Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Mormonism 101/Chapter 9

Chapter 8: The Book of Mormon

A FAIR Analysis of: Criticism of Mormonism/Books A work by author: Bill McKeever and Eric Johnson

Chapter 10: The Atonement

Index of Claims in Chapter 9: The Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price

The Doctrine and Covenants: A Modern Day Revelation?

123-125

The authors provide an overview of what is found in the Doctrine and Covenants. This overview is generally correct.

Claim

• D&C 84 "predicts" the establishment of Zion and the construction of a temple in Independence, Missouri.

Author's source(s)

• DC 84꞉4-5
• Orson Pratt n6
• Lorenzo Snow n7
• Joseph Fielding Smith n8

Response

• There are two objections McKeever and Johnson give as to why they disregard section 84 as prophecy. First, is the term "this generation," and second is the fact that the Saints were forced out of the area, which, according to critics in general, indicates establishing Zion at that time and building the temple was not really God-ordained and thus it is a false prophecy. There are major flaws with both of these conclusions.
• For a detailed response, see: Joseph Smith/Prophecies/Independence temple to be built "in this generation" and Joseph Smith/Prophecies/Saints left Missouri before temple was built  ^{[needs work]}

Claim

• The authors claim that the "prophetic failures" regarding the establishment of Zion and the return of Christ are the reason for Sidney Rigdon's loss of faith in Joseph Smith.

Author's source(s)

• Van Wagoner n9

Response

• Actually, Sidney Rigdon became disassociated with the church when he was not chosen to be the leader after the murder of Joseph and Hyrum. Since Joseph Smith made no false prophecies, it had nothing to do Joseph Smith's "prophetic failures." In addition, critics such as the authors ignore the statements Joseph Smith made concerning the Saints being driven out of Missouri, going to the Rocky Mountains, and that the Center Place of Zion (Missouri) would not be settled until another time.

Claim

• According to the authors, D&C 87, the "revelation and prophecy on war" has "numerous flaws." The authors state,

It should be noted that Smith's prediction was not all that unique. One month prior to the alleged revelation, the newspaper Painesville Telegraph printed a story in which it predicted the secession of South Carolina and an eventual War Between the States. South Carolina had been making such threats for some time, and many felt it was only a matter of time before South Carolina would act on its threat.

Response

• The authors biggest concern seems to be that rumors of war were around during the time Joseph Smith made the Civil War Prophecy, and in their minds, this invalidates the prophecy.
• No American statesman in 1832 believed that the doctrines of secession then talked of would result in a great civil war. None of them had the foresight to see that a great rebellion would occur, beginning in South Carolina; that it would terminate in the death and misery of many souls; that the Southern States would be divided against the Northern States; that the Southern States would call on Great Britain, and that war would eventually be poured out upon all nations. No one foresaw that this would be the result except Joseph Smith--when but twenty-seven years of age--and he saw it only by the spirit of prophecy and revelation. To be required to believe that the prophecy was merely the fortunate conjecture of a more than ordinary astute mind, requires a greater amount of credulity than to concede the inspiration of the Prophet; and then the question would still remain, why is it that sagacious minds in other generations have not paralleled this astuteness of Joseph Smith's? Why did not some of the brilliant minds in the Senate or House of Representatives in 1832 make such a prediction? There was not a lack of brilliant minds in either Senate or House at that time, yet none seemed equal to the task.68
• The fact that there were rumors of war is in fact a fulfillment of prophecy itself!69 The question is not were there rumors of war, but the question should be, did the events take place just as Joseph Smith said they would. As soon as Joseph uttered the words "Thus saith the Lord" he was tied to the prophecy being true or false, and if the events did not happen as he said, then, and only then, could it be declared a false prophecy.
• It was because of this fact that the Lord made known to Joseph Smith this revelation stating that wars would shortly come to pass, beginning with the rebellion of South Carolina, which would eventually terminate in war being poured out upon all nations and in the death and misery of many souls. It may have been an easy thing in 1832, or even 1831, for someone to predict that there would come a division of the Northern States and the Southern States, for even then there were rumblings, and South Carolina had shown the spirit of rebellion. It was not, however, within the power of man to predict in the detail which the Lord revealed to Joseph Smith, what was shortly to come to pass as an outgrowth of the Civil War and the pouring out of war upon all nations. It must be conceded that no one, except Joseph Smith, ever entered into such detail in relation to this conflict or stated with such assurance that the time would come when all nations would be involved in war, The revelation begins with these words: "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; and the time will come that war will be poured out upon all nations, beginning at this place." This, certainly, is a bold prediction which no one, other than Joseph Smith, dared to make.70
• The authors are correct that there was a threat of rebellion in South Carolina at the time of this revelation. But the rebellion never materialized the way in which the rumors indicated, and the threat ended shortly afterwards. After the threat was ended, Joseph Smith never retracted this prophecy, showing he still expected it to be fulfilled, and he was correct. The revelation containing the prophecy was given on December 25, 1832. The first shot fired in the American Civil War was fired on April 12, 1861. Hence, the prediction preceded the war by 28 years. Ten years before the war began, the prophecy was published in England and circulated both in that country and in the United States. There can be no question, therefore, as to the prophecy preceding the event.

