Revision as of 20:35, 20 January 2009

Saints sole rulers over every government?

The Quotes

One Nation under Gods, page 266 (hardback and paperback)

• Did Heber C. Kimball promise that after the Civil War ended, the Latter-day Saints would become the "sole rulers over every other government"?

The References

Endnote 38, page 570 (hardback); page 568 (paperback)

• Heber C. Kimball, Journal of Discourses 9:7.

The Problem

The author has misrepresented the source. Heber C. Kimball said:

As for the condition of the nations that brother Wells has been speaking of, we shall never secede from the Constitution of the United States. We shall not stop on the way of progress, but we shall make preparations for future events. The South will secede from the North, and the North will secede from us, and God will make this people free as fast as we are able to bear it. They send their poor miserable creatures here to rule us. Why, it would be upon the same principle that this Church and authority should send some poor curse to rule me and my family in my own house. We need good men that are capable of ruling us, and we have them in our midst. Take any man there is here, and I would rather have him come and rule me and this people than have any of those poor creatures that come here. What do they know? Nothing, only to come here and undertake to lead this people astray and pollute them. They would pollute everyone, if they had the power, or everyone that would yield to them. We have to submit to this, and to bear it with patience. But let me tell you, the yoke is now off our neck, and it is on theirs, and the bow key is in.

The day is not far distant when you will see us as free as the air we breathe, and we will be ruled by those men whom God Almighty appoints (emphasis added).

Heber asserts that the Saints will be free from oppression, and that their rulers will be those whom God appoints. He says nothing about replacing every other government.

Further reading