D&C Section Eighty Seven

Section 87 is a remarkable prophecy concerning the civil war and the wars that will follow and eventually spread all across the world prior to the second coming. Even though it's more than two decades before the civil war, Joseph correctly prophecies that it will take place following South Carolina's attempt to secede from the union. It perhaps wasn't terribly difficult to predict the civil war as others were also at this time. But what was remarkable was the prediction that the civil war would be the catalyst, the beginning of many wars that would eventually spread over time and fill the earth. This part of the prophecy is remarkable and has been and continues to be fulfilled.

And interesting part of the prophecy is where the part concerning wars in the latter days after the civil war states that slaves are predicted to rise up against the Gentiles and vex them. This is similar to what is in third Nephi where it says, "And my people who are a remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles, yea in the midst of them as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion among the flocked sheep, who, if he go through both treadeth and and teareth in pieces, and none can deliver." In this case, we can be considered Gentiles and the Lord admonishes us to "stand in holy places" for our protection. Holy places in this case is are the stakes of the church. A careful reading of 1 Nephi 22 also helps to reassure the need to live righteously to avoid the destruction of war and plagues that will eventually consume the earth. For the saints, the reality of plagues was especially real as cholera was rampant in the major cities of the world at that time.