With all of the stuff out there on the white horse prophecy, frankly I am confused as to what has been said and what has not been said about latter-day Saints and the Constitution. I just got forwarded these quotations in an e-mail. Are all of them true? Some of them? This is an honest plea for help in separating the wheat from the chaff, so to speak, when it comes to prophetic statements and the Constitution. I am also open to interpretation about the meanings of these quotations.
Prophetic Warnings
1)Prophecy of Joseph Smith, according to Orson Hyde:
was that the time would come when the Constitution and the country would be in danger of an overthrow; and . . . “if the Constitution be saved at all, it will be by the Elders of this Church.” (Source: Journal of Discourses, Vol.6, p. 152, January 3, 185
2)Prophecy of Joseph Smith (March 10, 1844):
Even this nation will be on the verge of crumbling to pieces and tumbling to the ground and when the Constitution is on the brink of ruin this people will be the staff upon which the nation shall lean and they shall bear the Constitution away from the very verge of destruction. (Source: Joseph Smith Papers, LDS Church Historical Archives, Box 1, March 10, 1844; D. Michael Stewart, Ensign, Vol. 6, No. 6, June 1976, pp. 64-65)3) from David O. McKay:
Next to being one in worshiping God, there is nothing in this world in which this Church should be more united than in upholding and defending the Constitution of the Unite States. If members of the Melchizedek Priesthood allow the U.S. Constitution to be destroyed, they not only forfeit their rights to the Priesthood, but to a place in this highest degree of glory as well.
(David O. McKay,The Instructor, Feb. 1956, p.34)4)from Ezra Taft Benson in General Conference April 1965:
The Prophet Joseph Smith declared it will be the elders of Israel who will step forward to help save the Constitution, and not the church. Brethren, if we had done our homework and were faithful, we could step forward at this time and help save this country. The fact that most of us are unprepared to do it is an indictment we will have to bear. The longer we wait, the heavier the chains, the deeper the blood, the more the persecution, and the less we can carry out our God-given mandate and world-wide mission. The war in heaven is raging on earth today. Are you being neutralized in the battle?
(Ezra Taft Benson, CR-4/65, Era, p. 539)5) from Boyd K. Packer in 2004:
“Will the Constitution be destroyed? No. It will be held inviolate by this people; and as Joseph Smith said “the time will come when the destiny of this nation will hang upon a single thread, and at this critical juncture, this people will step forth and save it from the threatened destruction.”
It will be so. I do not know when that day will come or how it will come to pass. I feel sure that
when it does come to pass, among those who will step forward from among this people
will be men who hold the Holy Priesthood and who carry as credentials a bachelor
or doctor of law degree. And women also, of honor. And there will be judges as well.
Others from the world outside the Church will come, as Colonel Thomas Kane
did, and bring with them their knowledge of the law to protect this people.
We may one day stand alone, but we will not change
or lower our standards, or change our course.”
(Source: “On the Shoulders of Giants”, Brigham Young University J. Reuben Clark Law Society Devotional, Saturday, 2-28-04, 6:00 p.m)6)Harold B. Lee:
[Latter-day Saints] “devoutly believe that if [the Constitution] should be in danger of being
overthrown, their lives, if need be, are to be offered in defense of its principles.”
(Harold B. Lee, “True Patriotism-An Expression of Faith”, April 13, 1941)7)Statement of Erastus Snow, 1885:
We were told by the prophet Joseph Smith, that the United States Government and people would undermine one principle of the Constitution after another, until its whole fabric would be torn away, and that it would become the duty of the Latter-day Saints and those in sympathy with them to rescue it from destruction, and to maintain and sustain the principles of human freedom for which our fathers
fought and bled. We look for these things to come in quick succession.
(Source: Journal of Discourses, vol. 26, p. 226, May 31, 1885)