I was asked on a recent livestream what I thought about a revelation Wilford Woodruff recorded on November 24, 1889. The revelation, as recorded in his journal, reads thusly:
Revelation given to
Wilford Woodruff, Sunday Nov 24, 1889.
Thus Saith the Lord,
to my servant Wilford, I the Lord have heard thy prayers and thy request, and
will answer thee by the voice of my spirit. Thus Saith the Lord, unto my
servants the Presidency of my church, who hold the Keys of the Kingdom of God
on this earth, I the Lord hold the destiny of the courts in your midst, and the
destiny of this nation, and all other nations of the earth in mine own hands,
and all that I have revealed, and promised and decreed concerning the
generation in which you live, shall come to pass, and no power shall stay my
hand.
Let not my servants
who are called to the Presidency of my church, deny my word or my law, which
concerns the salvation of the children of men. Let them pray for the Holy
Spirit, which shall be given them to guide them in their acts. Place not
yourselves in jeopardy to your enemies by promise, your enemies seek your
distruction and the distructions of my people. If the Saints will hearken unto
my voice, and the counsel of my servants, the wicked shall not prevail. Let my
servants, who officiate as your counselors before the courts, make their
pleadings as they are moved upon by the Holy spirit, without any further
pledges from the Priesthood. I the Lord will hold the courts, with the officers
of government, and the nation responsible for their acts towards the
inhabitants of Zion. I, Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, am in your
midst. I am your advocate with the Father. Fear not little flock, it is your
father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.
Fear not the wicked
and ungodly. Search the scriptures, for they are they which testify of me, also
those revelations which I have given to my servant Joseph, and to all my
servants since the world began, which are recorded in the records of divine
truths. Those revelations contain the judgments of God, which are to be poured
out upon all nations under the heavens, which include Great Babylon. These
judgments are at the door, they will be fulfilled as God lives. Leave judgment
with me, it is mine saith the Lord. Watch the signs of the times, and they will
show the fulfillment of the words of the Lord. Let my servants call upon the
Lord in mighty prayer; retain the Holy Ghost as your constant companion, and
act as you are moved upon by that spirit, and all will be well with you. The
wicked are fast ripening in iniquity, and they will be cut off by the judgments
of God.
Great events await
you and this generation, and are nigh at your doors. Awake, O, Israel, and have
faith in God, and His promises, and he will not forsake you. I the Lord will
deliver my Saints from the dominion of the wicked, in mine own due time and way.
I cannot deny my word, neither in blessing nor judgments. Therefore let mine
Anointed gird up their loins, watch and be sober, and keep my commandments.
Pray always and faint not; exercise faith in the Lord and in the promises of
God; be valient in the testimony of Jesus Christ. The eyes of the Lord and the
Heavenly Hosts are watching over you and your acts. Therefore be faithful until
I come. I come quickly to reward every man according to the deeds done in the
body. Even so, amen. (source)
An article on the FAIR wiki page has a good discussion of this, in
response to Abanes’ One Nation Under Gods:
The leaders are
promised:
all God has promised
and decreed shall come to pass.
the First Presidency
is not at that time to deny or renounce plural marriage (this question was
under debate at the meeting at which the revelation was received).(D. Michael Quinn, "LDS Church Authority and New Plural Marriages, 1890–1904," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 18 no. 1 (Spring 1985).):36 Cites
George Q. Cannon, Diary, 23-24 Nov. 1889, copy in CR 1/48; also First Presidency
Office Journal, 24 Nov. 1889, copy in CR 1/48. </ref>
they will be guided
by the Holy Spirit.
the wicked will not
prevail if the Saints hearken to God's voice.
those making
arguments in court should not rely on further concessions from the First
Presidency.
as the leaders follow
the Holy Spirit, "all will be well."
Despite the author's
claim, there is no hint that the Lord will make the Saints victorious in
court—they are merely commanded to trust God, and avoid making further bargains
or compromises in the hope of softening the legal blow.
The revelation is
clear about what the Saints' "enemies" sought, and what the Lord
promised would not happen:
your enemies seek
your distruction [sic] and the distruction [sic] of my people. If the Saints
will hearken unto my voice, and the counsel of my Servants the wicked shall not
prevail.
Some anti-Mormons
would later admit that polygamy was not the real issue; they sought to control
Utah at the expense of the Saints:
Some non-Mormon
men…admitted that polygamy was not the most important issue. Fred T. Dubois, a
longtime activist against polygamy and Utah statehood, later wrote that “those
of us who understood the situation were not nearly so much opposed to polygamy
as we were to the political domination of the church. We realized, however,
that we could not make those who did not come actually in contact with it,
understand what this political domination meant. We made use of polygamy, in
consequence, as our great weapon of offense and to gain recruits to our
standard.” (Jeffrey D. Nichols, Prostitution, Polygamy, and Power: Salt Lake
City, 1847–1918 (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2002),
Chapter 1; citing Dubois, Dubois’s Making of a State, 48; quoted in Edward Leo
Lyman, Political Deliverance: The Mormon Quest for Utah Statehood (Urbana and
Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1986), 38–39, n. 42)
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