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The Lord’s Involvement In Political Affairs
Political Systems Established Under The Lord’s Direction
The first form of government established was “Patriarchal,” and the following scripture indicates that it was set up under the direction of the Lord:
Now the first government of Egypt was established by Pharaoh, the eldest son of Egyptus, the daughter of Ham, and it was after the manner of the government of Ham, which was patriarchal
Pharaoh, being a righteous man established his kingdom and judged his people wisely and justly all his days, seeking earnestly to imitate that order established by the fathers in the first generations, in the days of the first patriarchal reign, even in the reign of Adam, and also of Noah, his father… (Abraham 1:25-26)
The second form of government mentioned in the scriptures was the one established through Moses when he led the Children of Israel out of Egypt. Although it was called a theocracy because of the direct and continuous control exercised by the Lord over its activities, those administering the civil affairs and rendering judgments concerning disputes and infractions of the law were called judges. The Israelites continued under this government until the days of the prophet Samuel when they demanded a king. The Lord, after warning them that this was unwise, instructed Samuel to accede to their request. Thereafter, the people lived under the monarchal system until the kingdoms of Israel and Judah were destroyed.
Turning to the Book of Mormon, we find that both the Nephites and the Jaredites adopted a monarchal system of government upon first coming to the promised land, even though their prophets objected in both instances. Nephi’s record says:
And it came to pass that they [the people] would that i should be their king. But i, Nephi, was desirous that they should have no king; nevertheless, i did for them according to that which was in my power. (2 Nephi 5: 18)
The adoption of a king among the Jaredites is told in these words:
And it came to pass that the people desired of them [Jared and his brother] that they should anoint one of their sons to be a king over them.
And now behold, this was grievous unto them. And the brother of Jared said unto them: Surely this leadeth into captivity.
But Jared said unto his brother: Suffer them that they may have a king….
And it came to pass that…Orihah was anointed to be king over the people. (Ether 6:22-24, 27)
While the Jaredites continued under a monarchal form of government until they were destroyed, the Nephites, after about five hundred years of king rule, were directed by the Lord to adopt a government called the “reign of the judges.” (Mosiah Ch. 29) Under this system the people chose their own political leaders rather than having the right to the throne descend from father to son as was the case under the monarchal system.
Modern revelation tells us that the Lord established the United States Constitutional form of government by the hands of wise men whom He raised up for this very purpose. (D&C 10 1:77, 80)
Political Rulers Selected By The Lord
The scriptures state that when His people were righteous, the Lord hand-picked their political leaders. The Lord’s selection of Moses as prophet, lawgiver, and judge over the Children of Israel needs no documentation. According to the following scripture, his successor was also chosen by the Lord:
And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom; for Moses had laid his hands upon him: and the children of Israel hearkened unto him, and did as the Lord commanded Moses. (Deut. 34:9)
Upon Joshua’s death, the Lord continued to indicate who should serve as judges. Sometimes, the people would accept these judges and at other times reject them:
Nevertheless the Lord raised up judges, which delivered them out of the hand of those that
spoiled them.
And yet they would not hearken unto their judges, but they went a whoring after other gods… And when the Lord raised them up judges, then the Lord was with the judge, and delivered
them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge… (Judges 2:16-18)
When the people rejected the counsel of the prophet Samuel and demanded a king, the Lord chose first Saul, (1 Sam. 9:17), then David (1 Sam. 16:1), and then Solomon. (1 Chron. 22:9) Eventually, their kings became wicked and unworthy to receive divine guidance. Nevertheless, the Lord continued to chastise them through His prophets down to the end of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah.
