Orson Hyde, was ordained an Apostle of Jesus Christ on February 15, 1835 as part of the first Quorum of the Twelve Apostles since biblical times. During his life time he fulfilled missions all across North America, Europe, and even preached the Restored Gospel in Palestine and dedicated the land for the return of the Jews to it. Later in life he would become President of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles and serve as one of the highest leaders in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In addition to his religious accomplishments, during his life time he was regent of the University of Deseret (the present day University of Utah), a judge, founder of multiple cities, a farmer, a teacher, and president of the Utah Senate. To say that he led an amazing life is an understatement. And while much could be written solely about his secular accomplishments, it is his religious accomplishments that drawn my attention today, specifically that he predicted World War I.
The following lost LDS Classic, titled A Timely Warning From An Apostle of Jesus Christ, is the replication of a letter that Orson Hyde wrote to the Missouri Republican newspaper in February of 1862. There are at least three things about it that make it worth reading. First, it is a great example of how early Church leaders interpreted the Civil War in a dual way, as both a fulfillment of prophecy (more on that soon) and as divine punishment for the nation’s genocidal persecutions of the Saints, including their being driven from Missouri under threat of extermination by the government of the state as well as similar treatment when the Saints were driven from Illinois under threat of extermination from mobs and after the murders of the Prophet Joseph Smith and his brother the Patriarch Hyrum Smith in the Martyrdom. This was especially applied to Missouri, which, unlike most other states at the time of the Civil War, had its own miniature internal Civil War as it divided into pro-Confederacy and pro-Union segments that then went to war with each other over who would control the apparatus of state government.
The second reason to read the article is how it contextualizes the Prophet Joseph Smith’s prophecy of the Civil War. In late 1832 the Nullification Crisis threatened to bring war Civil War to the United States when South Carolina declared Federal tariffs (taxes on imports and exports) to be nullified within its boundaries because obedience to them would destroy the state’s economy. When President Andrew Jackson refused to back down South Carolina then threatened to secede from the Union to which Jackson declared he would subdue the state by force saying, “if one drop of blood be shed there in defiance of the laws of the United States, I will hang the first man of them I can get my hands on to the first tree I can find.” During this period of national crisis the Prophet Joseph Smith prophesied that a civil war would begin in South Carolina over the issue of slavery, that slaves would fight against their masters, and that eventually war would “be poured out upon all nations.” (D&C 87:3)
Leaving a deeper explication of D&C 87 to future date, here it is necessary to note the way that LDS critics and opposition try and explain away this prophecy, a typical example of which can be found here. They usually point out that a war between South Carolina and the US government in late 1832 wasn’t exactly to predict. They of course ignore that the Prophet Joseph Smith says that the war in question would be over the issue of slavery and not nullification, and that the American Civil War 30 years later fulfills the prediction completely. The next big attack they have on the prophecy is that they claim that it says that the Civil War will feed into a larger war that will involve all nations and culminate in worldwide destruction. Here, Elder Hyde, writing in the midst of the Civil War in 1862 when the Confederate States were achieving some of their greatest victories, specifically calls the Civil War the beginning of the fulfillment of the prophecy in D&C 87. Yet he talks about it not as a war that will grow and consume everyone, but rather as a spirit of war that will exhaust itself in America only to move to other parts of Europe and grow there.
In other words, Elder Hyde is saying that D&C 87 is predicting the Civil War as the start of a period of wars that will consume the world, not as the start of a singular war that will do so – an interpretation that is often ignorantly dismissed as a present day reinterpretation of the prophecy. Here we can see that this is not the case. As part of the founding generation who knew Joseph Smith personally and a person of great prominence and authority in the Church, Hyde’s interpretation shows us that D&C 87 has been interpreted differently than anti-Mormons and Mormon critics claim and essentially refutes their attempt to dismiss and denigrate this prophecy by undermining the very foundation their arguments are built upon.
Finally, Elder Hyde predicts that as soon as “the demon of war shall have exhausted his madness upon American soil” that it would move onwards to Europe, specifically to the Rhine River, the river which forms the border between France and Germany. All of this is given in the context of fulfilling Revelation 6:3-4, with the description of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, verses three and four specifically talking about War. It is interesting to note that him saying this in 1862 not only presages World War I but also the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871. The outcomes of this war between France and what became Germany set the stage for World War I, both militarily and diplomatically. By marking out the Rhine as the place where the demon of war would settle and cause events that would lead to war being poured out upon all nations, Elder Hyde was amazingly prophetic and not just in a “this will happen in generations yet to come” way that it seems like so much scriptural prophecy occurs, but in a way that applied to his own life and times.
This is no surprise to the members of the church who recognize him as a Prophet, Seer, and Revelator appointed by Jesus Christ to help lead not only His church but to warn the world of the coming calamities that the people of the world would create for themselves if they continued in the ways that they were instead of repenting and living by the Gospel of Peace, the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. His warning that in these Last Days and Final Nights that the only place which will be safe from the scourge of War is to be found in Zion, with the church and people of God, is one that we must all give ear to if we wish to discover peace in a world consumed with division, rage, hatred, and war.
Since I couldn’t find a good PDF copy of this, I have downloaded the pictures of the pages of Elder Hyde’s letter and posted them below. It is a fascinating find and an enlightening read for those looking to better understand D&C 87 and to affirm or reaffirm their faith in the prophetic powers of our modern church leaders.
