Potter Christ

The Story of Arnold Potter

The Story of Arnold Potter

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The early Utah period of Mormon history saw the rise and fall of many peculiar schisms and competing prophets. From the reincarnation teachings of Charles Stayner (who apostle Orson F. Whitney was so enamored with), to the Mormon-Spiritist syncretism of William Godbe (who apostle Amasa Lyman joined, holding seances to commune with the deceased Joseph Smith), one “would-be” leader is largely forgotten to history – the man known as Arnold Potter, or “Potter Christ.” Having been given the Melchizedek priesthood by Joseph Smith, Jr. on April 24, 1840, and receiving a patriarchal blessing by Joseph Smith, Sr. on June 1, 1840,¹ Potter would eventually settle in Mill Creek, Salt Lake County in 1849, as an early Mormon pioneer.²

Potter and his wife had been among those converted by Wilford Woodruff and his companions at the Benbow farm and were active members of the Church ever since. Potter would be ordained into the 16th Quorum of Seventy at Nauvoo,³ and would later become the President of the Sand Prairie branch in Iowa, which had 49 members as of March 15, 1845.⁴ While his loyalty to the Church remained strong during Joseph Smith’s lifetime, it was during the Presidency of Brigham Young that Potter began to reject Mormon Orthodoxy, and developed his own vision for the future of Zion.

By 1856, Arnold Potter had moved from Salt Lake City, Utah, to San Berndardino, being one of the pioneers sent there by the Church to settle in California.⁵ On March 16, 1856, he was then called by Brigham Young to board the ship “Osprey” and embark as a missionary to Australia.⁶ While aboard the Osprey, Potter claimed to have experienced a “purifying, quickening change,” receiving the literal soul of Christ into his body and being transformed into “Potter Christ, Son of the living God.” He was given “revelations from the Lord saying he was the one chosen to lead the Church,”⁷ and a series of manuscripts and pamphlets outlining his beliefs soon followed. Of these, only one central text survives, which we will examine.

The Revelations of Potter Christ

A short, 16-page pamphlet titled, “Revelations of Potter Christ” is the best (and perhaps only) first-hand source detailing the theology of Arnold Potter. He opens with the account of his transformation, having received the title of Christ on August 15, 1856, while aboard the Osprey, explaining that over a duration of three days his body was miraculously transformed from a mortal to a spiritual body, that Christ underwent the same 3-day process, and that the 144,000 mentioned in Revelation are “soon to be reclaimed by the same quickening change.”⁸ During this process, Potter lost “every drop” of his “mortal blood,” but his “Resurrection Angel (Christ)” entered his body as fast as the mortal blood left it. He says, “This angel is the spirit called in Scripture the Holy Ghost; the same spirit that quickened Jesus body … This spirit was what made Jesus the Christ, by quickening him. This spirit also done the same by me … This quickening revealed to me that I was the very person Paul calls the last Adam … I saw plainly, according to Paul, I held the title Christ, the Lord from Heaven—being a quickened spirit.”⁹

If Potter holds the title of Christ, what title does Jesus hold? Potter explains: “This pamphlet is also the glorious harbinger of the revealing to the world, the first and second advent of Potter Christ, Son of the Living God, who has now succeeded his Celestial Father, Jesus, who once was our Christ, the Gospel Mediator, but is now God, the very Eternal Father, and now reveals himself to me, his only Son, in His new name, Abraham, who now is the great Spiritual Father of us all.”¹⁰ Referring to Jesus as “Father Abraham” or “Jesus Abraham” throughout the pamphlet, Potter envisions a system where the resurrected Jesus has ascended to become our new Heavenly Father, leaving a vacant spot for a new “Christ,” which Potter fills with his birthright as the “Son of the living God.” He continues: “While passing through my change, I received the Three Witnesses, the same as Jesus did. These three witnesses I received in my flesh, and declared to me that I then was the immortal Christ, the Son of God, the same as Jesus Christ had been on earth.”¹¹

