Prophecy of a Catholic Priest (1739)

* Special thanks to Meshell Hausman for bringing this one to my attention.

There is a document circulating among the members of the church that pruports to be a prophecy given by a Catholic priest around 1739. This 'prophecy' was first introduced to the church by Jacob Spori, an early Swiss convert to the church. It has been attributed to Lutes Crates who was a Catholic priest in the 1700's. The 'prophecy' reads as follows:

The old living gospel and the gifts thereof are lost. False doctrines prevail in all churches on the face of the earth. All we can do
is exhort the people to be just, fear God, shun evil, and pray. Prayer and purity and faith may cause an angel to visit a deeply
distressed soul. But I tell you, God will have spoken within 100 years. He will restore the old church again. I see a little band of
people led by a prophet and a faithful leader. They are persecuted and burned out and murdered. After the wilderness in a
valley by a lake, they will build a great city and make a beautiful land. They shall have a temple of magnificent splendor and also
possess the priesthood with apostles, teachers, and deacons etc. From every nation shall the true believers be gathered by
speedy messengers. Then shall Almighty God speak to the disobedient nations with thunder, lightning and destruction, such as
man has never known before.

And now the truth -

The "prophecy" that is often ascribed to a Swiss priest named Lutes Crates or Lutus Gratus was apparently originally ascribed
to the German clergyman Samuel Lutz. It has its Mormon roots with Jacob Spori, a Swiss convert to the Church who served
as the first principal of Bannock Stake Academy (the future Ricks College). In 1893 he submitted an article to The juvenile
instructor, which included the prophecy. (It was submitted at the same time to the LDS German publication, Der Stern.

Since that time people both in and out of the church have searched for Die Hoffnung Zions (supposedly published in Basel in
1739), the book Spori named as the source of his statement. In 1898, Rulon S. Wells of the First Council of Seventy was in
Basel and located the book. With Peter Loutenstock, then President of the Swiss-German Mission, Elder Wells carefully
examined it and found no mention of the prophecy quoted by Spori. Wells thereafter spoke of the statement as being fraudulent
(see "A Fraudulent Prophecy Exposed" in The improvement era 11(3) [January 1908]:161-164).

Additionally, in studying of the life of Samuel Lutz, it is apparent that during the time he wrote Die Hoffnung Zions he would
never have inserted a passage speaking so plainly in rejection of his own theology and church. Such was contrary to his thinking
both before and after the time of the alleged prophecy, and would have led to his dismissal from a ministry in which he
continued long thereafter.

It should be noted that Mormon scholars who have studied Spori's life conclude that the propogation of this "prophecy" was
not done with evil intent, but that it was submitted as a reminiscent account of something he could only have read at least fifteen
years previously, and during a difficult time in his life when an untamed need for recognition and acceptance was not being met.
Since his death in 1903, Spori's account has been repeated frequently and has became a well-received crutch for the faith of
many Latter-day Saints.

[Back]