Thursday, October 30, 2014

Art Bulla and the Church of Jesus Christ

Art Bulla, Founder and Head of the Church of Jesus Christ

Art Bulla is Mormonism’s Loneliest Prophet.

For over forty years, the Calexico- and Baja-based would-be Patriarch has had a direct line to the Lord Himself, and has busily transcribed hundreds of revelations he’s received from the Most High. Much like Joseph Smith, Bulla has anthologized them into a Holy Book that supplements the canonical Bible of the Christian faith. And much like Brigham Young, he has sought to establish a New Zion in the American West based on the teachings of the Holy Bible and the Book of Mormon, as well as his own revelations and prophecies.

The problem is that hardly anybody seems to be listening to his words, much less heeding his call.

Yet Bulla is far from alone in his mission. He is just one of many self-appointed leaders in the Mormon Fundamentalist subculture – a shadowy underground of the Latter-Day Saints’ church and society that has existed almost from the sect’s earliest days.

Far from being a monolithic movement, Mormonism has been rent by schisms from the beginning. According to researcher Steven L. Shields, at least a dozen Mormon splinter groups existed at the time of Joseph Smith’s death, and currently over 100 churches, sects and cults claim to be the true inheritors of his spiritual vision. They range from the quarter-million strong Community of Christ, which rejected Brigham Young as Smith’s successor and hunkered down to await the Second Coming in Missouri, to lone visionaries and self-declared prophets like Bulla, who compete for a small pool of potential followers dissatisfied with mainstream Mormonism.

Of the schismatic Mormon bodies, the so-called “Fundamentalists” are among the most noteworthy and notorious. These groups reject the 1890 Church Manifesto that banned polygamy among Mormon faithful, even though it had been taught as a revealed truth by Joseph Smith in the faith’s earliest years, and had been practiced officially and openly by Brigham Young and other Church leaders for decades afterwards.

Along with “plural marriage”, Mormon Fundamentalists also adhere to traditional Church teachings later deemphasized or rejected by the mainstream LDS denomination, and tend to live in isolated parts of the American West or Mexico, where they can practice their faith unmolested by the establishment Church or the law. Notable polygamy-practicing Fundamentalist groups have included Utah's low-key Apostolic United Brethren, Texas’ much-beleaguered Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and Ervil “The Mormon Manson” LeBaron’s murderous Church of the Lamb of God.

Although a by-the-book Fundamentalist, Art Bulla is a desert-dwelling loner with no wives, and his Church of Christ has few (if any) genuine disciples. Bulla himself is both the spiritual and lineal descendant of itinerant religious dissidents, and traces his own ancestry to Irish Quakers who immigrated to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania around 1680, seeking the religious freedom promised by the New World. Later, they relocated to North Carolina, and it was there that future Prophet Artis Brent Bulla was born on August 2, 1948. Years later, Bulla claimed that his father had prayed “that a servant of the Lord should be born unto him,” and that his birth was God’s answer to the petition.

Raised as a Baptist in Greensboro, Bulla attended the University of North Carolina, graduating with a Bachelor’s Degree in Biology in 1969. Shortly thereafter, he enlisted in the U.S. Army.

Bulla was on his way to the Raleigh, N.C. armed-forces induction center when he, like Saul of Tarsus on the Damascus road, was struck down with an overpowering vision of God. Says he:

It seemed that I, Art Bulla, was removed out of my body, or whether in the body or out of it I could not tell, and I beheld his face, and He spake unto me face to face as one man speaks unto another for forty-five minutes or an hour, and whether in the body or out of it, I could not tell, for I beheld his glory, which surpasses all understanding, and spake while in the vision, in a much better tongue than any spoken by man at this time, which I supposed to be the Adamic Tongue…. it seemed that I was transfigured before Him of whom I speak, my God in whom I bear record as others have before me, that He lives, for I too have seen Him. And tongue cannot express his matchless might, glory, power and intelligence, and I shall forever adore his glory, for having once beheld his face and felt of his love and might and power and beheld things which I cannot convey, for there is no language, I must, I MUST obtain his presence, and I shall not be content with anything else, this world or its allurements. And having been ordained unto the Holy Order of God which is after the Order of Melchizedec, even the Holy Apostleship, the keys of which I hold, I bear record of my Father, for I have seen Him and conversed with him, and I testify that He shall return in this the Latter Day….