The newly appointed “Potter Christ” quickly went to work writing “The Celestial Law,” a book he titled, “The Midnight Cry,” which would “wake up the slumbering Christians of all sects and denominations.”¹² He did this by means of angelic inspiration: “I was visited by Celestial Angels of the highest of spirits. These glorious spirits revealed to me God’s Holy Celestial Law—the Law to govern Zion, the holy Millenium kingdom, throughout all time. These celestial angels stood by me forty days, and often at morning’s dawn, I saw them standing by my bed in a stooping posture, whispering God’s eternal truth, and so firmly did they implant it in my immortal mind by holy inspiration, that I often arose and wrote two full sheets, as easy as from a copy, and through the day time, though invisible, did my instructors keep my mind well stored with eternal truths as fast as I could write them.”¹³ In an advertisement for his pamphlet, Potter goes on to call himself, “the greatest writing medium of the Age,” as his revelations were “written in the presence of Celestial Angels.”¹⁴

Having completed his magnum opus, which also included “four hundred entirely new hymns,”¹⁵ The Midnight Cry was still not ready for the Saints, as it would first have to be preached in Hades by Joseph Smith: “I then went to San Francisco, to put my work in print. The same night I arrived there, an holy angel, Moroni, by name, visited me and took my manuscript, and said, ‘You have written the Holy Law to govern Zion, the Millenium Kingdom of Heaven; and this Law must first be preached to the Zion of the spirit world.’ ... Moroni also explained to me that Joseph Smith opened the sixth Gospel dispensation, here, and at his death, he was sent to open the sixth dispensation in Hades, the spirit land. And having closed his Gospel dispensation in Hades … he, Joseph, was now ready to obey the Holy Law of the dispensation of the fullness of time, and preach it to the spirits that had obeyed the preparatory Gospel there in Hades.”¹⁶

Not only would Potter’s book be preached in Hades by Joseph Smith, but it had already been taken to the highest heaven to be reviewed by the Gods themselves! Potter writes, “I, Potter Christ, the Immortal Son of the Living God, did write the New Covenant—the Celestial Law, under the immediate dictation of an holy spirit angel, (I being a writing medium), yet after doing the very best I could, and revising it three different times, it was not then thought sufficiently perfect to judge and govern the elect of Israel; so it was taken to the highest Heaven, before the Grand Council of the Gods, or God Head, to be inspected, and if need be, revised by our Great Father, Jesus Abraham, himself, and his quorum, Michael and Gabriel. So, now, remember what I tell you, it is eternal truth and nothing but the truth, and easy to understand, that is to judge the whole world; so all may rest assured that a righteous judgement will be rendered unto all out of a book brought direct from the highest Courts of Heaven by the holy spirit angel Gabriel.”¹⁷ Having passed the Heavenly book review, and after passing Joseph Smith’s test run in Hades, “’then,’ says the spirit angel [Moroni], ‘when this is fulfilled, the holy spirit angel, Gabriel, [will] bring down to earth again the Holy Celestial Law, in direct fulfillment of Rev. XIV, 6, all printed in a book. This book is then the same John ate on the Isle of Patmos, then a figure of a book, but now a glorious reality—a real, literal book will Gabriel bring to Potter Christ’s Zion; now founded and set up on this earth.’”¹⁸

When would this glorious book finally be returned to the earth to help guide the Saints? Why, at the translation of Potter Christ, when he would ascend to the Celestial Sun in Gabriel’s heavenly chariot! Potter explains: “At the time Gabriel comes down with the Holy Book, or books, I have my twenty-one witnesses. In the presence of these witnesses, myself and family of seven persons, will enter the chariot of the angel, and are translated with him to where my father, Jesus Abraham dwells, in yonder Sun, the Celestial planet … When I and my family enter the heavenly chariot, then we pass our last great celestial quickening change in a moment—the twinkling of an eye—then being of the same nature, in body and mind, as Jesus Abraham now is, we are taken by our conductor right into the presence of our Great Father Abraham, who sits on the great White Throne. I shall be absent from earth about eleven months, then return—coming down in the great Temple, the same spoken of by John … On the day I return, the Sixth Seal is opened.”¹⁹

