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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Bulla in his controversial appearance in THE GOD-MAKERS II. |
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.
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| 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)