Throughout most of their history, the Nephites had prophets as their political rulers. Nephi was chosen by the Lord to be a ruler, (2 Nephi 5:19), as were the kings, Benjamin (Mosiah 2:11) and Mosiah. (Mosiah 2:30) When, at the end of king Mosiah’s reign, the Lord gave the people the freedom to elect their judges and governors, they chose prophets like Alma, Helaman, Nephi, and Lachoneus. In fact, the following scripture indicates that the people also followed the custom of choosing prophets as their military leaders:
Now it was the custom among all the Nephites to appoint for their chief captains, (save it were in their times of wickedness) some one that had the spirit of revelation and also prophecy; therefore, this Gidgiddoni was a great prophet among them, as also was the chief judge [Lachoneus]. (3 Nephi 3:19)
The Lord’s Interest In Political Leaders In This Last Dispensation
In these latter days, the Lord favored the Gentiles on this chosen land, not only by instituting their laws and Constitution, but also by giving them as their first political rulers the same wise men he had raised up to establish their government. Many of the men who sat in the constitutional convention and signed the Declaration of Independence served in the federal and state governments either as presidents, supreme court justices, legislators, or governors. They exerted a powerful influence in the political affairs of the nation by interpreting the Constitution as well as by executing the laws.
Upon establishing His Church and raising up a prophet through whom He could speak, the Lord directed His people to continue to choose honest and wise men for political leaders. One of the revelations says:
Nevertheless, when the wicked rule the people mourn.
Wherefore, honest men and wise men should be sought for diligently, and good men and wise men ye should observe to uphold; otherwise whatsoever is less than these cometh of evil. (D&C 98:9-10)
This was similar to the instruction the Nephites received when they were given the franchise to elect their judges:
we will newly arrange the affairs of this people, for we will appoint wise men to be judges, that will judge this people according to the commandments of God. (Mosiah 29:11)
In the early days of the Church, its members undertook to heed the Lord’s counsel. They elected their prophet, Joseph Smith, as mayor of Nauvoo and were running him for president of the United States when he was murdered. After coming to Utah, Brigham Young was supported by the people as governor of the Utah Territory, and it was common practice to elect Church leaders to responsible positions in the territorial legislature.
The Lord Has Revealed Those Civil Laws He Desires Governments To Enforce
The Ten Commandments Given As Civil Laws
It is surprising to some to learn that the Lord has provided man with a set of civil laws for the protection of freedom, and commanded that they not be altered. The first record we have of the nature of these laws is the Ten Commandments. While they are generally regarded as merely “religious” laws, violation of which will bring punishment only in the hereafter, the Old Testament shows that these were also the laws of the land and were enforced as such.
For example, the penalty for such crimes as murder and adultery was death. (Exodus 21:12; Lev. 20:10) Theft was punishable by compelling the criminal to pay the victim several times the value of the item stolen. (Exodus 22:1-2) The penalty for bearing false witness was as follows:
And the judges shall make diligent inquisition: and, behold, if the witness be a false witness, and hath testified falsely against his brother;
Then shall ye do unto him, as he had thought to have done unto his brother… (Deut. 19:18-19)
The penalties prescribed for violation of the laws were called “judgments” by the scriptures. They were given to Moses with the laws (Exodus 21:1) and were listed in some detail. Moses read both the law and the penalties to the people who accepted them and entered into a covenant with the Lord to be governed by both. (Exodus 24:3, 7, 8) This covenant, which was also made by the succeeding generation, (Deut. 5:1-3) was meant to be binding upon the posterity of the Children of Israel forever. (Deut. 29:29; Malachi 4:4; 3 Nephi 25:4) Moses wrote the law and delivered it unto the priests of the sons of Levi, saying:
At the end of every seven years, in the solemnity of the year of release, in the feast of tabernacles,
When all Israel is come to appear before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall choose, thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their hearing. (Deut. 31:10-11)
As long as the Israelites retained their status as self-governing nations, the Mosaic Code remained the basis for their legal system. Only during times of wickedness did they depart therefrom, and their wickedness was measured by the extent of their deviation.
