by Pete Earley
Jeffrey peppered his lectures with dire predictions of God’s coming wrath and destruction. He was so convincing that Milliren began tucking extra clothing into her children’s backpacks just in case Christ returned to earth while they were in school. The fact that Jeffrey was unemployed bothered Milliren. “But,” she said, “you had to admire the fact that he spent so much time studying. No one knew scriptures like Jeffrey did. He knew them and he could interpret them and even if you didn’t agree with him, you couldn’t disprove him because everything he said, he backed up with scriptures.”
Another fervent backer of Jeffrey’s was Cheryl Avery. She and her husband, Dennis, were appalled with the liberalization of the church and privately suspected that Wallace B. Smith was being led astray by Satan. Cheryl thought Jeffrey was an extraordinary teacher, so much so that others in the class began to joke that Jeffrey had become Cheryl’s “personal guru.”
In April, the delegates at the RLDS worldwide conference did exactly what the fundamentalists feared and supported a “revelation” by Smith that allowed women to be ordained. Cheryl was devastated and Jeffrey became even more belligerent in his class toward Wallace B. Smith and the church hierarchy. That June, Jeffrey taught a lesson that simply pushed the Slover Park elders too far.
“God and Christ are the same entity,” Jeffrey announced. “They are not separate and distinct personages as you have been taught by the church. If they were, then we have a very selfish God because that means He sent someone else to do His dirty work on earth and to die on the cross. It means that He let His own son die, rather than giving up His own life and saving His son’s.”
As several class members listened in horror, Jeffrey read scriptures from the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith, Jr.’s inspired version of the Bible that suggested that God and Jesus Christ were the exact same being.
“God wasn’t selfish,” Jeffrey continued. “He didn’t send His son to die on a cross. He came down Himself. He was on the cross. He was so loving that He created mankind knowing in advance that mankind would reject Him and later crucify Him.”
Jeffrey’s comments not only contradicted RLDS doctrine, they also raised questions about Joseph Smith, Jr.’s first vision. The saints had been taught that God and Jesus Christ had appeared as two separate individuals in front of Smith.
A woman in the class jumped to her feet. “Are you saying Joseph Smith was a liar? That he made up the story of his vision?” she asked.
Jeffrey tried to explain that he had discovered at least four different accounts in church archives of Smith’s first vision and each was substantially different from the others. But the woman refused to listen.
“You’re not preaching God’s word,” she yelled. “You’re preaching the devil’s.”
Georgia Milliren would later recall the trouble that Jeffrey’s lesson sparked. “I remember when he said that God and Jesus were one—it simply blew me away . . . . It was very troubling to me and others in the class.” The elders in the church told Jeffrey that he was through teaching. His class was discontinued.
As he had done when in college, Jeffrey reacted by inviting Georgia, Dennis and Tonya Patrick, Dennis and Cheryl Avery, and about six other couples to his house on Sunday afternoons for scripture classes of his own. He was not going to let anyone tell him what to preach. About fifteen people showed up. Like the Averys, most were unhappy with the RLDS.
Shortly after Jeffrey’s class was disbanded at the church, he had another vision. “I was in a room and there was a table in it that was filled with great riches and I was told to make a choice. I could take the riches and live a normal life or I could choose to go down a path and worship God. I told the Lord that I wanted to walk down that path and serve him. I rejected the world’s riches.
“The wealth suddenly disappeared and I found myself walking on a path. Dennis Patrick was there and two other personages [angels]. The path led me beside a tiny stream and there was a highway nearby and a rowdy bar where sinners were drinking and there was evil all around, but the path was light and if you stepped off it, people could grab you, but you were safe as long as you remained on it.
“While we were walking, we came to a place where there was heavy fog and I was told to reach into the fog, and I did, and I was given a set of gold plates. These were not the golden plates that Joseph had been given and had already transcribed. These were other plates that God had not yet revealed to mankind.
