Sunday, May 29, 2022

Jeff Lindsay on the Fulfillment of the Liberty Jail Prophecies

In his Joseph Smith as a Prophet, critic Richard Packham wrote the following:

 

LIBERTY JAIL PROPHECIES: March 20, 1839. D&C 121. This is "Prayer and Prophecies" from Joseph Smith while he was a prisoner in the jail at Liberty, Missouri. It contains several prophecies:

 

·        he will be avenged of his enemies by the sword (v. 5) (this is phrased as a prayer, but God had promised Joseph Smith that his prayers would be answered; he need only ask. D&C 29:6)

·        his friends will not charge him with transgressions (v. 10)

·        the hopes of those who do charge him with transgression shall have their hope blasted (v. 11)

·        God will "change the times and seasons" (v. 12)

·        Joseph Smith's enemies will be taken "in their own craftiness" (v. 12)

·        "not many years hence, ... [his enemies] and their posterity shall be swept from under heaven, saith God, that not one of them is left to stand by the wall." (v. 15)

·        knowledge will be poured down from heaven upon the heads of the Mormons.

 

FULFILLED?: None of these prophecies came to pass. Joseph Smith's enemies were not destroyed "by the sword;" rather, the Mormons were successfully driven out of Missouri. His friends did charge him with transgressions within a few years, and those charges (in The Nauvoo Expositor) resulted directly in his arrest and destruction, as his enemies wished. God did not "change the times and seasons," whatever that may mean. In general, the enemies of the Mormons achieved their goal of driving the Mormons out and destroying Joseph Smith. Their posterity was not destroyed, but survived. At least, there is no record of the anti-Mormon Missourians being swept away. And what knowledge has been "poured down from heaven" upon the Mormons since 1839?

 

In reality, the prophecies in D&C 121 (and D&C 122, another revelation received at Liberty Jail) have been fulfilled. As LDS apologist Jeff Lindsay noted in his Mormon Answers: Fulfilled Prophecies of Joseph Smith:

 

1838 was a terrible year for the young Church, just 8 years old. There had been persecution since its inception, with mobs driving the Latter-day Saints from New York to Ohio and again from Ohio to Missouri. The Saints believed Missouri was a special place and hoped to build the city of Zion there, though that day still lies in the future. Instead of peace and prosperity, the Latter-day Saints found some of the worst persecution yet. What was to have been their new center was blasted with bullets and burned with fire by hateful mobs. Many were killed and assaulted. Instead of protecting a persecuted people, Governor Lilburn Boggs issued an extermination order calling for the murder of the Mormons if they remained. (See my related page, "Mormons and Danites: The Historical Background in Missouri.") Disarmed and threatened with death, the surviving Saints had no choice but to leave, crossing the Mississippi to seek for shelter in Illinois. Joseph Smith was not with the refugees to comfort them in that dark hour. For the winter of 1838 to 1839, Joseph was confined in a cold, damp basement cell in Missouri, held on false charges (including murder, treason, burglary, arson, larceny, theft and stealing) by those who wished to destroy him and the Church. Here he would be forced to hear his captors boast of how they had killed and raped Mormons. Here he would be offered human flesh to eat by his inhuman guards (but he was inspired not to eat it before he learned what it was). Here he would wonder if he should ever see his family again. By all counts, it looked as if the enemies of the Church would achieve their sinister desires. After languishing and suffering for months in the ironically named Liberty Jail, a despairing Joseph wrote the following words in March of 1839 (Doctrine and Covenants Section 121:1-3):

 

1 O God, where art thou? And where is the pavilion that covereth thy hiding place?
2 How long shall thy hand be stayed, and thine eye, yea thy pure eye, behold from the eternal heavens the wrongs of thy people and of thy servants, and thine ear be penetrated with their cries?
3 Yea, O Lord, how long shall they suffer these wrongs and unlawful oppressions, before thine heart shall be softened toward them, and thy bowels be moved with compassion toward them?

 

The Lord's response to Joseph included wonderful revelations and prophecies in Section 121 and 122 of the Doctrine and Covenants. This included a message of comfort, a promise of deliverance, and an assurance of justice:

 

7 My son, peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment;
8 And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes.
9 Thy friends do stand by thee, and they shall hail thee again with warm hearts and friendly hands.
10 Thou art not yet as Job; thy friends do not contend against thee, neither charge thee with transgression, as they did Job.
11 And they who do charge thee with transgression, their hope shall be blasted, and their prospects shall melt away as the hoar frost melteth before the burning rays of the rising sun; . . .
16 Cursed are all those that shall lift up the heel against mine anointed, saith the Lord, and cry they have sinned when they have not sinned before me, saith the Lord, but have done that which was meet in mine eyes, and which I commanded them.
17 But those who cry transgression do it because they are the servants of sin, and are the children of disobedience themselves.

 

The Lord then gave Joseph great revelations about the Millennium, which is yet to come. Then, in Section 122, the Lord told Joseph that:

 

1 The ends of the earth shall inquire after thy name, and fools shall have thee in derision, and hell shall rage against thee;
2 While the pure in heart, and the wise, and the noble, and the virtuous, shall seek counsel, and authority, and blessings constantly from under thy hand.

