By Marvin W. Cowan

Mormonism’s founding prophet, Joseph Smith said, “When a man goes about prophesying, and commands men to obey his teachings, he must either be a true or false prophet” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 365). The Doctrine and Covenants (D. & C.) is LDS scripture and contains “revelations,” commandments etc. that Joseph Smith claims he received from God. D. & C. 1:37 says, “Search these commandments (in the D. & C.) for they are true and faithful and the prophecies and promises which are in them shall all be fulfilled.” D. & C. 3:1-3 further says, “The works and the designs, and the purposes of God cannot be frustrated, neither can they come to naught… it is not the work of God that is frustrated, but the work of men.” On April 6, 1830 Joseph Smith founded the Mormon Church and claimed that God said his followers should “give heed unto all his (Joseph’s) words and commandments…for his word ye shall receive as if from mine own mouth, in all patience and faith” (D. & C. 21:4-5). Smith’s words and commandments with prophecies and promises are still in the D. & C. which also says the work of God can’t be frustrated or stopped. Therefore, Smith’s prophecies in the D. & C. must all be fulfilled or he was a false prophet.

The gathering of the LDS to Independence, MO was a prophecy and a doctrine in early Mormonism. Even after Smith’s death and the LDS move to Utah, LDS Apostle Orson Pratt said “Joseph Smith…professes to have received, through revelation and commandment from God, a dispensation for the gathering of the Saints from all nations. Now the doctrine of the gathering of the Saints in the last days must either be false or true; if false, then J. Smith must be an imposter. It matters not how correct he may have been in all other points of his system, if this one point—the doctrine of the gathering be false, he must be a deceiver. Why? Because he professes to have received this doctrine by direct revelation and commandment” (“Divine Authority,” in A Series of Pamphlets, pub. by Orson Pratt in 1851). There are many prophecies in the D. & C. and elsewhere about the gathering, but our limited space here will allow a summary of just a few. See our references for more of Smith’s revelations. Below are some of Smith’s prophecies in the D. & C. about the “gathering” in chronological order and how they were fulfilled.

1. Joseph Smith said the Lord revealed D. & C. 29:1-11 to him just before September 26, 1830. It says, “Ye are called to bring to pass the gathering of mine elect” to one place to prepare them for His coming “from heaven with power and great glory” and His reign “in righteousness with men on earth a thousand years.” It also says “The hour is nigh and the day soon at hand” when the wicked will be burned up so “that wickedness shall not be upon the earth.”
Result: Smith had the LDS start gathering in MO in 1831, but they had to move often because of conflicts with their neighbors and all LDS left MO by 1838. LDS are now told “to remain in their homelands rather than immigrate to the United States” (Ensign, March 2000, p. 79). Christ hasn’t returned and set up His kingdom and wickedness is still on earth even though Smith received this revelation in 1830.

2. Smith said he received D. & C. 45:62-71 on March 7, 1831. It says to “gather up your riches that ye may purchase an inheritance which shall hereafter be appointed unto you. And it shall be called the New Jerusalem, a land of peace, a city of refuge, a place of safety for the saints of the Most High God… and the wicked shall not come unto it, and it shall be called Zion…The righteous shall be gathered out from among all nations, and shall come to Zion.” In D. & C. 57:1-5 Smith said the Lord consecrated Independence, Missouri as the place for the gathering and as an everlasting inheritance. And D. & C. 133:4-7 commands “Gather ye together, O ye people of my (LDS) church, upon the land of Zion… the time has come when the voice of the Lord is unto you…gather ye out from among the nations.”
Result: LDS in 1831 were told to buy land around Independence, MO, and gather there. But they were driven out, so it was not a place of peace, safety and refuge for them. LDS from all nations never occupied “Zion” nor is it an everlasting inheritance for LDS today.

3. Smith said he received D. & C. 84:1-5 on September 22-23, 1832 in which the Lord said that Zion or New Jerusalem “shall be built, beginning at the temple lot…in the western boundaries of the State of Missouri…by the gathering of the saints beginning at this place, even the place of the temple, which temple shall be reared in this generation. For verily this generation shall not all pass away until an house shall be built unto the Lord.” D. & C. 97:19-20 also says “Zion (in Independence, MO) is the city of our God and surely Zion cannot fall, neither be moved out of her place, for God is there, and the hand of the Lord is there and he hath sworn by the power of his might to be her salvation and her high tower.”
Result: The second LDS Prophet, Brigham Young said that a generation only lasts from 27 to 29 years (Journal of Discourses vol. 12, p.118). The generation alive in 1832 all died long ago, yet nothing in D. & C. 84:1-5 was fulfilled. Conflicts with the people in Independence, MO, led LDS leaders to enter a treaty to leave two weeks before D. & C. 97: 19-20 was given by Smith (History of the Church vol. I, p. 394). He didn’t know that because he was in Kirtland, OH when he gave that prophecy, but the Lord surely should have known it! Since these prophecies weren’t fulfilled like D. & C. 1:37 said they would be, they didn’t come from God and Smith was a false prophet.

