Other Mormons

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Other Mormons

★1397 ★

Church of Jesus Christ (Bickertonite)

6th & Lincoln Sts. Monongahela, PA 15063

Sidney Rigdon had been the First Counselor to Joseph Smith, Jr. during the early years of the church. In spite of his health problems which began with the incident in which he and Smith were tarred and feathered and his falling out with the Church over Smith's proposing plural marriage to his daughter, Rigdon retained his formal position in the church. Based upon his office in the church, after Smith's assassination, he claimed to be his successor. Though rejected by the other church leaders, Rigdon found some followers which he led to Pennsylvania. In 1844 he reorganized the church which had but a short life. In the fall of 1846 disagreements appeared that led to its disintegration.

William Bickerton, who never knew Joseph Smith, had joined Sidney Rigdon's church in 1845. Left without a church by the disintegration of Rigdon's following, he joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints congregation at Elizabeth, Pennsylvania, in which he became an elder. Sometime shortly after the public announcement of the doctrine of polygamy, Bickerton denounced Brigham Young and the Utah apostles and left the church. He formally organized a new church in July, 1862, claiming he did so in obedience to a revelation. Bickerton gathered some of Rigdon's followers as his first members.

The small Church of Jesus Christ has had a rather tumultuous history. A branch was established in Kansas in 1875, and Bicker-ton moved there with the church headquarters. Friction arose between the Pennsylvania and Kansas branches, and Bickerton, accused of adultery, was disfellowshipped from his own church. (He returned in 1902.) William Cadman was elected president. In 1904, the year before Cadman's death, a reorganization took place. In 1907, further friction resulted in half the leaders leaving and forming the short-lived Reorganization Church of Jesus Christ. A second schism occurred in 1914.

The doctrine of the Bickertonite Church follows closely that of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints prior to Joseph Smith's death. The members are strongly opposed to polygamy. They do practice the Lord's Supper weekly (a reflection of Sidney Rigdon's continued attachment to the ideas of Alexander Campbell), the washing of feet, and the holy kiss. The church is ruled by a president, two councilors, a secretary, financial secretary, and treasurer. There is an annual conference of elders which elects officers.

Membership: In 1989 the church reported 2,707 members, 63 congregations, and 262 ministers.

Periodicals: Gospel News. Send orders to 8423 Boettner Rd., Bridgewater, MI 48115.

Sources:

Cadman, W. H. A History of the Church of Jesus Christ. Monongahela, PA: Church of Jesus Christ, 1945.

Cadman, William. Faith and Doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ. Roscoe, PA: Roscoe Ledger Print., 1902.

McKiernan, F. Mark. The Voice of One Crying in the Wilderness: Sidney Rigdon, Religious Reformer, 1793-1876. Independence, MO: Herald House, 1979.

★1398 ★

Church of Jesus Christ (Cutlerite)

807 S. Cottage St.
Independence, MO 64050

Alpheus Cutler was an elder in the LDS Church and gained prominence for his efforts in building the Nauvoo Temple of which he was chosen to be Chief Architect. In 1841, he was by revelation (R.L.D.S. section 107 V. 41), (L.D.S. section 134 V.132) appointed to the Nauvoo State High Council. After Joseph Smith's death, Cutler began a mission to the Indians. Cutler claimed later that he was given the call by Joseph Smith, Jr., who had given him sole authority to preach the gospel to the Lamanites, the American Indians. When the group under Young went to Utah, Cutler chose to stayed behind because of false beliefs introduced by Brigham Young that did not agree with original doctrine.

As a recent church member wrote: "Joseph Smith had organized a group of men into an order of seven, a kingdom order. Joseph was number one in that order and Alpheus Cutler was number seven, and Joseph ordained all six of those men to hold the keys, powers and authorities which he held. So they each held the kingdom authority. As time went on all of the men in that order of seven except Alpheus Cutler either died or joined some of the factions. Alpheus Cutler was number seven and he waited his turn to work. He had been promised he would be given a sign, a certain sign when it was time for him to begin his work, and when he received that sign he began to prepare to reorganize the original church."

