The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

A Mormon fundamentalist body centered at Short Creek on the Utah-Arizona line, formed around a Priesthood Council in 1929, that holds plural marriage to be a law of God and is led by a prophet.

Truth (Salt Lake City: Truth Publishing Company), vol. 10, no. 10 (March 1945), editorial "Our Position," pp. 266-68; reprinted in vol. 15 (1949), pp. 75-77. Truth was the Mormon fundamentalist monthly published for the Priesthood Council and edited by Joseph W. Musser; this issue predates the council's division of 1951-52 (OCR text on the Internet Archive)

Truth, vol. 7, no. 9 (February 1942), pp. 206-7, "Revelation to President John Taylor, Given at the Home of John W. Woolley, Centerville, Utah, September 26-27, 1886" (the fundamentalist magazine edited by Joseph W. Musser for the Priesthood Council, before the 1951-52 division; OCR text on the Internet Archive)

Truth, vol. 8, no. 7 (December 1942), an unsigned article on the Church's president and the sealing priesthood (the fundamentalist magazine edited by Joseph W. Musser for the Priesthood Council, before the 1951-52 division; OCR text on the Internet Archive)

Truth, vol. 4, no. 2 (July 1938), pp. 29-31, "Mormonism and Temperance" (unsigned; the fundamentalist magazine edited by Joseph W. Musser for the Priesthood Council, before the 1951-52 division; OCR text on the Internet Archive)

Truth, vol. 13, no. 3 (August 1947), pp. 68-70, "The Lord's Sabbath" (unsigned; the fundamentalist magazine edited by Joseph W. Musser for the Priesthood Council, before the 1951-52 division; OCR text on the Internet Archive)

Truth, vol. 15, no. 7 (December 1949), pp. 183-84, "Who Was Joseph Smith?" (unsigned; the Priesthood Council's fundamentalist magazine, then passing from Joseph W. Musser to his son Guy, before the 1951-52 division; OCR text on the Internet Archive)

Truth, vol. 1 (1935): the announcement of 1 June, the reprint "An Epistle of Elder Wilford Woodruff" (July and August), and the editorial "Children Denied Baptism" (1 August) (the fundamentalist magazine edited by Joseph W. Musser for the Priesthood Council, before the 1951-52 division; OCR text on the Internet Archive)

Ken Driggs, "Fundamentalist Attitudes toward the Church: The Sermons of Leroy S. Johnson," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 23, no. 2 (1990), pp. 40ff. (secondary; quotes Johnson's sermons by volume and page)

Ken Driggs, "Imprisonment, Defiance, and Division: A History of Mormon Fundamentalism in the 1940s and 1950s," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 38, no. 1 (2005), pp. 65-88 (secondary)

Doctrine and Covenants 20:77, 79, the sacrament prayers, as published by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the FLDS holds the Doctrine and Covenants as scripture; Driggs 1990)

Benjamin E. Park (historian, Sam Houston State University), "LDS Church finally releases an 1886 John Taylor polygamy revelation," Religion News Service commentary in The Salt Lake Tribune, 17 June 2025

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Gospel Topics essay, "The Manifesto and the End of Plural Marriage"

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, General Handbook, ch. 38, Church Membership Status

Scott Anderson, "The Polygamists," National Geographic, February 2010 (the magazine was given access by the church's leadership, "in consultation with the imprisoned Warren Jeffs")

Associated Press, "Ex-polygamous Sect Members Tour Former Worship Center," KNAU Arizona Public Radio, 22 March 2019

High Country News, "How the FLDS church consolidated power on the Utah-Arizona border," 20 April 2016

NPR, "Warren Jeffs and the FLDS," 3 May 2005 (news; the journalist's account)

Christian Science Monitor, "Are FLDS sect's beliefs sufficient grounds for taking the kids?" 27 May 2008 (quotes the Texas Third Court of Appeals ruling of 22 May 2008)

Christian Science Monitor, "Has Warren Jeffs turned his trial into a sermon on polygamy?" 30 July 2011 (Texas trial, day 2)

Christian Science Monitor, "Prophet to pedophile: Polygamist Warren Jeffs sentenced to life in prison," 9 August 2011

NPR, "Polygamist Leader Warren Jeffs Convicted Of Child Sex Abuse," 4 August 2011

FOX 13 Salt Lake City, "After 14 years, the legal battle over the FLDS church's land is finally over," 18 June 2019 (reports the ruling of Judge Richard McKelvie)

Associated Press (Phoenix), "Samuel Bateman gets 50 years in prison in scheme to orchestrate sex involving children," December 2024, as carried by FOX 13

Associated Press, "Towns once run by Warren Jeffs' polygamous sect emerge from court supervision transformed," 30 January 2026

Associated Press, "Polygamous leader sentenced for hauling girls in unventilated trailer in Arizona," 25 August 2026, as carried by KOLD

The FLDS dates its separate life to the dispute over plural marriage in the larger Mormon church. When that church ended the practice, a minority held that an earlier revelation bound the Church to keep it, and a small group of men claimed an unbroken priesthood to seal such marriages. Out of that claim came a Priesthood Council in 1929, a magazine, a trust that held the land, and, by the 1940s, a community at Short Creek. Its life since then has been shaped by state raids, by a split in 1951, by a long run of presidents who led it as "one-man rule," and by court cases. Every date below is taken from the record named beside it.

The revelation to John Taylor

Fundamentalists believe that on this night John Taylor, then president of the larger church, hiding from federal officers at the home of John W. Woolley in Centerville, Utah, was told not to yield on plural marriage. Truth printed the text in February 1942 under the heading "Given at the Home of John W. Woolley, Centerville, Utah, September 26-27, 1886." It reads in part: "All commandments that I give must be obeyed by those calling themselves by my name, unless they are revoked by me or by my authority." The larger church does not hold that this revelation binds it. The date here is Truth's heading. The Church History Library, which published the original in June 2025, catalogs it as "John Taylor revelation, 1886 September 27" (historian Benjamin E. Park). The claim that it binds is the fundamentalists' own.

