

At the time Joseph Smith wrote that he first made contact with the angel, Moroni, he was living in West Central Upstate New York, in the heart of the Seneca, one of the six nations of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois). The Canandaigua Treaty of 1794 was interpreted for the Haudenosaunee by four men, including a “Joseph Smith,” who is believed by geneaologists to be Joseph Smith, Sr. (before Joe Jr. was born).  The same Smith, interpreted three such treaties for the Haudenosaunee.  Such an intimate link to the Haudenosaunee by the Smith family means that Joseph Smith Jr., would surely have been told the story of Daganawida, (the Peacemaker born of a virgin, andhis Jikohnsaseh.  The proximity of the Smith home to Ganondagan  (GAN-NON’-DAY-GON), the Haudenosaunee House of Peace from which the Jikohnsaseh ruled, assures that the entire Smith family was probably familiar with this story and its tie to a moneyless society.  This would apply as well to Oliver Cowdery and the Harrises, Whitmers and Pages who lived nearby and comprised the 11 witnesses who stated they saw and held all of the plates that Smith had translated at that time (presumably the autographs of the 116 pages Smith translated, which was later stolen).   *However, none were witness to the plates when the text of the Book of Mormon was received by Smith while gazing inside of a deep hat at his “seer stone.”  And no one — not even the 11 witnesses listed in the front of the Book of Mormon whose witness was “in the form of visions” actually saw physical writings on physical plates “for fear of death.” Maggid

*Editors note: Of course we don’t agree with Maggid about the stone in the hat, but know Joseph Smith used the Urim and Thummim to translate the gold plates. Also see The Canandaigua Treaty of 1794 at the bottom of this blog signed by “A” Joseph Smith. We know Joseph Smith Sr. (July 12, 1771 – September 14, 1840) was the father of Joseph Smith Jr.

Maggid continues,

“Do plates validate Kingdom established by Daganawida?

Looking beyond the Six Nations across the Americas, many stories emerge of the *Great White Brother and his message of Peace, including the Hopi prophecy of the return of Pahana in the American Southwest.  Christian missionaries have told us this is “the God, Jesus.”  But Native Americans know the one who has walked across the Americas by many names, as others have documented.  And he has appeared to many Native American prophets and seers and grandmothers — many, not as Grandfather our Creator but as our “Big Brother.”  Within the circles of the Sundance lodge of the Membreno Apache is such a prophet, who has had several conversations with his “Bro.”  Daganawida is believed to be only one of the many names of this Great White Brother whose message is always Peace.” Maggida

*Editors note: As you read in the Book of Mormon from Alma Chapter 18 that King Lamoni supposes that Ammon is the Great Spirit. As we read in verse 24 to 29 the King does not know the name “God”, but when Ammon said that is the same as the Great Spirit, the King now believed. We each may know the name of God differently in various cultures. Also in Alma Chapter 22, Aaron teaches Lamoni’s father about the Creation, the Fall of Adam, and the plan of redemption through Christ, and in verse 9-12, Aaron calls the Great Spirit by the name “God” which is strange to King Lamoni’s father. Again when he ties the name God as the same as the Great Spirit, he is converted. This is very similar to what the Six Nations Tribes may call the Great White Brother or Big Brother or the God, Jesus. We know Jesus has hundreds of names just in the Book of Mormon. See page 115 in Annotated Book of Mormon by David Hocking and Rod Meldrum.

Maggida continues, “Confident that Smith knew the story of Daganawida and his Jikohnsaseh, these questions follow:

1)  Do the plates record a history leading up to the “second coming” of Daganawida?  (Assuming the Book of  Mormon accurately reflects the writing on the plates — even though as explained above, it cannot technically be called a translation* — the book already refers to Jesus‘ earlier appearance in Jerusalem. Anything but Peace resulted in the interim, according to the outcome of the book).  This means the plates could validate — as a glimpse of Kingdom Rule — the precedent established at his later appearance as Daganawida.  That precedent gave the Native Americans the Great Law of the Haudenosaunee, the propriety of matriarchal rule and the command to leave the decision of going to war only in the hands of clan mothers and grandmothers as instruments of making and protecting the peace.  The Great Law would naturally flow out of the dismal failure of the partriarchal rule of the sons of Lehi. Mary Jemison, for instance, was a captive of the Haudenosaunee, but refused to leave as she had more rights as an adopted Iroquois under matriarchal rule, than she had as a free American white woman.

*Editors note: See how others in the Church and non-members will get a mixed message if the intellectuals say Joseph didn’t use the plates and he didn’t translate, where I say Joseph did use the plates and DID translate with the Urim and Thummim by the gift and power of God. Mixed messages don’t teach correctly.

Story of ‘messiah figure’ living among Native Americans 15 miles from Smith’s front door

2) Is the Book of Mormon an attempt to retell the story of Daganawida? A story that possibly told of Jesus living among the Native Americans and setting up his kingdom less than 15 miles from Smith’s front door would certainly have impressed any young, impressionable and inquiring mind.  Young Smith was all of that when the plates were first revealed to him.  All a Peacemaker would need would be wars to resolve and people to reunite.  This presupposes that the plates were never correctly translated and were used as a “backdrop” or “platform” for Smith’s *imagination and/or his inspired writings and doctrine.” Maggid

*Editor’s note. Why do people have to say the Book of Mormon is fiction? As I was a missionary in 1975 in Fiji, one of our flip chart pages said “Ask yourself this question, could any man have written this book?” As our investigators would sit and ponder that question for a few minutes, and then answer, no!

Maggid continues,

3) Whether or not the translation is genuine, is Grandfather using this book in the Latter Days among the Saints to point to the story of Daganawida at a time when war drums are again beating on a global scale?

Any of these three possibilities mandate that the plates be brought forth so they may be translated by skilled Native American translators.  Joseph Smith Jr. was initially told to bring the Book of Mormon (some say the plates themselves) to the Native population.  It is hard to imagine that the Iroquois in the area, when presented with the Book, would not demand to have the plates since they were on Iroquois land.   If the Great Law is a miniature of Kingdom Rule, presented by the Anointed One, any writings found in proximity of the Haudenosaunee where he appeared may be of global importance.  Show me the plates!” Maggid

Maggid reverts to ask the question that Laman and Lemuel would ask. “Prove it to me.” I say, “oh ye of little faith?” This information about similarities between the Book of Mormon teachings and the Law of Peace are intriguing. I believe the ancient Native Americans were the Lamanites of the Book of Mormon and they did have the true gospel at some point in the Book of Mormon. We know the Lamanites kept no records so this oral tradition of the Great Peacemaker Daganawida seems a good fit as an oral tradition haned down.

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The Canandaigua Treaty of 1794

November 11, 1794

The President of the United States having determined to hold a conference with the Six Nations of Indians, for the purpose of removing from their minds all causes of complaint, and establishing a firm and permanent friendship with them; and Timothy Pickering being appointed sole agent for that purpose; and the agent having met and conferred with the Sachems, Chiefs and Warriors of the Six Nations, in a general council: Now in order to accomplish the good design of this conference, the parties have agreed on the following articles, which, when ratified by the President, with the advice and consent of the Senate of the United States, shall be binding on them and the Six Nations.

Article I. Peace and friendship are hereby firmly established, and shall be perpetual, between the United States and the Six Nations.

