View source for Question: Did the Church cover up the fact that the Civil War prophecy was made during the 1832 rebellion in South Carolina?

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==Question: Did the Church cover up the fact that the Civil War prophecy was made during the 1832 rebellion in South Carolina?==
===No American statesman in 1832 believed that the doctrines of secession then talked of would result in a great civil war===

It is claimed that Mormons "cover up the fact that the 'prophecy' was made in the midst of an earlier rebellion in December 1832. That rebellion ended quietly a few months later."<ref>''The God Makers'', 224, lines 21-24; cited by {{TruthGodmakers1|start=Chapter 15}} {{link1|url=http://www.fairlds.org/The_God_Makers/tagm31.html}}</ref>

This claim, however, is false.  Gil Scharffs noted that critics "are correct when they say Joseph Smith announced the Civil War prophecy when rebellion in South Carolina was threatening. A large 1832 rebellion never materialized and the threat ended a few months later."<ref>{{TruthGodmakers1|start=Chapter 15}} {{link1|url=http://www.fairlds.org/The_God_Makers/tagm31.html}}</ref>

No American statesman in 1832 believed that the doctrines of secession then talked of would result in a great civil war. None of them had the foresight to see that a great rebellion would occur, beginning in South Carolina; that it would terminate in the death and misery of many souls; that the Southern States would be divided against the Northern States; that the Southern States would call on Great Britain, and that war would eventually be poured out upon all nations. No one foresaw that this would be the result except Joseph Smith--when but twenty-seven years of age--and he saw it only by the spirit of prophecy and revelation. To be required to believe that the prophecy was merely the fortunate conjecture of a more than ordinary astute mind, requires a greater amount of credulity than to concede the inspiration of the Prophet; and then the question would still remain, why is it that sagacious minds in other generations have not paralleled this astuteness of Joseph Smith's? Why did not some of the brilliant minds in the Senate or House of Representatives in 1832 make such a prediction? There was not a lack of brilliant minds in either Senate or House at that time, yet none seemed equal to the task.<ref>{{Book:Roberts:New Witnesses for God|vol=1|pages=319}}</ref>

The fact that there were rumors of war is in fact a fulfillment of prophecy itself! ({{b||Matthew|24|6-7}}) The question is not were there rumors of war, but the question should be, did the events take place just as Joseph Smith said they would. As soon as Joseph uttered the words "Thus saith the Lord" he was tied to the prophecy being true or false, and if the events did not happen as he said, then, and only then, could it be declared a false prophecy.

===Wars would shortly come to pass, beginning with the rebellion of South Carolina, which would eventually terminate in war being poured out upon all nations and in the death and misery of many souls===

It was because of this fact that the Lord made known to Joseph Smith this revelation stating that wars would shortly come to pass, beginning with the rebellion of South Carolina, which would eventually terminate in war being poured out upon all nations and in the death and misery of many souls. It may have been an easy thing in 1832, or even 1831, for someone to predict that there would come a division of the Northern States and the Southern States, for even then there were rumblings, and South Carolina had shown the spirit of rebellion. It was not, however, within the power of man to predict in the detail which the Lord revealed to Joseph Smith, what was shortly to come to pass as an outgrowth of the Civil War and the pouring out of war upon all nations. It must be conceded that no one, except Joseph Smith, ever entered into such detail in relation to this conflict or stated with such assurance that the time would come when all nations would be involved in war, The revelation begins with these words: "Verily, thus saith the Lord, concerning the wars that will shortly come to pass beginning at the rebellion of South Carolina, which will eventually terminate in the death and misery of many souls; and the time will come that war will be poured out upon all nations, beginning at this place." This, certainly, is a bold prediction which no one, other than Joseph Smith, dared to make.<ref name="jfs">{{Book:Smith:Church History and Modern Revelation}}</ref>{{Rp|2:123}}
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[[Category:American Massacre]]
[[Category:Mormonism 101]]
[[Category:One Nation Under Gods]]
[[Category:The Kingdom of the Cults]]
[[fi:Kysymys: Peittelikö kirkko sitä, että sisällissodan profetia tehtiin 1832 Etelä-Carolinan kapinan aikana?]]
[[es:Pregunta: ¿La Iglesia cubrió el hecho de que la profecía de la Guerra Civil de los Estados Unidos fue hecha durante la rebelión de 1832 en Carolina del Sur?]]
[[Category:Questions]]