• For a detailed response, see: Joseph Smith/Prophecies/Civil War

Claim

• The authors' point in their charge, is that if God was behind the revelation in D&C 84, then the Mormons could not have been driven out of Missouri by men.

Response

• For a detailed response, see: Joseph Smith/Prophecies/Saints left Missouri before temple was built

Claim

• The authors note that Great Britain never had to "call upon other nations, in order to defend themselves against other nations."

Response

• Nowhere does the prophecy state that other nations will fight for the Southern States, only that the Southern States would call upon other nations. There is no statement of the results of the "call." The Confederacy did in fact, call upon Great Britain and France. This is a matter of historic record. This came true, no matter how you look at it. The authors are making assumptions based upon statements never made, something common among critics. In other words, they are trying to claim a false prophecy based upon what was not said.
• Every student of United States history is acquainted with the facts establishing a complete fulfilment of this prophecy. In 1861, more than twenty-eight years after the foregoing prediction was recorded, and ten years after its publication in England, the Civil War broke out. It is known the Confederate States solicited aid of Great Britain. While no open alliance between the Southern States and the English government was effected, British influence gave indirect assistance and substantial encouragement to the South, and this in such a way as to produce serious international complications. Vessels were built and equipped at British ports in the interests of the Confederacy; and the results of this violation of the laws of neutrality cost Great Britain fifteen and a half millions of dollars, which sum was awarded the United States at the Geneva arbitration in settlement of the Alabama claims. The Confederacy appointed commissioners to Great Britain and France; these appointees were forcibly taken by United States officers from the British steamer on which they had embarked. This act, which the United States government had to admit as overt, threatened for a time to precipitate a war between this nation and Great Britain.71