Article II. The United States acknowledge the lands reserved to the Oneida, Onondaga and Cayuga Nations, in their respective treaties with the state of New York, and called their reservations, to be their property; and the United States will never claim the same, nor disturb them or either of the Six Nations, nor their Indian friends residing thereon and united with them, in the free use and enjoyment thereof: but the said reservations shall remain theirs, until they choose to sell the same to the people of the United States who have right to purchase.

Article III. The land of the Seneca nation is bounded as follows: Beginning on Lake Ontario, at the north-west corner of the land they sold to Oliver Phelps, the line run westerly along the lake, as far as O-yong-wong-yeh Creek at Johnson’s Landing-place, about four miles eastward from the fort of Niagara; then southerly up that creek to its main fork, then straight to the main fork of Stedman’s Creek, which empties into the river Niagara, above Fort Schlosser, and then onward, from that fork, continuing the same straight course, to that river; (this line, from the mouth of O-yong-wong-yeh Creek to the river Niagara, above Fort Schlosser, being the eastern boundary of a strip of land, extending from the same line to Niagara River, which the Seneca Nation ceded to the King of Great Britain, at a treaty held about thirty years ago, with Sir William Johnson;) then the line runs along the river Niagara to Lake Erie; then along Lake Erie to the north-east corner of a triangular piece of land which the United States conveyed to the state of Pennsylvania, as by the President’s patent, dated the third day of March, 1792; then due south to the northern boundary of that state; then due east to the south-west corner of the land sold by the Seneca nation to Oliver Phelps; and then north and northerly, along Phelps’ line, to the place beginning on Lake Ontario. Now, the United States acknowledge all the land within the aforementioned boundaries, to be the property of the Seneca nation; and the United States will never claim the same, nor disturb that Seneca nation, nor any of the Six Nations, or their Indian friends residing thereon and united with them, in the free use and enjoyment thereof: but it shall remain theirs, until they choose to sell the same to the people of the United States, who have the right to purchase.

Article IV. The United States having thus described and acknowledged what lands belong to the Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas, and engaged never to claim the same, nor to disturb them, or any of the Six Nations, or their Indian friends residing thereon and united with them, in the free use and enjoyment thereof: Now the Six Nations, and each of them, hereby engage that they will never claim any other lands within the boundaries of the United States; nor ever disturb the people of the United States in the free use and enjoyment thereof.

Article V. The Seneca Nation, all others of the Six Nations concurring, cede to the United States the right of making a wagon road from Fort Schlosser to Lake Erie, as far south as Buffalo Creek; and the people of the United States shall have the free and undisturbed use of this road, for the purposes of traveling and transportation. And the Six Nations, and each of them, will forever allow to the people of the United States, a free passage through their lands, and the free use of their harbors and rivers adjoining and within their respective tracts of land, for the passing and securing of vessels and boats, and liberty to land their cargoes when necessary for their safety.

Article VI. In consideration of the peace and friendship hereby established, and of the engagements entered into by the Six Nations; and because the United States desire, with humanity and kindness, to contribute to their comfortable support; and to render the peace and friendship hereby established strong and perpetual; the United States now deliver to the Six Nations, and the Indians of the other nations residing among and united with them, a quantity of goods of the value of ten thousand dollars. And for the same considerations, and with a view to promote the future welfare of the Six Nations, and of their Indian friends aforesaid, the United States will add the sum of three thousand dollars to the one thousand five hundred dollars, heretofore allowed them by an article ratified by the President, on the twenty-third day of April 1792; making in the whole, four thousand five hundred dollars; which shall be expended yearly forever, in purchasing clothing, domestic animals, implements of husbandry and other utensils suited to their circumstances, and in compensating useful artificers, who shall reside with them or near them, and be employed for their benefit. The immediate application of the whole annual allowance now stipulated, to be made by the superintendent appointed by the President for the affairs of the Six Nations, and their Indian friends aforesaid.

Article VII. Lest the firm peace and friendship now established should be interrupted by the misconduct of individuals, the United States and Six Nations agree, that for injuries done by individuals on either side, no private revenge or retaliation shall take place; but, instead thereof, complaint shall be made by the party injured, to the other: By the Six Nations or any of them, to the President of the United States, or the Superintendent by him appointed: and by the Superintendent, or other person appointed by the President, to the principal chiefs of the Six Nations, or of the nation to which the offender belongs: and such prudent measures shall then be pursued as shall be necessary to preserve our peace and friendship unbroken; until the legislature (or great council) of the United States shall make the equitable provision for the purpose.

Note: It is clearly understood by the parties to this treaty, that the annuity stipulated in the sixth article, is to be applied to the benefit of such of the Six Nations and of their Indian friends united with them as aforesaid, as do or shall reside within the boundaries of the United States: for the United States do not interfere with nations, tribes or families, of Indians elsewhere resident.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the said Timothy Pickering, and the sachems and war chiefs of the said Six Nations, have hereunto set their hands and seals.

Done at Canandaigua, in the State of New York, in the eleventh day of November, in the year one thousand seven hundred and ninety-four.

Timothy Pickering

Witnesses:
Israel Chapin
William Shepard, Jr.
James Smedley
John Wickham
Augustus Porter
James H. Garnsey
William Ewing
Israel Chapin, Jr.
Interpreters:
Horatio Jones
Joseph Smith (Joseph Smith Sr that we know, lived 1771- 1840. Could this be him?)
Jasper Parrish
Henry Abeele

Signed by fifty-nine Sachems and War Chiefs of the Six Nations
Canandaigua, New York — November 11, 1794
O-no-ye-ah-nee
Kon-ne-at-or-tee-ooh (Handsome Lake)
To-kenh-you-hau (Capt. Key)
O-nes-hau-ee
Hendrich Aupaumut
David Neessoonhuk
Kanatsoyh (Nicholas Kusik)
Soh-hon-te-o-quent
Oo-duht-sa-it
Ko-nooh-qung
Tos-song-gau-lo-luss
John Sken-en-do-a
O-ne-at-or-lee-ooh (Handsome Lake)
Kus-sau-wa-tau
E-yoo-ten-yoo-tau-ook
Kohn-ye-au-gong (Jake Stroud)
Sha~qui-ea-sa
Teer-oos (Capt. Printup)
Soos-ha-oo-wau
Henry Young Brant
Sonh-yoo-wau-na (Big Sky)
O-na-ah-hah
Hot-osh-a-henh
Kau-kon-da-nai-ya
Non-di-yau-ka
Kos-sish-to-wau
To-he-ong-go
Oo-jau-gent-a (Fish Carrier)
Oot-a-guas-so
Joo-non-dau-wa-onch
Ki-yau-ha-onh
Oo-tau-je-au-genh (Broken Axe)
Tau-ho-on-dos (Open the Way)
Twau-ke-wash-a
Se-quid-ong-guee (Little Beard)
Ko-djeoto (Half Town)
Ken-jau-au-gus (Stinking Fish)
Soo-noh-qua-kau
Twen-ni-ya-na
Jish-kaa-ga (Green Grasshopper, Little Billy)
Tug-geh-shot-ta
Teh-ong-ya-gau-na
Teh-ong-yoo-wush
Kon-ne-yoo-we-sot
Ti-oo-quot-ta-kau-na (Woods on Fire)
Ta-oun-dau-deesh
Ho-na-ya-wus (Farmer’s Brother)
Sog-goo-ya-waut-hau (Red Jacket)
Kon-yoo-tai-yoo
Sauh-ta-ka-ong-yees (Two Skies of Length)
Oun-na-shatta-kau
Ka-ung-ya-neh-quee
Soo-a-yoo-wau
Kau-je-a-ga-onh (Heap of Dogs)
Soo~nooh-shoo-wau
Tha-og-wau-ni-as
Soo-nong-joo-wau
Ki-ant-whau-ka (Corn Planter)
Kau-neh-shong-goo

See my blog about the large contribution of the Iroquois Confederacy toward becoming a big part of our Constitution and more about Joseph Smith and the Onondaga Indians here.

