[14]. Ib. 105:11.
[15]. Ib. 103:17.
[16]. Hist. Ch. Vol. 2, pp. 180, 201.
[17]. D. & C. 105:5.
ARTICLE TWENTY-FIVE.
Clearing the Way.
"I Will Fight Your Battles."—In a revelation, already cited, given through Joseph the Seer while Zion's Camp was resting on Fishing River, the Lord says concerning the Elders of his Church:
"I do not require at their hands to fight the battles of Zion; for, as I said in a former commandment, even so will I fulfill. I will fight your battles."
"Behold, the destroyer I have sent forth to destroy and lay waste mine enemies; and not many years hence they shall not be left to pollute mine heritage and to blaspheme my name upon the lands which I have consecrated for the gathering together of my Saints."[[1]]
War and Deity.—There are many good people who believe that anything of a war-like character, anything involving violence and bloodshed, is wholly incompatible with the benign disposition and benevolent purposes of Deity. According to their view, God has nothing to do with wars. From first to last they are the work of the Evil One, moving upon wicked men to stir up strife for selfish and sordid ends. Everything peaceful and pleasant comes from him who is the Prince of Peace; everything of an opposite nature, and especially war, that prolific source of misery and sorrow, is due entirely to the Adversary. It is all well meant, of course, the object being to forefend Deity against the reproach that these good people fear would lie at his door, if it were admitted that he had even a share in what they conceive to be an unmixt evil, a thing absolutely wrong and unjustifiable. But how can such views be reconciled with divine revelation and the history of God's dealings with man? If war is always wicked, and destruction ever at variance with the will and purposes of Providence, how are we to understand such passages of scripture as the foregoing, wherein Jehovah, who is no other than Jesus, the meek and merciful, assures his servants that he will fight their battles, and assumes full responsibility for sending forth the destroyer to lay waste his enemies and theirs?