Book of The Law of The Lord - James J. Strang

James J. Strang

James J. Strang was a lawyer and newspaper editor from New York who converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in 1844. Shortly after his baptism, Joseph Smith, Jr., founder of the church, was murdered by a mob. Upon Smith's death, a number of individuals came forward claiming a divine mandate to lead his church, including Strang. As a recent convert, Strang did not possess the name recognition among rank-and-file Mormons held by Brigham Young and Sidney Rigdon (two other contenders for LDS leadership). Hence, he faced an "uphill" battle in his quest to be recognized as the heir to Smith's prophetic mantle.

To advance his cause, Strang asserted that unlike Rigdon and Young, he had hard evidence of his prophetic calling. In September 1845, he announced the discovery of the Voree Record, the final testament of an ancient Native American engraved on three brass plates dug up near Voree, Wisconsin, his headquarters at the time. However, Strang's claims to possession of divinely-revealed ancient records, and the ability to correctly translate them, did not end there. In 1851, he proclaimed the publication of the Book of the Law of the Lord, a far more substantial work.