Conference Report, Joseph F. Smith, Jr., April 1911

From time to time, some one, filled with hatred of the truth, in the blind desire to destroy the work of the Lord, appeals to the nations to cast out the elders of Israel who are carrying this message of salvation unto all who will believe, and warning others that they may be left without excuse. It would be a sorry day for any nation, where the gospel is being preached, should it conclude to drive the elders of the Church from its borders and deny them the right to preach the gospel among the people. The elders insure peace unto the nations, so long as they will hear the message of salvation and will protect and defend the truth. When the time comes that the nations will cast the elders out, and no longer receive their testimony, but “bow to Satan’s thrall,” as we heard in the anthem this afternoon, woe be unto them. We read in the word of the Lord that after the testimony of the elders will come wrath and indignation upon the people. For after their testimony will come the testimony of earthquakes, that shall cause suffering and sorrow and men shall fall upon the ground for fear. There shall come also the testimony of thunderings, and the voice of lightnings, and the voice of tempests, and the voice of the waves of the sea heaving themselves beyond their bounds. All things shall be in commotion and men’s hearts shall fail them because of fear that shall come upon the people. These things shall follow the testimony of the elders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, when the people of the world reject them and drive them from their borders. We go unto them with a message of peace, of truth, of eternal salvation, calling upon them to repent of their sins and enter into the true fold, where they may receive rest. When they will not do this, but to the contrary, will listen to the unrighteous and condemn the truth, then God will withdraw the Gospel from among them. In that day the time of the Gentiles will be fulfilled, and the gospel will be carried to the Jews.

Conference Report, Melvin J. Ballard, October 1923

I stand here without any fear and say without any danger of anybody successfully being able to prove the contrary, that if the warning voice of the Prophet Joseph Smith and the elders of this Church had been heeded by the nations of the earth, we would not have seen the dreadful calamity of war through which we have passed, that these problems could have been solved and averted. The means was provided, and the means was rejected, and then when our Father has done this, though he be God, is yet limited to law, by obedience to which he became God, and he must honor the same, he cannot step beyond those limitations and set aside the law. The law must take its course, and when men refuse the offer and tender the Lord has given by which they may be saved, they cannot blame the Lord if calamities, judgments and destructions come upon them. The Lord cannot avert it, it must take its course, and yet our Father in his kindness and mercy has offered the way and the means of escape.

Journal of Discourses, Brigham Young 8:30

Do you think there is calamity abroad now among the people? Not much. All we have yet heard and all we have experienced is scarcely a preface to the sermon that is going to be preached. When the testimony of the Elders ceases to be given, and the Lord says to them, “Come home; I will now preach my own sermons to the nations of the earth,” all you now know can scarcely be called a preface to the sermon that will be preached with fire and sword, tempests, earthquakes, hail, rain, thunders and lightnings, and fearful destruction. What matters the destruction of a few railway cars? You will hear of magnificent cities, now idolized by the people, sinking in the earth, entombing the inhabitants. The sea will heave itself beyond its bounds, engulfing mighty cities. Famine will spread over the nations, and nation will rise up against nation, kingdom against kingdom, and states against states, in our own country and in foreign lands; and they will destroy each other, caring not for the blood and lives of their neighbors, of their families, or for their own lives.

Conference Report, Orson Pratt 18:7

When God has called out the righteous, when the warning voice has been sufficiently proclaimed among these Gentile nations, and the Lord says “It is enough,” he will also say to his servants–”O, ye, my servants, come home, come out from the midst of these Gentile nations, where you have labored and borne testimony for so long a period; come out from among them, for they are not worthy; they do not receive the message that I have sent forth, they do not repent of their sins; come out from their midst, their times are fulfilled. Seal up the testimony among them and bind up the law.