JS’s revelations and translations expanded on the biblical concept of a “war in heaven” by emphasizing that God had stood in the midst of the “intelligences” or spirits who were “organized before the world was,” that Satan or Lucifer rebelled against God and was expelled along with a “third part of the host of Heaven,” and that “one among them that was like unto God” (Jesus Christ) was chosen to participate in the salvation of humankind. According to JS’s revelations and teachings, a “grand council” or “council in heaven” occurred before the creation of the earth. As William Clayton explained, “It has been a doctrine taught by this church that we were in the Grand Council amongst the Gods when the organization of this world was contemplated and that the laws of government were all made and sanctioned by all present and all the ordinances and ceremonies decreed upon.” (Revelation 12:7; Isaiah 14:12; Old Testament Revision 1, p. 6 [Moses 4:1–4]; Revelation, Sept. 1830–A [D&C 29:36–39]; “The Book of Abraham,” Times and Seasons, 15 Mar. 1842, 3:720 [Abraham 3:22–28]; Petersen, “One Soul Shall Not Be Lost,” 11–14; JS, Journal, 11 June 1843 and 7 Apr. 1844; Richards, “Scriptural Items,” 16 July 1843 and [27 Aug. 1843], [22], [26]; Clayton, Journal, 10 Mar. 1845.)

Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.

Petersen, Boyd Jay. “‘One Soul Shall Not Be Lost’: The War in Heaven in Mormon Thought.” Journal of Mormon History 38, no. 1 (Winter 2012): 1–50.

Richards, Franklin D. Scriptural Items, ca. 1841–1844. CHL. MS 4409.

Clayton, William. Journals, 1842–1845. CHL.

See Genesis 4:8–15. The concept that Cain was the progenitor of all black people was an old and prevalent one. Nineteenth-century white Americans generally believed that black skin was the result of biblical curses, including both a curse upon Cain and a curse upon Ham and his son Canaan. This belief had been frequently used to justify the system of racial slavery in America. (See Goldenberg, Curse of Ham, chap. 13; Walker, Walker’s Appeal, 68; Haynes, Noah’s Curse, chaps. 2, 4–5; Kidd, Forging of Races, 34–35, 229–230, 234–237; and Reeve, Religion of a Different Color, 106–161.)

Goldenberg, David M. Curse of Ham: Race and Slavery in Early Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2003.

Walker, David. Walker’s Appeal, in Four Articles; together with a Preamble, to the Coloured Citizens of the World, but in Particular, and Very Expressly, to Those of the United States of America, Written in Boston, State of Massachusetts, September 28, 1829. 3rd ed. Boston: By the author, 1830.

Haynes, Stephen R. Noah’s Curse: The Biblical Justification of Slavery. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Kidd, Colin. The Forging of Races: Race and Scripture in the Protestant Atlantic World, 1600–2000. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.

Reeve, W. Paul. Religion of a Different Color: Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.

Hyde again described his experiences in St. Louis and his personal views on the origins of blacks in the pamphlet on Sidney Rigdon discussed earlier in this council and published in May 1845. In 1839 Hyde connected the curse of Cain to his own “rebellion” against the church in 1838. According to Allen Stout, Hyde decided to return to the church after he “saw a vision in which it was maid [k]nown to him that if he did not make immediate restitution to the Quorem of the 12, he would be cut of[f] and all his posterity and that the curse of Cain would be upon him.”

Although Young here invited Hyde to state his views, it appears that he rejected Hyde’s reasoning. At a public meeting in April 1845, Young declared that “the Spirits of the Chil[dren] of Men are pure & holy without transgress[io]n or any curse upon them— & the diff[erences] that you see around you is on acc[oun]t. of the circumstances that surround them . . . some have taught that bec[ause] persons are poor that it is on acc[oun]t. of transgress[io]n it is false doctrine— from beginning to end.” Years later, when his brother asked him whether JS taught that the spirits of blacks had been neutral during the war in heaven, Young stated that “there was No Nutral spirits in Heaven at the time of the Rebelion all took sides.” Moreover, Young said, “If any one said that He Herd the Prophet Joseph Say that the spirits of the Blacks were Nutral in Heaven He would not Believe them for He herd Joseph Say to the Contrary all spirits are pure that Come from the presenc of God.” (Speech of Elder Orson Hyde . . . upon the Course and Conduct of Mr. Sidney Rigdon, 30; Allen Stout, Reminiscences and Journal, 15; Historian’s Office, General Church Minutes, 20 Apr. 1845; Woodruff, Journal, 25 Dec. 1869; see also Reeve, Religion of a Different Color, 207–208.)

Speech of Elder Orson Hyde, Delivered before the High Priest’s Quorum in Nauvoo, April 27th, 1845, upon the Course and Conduct of Mr. Sidney Rigdon, and upon the Merits of His Claims to the Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Nauvoo, IL: John Taylor, 1845. Copy at CHL.

Stout, Allen J. Reminiscences and Journal, 1863–1889. CHL.

Historian’s Office. General Church Minutes, 1839–1877. CHL

Woodruff, Wilford. Journals, 1833–1898. Wilford Woodruff, Journals and Papers, 1828–1898. CHL. MS 1352.

Reeve, W. Paul. Religion of a Different Color: Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.

This was probably the second of two letters from Noah Rogers published in the 15 March 1845 issue of the Times and Seasons. (“From the Society Islands,” Times and Seasons, 15 Mar. 1845, 6:837–838; see also Council of Fifty, “Record,” 11 Mar. 1845.)

Times and Seasons. Commerce/Nauvoo, IL. Nov. 1839–Feb. 1846.