ABSTRACT
In the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith’s (1804-44) earliest description of his first encounter with Deity, he recorded the words of the Lord thus: “Behold the world lieth in sin at this time and none doeth good no not one they have turned asside from the gospel and keep not my commandments they draw near to me with their lips while their hearts are far from me and mine anger is kindling against the inhabitants of the earth to visit them acording to th[e]ir ungodliness and to bring to pass that which hath been spoken by the mouth of the prophets and Apostles behold and lo I come quickly as it [is] written of me in the cloud clothed in the glory of my Father” (Jessee 1984:6). Such a stinging indictment of the present religious world, along with the warning of an immi nent visitation in judgment, is standard millenarian fare. It was also central to the ethos of early Mormonism.
