God’s Destroyer
D&C 105:13-15; “Therefore it is expedient in me that mine elders should wait for a little season, for the redemption of Zion.14 For behold, I do not require at their hands to fight the battles of Zion; for, as I said in a former commandment, even so will I fulfil—I will fight your battles.15 Behold, the destroyer I have sent forth to destroy and lay waste mine enemies; and not many years hence they shall not be left to pollute mine heritage, and to blaspheme my name upon the lands which I have consecrated for the gathering together of my saints.”
Prophecy given in Missouri on June 22, 1834. History of the Church 2:108-111.
The Mormon god promised here that he’d fight their battles, and has sent forth a destroyer to lay waste to their enemies. What really happened is that the Mormons had tried to redeem Zion in Missouri but got pushed back to Ohio before they could redeem their Zion from their oppressors.
While on their march to Zion more than a dozen people died from cholera. Smith had this revelation to “encourage” the Saints that God would fight their battles for them. Smith told them it was because of their poor behavior they didn’t redeem Zion but would go back into Missouri in 1836 to try again. The stories he kept spinning were nothing less than lies. You can read the entire saga in History of the Church 2:36-39 and History of the Church 3:xxxix, Reed Peck Transcript pages 3-10, D&C 103:1-7 and
http://mormonhistoricsitesfoundation.org/USA/missouri/daviess/zionsCamp/history.htm
The stories he kept spinning are just like all those spun by Moses when the children of Israel rebelled.
Of course you will cry blasphame at the comparison; after all, you believe in Moses and not in Joseph Smith, so they can’t be compared.
Of course, the fact that Moses said that the Israelites would pocess the land of Canaan, and then told them that they would wander for 40 years because of “their poor behavior;” Not to mention the several plagues, famines, and other trials they suffered because of this, doesn’t mean much.
After all, if you accept a man to be prophet than nothing he says is wrong; but if you reject him then nothing he says is right.
God did not promise to bring the saints back into Zion. He promised to fight the Battles of Zion, and that he had already sent his destroyer.
considering that the second Cholera Pandemic had entered the United States in 1833 and swept the country fairly rapidly, killing thousands, I think that this was accurate. Then you also got the Civil War that killed thousands.
This prophecy has been fulfilled, and very tragically.