Prophecies unfulfilled.

Prophecies unfulfilled.

The critics of our church have so much time in their life that they use it to scrutinize continusly our doctrines and the life of every prophet, specially Joseph Smith. There is a nice scriptures that they skip always regarding this acts 5:33-39
When they heard [that], they were cut [to the heart], and took counsel to slay them.

Acts 5:34
34 Then stood there up one in the council, a Pharisee, named Gamaliel, a doctor of the law, had in reputation among all the people, and commanded to put the apostles forth a little space;

Acts 5:35
35 And said unto them, Ye men of Israel, take heed to yourselves what ye intend to do as touching these men.

Acts 5:36
36 For before these days rose up Theudas, boasting himself to be somebody; to whom a number of men, about four hundred, joined themselves: who was slain; and all, as many as obeyed him, were scattered, and brought to nought.

Acts 5:37
37 After this man rose up Judas of Galilee in the days of the taxing, and drew away much people after him: he also perished; and all, [even] as many as obeyed him, were dispersed.

Acts 5:38
38 And now I say unto you, Refrain from these men, and let them alone: for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought:

Acts 5:39
39 But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God.

If they find something wrong, according to their opinion, against Joseph Smith, then it means that He was not a prophet of God. They want perfect people to be a prophet, well in that case it would be impossible, because nobody can be it. Another charge against him is that several prophecies that he did are not fulfilled, until now.
We will go to analyze the most important, but we should keep on mind that many prophecies written in the Bible are not fulfilled yet, just because the time is not ripe. I'd like to know who could tell us when a prophesy will be fulfilled, I mean in advance, usually people are able to acknowlege it when the prophecy is just fulfilled. If the Jews had this kind of knowlegde then probably they woulnd't have killed no one of them, I mean the prophets, and probably they would have accepted Christ like their Savior.
I am going to show you that in the Bible there are several prophecies that were not fulfilled even though God Himself uttered them. Sometimes those prophecies are not fulfilled during the lifetime of the person in question or better when we think should be fulfilled. For instance this is easy proven with the prophecy received from father Abraham, who was supposed to recieve Palestine like his heritage and instead, according to the Bible He didn't receive it at all.
Hebrews 11:12-16
Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, [so many] as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable.

Hebrews 11:13
13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of [them], and embraced [them], and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

Hebrews 11:14
14 For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.

Hebrews 11:15
15 And truly, if they had been mindful of that [country] from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.

Hebrews 11:16
16 But now they desire a better [country], that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.

One prophecy uttered from Joseph Smith usually stand out like a perfect example for the critics: The temple to be build in Jackson county.
I'd like to make a comparation here.
2 Kings 20:1
¶ IN those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live.
We have here a sentence given from God Himself, but something happened let's go ahead from verse 2 to 10
2 Kings 20:2
2 Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto the LORD, saying,

2 Kings 20:3
3 I beseech thee, O LORD, remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done [that which is] good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore.

2 Kings 20:4
4 And it came to pass, afore Isaiah was gone out into the middle court, that the word of the LORD came to him, saying,

2 Kings 20:5
5 Turn again, and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the LORD.

2 Kings 20:6
6 And I will add unto thy days fifteen years; and I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake.

2 Kings 20:7
7 And Isaiah said, Take a lump of figs. And they took and laid [it] on the boil, and he recovered.

2 Kings 20:8
8 And Hezekiah said unto Isaiah, What [shall be] the sign that the LORD will heal me, and that I shall go up into the house of the LORD the third day?

2 Kings 20:9
9 And Isaiah said, This sign shalt thou have of the LORD, that the LORD will do the thing that he hath spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten degrees, or go back ten degrees?
And Hezekiah answered, It is a light thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees: nay, but let the shadow return backward ten degrees.
So the repentance of the king made God change His mind and so His own prophecy was erased.
What did happen in jackson county?
D&C 101:1
1 VERILY I say unto you, concerning your brethren who have been afflicted, and persecuted, and cast out from the land of their inheritance--

D&C 101:2
2 I, the Lord, have suffered the affliction to come upon them, wherewith they have been afflicted, in consequence of their transgressions;

D&C 101:3
3 Yet I will own them, and they shall be mine in that day when I shall come to make up my jewels.

D&C 101:4
4 Therefore, they must needs be chastened and tried, even as Abraham, who was commanded to offer up his only son.

D&C 101:5
5 For all those who will not endure chastening, but deny me, cannot be sanctified.

D&C 101:6
6 Behold, I say unto you, there were jarrings, and contentions, and envyings, and strifes, and lustful and covetous desires among them; therefore by these things they polluted their inheritances.

D&C 101:7
7 They were slow to hearken unto the voice of the Lord their God; therefore, the Lord their God is slow to hearken unto their prayers, to answer them in the day of their trouble.

D&C 101:8
8 In the day of their peace they esteemed lightly my counsel; but, in the day of their trouble, of necessity they feel after me.

