A Voice of Warning (Barnes & Noble Library of Essential Reading): And Instruction to All People or, an Introduction to the Faith and Doctrine of the Church of Latter-

By Parley P. Pratt and Kent P. Jackson

A Voice of Warning is a lively and passionate nineteenth-century argument for Mormonism. Written by Parley P. Pratt, one of the most colorful personalities in the early history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it was also Mormonism’s most important noncanonical book for more than half a century after its original publication in 1837. Pratt presented the case for Mormonism by an appeal to history, reason, and scores of passages from the Bible. Its animated, argumentative, and very often clever style explains Mormonism well and draws a line between it and conventional Christianity.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Barnes & Noble
• Release date: Sep 1, 2009
• ISBN: 9781411430297

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INTRODUCTION

PARLEY P. PRATT’S A VOICE OF WARNING IS A LIVELY AND PASSIONATE nineteenth-century argument for Mormonism. Written by one of the most colorful personalities in the early history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it was also Mormonism’s most important noncanonical book for more than half a century after its original publication in 1837. Its author, who described himself as unpolished by education and reared in the wilds of America, with a mind independent, untrammeled and free, presented the case for Mormonism by an appeal to history, to reason, and to scores of passages from the Bible. And he did it in a high-energy tone characteristic of apologetic discourse in the nineteenth century and reflective of his own vibrant approach to life and religion. The book succeeded in what he intended it to do because its animated, argumentative, and very often clever style explains Mormonism well and draws a line between it and conventional Christianity. From its first edition until early in the twentieth century, A Voice of Warning may have outsold every Latter-day Saint book but the Book of Mormon. Missionaries took it wherever they preached and used it in their teaching. Thousands of new converts to Mormonism obtained it, and thus it often was the first Latter-day Saint book they read. Today it provides a window into nineteenth-century Mormonism and into the beliefs that brought it to life.

Parley Parker Pratt was born in central New York State on April 12, 1807. In his early twenties, he was introduced to the teachings of Alexander Campbell, and he became affiliated with Campbell’s Reformed Baptist movement. Campbell and others were part of a primitivist trend within American Christianity that sought to recapture, through the Bible, the Christianity of the New Testament. But, as Pratt would later write in his autobiography, his association with the movement did not satisfy his spiritual hunger, because he believed that the restoration of primitive Christianity required the restoration of divine authority and spiritual gifts, a view contrary to Campbell’s teachings. In 1830 Pratt learned of the newly published Book of Mormon. Borrowing a copy, he read it virtually in one sitting, and, convinced that it was true, he embraced Joseph Smith’s message of the restoration of primitive Christianity. Pratt was baptized into the faith in September 1830. From that time on, he was one of the greatest advocates of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its teachings. In 1835 he was ordained a member of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles, and he remained in the church’s leadership for the rest of his life. With the publication of A Voice of Warning two years later, he became one of the fathers of Mormon book publishing and one of Mormonism’s foremost writers and poets. He started a periodical, the Millennial Star, which was published in Britain for one hundred thirty years (1840-1970). His best-known work today, Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt, continues to sell, and the current Latter-day Saint hymnal contains seven of his poems set to music. As a missionary, preacher, leader, colonizer, hymnist, apologist, newspaper editor, and publisher, Pratt vigorously championed the Latter-day Saint cause in every way he could. Both before and after the death of Joseph Smith (1844) and the Latter-day Saint colonization of the Utah Territory (beginning 1847), Pratt preached the Mormon message in every direction—in the eastern United States, Canada, Britain, California, and as far south as Chile. In 1857, on his way home to Utah from a missionary journey, he was murdered in Arkansas.

Pratt wrote and published A Voice of Warning while living in New York City in the summer and fall of 1837. The small book—3 ¾ by 5 ¾ inches, 216 pages—soon sold out its three thousand copies, necessitating a new edition two years later. He and others issued subsequent editions and printings every few years for the rest of his life. Pratt made changes to the book in the first few editions, but from the early 1840s on, the editions were essentially the same. In his 1839 edition, he included a challenge—a $300 wager—to anyone who could successfully refute the principles of Theology herein set forth. The challenge was removed without comment from later editions. During his lifetime, the book was published in French, German, and Danish, in addition to English. By the time of its centennial in 1937, more than one hundred editions or printings had been issued, in eight languages. The Latter-day Saint Church continued to print A Voice of Warning until the mid-twentieth century.