In 1849, Cutler and some followers established a settlement in Iowa which was named Manti. A formal organization of the Church of Jesus Christ followed in 1853, after a number of saints from Council Bluffs swelled the growing community. There was constant fluctuation in membership during the remainder of Cutler's lifetime because of periodic arguments with other groups of Mormons operating in the Midwest.

In 1864, following Cutler's death, Chauncey Whiting, Cutler's successor, led a group to Minnesota (according to a revelation which Cutler had received) where the town of Clitherall was established. Here they tried to establish an order of all things common (the United Order) but were unsuccessful at first. In 1910, Isaac Whiting, who succeeded to the presidency following the death of Chauncey Whiting in 1902, called all to return to the United Order, which was accomplished in 1913. Isaac Whiting died in 1922 and Emery Fletcher then became president, having been Isaac's first counselor.

In 1928, a branch of the church was established in Independence, Missouri, the site of Zion (Doctrine and Covenants57:3). A home and a church building were paid for by the United Order in Clitherall, Minnesota, and about half the group took possession of them. Conflict arose almost immediately, and Emery Fletcher, the then church president, returned to Clitherall. In 1952, he convinced the Minnesota group to excommunicate the Missouri group, including Erle Whiting, the first councilor. The excommunication was not recognized by the Missouri group. Then in 1953 Emery Fletcher died. The Minnesota groups elected Clyde Fletcher as the new president. The Missouri group rejected the election and recognized Erle Whiting (d. 1958), who as first councilor had the assumed right of succession to that office. This set of events completed the separation between the two groups.

Erle Whiting served as president until 1958 and was succeeded by Rupert J. Fletcher (d. 1974) and Julian Whiting, his first counselor was elected president. Clyde Fletcher served the Minnesota group until his death in 1969. During the 1970s the Minnesota congregation dwindled steadily and eventually had no one to perform priesthood functions. In recent years it has been reconciled to the Missouri group. During the years of the separation, the Minnesota group referred to itself as the True Church of Jesus Christ.

The main distinctive mark of the Church of Jesus Christ is a belief in the authority of Alpheus Cutler. The president or chief councilor and his first and second councilors are the main officers.

Upon the death of the first councilor, the second succeeds him if approved by the vote of the church members. Besides believing in the authority of Cutler, the Church of Jesus Christ believes that the Lord rejected all Gentiles who did not accept Joseph Smith's message and therefore there is to be no preaching to them unless called by revelation. They are the only group besides the LDS Church in Utah to perform temple rites; Cutler had known them from his days at Nauvoo.

Membership: Not reported.

Sources:

Fletcher, Daisy Whiting. Alpheus Cutler and the Church of Jesus Christ. Independence, MO: The Author, 1970.

Fletcher, Rupert J. The Scattered Children of Zion. Independence, MO: The Author, 1959.

——. The Way of Deliverance. Independence, MO: The Author, 1969.

★1399 ★

Church of Jesus Christ (Drew)

35315 Chestnut Burlington, WI 53105

Theron Drew (d. 1978) formerly associated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Strangite), lived in a house formerly owned by Wingfield Watson, a leader in the church from 1897 to 1922. Watson left his farm, located adjacent to the original Strangite church, to three trustees to handle as they saw fit. One of these trustees, Barbara Drew (wife of Theron) had a third control of the property.

In the early 1950s. Theron Drew met Merl Kilgore. He saw in Kilgore the answer to a basic problem of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Strangite), its lack of a head, i.e., a prophet-translator-seer-revelator, since the death of Joseph Smith, Jr., the church's founder. Since Strang's death, and especially since the death of the apostles he had appointed, leadership had been exercised by people periodically appointed to take charge of meetings of the members. Drew came to believe that Kilgore, then head of Zion's Order of the Sons of Levi, was the "One Mighty and strong," prophesied to come and set the house of God in Order in the last Days (Doctrine and Covenants, 85). He allowed Kilgore to baptize him. Within a month, however, he became convinced that he had erred, and he returned to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, only to find that he was not wanted. At a 1965 church conference, he was dismissed from membership.

Drew, his family, and a small number of supporters, began to hold meetings in the old church building on the Wingfield farm, the larger body having built a new church building a short distance away. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Strangite) filed suit against Drew to reclaim some of the church documents in his possession, but were not successful in their suit. Management of the farm and church building and the role of taking charge of the meetings of the Church of Jesus Christ (Drew) has now passed to Richard Drew, Theron's son.