The Manifesto and the Second Manifesto

The larger church's President Wilford Woodruff issued the Manifesto on 24 September 1890. In April 1904 President Joseph F. Smith issued what the Church calls the Second Manifesto, attaching penalties to new plural marriages. The Church's essay says that members who rejected it and kept plural marriage "were summoned to Church disciplinary councils" and that some who were excommunicated "coalesced into independent movements and are sometimes called fundamentalists."

The Priesthood Council of High Priest Apostles

Lorin C. Woolley reported that his father, John W. Woolley, had appeared to him in a vision and told him to call a "Priesthood Council of High Priest Apostles." Ken Driggs records that fundamentalists believed the council "embodied and perpetuated the priesthood authority to perform sealing marriages bestowed by John Taylor." It is the group's own claim, and it is told here as a claim. Woolley died in 1934 and the council was led briefly by J. Leslie Broadbent, then by John Y. Barlow.

Excommunication, and the first Truth

National Geographic reports that in 1935 the larger church gave the settlers at Short Creek an ultimatum, to renounce plural marriage or be excommunicated, and that practically everyone refused. Driggs gives the date of the excommunication of Leroy S. Johnson and fifteen others from the Rockdale Ward as 7 September 1935. In June of the same year the council began printing the monthly Truth, edited for most of its run by Joseph W. Musser. It ran until May 1956.

The United Effort Plan

The council reorganized as a trust, declared on this date at Kingman, Arizona, with Barlow, Musser, Johnson, J. Marion Hammon and Rulon T. Jeffs among the trustees. It later held nearly all the homes and land at Short Creek. FOX 13 reports it was "originally created under the early-Mormon concept of a 'united order,' where members consecrate what they have to the church and it's doled out according to wants and needs."

The multi-state raid

State and federal officers, with the larger church's cooperation according to Driggs, arrested fundamentalist men and women in several states. Forty-six adults were charged with unlawful cohabitation and conspiracy to promote it.

The priesthood split

Joseph W. Musser, senior on the council after Barlow's death, ordained Rulon C. Allred to it on this date as "Second Elder." Most of the council would not accept the call, and in January 1952 Musser called a new council of his own. Driggs, quoting the historian Benjamin Bistline, writes that the Short Creek group followed the old council "almost one hundred percent," and Allred's followers became what is now the Apostolic United Brethren. Truth stayed with Musser's son Guy, one of the council members who opposed the call, and Musser's party began its own Star of Truth in January 1953. Driggs (1990) writes that Johnson's followers "are not part of Allred's group." This chart is about the Short Creek body only. Every issue of Truth it quotes was printed before the division, so it is the teaching of the council both bodies descend from.

The Short Creek raid

Driggs writes that after a two-year secret investigation by Arizona, "a pre-dawn raid Sunday, 26 July 1953" by 102 officers brought 122 arrest warrants and ended with the state taking 263 children into custody. The raid made Short Creek and Leroy Johnson known across the country. Driggs adds that a plea bargain eventually produced twenty-seven no contest pleas followed by probation, and that family and community life at Short Creek "was disrupted for years."

Johnson, Rulon Jeffs and Warren Jeffs

Leroy S. Johnson died at Hildale on 25 November 1986, and Rulon Jeffs, who had been an accountant and a missionary for the larger church in Great Britain, became prophet. NPR reports that Rulon Jeffs held the office until his death in 2002 and that his son Warren Jeffs followed him in September 2002. Driggs says the council moved under Johnson toward a rule of one man, which the members call "one-man rule."

The trust seized; Texas removes the children

In 2005 the Utah Attorney General's Office asked the courts to take over the United Effort Plan trust (FOX 13, 2019). In April 2008 Texas officials took some 460 minors from the Yearning for Zion Ranch near Eldorado after phone calls from an alleged underage spouse complaining of abuse; the Christian Science Monitor reported that complaint was "almost certainly a hoax." On 22 May 2008 the Texas Third Court of Appeals overturned the district court's decision to keep the children in state custody, writing that "Existence of the FLDS belief system as described by the [DFPS] witnesses, by itself, does not put children of FLDS parents in physical danger."

Warren Jeffs convicted and sentenced

A Tom Green County, Texas, jury convicted Warren Jeffs on 4 August 2011 of sexually assaulting two girls, aged 12 and 15 (NPR). On 9 August he was sentenced to life in prison for the 12-year-old and 20 years for the 15-year-old, to run consecutively (Christian Science Monitor). On 29 July, reading a written statement in court, he said (Christian Science Monitor, 30 July 2011): "If we do not live these laws we are damned here and hereafter." The conviction and sentence are the record; this chart goes no further than the record.

Court supervision ends; Bateman

On 18 June 2019 Judge Richard McKelvie ended the Utah court's oversight of the trust after 14 years ("It was never my intent to be the de facto mayor of Short Creek"). The towns were released from court-ordered supervision in the summer of 2025. Samuel Bateman, who led a small offshoot of the FLDS and not the FLDS itself, was sentenced in federal court in Phoenix in December 2024 to 50 years for coercing girls into sex acts and plotting to kidnap them from protective custody, after a plea (Associated Press). On 25 August 2026, according to the Associated Press, he was sentenced to 24 more years in Arizona state court on separate convictions arising from a 2022 traffic stop in Flagstaff. The same report says Jeffs "is serving a life sentence in Texas."

