Footnotes
Rowe, God’s Strange Work, chaps. 4–7.
Rowe, David L. God’s Strange Work: William Miller and the End of the World. Library of Religious Biography. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2008.
On 13 January 1843, the Christian Secretary reported that a prominent Millerite preacher, George Storrs, had identified 3 April 1843 as the date of the Second Coming. The belief caught on among some Millerites, although Storrs reportedly later denied he made this statement. JS seems to have believed that this date was universally accepted by the Millerites and their preachers. His journal entry for 3 April 1843 reads: “Millers’s [William Miller’s] Day of Judgment has arrived. but. tis too. pleas[a]nt. for false prophets.” (“The Time of the End,” Christian Secretary, 13 Jan. 1843, [3]; Notice, Signs of the Times, 18 Jan. 1843, 141; JS, Journal, 3 Apr. 1843; see also Editorial, Christian Secretary, 27 Jan. 1843, [3].)
Christian Secretary. Hartford, CT. 1838–1896.
Signs of the Times and Expositor of Prophecy. Boston. 1840–1844.
Nauvoo Stake High Council Minutes, 19 Mar. 1843; Discourse, 8 Apr. 1843.
Nauvoo Stake High Council Minutes, ca. 1839–ca. 1843. Fair copy. In Oliver Cowdery, Diary, Jan.–Mar. 1836. CHL.
See Revelation 7:4.
In a letter to the Deseret Evening News, Benjamin F. Johnson recalled that JS’s “instructions were drawn out through questions asked by those present, and Brother William Clayton, his private secretary, wrote down at the time his replies.” (Benjamin F. Johnson, “Sayings of the Prophet,” Deseret Evening News [Salt Lake City], 25 Nov. 1899, 4.)
Deseret News. Salt Lake City. 1850–.
See Clayton, Journal, 25–28 Apr. 1843. Clayton inscribed entries for 25 through 28 April 1843 at the end of his 1842–1843 journal. He also inscribed revised versions of these entries at the beginning of his 1843–1844 journal.
Clayton, William. Journals, 1842–1845. CHL.
Portions of the 2 April 1843 instruction as recorded by Willard Richards were later canonized in the 1876 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants. (Doctrine and Covenants 130, 1876 ed. [D&C 130].)
The Doctrine and Covenants, of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Containing the Revelations Given to Joseph Smith, Jun., the Prophet, for the Building Up of the Kingdom of God in the Last Days. Salt Lake City: Deseret News Office, 1876.
As early as 1832, JS and other Latter-day Saints used the term Urim and Thummim to indicate an object used to translate sacred texts. Later translated texts published by JS clarify that the Urim and Thummim could also be used to see visions of heavens. ([William W. Phelps], “The Book of Mormon,” The Evening and the Morning Star, Jan. 1833, [2]; “Questions Proposed to the Mormonite Preachers,” Boston Investigator, 10 Aug. 1832, [2]; Book of Abraham Excerpt and Facsimile 2, 15 Mar. 1842 [Abraham 3:1, 4]; see also “Printer’s Manuscript of the Book of Mormon.”)
The Evening and the Morning Star. Independence, MO, June 1832–July 1833; Kirtland, OH, Dec. 1833–Sept. 1834.
Boston Investigator. Boston. 1831–1904.
In 1832, JS stated that “the Sea of Glass spoken of by John 4 Chap. and sixth verse of revelations . . . is the Earth in its sanctified immortal and eternal state.” (Answers to Questions, between ca. 4 and ca. 20 Mar. 1832 [D&C 77:1].)
According to the Book of Abraham, which was published one year earlier, Abraham saw through the Urim and Thummim the order of the stars, including Kolob—the star “to govern all those which belong to the same order of that upon which thou standest.” (Book of Abraham Excerpt and Facsimile 2, 15 Mar. 1842 [Abraham 3:3].)
In 1832, JS and Sidney Rigdon reported that they saw in a vision that heaven included three degrees of glory, of which the celestial kingdom was the highest. (Vision, 16 Feb. 1832 [D&C 76].)