We will continue our discussion of LDS Prophets and Prophecies next time. More is available on this subject in my book Mormon Claims Answered.

By Marvin W. Cowan

The Profile of a Prophet is the title of an article by Hugh B. Brown in the LDS magazine Ensign for June 2006 (pp. 34-39).  Brown was an LDS Apostle and a member of the First Presidency with the ninth LDS President and Prophet, David O. McKay.  The article is a summary of a discussion Brown had with an English friend about Joseph Smith being a true prophet.  In it he listed some characteristics that he said should distinguish a man who claims to be a prophet.  One of the characteristics he mentioned was that a prophet “would predict future events in the name of the Lord, and they would come to pass as did Isaiah and Ezekiel” (p. 37).  While that is what the Bible teaches, Brown didn’t give any examples of such prophecies by Joseph Smith or any other Mormon prophet.  Instead of giving examples of Joseph Smith’s fulfilled prophecies, Brown later said, “Only by the whisperings of the Holy Spirit can one come to know the things of God.  By those whisperings I say I know that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God.  I thank God for that knowledge”(p.39).  So, it was not because of fulfilled prophecies that Brown knew that Joseph Smith was a prophet.  It was because of an experience he called “the whisperings of the Holy Spirit.”  Many Mormons claim to know something is true by “the whisperings of the Holy Spirit” but they differ on what that means.  Some say it is a feeling or “a burning bosom” while others say they heard a voice speak to them.  The Bible doesn’t say such things prove a man is a true prophet.  The Biblical proof of a true prophet is that all of his prophecies come true (Deuteronomy 13:1-5 and 18:20-22).  It also warns that if a man prophecies in the name of any god other than the God of Israel, he is still a false prophet even if his prophecy comes to pass.

In his article, Hugh B. Brown also said that Joseph Smith “predicted many things which have come to pass, things which only God could bring to pass” (p. 38).  Again he gave no example of such prophecy.  When Mormons are asked for examples of Joseph Smith’s true prophecies, most of them mention Smith’s “Civil War prophecy” which is now LDS scripture in Doctrine & Covenants 87.  But everything that is true in Smith’s “prophecy” was published in secular newspapers before his revelation.  Smith’s Civil War prophecy is dated December 25, 1832, and the first three verses declare: “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.  For behold, the Southern States shall be divided against the Northern States, and the Southern States will call on other nations, even the nation Great Britain, as it is called, and they shall also call upon other nations, in order to defend themselves against other nations; and then war shall be poured out upon all nations.”

Mormons point out that the Civil War did begin in South Carolina and ended with the death and misery of many.  But four days before Smith’s revelation, the Painsville, OH newspaper near Smith’s home predicted that war would begin in South Carolina between the Northern and Southern states.  That was also predicted in many newspapers even earlier because on July 14, 1832, Congress had passed a tariff act which South Carolina considered so bad that they declared it null and void on November 24, 1832.  President Andrew Jackson responded by sending Gen. Scott with armed troops and a warship to Charleston, SC on December 10, 1832, and many expected war to begin in So. Carolina two weeks before Smith received his revelation!  However, things temporarily settled down and the Civil War didn’t begin in South Carolina until about 28 years later.  But it began because the same old issues had never been resolved.  So, when Smith prophesied war would begin in South Carolina between the Northern and Southern states, it was information that had already been in the newspapers.  But Smith also predicted that the Southern states would call on Great Britain for help and that Great Britain would call on other nations to help and then war would be poured out upon all nations.  The South did call on Great Britain for help, but Britain refused to help and did not call on any other nation to help and war was not poured out upon all nations as Smith had predicted.  So, there is false prophecy even in the first three verses of Smith’s Civil War prophecy.

But nothing in the remaining verses of Smith’s Civil War prophecy happened.  He said that slaves would rise up against their masters in the war (v. 4).  But there was no great uprising of slaves against their masters nor were slaves major participants in the war.  Slaves were freed by Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation.  The main participants in the war were Northern white people fighting Southern white people.  Smith’s prophecy also said the “remnants of the land” would “vex the Gentiles with sore vexation” in the war (v. 5).  LDS authorities identify the “remnants of the land” as American Indians.  Did the Indians vex the white “Gentiles” with a great vexation or have any major part in the Civil War?  Did the sword, bloodshed, famine, plague, earthquake, thunder and lightening etc. “make a full end of all nations” as Smith said in v. 6?   It is too late for these things to be fulfilled now, so it is false prophecy.  Yet, it is this prophecy that Mormons almost always use as evidence that Smith was a true prophet of God!