Unlike Saul, however, Bulla didn’t immediately follow the vision into apostleship. He served faithfully in the Army as a Medical Technologist, and married Cathy Washam, who would eventually bear him five children. Knowing of her husband’s spiritual visions, Cathy introduced him to the Book of Mormon, and while stationed at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, he joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Bulla's current calling card
Mormonism was a perfect religious home for Bulla. One of the faith’s central tenets is that God still speaks through His prophets in the Church, beginning with Joseph Smith and continuing through the current Church president, who is also known as the First Prophet. Although one of Smith’s earliest Divine revelations was that “No one shall receive commandments and revelations in this church excepting my servant, Joseph Smith, Jr.”, successive Church leaders and visionaries have nevertheless claimed direct lines of communication with God, and ongoing revelations are an important part of the Mormon spiritual experience. The canonical ones are anthologized in The Doctrine and Covenants, which rivals the Book of Mormon as the sect’s most important text.

An eager convert to Mormonism, Bulla began to evangelize his fellow servicemen. One time, Bulla says, he was preaching to a group of soldiers when a hulking Green Beret sergeant snuck up behind him, intending to mock or prank the evangelist. All of a sudden an angel appeared above Bulla’s head, and then grabbed the sergeant, “hurled him off his feet picking him up effortlessly and setting him on his back on the floor, with great force.” Another time, a First Sergeant was ridiculing Bulla’s testimony when “a voice of thunder proceeded forth as it were from heaven and the ground felt as if it would split open and swallow the asshole whole, for it was the voice of God which spoke with such effortless power and authority that the element would have moved if it had been his will….”

The experiences convinced Bulla that he was indeed under the power of the Holy Spirit, and gifted in prophecy as Joseph Smith had been. Unfortunately, he was only able to attain one disciple during his military service – “Jim”, who would later join the mainstream LDS church and repudiate Bulla.

Released from the Army in 1974, Bulla and his family moved to Provo, Utah, where he attended Brigham Young University. There, Bulla received a revelation that the Mormon Church had committed apostasy when it rejected the so-called “Adam-God Doctrine”. This was Brigham Young’s contention that the First Man had been a Deity who had incarnated on Earth (along with “one of his wives”, Eve), but then lost his divine powers in the Garden, started the human race, died and returned to Heaven as the God of the Earth, and then incarnated once more to become the literal Father of Jesus. The doctrine was later downplayed or reinterpreted by mainstream Mormonism, but it became an article of faith among Mormon Fundamentalists, who felt it, along with polygamy, were two core concepts that defined the faith of the Latter-Day Saints.

Bulla became even more alienated from the Church later that year. Ordained to the Seventy – the Mormon order of priesthood that answered directly to the “stake president,” or regional Church leader – Bulla brought new converts into the Latter-Day Saints, and was even asked to join the Third Quorum of Elders in his stake. One of his converts was a young hitchhiker, whom Bulla picked up and then housed at his home for two weeks. (Like most Mormons, Bulla practiced hospitality to strangers, in accordance with Hebrews 13:2’s words about “entertaining angels unaware.”)   Yet when the young man applied to be baptized into the Church, the local Mormon elders rejected him because of his period-1974 long hair, and his “indigent circumstances.” When Bulla went ahead and baptized the convert himself, local stake authorities stripped the evangelist of his titles, and threw him out of both the local ward (a Mormon parish), and BYU.

Bulla and his family relocated to Salt Lake City, where he attended mechanical-engineering classes at the University of Utah. Although he was allowed to attend a local ward, and was eventually taken back into the priesthood, Bulla soon ran up against political opposition once more.