Membership: As of 1995, there was one congregation with approximately 15 members.

Sources:

Couch, Edward T. Evidences of Inspiration. Bay Springs, MI: The Author, 1980.

——. The Sabbath and the Restitution. Bay Springs, MI: The Author, 1891.

Drew, Richard, ed. Revelation to the Priesthood. Voree, WI: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 1986.

——. Word of Wisdom. Voree, WI: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, [1986].

★1400 ★

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Strangite)

Box 522
Artesia, NM 88210

James Jesse Strang (1813-1856), a Baptist and a lawyer, first heard of Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormons, in 1843 while living at Voree, Wisconsin. In February, 1844, Strang was baptized by Joseph Smith, Jr., and was ordained elder in the Melchizedek Priesthood. The church asked him to survey the Burlington, Wisconsin, area as a possible new home for the Saints. While Strang was on this mission, Smith was killed (June 27, 1844). On this day, Strang later claimed, an angel of the Lord appeared to him, saluted him and said, "Fear God and be strengthened and obey him for great is the work which he hath required at thy hands." The angel then touched him with oil. On July 9, 1844, Strang claimed that he received a letter (dated June 18, 1844) from Joseph Smith. The letter named Strang as his successor, appointed Aaron Smith as Strang's councilor, and designated Voree as the new gathering place of the Saints. Strang first presented his claims at a meeting held August 5, 1844, at Florence, Michigan. The twelve apostles at Nauvoo, Illinois, after receiving a report, excommunicated Strang.

The organization of the Church of Jesus Christ was effected June 5, 1845, at Voree. A dispute with the supporters of Brigham Young arose when Strang attempted to discourage the Saints from traveling West. After the trek West began, Strang received new members who did not join the march. Dissension developed, however, and Strang decided to take his loyal followers and go to Beaver Island, Michigan. Here he set up a theocracy, with himself at its head. More than 2,000 Saints came to Beaver Island, and Strang emerged as the most politically powerful man in the area. By 1856, the Church of Jesus Christ was the largest of the Mormon groups that did not follow Brigham Young. The church suffered a severe setback in 1856 when Strang was shot and died several weeks later in Voree, where he had been taken by his followers.

Strang's death cost the church most of its members, many of whom joined the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Further, Strang failed to name a successor. The five apostles carried on without a leader. Finally, L. D. Hickey, the last surviving apostle, began to function as their leader. The small group held together under the successive leadership ordained by Hickey before his death in 1897. Wingfield Watson served from 1897 to 1922 and was succeeded by Samuel H. Martin, Moroni Flanders, Lloyd Flanders, and the present head, Vernon Swift.

The Strangite Church currently works out of two centers– Artesia, New Mexico, and Voree (Burlington), Wisconsin. A periodical, The Gospel Herald, published at Voree in the 1970s hasbeen discontinued.

Membership: Not reported.

Remarks: Though not accepted by the church, charges of fraud and/or forgery have been leveled by historians from Dale Morgan to, more recently, Lawrence Foster. They have accused Strang of forging the letter upon which his authority rests.

Sources:

The Book of the Law of the Lord. Rept.: Voree, WI: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1991.

Foster, Lawrence. "James J. Strang: The Prophet Who Failed."Church History50, no. 2 (June 1981): 182-92.

The Revelations of James J. Strang. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 1939.

Shepard, William, Donna Falk, and Thelma Lewis, eds. James J. Strang, Teaching of a Mormon Porphet. Burlington, WI: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Strangite), 1977.

Strang, James J. The Prophetic Controversy. Lansing, MI, 1969.

Strang, Mark A., ed. The Diary of James J. Strang. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University Press, 1961.

★1401 ★

Church of the Messiah

(Defunct)

The Church of the Messiah was formed in 1861 in Springfield, Massachusetts, by George J. Adams. Adams had become a follower of Mormon prophet Joseph Smith, Jr. in 1840. During the Nauvoo, Illinois years (the 1840s) of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he took several mission journeys to England and to Massachusetts. He was in Nauvoo when Smith was assassinated, an event which deeply affected him. Discouraged, Adams soon fell into conflict with Brigham Young, who had emerged as the new president of the church. In 1845 Young excommunicated Adams. Adams then associated for a time with James Jesse Strang. He put his theatrical knowledge to the task of staging the coronation of Strang as "King of the Kingdom of God." Then in 1856 he was excommunicated from the Strangite church.