Our next article will continue our discussion of prophets in Mormonism.  More can be read on this subject in my book Mormon Claims Answered.

By Marvin W. Cowan

The President of the LDS Church is also the Presiding High Priest of the LDS Priesthood as their scripture says in Doctrine & Covenants 107:65-66.  No one on earth has more authority in Mormonism than the President of the Church.  He is a Prophet, Seer, Revelator, Translator and Trustee-in-Trust of the LDS Church.  LDS Apostle Bruce R. McConkie said, “He is the one man on earth at a time who can both hold and exercise the keys of the kingdom in their fullness” (Mormon Doctrine, p. 592, see D. & C. 132:7).  Since Mormons believe the President of the LDS Church is a “prophet” to whom God reveals the future and His will for mankind, they believe they have information that no one else on earth has.  LDS claim that Amos 3:7 in the Bible supports that belief.  It says, “Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret unto His servants, the prophets.”  But, the context of that verse shows that God told Israel that He would not punish them without warning them first.  God did not promise to reveal everything He was going to do to prophets before He acted and history shows He has never done that.

Mormon history also shows that their Prophets usually either didn’t know what God was going to do, or if they knew, they ignored it and didn’t tell anyone, so it was of no value.  For example, in 2006 Mormons celebrated the 150th anniversary of the 1856 LDS handcart trek from Iowa City, Iowa to Salt Lake City.  But was it the great success their celebrations seemed to indicate?  In 1856 the last two handcart companies to leave Iowa City were led by James G. Willie and Edward Martin respectively.  Willie’s left on July 15 and Martin’s on July 28 because their handcarts and tents weren’t ready until then.  Mormon Prophet Brigham Young said, “The (hand) carts can be made without a particle of iron” (Handcarts to Zion, pp. 29-30).  Mormon Apostle Franklin D. Richards who oversaw the handcart project said, “The (handcart) plan is the device of inspiration, and the Lord will own and bless it” (ibid. p.32).  But the handcarts were poorly constructed and without iron in the axels the wood wore out so fast the pioneers had to stop often for repairs.  Those delays caused “the greatest single tragedy in the history of the nation’s move west in the nineteenth century” (Forgotten Kingdom, by David L. Bigler, p. 118).  Willie’s and Martin’s companies arrived in the high elevations of Wyoming so late in the year that they were caught in terrible snowstorms and freezing weather.  Many of the pioneers froze or starved to death while others died of exhaustion.  B. H. Roberts, a respected Mormon historian said, “One of the chief contributing causes to the handcart disaster was the frailness of these carts, and the unfitness of the material put into them.  They were hurriedly made of unseasoned timber, and so much was sacrificed to lightness that the necessary strength and durability was impossible…the wheels were devoid of iron except in some of them there was a very light iron tire.  The whole weight of a cart was about sixty pounds (A Comprehensive History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, pp. 95-96).  Roberts went on to say, “The exact number of those who perished in this (Martin’s) company is not of record in our official annals…the estimate of Chislett and Jacques—putting their estimate at 145—is perhaps not far from the facts.  And these added to Willie’s seventy-seven deaths, brings the total of deaths to 222.  The number who were frost-bitten was also large, and some were crippled for life” (ibid. pp. 101-102).

The very day that the Mormon Church was organized their scripture commanded them to keep records (D. & C. 21:1).  Mormons probably have more records than almost any other organization.  So, why doesn’t the LDS Church have records of those who died or even how many died in the Willie and Martin handcart companies of 1856?  Some think that LDS leaders kept that information from being made public because they didn’t want potential converts to know how bad the tragedy was or they might conclude that Mormonism was not led by a true Prophet of God.  What urgent need resulted in the handcarts being built so quickly out of unfit material that they often broke down?  Why did those handcart companies in 1856 want to get to Salt Lake that year?  It was not persecution as the June 2006 issue of the LDS Ensign magazine says on p. 78: “This influx of Mormon settlers (to Iowa City), who had faced persecution elsewhere, found a safe harbor in Iowa City where, Mr. Horton says, members of other denominations often helped the Saints build handcarts and prepare for their journey.”   If it wasn’t persecution that caused those handcart companies to risk traveling so late in the year, what was it?  It was the prophetic warning by LDS leaders that the Lord was coming soon to judge the nations and the only safe haven was in Zion (Utah).  That message combined with Joseph Smith’s “revelation” concerning gathering the LDS to one place (see D. & C. 29) motivated Mormons to try to get to Utah as fast as possible.  One thing is obvious; having a Prophet as the head of the Mormon Church in 1856 didn’t help those LDS pioneers who lost their lives trying to obey him.