This time, the issue was the integration of the Mormon Priesthood. The Church had recently decided to admit African-Americans to its clergy after a 140-year ban. Unfortunately, Bulla had just received his first two written revelations from God on the issue, both of which upheld traditional Mormon teachings about how “the black race of Cain” could never comprehend nor preach the spiritual truths of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. When Bulla revealed this to his superior, the man attacked him, breaking his nose and blackening his eyes. The fight was blamed on Bulla, and when he attended a Church trial to answer for his actions, he packed a 9MM automatic pistol in his briefcase, fully expecting to be martyred in a firefight like Joseph Smith himself.

Nothing so dramatic happened. Instead, he was excommunicated from the LDS Church. Frustrated, Bulla and his family moved back to North Carolina, where he vowed to continue his ministry. By now, the revelations were coming faster, sometimes as often as two or three a week, and Bulla struggled to transcribe them, and to also incorporate them into his vision of a restored Mormon Church.

The Tarheel State was unimpressed by Bulla’s ministry, and he was soon in trouble with the law as well. When he tried to preach to the local Protestant “Charismatics”, he was “mobbed on one occasion by them, and almost killed.” Worse still, when he accused President Jimmy Carter of using the IRS to force the Mormon Church to integrate its priesthood, the Secret Service came to his house and interrogated him. Finally, his family decided he was insane, and tried to have him committed. Although a judge ruled in his favor, Bulla was subsequently charged with other crimes, and fled North Carolina with Sheriff’s deputies hot on his trail.

Although without a family, penniless, jobless, and on the run, Bulla began to believe that he was more than a mere Mormon prophet. Around 1983 he began preaching that he was the so-called “One Mighty and Strong” whose arrival Joseph Smith himself had prophesied over 150 years earlier:

[I]t shall come to pass, that I, the Lord God, will send one mighty and strong, holding the sceptre of power in his hand, clothed with light for a covering, whose mouth shall utter words, eternal words; while his bowels shall be a fountain of truth, to set in order the house of God, and to arrange by lot the inheritances of the Saints, whose names are found, and the names of their fathers, and of their children enrolled in the book of the law of God: while that man, who was called of God and appointed, that putteth forth his hand to steady the ark of God, shall fall by the vivid shaft of lighting….

Smith’s prophecy was later declared canonical, and can be found in Section 85 of the Doctrines and Covenants. Although the modern Church interprets the prophecy as only concerning events in early Mormon history, many contemporary Mormons believe it predicts the coming of a righteous Prophet who will set an apostate Church in order. Since the death of Joseph Smith, dozens of his would-be successors, as well as self-declared church reformers and eccentric Mormon visionaries, have declared themselves the One Mighty and Strong. The title has been particularly popular among Fundamentalist Mormon leaders seeking to return to the days of polygamy, a White-only priesthood, and a “United Order” socioeconomic system that operated wholly apart from Gentile society.

As the self-proclaimed One Mighty and Strong, Bulla believed that he “held the Keys of the Kingdom of God”, and that he was the head of the true Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, rather than the apostate body currently headquartered in Salt Lake City. Bulla dubbed his ministry “The Church of Jesus Christ,” and traveled to Utah to preach to establishment-Mormonism’s lost sheep.

For over ten years, Bulla preached his revelations and asserted his spiritual authority across the Beehive State. During much of this time, he lived in a tent in the mountains, testifying to a largely-uncaring Utah populace long accustomed to self-proclaimed redeemers of Zion. For a while, he ran a small book store in Provo, where he sold The Revelations of Jesus Christ, his self-published anthology of teachings and divine prophecies.

Foreword of The Revelations of Jesus Christ

The Revelations of Jesus Christ opens with passages from the Holy Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrines and Covenants, as well as scattered writings of historical Mormon figures that Bulla interprets as supporting his claims. It then reprints scores of revelations received by Bulla from God Himself, all delivered in the lyrical Jacobean English of the King James Bible and the Book of Mormon, concerning His teachings and how to interpret and apply them. Many are addressed specifically to individuals Bulla knew. Others deal with the historical doctrines of Mormonism, and how far the current LDS Church has strayed from them.

A few sample section titles give the general flavor of the revelations that Bulla received during this period:

SECTION 3. REVELATION on life after death. Future state and progression of souls of all men and women delineated. Pre-existance [sic] of spiritual bodies. War fought in this state among spirits. Rebellious spirits cast out. Memory blotted out concerning events….