Also a blog about the 85 Native Americans who were baptized for the dead in 1877 at the St George Temple here. IT IS AWESOME!

When I type in a google search for, Where is the Garden of Eden? This is the first option:

Mesopotamia

The Garden of Eden is considered to be mythological by most scholars. [Wow this is how some of the same scholars feel about the Book of Mormon]. Among those who consider it to have been real, there have been various suggestions for its location: at the head of the Persian Gulf, in southern Mesopotamia (now Iraq) where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers run into the sea; and in Armenia.

Most Bible commentaries state that the site of the Garden of Eden was in the Middle East, situated somewhere near where the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers are today. This is based on the description given in Genesis 2:8–14:The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden. . . . Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it parted and became four riverheads. The name of the first is Pishon . . . . The name of the second river is Gihon. . . . The name of the third river is Hiddekel [Tigris].  ;. . . The fourth river is the Euphrates.

Give these four rivers some thought:
The Maps below seems logical.

Eden, Garden of; LDS Bible Dictionary

The home of our first parents, Adam and Eve (Gen. 2:8–3:24; 4:16; Isa. 51:3; 2 Ne. 2:19–25; Moses 3–4; Abr. 5), designated as a garden, eastward in Eden. Latter-day revelation confirms the biblical account of the Garden of Eden and adds the important information that it was located on what is now the North American continent. https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bd/eden-garden-of?lang=eng

Missouri is Eden & New Jerusalem

”We must remember that the whole earth was paradisaical before the Fall. The Garden of Eden was a center place. After the Fall, there was no Garden of Eden or paradisaical status on earth. Yet relative to the locale of the site of the Garden of Eden, the Prophet Joseph Smith learned through revelation (D&C 57) that Jackson County was the location of a Zion to be and the New Jerusalem to come. The Prophet first visited Jackson County, Missouri, in the summer of 1831. The Prophet visited Jackson County again in April and May 1832. On one of the occasions, or perhaps both, the Prophet Joseph apparently instructed his close associates, and perhaps even a general Church gathering, that the ancient Garden of Eden was also located in Jackson County.” Bruce A. Van Orden, associate professor of Church history, Brigham Young University.

When Lehi landed in the Promised land, it seems he found bounties of all kind, just as Adam and Eve had found in the garden of Eden. It makes sense that Lehi was upon the same land as Adam began his life.

Rediscovery of America

“While the Reformation and the surge for freedom were gaining momentum in Europe and England, events were transpiring that led to the rediscovery of the land of America, for God touched the heart of a mariner by the name of Christopher Columbus, who eventually pioneered a passageway to the promised land in 1492. But neither Columbus, the Nephites, nor the Jaredites were its original discoverers, nor did they establish the purpose of America’s destiny. This had already been established in the infancy of earth’s habitation. In these migrations they were but directed to the land of man’s beginning upon the earth…. In the course of time from the creation, in the days of Peleg (Gen. 10:16 (JST)), or about the year 2200 B.C., Just prior to the confusion of the languages, the single continent of land that had continued from creation was divided to produce the hemispheres as we now know them. But notwithstanding this, the geographic location of the Garden of Eden was made known to the Prophet Joseph Smith by revelation as here in the land of America, in Jackson County, Missouri, with Independence as the center place.” The Destiny of America by President Alvin R. Dyer October 1968

Where do the scriptures say the first promised land was?

1 NEPHI 18:25 And it came to pass that we did find upon the land of promise, as we journeyed in the wilderness, that there were beasts in the forests of every kind, both the cow and the ox, and the ass and the horse, and the goat and the wild goat, and all manner of wild animals, which were for the use of men. And we did find all manner of ore, both of gold, and of silver, and of copper.

Adam & Noah Contemporaries in Missouri

Brigham Young, also a close associate of the Prophet, testified similarly In the beginning, after this earth was prepared for man, the Lord commenced his work upon what is now called the American continent, where the Garden of Eden was made. In the days of Noah, in the days of the Boating of the ark, he took the people to another part of the earth. (Discourses, p. 102) https://archive.org/stream/DiscoursesOfBrighamYoung/discourses_of_brigham_young_djvu.txt

In conversation with Orson Hyde, on March 15, 1857, President Young said: You have been both to Jerusalem and Zion, and seen both. I have not seen either, for I have never been in Jackson County. Now it is a pleasant thing to think of and to know where the Garden of Eden was. Did you ever think of it? I do not think many do, for in Jackson County was the Garden of Eden. Joseph has declared this, and I am as much bound to believe that as to believe that Joseph was a prophet of God. (Journal History, March 15, 1857

That is the position of the Latter-day Saints today, with respect to the much-discussed location of the Garden of Eden. Adam, after his expulsion from the Garden of Eden, lived in the vicinity of the great Missouri and Mississippi rivers. As his descendants multiplied they would naturally settle along the fertile and climatically acceptable river valleys. When the flood came in the days of Noah, the Mississippi drainage must have increased to a tremendous volume, quite in harmony with the Biblical account. Noah’s ark would be floated on the mighty, rushing waters, towards the Gulf of Mexico. With favorable winds, it would cross the Atlantic to the Eastern continents. There the human race, in its second start on earth, began to multiply and fill the earth.

The location of the Garden of Eden in America, and at Independence, Missouri, clears up many a problem which the Bible account of Eden and its garden has left in the minds of students.

What do we know about the location of the Garden of Eden?

“Brigham Young stated, “Joseph the Prophet told me that the garden of Eden was in Jackson [County] Missouri.” (Journal of Wilford Woodruff, vol. 5, 15 Mar. 1857, Archives Division, Church Historical Dept., Salt Lake City.) Heber C. Kimball said: “From the Lord, Joseph learned that Adam had dwelt on the land of America, and that the Garden of Eden was located where Jackson County now is.” (Andrew Jenson, Historical Record, 9 vols., Salt Lake City: Andrew Jenson, 1888, 7:439; see also Orson F. Whitney, Life of Heber C. Kimball, Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1967, p. 219.) Other early leaders have given the same information….

President Joseph Fielding Smith said: “In accord with the revelations given to the Prophet Joseph Smith, we teach that the Garden of Eden was on the American continent located where the City of Zion, or the New Jerusalem, will be built. When Adam and Eve were driven out of the Garden, they eventually dwelt at a place called Adam-ondi-Ahman, situated in what is now Daviess County, Missouri. … We are committed to the fact that Adam dwelt on [the] American continent.” (Doctrines of Salvation, 3 vols., comp. Bruce R. McConkie, Salt Lake City:Bookcraft, 1956, 3:74. Compare Answers to Gospel Questions, 5 vols., Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1957–75, 2:93–95, 4:19–24; and Alvin R. Dyer, in Conference Report, Oct. 1968, pp. 108–9.)”