Lorin C. Woolley

Reported the 1929 vision that named the Priesthood Council of High Priest Apostles. The council traces its sealing authority to John Taylor through him. The vision is the fundamentalists' own account.

John Y. Barlow

Led the council from 1935 after Broadbent's death. Under his direction the council began printing Truth. He died on 29 December 1949.

Leroy S. Johnson

Excommunicated from the larger church on 7 September 1935. He led the Short Creek community until his death at Hildale on 25 November 1986, aged 98. Seven volumes of his sermons were published at Hildale in the 1980s, and Driggs quotes from them.

Rulon Jeffs

Led the body from 1986 until his death in September 2002. Driggs writes that he "was revered as a prophet by his people, and his decisions went largely unquestioned."

Warren Jeffs

Succeeded his father in September 2002. Convicted in Texas in 2011 and sentenced to life plus 20 years. The Associated Press said on 25 August 2026 that he "is serving a life sentence in Texas."

Why a separate chart. The chart of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints tells of an organization that ended plural marriage in 1890 and says it is not affiliated with polygamous groups. A reader of it learns nothing of the body that held that the 1886 revelation to John Taylor outranks the Manifesto. Nor does it tell of the Priesthood Council and its claim to an unbroken sealing authority, or of the trust that held a community's land and homes. It does not tell of the "one-man rule" of its presidents, of the raids of 1944 and 1953, or of the courts' dealings with the body since 2005. The doctrine is also not the larger church's under another name: the larger church's handbook says "An adult who has encouraged, taught, or been involved in plural marriage must receive approval from the First Presidency before he or she may be baptized," while the FLDS holds plural marriage to be a requirement for the highest degree of glory. Because a living office there binds doctrine on its members beyond the Bible and the standard works, the body stands outside the lineage chart's rule, which draws only the bodies that appeal to the same Scriptures.

What is not known. The body publishes no confession and no catechism that could be fetched. Its own words here come from the sermons of Leroy S. Johnson, its leader until 1986, as Ken Driggs quotes them (the seven volumes were not found online), and from statements of its leaders as they were read in court or reported. The fuller doctrinal statements come from Truth, the monthly the Priesthood Council published from June 1935 to May 1956, edited for most of its run by Joseph W. Musser. Every issue quoted here was printed before the council divided in 1951-52. It is the teaching of the council that both the FLDS and the Apostolic United Brethren descend from, not a statement issued by the FLDS alone, and the chart says where Johnson or Jeffs repeats it. A book by Rulon Jeffs, History of Priesthood Succession in the Dispensation of the Fullness of Times and Some Challenges to the One Man Rule (1997), is named by Driggs and was not found. The Truth text is machine-read from scans and was checked quote by quote. The 1953 and 1944 events are from Driggs; Martha Sonntag Bradley's Kidnapped from That Land (University of Utah Press, 1993) is the standard book on the raids and was not available for this chart.

The record, kept to the record. The only findings against any person named here are the ones courts and the Associated Press have reported: Warren Jeffs's Texas conviction and sentence in 2011, Samuel Bateman's federal sentence in 2024 and his Arizona state sentence in 2026. The Texas appeals court's 2008 ruling is told because it speaks to belief: it says a belief system "by itself" is not a danger to children, and that it is the imposition of certain alleged tenets on particular persons that may be. The weighing in Part 4 is of the teaching and the office, not of those cases. Journalists have also reported, without an official source, that the prophet could punish followers "by reassigning their wives, children and homes to another man" (NPR, 2005) and that the leaders "cast out men deemed unworthy and reassigned their wives and children to others" (Associated Press, 2026). Both are the news organizations' reports and are given as such.

The standard works are scripture, a living prophet and the Priesthood Council hold the keys, and revelation given through them binds.

In March 1945, six years before the council divided, Truth, the fundamentalist magazine Joseph W. Musser edited for the Priesthood Council, printed the position of the people it called the "Fundamentalists": their faith "comprehends the Articles of Faith as promulgated by the Prophet, the Ten Commandments, (Exodus 20), along with all other teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ." Those Articles say the Bible is the word of God "as far as it is translated correctly," and that the Book of Mormon is also the word of God. Ken Driggs, who studied the sermons of Leroy S. Johnson, writes that Johnson and his group embrace the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price "unreservedly." Johnson said in a 1977 sermon in Salt Lake City, "I hold in my hand the standard works of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." The same Truth editorial says that the gospel is "unchangeable and eternal," and that its ordinances can be neither added to nor taken from "short of revelation from the Lord given through His constituted authority on earth." Driggs writes that the Johnson group "traces its priesthood authority from an 1886 vision" of John Taylor, and the body ranks that revelation above the larger church's Manifesto of 1890.

believe the gospel to be unchangeable and eternal; that the ordinances as established can neither be added to or taken from short of revelation from the Lord given through His constituted authority on earth.

All commandments that I give must be obeyed by those calling themselves by my name, unless they are revoked by me or by my authority

So every man, woman and child that believes in this book is under condemnation unless they live according to the teachings in it.

Present revelation. The first issue of Truth (1 June 1935) said, "God's remedy for this bedlam of conflicting creeds and philosophies is that men shall accept the principle of present and continuous revelation." A summary, not a creed. The body publishes no confession. The "Our Position" editorial was reprinted in 1949 at the request of inquirers, and it is the nearest thing to a statement of faith found for this chart. It appeared unsigned in the council's magazine before the division and speaks for the movement as it then stood. The Articles of Faith it quotes are part of the Pearl of Great Price, which Johnson's group holds as scripture.

Faith, repentance, and immersion for the remission of sins at the age of accountability, which is the door into a further Celestial Law.

