A Few Prophecies of LDS Prophets and How They Came True
Before Joseph Smith died, he said at times that he would not live past 40 years old. He was murdered at age 38. When he traveled to Carthage a few days before his death, he stated, “I am going as a lamb to the slaughter.”
The night before Joseph died, a friend of his named Dan Jones visited him at the jail in Carthage. Dan offered to stay, but Joseph told him to go, telling him that he would go to Wales as a missionary and be the means of bringing many to salvation. Following Joseph’s death, Dan did go to Wales, where more than 15,000 people were baptized as a result of his efforts.
When Joseph and his brother Hyrum were murdered, there were two witnesses to that event: John Taylor and Willard Richards. The former was shot four times but survived. The latter was unharmed, though a bullet grazed his ear, and more went through his clothes. Earlier, Joseph had told Willard that the day would come when the bullets would fly about him like hail and he would see his friends fall around him, but he would be unharmed.
In Doctrine and Covenants, Section 87, Joseph Smith predicted the American Civil War, which would start in South Carolina, engage foreign nations, and initiate a future of wars worldwide.
Some critics say establishing Zion in Missouri was a failed prophecy, but the situation was exactly the same as the Israelites being turned away from Canaan and forced to wander in the wilderness. Neither group was worthy at the time to fulfill the prophecy; fulfillment would come at a future time of greater worthiness.
Joseph also said the Saints would be driven to the Rocky Mountains. That happened after his death, when Brigham Young led a group of pioneers to the Salt Lake Valley, founded the city there, and organized more than 300 settlements in an area stretching from Cardston, Canada, to Juarez, Mexico, and including such towns as Las Vegas, San Bernardino, and just about any town in Utah you can see on a map.
Isaiah’s writings have always enjoyed a privileged place in Latter-day Saint teachings. And we claim his prophecies for these latter days. While Salt Lake City enjoys protection and water from the mountains around it, the original name Brigham Young wanted to give the territory was Deseret, a word from the Book of Mormon that means honeybee. When the land fell under United States control, Congress rejected Brigham’s proposed name and instead called the territory Utah, after the Utes who lived in the area. The name Ute means “people of the mountains.” Salt Lake City has long been identified as the crossroads of the West, and people of all nations have visited, with many choosing to make it their home.
Founding a city from almost nothing isn’t easy. The early pioneers sometimes complained about how little they had to work with, being more than a thousand miles from any other settlement of consequence at the time. Some wanted to go elsewhere. Heber C. Kimball, an original member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, spoke in favor of staying, promising that the day would come when the people in Salt Lake City would be able to buy goods at prices lower than they could get them in New York and other cities in the east. Only a few months later, the California Gold Rush began, and easterners racing to California began passing through Salt Lake, dumping excess goods at heavily discounted prices before venturing across the harsh wastelands of Nevada.
Brother Kimball later said,
The Spirit of prophecy foresees future events. God does not bring to pass a thing because you say it shall be so, but because He designed it should be so, and it is the future purposes of the Almighty that the Prophet foresees. That is the way I prophesy, but I have predicted things I did not foresee, and did not believe anybody else did, but I have said it, and it came to pass even more abundantly than I predicted; and that was with regard to the future situation of the people who first came into this valley. Nearly every man was dressed in skins, and we were all poor, destitute, and distressed, yet we all felt well. I said, “It will be but a little while, brethren, before you shall have food and raiment in abundance, and shall buy it cheaper than it can be bought in the cities of the United States.” I did not know there were any Gentiles coming here, I never thought of such a thing; but after I spoke it, I thought I must be mistaken this time. Brother [Charles C.] Rich remarked at the time, “I do not believe a word of it.” And neither did I; but, to the astonishment and joy of the Saints, it came to pass just as I had spoken it, only more abundantly. The Lord led me right, but I did not know it.
I have heard Joseph say many times, that he was much tempted about the revelations the Lord gave through him—it seemed to be so impossible for them to be fulfilled. I do not profess to be a Prophet; but I know that every man and woman can be, if they live for it.
Yes, we think we are secure here in the chambers of the everlasting hills, where we can close those few doors of the canyons against mobs and persecutors, the wicked and the vile, who have always beset us with violence and robbery, but I want to say to you, my brethren, the time is coming when we will be mixed up in these now peaceful valleys to that extent that it will be difficult to tell the face of a Saint from the face of an enemy to the people of God. Then, brethren, look out for the great sieve, for there will be a great sifting time, and many will fall; for I say unto you there is a test, a TEST, a TEST coming, and who will be able to stand?
We’re seeing that happening right now.
In 1975, Ezra Taft Benson, who was then President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, said,
Going to foreign countries, the Lord breaks down the barriers. Sometimes we have to fight to get right up to what appears to be a stone wall, and then he melts the wall down, and he’ll melt down the Iron Curtain, and he’ll shatter the Bamboo Curtain when the time is ripe, in order that this great message of salvation will reach all of our Father’s children.
No one in 1975 believed the Iron Curtain would go down, while today, people who don’t remember the Cold War have a hard time believing it was that bad. But for those who weren’t around in 1991, the collapse of the Soviet Union took the world by surprise.
Thomas S. Monson, as a newer member of the Twelve, once visited a few of the Saints in East Germany in 1968. Reminiscing about that visit 21 years later, he said,
I stood at the pulpit, and with tear-filled eyes and a voice choked with emotion, I made a promise to the people: “If you will remain true and faithful to the commandments of God, every blessing any member of the Church enjoys in any other country will be yours.” Then I realized what I had said. That night, I dropped to my knees and pleaded with my Heavenly Father, “Father, I’m on Thy errand; this is Thy Church. I have spoken words that came not from me but from Thee and Thy Son. Wilt Thou fulfill the promise in the lives of this noble people.” Thus concluded my first visit to the German Democratic Republic.
The fulfillment of his prophecy happened before Germany had been reunified, as the East German Saints eventually had stakes, a patriarch, missionaries, and a temple.
President Spencer W. Kimball foresaw a day when communications technology would take the gospel to the ends of the earth:
With the Lord providing these miracles of communication, and with the increased efforts and devotion of our missionaries and all of us, surely the divine injunction will come to pass: ‘For, verily, the sound must go forth from this place into all the world, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth — the gospel must be preached unto every creature’ (Doctrine and Covenants 58:64). And we must find a way.
And most recently, Prophet Russell M. Nelson has urged the Saints (and the world) to prepare for the second coming of Christ, saying,
My dear brothers and sisters, so many wonderful things are ahead,” he said. “In coming days, we will see the greatest manifestations of the Savior’s power that the world has ever seen. Between now and the time he returns ‘with power and great glory,’ he will bestow countless privileges, blessings, and miracles upon the faithful.
