Since Joseph Smith’s First Vision in 1820, Satan has sought to interfere
in the affairs of the Lord’s restored church. In addition to the many spiritual
wiles and arts of the adversary, Satan’s arsenal includes weapons meant to
inflict physical harm. While on Patmos, John recorded a vision wherein he saw a
woman, symbolic of the Lord’s church, give birth to a child, representing the “kingdom
of our God and his Christ.” (New Testament Student Manual [2018], 551; Joseph
Smith Translation, Revelation 12:7) The prophecy describes Satan’s opposition to
the Church throughout time, beginning in the premortal existence. This persecution
drove the woman into the wilderness, “symbolic of Satan driving the ancient
church into the period of the Great Apostasy, when the authority of the
priesthood was taken from the earth.” (Ibid., 552)
After the Church was restored in the latter days, through the prophet
Joseph Smith, Satan continued to oppose the Saints. The final verse in Revelation
chapter 12 describes this resistance, stating, “The dragon was wroth with the
woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the
commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” (Revelation 12:17)
Various acts of terrorism targeting the Church and faithful members are one
form of fulfilment of this prophecy. The New Testament Institute Student Manual
states, “the remnant of the woman’s seed that Satan and his followers war
against includes the latter-day Church restored through the Prophet Joseph
Smith,” and that, “Satan wages his fiercest battles against the Saints of the
true and living Church.” (New Testament Student Manual, 2nd
ed. [2018], 553) While this often involves spiritual warfare of sorts,
terrorism is an extremely tangible and perceptible form of this fierce opposition.
(Matthew A. Hughes, War with the Remnant: The Hidden Narrative of Terrorism and
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints [Springville, Utah: CFI,
2020], 139-40)
