1843 polygamy revelation
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The Mormon doctrine of plural marriage was established in the 1843 polygamy revelation. It is attributed to church leader Joseph Smith, Jr. as a revelation by Jesus Christ to Smith, in which Christ proclaims a “new and an everlasting covenant” with his followers that sanctions the practice of polygamy. This was not published until 1852 in Salt Lake City, eight years after Smith's murder. Unable to produce the original document, church leader Brigham Young declared that Smith's widow Emma Hale Smith had burned it.[1] To this Emma Smith replied that she had never seen such a document, and added concerning the story that she had destroyed the original: "It is false in all its parts, made out of whole cloth, without any foundation in truth."[2] In this revelation Christ declares that anyone who rejects the new practices will suffer damnation and will not “be permitted to enter into my glory.” The document states that the first wife's consent should be sought before a man married another wife, but also declares that Christ will "destroy" the first wife if she does not consent to the plural marriage, and also demands that Smith's first wife Emma Smith accept all of Smith's plural wives. This revelation is codified in the Mormon Doctrine and Covenants, 132:1–4, 19, 20, 24, 34, 35, 38, 39, 52, 60–66 which states in part that:
Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you my servant Joseph, that inasmuch as you have inquired of my hand to know and understand wherein I, the Lord, justified my servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as also Moses, David and Solomon, my servants, as touching the principle and doctrine of their having many wives and concubines—
Behold, and lo, I am the Lord thy God, and will answer thee as touching this matter.
Therefore, prepare thy heart to receive and obey the instructions which I am about to give unto you; for all those who have this law revealed unto them must obey the same.
For behold, I reveal unto you a new and an everlasting covenant; and if ye abide not that covenant, then are ye damned; for no one can reject this covenant and be permitted to enter into my glory. …
if a man marry a wife by my word, which is my law, and by the new and everlasting covenant, and it is sealed unto them by the Holy Spirit of promise, by him who is anointed, unto whom I have appointed this power and the keys of this priesthood …
Then shall they be gods, because they have no end …
to know the only wise and true God, and Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent. I am he. Receive ye, therefore, my law. …
God commanded Abraham, and Sarah gave Hagar to Abraham to wife. And why did she do it? Because this was the law; and from Hagar sprang many people. This, therefore, was fulfilling, among other things, the promises. …
Was Abraham, therefore, under condemnation? Verily I say unto you, Nay; for I, the Lord, commanded it. …
Abraham received concubines, and they bore him children; and it was accounted unto him for righteousness, because they were given unto him, and he abode in my law; as Isaac also and Jacob did none other things than that which they were commanded; and because they did none other things than that which they were commanded, they have entered into their exaltation, according to the promises, and sit upon thrones, and are not angels but are gods.
David also received many wives and concubines, and also Solomon and Moses my servants, as also many others of my servants, from the beginning of creation until this time; and in nothing did they sin save in those things which they received not of me. …
David's wives and concubines were given unto him of me …
And let mine handmaid, Emma Smith, receive all those that have been given unto my servant Joseph …
Let no one, therefore, set on my servant Joseph; for I will justify him …
as pertaining to the law of the priesthood—if any man espouse a virgin, and desire to espouse another, and the first give her consent, and if he espouse the second, and they are virgins, and have vowed to no other man, then is he justified; he cannot commit adultery for they are given unto him; for he cannot commit adultery with that that belongeth unto him and to no one else.
And if he have ten virgins given unto him by this law, he cannot commit adultery, for they belong to him, and they are given unto him; therefore is he justified. …
[T]hen shall she believe and administer unto him, or she shall be destroyed, saith the Lord your God; for I will destroy her; … if she receive not this law … she then becomes the transgressor; and he is exempt[.]