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/1994/01/i-have-a-question/what-do-we-know-about-the-location-of-the-garden-of-eden?lang=eng

“The land of Joseph or the Indians, as they are called…embraces three fine climates: First, like that of New-York; second, like Missouri, neither northern nor southern; and third, like the Carolinas. This place may be called the centre [center] of America; it being about an equal distance from Maine, to Nootka sound; and from the gulf of St. Lawrence to the gulf of California; yea, and about the middle of the continent from cape Horn, south, to the head land at Baffin’s Bay, north. The world will never value the land of Desolation, as it is called in the Book of Mormon, for any thing more than hunting ground, for want of timber and mill-seats: The Lord to the contrary notwithstanding, declares it to be the land of Zion which is the land of Joseph, blessed by him, for the precious things of heaven.” Evening and Morning Star Vol. 1 No. 5 October 1832 Page 71

“With the exception of the skirts of timber upon the streams of water, this region of country is one continued field, or prairie, (as the French have it, meaning meadows,) and there is something ancient as well as grand about it, too; for while the eye takes in a large scope of clear field, or extensive plains, decorated with here and there a patch of timber, like the orchards which beautify the farms in the east, the mind goes back to the day, when the Jaredites were in their glory upon this choice land above all others, and comes on till they, and even the Nephites, were destroyed for their wickedness.”Evening and Morning Star Vol. 1 No. 5 October 1832 Page 71

Thanks to Jaci McKinnon for first making me aware of this interesting and little-known aspect of Coffee County’s history. In his History of Coffee County (1930), Warren P. Ward notes that Mormon missionaries came to the area in 1898, led first by Elder Nephi Henderson and an Elder Brewer. Elder Ben E. Rich established the church in Coffee County. He was succeeded by Elder Charles A. Callis. Early families who converted to the Mormon faith were those of Calvin W. Williams, Dan P. Lott, and Joseph J. Adams.   “Many citizens of the county were excited over the appearance of the Elders. Some regarded them as messengers from Heaven, gave them shelter and lodging…Others regarded them as emissaries of the devil, wrecking homes and carrying away women…Coffee County has been a fruitful field for the Mormon Church, it having grown to a membership of over seven hundred. There are two churches in the territory-Cumorrah Church in Coffee County and the Utah Church in Atkinson County, formerly Coffee.” I’m not sure what happened to the congregation but will continue to research it and will photograph the nearby Mormon Cemetery the next time I’m in the area. (Thanks are also due to Andrew P. Wood for pointing me to Ward’s history of the Mormons in Coffee County) For articles and comments and more history about this Cumorah church visit the website here: https://vanishingsouthgeorgia.com/2013/11/06/cumorah-church-1907-coffee-county/

On July 21, 1879, as Joseph Standing and missionary companion Rudger Clawson traveled from Whitfield County toward a church conference in Chattooga County, they encountered an armed mob of twelve men in Varnell, Georgia .  Before murdering Joseph the mob said, “There is no law in Georgia for the Mormons.”  None of the mob were ever convicted. President McKay dedicated the site in Georgia and named an MTC building in Provo after him.

Historic Rural Churches
THERE IS NO LAW IN GEORGIA FOR MORMONS
A R T I C L E A N D P H O T O G R A P H Y B Y R A N D A L L D A V I S

On July 21, 1879, twenty-four-year-old missionary Joseph Standing of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and companion Rudger Clawson were traveling from Whitfield County to a church conference in Floyd County, in northwest Georgia. A confrontation with a mob of twelve near Varnell resulted in Standing’s murder. In the years that followed, there would be more incidents of assault, bombing, arson and kidnapping perpetrated against Mormons across the state. The Mormon church’s origin and doctrine, and events that occurred prior to Standing’s death, shed light on the outbreaks of violence against members of the faith—and sometimes acts perpetrated by them. A comprehensive history of the Mormon faith isn’t possible in an article of this length, but several events in Georgia and elsewhere, and the stories of two churches in South Georgia, are illustrative of the church’s growth and how sometimes it was perceived as a threat to the established social and ecclesiastical order.

Lawrence Wright’s 2002 article “Lives of the Saints” in The New Yorker magazine provided background information about the Mormon faith and is quoted generously for background purposes, along with the writings of Sally Denton, Wallace Stengner and Gilbert Smith. The Mormon faith originated in 1820 in Manchester, New York, when, “a fourteen-year-old named Joseph Smith had a visitation.” Wright explained that “[it] was a fertile and turbulent time in American religious history. Old beliefs were losing their influence, and new ones were arising that were more responsive to America’s revivalist spirit. The upstate region where Smith was living was known as the ‘burnt-over district,’ because of the religious fevers that continually swept through it. One morning, Smith, who was trying to sort out the claims of truth that each denomination put forward, went into the woods to pray for guidance. He had no sooner knelt than he
sensed the presence of a higher power and felt himself surrounded by darkness. ‘Just at this moment of great alarm, I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness ot he Sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me,’ Smith wrote in a brief memoir. The two ‘personages’ hovering in the air took form and Smith took them to be God and Jesus.

Smith found the composure to ask which sect was right.” Wright recounted the message the angels gave Smith about other denominations: “I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong; and the personage who addressed me said that ‘all their creeds were an abomination in his sight.’” In a moment everything returned to normal and
later Smith told his mother, “‘I have learned for myself that Presbyterianism is not true.’”

“Three years later (1823),” Wright continued, “Smith had another visitation, this one from an angel named Moroni, who revealed to him that an ancient book written on golden plates was buried nearby on a hill called Cumorah.” In 1827 Smith “returned to Cumorah and again encountered Moroni. This
time, the angel entrusted the golden plates to him, along with a pair of ‘seeing stones,’ called the Urim and Thummim, which permitted him to translate the strange language inscribed on the plates (identified by Smith as ‘reformed Egyptian’).” Three years later, Smith published the Book of Mormon. “It was prefaced by the statements of eleven witnesses who claimed to have seen the golden plates and, in eight cases, to have actually
‘hefted’ them. The plates themselves, however, were no longer available for examination. With the ‘translation’ finished, Moroni had reclaimed them and taken them back to Heaven.”

The Mormon faith originated in a conflict set in the New World. According to Wright, “The Book of Mormon purports to be the history of two tribes of Israel—the fair-skinned, virtuous Nephites and the dark-skinned, conniving Lamanites, The Nephites and the Lamanites battled for centuries, eventually carrying their feud into North America. In the midst of their warfare, the resurrected Jesus suddenly appears in the New World, demanding repentance… The two tribes are temporarily reconciled. But, four hundred years later, the Nephite leader Mormon is slain, with hundreds of thousands of his people, in the final triumph of the Lamanites. Mormon’s son, Moroni, survives to record this last event on the golden plates, which are then buried on [a hill named] Cumorah.”

