President Taylor foresaw that the Church would undergo a mighty change – not just of emphasis – but of altering principles, ordinances, and teachings in order for the Church’s beliefs and practices to be less offensive to the world. There was a time when friendship with the world was looked upon as undesirable(1), for as James taught, “friendship of the world is enmity with God”(2). Whereas when Brother Heber J. Grant took the reins of Church leadership he seemed to see securing a good relationship with the world as a lofty goal to be sought after. Said he, “My greatest happiness I find in the goodwill and friendship that has developed among all classes of people at home and abroad toward the LDS church during my lifetime. In place of early-day persecution and bitterness we now enjoy high regard and happy associations with all denominations.”(3) He was undoubtedly eager to avoid the persecution which plagued the Church in the previous century, just as the general membership was all too eager to jettison those elements which left them too peculiar to have entered the American mainstream. The cost of such a move was a great one, however, as John Taylor prophesied, “in the time of the seventh President of this Church, the Church would go into bondage both temporally and spiritually.”(4)
Likewise Heber C. Kimball related to Amanda H. Wilcox in May 1868 that, “A spirit of speculation and extravagance will take possession of the Saints, and the result will be financial bondage.” Orson Pratt similarly warned that, “This people, at some future time – may be possible be in bondage greater than they are at the present time.”(5)
Before the death of Joseph F. Smith he had striven to free the Church from debt and succeeded. His financial prudence meant that the Church need no longer be reliant upon the world for its support, nor be beholden to business to which it was indebted. However, Heber J. Grant, who was a banking man used to the ways of the world as they related to business found occasion to put church property back into the hands of the creditors. In 1923 he took out a $30 million loan to put the Utah and Idaho sugar company back on its feet. As collateral he mortgaged Temple Square (including the temple), and the Bishop’s Storehouse. During the time the temple was mortgaged (for fifty years) it belonged in the hands of the gentile bankers, not to the Saints, and so the Lord’s house was not wholly in the possession of His people for quite some time.
This was only the beginning of the indebtedness of the Church to the world, which has had much of its money held in the stocks and shares of non-Mormon businesses, some of which undoubtedly would be guilty of the unethical practices which almost all large corporations are. The Mormon people too have succumbed to being in such bondage: having their money in gentile banks, working for gentile employers, buying from gentile stores, being insured by gentiles, and voting for gentile political parties. Yet the Church is better organized and in a better position financially to end such dependency upon the world than it has ever been, although it is less inclined to do so than at any other point in its history.
“Spiritual Bondage”
When God’s people follow after the fashions and traditions of the world, fail to live up to His expectations for them, and indicate by their actions and attitudes that they do not wish to believe all of the doctrines of the Gospel or live all of God’s laws, then they are indeed under ‘spiritual bondage’.
The ancient Israelites, through their choices and their lack of worthiness, had the higher law and its blessings taken away from them, whilst only a small group maintained the Gospel in it’s fullness. So too at least one General Authority in this dispensation warned that the same could happen to the modern Church: “If all Israel will not be sanctified by the law which their Moses first offers them, they will peradventure receive a law of ordinances administered to them, not according to the power of an endless life.”(6)
The Saints had indeed rejected one of the highest laws of God by not entering into Celestial plural Marriage, and making it known that they wished the Church to end the practice. As Joseph F. Smith stated at the dedication of the Salt Lake temple, “The reason the Manifesto was given and the principle laid aside was that many of those who entered into that principle were not keeping the commandments, and that not over two percent of the Latter-day Saints ever entered into that principle”, or simply “because the Saints rejected it.”(7)
Satan – who we learn from the temple endowment ceremony controls the governments of the world – had gone to war with the Saints, in a war which was prophesied in the book of Daniel(8). The Lord revealed to Wilford Woodruff, whilst an Apostle, that this prophesy applied to our day, “The Devil is ruling over his kingdom and my Spirit has no place in the hearts of the rulers of this nation, and the Devil stirs them up to defy my power and make war upon the Saints.”(9) On the eve of 1890, President Woodruff realized that the prophesy of war was “beginning to be fulfilled, that the whole nation would turn against Zion and make war upon the Saints.”(10) Thousands of years previously the prophets had predicted the outcome of the battle the Church then faced: They would lose! As John the Beloved recorded, “it was given unto him (the beast) to make war with the Saints, and to overcome them.”(11) The Saints need not have lost the fight though, for even as late as the year before the Manifesto, the Lord revealed, “If the Saints will hearken unto My voice … the wicked shall not prevail.” Of course the opposite was also true, “inasmuch as they .. hearken not to observe all my words, the kingdoms of the world, shall prevail against them.”(12) Which is, sadly, what happened.
