In 1832, Joseph Smith received a revelation now known as the Civil War Prophecy. Early Latter-day Saints saw it as evidence of his prophetic calling, while contemporary newspapers responded skeptically. Initial interpretations emphasized conflict between the Northern and Southern States. Over time, the prophecy was also applied to later wars, including World War I and the Cold War. Today, it’s call to “stand ye in holy places” is the most commonly cited application in General Conference. In this interview, historian Scott C. Esplin discusses the origin and evolving interpretations of Joseph Smith’s Civil War Prophecy.
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Origins and Content of Joseph Smith’s Civil War Prophecy
How does D&C 87 relate to the Civil War?
Section 87 of the Doctrine and Covenants is commonly referred to as “Joseph Smith’s Civil War prophecy” because it contains the Lord’s forewarning that “the Southern States shall be divided against the Northern States,” an event that began in April 1861, less than thirty years after its receipt.
However, the revelation is not limited to that significant conflict, something the early saints recognized.
When copying it into Joseph Smith’s Revelation Book 2, scribe Frederick G. Williams added in the book’s index, “Prophecy given Dec 25— 1832 concerning . . . the wars.”
Over nearly two hundred years, its usage in the Church reflects this expansive view of its contents beyond exclusive focus on the United States Civil War.
How does it compare to his other war-related revelations?
Revelations regarding war and other calamities populate all scripture. Some, including Isaiah’s prophecy regarding the Assyrian invasion of Judah (see Isaiah 11) or Lehi’s prediction of the destruction of Jerusalem (see 1 Nephi 1), are, at times, remarkably detailed. Others, like the Savior’s prophesy regarding “wars and rumours of wars” (Matthew 24:6) seem more general. Doctrine and Covenants 87 contains both specificity and generality.
In terms of specificity, it identifies parties in certain conflicts (Southern States, Northern States, Great Britain). In later teachings, the Prophet Joseph Smith clarified the precise context (slavery) that would lead to the eventual conflict (see Doctrine and Covenants 130:12-13).
In other places, the section seems more general, including the oft-repeated injunction to “stand ye in holy places, and be not moved, until the day of the Lord come” (Doctrine and Covenants 87:8). In this case, it does so without specifically identifying holy places or the timing of the Lord’s return.
Joseph Smith received other revelations about war, including Doctrine and Covenants 45, which, like Matthew 24, gives “wars and rumors of wars” as a sign in the last days.
During the conflict that engulfed the saints in Independence, Jackson County, Missouri, in the summer of 1833, section 98 outlines a “law [the Lord] gave unto [the] ancients” regarding going to war and proclaiming peace (v. 33-37).
Section 87 appears to be the most detailed of all these revelations, and the Prophet repeatedly referred to it in his writings and sermons throughout his life.
What is the historical context of his Civil War prophecy?
While most associate the American Civil War with tensions regarding slavery, this wasn’t the issue that immediately drew forth Joseph Smith’s prophecy.
Late in 1832, the world was grappling with reports of cholera globally and, in India specifically, an outbreak of the plague. Closer to home, tensions simmered over protective tariffs imposed on foreign-manufactured goods that disproportionately impacted economic interests across the agrarian south. The state of South Carolina threatened to secede from the Union over the issue, believing it had the power to nullify the tariffs.
Writing the Prophet’s history a decade later, Willard Richards introduced the section:
Appearances of troubles among the nations, became more visible, this season, than they had previously done, since the church began her journey out of the wilderness. The ravages of the cholera were frightful, in almost all the large cities on the globe; and the plague broke out in India; while the United States, amid all her pomp and greatness, was threatened with immediate dissolution. The people of South Carolina, in convention assembled, (in November,) passed ordinances, declaring their state, a free and Independent Nation; and appointed thursday the 31st. day of January 1833, as a day of humiliation and prayer, to implore Almighty God to vouchsafe his blessings, and restore liberty and happiness within their borders.
