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November 1837

Just days before his Crucifixion, Jesus warned his disciples that they should hear “of wars and rumours of wars” among the signs of his coming. But, he reassured them, “see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet” (Matthew 24:6; compare Joseph Smith—Matthew 1:23, 28). In the latter days, on Christmas Day in 1832, the Lord pronounced in a revelation that “the time will come that war will be poured out upon all nations” (Doctrine and Covenants 87:2). After bloody civil strife in the United States over the hotly divisive issue of slavery (verses 2–4), conflict would spread throughout the globe, so that “with the sword and by bloodshed the inhabitants of the earth shall mourn” (verse 6). Two world wars and tens of millions left dead in their wake—to say nothing of the additional tens of millions left dead in various revolutionary and nationalistic wars since the late nineteenth century—stand as a grim testament to the prescience of this prophetic warning.[1]

The Prophet Joseph Smith’s prophecy of war now canonized as section 87 of the Doctrine and Covenants is not his only revelatory outpouring on this subject. In November 1837 in the pages of the Elders’ Journal, a Church periodical that ran from October 1837 to August 1838, Joseph published another prophecy of impending devastation. This one was couched in a longer editorial clarifying the decision to gather the Saints to Far West, Missouri. “The subject of the propriety of the Saints gathering to the city of Far West was taken into consideration” among the high council in Kirtland, Joseph explained, and “after a lengthy discussion upon the subject, it was voted that the work of the gathering to that place be continued.” Additional stakes were planned around Far West to accommodate the influx of Church members. “Now we would recommend to the Saints scattered abroad, that they make all possible exertions to gather themselves together unto those places,” the Prophet wrote.[2] Thereafter he recorded the present revelation warning that “peace shall soon be taken from the earth” because “a lying spirit has gone out upon all the face of the earth.” This lying spirit, the revelation announced, would “perplex the nations” and “stir them up to anger.” The Saints were thus to “make haste” to gather to Zion in order to find safety from this looming disaster, but only if they could make peace among themselves in their place of refuge.

That Zion was, in part, meant to serve as a place for the Saints to escape the wars and calamites that should be poured out upon the earth is clear from Joseph Smith’s other revelations.[3] The prophecy given in November 1837 reinforces this aspect of the Prophet’s teachings about the nature of Zion. The Saints are to gather themselves together to find shelter from “the very fierce and terrible war” that would burst upon the world in anticipation of Christ’s return. Crucially, the Saints are to “be at peace among [themselves],” lest their contention and division leave them vulnerable to the consuming power of the destroyer (3 Nephi 11:29). “Renounce war and proclaim peace,” the Lord commanded in another of the Prophet’s revelations, “and seek diligently to turn the hearts of the children to their fathers, and the hearts of the fathers to the children” (Doctrine and Covenants 98:16). If they do not, the people risk incurring the Lord’s wrath, who shall “smite the whole earth with a curse, and all flesh be consumed before [him]” in consequence (verse 17). This injunction to shun violence and seek peaceful resolution to national crises has been repeated and echoed by God’s prophets whenever the specter of war has haunted the nations.[4]

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Verily, thus saith the Lord—peace shall soon be taken from the earth, and it has already begun to be taken. For a lying spirit has gone out upon all the face of the earth, and shall perplex the nations, and shall stir them up to anger against one another. For behold, saith the Lord, very fierce and very terrible war is near at hand, even at your doors. Therefore, make haste, saith the Lord, O ye my people, and gather yourselves together, and be at peace among yourselves, or there shall be no safety for you.

Notes

[1] For perspective on this remarkable prophecy, see Scott C. Esplin, “‘Have We Not Had a Prophet Among Us?’: Joseph Smith’s Civil War Prophecy,” in Civil War Saints, ed. Kenneth L. Alford (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2012), 41–59.

[2] Elders’ Journal 1, no. 2 (November 1837): 28.

[3] See Mark Ashurst-McGee, “Zion as a Refuge from the Wars of Nations,” in War & Peace in Our Time: Mormon Perspectives, ed. Patrick Q. Mason, J. David Pulsipher, and Richard L. Bushman (Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2012), 83–91.

[4] On Friday, October 6, 1939, one month after the German invasion of Poland that inaugurated World War II, President Heber J. Grant read a declaration from the First Presidency that “God is grieved by war and that he will hold subject to the eternal punishments of his will those who wage it unrighteously.” He condemned “all of war’s foul brood—avarice, greed, misery, want, disease, cruelty, hate, inhumanity, savagery, death,” and further implored “all members of the Church to love their brethren and sisters, and all peoples, whoever and wherever they are, to banish hate from their lives, to fill their hearts with charity, patience, long-suffering, and forgiveness.” One Hundred Tenth Semi-Annual Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1939), 8. Elder Bruce R. McConkie similarly decried war as “probably the most satanic and evil state of affairs that can or does exist on earth. It is,” he said, “organized and systematic murder, with rapine, robbery, sex immorality and every other evil as a natural attendant. War is of the devil; it is born of lust.” Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, 2nd rev. ed. (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1979), 826. In June 1976, President Spencer W. Kimball deplored that “we are a warlike people, easily distracted from our assignment of preparing for the coming of the Lord. When enemies rise up, we commit vast resources to the fabrication of gods of stone and steel—ships, planes, missiles, fortifications—and depend on them for protection and deliverance. When threatened, we become antienemy instead of pro-kingdom of God; we train a man in the art of war and call him a patriot, thus, in the manner of Satan’s counterfeit of true patriotism, perverting the Savior’s teaching.” Spencer W. Kimball, “The False Gods We Worship,” Ensign, June 1976, 6. During the United States invasion of Iraq in the spring of 2003, President Gordon B. Hinckley affirmed the Church’s position that while “those in the armed services are under obligation to their respective governments to execute the will of the sovereign, . . . we of this Church are people of peace. We are followers of our Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ, who was the Prince of Peace.” After expressing his personal view that the war in Iraq was justified on the basis of preserving global freedom, President Hinckley nevertheless went on to say, “We call upon the Lord, whose strength is mighty and whose powers are infinite, to bring an end to the conflict, an end that will result in a better life for all concerned.” Gordon B. Hinckley, “War and Peace,” Ensign, May 2003, 79–81. More recently, in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine launched in February 2022, President Russell M. Nelson taught, “As followers of Jesus Christ, we plead with leaders of nations to find peaceful resolutions to their differences. We call upon people everywhere to pray for those in need, to do what they can to help the distressed, and to seek the Lord’s help in ending any major conflicts. Brothers and sisters, the gospel of Jesus Christ has never been needed more than it is today. Contention violates everything the Savior stood for and taught. I love the Lord Jesus Christ and testify that His gospel is the only enduring solution for peace. His gospel is a gospel of peace.” Russell M. Nelson, “Preaching the Gospel of Peace,” Liahona, May 2022, 6, emphasis in original. Compare then-Elder Nelson’s remarks in “‘Blessed Are the Peacemakers,’” Ensign, November 2002, 39–41.