Thursday, March 31, 2022

The "Church of Elias" and their founder, John Michael Fletcher, being the "Elias" Promised in Joseph Smith's Revelations

I am always curious as to the use of “Elias” to denote a “forerunner.” One such group that has a teaching that “Elias” can denote a “forerunner” is a small group in the broad “Mormon” Restorationist movement, the “Church of Elias”:

 

4.65 Church of Elias

 

1988 * Pocatello, Idaho * John Michael Fletcher

 

Responding to visions, dreams, and revelations that began in the mid-1980s, John Michael Fletcher (1957-2003) prepared a manuscript containing vital information about the last days. He completed the first draft of this work in 1988. The book was titled, Millennial Dawn. Fletcher wrote that he presented a copy of the book to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (4.0) on 19 August, 1988. Subsequent rewrites of the work were published as The Witness and finally The Record of Warning. The book is complete, and "stands as a testimony of the world."

 

Fletcher contended that the birth of Jesus is June 9. He said the date was incorrectly changed to April 6 in Section 20 of the Doctrine and Covenants (SLC) (Section 17 IND and RES editions). The same section is dated June 1830 in the Book of Commandments, according to Fletcher.

 

The church website declares, "The Church of Elias is under the direct supervision of the man John Michael Fletcher. Any and all doctrines are subject to his direction and approval, along with all of its dictates and policies." Fletcher declared that because there are so many churches using the name "Jesus Christ" and "God" that he was directed by revelation "form the Savior" to name the Church as "The Church of Elias."

 

Basing his work in the Joseph Smith jr. movement of 1820, Fletcher declared that the generation of Joseph Smith did not receive the fullness of gospel due to their inability "to live the commandments and revelations as given through the prophet Joseph Smith, and their lack of love, sacrifice and service as a people." He contends that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (4.0) lost the keys of the priesthood and the spiritual endowments that accompany those keys.

 

Quoting many passages from the Bible, Book of Mormon, and Doctrine and Covenants, Fletcher argued that he was the John or the Elias, prophesied to come in the last days "to restore all things." He says he is the "man likened unto Moses, to bring to pass this work with the saints. I bear witness that I am he, even the man John, who hath received the priesthood of Elias. I am he that commenced the work of restoring truths . . . I promise the blessings of the gospel and all things through it."

 

The Church of Elias was not organized until after Fletcher's death in 2003. Fletcher's Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints home teacher, James Armstrong, frequently called on the family, and over time was converted to Fletcher's teachings. Armstrong and his wife became the leaders of the new church and maintain headquarters in Idaho Fall, Idaho. Fletcher's widow lie in Logan, Utah, where a branch of the church reportedly meets occasionally. (Steven L. Shields, Divergent Paths of the Restoration: An Encyclopedia of the Smith-Rigdon Movement [5th ed.; Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2021], 380-81, kindle)

 

In a tract on the Website for the group, we read the following:

 

To whom will the Lord reveal of these things?

"And also with Elias, to whom I have committed the keys of bringing to pass the restoration of all things spoken by the mouth of all the holy prophets since the world began, concerning the last days;" (D&C 27:6)

       To the man Elias who is said to restore all things as spoken by the mouths of all the prophets concerning the last days.

 

. . .

 

    He it is to whom would do the work of the last days when the restoration was to occur of taking the faithful to the lands of promise.

"Behold, I say unto you, the redemption of Zion must needs come by power;
"Therefore, I will raise up unto my people a man, who shall lead them like as Moses led the children of Israel.
"For ye are the children of Israel, and of the seed of Abraham, and ye must needs be led out of bondage by power, and with a stretched?out arm.
"And as your fathers were led at the first, even so shall the redemption of Zion be." (D&C 103:15-18)


       He is the man likened unto Moses, to bring to pass this work with the saints.
       I bare witness that I am he, even the man John, who hath received the priesthood of Elias.
       I am he that has commenced the work of restoring the truths, which truths I will reveal as you have greater faith and seek to receive further light and knowledge. This comes through the Church of Elias.
       Therefore, walk with wisdom, seeking truth, and I promise the blessings of the gospel and all things through it. ("Have the Prophets spoken of an Elias to Come?” The Church of Elias)

 

Further Reading

 

 “Elias” as a “forerunner” in LDS Scripture