SECTION 10. REVELATION received May 6, 1982 on the association of man and woman after death. Marriage, under certain conditions, to continue forever. Sexual union denied in the resurrection to the majority of men and women because of disobedience and rebellion….

SECTION 13. Prophecy concerning the destruction of the descendants of Ham (the Negro) upon this the American continent by racial conflict. Warned to flee to land of fathers. Boundaries and habitations of men determined before foundation of the world….

Bulla was also a regular on Utah’s radio talk-shows, calling in to promote his teachings and rebuke the established Mormon Church and its leaders. On one program, Bulla heard a man named Richard Lewis say that he considered himself a Mormon Fundamentalist, and that he was fascinated by Smith’s prophecy of the One Mighty and Strong. Bulla called the station and passed on his contact info to the host. They set up a meeting, and when Lewis met Bulla in person, he was convinced the 40-year old itinerant preacher was “God’s Anointed Servant”. Shortly thereafter Bulla baptized Lewis in Provo Canyon, passed on the “Melchizedek Priesthood” to him, and appointed him as an Apostle. Lewis and Bulla teamed up, and eventually gathered a small group of faithful followers.

Unfortunately, interpersonal strife once again bedeviled Bulla’s ministry. Lewis and Bulla had a falling out, and the little flock scattered, leaving the prophet once again alone in the Utah wilderness. Years later, his erstwhile apostle ended up as a guest of the State of Utah; while behind bars, Lewis reconciled with Bulla, had his apostleship restored, and penned a book, Zion Redeemed, that defended the Bullaite Church of Jesus Christ doctrines. Shortly after it was self-published, Lewis died in prison of cancer.

Bulla in his controversial appearance in THE GOD-MAKERS II. 
 Bulla’s biggest publicity splash of the time was somewhat ironic.  The 1993 anti-Mormon documentary movie The God-Makers II featured an interview with the would-be patriarch, and billed him as “Art, Polygamist, Mormon Fundamentalist Prophet and Leader”. The interview took place in front of LDS headquarters in Salt Lake City, which critics maintained was a cheap attempt by the filmmakers to associate Bulla with mainstream Mormonism. Not surprisingly, neither the film’s mostly-Fundamentalist Christian audience nor its LDS-Church critics deserted their respective denominations to join Bulla.

Like the other spiritual mavericks and misfits covered in this volume, Bulla eventually landed in California. He spent some time in San Francisco and San Diego, but finally established his Church in Calexico, an Imperial County border town where its current physical address – a mail drop – is located.

Bulla himself settled in San Felipe, Mexico, over 100 miles south of the American border. Mexico had long been a place of refuge for Mormon Fundamentalists, who established polygamous settlements in remote villages, as well as safe houses for faithful Americans on the run from Church authorities and Yankee lawmen. The Mormon exiles saw their mestizo hosts as Lamanites – descendants of an ancient Hebrew tribe that had immigrated to the New World and populated its lands – and actively ministered to them, often winning converts to their faith. For their part, the Mexican authorities generally left the industrious and otherwise law-abiding settlers and their polygamous communities alone.

With neither a brace of wives nor faithful followers in his tow, Bulla contented himself with a simple mobile-home by the Sea of Cortez. There, he continued to receive revelations, and worked on the theology that would guide his Church of Jesus Christ into the Third Millennium. A veteran’s pension, and the occasional donation, covered his living expenses in the sunny Mexican resort town.

As the Year 2000 arrived, Bulla, like virtually every other living religious visionary, took his ministry onto the Internet, where he competed for attention with countless other would-be electronic-prophets. Bulla updated and expanded The Revelations of Jesus Christ, and converted it into .pdf format so that anyone with Web access could download the two-volume work for free. He also uploaded a three-volume anthology of his talks and teachings, The Lectures on Truth, as well as three other self-published tomes, onto a Web site, artbulla.com. And he did battle with mainstream Mormons, orthodox Christians, and atheists alike on both message boards and YouTube, defending his doctrines in front of a small but vociferous virtual audience of critics and trolls.

