Please join me in welcoming Rogue06 to the moderating team!

Examining Joseph Smith's "Rocky Mountain Prophecy"
By Lane Thuet

"I prophesied that the Saints would continue to suffer much affliction and would be driven to the Rocky Mountains, many would apostatize, others would be put to death by our persecutors or lose their lives in consequence of exposure or disease, and some of you will live to go and assist in making settlements and build cities and see the Saints become a mighty people in the midst of the Rocky Mountains."

If the above statement, recorded in the Documentary History of the Churc (DHC) 5:85 and dated August 1842, can be verified, then it would be impressive that Smith could predict this, for these events are exactly what befell the early Mormons. Salt Lake City has become a major U. S. city, and few would argue that the Mormon settlers have become a "mighty people in the midst of the Rocky Mountains."

Any honest researcher, whether LDS or not, would demand proof that this prophecy was authentic before accepting it as fact. That means there must be undeniable and unquestionable evidence that Joseph Smith uttered, recorded and/or published the prophecy prior to the events it foretells having come to pass.

LDS writer Nephi Morris wrote a book in 1920 defending Joseph Smith's fulfilled prophecies. He was most impressed with this one in particular. Yet he also wanted proof of its authenticity. While preparing his book, he visited the Church headquarters and requested to see the original manuscript. He writes, "We have not had access to the original record as kept by the Prophet, containing this remarkable prophecy. We have, however, irrefutable evidence which fixes the date of the prophecy some years before the Saints even started west" (Prophesies of Joseph Smith and their Fulfillment, p.139).

Why would the LDS Church leaders refuse to show Morris the evidence verifying such a remarkable prophecy, especially since Morris was trying to defend the Prophet? In their research, Jerald and Sandra Tanner discovered a likely reason why the request was denied. They write, "A photograph of the portion of the original handwritten manuscript containing this 'prophecy' has been located at the Visitor Center in Nauvoo, Illinois.... Now that we have a photograph of the page containing this 'prophecy,' we can see why it was suppressed for all these years." The reason, they explain, is that "the part concerning the Mormons... [Read More]

Temporary Vs. Eternal

One of the great contrasts we make in Christianity is that while we realize we live in a fallen world, that that will change. This world is not meant to be around forever as it is. My eschatological position is that God will restore this world to a beauty and grandeur that far surpasses Eden. Even if you don’t hold a view exactly as mine, which is the right view by the way, (winks) we all believe in some heavenly afterlife (Although I prefer to call it after-death) that will be far better than this.

The problem is that we often lose sight of that. Granted that being a Christian is not about going to Heaven, but it is part of the package. What brought this to my mind most recently was an event that started probably around a year ago. A friend contacted me worried about their friendship with another mutual friend of ours and thinking “We’ve really messed it up! It’s just not going to last!”

I gave some words of comfort at the time that I do not recall, but several months later started pondering about temporary vs. eternal. I contacted this friend again and just said out of the blue “How are things going between you and X?”

“Fine. Why?”

Then I reminded this friend of what had happened months earlier and how it turned out to be nothing. This friend had seen a circumstance and for the moment, that seemed to eclipse all of reality. It had stepped out of being a “now” event to being an “all-time” event.

Some might think I’m chiding my friend or looking down on them. I’m not. If there’s one point that needs to be stated clearly about my relationship to this article, it is the old adage of “Those who can’t do, teach.” I am not the best at practicing what I teach, but I believe many in the Christian community in teaching would say the same.

Paul was one who realized the truth about looking at the temporary with a mindset of the eternal. (By eternal often here, I mean the heavenly worldview. We do not live an eternity, as we have a beginning, but we do live forever.) In 2 Cor. 4:17-18, we read these words of his:

17For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Notice that term that he uses here. “Light and momentary... [Read More]