Joseph Smith was a down-to-earth, unrefined farmer with no formal education but possessed of an engaging, charismatic personality. In 19th century rural America, religious fervor was high, and many tended to reject the ritual of older, more established denominations in favor of newer and more evangelical ones, like the Baptists and Methodists. In this environment, the idea of a new, homegrown faith that posited the divinity of the individual, allowed direct communication with God, and recognized
the authority of the Bible, took hold. The Book of Mormon and its visionary young prophet attracted a surprising number of converts and followers.
Along with this success came criticism. Wright wrote that, “By the time he was in his mid-twenties Smith had become one of the most controversial men in America. …From the beginning, it was a missionary creed, and Smith sent emissaries throughout America and abroad. Thousands of followers were drawn to his ministry, including Brigham Young, a young carpenter in upstate New York, who became one of the greatest colonizers of the West. The Mormons, at first derided as cranks, were soon objects of fear and hatred, not just because of their heretical beliefs but also because of their communal economy, their monolithic politics, and, eventually, their practice of polygamy.”

The unusual doctrine and practices by leaders and members of the church drew the scrutiny and ire of those committed to more traditional beliefs. In the nine years that remained in Smith’s brief life, his disciples “were driven from one settlement after another, in what was an unparalleled assault of religious persecution in America.”

The persecution endured by Smith’s followers was extensive.The Mormons were driven from towns in New York to Kirtland, Ohio, and then to Independence, Missouri, where yet again their presence angered residents. Vigilantes burned homes, and Smith was beaten, tarred and feathered, and an attempt was made to force him to drink poison. The governor of Missouri ordered the state militia to subdue the Mormon population and to arrest Smith and other leaders.

Meanwhile Brigham Young fled the area, with a core of believers, to Quincy, Illinois. When Smith and his associates escaped captivity, he bought land on the Mississippi River, where he established the town of Nauvoo, Illinois. It was there that the idea of a “plurality of wives” developed, triggering even more antagonism. Facing accusations of philandering, he received a revelation that allowed any man to take as many consenting wives as he deemed necessary. Eventually, he would take a reported 40, most in the last
years of his life, including a 14-year-old girl and the wives of other members of the church. With a warrant out for his arrest, Smith surrendered to authorities at the non-Mormon town of Carthage.

While in custody, he and his brother Hyrum were shot to death by a mob in 1844. Smith uttered his last words—”Oh, Lord, my God”—and fell from a second-story window to the street. There he was propped against a well and shot again by a four-man firing squad. Wallace Stegner, a widely published novelist and historian who admired the LDS, once described early Mormons in Utah as “a sociological island of fanatic believers dedicated to a creed that the rest of America thought either vicious or mad.” In his study of diaries and letters of Mormons in the West, Stegner came to respect their “suffering, endurance, discipline, faith, brotherly and sisterly charity.” Balancing these, he also noted their “human cussedness, vengefulness, masochism, backbiting, violence, ignorance, selfishness and gullibility.”

Pushed further and further west, the Mormons arrived in Utah in 1847. Ten years later, they became embroiled in conflict with the United States government. Federal troops received orders to “unseat Brigham Young,” the territory’s governor. “Young declared martial law and prepared his followers to burn down their homes and retreat to the mountains for
guerrilla warfare.”

Under constant persecution, Mormons became a selfreliant and fiercely independent people. Their expulsion by the State of Missouri, during which prominent Mormon apostle David W. Patten was killed in battle, the murders of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, and the unceasing antagonism from those outside the faith undoubtedly encouraged Mormons to view
most who didn’t share their faith with suspicion and sometimes outright hostility.

Suspicion turned into hostility in 1857, when a wagon train of thirty well-to-do non-Mormon families, most from Arkansas, entered Utah en route to California. “The Mormons viewed the newcomers with hostility,” Wright noted, “partly because of the recent news that one of the Church’s apostles,
Parley Pratt, had been murdered in Arkansas.” When the wagon train reached Mountain Meadows in southwestern Utah it was attacked by armed Mormons, resulting in the death of 120, including many women and infants. The Mormon Church quickly blamed a few renegade church members for the massacre and said that Paiute Indians had killed the women and children. But in 1999, bones uncovered at the site showed signs that the women and children had been shot at close range.

Mark Twain accused Brigham Young of ordering the Mountain Meadow killings. The jailhouse confession of John D. Lee, an adopted son of Young’s who was executed by the government for his part in the massacre, told one version of what happened. Lee claimed that a band of Paiutes numbering
300 to 400 led the attack that continued for four days. Lee claimed that he, under a flag of truce, approached the wagon train to present terms of surrender. The battle-weary emigrants, with seven dead and sixteen wounded, put down their weapons in exchange for a promise of safe passage. Then, at a pre-arranged signal, the Mormon militia shot them all, leaving the women and children to fall under the clubs, knives and
hatchets of the Paiutes. Seventeen of the youngest children were spared.

“Twain believed that the ‘Indians’ involved were actually Mormons wearing war paint, which conforms to accounts given by surviving children,” Wright wrote. Lee, the only person involved in the incident who was convicted, was executed by firing squad at Mountain Meadows.
As Wright explained, “News of the massacre prompted members of Congress to call for the elimination of the Church.” Brigham Young forestalled a federal investigation into the massacre by stepping down as the territorial governor.

At a memorial ceremony on September 11, 2007, the sesquicentennial of the Mountain Meadows massacre, LDS Apostle Henry B. Eyring read the church’s official statement to gatherers: “We express profound regret for the massacre carried out in this valley 150 years ago today, and for the undue and untold suffering experienced by the victims then and by their
relatives to the present time. A separate expression of regret is owed the Paiute people who have unjustly borne for too long the principal blame for what occurred during the massacre. Although the extent of their involvement is disputed, it is believed they would not have participated without the direction and stimulus provided by local church leaders and members.”

The Mountain Meadows Massacre deepened dislike of the Mormon Church, perceived as a lawless and rebellious sect with heretical beliefs. This helped set the stage for incidents to come. Wright observed that, “In addition to this troubled legacy the practice of polygamy proved to be a bigger burden,
which kept alive the hostility of Victorian America toward the sect.” Plural marriage, as it came to be called, was contrary to the Book of Mormon. Indeed, monogamy was the official doctrine of the Church throughout Smith’s life.

After Smith’s death, the doctrine of plural marriage became settled. Wright is quoted again: “In 1866, Brigham Young declared, ‘The only men who become gods, even the sons of God, are those who enter into polygamy.’ He set an example by marrying perhaps fifty-five women. Throughout the 19th
century, it was popularly assumed that Mormon women were little more than sex slaves, even though they sometimes pointed out that they had chosen polygamous unions.” Young also encouraged women to take up the professions of law and medicine, and, as governor, allowed them to vote, long before women elsewhere in the United States enjoyed such privileges.
In 1862, Congress passed the Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act, but President Abraham Lincoln elected not to enforce the law. Instead, he gave Brigham Young tacit permission to ignore it. In return, Young kept the Utah Territory from becoming involved in the Civil War.

Persecution and prosecution of Mormons continued, as attested by the arrest of more than a thousand on polygamy related offenses. To avoid oppression many Mormons fled to Canada and Mexico. Wright noted that, “In 1890, the United States Supreme Court sanctioned the nationwide confiscation of virtually all Mormon property, essentially authorizing that the movement be crushed.”