Although advertising The Midnight Cry as coming to print “immediately,” the Book never materialized. Potter took out an article in the paper which read, “The Midnight Cry is coming! The mysterious book so long under the seven seals is now immediately to be put in print.”²⁰ Shortly after, it was said that a “steam power press was en route from Keokuk to print this long-expected book,” which Potter called, “the eighth wonder of the world.”²¹ Perhaps still in review in the Heavenly Courts on the Sun, or still being preached by Joseph Smith in Hades, we at least have an idea of what this “new bible” contained:

“Part one contained the opening and closing of the six gospel dispensations ‘from the beginning of the world down to the present, A.D. 1871.’ There was also, the article said, a full description of how and when the sun was formed; who God is, and his first name; his wife; the formation of the first female; a full description of the New Jerusalem; who Jesus was and who he is now; the salvation of all females; and sundry other things including sixty new millennium hymns, Potter Christ’s holy lineage through twenty-two bodies, and the unholy lineage of Brigham Young from Cain.

Part two, Potter explained showed the final downfall and utter destruction of modern Babylon and a full description of the two great battles to be fought between Potter Christ, “the living God,” and Brigham Young, at the head of their great armies, in which Potter was to slay all of Brigham’s vast army except two thousand, and capture his military chest containing ninety-five million in gold. There followed also much other information. The long list of revelations which Potter gave in his ‘brief prospectus’ showed at least a most remarkable imagination.

The final paragraph dealt with the physical appearance of the Midnight Cry, including ‘a steel plate engraving of the Angel Gabriel, with Potter Christ and family of seven persons, entering the chariot of the angel in the presence of twenty-seven witnesses.’ The book was not to be sold, but was to be sent free to the poor. It was suggested, however, that the rich might donate free gifts to Potter’s angel witnesses, as ‘an untold amount of means’ would be needed to print the millions of books necessary for every tenth person in Christendom to have one.”²²

The Life of Arnold Potter

Having had a taste of the “Revelations of Potter Christ,” what can be said about the man who is Arnold Potter? Our understanding of this Latter-day “Messiah” comes primarily from newspaper reports, many of which are from Council Bluffs, Iowa, where he became somewhat of a local oddity, spending the last seven years of his life there. The first known report of Arnold Potter comes from the Manuscript History of the San Bernardino Settlement, immediately upon Potter’s return from Australia: “Wednesday 21 October 1857—Arnold Potter, who calls himself Potter Christ, appeared in our streets today with a brand on his forehead which had been put in with India ink. The words which can be read at quite a distance, are ‘Potter Christ—The Living God—Morning Star.’ To the right of the inscription is a star, below a cross. He appears very desirous of winning followers. It is said there are several apostates about to join him.”²³

In her autobiography, Louisa Barnes Pratt, a Mormon missionary and pioneer, living in San Bernardino, records: “The 1st day of Nov. [1857] two elders from Australia preached to the people. Their discourses were comforting and instructive; filling our minds with animated hope. At the close, a stranger, calling himself Potter Christ arose, called on the people to listen; proclaimed he was the “Ancient of Days!” Said he was immortalized; had passed from death into life; that he should no more taste death. He further said, in sixty one [days] he would lead the elect back to Jackson County, Missouri, and build the Temple there; then the tares and wheat would be separated. The people listened to him for a short time, and then turned away; believing him to be insane. He succeeded in getting a very few to believe on him, and soon left the place.”²⁴

Potter was apparently causing such a scene in San Bernardino that William J. Cox wrote a letter to Charles C. Rich, (one of the key leaders in establishing the San Bernardino settlement), explaining the situation (with a healthy dose of sarcasm):