Truth, the Priesthood Council's magazine before its 1951-52 division, printed the fourth Article of Faith as the movement's own: the first principles are faith, repentance, "Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins," and the laying on of hands for the Holy Ghost. In December 1949 it taught that "The Kingdom of God cannot be entered except through the door of baptism by immersion for the remission of sins," and that Joseph Smith "revealed that baptism by immersion is an essential to all reaching the age of accountability." In 1935 it took the age to be eight, citing Doctrine and Covenants 68:27, and criticized the larger church for refusing baptism to the children of plural-marriage families, who it said were "forced to accept error before being permitted the cleansing ordinance of baptism." Leroy S. Johnson, who led the Short Creek body after the division, taught that baptism leads on to more: "no man can receive the Celestial Law without first coming in at the door of Baptism for the remission of sins." In the same Truth of 1949 the vicarious work done in temples for the dead is named among Joseph Smith's contributions. An Associated Press visit to the Leroy S. Johnson Meetinghouse in 2019 found a baptismal font in a corner room. No source used here describes a baptism as it is now carried out.

The Kingdom of God cannot be entered except through the door of baptism by immersion for the remission of sins.

For we believe that no man can receive the Celestial Law without first coming in at the door of Baptism for the remission of sins and keeping himself clean and pure from the sins of the generation in which we live.

These children are forced to accept error before being permitted the cleansing ordinance of baptism.

Age. The same 1935 editorial quotes the larger church's teaching and says the age of accountability, "eight years," was "designated by the Lord" in Doctrine and Covenants 68:27. The dead. Truth in 1949 says the gospel is "being preached to those, in the spirit world, who died without having accepted it," and that "work is being done for them vicariously in the Temples." National Geographic reported in 2010 a white stone temple at the center of the Texas ranch. Whether the FLDS now baptizes for the dead, in it or elsewhere, is not shown in any source used here. The path afterward. Johnson also taught, as Driggs quotes him, that "except a man obeys the laws that pertain to the blessings of Celestial Glory, he cannot obtain it." Truth's "Our Position" says that entering plural marriage "is strictly voluntary on the part of the adherents, yet compliance with the law is necessary to obtain the highest exaltation in the kingdom of God."

The sacrament on the Lord's day, blessed with prayers held to be revealed; the movement's magazine argued for wine in the cup, and the body's present practice is not described.

The printed teaching on the Supper comes from Truth before the council's division, and it is mostly about the cup. In July 1938 an unsigned editorial argued that wine "is commanded" under certain conditions: "It is a part of the sacramental ordinance." It quoted the prayer it said the Lord revealed, "to bless and sanctify this wine to the souls of all those who drink of it" (Doctrine and Covenants 20:79), and held that the wine meant is fermented grape juice, as Joseph Smith and Brigham Young used. It also granted that "under certain conditions" the Lord "permitted a substitute for wine" in the Supper. The same article lists the Lord's Supper among several "sacraments": "The Lord's Supper is one, Marriage, another, and there are the Solemn Assemblies, the Ordinance of Washing Feet." In August 1947 Truth printed the revelation that tells the Saints, "thou shalt go to the house of prayer and offer up thy sacraments upon my holy day." The prayers of Doctrine and Covenants 20, which the body holds as scripture, ask that those who partake do so "in remembrance of the body of thy Son" and "that they may always have his Spirit to be with them." The FLDS publishes no order for the Supper, and no source used here says what is now passed to the people, on which day or how often, or who blesses it.

certainly its use, under certain conditions, is commanded. It is a part of the sacramental ordinance.

The Lord's Supper is one, Marriage, another, and there are the Solemn Assemblies, the Ordinance of Washing Feet

thou shalt go to the house of prayer and offer up thy sacraments upon my holy day

An unsigned editorial of 1938. The article answers a resolution of the larger church's young people's associations, taken at their June conference in 1938, in favor of the Word of Wisdom. It is unsigned and speaks for the magazine, then the Priesthood Council's organ under Joseph W. Musser, more than a decade before the council divided. Its argument that wine belongs in the sacrament is drawn from the larger church's own revelations. What is missing. No order for the Supper was found in the sources used. They do not describe the bread, who blesses it, or how the emblems are passed. The placement in Part 4 says so.

A Priesthood Council under a president called the prophet; the priesthood is over the church, and bishops serve communities under him.

The Priesthood Council of High Priest Apostles began in 1929, and Ken Driggs records that its members believed it "embodied and perpetuated the priesthood authority to perform sealing marriages bestowed by John Taylor." Truth wrote in December 1942, before the council divided, that Taylor endowed men "with the sealing Priesthood of Elijah with power of perpetuity," to continue the sealing blessings "after the principle should be abandoned by the Church," and that "That power is now on earth." Leroy S. Johnson taught that the corporate church is below the priesthood: it is "a vehicle of the Priesthood, instead of the Priesthood being a vehicle of the Church." Ken Driggs (2005) writes that under Johnson the council moved toward "more autocratic rule by a single leader," which the members call "one-man rule." Rulon Jeffs followed Johnson in 1986 and Warren Jeffs in 2002. Bishops lead the communities: National Geographic names Merril Jessop as "the bishop of the large chapter in West Texas." The sources used here do not give the body's own order of offices. Property was held by the United Effort Plan trust, a "united order" the body believes Joseph Smith taught.

a vehicle of the Priesthood, instead of the Priesthood being a vehicle of the Church

Men were endowed with the sealing Priesthood of Elijah with power of perpetuity, with instructions to continue the sealing blessings after the principle should be abandoned by the Church.

That power is now on earth. It is enjoyed by men who have been regularly initiated into the higher order of Priesthood

In the press, not in the body's words. NPR wrote in 2005 that "A significant means of prophet power is derived from his ability to punish followers by reassigning their wives, children and homes to another man," and the Associated Press wrote in 2026 that after 2002 "Families were broken apart by church leaders who cast out men deemed unworthy and reassigned their wives and children to others." Both are the news organizations' accounts, from former members, and neither is a statement of the body's doctrine. Johnson on the word. Driggs quotes Johnson saying "I do not believe in polygamy, and I do not like the word. The Lord does not use it." The body's own term is plural marriage.

