Comments on: WSJ on White Horse prophecy

By: Two Church-State Scrambles | A Soft Answer

Two Church-State Scrambles | A Soft Answer — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 00:11:55 +0000

[...] not sure why a gubernatorial candidate wants to kick off his campaign by discussing a highly disputed prophecy when his own church doesn’t. While Idaho’s LDS population is a sizable 24%, isn’t he just asking to tick off that [...]

By: Paul Wilson

Paul Wilson — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 20:00:47 +0000

The prophecy is false and Mormon prophets after Joseph Smith made that very clear in 1918 when Joseph H. Smith thoroughly debunked the White Horse fallacy. It’s amazing that many members still cling to this falsehood. Of all the Motmon myths, this one still gets quoted, but it’s still false.

By: acero [Visitor]

acero [Visitor] — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 13:46:17 +0000

I am convinced that this prophecy has already been fulfilled by the Mormon Battallion.

During the Civil War the country was divided. Many states sought to dismiss the Constitution and withdraw from the Union.

Despite years of abuse from the Federal Government a battalion of Mormon men marched west to protect the Union.

By: annegb [Visitor]

annegb [Visitor] — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 06:25:08 +0000

Me, too, that’s why I don’t post as often.

By: mami [Visitor]

mami [Visitor] — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 23:24:24 +0000

I have had the same problem as Bookslinger.

By: Bookslinger [Visitor]

Bookslinger [Visitor] — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 20:44:21 +0000

Geoff, et al at M*:
Ya’ll might want to consider switching hosts (again). The server on which this web site is now hosted often refuses connections and often comes up “server not found”. It fluctuates day to day. But the bottom line is that the web site is often unavailable.

By: J. Stapley [Visitor]

J. Stapley [Visitor] — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 07:01:04 +0000

It is especially odd considering that JFS and McConkie, the great propagators of Mormon oddities, stated publicly and repeatedly that the prophecy was false and not from the Prophet.

Joseph on several occasions talked about the constitution hanging by a thread. The First Presidency publicly claimed in 1885 that the prophecy was then at hand. There are countless other examples throughout our history.

...now, if Mitt's name were David, then we might be on to something (grin).

By: Dave [Visitor]

Dave [Visitor] — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 06:48:20 +0000

Yes, it’s disturbing to see the media pick up folk doctrine and bandy it about as if it were a central or an accepted LDS belief. I wonder how the WSJ can even portray it as an LDS religious belief at all when all the LDS religion people they quoted downplayed the idea that the prophecy is reliable or relied upon by Mormons. The only people who seem to buy into it (surprise!) are LDS politicians. I’ve never once heard the White Horse prophecy discussed or even referenced in LDS church meetings or classes.

By: Clark Goble [Member]

Clark Goble [Member] — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 06:42:14 +0000

Weird. What's weirder is that democrat who uses the phrase to run because he thinks Republicans are making the constitution hang by a thread. Although I think it equally silly how some Republicans saw that from Democratic appointed justices.

I probably should provide a link to the text itself. The "white horse" are the saints in the west as opposed to the "red horse." A lot of the "prophecy" is pretty common beliefs of the era. (i.e. predictions of wealth from minerals) The claim, and its a pretty dubious one, is that there will be a banking failure and that only Utah banks and English banks will be trusted. The banking failure leads to a kind of Iraqi like civil war in the US. Turkey becomes democratic. Utah is the only place of peace during the civil war. There will be a problem of feeding all the refugees to the Utah region. England and France team up (this was the 19th century when they were enemies) to keep Russia from taking over the world. (Many don't know that under the Czars of the era Russia was a world power - but probably the Soviet empire kept this text alive in some conservative Mormon minds)

Anyway, even ignoring its problematic source the account itself seems kind of difficult to buy. The banking issue, which is key to everything, being the biggest issue.