Inspired Prophetic Warnings To All Inhabitants of the Earth

"There is another word of the Lord unto me, and which has been like fire shut up in my bones for the last three months; that is, to call upon all the inhabitants of these mountains, so far as I have an opportunity, to go to and lay up their grain, that they may have bread. For the last three months I have not felt as if I could answer my own feelings, unless at every meeting I have attended I called upon the farmers to lay up their grain. "Oh yes," say some, "Heber C. Kimball cried, `famine, famine' for years, and it has not come yet." Well, bless your soul, there is more room for it to come. "Who am I, saith the Lord, that I promise and do not fulfill?" The day will come when if this people do not lay up their bread they will be sorry for it. The Lord has felt after us in days past and gone by the visitation of grasshoppers and crickets, time after time, and had it not been for his mercy we should have had famine on our heads long before this. It is the duty of the farmers in this valley not to sell their bread, or to throw it away for a song, but to lay it up, or you will find that the day is not a great way off when you will need it. That is the voice of the Lord to me, and it is the way I have felt for a good while, and I believe it is the same to my brethren."

Thus saith the Lord through the mouth of Joseph Smith the Prophet, who sealed his testimony with his blood, and his testimony from that hour has been in force upon the world. Know ye, Latter-day Saints, that the Lord will not disappoint you or this generation with regard to the fulfillment of his promises. No matter whether they have been uttered by his own voice out of the heavens, by the ministration of angels or by the voice of his servants in the flesh, it is the same; and though the earth pass away, not one jot or tittle of his word will fall unfulfilled. There is no prophecy of scripture of any private interpretation, but holy men of old spoke as they were moved upon by the Holy Ghost, and their words will be fulfilled to the very letter, and it certainly is time that we prepare ourselves for that which is to come. Great things await this generation--both Zion and Babylon. All these revelations concerning the fall of Babylon will have their fulfillment.

Forty-five years ago, in speaking to the Church, the Lord said: "You are clean, but not all, and I am not well pleased with any who are not clean, because all flesh is corrupted before my face, and darkness prevails among all the nations of the earth." This causes silence to reign, and all eternity is pained. The angels of God are waiting to fulfill the great commandment given forty-five years ago, to go forth and reap down the earth because of the wickedness of men. How do you think eternity feels today? Why, there is more wickedness, a thousand times over, in the United States now, than when that revelation was given. The whole earth is ripe in iniquity; and these inspired men, these Elders of Israel, have been commanded of the Almighty to go forth and warn the world, that their garments may be clear of the blood of all men. I tell you that God will not disappoint Zion or Babylon, the heavens or the earth, in regard to the judgments which he has promised in these last days, but every one of them will have its fulfillment upon the heads of the children of men; and when they are fully ripened in iniquity the nations of the earth will be swept away as with the besom of destruction.

-- J.D. Vol. 18: 127-8.

Do you think there is calamity abroad now among the people? All we have yet heard and all we have experienced is scarcely a preface to the sermon that is going to be preached. When the testimony of the Elders ceases to be given, and the Lord says to them, "Come home; I will now preach My own sermons to the nations of the earth," all you now know can scarcely be called a preface to the sermon that will be preached with fire and sword, tempests, earthquake, hail, rain, thunders and lightnings, and fearful destruction. What matters the destruction of a few railway cars? You will hear of magnificent cities, now idolized by the people, sinking in the earth, entombing the inhabitants. The sea will heave itself beyond its bounds, engulfing mighty cities. Famine will spread over the nations, and nation will rise up against nation, kingdom against kingdom, and states against states, in our own country and in foreign lands; and they will destroy each other, caring not for the blood and lives of their neighbors, of their families, or for their own lives. They will be like the Jaredites who preceded the Nephites upon this continent, and will destroy each other to the last man, through the anger that the devil will place in their hearts, because they have rejected the words of life and are given over to Satan to do whatever he listeth to do with them. You may think that the little you hear of now is grievous; yet the faithful of God's people will see days that will cause them to close their eyes because of the sorrow that will come upon the wicked nations. The hearts of the faithful will be filled with pain and anguish for them.

One of the marked signs of the last days is the blindness of the people; we are told they would have eyes and see not, and ears but hear not, and hearts but understand not. If in the days of Jesus this was true of the Jews and surrounding nations, it is doubly so now in relation to the nations with which we are acquainted. Though the fulfillment of the words of the prophets is clear and visible to us as the noonday sun in its splendor, yet the people of the world are blinded thereto; they do not comprehend nor discern the hand of the Lord. The Saints who live in the Spirit, walk by the Spirit, and are governed by the counsels of the Almighty, can see the working of the Lord, not only our midst but we let our minds stretch abroad creation's utmost extent, and we see the hand of the Lord in all the events of the earth. We see it in the revolutions of our own continent; we see it in the scattering and scourging of the house of Israel; in the fading away of nations, on the right and on the left.

We see it in the preparations of war, and the framing of treaties of peace among strong nations. The world is in commotion and the hearts of men fail them for fear of the impending storm that threatens to enshroud all nations in its black mantle. Treaties of peace may be made, and war will stop for a season, but there are certain decrees of God, and certain bounds fixed, and laws and edicts passed the high courts of heaven beyond which the nations cannot pass; and when the Almighty decrees the wicked shall slay the wicked, strong nations may interfere, peace conventions may become rife in the world and exert their influence to sheath the sword of war, and make treaties of peace to calm the troubled surface of all Europe, to no effect; the war cloud is still booming o'er the-heavens, darkening the earth, and threatening the world with desolation. This is a fact the Saints have known for many years--that the Gods in yonder heavens have something to do with these revolutions; the angels, those holy beings who are sent from the heavens to the earth to minister in the destiny of nations, have something to do in these mighty revolutions and convulsions that shake creation almost to its center. Consequently, when we see nation stirred up against nation, and on the other hand see other nations exerting a powerful influence to bring about negotiations of peace, shall we say they can bring it about? Do we expect they can stay the onward course of War?

The prophet of God has spoken it all, and we expect to see the work go on--and see all things fulfilled as the prophets have declared by the spirit of prophesy in them. Three days before the Prophet Joseph started for Carthage, I well remember his telling us we should see the fulfillment of the words of Jesus upon the earth, where He says the father shall be against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother-in-law against the daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against the mother-in-law; and when a man's enemies shall be those of his own household. The Prophet stood in his own house when he told several of us of the night the visions of heaven were opened to him, in which he saw the American continent drenched in blood, and he saw nation rising against nation. He also saw the father shed the blood of the son, and the son shed the blood of the father; the mother put to death the daughter, and the daughter the mother; and natural affection forsook the hearts of the wicked; for he saw that the Spirit of God should be withdrawn from the inhabitants of the earth, in consequence of which there should be blood upon the face of the whole earth, except among the people of the Most High. The Prophet gazed upon the scene his vision represented, until his heart sickened and he besought the Lord to close it up again.

-- J. of D. 2:146-7.