Keeping the Lord's day for prayer, the sacraments, confession to the brethren and fasting, with preaching from the standard works; the order of a service is not published.

Truth, the Priesthood Council's magazine before its division, taught in August 1947 that the Lord's day is for worship: "To fully reap the benefits of the Sabbath one should concentrate on the spiritual requirements of life, paying 'devotion unto the Most High.'" It quoted the revelation that tells the Saints on the Lord's day to offer "oblations" and "sacraments," "confessing thy sins unto thy brethren, and before the Lord," and to prepare food "with singleness of heart that thy fasting may be perfect." The eleventh Article of Faith, as Truth printed it, claims "the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience." Driggs reports that sermons delivered from the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants were the norm for Johnson, coupled with praise of Joseph Smith, Brigham Young and John Taylor. A choir sat in the meetinghouse's stadium seating. The sources used here do not say whether the congregation sings with the choir or after it, or whether instruments are used. The sacrament prayers of Doctrine and Covenants 20, which the body holds as scripture, are addressed to "O God, the Eternal Father" "in the name of thy Son, Jesus Christ"; no source used here describes the body's other prayers.

To fully reap the benefits of the Sabbath one should concentrate on the spiritual requirements of life, paying "devotion unto the Most High."

confessing thy sins unto thy brethren, and before the Lord.

We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may.

Saturdays. The meetinghouse also held a Saturday work-project service for men, which opened with prayer (High Country News, 2016, and National Geographic, 2010). What the building was used for. The Associated Press reports that in the years of Warren Jeffs's presidency "Jeffs and his chosen men would use meetings here to evict people or give orders about what followers could wear, eat or whom they could see." That is the AP's report, from former members, and the body has not answered it in any source used here.

The gifts of the Spirit, including tongues, prophecy, visions and healing, are held to continue, along with the laying on of hands for the Holy Ghost.

Truth printed the Articles of Faith in 1945 as the fundamentalists' faith, including the seventh: "We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues, etc." and the fourth, which names "Laying on of Hands for the Gift of the Holy Ghost" among the first principles. In 1935 the magazine reprinted Wilford Woodruff's call to be "filled with the Holy Ghost." Leroy S. Johnson said, as Driggs quotes him, that "The spirit of God cannot come to a home that is ill-kept." No source used here describes tongues, healing or prophecy as they are used in a FLDS meeting, and none says who lays on hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost or when.

We believe in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues, etc.

Baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; (4) Laying on of Hands for the Gift of the Holy Ghost.

until we are filled with the Holy Ghost and 'the Spirit of inspiration, which is the light of Christ

The Saints will be judged, raised to one of three degrees of glory, and the highest requires the Celestial Law; Zion will be built in America and Christ will reign on earth.

Truth printed the tenth Article of Faith in 1945, before the council divided: "that Zion will be built upon this (the American) continent; that Christ will reign personally upon the earth; and, that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory." In 1935 it warned that "the hour of God's judgment is at the door," and that "Thrones will be cast down, nations will be overturned, anarchy will reign, all legal barriers will be broken down." Leroy S. Johnson taught that "there are three heavens or degrees," and asked the men of his congregation, "Are you training those wives so they will be in harmony with you and take you into the highest degree of the Celestial Glory and give eternal increase?" The same editorial held that "compliance with the law is necessary to obtain the highest exaltation in the kingdom of God." Driggs reports Johnson teaching that, for a sealed plural family that lived obediently, only the husbands could "bring . . . forth" their wives on the morning of the resurrection.

We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes; that Zion will be built upon this (the American) continent; that Christ will reign personally upon the earth; and, that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory.

yet compliance with the law is necessary to obtain the highest exaltation in the kingdom of God.

there are three heavens or degrees.

Plural marriage as the Celestial Law

Celestial marriage is eternal marriage, plural marriage is a necessary part of it, and compliance is necessary to the highest exaltation.

Truth wrote in 1945, before the council divided: "Celestial marriage, as the term implies, contemplates marriage for eternity and that plural marriage is a necessary element thereof." It added that entering the order "is strictly voluntary on the part of the adherents, yet compliance with the law is necessary to obtain the highest exaltation in the kingdom of God." Warren Jeffs, the body's president, read the same teaching from a written statement in a Texas court on 29 July 2011, as the Christian Science Monitor reported: "If we do not live these laws we are damned here and hereafter." The body calls it plural marriage and the Celestial Law. Leroy S. Johnson said he did not like the word polygamy.

Celestial marriage, as the term implies, contemplates marriage for eternity and that plural marriage is a necessary element thereof.

If we do not live these laws we are damned here and hereafter

Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

And he answered and said, Have ye not read, that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh? So that they are no more two, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

The bishop therefore must be without reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, orderly, given to hospitality, apt to teach;

For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as angels in heaven.

Marriage in Scripture starts with one man and one woman: "shall cleave unto his wife" (Genesis 2:24). Jesus took his hearers back to that beginning and said, "What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder" (Matthew 19:6). Overseers must be "the husband of one wife" (1 Timothy 3:2), which makes one wife the apostolic pattern. Jesus also taught that "in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage" (Matthew 22:30), so a marriage made "for eternity" answers a question he had already answered. To bind plural marriage as a necessary part of the highest glory adds to the law of Christ a requirement he never gave, and the condition of damnation placed on those who do not keep it has no word in the New Testament behind it.

