The time is near, the time is now

“Visions of Glory” by John Pontius is a book based on the Mormon faith. The late Pontius was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS Church for short), known as the Mormon Church by outsiders. The leadership of the LDS Church is based in Salt Lake City in the U S state of Utah. Pontius' book contains private revelations given to a single member of the LDS Church. The real name and identity of this person is never disclosed. Pontius simply calls him Spencer. He seems to have been well educated, and was on a first name basis with an “Apostle” of the LDS Church, i.e. a member of its next-to-highest leadership body. Spencer got some of his divine revelations during “classical” near death experiences, while others seem to have come to him during his sleep. “Visions of Glory” is controversial in Mormon circles (just read the other reviews!) since a single member of the Church cannot receive revelations for the whole Church. That prerogative belongs to the President or Prophet of the Church. That explains why Pontius goes out of his way denying that Spencer's visions are anything but a purely personal revelation, when it's painfully obvious that the opposite is the case. We're dealing with the usual conflict between charismatic visionaries and a hierarchic churchly apparatus, what a sociologist would call “the routinization of charisma”.

That being said, I can understand the broad appeal “Visions of Glory” has on many Mormons. It purports to be a series of prophecies about the end times. Since Spencer says that he will personally witness the end times (including the Second Coming of Jesus), this implies that the time is near and that many alive today will also experience the future events narrated in the book. “Visions of Glory” also contain other revelations of relevance to Mormons, such as a description of how souls live in their pre-existence (Mormons believe that all humans have lived before, but as “spirit children” in a heavenly realm), or meetings with demons, angels and “translated” humans. Some of Spencer's experiences closely parallel those of typical NDEs, while others are more specifically Mormon. Readers generally interested in religious visions or mysticism might find some sections of interest. Personally, I was struck by the “esoteric” and “pagan” traits, such as the idea that our planet is a living being, that it too has fallen from a higher realm and will be restored in the end times, that God is a physical human-like being, and that there is a Heavenly Mother. Spencer's description of the living, fallen and restored Earth could be taken from Theosophical lore, but is actually a part of Mormon beliefs (which differ considerably from traditional Christianity on many points). The underground civilization mentioned at one point in the narrative is reminiscent of meetings with “the little people” or even “aliens” hiding below our planet's surface.

Spencer's visions of the future are apocalyptic, but have apparently been played down by Pontius in the interest of propriety – they were apparently too graphic in their original forms. The United States will be destroyed by gigantic floods, earth quakes and atomic explosions, most of them caused by some kind of domestic conspirators. Lawlessness will become rampant. North America will then be overrun by foreign troops, probably UN troops, who at first will be seen as saviors by the civilian population, but soon enough turn out to be an occupation force. Many Americans will succumb to biological warfare courtesy of the UN. However, the triumph of the alien powers will be brief, as Europe and Asia will also be destroyed by various cataclysms in the next round. It's not entirely clear whether the disasters described by Spencer are divine retributions, natural or the result of an Illuminati-type conspiracy. The visionary then narrates a perilous journey of a small group of Mormons in a big military vehicle, picking up survivors as they try to make their way from Salt Lake City to Cardston, a Mormon settlement in Canada.

The most sensational parts of Spencer's narrative deal with the return of Joseph Smith (the founder of the LDS Church) and Jesus to Salt Lake City, and the building of a new temple in Missouri, a temple which turns out to be “a living being” and where Spencer serves Jesus as a kind of high priest. He even says that women will receive the high priesthood! Spencer also describes the return of the ten lost tribes, including a group that has lived underground for millennia in a remote part of Alaska or Siberia. A peculiar trait of the narrative is that “Zion” or the Millennium doesn't come all at once, but gradually, since some Mormons are “translated” already before the Second Coming, but nevertheless continue living among the physically mortal population. Even more curiously, Jesus is present on Earth already before his technical return. I'm not well versed in Mormon eschatology, but if I remember correctly, Joseph Smith said that Jesus will return to Missouri, not to Utah (where the Mormons didn't move until after Joseph Smith's untimely death).

Even a person who does believe in the paranormal can get skeptical at certain points in Spencer's narrative. The big military vehicle that picks up survivors as it roams the post-apocalyptic countryside of North America made me think of The Landmaster in “Damnation Alley”. The nuclear blasts that are really “ours” can be found in the TV series “Jericho”. The UN occupation of the United States is a standard conspiracist trope. But sure, since religious and secular apocalypticism often cross-fertilize, it's difficult to really know who was first with these ideas. Perhaps it really were Mormon survivalists, who knows? Interestingly, Pontius has included a number of older Mormon prophecies in an appendix, which he believes confirms Spencer's end times predictions (a skeptic might draw the very opposite conclusion). There are indeed striking similarities between the Cardston Prophecy (1923), John Taylor's dream (1877) and Spencer's visionary experiences.

My main problem with “Visions of Glory” is that Spencer mentions climate change only in passing, and concentrates on disasters that seem to be miraculous or the result of very concrete government conspiracies. Unfortunately, the gravest threat to mankind comes from our long-term, non-conspiratorial choices. That being said, the survivalist scenario with a few places of refuge in a world looking like Dante's inferno, doesn't sound as crazy as it did still ten or twenty years ago… As C S Lewis would no doubt say: “That, in itself, is very bad news”!