Mormon History
Fascination With Modern Revelations - 1823
Wayne Sentinel – October 22, 1823
P R O G N O S T I C A T I O
N!
(from the Mohawk
Herald)
We publish the following in compliance with the solicitation of the author. He is a respectable inhabitant of this town. The constant exercise of his mind on religious topics, has, it is thought by many of his friends, affected the sanity of his mind; on every other subject, he appears entirely rational. -- Ed. Herald.
Remarkable Vision and Revelation:
as seen and received by Asa Wild, of Amsterdam, (N. Y.)
Having a number of months
enjoyed an unusual degree of the light of God's countenance, and having been
much favoured of the Lord in many respects, and after having enjoyed the
sweetest, and most ravishing communions with Him; the Lord in his boundless
goodness was pleased to communicate the following Revelation, having in the
first place presented me with a very glorious Vision, in which I saw the
same things:
In the first place I observe that my mind had been brought into the most
profound stillness, and awe; realizing in a remarkable manner the majesty,
greatness and glory, of that Being before whom all nations are as the drop of
the bucket. It seemed as if my mind, though active in its very nature, had lost
all its activity, and was struck motionless, as well as into nothing, before the
awful and glorious majesty of the Great Jehovah. He then spake to the following
ourport; and in such a manner as I could not describe if I should attempt. -- He
told me that the Millennium state of the world is about to take place; that in
seven years literally, there would scarce a sinner be found on earth; that the
earth itself, as well as the souls and bodies of its inhabitants, should be
redeemed, as before the fall, and become as the garden of Eden. He told me that
all of the most dreadful and terrible judgments spoken in the blessed scriptures
were to be executed within that time, that more than two thirds of the
inhabitants of the world would be destroyed by these judgments; some of which
are the following -- wars, massacres, famine, pestilence, earthquakes, civil,
political and ecclesiastical commotions; and above all, various and dreadful
judgments executed immediately by God, through the instrumentality of the
Ministers of the Millennial dispensation which is to exceed in glory every other
dispensation; a short description of which may be seen in the last chapter of
Isaiah, and in other places. He also told me, that
every denomination of professing christians had become extremely corrupt;
many of which had never had any true faith at all; but are guided only by
depraved reason, refusing the teaching of the spirit [illegible lines]... which
alone can teach us the true meaning [illegible lines]... He told me further,
that he had raised up, and was now raising up, that class of persons signified
by the angel mentioned by the Revelator XIV. 6, 7, which flew in the midst of
heaven; having the everlasting gospel to preach, that these persons are of an
inferior [social] class, and small learning; that they were rejected by every
denomination as a body; but soon, God will open their way, by miracles,
judgments, &c. that they will have higher authority, greater power, superior
inspiration, and a greater degree of holiness than was ever experienced before
[illegible lines] ... divine grace and glory
Furthermore he said that all the different denominations of professing
christians constituted the New Testament Babylon; and that he should deal
with them according to what is written of IT, in the book of Revelation: that he
is about to call out all his sincere children who are mourning in Zion, from
oppression and tyranny of the mother of harlots; and that the severest judgments
will be inflicted on the professors of religion; which will immediately commence
in Amsterdam, and has already commenced in different parts of the world, and
even in this country. And though their operations at first are gradual, and
under cover, yet it will soon be generally seen that it is the immediate
execution of divine vengeance upon an ungodly world.
Much more the Lord revealed, but forbids my relating it in this way. But this, I
have written and published, by the express and immediate command of God:
the truth and reality of which, I know with the most absolute certainty. --
Though I have ever been the most backward to believe things of this nature;
having been brought up in the Calvinistic system, and having had a thorough
understanding of the same, and was fully established in the belief of it for
several years after I experienced the love of God in my heart: but finding the
Calvinists did not understand the glorious depths of holiness, and conformity to
the divine character in heart and practice, which I saw was our privilege and
duty I joined the Methodist Church, which I
found had much clearer and more scriptural views on these and some other points
than the Calvinists; though I soon saw that they as a body, were very
corrupt, having departed much from their primitive purity and holiness. I also
saw that their first founders did not travel into all that was their privilege;
and that vastly greater depths of holiness might have been experienced even by
them. Yet I thank God for what light I have received through their
instrumentality, but know that much greater and more glorious light is about to
burst upon the world.
Amsterdam, October, 1823.
N. B. Printers of newspapers and periodical publications are requested to insert
the above.
I further observe, that I shall soon publish, in a cheap pamphlet, my religious
experience and travel in the divine life, with a more full account of the truths
above written, and many other things connected with them.
ASA WILD.
Amsterdam, October 1.
Note: Asa Wild's "vision" was apparently transcribed from the manuscript of his late 1823 pamphlet, "A Short Sketch of the Religious Experience and Spiritual Travels of Asa Wild, of Amsterdam, N.Y." A summary of his purported vision was published in the Oct. 1, 1823 Hohawk Herald, and was subsequently reprinted in various newspapers, including the Wayne Sentinel. See Elden J. Watson's "The 'Prognostication' of Asa Wild," in BYU Studies 37:3 (1997-98) pp. 223-230.