What the verdict does not say. It does not weigh the people who hold the belief. The Texas appeals court wrote in 2008 that the belief system "by itself" does not put children in danger. The weighing is of the doctrine. Voluntary and necessary. The body says entering plural marriage is voluntary and also that it is necessary for the highest exaltation. This chart weighs both halves: a rule that cannot be disobeyed without a loss of glory is a rule that binds.

The 1886 revelation to John Taylor

A revelation said to have been given on the night of 26-27 September 1886 is held to bind the Church above its own Manifesto.

Truth printed the revelation in February 1942, under the heading "Revelation to President John Taylor. Given at the Home of John W. Woolley, Centerville, Utah, September 26-27, 1886." In it the Lord is made to say: "All commandments that I give must be obeyed by those calling themselves by my name, unless they are revoked by me or by my authority." And "those who will enter into my glory must obey the conditions thereof." Fundamentalists hold that Taylor then set apart several men to keep plural marriage alive, and that this authority passed to the Priesthood Council; Driggs writes that the Johnson group "traces its priesthood authority from an 1886 vision." The larger church does not hold that this revelation binds it: its essay says that "The beginning and end of the practice were directed by revelation through God's prophets." The text used here is the one Truth printed in 1942, before the council divided. The Church History Library published the original in June 2025, and historian Benjamin E. Park writes that it "matches the photographed text that has circulated in the fundamentalist community"; it was not compared word for word for this chart.

those who will enter into my glory must obey the conditions thereof

God, having of old time spoken unto the fathers in the prophets by divers portions and in divers manners, hath at the end of these days spoken unto us in his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds;

Beloved, while I was giving all diligence to write unto you of our common salvation, I was constrained to write unto you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered unto the saints.

But though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach unto you any gospel other than that which we preached unto you, let him be anathema. As we have said before, so say I now again, If any man preacheth unto you any gospel other than that which ye received, let him be anathema.

The writer of Hebrews says that God "hath at the end of these days spoken unto us in his Son" (Hebrews 1:2), and Jude calls the faith one "once for all delivered unto the saints" (Jude 1:3). Paul puts under a curse any gospel beyond what the apostles preached, even one brought by "an angel from heaven" (Galatians 1:8). A revelation given to a church president in 1886, and said to outrank the church's own later decision, is exactly the kind of word those verses close the door on. Two bodies that both hold that revelation continues reach opposite answers about the same church, one saying the practice ended by revelation and the other that it was commanded to continue, and only the closed word of the apostles can settle between them.

The Priesthood Council and one-man rule

A council of High Priest Apostles holds sealing authority, led by one president whose word the body follows.

The council began in 1929 under Lorin C. Woolley. Johnson, in his sermons, taught that the priesthood is above the church. Driggs (2005) writes that under him the council moved toward "more autocratic rule by a single leader," which the members call "one-man rule." A written statement Warren Jeffs read in a Texas court on 29 July 2011 went on: "I, the Lord God of heaven, call upon the court to cease this prosecution against my pure, holy way" (Christian Science Monitor, 30 July 2011). Truth, before the division, wrote in 1942 that the sealing power "is enjoyed by men who have been regularly initiated into the higher order of Priesthood." Rulon Jeffs's 1997 book on the succession of the priesthood is titled to include "some challenges to the one man rule," and was not found.

The elders therefore among you I exhort, who am a fellow-elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, who am also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: Tend the flock of God which is among you, exercising the oversight, not of constraint, but willingly, according to the will of God; nor yet for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as lording it over the charge allotted to you, but making yourselves ensamples to the flock.

But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your teacher, and all ye are brethren. And call no man your father on the earth: for one is your Father, even he who is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters: for one is your master, even the Christ.

and he put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the church,

holding to the faithful word which is according to the teaching, that he may be able both to exhort in the sound doctrine, and to convict the gainsayers.

Peter, an apostle, called himself "a fellow-elder" and told the elders to tend the flock "neither as lording it over the charge allotted to you" (1 Peter 5:1, 3). Jesus said, "one is your teacher, and all ye are brethren" (Matthew 23:8). There is one head, for God "gave him to be head over all things to the church" (Ephesians 1:22). An overseer is to hold "to the faithful word which is according to the teaching" (Titus 1:9), which makes him a keeper of the apostles' word and not a source of new doctrine. A council whose president speaks for God and whose word the members follow sets a man where Christ stands, and a priesthood said to stand above the church sets a few men above their brethren.

The United Order

Members consecrate what they have to the church, and it is given out by the church according to need.

Truth in 1945 named "the United Order (or the Order of Enoch)" with plural marriage among "the higher principles of the gospel." The body put the principle into practice in the United Effort Plan trust of 1942. FOX 13 describes the trust as "originally created under the early-Mormon concept of a 'united order,' where members consecrate what they have to the church and it's doled out according to wants and needs." The trust held nearly all the land and homes at Short Creek until a Utah court took charge of it in 2005.

Among the higher principles of the gospel are those of the United Order (or the Order of Enoch) and the Order of Celestial or Plural Marriage

And all that believed were together, and had all things common; and they sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all, according as any man had need.

While it remained, did it not remain thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thy power? How is it that thou hast conceived this thing in thy heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.

Let each man do according as he hath purposed in his heart: not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.

The first church shared freely: "all that believed were together, and had all things common" (Acts 2:44). But it did so by the free act of each person. Peter told Ananias that the land had never ceased to be his own: "did it not remain thine own?" (Acts 5:4). Paul wrote that each is to give "not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver" (2 Corinthians 9:7). The body's intent follows the first church's sharing, and that is to its credit. The difference is in the form. The title to the homes and land was held in a trust by the council's trustees as a rule of the body, and not given house by house as each person chose. A gift made a standing condition is no longer the free gift of Jerusalem, and the fourteen years of litigation over the trust show what that form can cost.