President [Andrew] Jackson issued his proclamation against this rebellion; called out a force sufficient to quell it, and implored the blessings of God to assist the Nation to extricate itself from the horrors of the approaching and Solemn Crisis.
History, 1838–1856, Volume A-1 [23 December 1805–30 August 1834], p. 244, The Joseph Smith Papers.
The conflict was averted when the federal government and the state of South Carolina reached a compromise in February 1833. However, the word of the Lord had been delivered, and Joseph Smith and his associates believed the revelation would still take effect.
Early Use of Joseph Smith’s Civil War Prophecy
What sources do we have that record the Prophet receiving and sharing this revelation?
Joseph Smith refers to the revelation as early as two weeks after receiving it. In a letter to an editor of a Rochester, New York, newspaper, he wrote:
I am prepared to say by the authority of Jesus Christ that not many years shall pass away before the United States shall present such a scene of bloodshed as has not a parallel in the history of our nation; pestilence, hail, famine, and earthquake will sweep the wicked of this generation from off the face of the land.
History of the Church, 1:315.
He also ensured that it was recorded in Manuscript Revelation Book 2, where Frederick G. Williams added a brief note regarding it in the index. Later, in Nauvoo, Willard Richards included it in the official history of the Church, together with the background that led to its receipt.
This war should commence at the rebellion of South Carolina.
Finally, Joseph allowed others to make personal copies, which they sometimes referred to and shared. A year into the Civil War, Wilford Woodruff affirmed:
I copied a revelation more than twenty-five years ago, in which it is stated that war should be in the south and in the north, and that nation after nation would become embroiled in the tumult and excitement, until war should be poured out upon the whole earth, and that this war would commence at the rebellion of South Carolina, and that times should be such that every man who did not flee to Zion would have to take up the sword against his neighbor or against his brother.
Wilford Woodruff, in Journal of Discourses (London: Latter-day Saints’ Book Depot, 1854–86), 10:13.
Why was the prophecy excluded from the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants?
I’m not sure we know why it was excluded from the 1835 (or the 1844) editions of the Doctrine and Covenants, except that it wasn’t published, and that it was certainly not the only revelation given to the Prophet Joseph Smith that was excluded in earlier editions.
In Revelation Book 2, where a copy of section 87 was recorded, two of the other revelations received in proximity to it (sections 84 and 86) contain the phrase “To go into the covenants” written at the top of each revelation, presumably instructing that they be printed in the 1835 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants. However, this phrase was not written at the top of section 87.
The original title page implied that it was not a complete record.
Other revelations of the Prophet Joseph Smith, including what are now Doctrine and Covenants sections 2, 13, and 85, were likewise not published in the 1835 (or 1844) editions. Regarding the contents of the text, the original title page to the Doctrine and Covenants openly stated, “Carefully selected from the revelations of God,” implying that it was not a complete record.
While there is no surviving comment by Joseph Smith as to why it was not published in the Doctrine and Covenants in his lifetime, Brigham Young shared in 1860:
That revelation was reserved at the time the compilation for that book was made by Oliver Cowdery and others, in Kirtland. It was not wisdom to publish it to the world, and it remained in the private escritoire.
Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 8:58.
Several years later, in 1869, Orson Pratt added:
Why did not the revelations in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants come to us in print years before they did? Why were they shut up in Joseph’s cupboard years and years without being suffered to be printed and sent broadcast throughout the land? Because the Lord had His own time again to accomplish His purposes, and He suffered the revelations to be printed just when He saw proper. He did not suffer the revelation on the great American war to be published until some time after it was given.
Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses, 13:193–94.
The revelation has continuously been included in the Doctrine and Covenants since its publication in the 1876 edition.
How was the Civil War prophecy used before it was formally published?
