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- [00:01]
Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat
Welcome to the Standard of Truth podcast hosted by historian Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat, where we explore the early days of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and gain rare historical insights into how a young farm boy was able to establish a new church and grow it by way of visions, manifestations and miracles.
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Richard Leduc
Foreign welcome to another episode of the Standard of Truth podcast. I am your host, Garrett Dirkmot, and I'm joined by my co host, Richard Leduc.
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Unknown Speaker
So in come follow me. We are going to be discussing a section of the Doctrine Covenants that I have always found interesting, and it's section 87 of the doctrine Covenants as it relates to the Civil War. What context can you provide for us with this particular section?
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Richard Leduc
This is one of my favorite sections to study in the Doctrine and Covenants, I think because of my American history background and, you know, I've studied a lot of Civil War history. I find this to be one of the. One of the most fascinating and frankly, one of the most incredible revelations that Joseph Smith received. It is not nearly taken as seriously, I think, as it should be by either Latter Day Saints or their detractors. So let's talk a little bit about it. It's received in 1832. So that's when the church is in Kirtland. We've just over the last year had the revelation announcing that Jackson county is going to be where Zion is going to be. And I think that the way that many people and certainly many detractors of the church view this revelation is, oh, that there's going to be a civil war over slavery. Oh, my goodness gracious. How, what, what an amazing thought that is. And that's because as humans, we have a tendency to view the past through the lens of our present. And we assume that the way things are now is the way things have always been. And that's the reason why, you know, look, if you want to be an arrogant person, it's fun to study history because if you ever feel bad about yourself, you can just read anything from the past and you already know everything. You know more than all the people who came before you. And you can break your arm patting yourself on the back about how great you are. So, you know, sometimes we look back on the past and we don't do enough justice to the fact that we already know the end from the beginning. Right. Sometimes we'll do this when we're talking about what Joseph Smith learned in the. In the sacred grove. Right. I'm not entirely sure all the things that Joseph Smith learned in the Sacred grove. He's a 14 year old and he's shocked as he's talking to God and Jesus. I think over the course of his life, he reflects back on that experience over and over and over again. But we know what revelations and miracles Joseph Smith is going to receive and perform in the years that follow. Joseph doesn't. We know, because, you know, we, we have the benefit of, of historical hindsight. And I think that's sometimes how people dismiss Joseph Smith's prophecy on the American Civil War, in part because the Civil War actually did happen. And so when we look at that era in American history, everything's leading to that Civil War. Everything. Everything's in the context of the Civil War. Civil War, Civil War, Civil War. But that's because we know that a Civil War happened. If you're living in 1832 in the United States, you don't think a Civil War is going to happen, frankly, in 1860 in the United States, on the eve of the Civil War, you don't think a Civil War is going to happen. So let's just go to that section. Now, incidentally, this was a section received in 1832, but it was not included in the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants, and it actually wasn't included in the 1844 Doctrine and Covenants, as you might imagine. One way to inflame antagonism against you in a world that's already pretty mad that you exist is to say, hey, there's going to be a terrible bloody civil War that's going to rend this nation apart. I mean, so it actually gets published in the Pearl of great price in 1851. The Pearl of Great Price is this collection of not only the book of Moses and the Book of Abraham as we know them today, but it also includes some revelations that weren't included in the Doctrine and Covenants as a way of getting distribution there. And so even though it hadn't been published in the Doctrine and Covenants prior to that, it was well known. In fact, you know, Parley Pratt would, would talk about it all the time and, and published in the Pearl Great Price, which gets wide circulation. And this revelation will be included later after the fact, but it certainly exists before that. Verily, thus saith the Lord concerning the wars which 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 of 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. And it shall come to pass after many days, slaves shall rise up against their masters, who shall be marshaled and disciplined for war. And it shall come to pass that also that the remnants who are left of the land will marshal themselves and shall become exceedingly angry shall vex the Gentiles with a sore vexation. And thus with the sword, and by bloodshed the inhabitants of the earth shall mourn. And with the famine and plague and earthquake and thunder of heaven, and the fierce and vivid lightning, also shall the inhabitants of the earth be made to feel the wrath of and indignation and chastening hand of an almighty God, until the consumption decreed hath made a full end of all nations. That the cry of the saints