“Christ has suddenly come to San Bernardino and the Saints will not receive him. We have turned infidel and cut him off from the Church. It is Arnold Potter that claims to be a Potter Christ, the living God, the morning star. He is causing quite a stir among the apostates in this place. He is going to organize his church next Sunday, so I hear. So we thought we would take [the] priesthood from him ... Potter is getting revelation constantly, he put up a proclamation on the 6^th, the day that we cut him off, assigning us our portion and also the Mormons in Salt Lake. He has been Adam and all the great men that ever lived. He is going to Jackson County, Missouri, in 12 months to build up Zion ... He is going to brand his disciples in the forehead with ink tattooed in. So you see there will be no chance to apostatize for the mark will stay as long as they live.”²⁵

By 1861, Arnold and his small band of followers left for Independence, Missouri, but were shortly driven out due to persecution; Arnold was even shot at by a Union soldier, leading him to declare a curse upon the Union and predicting that the South would win the Civil War.²⁶ Potter’s “church” eventually settled in a small town called St. Mary’s, but after a flood washed St. Mary’s away in 1865, the group moved 12 miles north to Council Bluffs, Iowa. A newspaper at the time reports: “There is one old fellow wandering about the streets here, a little more crazy than the other Mormons who calls himself, ‘Potter Christ,’ his name being Potter, and he claiming to be Christ in the flesh. He is a painful spectacle, the laughing stock of all the rude boys in town, and when asked why he does not exert some of his diving power replies with great solemnity, ‘Thou shalt not tempt the Lord Thy God.’”²⁷

Another newspaper from 1870 reports: “Brigham Young has a rival who styles himself ‘Potter Christ,’ and has as many revelations as the Mormon prophet, and of a much more startling character, one of them being that another great national war is to occur in this country within a year.”²⁸ The Deseret News, in the same year, gave a fuller report of Potter’s activities, including details about his time in San Bernardino:

“POTTER CHRIST.—An individual assuming this title, created considerable excitement, says the Omaha Herald of the 21st inst., by perambulating the streets of that city the day previous, selling a pamphlet entitled the ‘Revelations of Potter Christ, the Messenger of the New Covenant: given by Inspiration of God for the salvation of the whole world.’ The Herald says he is an old man with long silver hair, flowing beard, prepossessing appearance, and was formerly a ‘Mormon’ missionary; but whether he believes himself to be the ‘Messenger of the New Covenant,’ is insane, or merely trying a dodge to draw the greenbacks it is unable to determine. In his pamphlet he tries to convert people to believe that he is the second Messiah.

Probably some of our readers will recollect this individual. His vagaries some years ago in California proved him to be insane. While there he received, or pretended to receive a great many revelations, which he asserted gave him authority to regulate the church. And when the presiding officer there refused to receive his crazy declarations, as the revealed will of Heaven, he was threatened by Potter with terrible things—among others that the Lord was displeased with him and that he would speedily be removed from his position and another appointed in his stead. But these predictions soon proved their own falsity, like others of which we wot, made since by some of the same school as Potter.

After Potter’s departure from California he started for Australia, and while on the passage he conducted himself in the most extravagant manner; and upon reaching Sidney, it was considered necessary to put him into an insane asylum. After his release and return from that country, he assumed the character of, and gave out that he was, some great one; and had a brand made, the inscription upon it being the words, ‘Potter-Christ,’ and succeeded in obtaining some followers who consented to be branded in the forehead. After poor Potter’s success in obtaining converts we ceased to be surprised at the facility with which apostates and crazy people can secure adherents. No matter how ridiculous may be the pretensions or foolish the ravings of pretenders of this class in regard to the authority they possess to lead God’s Church, and to inaugurate new movements, they are successful in obtaining followers, from among the corrupt, the unprincipled, the demented or the insincere, as the career of this man Potter and others proves.”²⁹

