A collection of prophetic utterances by latter-day prophets and apostles about America's future:
I prophesy in the name of the Lord God of Israel, unless the United States redress the wrongs committed upon the Saints in the state of Missouri and punish the crimes committed by her officers that in a few years the government will be utterly overthrown and wasted, and there will not be so much as a potsherd left.
--Joseph Smith, (Matthias Cowley, Wilford Woodruff, Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1916, p. 393)
While discussing the petition to Congress, I prophesied, by virtue of the Holy Priesthood vested in me, and in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that, if Congress will not hear our petition and grant us protection, they shall be broken up as a government.
--Joseph Smith, History of the Church, 6:116
And now I a 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, to open and prepare the way for the return of the lost tribes of Israel from the north country.
--Joseph Smith, History of the Church 1:315
Some may have cried peace, but the Saints and the world will have little peace from henceforth... I saw men hunting the lives of their own sons, and brother murdering brother, women killing their own daughters, and daughters seeking the lives of their mothers. I saw armies arrayed against armies. I saw blood, desolation, fires. The Son of Man has said that the mother shall be against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother. These things are at our doors. They will follow the Saints of God from city to city Satan will rage and the spirit of the devil is now enraged. I know not how soon these things will take place; but with a view of them, shall I cry peace? No! I will lift up my voice and testify of them. How long you will have good crops, and the famine be kept off, I do not know; When the fig tree leaves, know that the summer is nigh at hand.
--Joseph Smith, History of the Church 3:390-391
I heard Joseph Smith say, nearly thirty years ago, "They shall have mobbing to their hearts' content, if they do not redress the wrongs of the Latter-day Saints. Mobs will not decrease, but will increase until the whole government becomes a mob, and eventually it will be State against State, city against city, neighborhood against neighborhood."...it will be Christian against Christian, man against man, and those who will not take up the sword against their neighbors, must flee to Zion.
--Brigham Young, Deseret News, Vol. 11, No. 9, 1 May 1861
Were we surprised when the last terrible war [Civil War] took place here in the United States? No;...You will see worse things than that, for God will lay his hand upon this nation, and they will feel it more terribly than ever they have done before. There will be more bloodshed, more ruin, more devastation than ever they have seen before. Write it down! You will see it come to pass; it is only just starting in..there is yet to come a sound of war, trouble, and distress, in which brother will be arrayed against brother, father against son, son against father, a scene of desolation and destruction that will permeate our land until it will be a vexation to hear the report thereof.
--John Taylor, General Conference 1879, Journal of Discourses 20:318
"What! this great and powerful nation of ours to be divided one part against the other and many hundreds of thousands of souls to be destroyed by civil wars!" Not a word of it would they believe. They do not believe what is still in the future...The time will come when there will be no safety in carrying on the peaceable pursuits of farming or agriculture. But these will be neglected, and the people will think themselves well off if they can flee from city to city, from town to town and escape with their lives. Thus will the Lord visit the people, if they will not repent.
--Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses 12:344
The Lord then poured out His spirit upon me and opened the vision of my mind so that I could comprehend in a great measure the mind and will of God concerning the nation and concerning the inhabitants of Zion. I saw the wickedness of the nation, its abominations and corruptions and the judgments of God and the destruction that awaited it...On January 28th I was again given a vision. It concerned the destiny of our nation and of Zion. My pillow was again wet by a fountain of tears as I beheld the judgments of God upon the wicked. I was strongly impressed that the Apostles and elders should warn the inhabitants of the earth.
--Wilford Woodruff, (Cowley, Wilford Woodruff, pp. 530-531)
I have seen the end of this nation and it is terrible...I will tell you in the name of the Lord that a secret band will sap the life of this nation.
--Moses Thatcher, and early member of the Quorum of the Twelve, Franklin Ward Historical Record, Franklin, Idaho, June 16, 1882.
The nations will consume each other, and the Lord will suffer them to bring it about. It does not require much talent or tact to get up opposition in these days. You see it rife in communities, in meetings, in neighbrhoods, and in cities. That is the knife that will cut down this Government.
--Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 8:143
God has sent forth his warning message in the midst of this nation, but they have rejected it and treated his servants with contempt; the Lord has gathered out his people from their midst, and has planted them here in these mountains; and he will speedily fulfill the prophecy in relation to the over throw of this nation and their destruction. We shall be obliged to have a government to preserve ourselves in unity and peace; for they, through being wasted away, will not have the power to govern; for state will be divided against state, city against city, town against town, and the whole country will be in terror and confusion; mobocracy will prevail and their [sic] will be no security, through this great Republic, for the lives or property of the people. When that time shall arrive, we shall necessarily want to carry out the principles of our own great constitution and as the people of God, we shall want to see those principles magnified, according to the order of union and oneness that prevails among the people of God. We can magnify it, and all will be united without having democrats or republicans and all kinds of religions; we can magnify it according to the spirit and letter of the constitution, though we are united in politics, religion, and everything else.
--Orson Pratt, Deseret Evening News, Vol. 8, No. 265, October 2, 1875
If a war of this description should take place, who could carry on his business in safety? Who would feel safe to ut his crops in the ground, or to carry on any enterprise? There would be fleeing from one State to another, and general confusion would exist throughout the whole Republic Such eventually is to be the condition of the whole nation, if the people do not repent of their wickedness; and such a state of affairs eans no more or less than the complete overthrow of the nation, and not only of this nation, but the nations of Europe.
--Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses, 18:341
It will be the same with other denominations of professing Christians, and it will be Christian against Christian, and man against man, and those who will not take up the sword against their neighbors, must flee to Zion. We are blessed in these mountains; this is the best place on earth for the Latter-day Saints. Search for the history of all nations and every geographical position on the face of the earth, and you cannot find another situation so well adapted for the Saints as these mountains. Here is the place in which the Lord designed to hide His people...It has been designed for many generations, to hide up the Saints in he last days, until the indignation of the Almighty be over. His wrath will be poured out upon the nations of the earth.
--Brigham Young, Deseret News, Vol. 11, No. 9, 1 May 1861
The hand of the Lord will be over us to sustain us, and we will spread forth. He will multiply us in this land; He will make us a great people, and strengthen our borders, and send for the missionaries of this people to the four quarters of the earth to publish peace and glad tidings of great joy and proclaim that there is still a place left in the heart of the American continent where there are peace and safety and refuge from the storms, desolations, and tribulations coming upon the wicked.
There will be here and there a Stake [of Zion] for the gathering of the Saints. Some may have cried peace, but the Saints and the world will have little peace from henceforth. Let this not hinder us from going to the Stakes; for God has told us to flee, not dallying, or we shall be scattered, one here, and another there. There your children shall be blessed, and you in the midst of friends where you may be blessed. The Gospel net gathers every kind.
I prophecy, that that man who tarries after he has had an opportunity of going, will be afflicted by the devil. Wars are at hand; we must not delay; but are not required to sacrifice. We ought to have the building up of Zion as our greatest object. When wars come, we shall have to flee to Zion. The cry is to make haste...The time is soon coming when no man will have any peace but in Zion and her stakes...These things are at our doors. They will follow the Saints of God from city to city.
--Joseph Smith, History of the Church, 390-391
A flowing stream is one that runs continually; and the Gentiles will, in that day, come to us as a flowing stream, and we shall have to set our gates open continually, they wil come as clouds and as doves in large flocks. Do you suppose that the Gentiles are going to be ignorant of what is taking place? "Now this will not be the case, they will perfectly understand what is taking place. These people will see that the hand of God is over this people; they will see that He is in our midst, and that He is our watchtower, that He is our shield and our defense, and therefore they will say, "Let us go up and put our riches in Zion, for there is no safety in our own nations."
Those crumbling nations are trembling and tattering and wil eventually crumble to ruin, and those men of wealth will come here, not to be baptized, but many of them will come that have never heard the servants of God; but they will hear that peace and health dwell among us, and that our officers are all peace officers, and our tax-gatherers men of righteousness.
--Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses, 3:16
I expect to see the day when the Latter-day Saints will be the people to maintain the constitutional government on this land. Men everywhere should know that we believe in constitutional principles, and that we expect that it will be our destiny to maintain them. That the prediction will be fulfilled that was made forty-four years ago the seventh of last March, wherein God said to Joseph Smith--"Ye hear of wars in foreign lands; but behold I say unto you, they are nigh, even at your doors, and not many years hence ye shall hear of wars in your lands;" but the revelation goes on to say that the day will come among the wicked, that every man that will not take his sword against his neighbor, must needs flee to Zion for safety. A portion of that revelation has been fulfilled, the remainder will be. The causes are in operation to bring it about. We are not alone in the thought that the republic is drifting steadily in that direction; that we are leaving the old constitutional landmarks, and that the time is not far distant when there will be trouble in consequence of it, when there will be civil broils and strife; and to escape them, we believe, men will be compelled to flee to the "Mormons" despised as they are now.
--George Q. Cannon, Journal of Discourses, 18:10
Lay up your stores, and take your silks and fine things, and exchange them for grain and such things as you need, and the time will come when we will be obliged to depend upon our own resources; for the time is not far distant when the curtain will be dropped between us and the United States. When that time comes, brethren and sisters, you wil wish you had commenced sooner to make your own clothing. I tell you, God requires us to go into home manufacture; and, prolong it as much as you like, you have got to do it. --Heber C. Kimball, Journal of Discourses, 5:10
And the time will come, when we shall find ourselves restricted and when it will be very important indeed for us to patronize home productions, and cease sending our millions abroad for importations, for the gate will be shut down, and circumstances will be such that we cannot bring things from abroad; and hence the necessity of the exhortation that we have received from time to time to engage with all our hearts in the various branches of industry necessary to make ourselves self-sustaining, and to carry them out with all the tact and wisdom which God has given to us, that we may become free and independent in all these matters, free before the heavens, and free from all the nations of the earth and their productions, so far as being dependent upon them is concerned.
--Orson Pratt, Deseret Evening News, Vol 8., No 265, 2 October 1875
The day will come that you (non-Mormons) will have to come to us for bread to eat; and we will be your saviours here upon Mount Zion. You don't believe it now; but wait a little while, and you will see that it will come to pass.
--Heber C. Kimball, Journal of Discourses, 5:9
I will tell you a dream which Brother Kesler had lately. He dreamed that there was a sack of gold and a cat placed before him, and that he had the privilege of taking which he pleased, whereupon he took the cat, and walked off with her. Why did he take the cat in preference to the Gold? Because he could eat the cat, but could not eat the gold. You may see about such times before you die.
--Heber C. Kimball, Journal of Discourses 4:3
...The Lord is not going to disappoint either Babylon or Zion, with regard to famine, pestilence, earthquakes, or storms...Lay up your wheat and other provision against a day of need, for the day will come when they will be wanted, and make no mistake about it.
...We shall want bread and the Gentiles will want bread, and it we are wise we shall have something to feed them and ourselves when famine comes.
--Wilford Woodruff, Journal of Discourses, 18:121
I have never promised a famine to the Latter-day Saints, if we will do half right. You have never heard it drop from my lips that a famine would come upon this people. There never will, if we will only do half right, and we expect to do better than that."
--Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 12:241
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