Let's look at some of the other elements of this prophecy from a historical basis. Death and Misery of Many Souls Significantly, the prophesy warns of "the death and misery of many souls." The Civil War was, indeed, a bloody war, resulting in about 204,000 battle casualties plus another 225,000 military personnel who died of disease. This number actually well exceeds the American battle deaths (128,000) in World War I. In World War II, there were 396,637 battle deaths.72 Here are some figures concerning another war (World War I). Authoritative tables give the grand total of all armies mobilized at 59,176,864. Direct military deaths out of this number are set down as 7,781,806; the wounded at 18,681,257; prisoners and missing 7,080,580; making a total of direct military casualties of 33,434,443. This is only a statement of military casualties however. The same authority sets down the number of civilians as being greater from famine, disease, and massacres than those who fell in the military operations. Of these two classes are named: civilians who were killed by direct military causes, and those who died from indirect causes. Of the first class the number was 100,082; and the second--those who died from indirect causes, among the Armenians, Syrians, Jews, and Greeks--massacred or starved by the Turks--are numbered at 4,000,000. The deaths numbered beyond the normal mortality of influenza and pneumonia induced by the war is placed at 4,000,000. The Serbians who died through diseases, or massacre, numbered 1,085,441. Making the total of deaths in these two classes 9,085,441, so that with military deaths and civilian deaths, resulting from the war, make a grand total of 16,967,329 deaths. And of the more than 18,000,000 who were wounded in battle 30% or about 6,000,000, were made permanent human wrecks.73 This was just one war! With all the wars that have come and gone since this revelation was given, surely McKeever and Johnson can have no argument of the statement, "death and misery of many souls." War Poured Out on Other Nations Following the Civil War the nations, in their great alarm because of the new methods of warfare which were being developed and their fear of other nations, entered into alliances and secret agreements in order to protect themselves from other nations. At the outbreak of the World War, these alliances had reached proportions never before known, and during the war other alliances were made until nearly every nation on the earth had taken sides with the Triple Alliance or the Triple Entente. It was during the period of the World War, 1914-1918, Great Britain made her appeal to the nations to come to the defense of the standard of Democracy. Her pleadings were heard round the world. And what is still more remarkable, the entire procedure conforms exactly to the prediction made by Joseph Smith, viz: "they shall also call upon other nations in order to defend themselves against other nations." A plurality of nations aligned and allied on both sides of the deadly conflict.74 This revelation was not just about the American Civil War. The revelation makes that very clear by first stating in verse one, "thus saith the Lord concerning the wars that will shortly come to pass." Notice that the word used is wars (plural), not war (singular), thereby "suggesting not one war but a continuum of conflict. Thus, like chapter 24 of Matthew, this scripture covered things both imminent and distant."75 Of course, in our own time, we could add the war in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq, civil wars in Central America, Lebanon, the British-Argentine conflict, Desert Storm, etc. Remnants In our several Indian uprisings since the close of the Civil War, many see the fulfillment of that part of the prophecy which declares that the "remnants who are left of the land [the American Indians] will marshal themselves, and shall become exceeding angry, and shall vex the Gentiles with a sore vexation."76 Slaves In the part taken by negroes in the war between the states, many see the fulfillment of the prediction of the revelation that "slaves shall rise up against their masters, who shall be marshaled and disciplined for war;" for of the 2,653,000 soldiers enlisted on the side of the Union, 186,397 were colored, and many of them saw active service in the field against their former masters.77

Claim

• The authors claim,

While Smith's prediction was published in the Pearl of Great Price in 1851, the Pearl of Great Price did not become a part of the standard works until 1880. Smith's prophecy on war did not become a part of the D&C until 1876, more than a decade after the Civil war had ended. (12 Encyclopedia of Mormonism "Civil War Prophecy.")

Response

• Without coming out and directly saying so, the authors are attempting to give the impression that the church withheld this prophecy from the public until after the Civil war was over. The prophecy was not "shelved" as as the authors insinuate here. There was no attempt to cover up the revelation as the authors are attempting to allude.
• Section 87 was not published by the Church until 1851 and was not canonized until 1876. It was, however, copied and circulated by some Church leaders and missionaries in the 1830s. The Civil War prophecy became one of the most widely published revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants. Not surprisingly, it received greatest attention during the Civil War, as many viewed the conflict as a vindication of the prophetic powers of Joseph Smith.78
• Notice that this quote comes from the very same source the authors used. The authors use partial evidence, instead of the full account.79
• Brigham Young explained why D&C 87 was intentionally left out of the 1835 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants.

It was not wisdom to publish it to the world, and it remained in the private escritoire. Brother Joseph had that revelation concerning this nation at a time when the brethren were reflecting and reasoning with regard to African slavery on this continent, and the slavery of the children of men throughout the world. There are other revelations, besides this one, not yet published to the world. In the due time of the Lord, the Saints and the world will be privileged with the revelations that are due to them. They now have many more than they are worthy of, for they do not observe them.80

Claim

• The authors claim,

D&C 87:8 says the day of the Lord would come quickly, and many LDS leaders preached sermons during the Civil War anticipating the desolation of the United States. When that did not happen, Smith's prophecy on war was given a broader interpretation.

Response

• There are three points to this statement.