Adams emerged from obscurity in 1860 and began to identify himself as a minister of the Church of the Messiah. He published a short work on a traditional Mormon theme–a Lecture on the Destiny and Mission of America and the True Origin of the Indians. However his essential message was the imminent return of Jesus Christ and the redemption of Israel. To that end, he founded the Church of the Messiah in 1861 and issued a Church Covenant that some 43 persons signed. The next year he began a periodical, The Sword of Truth, issued from his home in South Lebanon, Maine.

In the summer of 1865, Adams acted on revelations he had received and moved to the Holy Land. The following year 156 church members joined him in the attempt to establish a colony. The effort failed in a few years from lack of local government cooperation and scarce water resources. By 1870, Adams and his following had returned to the United States. He reestablished his Church of the Messiah in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and pastored it for the rest of his life. He died in 1880 and the church soon dissolved.

Sources:

Holmes, Reed M. The Forerunners. Independence, MO: Herald Publishing House, 1981.

Shields, Steven L. Divergent Paths of the Restoration. Los Angeles: Restoration Research, 1990.

★1402 ★

Congregation of Jehovah's Presbytery of Zion

(Defunct)

The Congregation of Jehovah's Presbytery of Zion was founded in 1847 by Charles Blanchard Thompson (b. 1814), a former member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Blanchard, among the first to respond to the message of Mormon prophet Joseph Smith, Jr., joined the Mormons in the 1830s in Kirkland, Ohio. After Smith's murder, he joined the Church of Jesus Christ (Strangite), a Mormon faction led by James Jesse Strang, but left it and moved to St. Louis. He soon began to receive revelations which became the basis of his new church.

On New Year's Day, 1848, Thompson issued a revelation which accused the Latter-Day Saints of failure in God's eyes for not completing the temple abandoned at Nauvoo, the Mormon settlement in Western Illinois. The Congregation of Jehovah's Presbytery of Zion was to be a temporary substitute for the real Zion to be established in Independence, Missouri. A few weeks later he denounced the polygamy practices instituted among the saints. Because of Smith's actions, Thompson's progeny could not inherit the keys to the kingdom, which had been transferred to him. By 1853 approximately fifty families had affiliated with the congregation. They purchased a tract of land in Monona County, Iowa, and began to build Preparation, a communal settlement. The settlement failed in 1857, just after Thompson had issued his collection of revelations. Thompson was also accused of mismanaging funds. Driven from the community, he returned to St. Louis to reestablish the congregation there. A small following developed. During this time, he published another book, The Nachash Origin of the Black and Mixed Races. It was an elaborate anthology which included a defense of slavery. But his hopes of rebuilding were dashed by the lawsuit over the Iowa property, which was awarded to the former members in 1867. Thompson moved to Philadelphia where for the third time, he rebuilt the congregation and began a newspaper, Cyips Herald. In 1888 this group also disintegrated as the result of an internal dispute. Thompson died in obscurity a few years later.

Sources:

Arbaugh, George Bartholemew. Revelation in Mormonism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1932.

Thompson, Charles Blanchard. The Nachash Origin of the Black and Mixed Races. St. Louis: George Knapp & Co., 1860.

★1403 ★

Holy Church of Jesus Christ

Current address not obtained for this edition.

The Holy Church of Jesus Christ was founded in the 1970s by Alexandre Roger Caffiaux. Caffiaux initiated correspondence with the Church of Jesus Christ (Strangite) in 1963 and subsequently traveled to the United States. He was baptized and ordained to the priesthood by the leadership in Wisconsin. On the return flight to France, Caffiaux had a revelation that he was to become the head of the church. He wrote a letter to that effect to those who had just ordained him. Early in 1964, he journeyed to Iran. While there, he experienced yet another revelation. A vision of an angel ordained him to the "First Presidency of the High Priesthood of Melchizedek," calling him to be a prophet, seer, and revelator to this generation. He asked that a general conference of the church be called to consider his claims. The small band of Strangites in France voiced their complete confidence in him.

