Twenty-Six (1831)said unto me: Behold the wrath of God is upon the seed of thy brethren. And I
looked and beheld a man among the Gentiles, who was separated from the
seed of my brethren by the many waters; and I beheld the Spirit of God, that it
came down and wrought upon the man; and he went forth upon the many
waters, even unto the seed of my brethren, who were in the promised land.
And it came to pass that I beheld the Spirit of God, that it wrought upon other
Gentiles; and they went forth out of captivity, upon the many waters.^30The misinformed, blind, and deceived perception of the LDS/Mormon people
eventually led to the name they invented on their own as “the man” mentioned in the Book
of Mormon who the “Spirit of God...came down and wrought upon.” They erroneously
believed (and still do) that the text refers to Christopher Columbus. Neither Joseph Smith,
nor any other early leader of the LDS faith ever said that the man “wrought upon” was
Columbus. To the LDS people, whose pride in the carnal exterior of their church and lives
is equaled only by their great pride in being American, the historical and much fantasized
account of Columbus was an easier mark and a better “marketing tool” than who “the
man” really was. The man was George Fox.^31
Interestingly, both Jesse Gause and Sidney Rigdon immediately recognized who the
man was upon reading the passage for the first time. They were both followers of Alexander
Campbell (1788–1866), a prominent and popular Baptist minister. Alexander was influenced
by his father, Thomas Campbell (1763–1854), who was influenced by William Penn (1644–
1718), who was influenced by the more obscurely known George Fox (1624–1691), “the
man” properly alluded to in the Book of Mormon passage above.
George Fox, who, by 1670, had a history of being persecuted for the things that he
believed, in seeking a modicum of freedom, finally found his way from England to the
Americas. Arriving on the island called Jamaica in the 1670’s, he soon met and thereafter
was greatly influenced by two “Injuns,” Mathoni and Mathonihah. They lived among the
(mostly black) citizens of this small island located off the coast of the Americas’ mainland
with a small group of Native American Indians, whose ancestors had lived on the island for
centuries. Fox was greatly impressed by the Brothers and spent quite a bit of time with
them, fascinated with their ability to speak English, Spanish, and every other known dialect
of the area and time period. Because it was Fox’s mission to convert the blacks and Native
Americans to his form of Christianity, he implored the two Brothers to accompany him as
his translators. Of course, they had other reasons for spending a great amount of time with
Fox, and politely refused his offer.
The impression that the Brothers made on Fox did not take away his free will to
believe as he had been trained to believe since his youth. It did cause Fox to become a
significant figure in the Christian restoration and reformation movement that was
responsible for the many “other Gentiles” who were “wrought upon” by “the Spirit of
God...and they went forth out of captivity, upon the many waters.”^32
Recognizing a True Messenger vs. One “Trained for the Ministry”
Parley P. Pratt was a member of a small congregation of Campbellites located near
Kirtland, Ohio and led by Alexander Campbell^33 (mentioned above). Pratt was the one who
first introduced Sidney Rigdon and Jesse Gause to the existence of the Book of Mormon.^34
Gause read and accepted it first. But because Rigdon was the local Campbellite minister,^35 it