I have a similar but different take on this and would appreciate any thoughts from the really hardcore exmo historians out there.



I suspect that this is just an unsophisticated idea that JS came up with to convince gullible members (which must have included most of the early saints) of whatever secret personal revelation JS wanted to lay on them. He was a con man after all.



After someone had read the revelation and was excited about the possibility of seeing an angel, all JS would have to do is send an unknown (to the recipient) accomplice to this person. The accomplice would have to act serious and �other worldly� or, if the gullible person was really dense, outright declare he was a messenger. When the person challenged the accomplice to shake his hand it wouldn�t be much of a trick to either solemnly reach out and shake his hand, or solemnly refuse. One way the gullible person would think the accomplice was an angel, the other way he would think he was a man made perfect. Either is fine.



After the gullible person found the �messenger� to respond as he had be told to expect, he would be ready to accept whatever suggestion came next, whether it be to go on a mission, give his property to the church, assassinate a church enemy or (with women) give your celestial virtue up to JS or whoever else was suggested.



The date of the revelation may give some clues to what conman Smith had in mind - Feb 9, 1843. This was during a time when he was busy collecting plural wives under cover of secrecy for him and his close inner circle and would need to both recruit wives and other men to become part of the secret club. This was a viable way to say hey, this revelation is straight from God to just you and a select few.



In further evidence that this may likely have been just a mechanism to spread his secret polygamy doctrine, the date of the revelation is fairly close to the time that D&C 132 came out re plural marriage (although not to the general membership quite yet) - July 12, 1843. Perhaps after a few months of the first approach JS had found that the recruiting one person at a time with the necessity of an accomplice unknown to the recruited was taking too long or was unnecessary. After a critical mass of people had accepted the �principle� it wouldn�t be as difficult for more gullible believers to think this wasn�t really as strange as might have been thought if JS just laid it on them earlier and said don�t tell anyone about this plural wife thing, just you and I and this other guy know.



Doesn�t this seem plausible?



If anyone is familiar with any other schemes by JS about this time or any early diaries that describe visitations by messengers about this time, I would love to hear about it.