Even before its formal publication, Joseph Smith referred to it in private correspondence and public discourse, including in a letter to a newspaper editor in Rochester just a month following the revelation’s receipt and, more well-known, in a public discourse in Ramus, Illinois, on April 2, 1843, that is now canonized as a portion of section 130 of the Doctrine and Covenants.
Missionary Work
The Prophet also shared his Civil War prophecy with others, often his close associates, who referred to it in their proselytizing efforts. Orson Pratt, an early member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, seems to have been most impressed by the section, referring to it throughout his preaching.
He recalled, “When I was a boy, I traveled extensively in the United States and the Canadas, preaching this restored Gospel. I had a manuscript copy of this revelation, which I carried in my pocket, and I was in the habit of reading it to the people among whom I traveled and preached.”
Pratt continued, describing the response to his preaching:
As a general thing the people regarded it as the height of nonsense, saying the Union was too strong to be broken; and I, they said, was led away, the victim of an impostor. I knew the prophecy was true, for the Lord had spoken to me and had given me revelation. I knew also concerning the divinity of this work.
Year after year passed away, while every little while some of the acquaintances I had formerly made would say, “Well, what is going to become of that prediction? It’s never going to be fulfilled.”
Said I, “Wait, the Lord has his set time.”
Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses, 18:224–25.
Inclusion in the Pearl of Great Price (Great Britain)
Elder Pratt also seems to have had a hand in publishing it for the first time in Great Britain as part of the Pearl of Great Price. He presided over the British Mission from August 1848 to February 1851 and, following his departure, his successor, Franklin D. Richards, published a pamphlet in July 1851 containing “a collection of revelations, prophecies &c.”
The pamphlet, later renamed the Pearl of Great Price, included what it called this document on “the destiny of the American Union… Joseph’s prophecy of the Union,” which Richards said he received from Pratt. We don’t know why it was selected for inclusion, but, interestingly, the section does refer, by name, to the nation of Great Britain—and the revelation was first published there.
Public and Church Reactions During the Civil War
How was the prophecy referenced in an 1861 newspaper?
In May 1861, just a month after the first shots were fired in the American Civil War, the Philadelphia Sunday Mercury referenced the early British printing of the text, noting, “We have in our possession a pamphlet, published at Liverpool, in 1851, containing a selection from the ‘revelations, translations and narrations’ of Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism.”
It continued:
The following prophecy is here said to have been made by Smith, on the 25th of December, 1832. In view of our present troubles, this prediction seems to be in progress of fulfilment, whether Joe Smith was a humbug or not.
Clearly aware of the language of the revelation, the Philadelphia Sunday Mercury concluded:
The war began in South Carolina. Insurrections of slaves are already dreaded. Famine will certainly afflict some Southern communities. The interference of Great Britain, on account of the want of cotton, is not improbable, if the war is protracted. In the meantime, a general war in Europe appears to be imminent. Have we not had a prophet among us?
A Mormon Prophecy,” Philadelphia Sunday Mercury, May 5, 1861, cited in Robert J. Woodford, “Historical Development of the Doctrine and Covenants” (Ph.D. dissertation, Brigham Young University, 1974), 2:1110, emphasis added.
Was there any other media coverage of Joseph Smith’s Civil War prophecy?
Other newspapers likewise reported on the revelation around the time of the Civil War:
- In 1858, San Francisco’s Daily Evening Bulletin reported on its use in Utah discourses. Disparagingly, it called the address “disjointed and incoherent,” downplaying the prediction as “full of holes as is a broken net.”
- The New York Herald called it “a very facetous turn and interpretation” in 1861.
- The Tri-Weekly Miner Register criticized Latter-day Saints who viewed the revelation as evidence of Joseph Smith’s divine calling, saying in 1862 that leaders of “the old Abolition party” made the same prophetic claims before the Civil War.
Others attributed disloyalty to the Union to the Church because of the prophecy, a notion that Brigham Young and his associates worked to correct.
How did Latter-day Saints react to the Civil War prophecy?