That same year, LDS president Wilford Woodruff received a revelation that inspired him to declare, in what is called the 1890 Manifesto, that plural marriage was no longer officially allowed.” But this did little to erase hostility towards the Mormon faith. The disapproval non-believers felt for the faith was apparent in an April 25, 1901, article in the Vienna [Ga.] Progress: “The Mormon doctrine sprang from one Joseph Smith who evidently had an awful dream from an overload of supper. The elders, while here, were treated kindly, and no eggs were given them, except at the hotel.”

A 1906 newspaper article reported that the number of converts to the Mormon Church over the prior decade exceeded by several thousand the number of converts to the Methodist, Baptist and Congregational churches combined. When those numbers were translated into votes, politicians nationwide took notice. Vitriol-filled anti-Mormon newspaper articles
appeared, often quoting statements from the non-Mormon pulpit. For instance, Dr. John White of Atlanta’s Second Baptist Church proclaimed that Mormon propaganda was “false, evil and dangerous and should be shunned like a viper.” Political and religious opposition to LDS doctrine and practices continued and helped shape and perpetrate anti-Mormon
sentiment.

In 1878 the headquarters of the newly established LDS Southern States Mission moved from Nashville, Tennessee, to Rome, Georgia. The church enjoyed notable success in northwest Georgia, especially in Chattooga County’s Haywood Valley. But local newspaper editors, ministers, and the Ku Klux Klan, all of whom decried Mormon practices of polygamy and conversion by baptism, opposed the movement. It was the next year that a mob murdered missionary Joseph Standing in Whitfield County. Standing’s traveling companion, Rudger Clawson, witnessed the incident and reported that Standing had pulled a gun on the mob in self defense.
The mob responded by riddling him with more than 20 bullets. Of those brought to trial, all were acquitted. Standing became a martyr and was laid to rest in Salt Lake City, Utah, where the Latter-day Saints erected a monument bearing the words: “There is no law in Georgia for the Mormons.” Today a small park in Varnell includes a marker with a bronze plaque to mark the spot where Standing was gunned down.

Standing’s murder seemed to spur opposition to Mormon missionaries throughout north Georgia. Missionaries were beaten, pulled from their beds, kidnapped, wounded, and denied the right to preach (or were egged when they did). In a retreat to Tennessee, Mission headquarters was moved from Rome to Chattanooga. Limited for several years, missionary work in the region finally resumed in earnest in the 1890s. Gradually, the Mormon faith spread into other parts of Georgia. By the early 20th century, there was a congregation in Douglas (Coffee County), Montreal (DeKalb County) and Buchanan (Haralson County). As in the past, some of these faced hostility. For instance, somebody used 50 pounds of dynamite to destroy the rented building occupied by the Mormon Church in Montreal in 1908. According to the Atlanta Constitution, the explosion was heard ten to fifteen miles away. The building’s owner, who wasn’t a Mormon, said that he “was thoroughly aroused as to the seriousness of the situation” and feared future attacks might destroy his home or take his life.

Four years later, fire destroyed the Mormon Church in Buchanan while the congregation attended a nearby religious debate. The building, only a year old, was believed to have been destroyed by “an incendiary device,” but no arrests were made. A new stone church was completed after a pitched battle with opponents.

A Thomasville newspaper article in July 1899 related the story of three Mormon missionaries preaching their doctrine near Covington. While seated on the porch of “the Cunnard house,” a mob of masked attackers brandishing guns showed up. Cunnard went inside and retrieved his shotgun, presumably for defense of family and self. The light illuminating the porch was extinguished and pistol shots rang out followed by
a shotgun blast. The mob withdrew, taking the missionaries with them. When light was restored it was discovered that Mrs. Cunnard lay dead from a shotgun blast to the face. There was speculation that the missionaries were lynched but a later article stated they had escaped.

Only two rural LDS churches were established in South Georgia, both in Coffee County. Mormon missionaries there met with some resistance while other non-Mormons demonstrated a tolerance that developed into theological union. In recruiting for new members, the missionaries sometimes set up shop at a public place, such as the local post office, where
members of the public were sure to come.

This diary excerpt from Mormon missionary Adam Brewer relates an example of how these missionaries were treated: The day was spent in Pearson (Atkinson County today, bu part of Coffee County at the time) at the post office. We met some who were very bitter to the cause of truth and my companions talked to them at some length explaining the scriptures to them. In the evening we held a meeting but very few came out to hear us. We found in the teacher’s desk at the school house the following invitation.
‘Pearson a a , 8 23 1899 To Mormon Elders, If yew want to get out of this town with hole skin and bones and no tears on your physiagmany, don’t let the next sun set on you here.’

We don’t know what the significance of the two a’s following the town name of Pearson, perhaps it was meant to be g a (for Georgia) and are uncertain if the word tears was correctly read, but the intent is clear. Little Utah was one of two churches established by Mormons in Coffee County. A granite monument where the church once stood bears this inscription: “In the spring of 1899 the first Mormon missionaries came to Coffee County.

In 1905, two acres were deeded to the LDS Church for the building of a church and cemetery. A small church made of rough lumber was built and was used for church services and school until 1917. In 1918 a new church was built on the site and was known as Axson Ward LDS Chapel, Satilla Branch. Local non-members called it, derisively, ‘Little Utah’ because
missionaries from Utah baptized the first converts there. The members eventually embraced the name.”

Little Utah became inactive, possibly around 1975. The church building was sold and moved. Today the graveyard is still maintained. John Adams wrote a history of Cumorah Chapel, also in Little Utah church in 1953 (LEFT) and today (RIGHT) in a different location. Coffee County, in 1934. He recalled that in June 1899 his father, Joseph Adams, was visiting a brother-in-law when two Elders of the LDS Church arrived and began to preach the “restored gospel.” The next day the missionaries were to preach
at a Baptist church known as Old Mt. Zion, but upon arrival they were met by members bearing knives and guns who would not allow them to preach in the church. One member brought out benches from the church, placed them in the shade of some oak trees, and the missionaries were allowed to preach. The sermon must have been moving; thereafter, the missionaries canvassed the countryside. They received a fair share of rotten eggs but also began to find some “very staunch friends.”

Excessive rain in 1900 caused a catastrophic failure of crops in Coffee County. Many residents had to sell their farms; among them Joseph Adams and Uncle Dan Lott, who, along with their families, were LDS members. They both bought adjoining farms near Douglas and moved to their new homes in 1900 and 1901. While recovering from the catastrophic crop loss, LDS elders continued to work among the converts using the two farms as their base. The congregation increased over the next few years and a chapel was erected in 1907 on land given by Joseph Adams. Elder Tate named the new church building Cumorah. The first sermon was preached there in
August 1907. Use of the church building ceased around 1975. Despite decades of controversy and persecution in Georgia, the Latter-day Saints eventually came to thrive here. In 1916, the Southern States Mission moved to Atlanta. By 1936, there were more than 1,800 Mormons in the state. Today there are 84,500 members in 155 congregations. A temple, the most sacred of Mormon buildings, was dedicated in Sandy Springs in
1983, its spire topped by the golden figure of the angel Moroni. Randall Davis is a freelance writer and photographer in Statesboro.

https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn%3Aaaid%3Ascds%3AUS%3Acf94cf60-6eea-4627-8597-dcb19b2e8c1d

See Additional blog with persecutions in Tennessee here: https://www.bofm.blog/tennessee-massacre/

A good friend just asked me, “Am I creating situations in my own home that allow my family to feel the spirit?” “Do I feel and recognize the spirit even though I am unable to meet with others in church each Sunday?”