The test is the same for every body: what the New Testament shows the first-century church doing and teaching, set beside what the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints holds. The body has no lane on this site's lineage chart. It holds added scripture and takes doctrine from a living office, so it stands outside the rule that draws only the bodies appealing to the same Scriptures. Its five placements are therefore authored on the lineage rubric's rungs, in the same way and with the same reasons as for the larger church, and each gives its reason. Where the sources are silent, the placement says so. The verdicts weigh doctrine and office. They do not weigh any person, and the findings of the courts are kept in History.

Every scripture inspired of God is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness: that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work.

I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto them, God shall add unto him the plagues which are written in this book: and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the tree of life, and out of the holy city, which are written in this book.

The body keeps the Bible and prints the Ten Commandments among its beliefs, and that is to its credit. But it binds the standard works and the word of a living prophet beside the Bible, and the Bible says it is complete: Scripture makes "the man of God" "furnished completely unto every good work" (2 Timothy 3:17), the faith was "once for all delivered unto the saints" (Jude 1:3), and a gospel beyond the apostles' is under a curse: "let him be anathema" (Galatians 1:8). On the rubric an additional book and continuing revelation take the last rung for the rule of faith, and the rule Truth printed for the movement in 1945, that the ordinances may be added to or taken from by "revelation from the Lord given through His constituted authority on earth," takes the last rung for the silence of Scripture, since an office supplies what the text does not say. The teaching it binds takes the last rung too: a Celestial Law, necessary to the highest exaltation, that no New Testament writer taught. The placement is therefore the far end, the same as for the larger church, which holds the same canon, with the added claim that a revelation of 1886 outranks a later decision.

The cup. The movement's magazine argued in 1938 for wine in the sacrament, which is nearer the Lord's words than the water the larger church uses. No source shows what the FLDS now uses, so the Supper placement does not rest on it. What the verdict does not say. It does not weigh the sincerity of the members. John's warning is about the book: "If any man shall add unto them, God shall add unto him the plagues which are written in this book" (Revelation 22:18).

And Peter said unto them, Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Or are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.

And as they went on the way, they came unto a certain water; and the eunuch saith, Behold, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they both went down into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.

Else what shall they do that are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why then are they baptized for them? why do we also stand in jeopardy every hour?

On the printed teaching the body stands close to the New Testament in how it baptizes. It confesses faith, repentance and baptism by immersion for the remission of sins, the pattern of Acts 2:38, and the picture of a burial, "buried therefore with him" (Romans 6:4); on the rubric that is the line for the mode and for the purpose. It sets the age at eight, which blurs "believers only" a little, and Truth taught in 1949, before the division, that the gospel is preached to the dead and that vicarious work is done for them in temples. In the New Testament the one baptized is the one who asks and answers for himself: "what doth hinder me to be baptized?" (Acts 8:36), and Paul names a baptism for the dead only to prove the resurrection: "Else what shall they do that are baptized for the dead?" (1 Corinthians 15:29). On that teaching the subject of baptism takes the rung it takes for the larger church, and the placement is one step from the line; it rests on the teaching, since no source describes a baptism, living or proxy, as the body now performs it.

Credit. The body keeps the mode and the purpose of Acts 2:38 and Romans 6 in its printed teaching, and Johnson preached baptism "for the remission of sins" as the door. Not charged twice. The Celestial Law that baptism leads into is weighed under authority and the plural-marriage distinctive. Limit of the record. An Associated Press visit to the meetinghouse in 2019 found a baptismal font. No source used here says who baptizes, or at what age children are baptized now.

And upon the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul discoursed with them, intending to depart on the morrow; and prolonged his speech until midnight.

And he took a cup, and gave thanks, and gave to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many unto remission of sins. But I say unto you, I shall not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.

For I received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which he was betrayed took bread; and when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, This is my body, which is for you: this do in remembrance of me. In like manner also the cup, after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood: this do, as often as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink the cup, ye proclaim the Lord’s death till he come.

But let a man prove himself, and so let him eat of the bread, and drink of the cup.

The prayers the body holds as revealed keep the Supper a memorial, "in remembrance of the body of thy Son" and "of the blood of thy Son," with the petition "that they may always have his Spirit to be with them" (Doctrine and Covenants 20:77, 79). On the rubric that is a memorial with a strong sense of spiritual presence, as for the larger church, one step from the line. The apostles' example is "upon the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread" (Acts 20:7), and the Lord "took a cup" and said "Drink ye all of it" (Matthew 26:27); no source says on which day or how often the FLDS now keeps the Supper, or what its cup now holds. Silence moves a placement neither way, so those two questions are not scored and the placement rests on the one the sources answer.

The cup in print. Truth argued in 1938 that the sacramental cup is wine, which agrees with the Lord's "this fruit of the vine" (Matthew 26:29), but it also granted that the Lord "permitted a substitute for wine," so the teaching does not settle what is used. The day in print. The revelation the magazine printed in 1947 names "my holy day" and "the Lord's day" for the sacraments; reading that as the first day of the week would not change the placement. Self-examination. Paul's rule is that "a man prove himself, and so let him eat of the bread, and drink of the cup" (1 Corinthians 11:28). No source says how the body applies it.

And when they had appointed for them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they had believed.

Take heed unto yourselves, and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit hath made you bishops, to feed the church of the Lord which he purchased with his own blood.

The pattern in each church was a plurality of elders: Paul and Barnabas "appointed for them elders in every church" (Acts 14:23), and Peter called himself "a fellow-elder" (1 Peter 5:1). The body has a Priesthood Council over bishops of the communities, and over the council one president called the prophet. On the rubric a universal head over the bishops takes the last rung for the eldership, a hierarchy ending in one office takes the last rung for autonomy, since the community's land and homes were held in a trust under the council, and an ordained order holding powers the members do not takes the next to last for clergy and laity. The guide asks that an office that binds doctrine of its own on the members move one step further from the line. This placement is already at the far end, so there is nowhere further to move it, and the reason is given here: Titus 1:9 makes the overseer a keeper of "the faithful word which is according to the teaching," not a source of new teaching.