The present edition is Pratt’s eighth, published in Liverpool, England, in 1854. It was selected because it is the last edition published during his lifetime and contains his final version of the text.

The title page of A Voice of Warning includes two Old Testament passages. The first, Isaiah 42:9, announces: Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare. One of Pratt’s themes in A Voice of Warning is that events foretold by biblical prophets were at last coming to pass in Pratt’s own day. Mormonism, he argues, presents the world with the new things prophesied anciently. The second passage, Isaiah 41:21, reads: Produce your cause, saith the Lord; bring forth your strong reasons. Pratt clearly brings forth his own strong reasons in A Voice of Warning, yet in doing so he challenges his readers to do the same, to take on his arguments and either refute them or believe them (with or without the $300 reward). He wrote the book to remedy what he believed was widespread misunderstanding of Mormonism, to give the public correct information. But the book is also intended as a warning voice, or proclamation of truth, to all people into whose hands it may fall, that they may understand, and be prepared for the great day of the Lord.

Pratt’s first chapter, On Prophesy Already Fulfilled, argues that because the Bible contains prophesies that were fulfilled by later events recorded in the Bible itself, one can be assured that all prophesies will eventually be fulfilled. "It follows of necessity that every prophesy which is yet future, will not fail of a literal fulfillment. Pratt’s emphasis on literal" is not tangential. Throughout the pages of A Voice of Warning, he reasons against contemporaries whom he accused of spiritualizing the prophesies that were meant to be understood literally. It was well for Noah that he was not well versed in the spiritualizing systems of modern divinity, he wrote with an obvious bite. Had Noah been schooled in modern thought, he would have built a spiritual Ark for a spiritual flood. But Noah was just simple enough to believe the prophesy literally. Pratt uses the same rhetoric regarding almost twenty other biblical characters. How disappointed they would be, he writes, if they knew that modern religionists no longer believe in prophesy and its literal fulfillment.

In chapter 2, Pratt expands on his conclusion that already-fulfilled prophesy is evidence that prophesies not yet fulfilled will certainly come to pass. His focus is on Old Testament prophesies of the restoration of Israel. Whereas Israel is now not gathered, either to its promised land or to its ancient covenants, the gathering will surely happen, he argues. Yet it cannot happen unless messengers are called by revelation to initiate it—a point which reflects an important doctrine in Mormonism but which Pratt does not identify as such. He also argues a general apostasy of primitive Christianity as evidenced by the modern absence of apostles and spiritual gifts—again reflecting Mormon teachings but not identifying them. Further, he twice asks rhetorically whether Native Americans are descendants of ancient Israelites—again hinting at Mormon beliefs, and setting the stage for chapter 4. Throughout A Voice of Warning, Pratt quotes scriptural passages liberally, usually in quotation marks but not always with the references cited. He ends chapter 2 with an extensive quote from one of Joseph Smith’s revelations of early 1831, but he does not identify the source.

In chapter 3, The Kingdom of God, Pratt reasons that for any kingdom to exist, there must be a king, officers who were commissioned by the king, laws established by the king, and subjects of the king to be governed. The New Testament church, he writes, had Jesus as its king, apostles, prophets, and others who were commissioned and empowered by him to be his officers, and Jesus’ teachings as its laws. Those men and women who chose to become subjects in the kingdom did so by exercising faith, repenting of their sins, being baptized by duly empowered officers, and receiving the Holy Spirit. Those necessary steps were the order of the Gospel, he writes. Yet he asks, Where do you find a Gospel like this preached among men?—again anticipating Mormonism but not yet saying so. Using several New Testament passages, he contends that early Christianity was characterized primarily by the presence of apostles called and ordained by Jesus and by the spiritual gifts that attended their ministry. Without those, there could be no church of Christ in existence. Now I boldly declare that the cause of all the division, confusion, jars, discord, and animosities within modern Christianity is because they have neither apostles, prophets, nor gifts, inspired from on high, to whom they give heed.

For Parley Pratt, Mormonism is the remedy for these problems, and in chapter 4, on the Book of Mormon, he at last makes the case openly. The second verse of the poem that begins the chapter illustrates the triumphant tone with which he writes:

Lo! From the opening heavens, in bright array

An angel comes—to earth he bends his way:

Reveals to man, in power, as at the first,

The fullness of the Gospel long since lost.