It seems fair if the people repent the curse is taken off if they don't do their part the blessing is taken off, there is nothing strange here.
It did happen the same when Jonas finally calle Ninive to repent and they did. Jonah had the same reaction that our critics have, he was mad because his prophecy was not fulfilled. Let's go to read it.
Jonah 3:4
4 And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.

Jonah 3:5
5 ¶ So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.

Jonah 3:6
6 For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered [him] with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

Jonah 3:7
7 And he caused [it] to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water:

Jonah 3:8
8 But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that [is] in their hands.

Jonah 3:9
9 Who can tell [if] God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?

Jonah 3:10
10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did [it] not.

Chapter 4
Jonah 4:1
1 ¶ BUT it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry.

Jonah 4:2
2 And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, [was] not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou [art] a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.

Jonah 4:3
3 Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for [it is] better for me to die than to live.

Jonah 4:4
4 Then said the LORD, Doest thou well to be angry?

Jonah 4:5
5 ¶ So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city.

Jonah 4:6
6 And the LORD God prepared a gourd, and made [it] to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd.

Jonah 4:7
7 But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered.

Jonah 4:8
8 And it came to pass, when the sun did arise, that God prepared a vehement east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted, and wished in himself to die, and said, [It is] better for me to die than to live.

Jonah 4:9
9 And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well to be angry, [even] unto death.

Jonah 4:10
10 Then said the LORD, Thou hast had pity on the gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night:
Jonah 4:11
11 And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and [also] much cattle?
The predicted destruction of the wicked people of Niniveh was waived because they were willing to turn to God. The people of Melchisedek "waxed strong in iniquity Alma 13:17 but were spared because :they repented alma 13:18
We believe that our patriarcal blessing will be fulfille JUST IF WE WILL BE FAITHFULL not just because they are spoken or foreseen.
D&C 82:10
D&C 82:10
10 I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise.
so in the Bible there are at least two prophesies not fulfilled and not just because they were not ripe but just because God decided in that way, no one is predestinated, each one of us or collectively like church is responsable for his blessings or cursings. There is another one very interesting in the Bible that no one has never thought about it. Genesis 6:3
Genesis 6:3
3 ¶ And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also [is] flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.

This was prophesied from God Himself before of the flood. Strangely before that this prophecy was in effect should pass maybe more than 5 centuries, in fact Noah that he was still alive when God uttered this proclamation, lived other four centuries, Sem about five centuries, Arpaxad that he was born after the flood lived 438, Salah 433, Eber that lived more than Sem and Abraham ( very interesting) 464, Peleg 239, Reu 239, Serug 230 Nahor 148, Terah 205 and finally Abraham 175 . It seems to me that God was not in a rush when said that, or the critics are ready to criticize God Himself? If they want to be fair they should.
Joseph wrote many prophecies and most of them were fulfilled during his lifetime, if some other were not fulfilled in the same way, we should think that Jesus Himself explained that even in the Bible there were prophecies to be fulfilled in the future. Another charge against Joseph Smith is that our critics have found in two places in Hisory of the church that Joseph drunk wine, specially the night before to be killed. They should notice that our church keep the records in a very good way, they didn't erase anything that could harm him or the church. Anyway there is nothing terrible in this. The word of wisdom became a commandment several years after the death of Joseph Smith, because Brigham Your proposed to the church to vote for it and the church did it. From the point on, by the will of church became a command, before it was like in the word of God:
A Word of Wisdom, for the benefit of the council of high priests, assembled in Kirtland, and the church, and also the saints in Zion--

D&C 89:2
2 To be sent greeting; not by commandment or constraint, but by revelation and the word of wisdom,
Anyway since they insist in saying that this was a sin, that is fine. Galatians 2:11-14
But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed.

Galatians 2:12
12 For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision.

Galatians 2:13
13 And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation.

Galatians 2:14
14 But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before [them] all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?
Paul was scandalized from Peter but he didn't take advantage of this to say: you are not inspired.
Peter denied Jesus three times, it is that worsh to dring a glass of wine? Well it seems that Jesus still was supporting him like chief of Apostles because John 21:15
So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, [son] of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs.

John 21:16
16 He saith to him again the second time, Simon, [son] of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep.

John 21:17
17 He saith unto him the third time, Simon, [son] of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep.
Acts 15:37-39
And Barnabas determined to take with them John, whose surname was Mark.

Acts 15:38
38 But Paul thought not good to take him with them, who departed from them from Pamphylia, and went not with them to the work.

Acts 15:39
39 And the contention was so sharp between them, that they departed asunder one from the other: and so Barnabas took Mark, and sailed unto Cyprus;
I don't want to take this like an excuse but it seems that even the old disciples had trouble sometimes to act like men.
The prophet once explained:"A prophet is a prophet just when he is acting like a prophet" meaning that just when is speaking and acting for the Lord is a prophet, during his normal life he should have like Elias James 5:17
James 5:17
17 Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.