![]() ![]() ![]() One thing seems certain: Strang had not gone west with the goal of becoming a prophet of God. How had this seemingly impossible turn of events come to pass? If the letter was to be believed, 31-year-old James Strang-who had disappeared from western New York less than a year earlier, with creditors close on his heels-was now the rightful heir to a church of more than 25,000 members worldwide. This mysterious epistle would go down as “one of the most important-and controversial-documents in the history of the Mormon religion,” in the words of one modern observer. “In the midst of darkness and boding danger the spirit of Elijah came upon me,” he explained, “and I went away to inquire of God how the church should be saved.” According to Smith, God’s voice came in reply: “My servant James J. Indeed, it was the prophet’s premonition regarding his imminent demise that had prompted him to write. “The wolves are upon the scent, and I am waiting to be offered up,” he confided to Strang, whom he addressed as “My Dear Son.” He had written the letter nine days before his murder, but already he could see what fate would soon befall him. The dead man was Joseph Smith, founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Strang,” it had been postmarked three weeks earlier in the Mormon city of Nauvoo, Illinois. On July 9, 1844, a letter from a dead man arrived at the post office in Burlington, Wisconsin, forty miles southwest of Milwaukee.
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