If God’s people as a majority had followed Him there would have been no Manifesto, nor the resultant ‘spiritual bondage’ which John Taylor predicted would follow their actions. As the Apostle Matthias F. Cowley told the Saints at the beginning of this century: “I wish to remind you of a certain revelation given you through President Taylor*. The command was given to set our quorums and houses in order, and the promise was that if we should obey the command God would fight our battles for us; but we did not obey the command and revelation given through President Taylor, [for if we did] there would have been no Manifesto.”(13)
The bondage God’s people are in both temporarily and spiritually has increased over the years, as is evidenced by the declining moral standards, in the way the Gospel has been simplified, and that the Church has made efforts to stop teaching and practicing many of the principles the world and other Christian churches find offensive. However, the Lord will not allow such a situation to go on indefinitely.
Part five of this series will continue tomorrow
1. “There is nothing that would soon weaken my hope and discourage me as to see this people in full fellowship with the world, and receive no more persecution from them because they are one with them.” Brigham Young, 8 April 1862, Journal of Discourses 10:32 (see 4:38)
2. James 4:4; see John 15:18.
3. Heber J. Grant, Salt Lake Tribune, 22 November 1938.
4. Woolley affidavit.
5. 7 February 1875, Journal of Discourses 17:305.
6. Franklin D. Richards, J.D. 1: 321.
7. John Mills Whitaker Journal, April 1893, W. H. Smart Diary, 1901-1902 Bk; p. 94; 28 July 1901.
8. Daniel 7:21.
9. 25 January 1880, Unpublished Revelations 79:10.
10. Wilford Woodruff Journal, 31 December 1889.
11. Revelations 13:7
12. D&C 103:8.
13. Matthias F. Cowley, January 28th, 1901, Smoot Hearing 1:8. *Revelation to John Taylor, 25 December 1884; Unpublished Revelations 87:5-8, also Revelation to John Taylor, 13 October 1882; Unpublished Revelations 83:20-25.
The Last Prophecies of John Taylor – 4
Filed under: Thoughts & Commentary |
Prophecy Four
President Taylor foresaw that the Church would undergo a mighty change – not just of emphasis – but of altering principles, ordinances, and teachings in order for the Church’s beliefs and practices to be less offensive to the world. There was a time when friendship with the world was looked upon as undesirable(1), for as James taught, “friendship of the world is enmity with God”(2). Whereas when Brother Heber J. Grant took the reins of Church leadership he seemed to see securing a good relationship with the world as a lofty goal to be sought after. Said he, “My greatest happiness I find in the goodwill and friendship that has developed among all classes of people at home and abroad toward the LDS church during my lifetime. In place of early-day persecution and bitterness we now enjoy high regard and happy associations with all denominations.”(3) He was undoubtedly eager to avoid the persecution which plagued the Church in the previous century, just as the general membership was all too eager to jettison those elements which left them too peculiar to have entered the American mainstream. The cost of such a move was a great one, however, as John Taylor prophesied, “in the time of the seventh President of this Church, the Church would go into bondage both temporally and spiritually.”(4)
Likewise Heber C. Kimball related to Amanda H. Wilcox in May 1868 that, “A spirit of speculation and extravagance will take possession of the Saints, and the result will be financial bondage.” Orson Pratt similarly warned that, “This people, at some future time – may be possible be in bondage greater than they are at the present time.”(5)
Before the death of Joseph F. Smith he had striven to free the Church from debt and succeeded. His financial prudence meant that the Church need no longer be reliant upon the world for its support, nor be beholden to business to which it was indebted. However, Heber J. Grant, who was a banking man used to the ways of the world as they related to business found occasion to put church property back into the hands of the creditors. In 1923 he took out a $30 million loan to put the Utah and Idaho sugar company back on its feet. As collateral he mortgaged Temple Square (including the temple), and the Bishop’s Storehouse. During the time the temple was mortgaged (for fifty years) it belonged in the hands of the gentile bankers, not to the Saints, and so the Lord’s house was not wholly in the possession of His people for quite some time.