“God told me that He wanted the plates translated so I began searching for someone who could transcribe the plates and I went to the world church headquarters in Independence because I was going to give the plates to Wallace B. Smith to translate, but when I went into the building, God asked me why I had brought the plates there and when I told him, He told me that Smith couldn’t translate them. He told me that the church had been given the greatest truth that mankind had received but it had done the least with it and because of this, it had lost the truth.
“I continued my search but there was no one who could translate the plates. There was no one to give them to so I returned to the path and when I got there Dennis Patrick tried to wrestle the plates from me and we struggled and finally I got them loose from him.”
Neither Alice nor Jeffrey spoke for several minutes after he finished describing his vision, and then Alice asked him: “What do you think this means?”
“I’m not certain,” he replied, “but I think that it means that God wants me to bring forth some new revelation. I think it means that Wallace B. Smith is a fallen prophet and is leading the church to destruction. I think it means that Dennis Patrick will try to stop me from accomplishing my task because he will be more worried about winning the glory of the world than about winning the glory of God.”
“Jeffrey, are you telling me the truth?” Alice asked, immediately realizing that her question had insulted him. Before he could answer, she said: “Oh, I know it’s true. I’m sorry I doubted. I know it’s true because it’s exactly what I was told when I was growing up. Remember, I was told by the patriarch that I was going to marry a man whom God was going to ‘prepare to bring forth a marvelous work and wonder.”’
The next day, Jeffrey told the Patricks about his vision, but he skipped over the part about how Dennis would try to wrestle the gold plates from him.
Jeffrey seemed sincere, they later recalled. “In our tradition, visions are not uncommon and the vision that Jeffrey described was not something that either Dennis or I would have questioned or thought odd,” Tonya explained. “If you had gone to any Wednesday night prayer service that week, you probably would have seen someone stand up and talk about how God had inspired them to say something or shown them a vision. It just wasn’t that unusual.”
While the Patricks did not see Jeffrey’s account as anything spectacular, he considered it momentous. “When I had that vision, I became convinced that I would walk on an actual path someday like the one that I had seen and would actually be given or shown some sort of mysterious records. I was going to be instrumental in bringing them forth. I did not see myself as a prophet at that point, but after I had that vision, I began studying what kind of man I needed to become to be acceptable to God so that I could do what He wanted. My entire attention was focused on the prophets and how I could be like one of them.’’
One afternoon in July, Jeffrey was mowing the grass and thinking about God. “I began asking God questions in my mind. I was trying to figure all of this out and I asked, ‘What would you have me do?,’ and God put a thought in my mind. ‘The answer is already written,’ He said.”
Jeffrey shut off the lawn mower and ran inside where he grabbed his copy of the Doctrine and Covenants and began flipping pages. He stopped at Section 38.
“I got it!” he suddenly hollered. “I know what I am supposed to do!”
Jeffrey showed Alice paragraph 7b of Section 38, one of Joseph Smith, Jr.’s earliest revelations from God. In it God orders Smith to leave New York and go to Kirtland to be with Si
dney Rigdon.
For this cause I gave unto you the commandment, that you should go to the Ohio and there, I will give unto you my law and there you shall be endowed with power from on high, and from thence, whosoever I will, shall go forth among all nations, and it shall be told them what they shall do.
“We are moving to Ohio,” Jeffrey proclaimed. “We must go to the Kirtland temple because that is where the scriptures are telling me to go if I want to be endowed with the power.”
He shut the book, walked outside, and finished mowing the lawn, leaving Alice in the house dazzled. Later that night, Alice asked Jeffrey how he planned to finance the move. “God will show us,” he told her.
A few days later, Alice noticed an advertisement in a church newsletter. The RLDS was seeking volunteers to work as tour guides at the Kirtland temple. Applicants had to be financially self-sufficient because they would not receive a regular salary, but the church would provide a house and pay for the utilities.
“God is showing us the path,” Jeffrey explained. He answered the ad that same day. When asked about his finances, Jeffrey lied. He said that his parents had decided to give him his inheritance and that it was enough for his family to live on for one year without his earning a salary.