Bulla on a YouTube video
Yet despite his long hours logged online, and the densely-worded and heavily-footnoted writings that strained his Web site’s capacity, Bulla still had few followers, virtual or otherwise. He lacked the alpha-male leadership qualities of infamous Fundamentalist figures like fellow Mexican-exile Ervil LeBaron or FLDS Patriarch Warren Jeffs, and although he avoided their fates as prison-lifers, he also never maintained multi-generational polygamous tribes, nor made his name synonymous with Mormon Fundamentalism, as they had. Bulla, who had stopped cutting his hair or beard in the manner of the Biblical Nazirites, was much more of a Prophet than a Patriarch, and far more credible as a wild-haired desert visionary than as a suit-and-tie-clad community-leader.

At this writing, Bulla’s hardcore following consists of one San Diego-based apostle who assists him with an Internet-based radio program. Several times a week, the prophet holds forth on www.blogtalkradio.com, discussing subjects ranging from traditional Mormon theology, to his feuds with various LDS Church authorities and apologists, to Elisabeth Kubler-Ross’ theories about out-of-body experiences and life after death. Bulla told the author that he has “many listeners”, but that because they “are afraid of exposing themselves to persecution from the Church and family,” they remain at a distance, unable to help the prophet form the polygamous Mormon-fundamentalist community that would properly apply his revelations and teachings.

Although the most obvious Biblical parallel to the hirsute, ascetic and outspoken Bulla would be John the Baptist, he also invites comparison to Moses. Like the Lawgiver, Bulla has received the direct commands of God to His chosen people, only to wander for forty years in the spiritual desert that is modern America, his followers being not a tribe of escaped slaves, but widely-scattered dissident Mormons and seekers of truth. Bulla nevertheless presses on, his lonely mission spurred by his vision of a Promised Land where he is a prophet with honor to Mormons and Gentiles alike.

Notes/Sources

www.artbulla.com (Bulla's personal site, with PDF and Kindle-friendly downloads of his books, extensive writings, and links to his other online presences)
Divergent Paths of the Restoration, by Steven L. Shields (Las Vegas, NV: Herald House, 2001)
 Melton's Encyclopedia of American Religions - Eighth Edition (Detroit: Gale, 2009)



8 comments:

  1. Some five years ago, while searching for the orthodox roots of my faith (Mormonism) on the internet, I came across www.artbulla.com after I had clicked on “revelations of John Taylor” (the third President of the LDS church). I was amazed; both from these revelations (never published by the official church) and by what I read on Art's website, and I decided to move on, researching this new field, as it was just what I was looking for. And I also started to listen to Art's radio shows on Blog Talk Radio. I started to buy – or download – and read some of the books that he advocates, like “Keys of the Priesthood illustrated” by Lynn and Steven Bishop (that has now become a much needed standard work for me), and the works of Ogden Kraut (which I am still much involved in). Also the books that he wrote himself, like “Lectures on true doctrine”, have become an eye-opener for me, being a mainstream-Mormon myself brought up with the milk of the Gospel, and only that, and not the meat.
    By and by I began to find out how far the LDS Church has apostatised over the years, from the Restoration through the Prophet Joseph Smith, after the first three church Presidents. I did not give up my membership though and am still attending meetings occasionally, to experience the decline.
    I must say that Art Bulla has become my mentor on Mormon theology and on essential Gospel issues. Especially concerning priesthood matters I owe him much, as he seems to master this subject better than any person that I have studied. For some months I have participated in his radio show, but due to animosity at home I had to discontinue that, but I have been a listener to the broadcasts ever since; in fact I did't miss one ever since I started listening.
    With some of his teachings I have a problem though: the negro-priesthood issue and the polygamy question; I have serious doubts on both, and I find the scriptures and the writings of the early leaders too contradictory, and the history of the church too confused to draw final conclusions, so I am trying to create my own theology on these matters for myself, while researching continually.
    I also have a question concerning his claim to be the One Mighty and Strong, but I do consider him to be an authentic and much needed (Mormon) prophet, and where the question could be raised as to where the keys of the priesthood are located at this moment, considering the church has lost these keys (of which I am certain), I could not imagine a better candidate.
    I found a flaw in the above text that I would like to comment on: according to the Adam-God doctrine (that was taught as a standard doctrine in the first five decades of the LDS church) Adam did not die, but was taken up, like Moses, Elijah and the Apostle John, until they would be eventually resurrected.
    The above profile is in my opinion honest and objective enough to satisfy Art Bulla, and I enjoyed reading it.

