Potter Christ, the man who would be JesusArnold Potter was a devout Mormon whose early life story fo

Potter Christ, the man who would be JesusArnold Potter was a devout Mormon whose early life story follows the history of Mormonism quite well.  Ejected from Nauvoo, Illinois, he was one of the first Mormon pioneers to move west and settle the Great Salt Lake region.  He was also an Elder, personally ordained into the Melchizedek priesthood by Joseph Smith himself.  In 1856 Potter was called to serve as a missionary in Australia by Later Days Saints leader Brigham Young.  On his journey to Australia, Potter underwent a metamorphosis that would change his life forever.According to Potter, he was engulfed with the spirit of Jesus Christ, which caused him to undergo a “purifying, quickening change” which immediately transformed him into the “Potter Christ, Son of the Living God.” Upon returning from Australia, he founded his own church in California, which then moved to Independence, Missouri.  He was a very eccentric man, always wearing black robes, and writing on his forehead with ink, “Potter Christ, The Living God, Morning Star”.  He wrote his own holy testament, called, “The Revelations of Potter Christ”, which he claimed to have personally dictated into writing from a visiting angel.  He made many predictions as to the coming of the Apocalypse, which he predicted would come in the late 1870’s, and created a new theology which led him to be branded as a heretic by the LDS Church.  He also made many predictions about the future; that in 1871 a Second American Civil War would occur caused by political disturbances in Cuba, that the Irish Fenians would be successful in conquering Canada, slavery would be re-instituted, and that President Grant would be the last elected President of the United States.In 1872, at the height of his movement, Potter Christ announced that the time of his ascension was at hand.  Leading his members to a local cliff, he announced that he would leap off the cliff and ascend to Heaven, and that his disciples too could ascend to Heaven if they followed him.  He then took a running start and jumped off the cliff.  Rather than ascend Heaven, he quickly descended to the earth at terminal velocity, hitting the ground with a violent, bloody “smack”. None of his disciples followed him.  His remains were collected and buried later that day. His church immediately disbanded. -- source link

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