Latter-day Saints seemed to embrace the prophecy, in contrast to the skepticism displayed by contemporary newspapers.
A decade after the Civil War began, Orson Pratt recalled:
When they were talking about a war commencing down here in Kansas, I told them that was not the place; I also told them that the revelation had designated South Carolina, ‘and,’ said I, ‘you have no need to think that the Kansas war is going to be the war that is to be so terribly destructive in its character and nature. No, it must commence at the place the Lord has designated by revelation.’” Pratt told their response, “What did they have to say to me? They thought it was a Mormon humbug, and laughed me to scorn, and they looked upon that revelation as they do upon all others that God has given in these latter days—as without divine authority. But behold and lo! in process of time it came to pass, again establishing the divinity of this work, and giving another proof that God is in this work.
Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses, 13:135.
Likewise, as referenced in Journal of Discourses 22:135, George Q. Cannon later recalled. “I, when quite a child heard it, and looked for its fulfillment until it came to pass. And this was the case with the body of the people who were familiar with the predictions which had been uttered by the Prophet Joseph Smith.”
Cannon later added:
I suppose there is not a boy who has been brought up in this community who did not know of the revelation years before it was published, and, still longer, before it was fulfilled.
George Q. Cannon, Journal of Discourses, 23:104.
How did Church leaders interpret the Civil War as it was unfolding?
Church leaders such as Brigham Young, Orson Pratt, and George Q. Cannon used the revelation as a witness of Joseph Smith’s divine calling. As the section itself does, they included it in proselytizing efforts and warning messages regarding the calamities that will precede the Second Coming of Christ.
As an example, in 1864, Brigham Young observed:
The war now raging in our nation is in the providence of God, and was told us years and years ago by the Prophet Joseph; and what we are now coming to was foreseen by him, and no power can hinder. Can the inhabitants of our once beautiful, delightful and happy country avert the horrors and evils that are now upon them? Only by turning from their wickedness, and calling upon the Lord. If they will turn unto the Lord and seek after Him, they will avert this terrible calamity, otherwise it cannot be averted. There is no power on the earth, nor under it, but the power of God, that can avert the evils that are now upon and are coming upon the nation.
Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 10:294–95.
In 1863, John Taylor observed:
We say ‘Mormonism’ must be true because Joseph Smith prophesied thus and so concerning a division of this nation, and that the calamities which are now causing it to mourn should commence in South Carolina. That is true, he did prophecy that, and did foretell the events that have since transpired, and did tell where the commencement of those difficulties should originate. Well if this is true, are not other things true.
John Taylor, Journal of Discourses, 10:278.
What role did the Millennial Star play in framing the Civil War as a fulfillment of prophecy?
In early printings, the Times and Seasons newspaper in Nauvoo, as well as the Millennial Star in Great Britain, reproduced the portion of Joseph Smith’s history that detailed the events leading up the receipt of the revelation, including global challenges as well as the tension over tariffs between South Carolina and the federal government. However, they did not originally reproduce the revelation. The British Mission first did this in a publication that became the Pearl of Great Price, and later elsewhere.
As the war approached, the Millennial Star published the revelation, criticizing the United States for having rejected prophetic warnings. In 1860, it wrote:
That nation was once under ‘the special protection of Divine Providence,’ and God sent to them a ‘special’ message and a ‘special’ day of opportunities by one of the greatest of Prophets. But they rejected him, and the special message, and their special day of opportunities; and the cry of Saints, with their wrongs and their repeated drivings, and the cries of the blood of Saints and the blood of Prophets and Apostles, and finally, the injustice of the intended exterminating Utah Expedition, and the pleadings of the last exodus of the Church have gone up into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. . . . Because of their many ‘demerits’ and special sins, they have lost ‘the special protection of Divine Providence.’ The dark day of the United States has indeed come.
“The Dark Day of the United States,” Millennial Star, January 28, 1860, 52–53.
