White Horse Prophecy

The White Horse Prophecy is an influential, disputed version of a statement made by Latter Day Saint movement founder Joseph Smith in May 1843 on the future role of his followers in saving an endangered US Constitution. It was written down by one of Smith's adherents Edwin Rushton in an undated document, possibly ten years after, and separately recorded by follower James Burgess. Rushton's record of Smith's original statement predicts that the US Constitution will one day "hang by a thread" but be saved by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), "by the efforts of the White Horse." According to Rushton's retelling of the prophecy, LDS adherents would "go to the Rocky Mountains and... be a great and mighty people," associating them with one of the biblical four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in the Book of Revelation. One source from the LDS Church's largest university Brigham Young University (BYU) believes the Rushton document was written after 1890.

On the basis of either Rushton's version or Smith's original statement, some critics of Mormonism and some Mormon folklore doctrine enthusiasts hold that Mormons should expect that the US will eventually become a theocracy dominated by the LDS Church. The idea that LDS members will at one or more times take action to save an imperiled US Constitution has since been restated by numerous top LDS leaders. Three years prior to the 1843 statement, Smith had similarly predicted the constitution would someday be "on the brink of ruin", but be saved by his followers. As to the Rushton version of the Prophecy, the Church stated in 2010 that "the so-called 'White Horse Prophecy'... is not embraced as Church doctrine". Numerous denominations within Mormon fundamentalists continue to preach the doctrine, and it remains influential in conservative Mormon political discussion, with multiple top LDS leaders citing similar teachings into modernity.