Joseph Smith’s Prophecies.—Many
of Smith’s prophecies have come true; others are in the process of fulfilment.
The scope of this treatise, however, will not permit complete proof of this
statement. We will merely name a few prophecies—could Riley call them
aberrations?—the fulfilment of which is self evident. He foretold, years in
advance, the banishment of his people, the Latter-day Saints, and of their
going to the great American desert and redeeming it. Was not the fulfilment
also in keeping with Isaiah’s prophecies? (Isa. 35) Surely that was not an
hallucination, for it is fulfilled! Mental aberrations are not. Joseph Smith
saw and foretold that this nation would not only cease to drive and kill the
Indians, but would become as nursing fathers and mothers to them, which service
would be of inestimable value to the natives and to the nation itself. (See 1
Ne. 21:22, 23; 22:5-12 Such fulfilment is largely completed, or is in the
process of perfect accomplishment.
He said that this nation would
eventually be lifted up above all other nations in power, wealth, and dominion.
(1 Ne. 13:30) Who will deny the fulfilment? He foretold the Civil War, even
where it would begin, and also its cause. He seems also to have predicted in
1832 the great World War. (D. and C. 87)
With the eye of a seer, the voice
of a prophet, and an index finger pointing to the West, Joseph Smith told his
people that they would be mobbed and driven; that they would go to the Rocky
Mountains; that there would build towns and cities and fill those valleys of
the Rockies from Canada to Old Mexico; that there they would become
world-famed.
The grandchildren of those persons
who knew this prophecy have heard their professors of social subjects in the
leading colleges of America cite the social regime instituted by the Prophet as
a model for the world to study and pattern after. From states and many foreign
countries come researchers in economic, political, or educational policies to
Utah to learn the principles that underlie the social machinery that the
Prophet set in motion. The descendants of those who sought to exterminate the
Church are now proclaiming his fame and fulfilling his prophecy. (The reader is
referred to Nephi L. Morris, Prophecies
of Joseph Smith and Their Fulfillment, for an
extended analysis of Joseph Smith’s prophecies)
So far as time has tested his
prophecies, not one has failed. Where, then, could be the delusion? Could the
wisdom of even the keenest statesman, unless divinely inspired, have accurately
foretold such details? Could hallucinations have materialized? (Josiah E.
Hickman, The Romance of the Book of Mormon [Salt Lake City: The Deseret
News Press, 1937], 19-20; "Riley" is Woodbridge Riley, author of the
1903 The
Founder of Mormonism: A Psychological Study of Joseph Smith, Jr.)
Further Reading: