Tribulation Watch: Doctrine & Covenants 112:23-26 Implies Premillenial Divine Judgment Not Only Could Begin In America, But Actually Begin In Utah

I got the idea for this post from a post on LDS Doctrine entitled "The Tribulation and the Republic". In his post, David Bresnahan makes the case that the United States was intended to be a constitutional republic, NOT a democracy, and that our failure to keep it as a republic will unleash forces that will trigger worldwide divine judgment just prior to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and the Millenium.

But what caught my eye were scriptural verses from Doctrine & Covenants 112:23-26, which seem to tell us where this judgment will begin. I have combined all four verses into a single narrative below:

D&C 112:23-26. Verily, verily, I say unto you, darkness covereth the earth, and gross darkness the minds of the people, and all flesh has become corrupt before my face. Behold, vengeance cometh speedily upon the inhabitants of the earth, a day of wrath, a day of burning, a day of desolation, of weeping, of mourning, and of lamentation; and as a whirlwind it shall come upon all the face of the earth, saith the Lord. And upon my house shall it begin, and from my house shall it go forth, saith the Lord; First among those among you, saith the Lord, who have professed to know my name and have not known me, and have blasphemed against me in the midst of my house, saith the Lord.

Bresnahan believes "my house" can be interpreted to mean the United States, because the Book of Mormon has identified it as a land choice above all other lands, and a condition of possession is that the inhabitants would be fundamentally righteous. However, the term "my house" could further be identified to mean where Latter-day Saints live in the most heavily concentrated numbers. And that area is the Wasatch Front of Utah.

What's also noteworthy is that a spirit of extremism is taking possession of both major political parties, the Democrats and the Republicans. And where did the first electoral manifestation of this take place? In Utah, on May 8th. At the Republican convention, delegates rejected the moderate Republican incumbent Bob Bennett in favor of two more explicitly conservative alternatives, Tim Bridgewater and Mike Lee. On the Democratic side, extremists propelled the hard-left lesbian gender studies instructor Claudia Wright into a June 22nd primary fight with the blue-dog incumbent Jim Matheson. The rhetoric has been harsh at times.

So the polarization of both parties has also begun in what the Lord calls "my house"; namely, Utah.

After digesting this, I suddenly recalled a vision by an LDS woman which was documented on the GreaterThings website. The vision was recorded by Ranae Lee in September 2008. She's LDS, and she says she saw two Utah earthquakes in her vision. The first, 6.2 in magnitude, occurred shortly after an October LDS Conference. There was some damage, but life for the most part went on, and Ranae observed that most Utahns sighed in relief, thinking that was the "big one". But a second quake, with a much more destructive magnitude of 8.6, occurred about a week later. The first earthquake caused a previously-unknown fault to begin moving and slipping; when the west side of the fault bumped and dropped, the second quake occurred. Ranae recorded that this quake generated widespread catastrophic damage throughout much of the Salt Lake Valley, with sections of the city liquefying, the "Spaghetti Bowl" of the I-15/I-80 connection collapsing, and even the LDS Church Office Building becoming dangerously unstable. She saw people fleeing to the south to escape the damage.

Interestingly, in her vision, Ranae also refers to Boyd K. Packer as "President", but it is unclear if this is in reference to his present capacity as President of the Quorum of the Twelve, or perhaps as President of the Church. If it's the latter case, it implies Thomas S. Monson could be taken from us soon, because Boyd K. Packer is getting old and somewhat infirm, and as of right now, it doesn't seem like he would outlive President Monson. But if President Monson was to pass away tomorrow, Boyd Packer, as President of the Quorum of the Twelve, would be his successor.

While Ranae Lee does not speak with any authority for the LDS Church, the scenario she witnessed is plausible. But prophecy is fulfilled only when the conditions are met; this is why she saw no particular time frame. Indeed, she didn't even specify who the President of the United States was in her vision. But it does illustrate how judgment could easily begin in the United States, and, because the rest of the world's economy is so closely intertwined with ours, spread worldwide.