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.