 

That prophecy has been fulfilled. Joseph could have been killed in that prison, unable to return to his friends as promised in Section 121. Instead, in April 1839, after six months of illegal imprisonment, someone in authority acted to allow the Mormon prisoners to escape during a change of venue, perhaps desiring to avoid public embarrassment by having a trial without evidence. Joseph and his brother Hyrum , about 10 days after being allowed to escape, arrived in Quincy, Illinois and found their families impoverished but alive and healthy. As was prophesied in verse 9 of Section 121, Joseph was greeted by "friends do stand by thee," and did greet him again "with warm hearts and friendly hands."

 

Joseph and the Church could have been destroyed by their persecutors. Joseph's few years as leader of a small and hated group could have ended in obscurity. Instead, the name of Joseph Smith is known across the world today, as was prophesied. Hell rages against the name of Joseph Smith, as enemies devise every manner of lie to slander Joseph and the Latter-day Saints, while millions seek counsel, authority, and blessings that have been given to us from Christ, revealed and restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith.

 

The next few verses of Section 122 also contain related prophecies and inspired words that have been precious to many people in times of affliction:

 

3 And thy people shall never be turned against thee by the testimony of traitors.
4 And although their influence shall cast thee into trouble, and into bars and walls, thou shalt be had in honor; and but for a small moment and thy voice shall be more terrible in the midst of thine enemies than the fierce lion, because of thy righteousness; and thy God shall stand by thee forever and ever.
5 If thou art called to pass through tribulation; if thou art in perils among false brethren; if thou art in perils among robbers; if thou art in perils by land or by sea;
6 If thou art accused with all manner of false accusations; if thine enemies fall upon thee; if they tear thee from the society of thy father and mother and brethren and sisters; and if with a drawn sword thine enemies tear thee from the bosom of thy wife, and of thine offspring, and thine elder son, although but six years of age, shall cling to thy garments, and shall say, My father, my father, why can't you stay with us? O, my father, what are the men going to do with you? and if then he shall be thrust from thee by the sword, and thou be dragged to prison, and thine enemies prowl around thee like wolves for the blood of the lamb;
7 And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.
8 The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?
9 Therefore, hold on thy way, and the priesthood shall remain with thee; for their bounds are set, they cannot pass. Thy days are known, and thy years shall not be numbered less; therefore, fear not what man can do, for God shall be with you forever and ever.

 

That such inspiring words were written under the dismal conditions of the Liberty Jail in Missouri is a witness of the character of the Prophet Joseph Smith. In addition, the prophecy about future imprisonments and persecutions was accurate. Joseph would be killed 5 years later by conspiring enemies of the Church while he was held in another prison, Carthage Jail in Illinois. In spite of all the attacks on Joseph and all the slander, the Latter-day Saints have not been turned away from Joseph. He is loved for the honorable man that he was and for his role as a prophet of Jesus Christ. His greatest legacy as a Prophet, in my opinion, is the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Christ, which is held in ever increasing respect by those who read it and follow its teachings. Those who read it sincerely and pray about it come to know with the heart and the mind that Joseph was a prophet of God. After being mocked for 150 years by enemies of the Church, the Book of Mormon stands stronger than ever, with many thinkers - including some non-LDS scholars - being impressed and moved not only by the text but also by the intellectual evidences of authenticity.

 

In fact, long before the prophecies in March of 1839 now recorded in the Doctrine and Covenants, Joseph prophesied that he and his fellow prisoners would not be killed. On the morning of November 3, 1838, after Joseph had been arrested and while he and other prisoners were on the road to Independence under the watch of guards, he told his brethren to be of good cheer, for "the word of the Lord came to me last night that ... whatever we may suffer during this captivity, not one of our lives shall be taken" (Dona Hill, Joseph Smith: The First Mormon, Doubleday and Company, Garden City, NY, 1977, p. 244). But there was little reason for such optimism at the time. In fact, his enemy, General Lucas, whose troops had taken Far West and who seemed gleeful about the Extermination Order, had just told the Saints, "As for your leaders, do not think - do not imagine for a moment - do not let it enter your minds that they will be delivered, or that you will see their faces again, for their fate is fixed - their die is cast - their doom is sealed" (Hill, p. 243, citing History of the Church, Vol. 3, pp. 202-204). But Joseph and his companions survived and returned, as prophesied.

 

The survival of these men was more than improbable; it was miraculous. Hyrum Smith, in a courtroom affidavit, testified of one miracle associated with their survival at this time. As the group was being taken to Jackson County, where they were supposedly going to be executed,

 

"two large wagons drove up, and we were ordered to get into them. While we were getting into them, there came up four or five men armed with guns, who drew up and snapped their pistols at us in order to kill us. Some flashed in the pan, and others only snapped, but none of their guns went off. They were immediately arrested by several officers. . . ."

(Lucy Mack Smith, History of Joseph Smith by His Mother, ed. S.F. Proctor and M.J. Proctor, Salt Lake City, Utah: Bookcraft, 1996, p. 384.)

 

With respect to Lucy Mack Smith’s report, here is the transcription from p. 266 of the 1845 edition on The Joseph Smith Papers website:




In a few moments the guard were relieved with a new set; one of the new guard said that the damned Mormons would not be shot this time; for the movement of Doniphan had frustrated the whole plan, and that the officers had called another Court martial, and had ordered us to be taken to Jackson County, and there be executed; and in a few moments two large wagons drove up, and we were ordered to get into them, and while we were getting into them, there came up 4 or 5 men armed with guns, who drew up and snapped their guns at us, in order to kill us— Some flashed in the pan, others snapped only snapped; but none of their guns went off. They were immediately arrested by several officers and their guns taken from them.— and the drivers drove off. 


Further Reading:

 

Resources on Joseph Smith's Prophecies