CIVIL WAR II QUOTES - WE ARE CLOSE!

How applicable are these quotes to today - as opposed to, say 30 years ago or even 15 years ago.  I say we are on the cusp:

THE GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES WILL COMPLETELY COLLAPSE
According to the prophecies, the government and national identity of the United States as it now exists will be completely demolished during these internal wars. Joseph Smith several times referred to the collapse of the federal government. To Judge Stephen A. Douglas he said:

I prophesy in the name of the Lord God of Israel, unless the United States redress the wrongs committed upon the Saints in the state of Missouri and punish the crimes committed by her officers that in a few years the government will be utterly overthrown and wasted, and there will not be so much as a potsherd left. (HC, 5:394)

Half a year later the Prophet recorded a similar prophecy:

While discussing the petition to Congress, I prophesied, by virtue of the holy Priesthood vested in me, and in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that, if Congress will not hear our petition and grant us protection, they shall be broken up as a government. (HC, 6:116.)

He also spoke of "the end of this nation, if she continues to disregard the cries and petitions of her virtuous citizens, as she has done and is now doing." (HC, 4:89)

It is significant that after the Civil War the Saints still looked forward to the fulfillment of these prophecies and to the final reduction of America to chaos.

Another prophetic statement apparently made by Joseph Smith was that

A terrible revolution will take place in the land of America, such as has never been seen before; for the land will be literally left without a supreme government, and every species of wickedness will run rampant. Father will be against son, and son against father, mother against daughter, and daughter against mother. The most terrible scenes of murder and bloodshed and rapine that have ever been looked upon will take place. (Prophecy recorded by Edwin Rushton and Theodore Turley.)

Wilford Woodruff recorded a vision which was given to him in 1880 which indicated the coming destruction of this nation:

The Lord then poured out His spirit upon me and opened the vision of my mind so that I could comprehend in a great measure the mind and will of God concerning the nation and concerning the inhabitants of Zion. I saw the wickedness of the nation, its abominations and corruptions and the judgments of God and the destruction that awaited it. . . . On January 28th I was again given a vision. It concerned the destiny of our nation and of Zion. My pillow was again wet by a fountain of tears as I beheld the judgments of God upon the wicked. I was strongly impressed that the Apostles and elders should warn the inhabitants of the earth. (Cowley, op cit., pp. 530-31.)

Moses Thatcher, another of the early apostles, also anticipated the end of this nation. While speaking in Franklin, Idaho, on June 16, 1882, he said:

I have seen the end of this nation and it is terrible ... I will tell you in the name of the Lord that a secret band will sap the life of this nation: (Franklin Ward Historical Record, Franklin, Idaho. June 16, 1882.

Brigham Young commented that strife and opposition within the communities "is the knife that will cut down this government."

The nations will consume each other, and the Lord will suffer them to bring it about. It does not require much talent or tact to get up opposition in these days. You see it rife in communities, in meetings, in neighbourhoods, and in cities. That is the knife that will cut down this Government. The axe is laid at the root of the tree, and every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit will be hewn down. (JD, 8:143)

Because of the wasting away of the national government, it is expected that the Saints will find it necessary to maintain their own government so that law and order can be preserved. This matter was explained by Orson Pratt in 1875:

God has sent forth his warning message in the midst of this nation, but they have rejected it and treated his servants with contempt; the Lord has gathered out his people from their midst, and has planted them here in these mountains; and he will speedily fulfill the prophecy in relation to the overthrow of this nation, and their destruction. We shall be obliged to have a government to preserve ourselves in unity and peace; for they, through being wasted away, will not have the power to govern; for state will be divided against state, city against city, town against town, and the whole country will be in terror and confusion; mobocracy will prevail and their [sic] will be no security, through this great Republic, for the lives or property of the people. When that time shall arrive, we shall necessarily want to carry out the principles of our great constitution and as the people of God, we shall want to see those principles magnified, according to the order of union and oneness which prevails among the people of God. We can magnify it, and all will be united without having democrats or republicans and all kinds of religions; we can magnify it according to the spirit and letter of the constitution, though we are united in politics, religion, and everything else. (DEN, Vol. 8, No. 265, October 2, 1875)