Modern Prophecy

Modern Prophecy could be any prophecy that has come forth during this, the "Last Dispensation of the Fulness of Times," or Last Days. The Last Dispensation began when Joseph Smith saw his First Vision and thus became a prophet. Since the Book of Mormon and the Pearl of Great Price were revealed and translated during this time period, they are often casually called "modern prophecy," even though they are ancient documents. The Doctrine and Covenants, however, is a collection of modern prophecy.

Joseph Smith's prophecy of the upcoming United States Civil War and its beginning in South Carolina is found in the Doctrine and Covenants, Section 87, but not all the revelations of the prophets and General Authorities of the Church are contained in the Doctrine and Covenants. Joseph Smith, John Taylor,^[1] and George Albert Smith^[2] all experienced similar visions of last-days' destruction in the United States, and those prophecies are available elsewhere.

When the apostles and prophets speak in General Conference, their discourses are often prophetic. Latter-day Saints are accustomed to hearing these prophetic utterances, and most know how to adapt the information for preparation for the future. However, outsiders often take every statement literally and misunderstand. An example is a talk given by Dallin H. Oaks at BYU-Idaho in 2009 referring to the gay rights agenda. The real subject of Elder Oaks' talk was the right to religious freedom. Religious freedom allows citizens the right to be informed by their religious principles and to make decisions based on their beliefs. Those who advocate gay rights don't want people to vote in that arena based upon their religious beliefs. Said Elder Oaks,

It is important to note that while this aggressive intimidation in connection with the Proposition 8 election was primarily directed at religious persons and symbols, it was not anti-religious as such. These incidents were expressions of outrage against those who disagreed with the gay-rights position and had prevailed in a public contest. As such, these incidents of “violence and intimidation” are not so much anti-religious as anti-democratic. In their effect they are like the well-known and widely condemned voter-intimidation of blacks in the South that produced corrective federal civil-rights legislation.^[3]

There was a huge backlash against this last statement by Elder Oaks, comparing the persecution of Latter-day Saints to intimidation of Blacks during the Civil Rights era. The problem is one of severity, since the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s faced much more persecution. Elder Oaks' statement seemed to diminish the suffering of civil rights advocates. However, Elder Oak's statement is prophetic. He is not the only General Authority of the Church preparing the Saints for upcoming persecution that will be both bitter and widespread.

Former Church president Ezra Taft Benson gave many talks at General Conference sessions warning the Saints about the forces at work to destroy the constitution of the United States and the freedoms of its citizens. Former president Gordon B. Hinckley not only prophesied that temples would dot the earth (as of April 2020 there are over 209 operating, announced, under renovation, or under construction), but that we were facing a 7-years-of-plenty, 7-years-of-famine situation and to prepare during the season of plenty. President Russell M. Nelson spoke of spiritual survival in the latter days and prophetically announced a home-centered, Church-supported curriculum.

The following videos show talks wherein prophets and apostles make prophetic utterances for the welfare of the Saints.

From 1978, Neal A. Maxwell, who was at the time a member of the Quorum of the Seventy, but who later became an apostle: