John W. Bryant (born 1946) was the founder and first leader of a Mormon fundamentalist sect that is today known as the Church of the New Covenant in Christ and is headquartered in Salem, Oregon.

Conversion to Mormonism

In 1964 Bryant was baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). As a member of the LDS Church, he served as a missionary in Japan. In the early 1970s, Bryant became convinced that the LDS Church had unjustifiably abandoned plural marriage, and joined the Apostolic United Brethren (AUB) in Utah, led by Rulon C. Allred.

Leader of polygamous sect

Beginning in 1974, Bryant began to state that he was receiving revelations from Jesus. He claimed that "John the Beloved" had visited him as an angel and instructed him to form an "Order of the Ancients". In 1975 he was taken in vision to the City of Enoch, where AUB founder Joseph White Musser and Latter Day Saint movement founder Joseph Smith, Jr. ordained him to the presidency of the church and the high priesthood.

In 1975 Bryant founded the Church of Christ Patriarchal, which was eventually renamed the Evangelical Church of Christ. Bryant received some support from some of the other members of the AUB, and in 1979 he and his followers moved to the Fair Haven Ranch near Las Vegas, Nevada. In 1981 the group moved to a farm near Salem, Oregon.

Sexual rites

Bryant was married to six wives. One of his wives, who ultimately left him, reported that Bryant began converting Mormon temple ordinances of sealing into "sexual rites".^[1] As reported by this wife,

Bryant would conduct a special "marriage ceremony before each time we had intercourse with someone we weren't married to. ... [I]f a single person were sealed into mine and John's family, then all the sexual rights of marriage existed within that unit as long as John approved." This applied to heterosexual and homosexual couplings .... the group soon attracted notoriety because of Bryant's expansion of the third level of ordinances — family sealings. He was sealed within many families, and "soon it was opened up so that sex, even incest, could be with almost anyone, anytime".^[1]

REGARDING THESE FALSE ACCUSATIONS There has been many false accusations put against the Church of Christ (Patriarchal). One such case of which I am familiar with, a reader of this site has mentioned curiosity about. Regarding this case the Church held a special conference on August 13th 1980. At that meeting a statment called "A Declaration of Faith & Practice" was approved by the body of the Church. In that article is says, "Many false and devious accusations have been brought forth against this Church of Christ by those who seek to militate against its character as a Church. The ridiculous nature of these accusations has made a reply to them seem unnecessary, but inasmuch as they grow in intensity proportional to the progress of the Church, it is deemed proper to counter falsehood with a definitive statement of the position of the Church of Christ (Patriarchal) concerning the issues which have been raised. In doing so, we do not wish to drop to the level of slander and character assasination which some have used as weapons against this Church but will confine ourselves to a discussion of principle." It goes on to say, "We do not accept any principles which were not delivered to the Church by the Lord Jesus Christ and restored in this dispensation through the Prophet Joseph Smith." "Paul declares that those who are deceived are those who 'received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie'... ...The question arises as to why some of those who have gone out from among us feel constrained to fight against the work of God using as their weapons lies, deceptions and character assasination. We can only assume that their minds have been blighted because they have rejected the truth, so that they believe the falsehoods which they perpetrate... ...To one of those who departed from us, the Lord said by the Spirit of revelation prior to his departure... ...'thou hast listened unto those who would deceive thee to draw thee away from my work; yea, even those who have rejected the fulness of my gospel for a partial law, saith the Lord. Because of this wavering on thy part, thou art in a position to be deceived for I have testified to thee of the truth of the Patriarchal Law (Polygamy) and if you turnest from that testimony, lying spirits will enter in to deceive thee and lead thee from the truth." This statment says again, "One of the sisters, moreover, moved upon by the Spirit of the Lord, prophesied to them before their departure that if they left us they would go into darkness... ...Others who were never associated with us have sold their souls to the devil by deliberately concocting lies to throw the work of God into disrepute. These feel justified because they believe that this work is not of God and they must therefore do whatever they can to stop it. Of Such the Lord has said, 'Verily, verily I say unto you, that satan has great hold upon their hearts; he stirreth them up to iniquity agains that which is good,' (KDC 36:3-4)" The Statment goes on to say, "Inasmuch as certain charges of practices which are abominations in the eyes of God have been brought against us, we reaffirm our commitment to the pure principles of the gospel of Christ... ...We denounce the practice of nudity as unbecoming a Christian. We believe the word of God which says, 'unto Adam, and also unto his wife, did I, the Lord God, make coats of skins, and clothed them.' (Genesis 3:27)... ...We interpret this in the Church of Christ to mean that the bodies of both men and women should be covered from their necks to their wrists to their ankles that they may preserve perfect modesty... ...We denounce the commission of adultery as a sin next only to murder. At a General Assembly of the Church of Christ held August 17, 1835, a declaration on Marriage was accepted as part of the Doctrine and Covenants of the Church. Concerning adulterous practices, this document declared, '...We declare that we believe, that one man should have one wife; and one woman, but one husband, except in case of death...' (KDC 101:4) This remains the law of the Church to this day. In saying this, we do not deny a man the right to take a plurality of wives under the law of the Priesthood as taught by Joseph Smith... ...Concerning a woman's having a plurality of husbands, we quote from Apostle Orson Pratt, 'So likewise a woman is limited by the law of God to ONE husband; and she has no right to suffer her lover to go beyond those limits. Her love is under the control of her agency, and it must be confined where the law of God confines it, otherwise there is transgression.' (Seer, p. 154)... ...We denounce homosexuality as a perversion of the purpose for which man was created for the first commandment given to man was to 'be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.' (Genesis 1:30) We look upon this sim as Paul who declared, 'For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections; for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature; and likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet.' (Romans 1:26-27) Likewise, the Lord declares through Moses, 'Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind; it is abomination." (Leviticus 18:22)... ...Some have been going about collecting affidavits claiming to defame this Church of Christ. This we do not find too impressive, since a man who would lie would sign his name to it. We dismiss all such with the words of the Prophet Joseph, "So it is that when men's hearts become hardened and corrupt, they will more readily swear to lies then speak the truth." (DHC 3:61)... ...We reaffirm out positive testimony that God lives, that Jesus Christ is his only Begotten Son in the flesh, our Savior and Redeemer, that Joseph Smith was called from heaven as a prophet of God to restore the fulness of the gospel to the earth and organize anew the Church of Christ..." This is the end of the article, but in closing I would like to give my personal testimony of the situation. One day I asked Leland Freeborn more about some of these accusations while standing outside with him watering his lawn. He told me there was nothing to the accusations and said further, "If there was any misconduct I didn't know anything about it." Leland then laughed and said, "that would be pretty hard considering I was the President of the Twelve Apostles and John's closest confidant." I know while reading John Bryant's revelations and translations the Spirit has affirmed to me he was a prophet of God and a righteous man. Further more, while the group lived in Navada, their was a Police investigation upon this subject. (Voice of Zion Vol.VII no.1 page 13,) says of it. "Officials say no evidence was found of sexual misconduct." Thus I believe any more absurd claims on this subject should be discarded. If you have questions contact me at, http://voiceofzion.webs.com/

Reorganization of church

By the mid-1980s over 100 members of Bryant's church had moved into the Salem area. When the church attempted to convert a barn on the farm to a church building, it was blocked by neighborhood protests. Ultimately, Bryant left the church due to internal and external difficulties, and it soon disintegrated. However, in 1985 Bryant reorganized the church into the Church of the New Covenant in Christ, with a membership of approximately 120 families.

Notes

References

• Marsha King, "Changing beliefs led family to rearrange plural union", Seattle Times, 1985-10-13
• J. Gordon Melton (1996, 5th ed.). Encyclopedia of American Religions (Detroit, Mich.: Gale) p. 569
• Steven L. Shields (1990). Divergent Paths of the Restoration (Los Angeles: Restoration Press) p. 197