The White Horse Prophecy

, The White Horse prophecy was supposedly given by Joseph Smith Jr. in 1843, but wasn't recorded until about 1900 by Edwin Rushton.

It reads: "You will go to the Rocky Mountains and you will see a great and mighty people established, which I will call the White Horse. You will see the Constitution of the United States almost destroyed, it will hang by a thread, as it were, that thread as fin as the finest silk fibre. I love the constitution, it was mad by the inspiration of God & it will be saved by the efforts of the White Horse and the Red Horse [converted Indigenous people] who will combine in its defense."

The White Horse prophecy is not official doctrine of the Mormon church as there is no proof Joseph Smith said this. In a statement on this prophecy and political neutrality on the church's website text reads: "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is politically neutral and does not endorse or promote any candidate, party or platform....The so-called 'White Horse Prophecy' is based on accounts that have not been substantiated by historical research and is not embraced as Church doctrine."

And yet here is an 1840 statement from Joseph Smith Jr.: “This Nation will be on the very verge of crumbling to peices [sic] and tumbling to the ground and when the Constitution is upon the brink of ruin this people will be the Staff upon which the Nation shall lean and they shall bear the constitution away from the very verge of destruction.”

And from Brigham Young, the second prophet of this church, said in 1855: “When the Constitution of the United States hangs, as it were, upon a single thread, they will have to call for the 'Mormon' Elders to save it from utter destruction; and they will step forth and do it." 

And Orson Hyde, President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, wrote in 1858 that Smith believed "the time would come when the Constitution and the country would be in danger of an overthrow; and... if the Constitution be saved at all, it will be by the elders of [the LDS] Church."

First Councilor of the First Presidency, J. Reuben Clark, said in 1942: "You and I have heard all our lives that the time may come when the Constitution may hang by a thread... if we are to live as a Church, and progress, and have the right to worship... we must have the great guarantees that are set up by our Constitution."


US Presidential candidate, Michigan Gov and father of Mitt Romney said in 1967: "I have always felt that they meant that sometime the question of whether we are going to proceed on the basis of the Constitution would arise and at this point government leaders who were Mormons would be involved in answering that question." 

Ezra Taft Benson, 13th prophet of this church in 1986 said: "I have faith that the Constitution will be saved as prophesied by Joseph Smith. But it will not be saved in Washington… It will be saved by enlightened members of this Church – men and women who will subscribe to and abide by the principles of the Constitution."


Former Utah Senator, Orrin Hatch, said during his 2000 president campaign “Religious freedom is going to go down the drain, too… I’ve never seen it worse than this, where the Constitution literally is hanging by a thread.” 


And far-right Mormon talk show host, Glenn Beck said: “We are at the place where the Constitution hangs in the balance, I feel the Constitution is hanging in the balance right now, hanging by a thread unless the good Americans wake up." This was in Nov. 2008, just after Obama won the U.S. presidency. He also said: "I heard Barack Obama talk about the Constitution and I thought, we are at the point or we are very near the point where our Constitution is hanging by a thread.”

Ammon Bundy said one of the reason he staged an armed take-over of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge is that, “Our Constitution was being violated. That it was hanging by a thread.” 

Dallin H. Oaks's entire 2021 General Conference speak “Defending Our Divinely Inspired Constitution” also affirms this belief. 

Finally, Ryan Bundy, Ammon's brother, illustrates the truth at the line between "official doctrine" and popular Mormon beliefs: “Put it this way,” he says. “Whether the church calls it doctrine or not, we got quotes from several prophets reiterating that. What the church’s official position on it or not, that I don’t know. I take the words of the prophets both modern and previous ones seriously.That’s what I’ve read, that’s what I’ve heard, that’s what I believe.”

So, no matter what this church says it believes, it's political members & leaders say differently.