The Last Prophecies of John Taylor

Lorin Woolley’s account of John Taylor’s 1886 prophecies have come under suspicion, because – it is argued – they were written after the events came to pass.  However, as this series of articles will show, similar prophecies predate Woolley’s account, and the prophecies themselves – which conflict with modern LDS Church views – have been fulfilled very literally, thus again substantiating Woolley’s account.

“I have saved my servant John Taylor for a wise purpose in me,”(1) revealed the Lord to Wilford Woodruff in 1880. Yet most of that decade the Church President spent his days in hiding from the government that was imprisoning those Latter-day Saints who lived the principle of Celestial Plural Marriage, and his life during that time remains a mystery to most Church members, who are unaware of the great purpose he was to fulfil. During his stay in the home of John W. Woolley in Centreville, Utah, he was visited by the resurrected Jesus Christ and Joseph Smith, who instructed him how to ensure that the Priesthood of God and its highest ordinances continued, no matter what persecution may come and notwithstanding the direction others Latter-day Saints might take. He called together his most faithful associates and laid this great responsibility upon them, with all the authority they would require to carry out God’s work. After which, he foretold the future of those who had received this commission and those who would yet fulfill it, as well as the Church and the course it would take.(2)

Prophecy One

The Saints had been warned repeatedly that their enemies wanted them to give up the law of Patriarchal Marriage, as President Charles Penrose told them, “What would be necessary to bring about the result nearest the hearts of the opponents of ‘Mormonism’…? Simply to renounce, abrogate or apostatize from the new and everlasting covenant of marriage in its fullness.”(3) However, the Gentile world was but a puppet for a more malevolent power: Satan himself, who personally was on a campaign to have the Church members relinquish their “most holy principle”(4). As Brigham foresaw, “the powers of hell will do their utmost to get this people to give up that holy law which God designs to maintain.”(5)

However, President Taylor’s actions ensured that there would always be a group of righteous Latter-day Saints maintaining this principle, so that the Devil would be ultimately thwarted in his plans. Yet, he also foresaw that the majority of Saints would seek an easier road, even if it meant a lesser glory, as he prophesied, “one half of this people will apostatize over the principle for which we are now in hiding, yea, and possibly one half of the other half.”(6) Sadly, this regrettable outcome was the only prophesy he would see fulfilled prior to his death.

On the last day of Jun 1887 a constitutional convention was held, the Gentiles having declined to participate, Mormon delegates from all the counties in the territory formulated a provision “prohibiting polygamy and making it a crime, with a severe penalty;” According to the Church’s own newspaper just over a month later, on the first day of August (less than a week after the death of President Taylor), an election was held in which “95 per cent (13,000) of all the Mormon voters in the territory voted for the ratification of this convention.”(7)

Why did they do it? Why did they replace a law of God with a law to make it a crime? The First Presidency themselves summed it up thus, “To be at peace with the government and in harmony with their fellow citizens who are not of their faith, and to share in the confidence of the Government and the people, our people have voluntarily put aside something which all their lives they have believed to be a sacred principle,”(8)

There was undoubtedly relief amongst the monogamous Mormons that they would no longer have to suffer because of their polygamous leaders and those few members that kept the practice, however, faithful Saints – such as Elder Kimball lamented that “…if there is any one thing that some people are glad and happy is done away with, it is that principle.”(9) Of course, one wonders if such people will be as happy in the eternities having given up an essential requirement for their exaltation, for as Brother Brigham stated, “The only men who become Gods, even sons of God, are those who enter into polygamy.”(10)

The Saints today are largely of the same attitude towards Celestial (plural) Marriage as most were just before the Manifesto, if not more so, as Professor David Bitton suggests, “Today probably no modern people is more anti-polygamy than the orthodox Mormons.”(11) This was further shown by an opinion poll, on whether people should be allowed to live polygamously, in which it was found that, “… the greatest opposition to polygamy [was] among Mormons – 64.5 percent.”(12) Not content with rejected the lifestyle themselves, it seems that the majority of members would not want any one else to have that choice either.

Part two of this series will appear tomorrow

1. Revelation to Wilford Woodruff, 26 January 1880, Unpublished Revelations 79:75.
2. 27 September 1886, John W. Woolley Home, Centerville, Utah. As related by Lorin C. Woolley. (Woolley’s 1929 affidavit serves as the primary source for the text of these prophecies.)
3. Deseret News, 23 April 1885 (1:377).
4. Recollection of William Clayton (Joseph Smith’s secretary), Historical Record 6:225-7.
5. Mosiah Hancock Journal, Spring 1863.
6. Woolley affidavit, see fn. 2.
7. Deseret News, Aug. 30, 1890
8. 19 December 1891, First Presidency Petition for Amnesty, Contributor 13:197; Smoot Investigation 1:18.
9. Deseret News, Mar. 1, 1902.
10. Journal of Discourses 11:268-9.
11. Journal of Mormon History 4:101, 1977.
12. Provo Daily Herald, 29 May 1977, p. 23.