12. Behold, Satan sough to take
away the free agency of man in the beginning for which cause he was thrust out
of heaven, and has sought to introduce the same principles upon the earth,
which principles are opposed to me, to my institutions, and my laws, and to the
freedom, the welfare and happiness of man; and by which principles the
Government of the United States sough to deprive my people of their free
agency; and because men have been under the influence and power and dominion of
Lucifer, and because tyranny and oppression and evil have abounded by him, and
not by me, saith the Lord your God, shall righteousness, and justice, and
judgment, and truth, and virtue, and holiness, be forever trampled under foot?
And the principles of tyranny, oppression and misrule and anarchy, and
deception, and fraud forever prevail? Verily, I say unto you, Nay.
13. And for this cause have I
introduced my Church and my Kingdom, and pure and righteous principles might be
inculcated and man, by his free agency, yield a willing obedience to my law;
for after this testimony and the rejection thereof, I will sweep the earth of
evil doers, as with the besom of destruction; for this is my right and while
man has his free agency, judgment belongs to me saith the Lord. And I will come
out of my hiding place and vex the nations of the earth because of their iniquities,
their misrule, their tyranny, their oppression, their corruption, their
murders, their adulteries, and fornications and all their abominations.
14. And because my servant
Joseph, whole soul was pained because of their cruelties and oppressions, the
injustice, fraud, and corruption, and the inhumanity of men, proclaimed himself
the advocate of human rights, the advocate of liberty, and the friend of men;
and because, according to My Eternal Decrees the Free Agency of Man should be
guaranteed to all men, I moved upon him to introduce into my Kingdom certain
parties not in my Church, for the purpose of exhibiting unto my Kingdom that I
would still maintain the Free Agency of Man, and that I hold inviolate that
principle and will still maintain it to the end. Think ye, therefore, that
because they are thus admitted to share in my Government and my Laws that they
shall be permitted to break their covenants, violate their obligations, and
reject me and my laws and authority, and seek to overthrow the Kingdom of God,
and deprive my people who are contending for freedom and who shall yet maintain
it, or their agency, and my laws? (John Taylor, “Revelation on the Kingdom of
God in the Last Days,” June 27, 1882, repr. Selected Manifestations, comp.
David M. Reay and Vonda S. Reay [Oakland, Calif.: Self-Published, 1985], 101-2)