Without Disclosing My True Identity
Division Within the Church of Christ
The Kirtland dissenters took over the church there, reorganizing its leadership and
operating under the original name, “the Church of Christ.”^49 Then they excommunicated
Joseph and the rest of those who followed him to Far West. To distinguish themselves from
the Kirtland dissenters, the High Council of the main body of the Church in Missouri chose
the name of “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,”^50 given to them, of course,
through a “revelation from the Lord.” That revelation established Far West as “a holy and
consecrated land.”^51 The people were commanded to “build a house unto me, for the
gathering together of my saints, that they may worship me.”^52
The “fourth day of July next,” 1838, was chosen for the temple’s beginning.^53 To
relieve the people of the burden of worrying about whether Joseph and Sidney were going
to place them in debt and ruin the Church financially (like they had in Kirtland), “the Lord”
gave a “commandment”: “Verily I say unto you, let not my servant Joseph, neither my
servant Sidney, neither my servant Hyrum, get in debt any more for the building of a house
unto my name.”^54 The people of the Church had an insatiable appetite for things that they
could not afford and for that which they did not understand. While Joseph was under
mandate to give the people these things, he did not wish to embroil the church and Hyrum
in another financial scandal.
Rigdon’s “Salt Sermon”
Soon the Mormons, in self-aggrandizement, began to refer to themselves as
“Saints.”^55 Their non-member neighbors from the surrounding areas knew nothing
about the April revelation that changed the entire mindset of the Mormons at Far
West. This all changed on June 19, 1838, when they got their first whiff of Sidney
Rigdon’s “hell, fire, and damnation” sermons from a fiery public speech that he gave,
which would come to be known as the “Salt Sermon.”^56 This time, Rigdon’s wrath was
not directed at the Gentiles, but at the dissenters who took over the Church at
Kirtland, Ohio. He essentially told the world that the dissenters were the “salt of the
earth that has lost its savor; therefore being good for nothing, these people should be
trodden down under our feet!”^57
Now, as it turned out, some of the dissenters at Kirtland, who were among the
leaders there, were also in private ownership of land in and around the area of Far West.
In a willful and deliberate violation of civil law, the area church High Council confiscated
the lands belonging to these dissenters without due process of law, claiming them for the
new Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.^58 This greatly disturbed the area non-
members. If the Mormons could threaten their own people and take away their property
by usurping the laws of the land in this way, what might they be willing to do to those
who weren’t members of their church?
Rigdon’s Salt Sermon in June of 1838 set the people of the surrounding
communities on edge; and, when the “Lord’s” revealed time of July 4th came around,
Rigdon delivered another speech. This was reported to local non-members and frightened
them to such an extent that the rumor of war began to show its ugly head.^59 For all intents
and purposes, Sidney Rigdon set the tone for the Mormon Wars of 1838 because of his
heated sermons this year at Far West, Missouri.