When the war emerged, the British Latter-day Saint periodical returned to the topic. It republished the revelation and concluded:
Who can behold what is now taking place in that land and not feel that the Lord’s hand is in the events that have transpired? What power but His could so signally have brought to pass his word spoken by his Prophets?
“Division of the United States—Causes Which Have Hastened It,” Millennial Star, February 16, 1861, 100–101.
Legacy and Ongoing Interpretation
How did Church leaders balance their interpretation of the prophecy with loyalty to the Union?
Church leaders sought to use the section to highlight Joseph Smith’s prophetic ministry without appearing to be disloyal to the union.
In 1865, John Taylor declared:
We frequently hear, ‘You are not loyal.’ Who is it that talks of loyalty?” he countered. “Those who are stabbing the country to its very vitals. Are they the men that are loyal? . . . We will stand by that constitution and uphold the flag of our country when everybody else forsakes it. We cannot shut our eyes to things transpiring around us. . . . But did not Joseph Smith prophecy that there would be a rebellion in the United States? He did, and so have I scores and hundreds of times; and what of that? Could I help that?,” President Taylor concluded. “Could Joseph Smith help knowing that a rebellion would take place in the United States? Could he help knowing it would commence in South Carolina? You could not blame him for that.
John Taylor, Journal of Discourses, 11:92–93.
Brigham Young likewise expressed concern about the suffering caused by the war, even while acknowledging Joseph’s foreshadowing of it:
It is distressing to see the condition our nation is in, but I cannot help it. Who can? The people en masse, by turning to God, and ceasing to do wickedly, ceasing to persecute the honest and the truth-lover. If they had done that thirty years ago, it would have been better for them to-day. When we appealed to the government of our nation for justice, the answer was:—“Your cause is just, but we have no power.” Did not Joseph Smith tell them in Washington and Philadelphia, that the time would come when their State rights would be trampled upon?
Joseph said, many and many a time, to us,—’Never be anxious for the Lord to pour out his judgments upon the nation; many of you will see the distress and evils poured out upon this nation till you will weep like children.’ Many of us have felt to do so already, and it seems to be coming upon us more and more; it seems as though the fangs of destruction were piercing the very vitals of the nation.
Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 10:294–95.
How did Church leaders apply D&C 87 to later conflicts like the World Wars and the Cold War?
Church leaders like B. H. Roberts, Bishop Joseph L. Wirthlin, and Elder Neal A. Maxwell noted that the revelation did more than predict the Civil War between the states, highlighting the expanded application found in verse 6:
And thus, with the sword and by bloodshed the inhabitants of the earth shall mourn; and with famine, and plague, and earthquake, and the thunder of heaven, and the fierce and vivid lightning also, shall the inhabitants of the earth be made to feel the wrath, and indignation, and chastening hand of an Almighty God, until the consumption decreed hath made a full end of all nations”
Doctrine and Covenants 87:6.
B. H. Roberts
B. H. Roberts captured the expanded emphasis in the section, saying, “Thus you see this prophecy, so far as we have read it, has been minutely fulfilled—fulfilled in every particular.”
Turning to future fulfillment, he continued:
And the rest of it will be, so fast as the wheels of time shall bring the events due; and the fulfillment of these prophecies prove beyond controversy, that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God, and ‘spake as he was moved upon by the Holy Ghost.’
B. H. Roberts, Journal of Discourses, 25:143.
Joseph L. Wirthlin
Presiding Bishop Joseph L. Wirthlin exemplified the expanded interpretation section 87 has received. “In many cases,” Wirthlin declared:
I am quite sure we all think this has to do particularly with the slaves in the Southern States, but I believe, brethren and sisters, that it was intended that this referred to slaves all over the world, and I think of those, particularly in the land of Russia and other countries wherein they have been taken over by that great nation and where the people are actually the slaves of those individuals who guide and direct the affairs of Russia and China, and where the rights and the privilege to worship God and to come to a knowledge that Jesus Christ is his Son is denied them.