and the blood of the saints shall cease to come up into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth from the earth to be avenged of their enemies. Wherefore stand ye in holy places and be not moved until the day of the Lord come. For behold, it cometh quickly, saith the Lord. Amen. So that's the revelation. Interestingly, one of the things that's in this revelation that I think gets a little bit of a short shrift, right, is that the cry of the saints and the blood of the saints shall cease to come up under the ears of the Lord. This is in 1832, prior to the widespread violence against the Latter Day Saints. The Jackson county violence is going to begin in July of 1833 and is triggered by the article written by W.W. phelps in the Times and Seasons. Sorry. In the evening and Morning Star newspaper in entitled Free People of Color, in which he invites free black Latter Day Saints to move to the slave state of Missouri. And the results are an almost instant violent reaction by the. The pro slavery Missourians, who are so, you know, antagonistic to this idea of allowing free blacks into. Into the state, into their area. But that's, that's still months away. Yes, there's going to be all kinds of violence against the Latter Day Saints, but it hasn't really happened yet. You certainly are years away from the extermination order or from the violent destructions that are driving them out of Nauvoo. And you're certainly years away from the murder of Joseph and Hyrum Smith. So it's very interesting how early this Revelation is received. Now it's received on Christmas Day. So nothing says merry Christmas like a revelation about the destruction and termination and death of many souls. But like I said, I think it's often dismissed. It's dismissed because we know that the Civil War was bloody, and we know that it started in South Carolina, and we know the Southern states were divided into the northern states, and the south utilized as much as they could Great Britain and kept trying to get Great Britain to come into the war on their side. And so, for some reason, because we know that, we actually tend to view the revelation as less impressive than it was. First and foremost, it's important to understand that the idea that South Carolina could be. I mean, so a critic might say, well, everybody knew that if there was a war, it was going to start in South Carolina. Well, that's not a bad play. In fact, in the early 1830s, there is a huge conflict between the federal government and South Carolina, but it's not over slavery. In. In fact, in 1832, there is a reaction to something that was passed in 1828. It was the Tariff act of 1828, but Southerners called it the Tariff of Abominations, which clearly wasn't what the Congress named it. That's not exactly, you know, however bad a politician you are, you're not going to name a bill you pass the Tariff of Abominations. But back in the day in early America, the way that the government funded itself was through tariffs. This is going to come as a gigantic shock to everybody, but income tax did not exist. The federal government collected no income tax. The taxes that were levied on the state level were property taxes. Income tax doesn't exist. That's a. That's something that's created by the Progressive era in the early 20th century. And so the way the government funded itself was primarily through the sale of public lands. So selling lands in the west, as people move further west and taxing imported goods. Well, the problem with tariffs is every time you pass them, there's usually a retaliatory tariff that's issued by the other side. So if, you know the tariff of abominations taxes plows that are manufactured in England, there's a couple of things that that does. It raises money for the federal government as they collect the tax on plows that are manufactured in England. It also drives up the price of plows. Right. The idea being is that it helps plow manufacturers in the Mass. In Massachusetts, helps them be able to now compete because it's much cheaper to Build an English plow. Well now if we tax that English plow, it's the same cost as an American plow. Well, that only helps you if you happen to be a manufacturer. Tariffs hurt consumers. And that's exactly the problem the south had with this. Well, who do you think's buying these manufactured goods from England? Who do you think suffers the most from a retaliatory tariff? Well, people that are exporting things from the United States. So the south was both importing manufactured goods. So they're, they're importing things to help grow their crops in the south from England, but they're also exporting all their cotton and their tobacco and all that stuff to England or to English colonies. So the retaliation in terrorists would also hurt them more. Well, South Carolinians were pretty angry over this. And so they, in the offices of Andrew Jackson's former vice president, in fact, John C. Calhoun, they pass a series of bills that nullify, they call them the Nullification Acts. They nullify these federal laws, the Nullification Acts. Say if ever there's a federal law that's passed that unfairly hurts a certain state, that state basically doesn't have to follow it. You can see why this would lead to a conflict with the federal government. This isn't about Andrew Jackson. Well, so Andrew Jackson's response is to mobilize an army and march down to South Carolina planning to suppress it with force. But it has nothing to do, at least directly, with arguments over slavery. It's true that what southerners wanted, the reason why they didn't want a tariff, is because they had slaves and they were using those slaves to produce cotton and tobacco and rice and indigo and other exportable goods. But Andrew Jackson is super pro slavery. Andrew Jackson is a slave owner. Andrew Jackson is, is leading the expansion