What is not weighed. The reports of reassignments of wives and children belong to the news organizations that made them and are not used as the ground of the verdict. The verdict is of the structure. Credit. The council's magazine stated its claim to authority openly and traces it to named men, which lets it be weighed.

speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts unto God.

What is it then, brethren? When ye come together, each one hath a psalm, hath a teaching, hath a revelation, hath a tongue, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying.

The sacrament prayers of Doctrine and Covenants 20, which Truth in 1938 said "The Lord, Himself, revealed," are fixed words, a mandated form the New Testament does not give. They are addressed to "O God, the Eternal Father" "in the name of thy Son, Jesus Christ," which is the apostolic pattern of prayer through Christ, and the magazine told the Saints to confess their sins "unto thy brethren," the duty James names: "Confess therefore your sins one to another" (James 5:16). How the congregation sings is not shown: a choir sat in the hall, but Paul's picture is "speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs" (Ephesians 5:19), and the sources do not say whether the congregation sings or whether instruments are used, so music is not scored. On the two questions the sources answer, the placement is near the line, the same as the larger church's, and silence does not move it.

Limit of the record. The Associated Press and National Geographic describe the hall and the Saturday gatherings, and the body has not published an order of worship. The Saturday work-project service is a gathering for labor, not the assembly, and is not charged. This placement is provisional on that account.

Now when the apostles that were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John: who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Spirit: for as yet it was fallen upon none of them: only they had been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. Now when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money,

how shall we escape, if we neglect so great a salvation? which having at the first been spoken through the Lord, was confirmed unto us by them that heard; God also bearing witness with them, both by signs and wonders, and by manifold powers, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to his own will.

Love never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall be done away; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall be done away.

being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief corner stone;

The body holds that the gifts named in the New Testament, "tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions, healing," are present today, and it gives the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands after baptism. Scripture ties both to the apostles. In Samaria "through the laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Spirit was given" (Acts 8:18), and the message was "confirmed unto us by them that heard," "God also bearing witness with them, both by signs and wonders" (Hebrews 2:3-4). Paul says "whether there be tongues, they shall cease" (1 Corinthians 13:8), and the church stands on "the foundation of the apostles and prophets" (Ephesians 2:20), which is laid once. A body that claims a living prophet and a revelation of 1886 stands on a floor the apostles did not lay. The placement is the same as the larger church's for the same teaching. The sources do not show how any gift is exercised.

Credit. The movement's magazine called its readers to be filled with the Holy Ghost, which is better than a church that has forgotten him. The weighing falls on what is claimed in his name.

Marvel not at this: for the hour cometh, in which all that are in the tombs shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment.

And inasmuch as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this cometh judgment;

And these shall go away into eternal punishment: but the righteous into eternal life.

And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.

The body looks for the judgment and the return of Christ, and in this it stands with the apostles. Its account adds to what Scripture gives. Its tenth Article of Faith binds a personal reign of Christ on the earth and a Zion built on the American continent, which the text does not state. Jesus speaks of two resurrections, "unto the resurrection of life" and "unto the resurrection of judgment" (John 5:29), and two ends, "eternal punishment" and "eternal life" (Matthew 25:46). The body, through Leroy S. Johnson, teaches three degrees of glory, with the highest open only to those who keep the Celestial Law. Scripture says "it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this cometh judgment" (Hebrews 9:27); the movement's magazine also taught work for the dead. John saw the New Jerusalem "coming down out of heaven from God" (Revelation 21:2). The same placement as the larger church's is used, and the condition of plural marriage for the highest glory is weighed under authority and not charged again here.

Limits of the record. The sources do not say how the body describes the final state of those outside it.

The body holds much that the New Testament holds. Truth printed in 1945, as the fundamentalists' faith, "We believe in God, the Eternal Father, and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost." It teaches baptism by immersion for the remission of sins, in the pattern of Acts 2:38 and Romans 6, as Truth stated and Johnson preached. The movement's magazine argued for the cup of the Lord's Supper as wine, as Jesus gave it. It calls members to keep the Lord's day, to pray, to confess sins to one another and to fast, and it counts honesty, chastity and doing good to all men as its duty in the thirteenth Article of Faith. This chart weighs doctrine and office and nothing else.

Two things are worth copying. The first is the care for one another. The United Order, in its intent, follows the first church, where "all that believed were together, and had all things common" (Acts 2:44), and members who share their goods and their work have kept something many congregations have let slip. The second is the seriousness of the Lord's day. Truth asked its readers to give the day to "devotion unto the Most High," to put aside pleasure and to seek the spiritual requirements of life.

The test falls hardest where the body is most distinct. It sets the standard works, a living prophet, a council of High Priest Apostles and a revelation of 1886 beside the Bible, and the Bible says it is complete. It binds plural marriage as a necessary condition of the highest glory, but Scripture begins with one man and one wife, and the apostles require an overseer to be "the husband of one wife" (1 Timothy 3:2). It puts the keys of the sealing priesthood in a few men and, over them, one man who speaks for God, and the New Testament knows a plurality of elders under one Head, Christ.

These verdicts rest on the text and not on the sincerity of the people, which is plain in their devotion to one another and to what they believe the Lord requires. The way back is the one the apostles left: the faith "once for all delivered unto the saints" (Jude 1:3), and the Lord's table kept, as the movement's magazine once said of the cup, as he gave it.

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