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    1. The devil took the exact same course, he was a preening narcissist like yourself, who imagined he could also "get around" the Father and the Son, as you say "so I am trying to create my own theology on these matters for myself, while researching continually". I did not create anything, it is all true and I received it from Israel's God, and I or you cannot get around it, over it, or under it" for it is the Everlasting Gospel, the very religion of the Ancients who were "mighty men of renown". Therefore it is the lion lying in the road, Why be obstreperous? You mind became darkened because of rebellion, saith the Lord, and because you have taken pleasure in unrighteousness, you have been sent strong delusion and are doomed to wander in darkness forever unless you come down in humility to submit to the reign of his anointed (there is only one on the earth at a time, an I am he).

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    2. Henrik sought to clip the priesthood and limit it in his life, since he determined to take an independent course, clipping the Priesthood and denying the office of the Lord's anointed to which all other are to gather, saith the Lord, of which there is "only one at any one time on the earth". How can anyone be so brazen and stupid except fools and of course blind?

      I am like Joseph. Get around it if you can:

      When Joseph Smith was alive, his declaration to me was as the voice of Almighty God. Why? Because he had the Priesthood of God on the earth; the Priesthood that is without father, without mother, without beginning of days or end of years, which is God's authority, the eternal power and right of the government of God upon the earth. I was subject to that government in the days of Joseph. Men used to talk on this wise-"But would you believe in the Prophet if he should demand all your property?" Lucifer would suggest this idea to them. "No," says another, "I would not." "Suppose he should come to you, and tell you, you must sell your farm in the east, and go to Kirtland, and consecrate your property to the Lord, would you do it?" "No," answers his neighbor, "the Lord has no use for my property, I would not do it." "Well," says one, "do you think Joseph is right to dictate in temporal matters?" "No." There were quite a majority, I believe, in the days of Joseph, who believed he had no right to dictate in temporal matters, in farms, houses, merchandize, gold, silver, &c.; and they were tried on various points.
      If you maintain the fact that the Priesthood of God is upon the earth, and God's representatives are upon the earth, the mouth-piece of Jehovah, the head of the kingdom of God upon earth, and the will of God is done upon earth as it is in heaven, it follows that the government of God is upon the earth. I allude to the Church which it dictates, and then to the whole earth which it will dictate, Satan may succeed for a season to curtail the extent of this government, and the free working of its machinery, but if the Lord Almighty has organized a government upon the earth, and has committed the keys and Priesthood of it to His Prophet, that Prophet holds jurisdiction over the earth, the same as Adam did in the beginning. And righteous men in every dispensation since the creation, if they had any keys, had the keys of the kingdom of God; and they extended over this wide world wherever God had a people and a government; and just as far as the Priesthood exercised its authority, just so far the rule of the Almighty reached.
      If Joseph had a right to dictate me in relation to salvation, in relation to a hereafter, he had a right to dictate me in relation to all my earthly affairs, in relation to the treasures of the earth, and in relation to the earth itself. He had a right to dictate in relation to the cities of the earth, to the natives of the earth, and in relation to everything on land and on sea. That is what he had a right to do, if he had any right at all. If he did not have that right, he did not have the Priesthood of God, he did not have the endless Priesthood that emanates from an eternal being. A Priesthood that is clipped, and lacks length, is not the Priesthood of God; if it lacks depth, it is not the Priesthood of God; for the Priesthood in ancient times extended over the wide world, and coped with the universe, and had a right to govern and control the inhabitants thereof, to regulate them, give them laws, and execute those laws. That power looked like the Priesthood of God. This same Priesthood has been given to Joseph Smith, and has been handed down to his successors.


