Hey guys. So whenever a member of the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints runs for political office, you
might start to hear talk about something
called the "White Horse Prophecy." People
both inside and outside our faith
understandably have lots of questions
about what that prophecy is and whether
or not it's legit. So let's talk about it.
Okay so the Whitehorse prophecy is
purportedly a prophecy given by Joseph
Smith in 1843 in the presence of two
other people,
Edwin Rushton and Theodore Turley. The
earliest written record we have of the
prophecy is from Edwin Rushton written
sometime after 1890. Rushton would have
been around 78 years old recalling an
event from when he was about 20 years
old and Turley wouldn't have been much
help because he was super dead by the
1890s. "You've got to see it-- he's super
dead." But according to the prophecy, at
some point in the future, "you will see
the Constitution of the United States
almost destroyed so that it will only be
saved as it were by a thread and it
would be saved by the White Horse and
Red Horse combined in its defense." Okay,
So in the book of Revelation we read
about the Four Horsemen of the
Apocalypse. They ride on a white horse, a
red horse, a black horse, and a pale horse.
In the white horse prophecy, the white
horse represents members of the church.
An interpretation of what the Red Horse
represents is not given. It is hinted
that the black horse represents freed
slaves of African descent and the pale
horse represents the people of the
United States. So according to the
prophecy, the white horse, or the church,
along with whatever the red horses are
somehow to save the Constitution. Now.
While the white horse prophecy gets
talked about a lot, what most people
don't know is that the church does not
consider it legitimate.
"I'm not legit I'm unlegit. And for
that reason, I must quit." In 1918, after
copies of a revision of the prophecy
started gaining popularity, President
Joseph F Smith said in General
Conference, "The ridiculous story about
the 'red horse' and the 'black horse' and
the 'white horse'
and a lot of trash that has been
circulated about and printed and sent
around as a great revelation given by
the Prophet Joseph Smith was never
spoken by the Prophet in the manner in
which they have put it forth. It is
simply false; that is all there is to it."
More recently, you've got this quote from
Bruce R. McConkie, "From time to time,
accounts of various supposed visions,
revelations, and prophecies are spread
forth by and among the Latter-day Saints
who should know better than to believe
or spread such false information. One of
these false and deceptive documents
that has cropped up again and again for
over a century is the so-called white
horse prophecy. This supposed prophecy
purports to be a long and detailed
account by the Prophet Joseph Smith
concerning the wars, turmoils and
difficulties which should exist in the
last days." And even more recently in 2010,
the church made the following statement,
"The so-called white horse prophecy is
based on accounts that have not been
substantiated by historical research and
is not embraced as church doctrine." There
are lots of issues with Edwin Rushton's
recollection of the event, which you can
read all about via the links in the
description, but you may be wondering, if
the church has disavowed this prophecy
so many times, why do people still think
it's actually a thing? That is an
excellent question.
Well probably because parts of it are
based on more reliable statements and
parts are not. For example, what you're
looking at right now, which you can pause
and read if you'd like, are multiple
statements reporting that on multiple
occasions, Joseph talked about the
Constitution of the United States being
in danger in the future and the Latter
day Saints having a role in preserving
it. Brigham Young and several other
church leaders have referenced this idea
of the Constitution one day hanging by a
thread. Thus, while not canonized in
scripture, Latter-day Saints generally
believed this specific detail to be
prophetic but you'll notice that in none
of these accounts is anything said
whatsoever of these different-colored
horses until the Rushton account decades
later. Hence the folklore status of this
horse business.
But even if Joseph did say something
about horses in a private conversation
to Rushton internally that day, the fact
that he never spoke about it publicly or
presented it as a revelation to the
church clearly indicates that he never
intended it to become what it has since
become. "No one ever means for these
things to happen." Moral of the story:
maybe I'm beating a dead horse at this
point but the white horse prophecy, for
good reason, is not accepted by the
church as legitimate. Next time you hear
someone talking about it, tell them to
hold their horses, have a little horse
sense and take this thing with a huge
grain of salt lick. Really it's time we
put the whole thing out to pasture. Okay
I'm done, I'm just horsing around at this
point.
If you have questions, you might find
answers in the links and notes in the
description and we'll see you next time.
