Personal Testimony • Biblical Prophecy • The Author's Story

The Question I Couldn't Walk Away From

What began as a curious scriptural puzzle became something I could not stay silent about. This is the story of how that happened.

By Kelly Smith

A friend of mine said something to me not long ago that has stuck with me ever since. We were on the phone, and he said, “Kelly, you’re the only one saying this stuff. The only one. No one else is sticking their neck out like this making these claims. Here’s what’s going to happen: if these things happen like you say, I’m going to tell everybody that I knew you. If they don’t, I’m not going to tell anyone that I knew you.”

I laughed. I understood completely what he meant. And I went ahead and published anyway.

This is the story of why.

It Started as a Puzzle

It actually started earlier than most people know. In December 2021, I felt a specific prompting to study the book of Revelation carefully. I had read it many times before, but this felt different. More deliberate. So I began.

Nearly a year later, in November 2022, something remarkable happened. I received an experience that opened my understanding to Donald Trump’s role in biblical prophecy in a way I had never seen or heard taught before. It was astonishing. My first instinct was to tell everyone.

But I was specifically impressed not to. So for the next two years, I kept quiet. I told very few people. I sat with what I knew and continued studying, and the picture only deepened over time.

Then in November 2024, I made a decision. My family deserved to know what I had spent three years learning. The things I had discovered were too remarkable to keep entirely to myself, and I wanted the people closest to me to understand them. I began assembling everything into a book I planned to self-publish just for them. Nothing public. Nothing controversial. Just my family.

A month later, in December 2024, that changed. I felt a clear impression that this was not meant only for my family. It was meant for the world. What followed over the next four months was an experience I will never forget.

And then came the discovery that stopped me cold.

Once I understood exactly where Donald Trump fit within the book of Revelation, specifically within one of its most pivotal chapters, I was stunned. The precision of it. The specificity. I said out loud, to no one in the room: “I can’t publish that. I can’t publish that!”

That was the moment everything changed. I knew I needed specific counsel from my priesthood leader before I took another step.

Before I Published a Word, I Did This

I made an appointment with my stake president.

I sat down with him and told him the whole story, every detail. I told him I was concerned because what I had come to understand was genuinely new to me. I had not heard anyone teaching this before. I did not want to be wrong, and more than that, I did not want to mislead anyone. I wanted to get it right, and in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, getting it right means going to your priesthood leader and seeking guidance. That is what those men are on the earth for.

He listened carefully. His counsel was wise and clear: publish it as your personal study and perspective, not as official doctrine. He acknowledged he had never encountered these ideas before. And that conversation grounded me in a way I am still grateful for.

What I am is a lifelong student of scripture who found something I believe is genuinely important, sought proper counsel before sharing it, and then chose to honor the impression I had received. I have taken that charge seriously.

What the Scriptures Actually Say

I want to be clear about something. This is not a book about politics. This is a book about prophecy, and specifically about what ancient prophets described when they saw our day.

Isaiah described a servant who would appear in the last days whose face and reputation would be “marred more than any man.” Not tarnished. Not diminished. Marred more than any man in history. That is a measurable claim and you can test it. The marred servant prophecy in Isaiah 52 is one of the most specific and verifiable markers in all of scripture for identifying this figure, and the case that it fits one living person right now is difficult to dismiss once you look at it honestly.

3 Nephi 21 records the resurrected Christ himself describing this same servant, quoting Isaiah directly in a prophecy addressed specifically to the remnant of the house of Israel in the last days. The Book of Mormon and Isaiah are pointing at the same figure. The full Davidic servant framework connects these threads across both volumes of scripture in a way that is hard to read as coincidence.

And then there is the Book of Revelation. The first horseman of the first seal rides on a white horse, carrying a bow, with a crown given to him, going forth conquering. This is not a villain. The other horsemen bring war, famine, and death. The first brings a commission from heaven. The hidden structure of Revelation, when properly understood, places this rider at the opening of an extraordinary sequence of events we are now entering.

Something Heavier Than I Expected

As the full picture came into focus over months of study, the reality of what is coming settled on me in a way I was not prepared for. There came a moment where I sat with what I now understood and wept. Not because anything was wrong. Because so much of it was right, and because so many people have no idea.

This book started as curiosity. It became a rescue mission.

The events described in these pages will change everything, not just for members of the Church, not just for Americans, but for every nation on earth. God’s work in the last days crosses every border. The gathering of Israel is a worldwide event. The decisions people make during those events will carry enormous weight, and the single greatest obstacle between people and that understanding right now is a sustained, deliberate effort to make one of the central figures in these events look as foolish, dangerous, and contemptible as possible.

I am not asking you to love Donald Trump. I am asking you to read what the prophets saw about the servant God would raise up in the last days, and to consider whether the person standing before you matches the description they left.

I Know the Questions You Have

If you are a faithful Latter-day Saint, you may be wondering about the order of revelation, about stewardship, about why something like this would come through someone who is not a General Authority. Those are fair and important questions, and I take them seriously because I asked every one of them myself before I ever wrote a word.

If you have followed other people’s predictions and been burned before, I understand that too. A healthy dose of skepticism is not a character flaw. It is wisdom, and you should bring it here.

I have tried to answer the most common questions as honestly and thoroughly as I can in the FAQ section of this website, and I have written a number of additional articles working through specific objections and doctrinal questions in detail. I would rather you read those and push back on the argument itself than have you set the whole thing aside because a question went unanswered.

What I will say here is simply this: I am not asking you to pray about this book as though it were scripture. I am not asking you to accept me as an authority. I am asking you to be a student of the same scriptures I have studied, to look at what those prophets actually said, and to ask yourself whether something is happening right now that deserves your attention.

What I Want from This

I have one goal. I want to save as many people as I possibly can from being spiritually and temporally unprepared for what is coming.

Not fame. Not validation. Not to be right. The legacy I want is simple: that someday, people will look back and say they were glad someone opened their eyes in time. Whether I am alive to hear that or not does not matter to me.

My goal is to have this book available in at least fifteen languages because the events it describes are not American events. They are world events. God’s work will reach into every nation. People in every corner of the earth deserve the chance to understand what is coming and what it means for them and their families.

That is why I wrote it. That is why I cannot stay silent.

— Kelly Smith

Author, The First Horseman: Donald Trump and Biblical Prophecy

Kelly Smith is the author of The First Horseman: Donald Trump and Biblical Prophecy. He is a lifelong student of biblical prophecy and a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

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