Just over a year ago President Nelson prophetically shifted the focus of the church to home based worship and study. We were all encouraged to study and teach in our own homes, allowing our testimony to grow because of spiritual experiences had at home. Little did any of us know that just 1 year after these changes were made, church would be cancelled all together.

I invite all of us to seek spiritual moments in our homes. I hope we can all recognize and treasure some sacred moments of spiritual growth even without the ability to meet together each week. I promise that as we seek the spirit in our home, we will find peace of mind and a deep sense of appreciation for everything we have. I testify that the President Nelson is a prophet, seer, and revelator who holds and properly exercises all the priesthood keys. And because he does this, we can all benefit from the blessings and guidance of the Holy Ghost in our personal lives at home. Personal revelation is very possible.

“No one can ever take away a witness borne to your heart and mind about what is true.”

You don’t have to wonder about what is true. You do not have to wonder whom you can safely trust. Through personal revelation, you can receive your own witness that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, that Joseph Smith is a prophet, and that this is the Lord’s Church. Regardless of what others may say or do, no one can ever take away a witness borne to your heart and mind about what is true.I urge you to stretch beyond your current spiritual ability to receive personal revelation, for the Lord has promised that “if thou shalt [seek], thou shalt receive revelation upon revelation, knowledge upon knowledge, that thou mayest know the mysteries and peaceable things —that which bringeth joy, that which bringeth life eternal.” Revelation for the Church, Revelation for Our Lives by President Russell M. Nelson

The Truth of All Things

Moroni 10:5 “And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.”

Head and Heart

“But it should be noted that truly rock-ribbed faith and uncompromised conviction comes with its most complete power when it engages our head as well as our heart…

Truth borne by the Holy Spirit comes with, in effect, two manifestations, two witnesses if you will—the force of fact as well as the force of feeling…

I believe God intends us to find and use the evidence He has given—reasons, if you will—which affirm the truthfulness of His work…

Our testimonies aren’t dependent on evidence—we still need that spiritual confirmation in the heart of which we have spoken—but not to seek for and not to acknowledge intellectual, documentable support for our belief when it is available is to needlessly limit an otherwise incomparably strong theological position and deny us a unique, persuasive vocabulary in the latter-day arena of religious investigation and sectarian debate…”

Jeffrey R. Holland Greatness of the Evidences Brigham Young University August 16, 2017

Ye Cannot Deny Them

“And now, . . . ye know these things and cannot deny them [because of the] many evidences which ye have received; yea, even ye have received all things, both things in heaven, and all things which are in the earth, as a witness that they are true.” Heleman 8:24

“Individual members are encouraged to independently strive to receive their own spiritual confirmation of the truthfulness of Church doctrine. Moreover, the Church exhorts all people to approach the gospel not only intellectually but with the intellect and the spirit, a process in which reason and faith work together.” LDS Newsroom 4 MAY 2007

This Country vs Americas

The Americas.” It is pure revisionist history in Saints Vol 1

“This country” vs. “the Americas” by Jonathan Neville

When Moroni first visited Joseph Smith at the Smith farm outside of Palmyra, NY, he “gave a general account of the promises made to the fathers, and also gave a history of the aborigines of this country, and said they were literal descendants of Abraham.” https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/history-1834-1836/68 You might think that looks fairly straightforward. Webster’s 1828 dictionary defined “country” to mean the region in which one resides, the territory situated in the vicinity of a city, or the whole territory of a kingdom or state. Joseph Smith lived near Palmyra in western New York in the United States. You can choose among the Webster’s definitions (which remain valid today) to decide which “aborigenes” Moroni was referring to.

Our friends who promote M2C nevertheless claim that “this country” refers to Mesoamerica because, according to them, the Nephites never left the “limited geography” of Mesoamerica. They landed there and the entire Book of Mormon took place there, culminating in the final battle at Cumorah in southern Mexico.

They’ve written articles full of clever rhetoric and sophistry to justify their position. But it’s a patently ridiculous argument, so they’ve persuaded our Church historians to replace “this country” with the term “the Americas.”

For example, in Saints, Volume 1, we read this: “Moroni spoke of gold plates buried in a nearby hill. On the plates was etched the record of an ancient people who once lived in the Americas.”

Moroni never said that. No original documents use the term “the Americas.” It is pure revisionist history, designed solely to accommodate the current intellectual fixation on Mesoamerica and M2C.

For a fun exercise, go to the Joseph Smith Papers and search for “the Americas.” You’ll get 17 results. Every one of them is in the commentary and notes. You’ll read things such as “For early believers, the book was not only a religious history of ancient inhabitants of the Americas…” “The idea that God would establish the New Jerusalem, or the city of Zion somewhere in the Americas stemmed from the Book of Mormon.” “The Book of Mormon also prophesied that the New Jerusalem should be built up upon this land, referring to the Americas.” “Jaredites: a term used in the Book of Mormon to refer to descendants and followers of Jared who departed for a “land of promise” which JS later identified as the Americas.”

The last one is especially fun because Joseph never used the term “the Americas.” This is putting words in Joseph’s mouth for a specific modern agenda–M2C. It is not history. 

You can also search “this country” on the Joseph Smith Papers website and see how Joseph and his contemporaries used the term. It always referred to a specific nation (the United States or England, depending on where the author was at the time) or a local region. Here are some examples. Lucy Mack Smith reported that soon after she received word that the translation was complete, three men came to ask her to show them the gold bible. She wrote, “No gentlemen said I we have <​got​> <​no​> gold bible but we have a translation of some gold plates which was sent to the world to bring the plainess of the Gospel to the children of men and to give a history of the people that used to inhabit this country.” https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/lucy-mack-smith-history-1844-1845/111 On October 22, 1829, Joseph Smith wrote a letter to Oliver Cowdery. This is the earliest letter written by Joseph Smith that we have today. He wrote from Harmony, Pennsylvania. Oliver Cowdery was in Palmyra, NY, at the time, supervising the publication of the Book of Mormon. Among other things, Joseph wrote “there begins to be a great call for our books in this country.” https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/letter-to-oliver-cowdery-22-october-1829/1 In March 1831, Joseph wrote a letter from Kirtland, Ohio, to his brother Hyrum, who was in Harpursville, NY. He wrote “I think <​you​> had better Come into this Country immediately for the Lord has Commanded us that we Should Call the Elders of the this Chursh together unto this plase as soon as possable.”

https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/letter-to-hyrum-smith-3-4-march-1831/2 In 1832, Joseph Smith wrote a letter from Hiram Township, Ohio, to W.W. Phelps, who was then in Independence, Missouri. Joseph wrote about “our toils in travling from this country to Zion amidst a crooked & preverse generation.” https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/letter-to-william-w-phelps-31-july-1832/2 On August 16, 1834, Joseph Smith wrote a letter from Kirtland to Lyman Wight and others who were in Liberty, Missouri. He wrote ” let there be every signer obtained that can be in the State of Missouri and while they are on their Journey to this country that paradventure we may learn whithe [whether] we have friends or not in these United States.” https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/letter-to-lyman-wight-and-others-16-august-1834/2 In February 1835, when Oliver Cowdery delivered the apostolic charge to Parley P. Pratt, he said, “It is required, not merely to travel a few miles in this country, but in distant countries.” https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/minutes-and-blessings-21-february-1835/3