      (Journal of Discourses, 26 vols., 2:, p.13-14)

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    3. Why you call anyone a narcissist who does not agree with you. You have a lot to teach, which I benefitted from tremendously, and I thank you for it to this day, but I had to look beyond that. I found out you are not the One Mighty and Strong that you always apretended to be. Do you still have your shows? I really miss them. I am still listening to the old ones almost everyday now.
      All the best; and I hope to hear from you some time.

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  2. Thanks for the comments and qualifications. Mr. Bulla is a fascinating and well-learned individual, and it's good to see that he still has a little influence out there with his take on Mormon history and theology.
    Much of his critique of the LDS shares common ground with other Mormon "fundamentalists" and reformers. I picked him as a subject mostly because my writings are dedicated to Californian religious and spiritual movements (despite his Tarheel origins and many years in Utah, he settled in the Calexico/San-Felipe areas, qualifying him as what I call a "Greater Californian.") As you're probably aware, there was a Mormon settlement in San Bernardino very early in the Church's history. And the murderous cult-leaders Ervil LeBaron (LDS apostate) and Jeffrey Lundgren (RLDS apostate) both spent time here. But their stories, which took place mostly outside the state, have already been told elsewhere; I felt Mr. Bulla deserved to have his life and teachings exposed outside of the world of dissident Mormonism.
    You might also be interested in my post on William Money and the New Testament Church. Money was a Gentile Fundamentalist who locked horns with the Mormon Church in old Los Angeles, and led a very colorful life.
    Thanks again for the input.

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  3. I wonder if Mr. Bulla would comment on his sister Anne who speaks to God at the Marble Fellowship in Washington State?

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  4. I just found this. This Marinacci fellow tried to ingratiate himself with me with various Judas kisses as it were, and I perceived him to be the typical arrogant modernist, best typified as "liberal" and a Darwinist as all these are. They like to think of themselves as possessing objective reality, but it is they who are deceived. This is a mocking account, designed to crucify the Lord afresh, which is what he has obviously done, belittling and distorting, and outright fabrication. Those without the spirit judge by appearance when the scriptures plainly state "No man knoweth the things of God, but by the spirit of God". Therefore their and his judgment is grossly in error, and I would not be like him for the whole world. The prophets were always alone, "wandering in the caves, dens and deserts of the earth, afflicted tormented". Even Jesus said, "Foxes have holes, birds nests, but the Son of Man (Adam) hath not where to lay his head". So I with Joseph am so peculiarly constituted that I glory in persecution and am grateful that I am counted worthy to be crucified by the fellow, with Jesus! My Jesus!, thus descending with him below all things for this generation. For the Apostles, and I am one, were first made witnesses and then judges over those to whom they were sent, having had an experimental knowledge of these and their barbarous treatment. Jesus was thought one of many, many false messiahs at the time. I testify that what I have described on the website, ArtBulla.com and in broadcasts at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/artbulla are verily true. An audible voice did speak over the heads of a MSG (E8) and an E7 that appeared to shake the ground. My first vision is true, for I saw him and spoke in an unknown tongue for about 45 min, quickened by the spirit of might, being caught up into what Paul describes as the third heaven:

    2 I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven.
    3 And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;)
    4 How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.
    (New Testament | 2 Corinthians 12:2–4)

    So I am a modern eye-witness, and have learned the religions, as did Joseph, comprised of the sects of Chrisitanity are all wrong, and their "professors are corrupt". It is require that each humble himself as a little child, and suffer all things which the Lord God inflicts upon him to try him as by fire. But the wicked and rebellious cannot be saved without this. They do need the ordinances, for without a legal administrator of the same the power of godliness is withheld from the godless and haughty generation as before the flood, who judged Noah to be a crackpot and crazy as well. So until we meet at the pleasing bar of God, I bid you farewell, grateful again that I have been accounted worthy to descend with him below the frowns, the calumny and the shame of the wicked who point the finger of derision as they did to my elder brother. Even so. Amen

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  5. I am still listening to the broadcasts, from the archive.Especially the earlier shows are good. Regards, Henrik.

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