The claims of Caffaiux were argued in the church for a number of years without resolution. At a conference in France, members voted to change the name of the Strangite church to the Holy Church of Jesus Christ. Finally in 1978, the Strangite Church, meeting in conference, formally voted to reject his claims and agreed that acceptance of his revelations and authority were incompatible with membership in the Church of Jesus Christ (Strangite).

Membership: There is a small following of the Holy Church of Jesus Christ in the United States, primarily in New Mexico.

Sources:

Johnston, Stanley L. The Call and Ordination of Alexandre Roger Caffiaux. N.p. 1966.

★1404 ★

Primitive Church of Jesus Christ (Bickertonite)

(Defunct)

In 1914 a schism occurred in the Church of Jesus Christ (Bickertonite). A schismatic group, led by James Caldwell, formed the Primitive Church of Jesus Christ at Washington, Pennsylvania. They were joined shortly by another Bickertonite schism, the Reorganization Church, which had formed in 1907 under the leadership of Elder Allen Wright. Caldwell was succeeded by his nephew, Lawrence Dias. The Primitive Church largely followed the beliefs and practices of the parent body, but held that the institution in 1830 of the office of the first presidency was an introduction of an alien institution. The members opposed polygamy, plurality of gods, and baptism for the dead.

By the 1970s, the church has dwindled to a single congregation in Erie, Pennsylvania. More recently the congregation disbanded; some of the members rejoined the parent group.

★1405 ★

Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ (Wright)

(Defunct)

The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ (Wright) was founded in 1907 by Allen Wright, formerly a member of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ (Bickertonite). At the Bickertonite general conference in 1907, Wright's pamphlet in which he had expressed some dissenting opinions on the millennium and the return of Jesus Christ to earth, was publicly condemned. The conference passed a resolution suspending any who believed in Wright's ideas. Wright and five other church apostles refused to sustain the conference actions and as a result were removed from office and excommunicated. Several months later, with their supporters, Wright and the other apostles held a conference and founded a reorganized church. Except for the issue that occasioned the split, the Reorganized Church followed the beliefs and practices of its parent body. One of the former apostles, William T. Maxwell, was named as president. The church seems to have continued into the mid-1930s, when it disintegrated and its members either returned to the Bickertonite church or other Mormon bodies.

Sources:

Armburst, J. L. Reformation or Restoration, or Which Is the Church? Jesus Christ Established but One Visible Church. N.p.: Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ, 1929. 4 pp.

Maxwell, W. T. A Statement Issued by the Re-Organized Church of Jesus Christ, July 4th, 1908. Youngwood, PA: Re-Organized Church of Jesus Christ, 1908. 6 pp.

Shields, Steven L. Divergent Paths of the Restoration. Los Angeles: Restoration Press, 1990. 336 pp.

Wright, Allen. A Conversation on the Thousand Years' Reign of Christ. St. John, KS: The County Capital, 1907. 24 pp.

★1406 ★

The Restored Church of Jesus Christ (Walton)

Current address not obtained for this edition.

The Restored Church of Jesus Christ was founded by Eugene O. Walton following a revelation in 1977. Walton, raised a Baptist, had joined the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but had increasing problems with what he saw as a growing liberalism and a discarding of the essentials of the faith. His opposition to the churchs president led to his excommunication. He joined the Church of Jesus Christ (Cutlerite), and was ordained an elder. While with the church he oversaw the printing of a three-volume compendium of writings entitled The Book of Commandments. It contained the 1835 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants, one of the Restoration scriptures, and some doctrinal materials by Walton.