You can find more examples, but let’s end with this important one. In 1842, Joseph wrote an article titled “Church History,” better known today as the Wentworth letter. In it, he reaffirmed the account of Moroni’s visit that opened this blog post. He wrote, “I was also informed concerning the aboriginal inhabitants of this country, and shown who they were, and from whence they came.” A few paragraphs later, when describing the Nephites, he wrote, “The remnant are the Indians that now inhabit this country.” In that same letter, he wrote about the “frontier country” and described how, when the Saints were in Missouri, “an organized banditti ranged through the country robbed us of our cattle, sheep horses…” Despite the historical evidence, our M2C scholars, their followers, and Church historians claim that when Joseph Smith used the term “country” he really meant “the American continent,” which they shorten to “the Americas.” That’s how they rationalize changing Church history to accommodate their modern ideas about geography. In an amazing irony, the Saints books themselves take their title from a paragraph in the Wentworth letter that explicitly distinguishes between “continent” and “country.” This is the paragraph that immediately precedes the Articles of Faith. Our missionaries are going forth to different nations, and in Germany, Palestine, New Holland, the East Indies, and other places, the standard of truth has been erected: no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing, persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished and the great Jehovah shall say the work is done. _____ When you read all of this, it’s easy to see why the M2C proponents and the Church historians who collaborate with them are changing Church history right before our eyes.

Joseph, Oliver, and all their contemporaries knew that the Book of Mormon was the history of the ancient people who lived in the country where Joseph received the plates. Moroni even told him the record was “written and deposited” not far from Joseph’s home near Palmyra, NY.

Every time you read or hear the words “the Americas” in connection with Church history, think “this country.” Whether you interpret it to mean the area right around Palmyra, or western New York, or even the United States as it existed in 1823 through 1842, at least you’re on the same page with Joseph Smith.

Note: there are some examples of Joseph writing about “this continent,” such as in Joseph’s appeal to the “Green Mountain Boys” when he wrote “the Book of Mormon as the history of the aborigines of this continent,” and in the Wentworth letter: “The remnant are the Indians that now inhabit this country. This book also tells us that our Savior made his appearance upon this continent after his ressurrection, that he planted the gospel here in all its fulness, and richness, and power, and blessing.” There is also Joseph Smith–History 1:34 (compiled by Joseph’s scribes). “He said there was a book deposited, written upon gold plates, giving an account of the former inhabitants of this continent, and the source from whence they sprang. He also said that the fulness of the everlasting Gospel was contained in it, as delivered by the Savior to the ancient inhabitants.” Our M2C friends and historians claim these references to “this continent” mean “the Americas” and that “this country” therefore is either an error or should be interpreted to mean “the Americas.” Of course, the other alternative is to use the connotation of “continent” that is consistent with “this country,” such as the way Webster defined it as “a connected tract of land of great extent.” Webster’s 1828 dictionary commented also that “In Spenser, continent is use [sic] for ground in general.” The term can be used for “a mainland contrasted with islands.” Some definitions distinguish between North and South America as separate continents while others combined them into one continent. There is a long history of the etymology of the term and its applications that can be debated. In my view, Joseph’s use of “continent” in these references does not contradict his use of “country” as a more specific and narrower territory.  _____ Here’s another fun exercise. Since Moroni wrote some of the Book of Mormon (and presumably read what his father had written), maybe Moroni’s own use of the term “country” should be considered when we seek to understand what he meant when he told Joseph Smith that the Book of Mormon was the history of the aborigines of “this country.”

Search for “country” in the Book of Mormon itself. You’ll find phrases such as “defend their country,” “the freedom of his country,” “defend themselves, and their families, and their lands, their country, and their rights, and their religion,” “the cause of their country,” “ye are also traitors to your country,” “those parts of our country which he hath retained,” “the safety of their country,” “defend their north country,” “the laws of their country,” “even unto his own country,” “the country which lay before us,” “escaped into the country southward,” “the face of this north country,” and “the country was divided.”

Source: About Central America Jonathan Neville | May 5, 2020 at 7:15 pm | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: https://wp.me/p741A5-SR

THIS LAND!

Does the geography of the Book of Mormon matter? By Rod Meldrum

“Does the geography of the Book of Mormon matter? The book is true no matter where it happened. Right? This is a response I have heard many others say and one I have said myself many times. But reading in 3 Nephi this morning made me change my mind. I think the Book of Mormon geography does matter.

When Christ appeared to the Nephites as the resurrected Savior, He blessed them, He taught them He prayed with them and for them. He also quoted to them the words of Isaiah. He reminded them that they had been given THIS LAND for their inheritance and were warned that they would not be allowed to remain on THIS LAND if they did not remain faithful. This emphasis shows the significance of the LAND to the Book of Mormon people, and the people who would be brought by the hand of God to THIS LAND and now occupy THIS LAND. Christ himself said, “great are the words of Isaiah” and He commanded the Nephites and all who read the Book of Mormon to search his words. If the words of Isaiah are great and we are commanded to read them and study them and ultimately understand them, then I believe we most certainly should understand where THIS LAND is and we should understand who the Lord is taking to when he talks about the inhabitants of THIS LAND. Because he is in fact talking directly to those who are on THIS LAND and if you don’t know where that is you can’t fully understand the message. Does the geography of the Book of Mormon matter? With over 1400 references to “this land” in the Book of Mormon I’m not sure how the Book of Mormon prophets could have made it clearer. THIS LAND matters. Geography matters. Those of us on THIS LAND the “promised land,” the Land of Liberty, the Land of the New Jerusalem need to know who we are. America is THIS LAND. America is a covenant land. I live on THIS LAND. Even the chapter heading of 3 Nephi also confirms this truth. Israel will be gathered when the Book of Mormon comes forth–The Gentiles will be established as a free people in America–They will be saved if they believe and obey; otherwise, they will be cut off and destroyed–Israel will build the New Jerusalem, and the lost tribes will return. I am learning more each day about what the prophecies say about me, my fellow Gentiles and my House of Israel sisters and brothers on THIS LAND. I desire to understand my covenant that I have made with the Lord and the Book of Mormon is the “voice crying from the dust” helping me understand it. The geography of the Book of Mormon matters to me.” Rod Meldrum FIRM Foundation President

Saints Volume 1 and 2 Here!

In the “Saints” Vol. 1 the index has the word America. The problem is when you visit page 22, the volume says Americas (plural). The same thing happens on page 108. we know when most people hear the word America we are referring to the United States of America. When most people hear the word Americas, we think of North and South America. There is also a tendency when you hear American continent you think of both North and South America. (Index) America 22 ancient people who once lived in the Americas. 93 Lord had visited the people of ancient America 98 edge of the United States to preach the restored gospel to American Indians…the New Jerusalem on the American continent 108 who created a righteous society after the Savior’s visit to the Americas Again in Saints, Volume 1, we read this: “Moroni spoke of gold plates buried in a nearby hill. On the plates was etched the record of an ancient people who once lived in the Americas.”

Moroni never said that. No original documents use the term “the Americas.” It is pure revisionist history, designed solely to accommodate the current intellectual fixation on Mesoamerica and M2C.