“A history of Alpheus Cutler stated: ‘Joseph Smith revealed to Alpheus Cutler, by revelation, that a sign of “two crescent moons with their backs together” would be seen by him when the proper time to reorganize the church had arrived.’ Since 1833 Cutler had served on the building committee for temples in Kirtland and Nauvoo. In 1843 Smith initiated him into the little-known Anointed Quorum. In March 1844 Cutler was a founding member in the prophet’s theocratic Council of Fifty.”

D. Michael Quinn, Early Mormonism and the Magic World View (Salt Lake City, UT: Signature Books, 1998), 274.