1. The prophecy was given a broader interpretation. On the contrary, it is McKeever and Johnson, along with other critics, who "restrict" the interpretation of prophecy. Ignoring evidence, taking quotes out of context, dismissing LDS beliefs and history, and a refusal to be honest about the evidence metes out this restriction. Latter-day Saints have always had the same interpretation of these events, as the quotes used by the authors indicate.
2. The day of the Lord would come quickly. Here again, the authors repeat their double standard. If Joseph Smith is a false prophet for so stating, then so are the New Testament writers. "But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day."81 Who are we to judge the Lord's timing? His time is not our time. Joseph Smith never gave a time for the second coming. His words in this section of the Doctrine and Covenants are very much in accordance with Biblical prophecies and teachings in this regard. The Lord was only repeating to Joseph Smith what He had said before.
3. The desolation of the United States did not take place. The casualties from the Civil War have been shown. But what does this have to do with the prophecy in question? The word "desolation" is not in the prophecy, neither is the term "United States." In fact, the revelation only makes reference to "the inhabitants of the earth," not the United States, when it speaks of destruction or suffering. Again, the authors are attempting to discredit this prophecy based upon words never uttered.

• However, there was desolation in the United States. Any student of American history is aware of that. The bloodiest war the United States ever went through, even to this day, was the Civil War. Natural disasters most certainly have occurred, and continue to do so. There was, besides the bloodshed of the Civil War, disease, and disasters.
• The "plague," or Asiatic cholera, which first broke out in India, spread also throughout the United States in that same year. One historian, speaking of its ravages in the United States, says: "It was on the 21st of June, 1832, that the eastern plague, known as the Asiatic cholera, made its first appearance in the United states, in the city of New York. Its rapid spread produced universal panic, though it was less fatal in the South Atlantic states than in the north and in the valley of the Mississippi. Thousands of persons of all ages and conditions died of it within a few months. The most robust constitutions in many instances became victims of its malignancy within thirty-six hours from it first attack." (History U. S., Stephens, p. 450)82
• Natural disasters have taken their toll upon America as well. Since, as usual with critics being only partially forthcoming with evidence and documentation, the authors took their comment about "desolation" out of context and did not mention that when the early leaders of the church spoke about "desolation," they were usually speaking in reference to the redress of wrongs against the members of the church in Missouri.
• How was Missouri affected by the Civil War? In 1861, the first year of the war, of the 157 engagements and battles listed in the Army Register, 66 were in Missouri (over 42%). Missouri saw more action than VA and WV combined in 1861.92 Speaking of the situation in Missouri in 1861, the outgoing governor, Robert M. Stewart, in his address to the legislature, and referring to Missouri and her right to be heard on the slavery question, said:

Missouri has a right to speak on this subject, because she has suffered. Bounded on three sides by free territory, her border counties have been the frequent scenes of kidnapping and violence, and this state has probably lost as much, in the last two years, in the abduction of slaves, as all the rest of the southern states. At this moment several of the western counties are desolated, and almost depopulated, from fear of a bandit horde, who have been committing depredations--arson, theft, and foul murder--upon the adjacent border.93

Conclusion

Most of Christianity today claim that there are not supposed to be any more prophets after Christ's day. But this belief is firmly rooted in tradition, not the Bible. The Bible teaches the opposite of this traditional belief. "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets."97 God has always had direct dealings with man, through the prophets and through revelation. "Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off?"98 The Lord is the one who directs His Church, not man. This is accomplished through prophets. This is the process God uses, and has used since the time of Adam. "As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began."99 Since "God will do nothing" except through "his servants the prophets" and He is, after all, "at hand" and not "afar off," and prophets have been "since the world began," it is only logical, and biblically correct, to expect God to have the same relationship with man today.