The Nephites Used The Ten Commandments As Their Civil Code
The Nephites also used the Ten Commandments as their civil laws. When they left Jerusalem around 600 B.C., they took with them the Brass Plates of Laban which contained the five books of Moses. (1 Nephi 5:11) So essential was it that they have these laws and judgments that Nephi was constrained to slay Laban to obtain them. Upon pondering the necessity of this act, he was brought to say within himself:
Yea, and i also thought that they [Nephi’s descendants] could not keep the commandments of the Lord according to the law of Moses, save they should have the law. (1 Nephi 4:15)
After their arrival in the Americas, the followers of Nephi separated from the Lamanites, established their own system of government, and enforced the law of Moses:
And we did observe to keep the judgments, and the statutes, and the commandments of the Lord in all things according to the law of Moses. (2 Nephi 5:10)
The following passage indicates that it was still the “law of the land” two centuries later:
And now, behold, two hundred years had passed away, and the people of Nephi had waxed strong in the land. They observed to keep the law of Moses and the sabbath day holy unto the Lord And they profaned not; neither did they blaspheme. And the laws of the land were exceedingly strict (Jarom 1:5)
Insofar as we can determine, the law of Moses constituted the civil laws of the Nephites throughout their history except during periods of wickedness. Even though they were commanded to alter their form of government in the year 92 B.C., the prophet-king, Mosiah, under whom this was done, instructed them to continue to use the same “correct” laws given to their fathers by the Lord:
Therefore, choose you by the voice of this people, judges, that ye may be judged according to the laws which have been given you by our fathers, which are correct, and which were given them by the hand of the Lord (Mosiah 29:25)
This alteration in the affairs of their government gave the people the power to choose their political leaders and also to alter their laws. Their prophet warned them of what would happen if, by majority vote, they corrupted those laws:
And if the time comes that the voice of the people doth choose iniquity, then is the time that the judgments of God will come upon you; yea, then is the time he will visit you with great destruction even as he has hitherto visited this land (Mosiah 29:27)
“Great Destruction” Was Inflicted Upon The Nephites For Corrupting The Civil Laws God Had Given Them
The account of what happened to the Nephites when the “voice of the people” corrupted the laws God had given them should interest us deeply. Writing concerning the political situation in the year 30 B.C., the historian tells us:
And they had altered and trampled under their fret the laws of Mosiah, or that which the Lord commanded him to give unto the people; and they saw that their laws had become corrupted, and that they had become a wicked people, insomuch that they were wicked even like unto the Lamanites. (Hela. 4:22)
Then a few verses later, Mormon makes it clear that this corruption had been brought about by majority vote:
For as their laws and their governments were established by the voice of the people, and they who chose evil were more numerous than they who chose good, therefore they were ripening for destruction, for the laws had become corrupted. (Hela. 5:2)
A terrible famine resulted from this national sin. However, the calamity brought repentance and, following a correction of their political beliefs and practices, the Lord again sent rain. (Hela. 11: 10) The famine ended in the year 16 B.C., but by the year 7 B.C. we are told:
they did war stronger and stronger in their pride, and in their wickedness; and thus they were ripening again for destruction. (Hela. 11:37)
An explanation of what was happening to their laws is provided by the following verse:
And now it came to pass in the eighty and sixth year (year 6 b.c.), the Nephites did still remain in wickedness, yea, in great wickedness, while the Lamanites did observe strictly to keep the commandments of God, according to the law of Moses. (Hela. 13:1)
The destruction which resulted from this second deviation from the law of Moses was the worst war they had ever experienced. Just one of the battles is described thus:
And the battle commenced in this the sixth month; and great and terrible was the battle thereof yea, great and terrible was the slaughter thereof insomuch that there never was known so great a slaughter among all the people of Lehi since he left Jerusalem. (3 Nephi 4:11)
This conflict continued for a period of four or five years and finally terminated only when the people,
did forsake all their sins, and their abominations, and their whoredoms…and put an end to all those wicked, and secret, and abominable combinations, in the which there was so much wickedness, and so many murders committed. (3 Nephi 5:3, 6)
Their repentance was accompanied by a reformation of the laws of the land:
And they began again to prosper and to wax great; and…there was great order in the land; and they had formed their laws according to equity and justice. (3 Nephi 6:4)
This second period of righteousness was also short-lived, for within eight or nine years following the end of the war, the Nephite people became so wicked that they utterly destroyed the government God had given them and broke up into tribes. For this great sin, and for having used the power of government to murder the prophets sent to call for repentance, the Lord all but obliterated them as a nation when He visited them following His resurrection.