In William Kirby’s 1894 book, Mormonism Exposed and Refuted, Kirby recounts his experience of traveling out of the Salt Lake Valley and running into Arnold Potter on the road, who was then “on his way to Washington to ask Congress to cede to him Jackson County, Missouri, for the purpose of building up the true Mormon Zion.”³⁰ I will reproduce the passage here for the reader’s enjoyment:

“A new Mormon prophet, by the name of Potter, afterwards called ‘Potter Christ,’ had come up … He had been proclaiming in Salt Lake, through the past winter, that Brigham Young was a false prophet, and had led the whole church into an apostate state, and that the church was now in transgression, and that unless it should be restored to what it was when Joseph Smith instituted it, the judgements of God would overtake it and destroy its present leaders, and raise up a new prophet to lead it. He had publicly warned the church especially the heads, and they had not regarded the warning which God had sent him to proclaim. ‘And now,’ said he, ‘in a short time the judgements of God will fall upon the people in Utah,’ the leaders would be destroyed, and God had called him to reorganize the church with headquarters at Independence, Jackson County, Missouri; and that now he was on his way to Washington to have the government cede to him Jackson County as a preliminary toward the reorganization of the church. He overtook us a few days before we reached Fort Kearney. He was free and communicative on his supposed-to-be-divine undertaking, and I was just as free to listen to all he had to say. In fact, he was soon under the impression that I was favorable to his mission. I had intended it to go that way, so I could get to the bottom of his plan, and I should have a favorable opportunity to criticize it. I listened to all he had to say on the matter, and suggested to him that if he was favorable I should like to have a long private interview with him on the subject. He at once consented. He was evidently under the impression that there was something really divine about the matter, which led me the more anxiously to test him. I arranged with him that after we had got into camp that evening, and camp work was done, we, by ourselves, would retire from the camp and thoroughly talk the matter over. I told him I was a hearty candidate for any and all that I could conceive to be good and true. After supper I went to him, inviting him to take a walk. We walked quite a distance from the camp, and sat down on the grass. I had heard sufficient of the particulars already to satisfy me it was another manifestation of religious humbug. I felt sure our conference would be very short. I had already had some experience among false and deceptive religionists.

I said to him, ‘Now, Bro. Potter, in order to get the information I most need, allow me to ask a few questions.’ To this he readily gave his consent. I said to him, ‘Bro. Potter, you say the Lord has revealed this matter to you.’ He answered that he had. I said, ‘please tell me where you were when the Lord made this known to you.’ He said he was at home, in his feed lot. I asked him what he was doing. He said he was husking fodder. I then asked him how the Lord made this known to him. He paused awhile as though he did not understand me. I then said to him, ‘Did you see any one?’ He answered, ‘No.’ I asked him if he heard any one speaking, as an audible voice. He said he did not. Then I said to him, ‘Please tell me by what means these things were made known to you.’ Here he was at a total loss for an answer. I asked if these things had just occurred to his mind without any sensible manifestation, and at once he rose to his feet in haste, saying, ‘Your horns are too large to enter the kingdom, and I wish no more to do with you.’ I answered him, ‘We are about even on that part of the programme.’ After this it was no trouble for me to keep out of his way, for he gave himself special trouble to avoid me. I was after this unable to approach him on any subject.”³¹

The Death of Arnold Potter

The life of Arnold Potter was a strange one, and his death was a tragic one. According to the Palimpsest: “On July 24, 1871, appeared a notice that Potter Christ and his angels would march in ascension regalia through the city, accompanied by a band of music, in obedience to a new order signed by Gabriel. One of the business firms took advantage of the publicity that Potter was having heaped upon him, and incorporated him in their advertisements. The public was advised that Potter Christ and the Angel Gabriel proposed opening a branch house on Mars for the company!”³²