A short time later, the church offered him the job. That same day, Jeffrey received a job offer from an Independence company. He would later tell his followers that the company had offered to pay him $65,000 per year. “It was just like in my vision,” he said. “I was being given a choice. I could have the riches of the world or I could choose to go down the path that God was showing me. I chose God.”
Alice was just as certain as Jeffrey that God was leading them to Kirtland. “I told Jeffrey, ‘Don’t take that company job because if you do, it will be the only reward you will have in life.’ The Lord wanted us in Kirtland.”
Jeffrey decided they needed $1,500 to move. He began selling his gun collection and ordered Alice to sell her antiques. He borrowed $600 from various church members and asked his parents for a donation as well. “I wrote my parents a fifteen-page letter describing why I was going to Kirtland, citing all the scriptural references.” Don and Jeffrey’s grandfather, Alva Gadberry, responded by coming to Jeffrey’s house. “Grandfather Gadberry told me that God was not calling me to Kirtland, Satan was. He warned me against going and told me that I would be following the devil if I did.”
When Jeffrey broke the news to the group who met at his house each Sunday afternoon for class, Cheryl Avery and Georgia Milliren immediately suggested that they have a going-away picnic at a nearby park for Jeffrey and Alice. About ten couples came to say goodbye. They gave $120 to Jeffrey and Alice as a going-away present. Georgia wanted the group to get up early the next morning and surprise the Lundgrens by waiting at the outskirts of town and waving to them when they drove past. But she decided that the class might not spot them on the busy highway so she dropped the idea.
Dennis Avery told Jeffrey that he admired his dedication. “This is so exciting,” Cheryl said. “You’ve got to tell us what you find there.” Alice was crying by the time the picnic ended. Dennis and Tonya followed them back to their house for a final goodbye.
Jeffrey told Dennis that he was still $50 short of the $1,500 that he needed to raise. As they were talking, someone knocked on the door. “We had an old washer and dryer sitting on the porch and this couple had seen them and our garage-sale sign and had come up to buy them,” Jeffrey recalled. “They gave us fifty dollars.’’
Once again, Jeffrey saw God at work.
The next morning, Jeffrey, Alice, and their children climbed into their old station wagon. All of their possessions were in a U- Haul trailer that they were going to tow. Jeffrey would later recall how he felt that morning. “Everyone considered me a failure. My father, my mother, even Alice, because I had not accumulated a bunch of possessions or stayed at one job. But it suddenly dawned on me why. God had been trying to get my attention. He didn’t want me to succeed at all those other jobs. He wanted me to fail so that I would eventually come to Him and do what He wanted me to do. In fact, I believe that He caused me to fail.
“I had been created for one purpose and it wasn’t working in a hospital. I loved the scriptures and everyone told me that I knew them better that anyone. Why? Because it was all part of His plan.’’
As they left Independence, Jeffrey knew that he was not going to fail this time. He would prove to Don, to Lois, to his grandparents, and to Alice and everyone else who had ever doubted him that he was not a loser. He was special and important.
“The Lord had chosen me—me—for a great mission. He hadn’t chosen them. He hadn’t given my father this vision. He hadn’t given it to Wallace B. Smith. He had chosen me. I truly believed that and I saw this as a new adventure, a new start. We were going down God’s path and I wasn’t going to let Him down.
“I was going to do whatever God commanded.”
PART TWO
Prophet
Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams . . .
Deuteronomy 13:3
Chapter 13
THE first white settler in Kirtland arrived in May 1811 from Berkshire County, Massachusetts, aboard an ox-drawn covered wagon. Legend has it that he built his log cabin along the Indian trail that he had followed through the dense woods and rocky inclines of northern Ohio. Those who came later also built their cabins next to this Indian trail and over time, a town emerged. It was not a carefully platted community with neat square blocks. Rather, it grew haphazard much like wild flowers sprouting next to a meandering stream. Wherever the ground was level enough for a house, one was built. Today, most homes and shops face this same trail that once Erie Indians walked. It is officially designated on maps as State Highway 306. But the five-mile section that runs through Kirtland is called Chillicothe Road by the locals. It’s the town’s de facto main street. Beginning in the north, the narrow two-way blacktop guides motorists past a dilapidated red brick combination city hall and police department, a smattering of shops, Kirtland’s public schools, a well-tended football field, and a failed Dog & Suds restaurant now painted dark brown with boarded up windows. Farther south it passes the entrance of Chapin Forest, a large park and nature reserve, before it finally intersects with State Highway 6 near the end of the city limits. The Kirtland cemetery is located adjacent to this one-stoplight interchange; so is a feed store and Lupica’s Country Corner, which promises customers genuine Amish-made cheese and hand-packed fruit baskets.
There is no McDonald’s in Kirtland, no local movie theater, no bowling alley, no Wal-Mart with discount prices. But the town does have churches—ten of them at last count, including six that broke off from either the Baptist or Mormon denominations. About halfway through town, a sign proclaims JESUS SAVES. It was not erected by any religious group. It was made by a Kirtland man who stuck it in his front yard much as a realtor puts up a For Sale sign. On the outskirts of Kirtland, the city council has erected welcome signs that describe Kirtland as a community of “faith and beauty.”
On August 19, 1984, Jeffrey Lundgren and his family turned onto State Highway 306, the last leg of their move from Independence to Kirtland. They had been traveling on Interstate 90, a restless major east-west thoroughfare that runs parallel to the southern shoreline of Lake Erie and connects Cleveland with the myriad of bedroom communities to its east. Had Jeffrey turned left when he exited the bustling interstate, he would have driven into Mentor, a sister-city to Kirtland, and a much larger and more prosperous mecca of strip zoning. Mentor is everything that Kirtland has avoided: neon-lighted fast-food eateries, budget hotels, and sprawling shopping malls. But Jeffrey had turned right and bypassed Mentor. The Lundgrens’ car had swooped down a steep hill and crossed the bridge that spans the eastern branch of the Chagrin River where Sidney Rigdon first baptized Mormon converts. As their station wagon sputtered up the incline on the southern bank, Jeffrey gazed through the windshield at a si
ght that brought tears to his eyes and caused Alice to whisper a quick “Praise God!”
The “House of the Lord” towered before them, its white walls glistening in the afternoon sun as light reflected off the slivers of broken china mixed in the exterior stucco. Joseph Smith, Jr., had chosen this location on the northern tip and highest hill in Kirtland because he wanted the Gentiles in Mentor, which even in the early 1830s was considered a much more worldly place than Kirtland, to see the kerosene lamps burning inside the temple at night. Like a lighthouse beacon, the church would pierce the darkness and silently witness to the world that God’s “only true church” was standing watch and eagerly awaiting Jesus Christ’s imminent return.
A one-story clapboard building identified as the VISITORS’ CENTER was located a few hundred feet from the temple’s front doors. Directly across Chillicothe Road from the temple was the red-brick Kirtland RLDS Church and next to that building was a large house where Sidney Rigdon had once lived.
Eleanor Lord was the first to welcome the Lundgrens when Jeffrey stepped into the visitors’ center, causing a bell dangling from the door to jingle. She and her husband, Bill, were in charge of the temple staff, although there really wasn’t much of one to oversee. Besides the Lords, there was another retired couple who gave tours, and during summer months, three or four college students were paid by the church to help out.
An attractive, gracious woman in her mid-sixties, Eleanor explained with a bit of embarrassment that Bill was running an errand and she didn’t know where he had left the keys for the church- provided house where the Lundgrens would live. It was a two-story house, circa 1950, built right next to the visitors’ center. Like all of the other temple property, it was painted white. Jeffrey didn’t want to wait for Bill, so he jimmied open a window and Damon crawled through and unlocked the doors. Alice almost began to cry when she stepped inside. “We discovered the church was a slumlord,” Jeffrey later recalled.