Much of the chapter deals with the Book of Mormon’s modern discovery and translation. It is in this context, after about a hundred pages of A Voice of Warning, that Pratt finally, and for the only time in the book, mentions Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism (although he acknowledges him in the preface to his editions beginning in 1841). Pratt tells the story of an angel—a resurrected man who was one of the characters mentioned in the Book of Mormon—appearing to the young Mormon prophet and directing him to an ancient record, which he translated by the gift and power of God and published in 1830 as the Book of Mormon. He also tells of other angels sent to bring to the world the commission to preach the restored fullness of the Christian gospel, and he tells of the restoration of spiritual gifts. He challenges his readers: Any person who will go to Jesus, with a pure heart, desiring and praying in faith, that he may know the truth concerning these things, the Lord will reveal it to him, and he shall know. And, If ye do this, and He reveals to you that He has sent us with a new and everlasting covenant, and commanded us to preach, and baptize, and build up His Church as in days of old, then come forward and obey the truth.

Chapter 5 presents Pratt’s views on the restoration of all things, a common Mormon theme. He argues from a series of scriptures that in conjunction with Jesus’ second coming, the world will be restored to its pristine condition, the New Jerusalem will be built, the worthy dead will be restored to life and immortality, humankind will be restored from its fallen state to a state of righteousness, and Israel will be restored to its promised lands. Part of the thrust of the restoration theme is that the Native Americans, identified in the Book of Mormon as descendants of ancient Israel, will be restored to the promises made to their fathers. In this chapter, Pratt quotes overtly from Book of Mormon passages as well as from the Bible.

Pratt’s short concluding chapter is titled The Dealings of God with All Nations, in Regard to Revelation. In it, he argues that true knowledge of God can only come through revelation. God desires that all nations have his word, but most do not because their ancestors once rejected what God had made known to them. He presents as examples the ancient Jews who once were favored with revelation but rejected their prophets, followed by early Christians who likewise eventually rejected God’s message. Pratt argues that no one can say he would have followed the ancient apostles and prophets if he does not follow new ones when they are sent. And thus, contending that God had sent new apostles and prophets into the world in the nineteenth century, he announces: In these last days God has again spoken from the heavens, and commissioned men to go, first to the Gentiles . . . and then . . . to the Jews also, and command them to repent, and obey the Gospel; thus restoring again that which has been so long lost from the earth.

Chapter 7 is an appendix, a table in two columns, titled A Contrast between the Doctrine of Christ and the False Doctrines of the Nineteenth Century. The left column consists of a series of scriptural passages. In the right column those same passages are reworded in obvious parody to present Pratt’s interpretation of contemporary Christian beliefs. Thus these examples:

It is evident not only from these quotations but also from numerous other passages in A Voice of Warning that Pratt’s words were directed against the belief of followers of Alexander Campbell and others that apostolic authority and spiritual gifts, though present in the New Testament church, were no longer needed in the nineteenth century. Pratt argues instead that the restoration of primitive Christianity required the restoration of pristine doctrine, in the form of the Book of Mormon and other revelations, and that it also required the restoration of spiritual powers, including the apostleship, by angelic visitation and other revelatory means. But further, he emphasizes that humans, left to their own resources, can never get religion right. Wisdom and education can never substitute for the indispensable ingredient of revelation, and true religion cannot be known at all unless made known by God. It was these beliefs that created in Parley P. Pratt such a ready convert to Mormonism and such a passionate defender of its beliefs.

Kent P. Jackson is associate dean of Religious Education and professor of Ancient Scripture at Brigham Young University. He holds a Ph.D. in ancient Near East and Old Testament from the University of Michigan.

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EUROPEAN EDITION

WHEN THE FOLLOWING WORK WAS FIRST PUBLISHED IN AMERICA, IN 1837, it was but little known, and seemed to meet with little or no encouragement. Months passed away, and very few copies were sold or read. But, to the astonishment of the author, it worked itself into notice more and more, by the blessing of God, and by virtue of its own real merits; till, in two years, the first edition, consisting of three thousand copies, was all sold, and many more were called for. A new edition was published in 1839, consisting of two thousand five hundred copies: these were also disposed of. Other three editions have since been published, making in all thirteen thousand copies now disposed of, and the demand is still increasing both in America and Europe.

It has already found its way into most of the American States, and into the provinces of the Canadas, as well as many parts of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. It has visited the cottages of the humble, and the parlors of the great; and from the best information we have on the subject, very few have risen from its perusal without a deep and settled conviction of the truth of its principles.

The author has now in possession the testimony of hundreds of people, from different states and nations, all bearing witness that this Work has been a means, in the hands of God, of saving them