That the Lord considered the destruction of their government as perhaps the worst sin a nation can commit is indicated in the following passage in which he explains the reason for burning the people of the city of Jacobugath:
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. (3 Nephi 9:9, emphasis added)
The Lord Has Given The People Of The United States Their Civil Laws And Commanded They Not Be Altered
The Lord has provided civil laws in this dispensation as in others. Although He had no prophet through whom He spoke at the time He caused a government to be established on this chosen land, still we have His assurance through a prophet, that both: “The laws and constitution of the people” were formed under His direction. (D&C 101:77) He raised up “wise men” and worked His will through them. (D&C 10 1:80)
Our latter-day scriptures also contain instructions similar to those given in prior dispensations: that we are not to alter or change in any way those laws which were established by the Lord to protect freedom. In the same scripture, which tells us that He suffered the laws and constitution to be established, He says that they,
should be maintained for the rights and protection of all flesh, according to just and holy principles; (D&C 101:77)
A few months prior to this, the Lord had given what is perhaps even more explicit instructions concerning our obligation to preserve unaltered the laws of the land which are constitutional:
And that law of the land which is constitutional, supporting that principle of freedom in maintaining rights and privileges, belongs to all mankind, and is justifiable before me.
Therefore, I, the Lord, justify you, and your brethren of my church, in befriending that law which is the constitutional law of the land;
And as pertaining to law of man, whatsoever is more or less than this cometh of evil. (D&C 98:5-7, emphasis added)
Here then is the word of the Lord to the people in this generation, concerning the civil laws of government which protect freedom. Nothing can be plainer than this: If we deviate from them either one way or another, we have committed evil. Such laws “belong(s) to all mankind,” and we are under obligation to befriend and support them that everyone may enjoy the freedom they provide. Other modern day scriptures confirm this responsibility. In the revelation given as the dedicatory prayer of the Kirtland Temple, the prophet said:
may those principles, which were so honorably and nobly defended, namely, the Constitution of our land, by our fathers, be established forever. (D&C 109:54)
It is recalled that the freedom guaranteed by those principles which were so honorably and nobly defended came at great cost, for as the Lord also said, “I…redeemed the land by shedding of blood.” (D&C 10 1:80)
The Impossibility Of Distinguishing Between “Religious” And “Political” Commandments
The foregoing observations and scriptural citations should be sufficient to demonstrate that throughout the history of the world, the Lord has been deeply involved in the political affairs of nations. He has revealed those laws He desires governments to enforce and has meted out punishments when the nations to whom they were given were disobedient thereto. There are those who undertake to keep their “politics” completely separated from their “religion.” This is logically impossible for one who accepts the scriptures as the word of God. The following scripture is a warning against trying to draw such a distinction. It specifically enjoins Church members to accept the laws of the land which have been revealed, as “The laws of the church”:
Behold, the laws which ye have received from my hand are the laws of the church, and in this light ye shall hold them forth. Behold, here is wisdom. (D&C 58:23)
So widespread and deep seated is the belief that the Lord is not interested in our political beliefs, that the following chapter is devoted to a consideration of some of the reasons why He must concern himself with them in order to properly judge us. A correct understanding of the nature of government and the reasons why men adopt and enforce civil laws will demonstrate that a set of laws is in essence an expression of a moral code, and a person’s political beliefs are an accurate reflection of his moral character.
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