Unhallowed Hand

I am a Brigham Young fan and have quoted him on this blog before, but I think he may have been THE Antichrist. How can I still be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) if I think Brigham Young has been the most effective instrument of the devil for attacking LDS? It starts with something in The Wentworth Letter that I suspect was a prophesy regarding Brigham Young:

"The standard of truth has been erected. No unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished and the great Jehovah shall say the work is done." —Joseph Smith, 1842

Unhallowed has two definitions: 1. unconsecrated, secular, or 2. unholy, wicked. A hand in this context means an individual with an agenda working to achieve an objective, or in other words an agent. So the Unhallowed Hand would be a Unconsecrated Agent or an Unholy Agent. The succession crisis after Joseph Smith's assassination happened because it wasn't expressly clear to everyone who should be the leader of the LDS if both Joseph and Hyrum Smith were killed simultaneously (as they eventually were,) so that Brigham Young could then be considered the Unconsecrated Agent leading the LDS. However I suspect Brigham Young has played a far more sinister role in the history of the LDS, and that the title of Unholy Agent or Antichrist may apply to him.

What is "the work" that will not be stopped from progressing? From Joseph Smith's personal view it could be only one thing: the LDS religion Jesus founded through Joseph. Why were people mad at Joseph Smith and wanted to have him killed? No matter how you look at it, the biggest factor was rumors of polygamy, and more than anything else was causing mobs to combine, persecutions to rage, and eventually in the case of the Utah War (1857-1858) literally the US Army assembled against the LDS . To this day Brigham Young's calumny, in accusing Joseph Smith of pedophilia and adultery in the form of a rewriting of history to justify Brigham's own foul sexual practices, is one of the biggest philosophical problems holding back the growth of the LDS faith. 

Another mess left over from Brigham Young that we still have to address is his overt racism. However before him Joseph Smith was NOT racist. He and his wife were close friends with escaped slaves, and he had the first black Elder ordained to the LDS priesthood in 1836. But once Brigham Young was in control of the LDS, LDS prevented blacks from holding the priesthood or entering the temple.

Brigham Young also introduced other false doctrines LDS have since totally rejected in favor of what Joseph Smith taught before.  Let's look at how Brigham Young's Antichrist doctrines confused the plain and precious truths of the Gospel:

1. In an era of Church history when many members were starving to death in old west Utah, Brigham Young was commanding people to horde SEVEN YEARS supply of food. By the time I was a child this had number was down to Two Years, and then as an adult it has gone down to "Three Months + a 72 Hour kit." Three months + a 72 hour kid is not the kind of bizarre difference from mainstream society having over a year's supply is. Joseph Smith didn't command anyone to keep SEVEN YEARS supply of food, and instead the Book of Mormon teaches to not let others go hungry (just for example starting in Mosiah Chapter 4 verse 16.) 
2. Throughout my entire adult like the Temple Endowment ceremonies have evolved to be less and less like what Brigham Young established, generally rejecting much of the following ideas. 
3. Adam-God theory degraded Jesus Christ's (same as Jehovah in the LDS) role in the Universe, placing Adam somehow above Jesus. In Joseph Smith's view and in the LDS view today, Jesus was the principle creator of the world including the human species. Brigham Young taught that Jesus was something less.
4. Brigham Young's "Blood Atonement" doctrine taught that adultery was so serous that Jesus Christ's atonement alone was not sufficient to save someone from that sin, and that the adulterer would have to pay with their life in order to be saved. Adultery would be a surprisingly common sin for Jesus's sacrifice to not cover, so that again we see Brigham denying the power of Christ established in the Bible, Book of Mormon and teachings of Joseph Smith.
5. Racism is clearly against the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as racism is not kind or even respectful to those you are being racist against. Brigham Young falsely claimed his racist views were doctrinal and of God.
6. The most obvious sign of a benevolent all-knowing God is he would tell you to completely abstain from alcohol and tobacco, because of the suffering caused by the health and social consequences from the recreational use of these substances. IF Jesus is God, you can pretty much tell what church is His by looking at who takes this rule the most seriously. The LDS rules around forbidding these substances were revealed in 1833, "...adapted to the capacity of the weak and the weakest of all saints, who are or can be called saints..." clearly intended for all LDS members. However Brigham Young went so far as to make and sell whiskey, which has about 4 times the alcohol content of any wine ever described in the scriptures. Brigham Young refused to promote the LDS rules regarding substances established by Jesus through Joseph Smith, and instead encouraged members to break those rules.
7. Since the time of Adam and Eve, including the times when populations needed to grow rapidly such as immediately after the flood or when the Lehites reached America, the commandment from God has always been one wife for each man, no concubines allowed. This creates the basic family and societal structure that successful civilizations are based on. Brigham Young fought against this basic family structure beyond anyone else I know of through his doctrine of polygamy.
8. Today the LDS and most other believers highly frown on divorce, because of the consequences it has on individuals and society as a whole. Jesus in Mathew Chapter 5 vs 31-32 describes divorce as a form of adultery. After all the huffing and puffing Brigham Young did over the importance of marriage, Brigham had 10 divorces!
9. Brigham Young twisted specific verses of scripture to mean the opposite of what they obviously meant. For example Jacob Chapter 2 is part of a huge sermon against polygamy, where "seed" has been established as "righteous people" and "things" have been established as various sins or abominations. Verse 30 reads "For if I will, saith the Lord of Hosts, raise up seed unto me, I will command my people; otherwise they shall hearken unto these things." In context this clearly means "I command you to be monogamous, otherwise you will sin." However Brigham Young considered this verse to be an exception allowing polygamy, undermining the intention of the entire sermon.
10. Today in the LDS community we have high expectations of our leaders, and though everyone is a hypocrite sooner or later, we really expect them to do their best to live the gospel. We also expect them to refrain from judging people as much as possible, only enforcing the most important rules in the LDS faith. This is all reflected in Mathew Chapter 7 where Jesus warns us about being hypocrites and to tread lightly when we judge others. Brigham Young on the other hand pretty much just made up the rules as he went along to suit his whims, constantly threatened people with an adverse afterlife for not going along with his Anthichrist schemes, and (as per this list) was probably the biggest hypocrite in the history of the USA.

If the LDS is a religion that is primarily about following modern prophets, then this means that the LDS religion was completely derailed at the time of Brigham Young, right? Not according to the prophecy above from The Wentworth Letter, which specifically said any such Unhallowed Hand would not stop the LDS religion from spreading throughout the world. Let's look at LDS spiritual practices to see how high priority "following the prophet" actually is. In order to even become an LDS member in the first place, you have to embrace the "First Ordinances and Principles of the Gospel", which are:

1. Faith in Jesus Christ
2. Repentance
3. Baptism
4. Gift of the Holy Ghost

That last step, #4, The Gift of the Holy Ghost is to enhance your personal ability to get revelation directly from God yourself. Which of these 4 says to "follow the prophet?" Yes of course following guidance from prophets both ancient and modern is wise, but it is fundamentally more important to establish your own personal relationship with God. The LDS is then a body of people who have embraced these Principles and Ordinances.

Perhaps this is why over 75% of LDS ignored Brigham Young's ranting on polygamy and never practiced it themselves. Even if Brigham Young was the Antichrist, he did not successfully lead away most LDS members to do polygamy, as they had the Gift of the Holy Ghost for themselves. Brigham Young himself said:

“The First Presidency have of right a great influence over this people; and if we should get out of the way and lead this people to destruction, what a pity it would be! How can you know whether we lead you correctly, or not? Can you know by any other power than that of the Holy Ghost?” — Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 6:100

Yes indeed Brigham, yes indeed. LDS reject the "Trinity" creed, and believe that the Father, Son and Holy Ghost are separate individuals, so then why is the name of LDS not "The Church of Heavenly Father of Latter Day Saints," or "The Church of the Holy Ghost of Latter Day Saints," or "The Church of the Prophets of Latter Day Saints?" The Unhallowed Hand has shown us that regardless of who sits on the throne in Salt Lake City, Jesus Christ is the true leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.