Christianity claims that God does not change. This is a statement that Latter-Day Saints agree with. Yet, while making this claim, most of Christianity says God has changed. They claim we do not need prophets because Christ came and finished establishing and directing the "church." Christ did not come to do away with prophets, as traditional Christians claim. "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, til all be fulfilled."100 How important are prophets? If there were no prophets, mankind would be destroyed, in a spiritual sense. "Where there is no vision, the people perish."101

Those who oppose Joseph Smith as a prophet (like McKeever and Johnson), do not oppose past prophets, but the prophets who are living in their time. This is also what happened to Christ, who proclaimed that He was the Son of God. It was the religious leaders who opposed Christ the hardest. The very same religious leaders who claimed to know and understand the scriptures. These same religious leaders actually were around to witness the miracles of Christ, yet they persecuted him. Christ understood that the Pharisees believed in the past prophets (like the traditional Christians today) while denying that a prophet could exist in the present time (again, just like the traditional Christian today). In His own words, Jesus said these religious leaders have the appearance of righteousness, yet were full of iniquity.

Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city:102

The same thing is true of Joseph Smith, and traditional Christians follow this pattern today. They proclaim to believe in Christ, but deny living prophets (such as Joseph Smith) who proclaim they have seen Christ and know He is the Savior, and proclaim it to the world.

Just because someone claims to be a prophet does not mean that we should automatically accept him as such. McKeever and Johnson are correct in their unwritten premise that we need to test modern prophets against what the Lord has already revealed in scripture. Their problem however, is that in accepting the traditional belief that there can be no more prophets, they then twist the words of the modern prophet, and ignore the words of the past prophets, in order to justify their traditional belief.

Endnotes

7 Actually, I already know. The list of "false prophecies" is easily available from critics. I have done a lot of research regarding these prophecies, and written extensively about them in forums on the Internet and local bulletin boards over the past several years. I have yet to find a false prophecy made by the prophet Joseph Smith.

68 B.H. Roberts, New Witnesses for God, Vol. 1 (Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1909), 319.

69 Matthew 24:6-7.

70 Joseph Fielding Smith, Church History and Modern Revelation: Being a Course of Study for the Melchizedek Priesthood Quorums for the Years 1947-1950, Vol. 2, (Salt Lake City: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1947), 123.

71 James E. Talmage, A Study of the Articles of Faith (Salt Lake City: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1978), 25-26.

72 Neal A. Maxwell, Sermons Not Spoken (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1985), 66.

73 B.H. Roberts, Comprehensive History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Vol. 1, (Orem, Utah: Sonos Publishing, 1991), 302.

74 Joseph Fielding Smith, Church History and Modern Revelation: Being a Course of Study for the Melchizedek Priesthood Quorums for the Years 1947-1950, Vol. 2, (Salt Lake City: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1947), 125.

75 Neal A. Maxwell, Sermons Not Spoken (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1985), 66.

76 B.H. Roberts, Comprehensive History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Vol. 1, (Orem, Utah: Sonos Publishing, 1991), 303.

77 Ibid., 302-303.

78 Paul H. Peterson, "Civil War Prophecy," Encyclopedia of Mormonism, edited by Daniel H. Ludlow (New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1992), 1:288.

79 But then, the truth doesn't sell as much in the bookstores as does anti-Mormon polemic. I had someone, whose name I cannot remember, tell me that one time he had asked a Christian Bookstore owner why he sold anti-Mormon material, which was full of untruths about the Church. He offered to supply him with real LDS material, such as the Book of Mormon, Articles of Faith, A Marvelous Work and a Wonder, Miracle of Forgiveness, Doctrine and Covenants, etc., and was turned down. The explanation he received for refusal to stock LDS material was that no one would buy them. Since I was told that story, I inquired the same thing locally, and received the same response. They didn't care about the truth, only the money that would be generated.

80 Brigham Young, "Privileges of the Sabbath, Etc.," Journal of Discourses, reported by G.D. Watt 20 May 1860, Vol. 8 (London: Latter-Day Saint's Book Depot, 1861), 58.

81 2 Peter 3:8.

82 Joseph Smith, History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Vol. 1 (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1978), 312, footnotes.

92 http://www.usmo.com/~momollus/battles.htm

93 Joseph Smith, History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Vol. 3 (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1978), LXIII.

97 Amos 3:7.

98 Jeremiah 23:23.

99 Luke 1:70.

100 Matthew 5:17-18.

101 Proverbs 29:18.

102 Matthew 23:28-34.

103 McKeever and Johnson have enough communication with active members of the Church not to be aware of its true doctrine and history.