In 1977 Walton received a revelation that he was the "one mighty and strong" predicted in the churchs history to come to set the house of God in order. In 1978 three witnesses were raised up by the Lord in the state of Maine, about 2,000 miles away from Independence, Missouri. They knew nothing of the revelation received by Walton in 1977. The three–Joyce R. Crowley, Barbara E. Overlock, and Louise B. Young–received word on the same day, by the Holy Spirit, that Eugene Walton was the "one mighty and strong," the promised prophet to come to set up the city of Zion, after the death of Joseph Smith, Jr., the founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

This revelation also gave Walton the keys to the kingdom and named him the successor prophet to Joseph Smith, Jr., and at the same time instructed him to be rebaptized without hands (i.e., without the hands of any man) even as Adam and Nephi had been baptized. He was also instructed to rebaptize all the other members entering into a new and everlasting covenant by command of God. This revelation led to disagreements with the Cutlerite church membership. In 1978 Walton and two other elders left and formed Restorationists United. Following a revelation to Walton at the beginning of 1979, his small band of followers held a general conference at which Walton was ordained Apostle-High Priest and Prophet. Jack Winegar and James Rouse were named First and Second Counselor respectively. By further revelation, Restorationists United became The Restored Church of Jesus Christ.

The church espouses belief in a Godhead of two personages: God the Father and Christ the Son. The Holy Ghost is seen as the life and power of God. Members are called to follow and believe the doctrine of Jesus Christ: faith in God and Christ, repentance, baptism by immersion, laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal life in the Celestial Kingdom of God. The church practices "All Things in Common"(i.e., communalism), a necessary step in the establishment of Zion. Christ will not return until Zion is established. Members look forward to the temple of Zion being built in Independence, Missouri. The Inspired Version of the Bible(as revised by Joseph Smith, Jr.) is used and called by Gods revelation to them as "The Stick of Judah."

The Restored Church, following the reception of revelation, renamed all three books of scripture common to the restoration movement. They were reprinted in order with names derived from the biblical book of Ezekiel37: 16-20 (Inspired Version) The Stick of Joseph(better known as the Nephite Record or the Book of Mormon); The Stick of Ephraim (Doctrine and Covenants), which is anopen canon of scripture;The Stick of Judah (Inspired Version of the Bible); and also several more revelations printed in two other supplements of The Stick of Ephraim.

All revelations that come to the prophet, Walton, are accepted by common consent. As of 1995 there were approximatley 100 such revelations. The first prophet, Joseph Smith, Jr., received 106 revelations during his lifetime. Joseph Smith III received three revelations and Brigham Young one revelation.

Membership: Not reported.

Educational Facilities: School of the Prophets, Independence, Missouri.

Periodicals: Zions Trumpet.

Sources:

The Book of the Lord's Commandments. 3 vols. Independence, MO: Restored Church of Jesus Christ, n.d.

★1407 ★

True Church of Jesus Christ Restored

Current address not obtained for this edition.

David Roberts was ordained to the priesthood in 1966 in the Church of Christ Established Anew (now called the Church of Christ with the Elijah Message). While visiting the congregation in Wellston, Michigan, in 1967 he had a visitation by the Angel Nephi who told him of a future as a healing evangelist and told him to preach baptism in Jesus' name. Later that year he went to Independence, Missouri, for the first time and visited the temple lot, the location where, according to the Mormon scriptures, the temple of Zion is ultimately to be built. In another visit by the angel, he was told to rededicate the temple lot. He returned to his home in Columbus, Ohio. Seven years later, in 1974, he and his wife, Denise Roberts, were visited by the Prophet Elijah, who came to give David Roberts the keys to the salvation of the dead and ordained him to the office of Moses and king over the kingdom of God until Jesus returns to earth. At Elijah's bidding, they began new work in Newark, Ohio, out of which the True Church of God Restored emerged.

Roberts came to feel that his ordination represented a third restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ, the first two having been through Joseph Smith, Jr. and James Jesse Strang. Roberts is the successor to both. The True Church uses the Bible, the Book of Mormon, The Book of the Lord's Commandments, The Book of Abraham, The Voree Plates(translated by Strang), and The Oracles of God Book(revelation given through Roberts).

The Church is sabbatarian. Roberts also preaches the baptism of the Holy Ghost and Fire, which brings a new birth to the body. This blessing, also called body-felt salvation, changes the body in such a way as to prevent sickness and tiredness. It is experienced as a general feeling of comfort and completeness and the continuous healing process become established in the body.

Membership: Not reported. There is one congregation in Independence.

Periodicals: The Voice of Eternal Life.

Remarks: Robert's concept of body-felt salvation is very close to that of Pentecostal evangelist Franklin Hall, discussed elsewhere in this volume as the founder of the Hall Deliverance Foundation.