of slavery in, into other states. When he's the President of the United States. He is certainly not an anti slavery person. Neither is John C. Calhoun. So the fact that the argument is going to be over slavery is not a natural thing. If you were just simply parroting back in your revelation what had just happened, it would be an argument over taxes. In fact, while there is, there are arguments over slavery, most Americans believe that the arguments over slavery had been settled by the Compromise of 1820 or the Missouri Compromise. This is a big deal in the United States. It, it set a boundary that said that everything south of the southern line of Missouri would be open to slavery. But almost nothing existed down there at the time. All of what is today Texas, New Mexico, half of Oklahoma Arizona, California, Utah, Nevada, all of that was all part of Mexico. It was all part of Mexico. So it seemed like with the Compromise of 1820, that slavery was barely going to be able to expand anymore. And so in the 1830s, yes, there are abolitionists and there are people arguing against the expansion of slavery, but they are a very small minority. Some historians estimate that fewer than 1% of the Northern population would qualify as abolitionists during that time period. The what happens to change all of that is a vast expansion in American territory following the Mexican War where Texas and New Mexico and Arizona and Utah, Nevada and California and half of Colorado are all added to US Territory. And then there's arguments about whether or not they are free or slave territories. So at the time that Joseph receives that revelation, the idea that there's going to be a civil war over the argument of slavery is not a widespread belief. Will that become a belief that people might postulate in the late 1850s? Yeah, sure, 25 years later, but in the 1830s, it's, it's not a major argument. And in fact, you, you even see this in, in the later times, in, in, in 1840, for instance, the major argument is not about slavery in the presidential election. The major argument is should there be a national bank and how big should the, should the tariff be in 1844, for instance, the same year Joseph Smith is murdered? The argument is not, at least initially, about slavery. It'll, It'll at the very tail end, start to be an argument about slavery because of the annexation of Texas. Texas is, you know, would Texas become a slave state? Would we annex it to the United States? It's been an independent republic from Mexico. But the two presidential candidates in that election, the 1844 election, are James K. Polk, a slave owner from Tennessee, and Henry Clay, on the other side, a slave owner from Kentucky. Obviously, the nation is not very far apart yet in the way it would eventually become. And the Mexican War does a great deal to exacerbate that. So you could say, well, of course, Joseph Smith, you know, guessed that South Carolina would be the problem, but the fact that it would be over slavery is actually not actually the case. And if he's using history as any judge, what actually happened? Well, Jackson raised an army, threatened to march it down to South Carolina, and South Carolina immediately said, we give. Sorry, actually, we'll follow any federal law that you say history said that not only did a civil war seem entirely improbable, but that these states wouldn't actually end up fighting even if they did. When the Civil War actually breaks out. No one has any idea in 1861 how horrible it's going to be when it breaks out. To give you an idea, after the south fires on Fort Sumter and the Union invades Virginia, the first battle, the first land battle, major battle of the war, is the battle of Bull Run or Manassas Junction, if you happen to be from the South. In the north, they always name their battles after rivers or land features. And in the south, they always name their battles after the closest town or railroad junction. So it's very interesting. That's why it's Manassas Junction. And rather than Bull Run, that that might have been the most meaningless thing you've ever heard in your life. I think that that qualifies as the least important. Hopefully you are on a Jeopardy. Later. And one of the questions is how did each side name their battles during this war? But why do I bring this up? Well, people, even after these Southern states seceded, didn't really think there was going to be an actual war to the point that many hundreds of rich people from New York And Philadelphia and D.C. came out to watch what they expected to be the only battle of the Civil War and that it wouldn't actually be a battle that the Southern troops would see the Union, the US army marching down towards them and the Southern troops would, you know, lay down their arms and run away. And then, and then that would be the end. Just like what happened in South Carolina. To give you an idea of how little they thought this was going to be a major conflict. Initially it was only the Deep south states that, that seceded from the Union after Lincoln's elected. South Carolina is the first to secede, followed by, you know, Florida and Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana and Texas. All the Deep south states, the ones touching the Gulf outside of South Carolina and Georgia, they're the ones that they all secede initially just because Lincoln was elected back then. There is a huge lame duck period. I mean, huge. It's, it's, it's months, you know, now it's, you know, November to January. And even then there can be a lot of diciness that happens because you have a president who's leaving and if it's the other power that's coming in, that president might do all kinds of stuff. Well, back then the inauguration date wasn't until March, so way later. And so Buchanan, you know, is the President, but he's a lame duck. President Lincoln