Hanks - Oath of Vengeance

Changing the Endowment: Oath of Vengeance

by Jeffrey G. Hanks

The Oath of Vengeance was an integral part of the LDS endowment ceremony until around the early 1900's when it was quietly and unceremoniously removed. This part of the endowment began in 1845 in Nauvoo. It centered around the initiates vowing to pray and not cease to pray in importuning the Heavens to avenge the blood of the Prophets on the nation of the United States and that they would teach this to their children and their children's children to the third and fourth generation. It is apparent that the hasty removal of this Oath centered around the Reed Smoot hearings which began in 1902. (It should be noted that the problems with the government started as early as 1889 on this issue.) He was Utah's first Senator seeking his seat, whereupon many questions were asked him about his own and the LDS church's allegiance to the Union. Government lawyers grilled Smoot and President Joseph F. Smith about their fidelity and support of the U.S. government. They were asked, "Is it true that you take an oath in your Temple against the government of the U.S.?" The answer was that they did not do that, in essence. Nonetheless, it wasn't long before the Oath of Vengeance disappeared from the endowment.

Many today, when looking at this history will probably say that it is good and progressive that we discarded these icons of doctrines in obsoletion.

Has then, the blood of Joseph and Hyrum been avenged on this nation? Some say that it was fulfilled with the civil war atrocities in the 1860's. John Taylor in the 1880's said that it was not the fulfillment of the blood of the prophets, but that it would yet come and would be a smashing up of this nation, a calamity far worse than the civil war just ended. Many LDS people today would probably think this discussion as ludicrous or way out of sync with the steps of modern society, and that we must be past all of that 'old' rhetoric.

Do the scriptures and prophets support this understanding of God avenging the blood of His prophets and holy men on the inhabitants of the world? I would like to share a few references:

In 3rd Nephi chapter 9, after great destruction befell the inhabitants of America, the voice of the Lord tells the survivors no less than 5 times that these destructions came so that the blood of the prophets and saints would no longer come up to God against them;

Verse 5:

"And behold, that great city Moronihah have I covered with earth, and the inhabitants thereof, to hide their iniquities and their abominations from before my face, that the blood of the prophets and the saints shall not come any more unto me against them."

Verse 7:

"Yea, and the city of Onihah and the inhabitants thereof, and the city of Mocum and the inhabitants thereof, and the city of Jerusalem and the inhabitants thereof; and waters have I caused to come up in the stead thereof, to hide their wickedness and abominations from before my face, that the blood of the prophets and the saints shall not come up any more unto me against them."

Verse 8:

"And behold, the city of Gadiandi, and the city of Gadiomnah, and the city of Jacob, and the city of Gimgimno, all these have I caused to be sunk, and made hills and valleys in the places thereof; and the inhabitants thereof have I buried up in the depths of the earth, to hide their wickedness and abominations from before my face, that the blood of the prophets and the saints should not come up any more unto me against them."

Verse 9:

"And behold, that great city Jacobugath, which was inhabited by the people of king Jacob, have I caused to be burned with fire because of their sins and their wickedness, which was above all the wickedness of the whole earth, because of their secret murders and combinations; for it was they that did destroy the peace of my people and the government of the land; therefore I did cause them to be burned, to destroy them from before my face, that the blood of the prophets and the saints should not come up unto me any more against them."

Verse 11:

"And because they did cast them all out, that there were none righteous among them, I did send down fire and destroy them, that their wickedness and abominations might be hid from before my face, that the blood of the prophets and the saints whom I sent among them might not cry unto me from the ground against them."

Joseph Smith in his lectures on Faith states the following:

"It is also of equal importance that men should have the idea of the existence of the attribute judgment in God, in order that they may exercise faith in him for life and salvation; for without the idea of the existence of this attribute in the Deity, it would be impossible for men to exercise faith in him for life and salvation, seeing that it is through the exercise of this attribute that the faithful in Christ Jesus are delivered out of the hands of those who seek their destruction; for if God were not to come out in swift judgment against the workers of iniquity and the powers of darkness, his saints could not be saved; for it is by judgment that the Lord delivers his saints out of the hands of all their enemies, and those who reject the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. But no sooner is the idea of the existence of this attribute planted in the minds of men, than it gives power to the mind for the exercise of faith and confidence in God, and they are enabled by faith to lay hold on the promises which are set before them, and wade through all the tribulations and afflictions to which they are subjected by reason of the persecution from those who know not God, and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, believing that in due time the Lord will come out in swift judgment against their enemies, and they shall be cut off from before him, and that in his own due time he will bear them off conquerors, and more than conquerors, in all things." (Lectures on Faith 4:14)

After the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum, John Taylor penned the following words in D&C 135:7:

"They were innocent of any crime, as they had often been proved before, and were only confined in jail by the conspiracy of traitors and wicked men; and their innocent blood on the floor of Carthage jail is a broad seal affixed to "Mormonism" that cannot be rejected by any court on earth, and their innocent blood on the escutcheon of the State of Illinois, with the broken faith of the State as pledged by the governor, is a witness to the truth of the everlasting gospel that all the world cannot impeach; and their innocent blood on the banner of liberty, and on the Magna Carta of the United States, is an ambassador for the religion of Jesus Christ, that will touch the hearts of honest men among all nations; and their innocent blood, with the innocent blood of all the martyrs under the altar that John saw, will cry unto the Lord of Hosts till he avenges that blood on the earth. Amen."

The hymn "Praise to the man," in the second verse, used to read:

"Praise to his memory, he died as a martyr; honored and blest be his ever great name! Long shall his blood, which was shed by assassins, STAIN ILLINOIS while the earth lauds his fame."

There seems to be great consistency in this theme from one dispensation to another. Note the words of Christ, spoken as a rebuke;

Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and [some] of them they shall slay and persecute:
That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation;
From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation. (Luke 11:49-51)

Revelation 16:6 states,

For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy."

This is speaking of the final days of the earth and its destruction and certainly includes, I believe, the blood of Joseph and Hyrum and other worthy martyrs of this, and other dispensations.

Two things come to my mind on this subject:

1. I believe that God's vengeance is still yet future for the nation because of the shedding of the blood of Joseph and his brother Hyrum.

2. The removal of the Oath of Vengeance from the endowment was another "compromise" maneuver by LDS leadership to acquiesce to the powers of men and government. Utah's struggle for statehood cost the Latter-Day Saints many precious doctrines and principles and, in effect, much knowledge of eternal truth. During the time surrounding the turn of the century many things sacred to the saints began to be changed or discarded.

I have only touched lightly on the Oath of Vengeance, but hopefully it will shed some light on "what used to be".

Jeff Hanks

http://www.tlcmanti.org

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