Joseph L. Wirthlin, in Conference Report, October 1958, 32–33.
Neal A. Maxwell
Neal A. Maxwell likewise observed how Joseph Smith’s Civil War prophecy also applied to other conflicts:
War has been the almost continuing experience of modern man. There have been 141 wars, large and small, just since the end of World War II in 1945. As the American Civil War was about to begin, the Lord declared there would be a succession of wars poured out upon all nations, resulting in the ‘death and misery of many souls’ (D&C 87:1). Moreover, that continuum of conflict will culminate in ‘a full end of all nations’ (D&C 87:6).
Neal A. Maxwell, in Conference Report, October 1982, 96.
What does Reed Smoot’s use of the prophecy reveal about differing interpretations within the Church?
At times, section 87 has been used to support differing views within the church on geopolitical matters. For example, following the conclusion of World War I, Elder Reed Smoot voiced opposition to the proposed League of Nations and its aspiration to end war, citing the revelation as evidence that conflict would continue until Christ returns.
Some of his church colleagues who seemed to support the League of Nations did not read the section as an injunction against the organization’s efforts. Instead, they referred to other scriptural passages that enjoined the Church to proclaim peace.
How has the Church’s global growth impacted interpretations of D&C 87?
Interpretations of Doctrine and Covenants 87 have shifted over time. Initially, applications of Joseph Smith’s Civil War prophecy focused on the conflict between Northern and Southern States. Later, the revelation was increasingly applied to other global conflicts. As the Church has grown globally, interpretations have evolved to emphasize how section 87 represents the Lord’s solution for living in times of conflict.
Today, the injunction to “stand ye in holy places” (D&C 87:8) exceeds all other recent uses in General Conference. For example, Church presidents like Harold B. Lee, Gordon B. Hinckley, Thomas S. Monson, and Russell M. Nelson have quoted it in that context.
Why does Joseph Smith’s Civil War prophecy still matter?
Joseph Smith’s prophecy on war, together with its associated solution for how to live in troubled times, has a fascinating history. Rooted in regional tensions that gripped the United States in the 1830s, it long outlived the immediate situation that drew it forth.
Because it famously predicted the American Civil War, members consider it evidence of Joseph Smith’s prophetic mission. However, its content is not limited only to that prophesy. Rather, its message is much more expansive and forward-looking.
Like all scripture, it has a timelessness that allows for continual application, especially in its prophetic emphasis on the eventual return of Jesus Christ and how Latter-day Saints of any day can find peace as they prepare for that great day.
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About the Scholar
Scott C. Esplin is the dean of Religious Education and a Church History and Doctrine professor at Brigham Young University. He holds a PhD in Educational Leadership and Foundations from BYU and frequently publishes about historical topics related to Latter-day Saints. This interview draws from his leading work on Doctrine and Covenants 87 that was published in Civil War Saints under the chapter title, “‘Have We Not Had a Prophet Among Us?’: Joseph Smith’s Civil War Prophecy.”
Further Reading
- What Was the White Horse Prophecy?
- How Did Violence in Congress Lead to the Civil War?
- What Revelations Did John Taylor Receive?
- What’s Really in the Journal of Discourses?
- How Did Apocalyptic Ideas Shape Early Mormonism?
Doctrine and Covenants 87 Resources
- “Have We Not Had a Prophet Among Us?”: Joseph Smith’s Civil War Prophecy (BYU Religious Studies Center)
- Revelation, 25 December 1832 [D&C 87] (Joseph Smith Papers)
- Season 1, Episode 10: Joseph Smith’s Civil War Prophecy (Standard of Truth Podcast)
- “We Know No North, No South, No East, No West”: Mormon Interpretations of the Civil War, 1861–65 (BYU Religious Studies Center)
- Prophecy of War, Prescription for Peace (Liahona Magazine)
