Every
prophecy concerning the future of America is conditional. The exact fate and
destiny of the United States is not known. The only thing known for sure is what
will happen should the people decide to accept or reject the Gospel . . . (Howard
Barron, Mormon Prophecies and Their Fulfillment [Salt Lake City: Hawes
Publishing, 1994], 105)
The
Book of Mormon does not predict what will befall our nation, The United States,
nor “its final end.” But it contains a conditional prophecy in relation to the
two American continents. These continents are a promised land. They are given,
according to the Book of Mormon, primarily to the descendants of the Patriarch
Joseph, son of Jacob, as an inheritance, but the Gentile races are also given
an inheritance in them with the descendants of Joseph. The whole land, however,
is dedicated to righteousness and liberty and the people who possess it,
whether of the house of Israel or Gentile must be a righteous people and
worship “the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ.” In that event God stands
pledged to preserve the land and the people thereof, free from bondage of all
other nations, and to bless them with very great and peculiar blessings,
guaranteeing to them freedom and peaceful possession of the land forever. If
the Gentile races shall observe these conditions they and their children are to
share in the blessings of the land in connection with the descendants of the
Patriarch Joseph. But if they depart from justice, reject righteousness and
Jesus Christ, then judgments of destruction decreed in the Book of Mormon, will
overtake them until they are wasted away. This is the decree of God respecting
the western hemisphere, and is one of the important messages that the Book of
Mormon has to deliver to the present generation. See Book of Mormon 2 Nephi
1:5-12; also Ether 1:42; 3 Nephi 20:14-20; 3 Nephi 20:27, 28; 3 Nephi 21:11-25;
also “New Witness for God Vol. 3, pp. 314-323. But it will be seen that these
prophecies are conditional, and therefore cannot be held to be predictions of
what the final end of our nation, the United States and other nations of the
American continents, will be, since it yet remains to be demonstrated whether
they will abide or violate the conditions upon which they may possess the
continents perpetually.
Further Reading:
Resources
on Joseph Smith’s Prophecies