is coming in and you have months that go by where Buchanan does relatively to almost nothing to prevent this growing secession. But still, the northern slave states, Virginia, North Carolina, you know, Kentucky, Tennessee, they didn't secede until after the firing on Fort Sumter. Lincoln did something preposterous, at least to them. Lincoln called for this ridiculously massive force of volunteers for a ridiculous amount of time to fight against these rebellious southern states. The number of volunteers that Lincoln called for was 75,000 men to fight for three months. Lincoln is pilloried in the northern and especially the southern press for this. 75,000 men. Who does king Abraham the first think he is? 75,000 men. The standing army of the United States in 1860 is only 16,000 men. Abraham Lincoln has just asked for like, five times that number. And people think for three months. What are they going to do? Are they. Are they going to march through the entire south? Three months. The very fact that he calls for those volunteers, that the call for volunteers is seen as so ridiculously high, causes Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas to all leave. The union to gives you an idea. When Lincoln asks for 75,000 volunteers, he is roundly denounced as crazy for wanting the military to be that big in the battle of Gettysburg. In the midst of the civil War, there will be more than 180,000 men fighting on that single battlefield in that one place. And the whole nation's in a civil war. There will eventually be millions of men who fight in the Union Army. But in 1861, Lincoln is considered crazy that he asked for 75,000, because not only did no one actually think this was going to really become a war, they certainly didn't think that it would actually be a very me. Maybe there'll be a little skirmish between the Virginia militia and. And the U.S. army and. And that'll be it. And Virginia will lay their arms down because they're going off of their history. What's their history? When the Union army marches down south, the southern states go, okay, fine, you can have your laws back. And that's what everyone expects when the Union army is actually defeated at the battle of Bull Run slash Manassas Junction for my Southern Latter day Saint friendship. When they're actually defeated, they actually have a hard time escaping because the road is clogged by all of these rich people who came out to watch a picnic slash violent, bloody battle because they didn't think it was going to be a violent, bloody battle. They thought it would just be this little demonstration and that would be the end of the war. So one of the most amazing aspects of Joseph Smith's revelation is that he talks about how Terrible it's going to be that it's going to be a long time and that it's going to terminate in the deaths of many souls, which is exactly what it does. When in. In his history, when he writes about it, this is what. What he says the appearances of troubles among the nations became more visible this season than they had previously done since the church had begun her journey out of the wilderness. That's how he introduces this prophecy that's given on Christmas Day of 1832. Second. Well, I guess I'll stay with the idea of just how violent and terrible the war was. There are not only are there more than 75,000 deaths in the Civil War, there are going to be more deaths on single days of the Civil War than the D Day invasion in World War II, with machine guns and tanks and bombers and fighters and battleships in the Civil War, there are over 620,000 deaths. 620,000. In fact, there are so many people killed in the American Civil War that it's not until about halfway through the Vietnam War that the cost in lives of every single American war finally equals that of the American Civil War. And I'm talking World War I and World War II. World War II, the fight against the Nazis and against the Japanese Empire. Over 400,000Americans are killed in that war. And that's with bombs and flamethrowers and tanks and machine guns. 100 years. Well, 80 years before that, this American Civil War is more bloody by several hundred thousand men. It is a cataclysm that is actually pretty difficult to describe, to give you an idea. Right. You know, roughly 4,000Americans died in the Afghanistan conflict. That's nearly over at this point. That. That was over 15, you know, 20 years, essentially, right. That. That roughly 4,000Americans are killed. So every single thing you've heard about the conflict in Afghanistan in our modern era, again with machine guns, bombs and tanks and IDs and all that over the past two decades, all of those casualties are less than a single battle of the American Civil War. It is horrifically bloody. And so when someone very blithely and casually says things like, oh, everyone knew there was going to be a Civil War. Actually, nobody knew there was going to be a Civil War to the point that when the war broke out, no one actually believed it was a war, any more so than if tomorrow the state of Oregon voted in their legislature to secede from the United States, no one in the United States would actually believe that F35 would be launching missiles into the Oregon Statehouse. Tomorrow, no one would actually believe that we would think, okay, Oregon, nice little temper tantrum. That's great. Now come on back because you'll want your federal dollars for some interstates. You know, I mean, we would simply assume that, yes, it was a nice little temper tantrum, but it wasn't actually going to lead in Americans killing other Americans. And that's exactly how it was leading into the American Civil War. So that's what one of the most fascinating parts about this for me is as a historian, you know, even on the eve of the war, when people are using all kinds of violent rhetoric and we want our independence and I'd