Sunday Tidbits- Prophecy

 

1.                  In 1848, when it appeared that the successful establishment of the Church in the Salt Lake Valley may falter, what did Heber C. Kimball prophesy to those who were thinking of moving on to California?

A)     California will slip into the ocean

B)     In less than a year, cloth will be bought cheaper on the streets of Salt Lake than New York City

C)     The desert will blossom as a rose

D)     The natives and  crickets will no longer be an issue

2.      Spencer W. Kimball’s dad prophesied to Orville Allen that his young son would become what in the Church?

A)     Bishop at best

B)     The Stake athletic director

C)     A mission president

D)     The mouth piece of the Lord

3.      Asael Smith, the father of Joseph Smith Sr., self prophesied that one of his descendants would revolutionize the religious world. This prophecy was fulfilled with the life and death of the Prophet Joseph Smith Jr. To be honest with you, this barely scratched the surface. How many of the Smith family have served in the leading councils of the Church?

A)     12

B)     17

C)     19

D)     27

Yesterday’s answer:

(A)     Named his sons after prominent members

Robert Andrew Hope McCorkle (1807-1873) was one of many Americans curious about Joseph Smith and Mormonism. In 1844, he ventured from his western Tennessee home to Nauvoo, Illinois, “with strong desires to familiarize [him]self with what is call’d Mormonism.” In Nauvoo he found “a vast net-full” of Latter-day Saints, but he returned south without having had an opportunity to speak personally with Joseph Smith: “I took with me a series of enquires with the intention to present them to you, but being debard from becoming familiar with you, my natural timidity forbade my presenting them.” Back in Tennessee, McCorkle took up his pen on May 10, 1844, and put his questions in a letter, transcribed below, and sent it to Joseph.

   That McCorkle had great affinity for Mormonism is evident in the names of his two sons: Joseph Smith McCorkle and Parley Pratt McCorkle.

Hal Robert Boyd and Susan Easton Black, “A Question on My Mind,” Robert McCorkle’s 1844 Letter to Joseph Smith, BYU Studies, 49:4, 81-82.

The following is McCorkle’s poem to the Prophet:

A question on my mind appears

Which has been hanging there for years.

And for to bring it to your view

My pen will write it all out new.

I come to you the truth to find.

All hearsays I will leave behind.

For this I know, that all is not true,

That I have heard about Nauvoo.

Then let me hear the truth from you.

Bring nothing but the truth to view.

Do you possess the gifts of God,

As recorded in his word?

To say these gifts are not for man,

To take this stand, I never can.

But this I only want to know,

Do you possess them at Nauvoo?

If from on high, you have rec’d

The gifts of God, your not deceiv’d

Then is it so, that from the Lord

An angel’s brot a true record?

Does this record come with a grace;

Does it reveal the Indian’s race?

Your manly honor I invite,

To give an answer that is right

My heart within me now doth burn

To get an answer in return.

For if its true, That God has given

Late revelations right from heaven,

Its also true, he’s set his hands

To gather Israel from all lands.

And if that’s so, we all may know

All kingdoms sure, God will o’er throw,

Then don’t deceive my honest soul,

I want Gods law, me to control,

Then if you are the chosen few

Show it to me, while at Nauvoo,

Your elders say, that you possess

The power of God, thro righteousness,

Th[at] you’ve rec’d the priesthood new

An angel gave it unto you.

This priesthood they pretend to say

Unveils the truth in this our day.

That by this power to man is given

An earnest of the joys of heaven.

If an angel of the Lord

Has come to man with a record

Such record surely was design’d

To be the blessing to mankind.

Then if it were by God design’d,

Sent as a blessing to mankind.

Then what am I, that I should stand

And raise objections to the plan?

But if it be a project plan

Invented by a cunning man,

This  truth unveil, and set me free

An[d] show me who the Mormons be.

If you the special gifts enjoy

These blessings I would not destroy.

If with these powers you have been bless’d

Your joy far triumphs o’er the rest.

Give me some reasons to decide

That you’r companions of the bride,

Or else come out, and plainly say

That you’r deceivers of our day.

If any questions I have form’d

Are calculated to do harm

Then to such questions point your hand

And I will lay them to the land.

These lines convey my mind to you

Or any other in Nauvoo

If they deserve a moments time,

You will an answer form in rhyme

But if they like their author prove

Unworthy of your time, and love

In silence they’ll remain unheard

By man! But answerd from the Lord

R. A. H. McCorkle

Dyer county Yorkville post office[e]. Tennessee

Hal Robert Boyd and Susan Easton Black, “A Question on My Mind,” Robert McCorkle’s 1844 Letter to Joseph Smith, BYU Studies, 49:4, 87-90.