The final portion of D&C 132:65 has been interpreted as meaning that the husband is exempt from asking for his wife's consent in the future.[3] The Mormon doctrine of plural wifes was announced by one of the Twelve Apostles Orson Pratt and Smith's sucessor Brigham Young in a special conference of the elders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints assembled in the Mormon Tabernacle on 28 August 1852, reprinted in the Deseret News Extra,[4] where Pratt announced:
I have not been in the habit of publicly speaking upon this subject and it is rather new ground to the inhabitants of the United States, not only to them, but to a portion of the inhabitants of Europe. … It is well known, however, to the congregation before me, that the Latter-day Saints have embraced the doctrine of a plurality of wives, as part of their religious faith. … I think, if I am not mistaken, that the Constitution gives the privilege to all inhabitants of this country, of the free exercise of their religious notions, and the freedom of their faith, and the practice of it. Then if it can be proven … that the Latter-day Saints have actually embraced, as a part and portion of their religion, the doctrine of a plurality of wives, it is constitutional. … There will be many who will not hearken, there will be the foolish among the wise who will not receive the new and everlasting covenant [plural marriage] in its fullness, and they never will attain to their exaltation, they never will be counted worthy to hold the sceptre of power over a numerous progeny, that shall multiply themselves without end, like the sand upon the seashore.
The doctrine was repealed on 6 October 1890 with an official announcement by Mormon president Wilford Woodruff,[5] who declared:
There is nothing in my teachings to the Church or in those of my associates, during the time specified, which can be reasonably construed to inculcate or encourage polygamy; and when any Elder of the Church has used language which appeared to convey any such teaching, he has been promptly reproved. And I now publicly declare that my advice to the Latter-day Saints is to refrain from contracting any marriage forbidden by the law of the land. … I have had some revelations of late, and very important ones to me, and I will tell you what the Lord has said to me. … The Lord has told me to ask the Latter-day Saints a question … Which is the wisest course for the Latter-day Saints to pursue—to continue to attempt to practice plural marriage, with the laws of the nation against it and the opposition of sixty millions of people, and at the cost of the confiscation and loss of all the Temples, and the stopping of all the ordinances therein, both for the living and the dead, and the imprisonment of the First Presidency and Twelve and the heads of families in the Church, and the confiscation of personal property of the people (all of which of themselves would stop the practice); or, after doing and suffering what we have through our adherence to this principle to cease the practice and submit to the law, and through doing so leave the Prophets, Apostles and fathers at home, so that they can instruct the people and attend to the duties of the Church, and also leave the Temples in the hands of the Saints, so that they can attend to the ordinances of the Gospel, both for the living and the dead? … Therefore, the Son of God felt disposed to have that thing presented to the Church and to the world for purposes in his own mind.
[edit] See also
- Group marriage
- Joseph Smith, Jr. and polygamy
- List of Latter Day Saint practitioners of plural marriage
- Polyandry
- Criticism of the Latter Day Saint movement
[edit] References
- ^ Millennial Star Supplement, Volume 15, page 30
- ^ Church History, Volume 3, page 352
- ^ Cherniak, Cetti (2007). "The Theology of Desire". Dialogue - A Journal of Mormon Thought 40.
- ^ "Minutes of conference : a special conference of the elders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints assembled in the Tabernacle, Great Salt Lake City, August 28th, 1852, 10 o'clock, a.m., pursuant to public notice", Deseret News Extra, 14 September 1852, p. 14.
- ^ Wilford Woodruff. "Official Declaration and Addresses by President Wilford Woodruff", Church of Latter Day Saints, 1890–1893.
[edit] Additional References
- Brody, Fawn (1971). No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith, 2d ed., New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
- Doctrine and Covenants, 132:1–4, 19, 20, 24, 34, 35, 38, 39, 52, 60–66
- Gordon, Sarah Barringer (2003). "A War of Words: Revelation and Storytelling in the Campaign against Mormon Polygamy". Chicago Kent Law Review 78: 739–772. University of Chicago, Kent School of Law.
- Krakauer (2003). Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith. New York: Doubleday.
