Question
Hi gramps!!
I have a question regarding Armageddon and something my mom told me vs what my seminary teacher said. is it true that even the U.S. will be against Israel in the last war? i always understood that we would be the only nation that would support them. Could you also tell me a scripture or quote concerning this?
Will
Answer
Will,
Thank you for your question, Will.
I’d be interested in hearing what his sources for that statement would be. It might be that he knows of the prophecies of Gog of Magog rallying all the nations of the world coming to attack Israel. So, he naturally assumes that the United States would be among those so gathered. He would be wrong in that assumption
There appears to be a consensus among Christian Scholars of all stripes (both LDS and non-LDS) that the United States won’t exist as we know it by the time the great war happens.
Orson Pratt Said:
…when the time shall come that the Lord shall waste away this nation, he will give commandment to this people to return and possess their own inheritance which they purchased some forty-four years ago in the state of Missouri. — Deseret Evening News, Vol 8, No 265, Oct 2,1875, p1
The “forty-four years ago” was referring to the fact that they purchased the property when the Saints first moved to Missouri. Then later, they were stolen during the multiple events of the 1838 “Mormon War” in Missouri. Through that war, we purchased it with the blood of our people. And we will reclaim it.
Heber C. Kimball paraphrased a prophecy which he attributed to Brigham Young.
The western boundary of the State of Missouri will be swept so clean of its inhabitants that as President Young tells us, when you return to that place, there will not be left so much as a yellow dog to wag his tail. — Deseret News, May 23, 1931, p3
Basically, whatever remains of the United States will certainly not be the nation we’re familiar with. The land will remain, of course. And there are some large cities that will remain largely intact, but be completely uninhabited. Orson Pratt continues:
…there are a great many cities in the United States that will not be totally destroyed when the inhabitants are swept off the surface of the earth. Their houses, their desolate cities will still remain unoccupied until Zion in all her glory and strength shall enlarge the place of her tents, and stretch forth the curtains of her habitations. That is the destiny of this nation, and the destiny, of the Latter-day Saints. — Journal of Discourses, Vol 24, pp 31-32, Oct 26, 1879
So, if your question was about the whole world coming together to fight against Israel, your teacher was right. But it seems that the “whole world” will probably not include the United States as we know it because by that time, it won’t exist in the form we know it today.
One other side of the story is this: In prophecies, the Latter-day Saints are included as part of “Israel.” That’s because “Israel” is a people as much as it is a nation. And we are of the House of Israel. We’ve always claimed that heritage. It is part of our spiritual Constitution. We are the people of Zion.
So, when the “whole world” will be gathered against “Israel”, this includes the whole world being gathered against the Latter-day Saints.
Gramps
