In his journal entry for November 13, 1833, Joseph Smith recorded the following event that took place on November 5:
November 13th nothing of of note
transpired from the 4th of Noveber u[n]til this day in the morning at 4 Oh
clock I was awoke by Brother Davis knocking at <my> door saying Brother
Joseph come git <up> and see the signs in the heavens and I arrose and
beheld to my great Joy the stars fall from heaven yea they fell like hail
stones a litteral fullfillment of the word of God as recorded in the holy
scriptures and a sure sign that the coming of Christ is clost at hand Oh how
marvellous are thy works Oh Lord and I thank thee for thy me[r]cy unto me thy
servent Oh Lord save me in thy kingdom for Christ sake Amen
This event, of course, was the Leonid meteor shower.
While it is late, Philo Dibble recorded that Joseph prophesied of
this event forty days beforehand:
"On one occasion Joseph was
preaching in Kirtland some time in the fall of 1833. Quite a number of persons
were present who did not belong to the Church, and one man, more bitter and
skeptical than others, made note with pencil and paper of a prophecy uttered on
that occasion, wherein Joseph said that 'Forty days shall not pass, and the
stars shall fall from heaven.'
"Such an event would certainly
be very unusual and improbable to the natural man, and the skeptic wrote the
words as a sure evidence to prove Joseph to be a false Prophet.
"On the thirty-ninth day
after the utterance of that prophecy a man and brother in the Church, by the
name of Joseph Hancock, who is yet living, in Payson, Utah, and another brother
were out hunting game and got lost. They wandered about until night, when they
found themselves at the house of this unbeliever, who exultingly produced this
note of Joseph Smith's prophecy, and asked Brother Hancock what he thought of
his Prophet now, that thirty-nine days had passed and the prophecy was not
fulfilled.
"Brother Hancock was unmoved
and quietly remarked, 'There is one night left of the time, and if Joseph said
so, the stars will certainly fall tonight. This prophecy will all be
fulfilled.'
"The matter weighed upon the
mind of Brother Hancock, who watched that night, and it proved to be the
historical one, known in all the world as 'the night of the falling of the
stars.'
"He stayed that night at the
house of the skeptical unbeliever, as it was too far form home to return by
night, and in the midst of the falling of the stars he went to the door of his
host and called him out to witness what he had thought impossible and the most
improbable thing that could happen, especially as that was the last night in
which Joseph Smith could be saved from the condemnation of 'a false prophet.'
"The whole heavens were lit
up with the falling meteors, and the countenance of the new spectator was
plainly seen and closely watched by Brother Hancock, who said that he turned
pale as death, and spoke not a word.
"After that even the
unbeliever sought the company of any Latter-day Saint. He even enticed Mormon
children to keep him company at his house. Not long afterwards, too, he sent
for Joseph and Hyrum to come to his house, which they did, but with no
noticeable results for I believe he never received the gospel." (Philo
Dibble, as quoted in "Recollections
of the Prophet Joseph Smith," The Juvenile Instructor 27, no. 1
[January 1892]: 23)
It should be noted that a similar prophecy was attributed to Ellen
G. White. On this, see Robert K. Sanders, "Ellen G. White's Signs
in the Heavens." For this and other reasons, this purported
prophecy is not as strong as some LDS apologists believe it to be. It will be
interesting if an earlier source is ever discovered attributing this prophecy
to Joseph Smith.
As an aside, the critic who saw the miracle and still rejected the
Gospel mirrors the unbelieving brothers of the rich man in Luke 16:
Abraham saith unto him, They have
Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham:
but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto
him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded,
though one rose from the dead.
His naturalistic worldwide precluded him from accepting the
Gospel, no matter the positive evidence that was presented to him. Worldviews
and assumptions do matter (cf. the authorship of Isaiah and naturalistic assumptions governing prophecy by proponents of multi-authorship thereof).
Further Reading
Resources
on Joseph Smith’s Prophecies
Eyring-L site, The
Leonid Meteor Prophecy
John P. Pratt, Spectacular
Meteor Shower Might Repeat
