Class 16 – Sections 98, 99, 106, 108
War
Historical Background
•Section 98. August 6, 1833. Tensions in Jackson County had
been increasing. The report of what happened on July 20-23
had not yet reached Kirtland.
•Section 99. August 1832, to John Murdock. An error in 1876
put this section in the wrong place.
Historical Background
•Section 106. November 1834, to Warren Cowdery. Joseph
Smith visited him in Freedom, New York, in early 1834.
•Section 108. December 1835, to Lyman Sherman.
•Note the time between these revelations…
Why Wasn’t Zion Established in 1834?
Why Wasn’t Zion Established in 1834?
• because the saints in Zion didn’t keep the commandments,
especially the Law of Consecration (celestial laws)
• because the saints elsewhere were reluctant to volunteer
for Zion’s Camp and reluctant to contribute financial
support
• because the saints needed to be tried
Where Is Zion?
•1831:
•1837:
•1844:
•1890:
•2007:
Where Is Zion?
•1831: Jackson County
•1837:
•1844:
•1890:
•2007:
Where Is Zion?
•1831: Jackson County
•1837: Northwest Missouri
•1844:
•1890:
•2007:
Where Is Zion?
•1831: Jackson County
•1837: Northwest Missouri
•1844: All of North and South America
•1890:
•2007:
Where Is Zion?
•1831: Jackson County
•1837: Northwest Missouri
•1844: All of North and South America
•1890: Utah
•2007:
Where Is Zion?
•1831: Jackson County
•1837: Northwest Missouri
•1844: All of North and South America
•1890: Utah
•2007: Wherever the pure in heart are found.
Will the Saints Return to Jackson County
or will Zion be somewhere else?
Will the Saints Return to Jackson County
or will Zion be somewhere else?
• Zion will not be moved out her place, there is no other
place appointed.
What were the Saints in 1834 told to do while they
wait for Zion to be redeemed?
What were the Saints in 1834 told to do while they
wait for Zion to be redeemed?
•Build up stakes, stand in holy places. See 101:21-22
•Seek the face of the Lord. 101:38
•Continue to purchase land. Don’t sell what you have.
101:71,99 105:30
What were the Saints in 1834 told to do while they
wait for Zion to be redeemed?
• Look for redress – obey Constitutional Law. 98:5, 101:77,80
• Organize Zion’s Camp… 103: 24-40.
•Live a celestial law 105:5.
What were the Saints in 1834 told to do while they
wait for Zion to be redeemed?
•Receive endowment 105:11.
•Stay in Missouri, if possible 105:19
•Build up army 105:26,31
•Sue for peace 105:38-40.
Are We Pacifists?
Are We Pacifists?
•98:16 … renounce war and proclaim peace…
•98:33 …they should not go out to battle… save I the Lord
commanded them.
•98:34 …first lift a standard of peace. – offer three times.
•98:40 …if he repents, forgive him until 70 times 7
When Is War Justified?
When Is War Justified?
•If your enemies smite you, bear it patiently 98:23
•three times 98:26
•After that, you will be rewarded if you spare him 98:30
•but he’s in your hands 98:31
What have recent church leaders said about war?
David O. McKay – April 1942
Thus we see that war is incompatible with Christ's teachings. The gospel
of Jesus Christ is the gospel of peace. War is its antithesis, and
produces hate. It is vain to attempt to reconcile war with true
Christianity…
Notwithstanding all this, I still say that there are conditions when
entrance into war is justifiable, and when a Christian nation may, without
violation of principles, take up arms against an opposing force…
Nor is war justified in an attempt to enforce a new order of government,
or even to impel others to a particular form of worship, however better
the government or eternally true the principles of the enforced religion
may be.
There are, however, two conditions which may justify a truly Christian
man to enter -- mind you, I say enter, not begin -- a war: ( 1 ) An attempt
to dominate and to deprive another of his free agency, and, ( 2 ) Loyalty
to his country. Possibly there is a third, viz., Defense of a weak nation
that is being unjustly crushed by a strong, ruthless one.
J. Reuben Clark, Jr. – Oct. 1946
Then as the crowning savagery of the war, we Americans
wiped out hundreds of thousands of civilian population with
the atom bomb in Japan, few if any of the ordinary civilians
being any more responsible for the war than were we, and
perhaps most of them no more aiding Japan in the war than
we were aiding America. Military men are now saying that
the atom bomb was a mistake. It was more than that: it was
a world tragedy. Thus we have lost all that we gained during
the years from Grotius (1625) to 1912. And the worst of this
atomic bomb tragedy is not that not only did the people of
the United States not rise up in protest against this savagery,
not only did it not shock us to read of this wholesale
destruction of men, women, and children, and cripples, but
that it actually drew from the nation at large a general
approval of this fiendish butchery.
First Presidency – 1981
By way of general observation we repeat our warnings against the
terrifying arms race in which the nations of the earth are presently
engaged. We deplore in particular the building of vast arsenals of
nuclear weaponry. We are advised that there is already enough such
weaponry to destroy in large measure our civilization, with consequent
suffering and misery of incalculable extent… History indicates that men
have seldom created armaments that eventually were not put to use.
Pres. Hinckley – April 2003
This places us in the position of those who long for peace, who teach peace,
who work for peace, but who also are citizens of nations and are subject to the
laws of our governments. Furthermore, we are a freedom-loving people,
committed to the defense of liberty wherever it is in jeopardy. I believe that God
will not hold men and women in uniform responsible as agents of their
government in carrying forward that which they are legally obligated to do. It may
even be that He will hold us responsible if we try to impede or hedge up the way
of those who are involved in a contest with forces of evil and repression.