This was only the beginning of the indebtedness of the Church to the world, which has had much of its money held in the stocks and shares of non-Mormon businesses, some of which undoubtedly would be guilty of the unethical practices which almost all large corporations are. The Mormon people too have succumbed to being in such bondage: having their money in gentile banks, working for gentile employers, buying from gentile stores, being insured by gentiles, and voting for gentile political parties. Yet the Church is better organized and in a better position financially to end such dependency upon the world than it has ever been, although it is less inclined to do so than at any other point in its history.
“Spiritual Bondage”
When God’s people follow after the fashions and traditions of the world, fail to live up to His expectations for them, and indicate by their actions and attitudes that they do not wish to believe all of the doctrines of the Gospel or live all of God’s laws, then they are indeed under ‘spiritual bondage’.
The ancient Israelites, through their choices and their lack of worthiness, had the higher law and its blessings taken away from them, whilst only a small group maintained the Gospel in it’s fullness. So too at least one General Authority in this dispensation warned that the same could happen to the modern Church: “If all Israel will not be sanctified by the law which their Moses first offers them, they will peradventure receive a law of ordinances administered to them, not according to the power of an endless life.”(6)
The Saints had indeed rejected one of the highest laws of God by not entering into Celestial plural Marriage, and making it known that they wished the Church to end the practice. As Joseph F. Smith stated at the dedication of the Salt Lake temple, “The reason the Manifesto was given and the principle laid aside was that many of those who entered into that principle were not keeping the commandments, and that not over two percent of the Latter-day Saints ever entered into that principle”, or simply “because the Saints rejected it.”(7)
Satan – who we learn from the temple endowment ceremony controls the governments of the world – had gone to war with the Saints, in a war which was prophesied in the book of Daniel(8). The Lord revealed to Wilford Woodruff, whilst an Apostle, that this prophesy applied to our day, “The Devil is ruling over his kingdom and my Spirit has no place in the hearts of the rulers of this nation, and the Devil stirs them up to defy my power and make war upon the Saints.”(9) On the eve of 1890, President Woodruff realized that the prophesy of war was “beginning to be fulfilled, that the whole nation would turn against Zion and make war upon the Saints.”(10) Thousands of years previously the prophets had predicted the outcome of the battle the Church then faced: They would lose! As John the Beloved recorded, “it was given unto him (the beast) to make war with the Saints, and to overcome them.”(11) The Saints need not have lost the fight though, for even as late as the year before the Manifesto, the Lord revealed, “If the Saints will hearken unto My voice … the wicked shall not prevail.” Of course the opposite was also true, “inasmuch as they .. hearken not to observe all my words, the kingdoms of the world, shall prevail against them.”(12) Which is, sadly, what happened.
If God’s people as a majority had followed Him there would have been no Manifesto, nor the resultant ‘spiritual bondage’ which John Taylor predicted would follow their actions. As the Apostle Matthias F. Cowley told the Saints at the beginning of this century: “I wish to remind you of a certain revelation given you through President Taylor*. The command was given to set our quorums and houses in order, and the promise was that if we should obey the command God would fight our battles for us; but we did not obey the command and revelation given through President Taylor, [for if we did] there would have been no Manifesto.”(13)
The bondage God’s people are in both temporarily and spiritually has increased over the years, as is evidenced by the declining moral standards, in the way the Gospel has been simplified, and that the Church has made efforts to stop teaching and practicing many of the principles the world and other Christian churches find offensive. However, the Lord will not allow such a situation to go on indefinitely.
Part five of this series will continue tomorrow
1. “There is nothing that would soon weaken my hope and discourage me as to see this people in full fellowship with the world, and receive no more persecution from them because they are one with them.” Brigham Young, 8 April 1862, Journal of Discourses 10:32 (see 4:38)
2. James 4:4; see John 15:18.
3. Heber J. Grant, Salt Lake Tribune, 22 November 1938.
4. Woolley affidavit.
5. 7 February 1875, Journal of Discourses 17:305.
6. Franklin D. Richards, J.D. 1: 321.
7. John Mills Whitaker Journal, April 1893, W. H. Smart Diary, 1901-1902 Bk; p. 94; 28 July 1901.
8. Daniel 7:21.
9. 25 January 1880, Unpublished Revelations 79:10.
10. Wilford Woodruff Journal, 31 December 1889.
11. Revelations 13:7
12. D&C 103:8.
13. Matthias F. Cowley, January 28th, 1901, Smoot Hearing 1:8. *Revelation to John Taylor, 25 December 1884; Unpublished Revelations 87:5-8, also Revelation to John Taylor, 13 October 1882; Unpublished Revelations 83:20-25.