rather die than be under this Northern yoke, even those people don't seem to expect that it's actually going to be this violent and horrific war. Lincoln thought it was going to be over in three months. And over four years later, it's. It's still going on. Now sometimes, actually there's a criticism that, well, it says, though, that slaves are going to rise up against their masters. And, and that didn't really happen. There's no major slave insurrections in, in the South. So therefore, Joseph Smith's a false prophet. This is a really weird argument to make, right? Yeah, he was like, totally right, predicting this war three decades before it happened and the place that it happened and how bloody and violent it would be. But I mean, let's count the numbers on exactly how many slaves rose up. So that proves he's a false prophet. I mean, it's a ridiculous argument. But second of all, again, I guess they don't know their history, which when I say I guess, I mean I know that they don't know their history. The reality is there are thousands, tens of thousands, well over a hundred thousand black men who will, many of them, most of them fleeing from southern slave states, reconstitute themselves in the. In the Union portion of the states and be marshaled into units of war. By the end of the war. Even before they were allowed to fight in conflict, black men and obviously some women, when it comes to laundresses and things they were allowed to do during the war, they were already helping the Union army build roads and do logistical supply things behind the scenes. The reality is the Civil War is the great turning point in allowing black men, at least at the time it was women were primarily kept out of the military into the. The United States military in large numbers. And yes, they're still in segregated units, and yes, they're horribly persecuted and, and they're, you know, forced to fight under white officers and treated like second class citizens even as they're trying to fight for the Union. All of that's true. But before that you didn't even have that. And so the reality is yet there are hundreds of thousands of slaves who flee their masters and many tens of thousands of them who will enlist in, in, in, in helping the Union cause any way that they can. It is a, it's an interesting point of argument to try to say, oh yes, well Joseph was wrong about that. Now the last part about that that I think I'll cover is, you know, back to this idea that with the sword and the bloodshed the inhabitants of the earth shall mourn with famine and plague and earthquake and thunder of heaven, the fierce and vivid lightning and the habits of their shall be made to feel the wrath and indignation and chastening hand of the Almighty. For Latter Day Saints this revelation took on a whole new meaning after the murder of Joseph and Hyrum Smith. It already was something they felt that the judgments of God were going to come upon this nation because they had allowed the Latter Day Saints to be butchered in Missouri. They allowed them to steal all of their property in Missouri and allow them to be murdered and driven out of the state. You're allowing the state militia of Missouri to walk up to a 10 year old who's wounded, laying on the ground in haunts mill, put a gun to his head and execute him. And how many people are charged for that crime? How many people are court martial then executed for the murder? Oh zero people. How many petitions go up to the state of Missouri and when the state of Missouri denies them all, how many go to the Congress and eventually Joseph, even to Martin Van Buren, the President of the United States himself. And no one is willing to help the Latter Day Saints. And it's not bad enough that no one's willing to help the Latter Day Saints. As that persecution grows in Illinois again, eventually Joseph and Hyrum themselves are going to be murdered. And how many people are convicted for that murder? How many people executed for the murder of Joseph and Hyrum Smith? Nobody. State had no problem arresting Joseph and Hiram. That they could do easily on the minor charge of inciting a riot. But when it came to the murder of Joseph and Hiram with hundreds of witnesses that, that, that they couldn't quite do. And even after that, as violence begins to sweep the Illinois countryside surrounding Nauvoo, and as newspapers surrounding Nauvoo are calling for, just like in Missouri, the extermination of Mormons from the country. You better believe that as Latter Day Saints are leaving Nauvoo feeling like they're being chased out by mobs, houses being burned, farms being burned, people being shot, men like Edmund Durfee being, being, being murdered. And again, oh, surprise, surprise, no one convicted for that murder. That at the time that they're being driven out in 1845 and 1846, they believe that the vengeance of God is going to come upon the nation. When you cast the righteous out from among you, the vengeance of God shall surely come is what the Book of Mormon says. So that's what they believe. So as they feel like they're driven and they, they move to Mexico, they're there in Northern Mexico for a year and a half until the portion of Mexico that they settle in becomes part of the United States Territory again. They flee from the United States to get away from it and that part becomes part of the United States again. And they have to deal with it all over again. Prior to the American Civil War, the country still won't leave them alone. They remove Brigham Young as their governor and replace them with some outsider outside of the territory. Even though there's almost no non Latter Day Saints of the entire territory they sent an army out under James Buchanan to occupy, claiming that the, the Latter Day Saints are risen up in rebellion against the United States. So when the Civil War actually comes, Latter Day Saints in Utah very much read it as, as the, the just judgments of, of God for the murder of Joseph and Hiram Smith, for the, for the refusal of the nation to protect innocent women and children, for the allowance of all of these indignities and these injustices to take place and the federal government doing nothing about them. The idea that the Civil War is a judgment from God is actually not just something that Latter Day Saints think. In fact, all throughout, especially the north, abolitionists and other theologians see the horrible bloodshed of the Civil War as the just judgments of God. This is what we deserve as a nation that allowed slavery for as long as it did. And in fact, Abraham Lincoln himself in his second inaugural address will make this very same statement in his second inaugural address, which was, was given again in March because that's when presidents were inaugurated. March of, of 1865. It's actually only, you know, 41 days before he's assassinated. Lincoln is going to actually reflect many of these same sentiments that I'm talking about. I won't read all of it for part of it. He says that both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make War rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came. This kind of idea of a kind of a fatalism, that the war was something that came almost without, you know, almost by the hand of God. But Lincoln will get a lot more to that. Here he'll say one eighth of the whole population were colored slaves. Not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in a southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union even by war, while the government claimed no right to do more than restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. That's again part of what my whole point was. Back to Lincoln. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes his aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces. But let us judge not that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered, that of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has his own purposes. Woe unto the world because of offences. For it must needs be that offences come but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh. If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which in the providence of God must needs come, but which, having continued through his appointed time, he now wills to remove, and that he gives to both north and south this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offence came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribed to him. Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's 250 years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with a sword, as was said 3,000 years ago, so must it be said the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. Here Lincoln postulates that the War is the judgment of God because of the sins of the nation, and that that's what God intends, that it be terrible, that because it's over slavery, that it might take that long for every drop of blood drawn by the lash to be paid by another drawn with a sword. Frankly, Abraham Lincoln's explanation, four years into the war, very parallel to what it is. The Lord tells Joseph Smith that Christmas Day in 1832 that slavery was the cause of the war, that no one expected that it would be as terrible as it is, and that it's also from the judgments of God because of the sins of the nation. Now, Latter Day Saints, of course, would see this in much more particular light. They would see that the nation that had driven them out, that had refused to leave them alone after driving them out, but sent armies to occupy them, and then attempted to pass laws to take away their religious and their political rights. They would see the Civil War as the judgments of God, that the blood of the martyr Joseph and Hyrum and the children of Amanda Barnes Smith and, and her husband and her child and, and those were murdered in Missouri, that the nation was, was suffering for its rejection of the Gospel and its rejection of its refusal to do anything about those unjust murders and thefts. So I find doctrine covenant, section 87, incredibly powerful to me. In fact, it's so powerful that were we not prejudiced against it, were we not trying to find a way to explain it, oh yes, of course, everyone knew there was going to be a civil war. We would, we would step back in awe at just how precise it is, how early it is, and, and how in line it is with Abraham Lincoln's own judgment of both the causes, length, duration and, and purpose, Divine purpose in punishing the nation of the war is. It's interesting that today we don't focus on it as much, I think in part because you can't actually focus on it that much without discussing where are the Latter Day Saints on this. It's not exactly a hugely popular thing to say in the United States today. Oh, man. You know, the Mormons saw the Civil War as the just judgments of God, but that's actually what Abraham Lincoln himself said. So I think we, we tend to view those a little bit differently today. But to me, I think doctrine covenant, section 87 is one of the great prophecies of all time and one of the great prophecies of Joseph Smith, but also a prophetic utterance. And we all got to see that take place in our own dispensation. This is not a prophecy that that happened from Elijah and that took place 40 or 50 years after that. This is in 1832 and and by 1861 Joseph Smith's prophetic utterance is being realized.
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Dr. Garrett Dirkmaat
Thank you for listening to the Standard of Truth podcast, hosted by his historian, Dr. Garrett Dirkmont. If you know anybody that could benefit from the material in this episode, please share it with them. And for more resources visit standardoftruth. Com. Until next time.