By Christopher James Blythe, friend of JI and author of the forthcoming Terrible Revolution: Latter-day Saints and the American Apocalypse.    

On March 20, 2020, the First Presidency and the Quorum of Twelve Apostles announced that “substantial numbers of missionaries will likely need to be returned to their home nations to continue their service.”

The mass return of missionaries to Utah made headlines on March 22 hundreds of friends and family members piled into the Salt Lake Airport to greet their returning loved ones despite directions to maintain social distancing protocols. This was certainly an unfortunate incident but there is another conversation occurring in relation to the returning missionaries that has nothing to do with their controversial homecomings (which fortunately seem to have become more creative than dangerous since the 22^nd.) Latter-day Saints have long believed that one of the major events preceding the Second Coming will be when missionaries are “called home.” My purpose in writing this post is to provide background for a conversation many Latter-day Saints are having and many scholars have been asked to weigh in on.

When this prophecy appears in Latter-day Saint writings about the last days, it is usually accompanied by at least one of the two following quotes. The first, from a discourse preached by Brigham Young in 1860, reads:

Do you think there is calamity abroad now among the people?” Not much. 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, earthquakes, 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. (Journal of Discourses 8:123)

This quote continues to appear in official Church literature, including Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Brigham Young and student manuals for the Doctrine and Covenants and Doctrines of the Gospel. It likewise appears in one of the most popular books on Latter-day Saint prophecy, Gerald N. Lund’s The Coming of the Lord which was republished by Deseret Book in 2005.

The second quote on the subject to commonly appear in prophecy literature was credited to Heber C. Kimball by J. Golden Kimball in a 1930 general conference discourse.

An army of elders will be sent to the four quarters of the earth, to search out the righteous and warn the wicked of coming events… The judgments of God will be poured out upon the wicked, to the extent that our elders from far and near will be called home; or in other words, the gospel will be taken from the Gentiles and carried to the Jews. (Conference Report, October 1930, p. 59)

Unlike the quote from Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball likely never said these words. J. Golden Kimball is quoting his father from a pamphlet published in the early twentieth century by a Salt Lake City woman named Amanda Wilcox. Wilcox alleged to have had an unusual conversation and shared vision with Kimball in May 1868. While Wilcox’s vision is rarely quoted directly in mainstream prophecy literature, the appearance of this quote in general conference has led it to be cited often.     

            While these are the two most popular quotes, the idea that missionaries would head home ahead of the apocalypse is far from an obscure prophecy. The prophecy is throughout Joseph Smith’s revelations. For instance, the December 1832-January 1833 revelation known as the Olive Leaf, reads:

And after your testimony cometh wrath and indignation upon the people. For after your testimony cometh the testimony of earthquakes, that shall cause groanings in the midst of her, and men shall fall upon the ground and shall not be able to stand. And also cometh the testimony of the voice of thunderings, and the voice of lightnings, and the voice of tempests, and the voice of the waves of the sea heaving themselves beyond their bounds. And all things shall be in commotion; and surely, men’s hearts shall fail them; for fear shall come upon all people. (D&C 88:88-91)

Many Latter-day Saint commentators have believed this end to missionary work is synonymous with the end of the “times of the Gentiles” or the “Fullness of the Gentiles” based on Book of Mormon prophecies most prominently discussed in 3 Nephi 16. In the words of Jesus: “At that day when the Gentiles shall sin against my gospel, and shall reject the fulness of my gospel, and shall be lifted up in the pride of their hearts above all nations… I will bring the fulness of my gospel from among them. And then will I remember my covenant which I have made unto my people, O house of Israel, and I will bring my gospel unto them.” (3 Nephi 16:10-11) 

            The key to any one piece of apocalyptic prophecy is that it is a domino in a larger chronology. This moment is connected to the 144,000 in the Revelation of St. John, which has an unusual interpretation in Latter-day Saint readings. The relevant scriptural scene begins with four destroying angels positioned at the “four corners of the earth.” A fifth angels “ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God,” instructs them, “Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.” John learns that there will be 144,000 sealed before the judgments begin. There have been various interpretations of this passage in the history of Christianity. Joseph Smith believed the 144,000 would be “high priests, ordained unto the holy order of God, to administer the everlasting gospel … to bring as a many as will come to the church of the Firstborn.” (D&C 77:11) Orson Pratt would further explain that this sealing “will prepare them for further ministrations among the nations of the earth, it will prepare them to go forth in the days of tribulation and vengeance upon the nations of the wicked, when God will smite them with pestilence, plague and earthquake, such as former generations never knew. Then the servants of God will need to be armed with the power of God, they will need to have that sealing blessing pronounced upon their foreheads that they can stand forth in the midst of these desolations and plagues and not be overcome by them.” (Journal of Discourses 15:365.)

            There have been times when parts of the largely American based missionary force of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have been “called home.” This was the case when missionaries during World War II. Neither this or Spring 2020 perfectly followed the expectation that the prophecy would be fulfilled after the world (or the Gentiles) had rejected the Gospel. One exception except for a period following the martyrdom of Joseph Smith when the apostles declared an end to missions in the United States. At the April 1845 general conference in Nauvoo, the Saints formally voted to “cut off” the Gentiles.[1] As Reuben Miller wrote, “let it be known and remembered among the Saints of God throughout this vast republic and in all the world, that the fullness of the everlasting gospel of the Son of God, is legally taken from this nation.”^[2] And for a time, the Saints meant it. In 1847, Increase Van Dusen (famous for publishing the first temple expose) explained why it appeared to the American press that Latter-day Saints had sharply declined in the aftermath of Joseph’s death. He explained, “the reason why you see so few preaching here” was that the Mormons had abandoned “preaching to these United States.”[3] By 1852, missionary work had again begun in the United States. 

            In conclusion, we should not confuse the latest speculation about changes in missionary work and prophecy as something entirely new. The prophecy undergirding this conversation is not based on a random quote someone found in the Journal of Discourses. It’s not even an obscure idea in last days commentary. These expectations are an established part of Latter-day Saint apocalypticism that deserves analysis and contextualization, rather than (as I fear is our first tendency as scholars) debunking and dismissal. Prophecy helps believers find purpose in times like these and my hope is that scholars take the opportunity to document the stories and prophecies told over the coming months. While we are on this subject, I would be grateful to hear from readers what prophecies are being invoked in their circles.

[1] “Conference Minutes,” Times and Seasons, November 1, 1845.

[2] Reuben Miller, James Strang Weighed in the Balance, 22.

[3] I[ncrease] M[cGee] Van Dusen, A Dialogue Between Adam and Eve, the Lord and the Devil (Albany, 1847), 13.