Throughout the summer of 1871, Potter and his followers continued their apocalyptic parade, marching throughout the city, but eventually they journeyed to the bluffs. Dr. W. H. Nipps describes how things took a turn for the worst: “The converts were few but devout. The men wore long black robes and the women dressed like it was a sin to be pretty. They held enthusiastic prayer meetings. At one time Potter decided it was time to make his ‘ascent.’ Some packing house workers made up a purse to buy the self-designated holy man some golden slippers befitting the occasion. Some other kind soul donated a donkey, and before long the entire Potter Christ group made a pilgrimage to the bluffs from which Potter was to leave for his home in the heavens. Apparently the weather or the signs were not right for the ascension because Potter never took off, and there is no report of the descent from the bluffs.”³³

Steven L. Shields summarized the “ascent” as follows: “When Potter led his followers out of Council Bluffs, it is said that he rode a mule and carried a cross. Potter’s death is reported at least by one source as having been caused when he leaped to his death from the bluff above the town in an attempt to ascend into heaven.”³⁴ Evidently, there was no heavenly chariot, no Gabriel, and no Midnight Cry. And so ends the tale of Potter Christ.

1. Arnold Potter: From L.D.S. Convert to Pioneer to Sect Leader, Steven R. Parkes, 1985 January-February Pioneer Magazine, p. 11

2. Denominations That Base Their Beliefs on the Teaching of Joseph Smith, Kate B. Carter, p. 32

3. Arnold Potter: From L.D.S. Convert to Pioneer to Sect Leader, Steven R. Parkes, 1985 January-February Pioneer Magazine, p. 11

4. Times and Seasons 6 (March 15, 1845). See also: “Nauvoo West: The Mormons of the Iowa Shore” by Stanley B. Kimball in BYU Studies Vol. 18, No. 2, p. 141

5. Divergent Paths of the Smith-Rigdon Movement in Iowa by Steven L. Shields, The John Whitmer Historical Association Journal, Vol. 34, No. 2 (Fall/Winter 2014), p. 107

6. Arnold Potter: From L.D.S. Convert to Pioneer to Sect Leader, Steven R. Parkes, 1985 January-February Pioneer Magazine, p. 11

7. Denominations That Base Their Beliefs on the Teaching of Joseph Smith, Kate B. Carter, p. 32

8. Arnold Potter. Revelations of Potter Christ, p. 3-4

9. Ibid. p. 4-5

10. Ibid. p. 3

11. Ibid. p. 5

12. Ibid. p. 4

13. Ibid. p. 5

14. The Palimpsest, September 1933, “Potter Christ,” p. 337

15. Arnold Potter. Revelations of Potter Christ, p. 5

16. Ibid. p. 6

17. Ibid. p. 9

18. Ibid. p. 6.

19. Ibid. p. 9-10.

20. The Palimpsest, September 1933, “Potter Christ,” p. 340

21. Ibid. p. 340

22. The Palimpsest, September 1933, “Potter Christ,” p. 340-342

23. Arnold Potter: From L.D.S. Convert to Pioneer to Sect Leader, Steven R. Parkes, 1985 January-February Pioneer Magazine, p. 11

24. Autobiography of Louisa Barnes Pratt, p. 259

25. Charles C. Rich collection, 1832-1908 / Correspondence, 1837-1881 / Incoming correspondence, 1857. Call Number: MS 889. Church History Catalog.

26. Arnold Potter: From L.D.S. Convert to Pioneer to Sect Leader, Steven R. Parkes, 1985 January-February Pioneer Magazine, p. 14

27. Ibid. p. 14.

28. Vermont watchman & state journal: vol. 65, no. 45, p. 3

29. Deseret News 1870-05-04, p. 1.

30. Mormonism Exposed and Refuted by William Kirby, p. 339

31. Ibid. p. 339-343

32. The Palimpsest, September 1933, “Potter Christ,” p. 342-343

33. Arnold Potter: From L.D.S. Convert to Pioneer to Sect Leader, Steven R. Parkes, 1985 January-February Pioneer Magazine, p. 14

34. Divergent Paths of the Restoration, 5th Edition, Steven L. Shields, p. 127