HOW TO EFFECTIVELY WITNESS
TO THE CULTS
How To Effectively Witness To The Cults
"But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is within you with meekness and fear." 1 Peter 3:15
One of the greatest helps to witness the truth of Christ to those in false religions and the cults is our knowledge of the scriptures. Very few of those that profess Christ are ready to "give an answer" even though they may know the basic doctrines of the Bible. The scripture tells us in 1 Peter 3:15, "But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:" Most of God's people know more of the T.V Guide and the sports page than the Word of God and that is a fact! People all over the land are going to hell and it is imperative that we, as believers in Christ, as blood-washed saints, KNOW the scriptures and have the answers for those that are lost and that includes the Mormon and the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Christian Scientist, and the Catholic! In fact I believe we need to be even more ready with answers for those people because they are leading countless tens and hundreds of thousands into a Christ-less eternity! If one member of those groups repented of their sin and false doctrine and genuinely turned to the TRUE Christ of the Bible for salvation, imagine how many might not be led into error! It is time God's people got the Word of God in their hearts like never before! All across America there are Bible Believers, yet many have only shallow answers concerning the doctrines of the Bible. Do we truly desire to witness effectively or are we just doing our duty. Sure we are to rebuke those in error but would we really like to see them come to Christ. If you are serious about this and you know that you lack in this area, then get on your knees now and commit to the Lord that you will work to have these answers for those that are lost and particularly, for those that are in the cults. And brethren, while I may not possess all the answers, as a former member of the Mormon church, and having been saved now for 30 years and witnessing to cult members since that time, I would like to share a few pointers that I believe will be helpful. 1. Use the Bible. As simple as this may sound, if you just tell a Jehovah's Witness that you believe Jesus is God, you are virtually ineffective. What they hear is a person's opinion. The power is the Word or God (Hebrews 4:12)! The ideal of course is to open the scriptures with them, that is why I try to always have one with me or nearby at all times. But when you do not have one available QUOTE THE WORD OF GOD. That is the authority is it not? When a Christian quotes scripture and does it authoritatively, there is a power present that is able to cut through man's opinions and beliefs. The Holy Spirit of God can work in someone's heart in an unexplainable way when the Word of God is utilized. I know it takes time and effort to memorize and know the addresses for the passages but I am talking of being an effective witness! Is not their soul worth it? 2. Know the doctrines of the Bible so well that immediately scriptures come to mind when a doctrine is challenged. A bank employee studies a genuine bill so intensely, that when a counterfeit is put through their hands, it is instantly discovered. That ought to be the way with God's people concerning doctrine. Yet even beyond that, is thatwhen a false teaching is heard, the corresponding scriptures to counter that false teaching enter our mind without hesitation. Simply put, the reason why Christians do not have this reaction-style evangelism is because they do not put forth the effort! Think of this, if a person was to memorize two verses a week, by the end of the year over 100 scriptures would be know!
And repitition brings familiarity! Look over the verses and references constantly. And there are many different ways to becoming accustomed to matching certain scripture passages to the relating doctrine. When I first got saved, I used index cards and labeled them at the top by category. For example, I would have a card with salvation written at the top and then as many scriptures as I could fit that had to do directly with salvation, such as Eph. 2:8,9, Romans 4:5, Romans 5:1 etc. The verse would be written out in it's entirety and then the address would be at the end of it. Some people utilize notebooks, others surely have different methods and you may find a more original way that no one has used yet. But the key is to do it! When says the very word, "deity of Christ" get to where you instantly think, "John 1:1, 10:30, Isaiah 9:6, Zech. 12:10 w John 19:37 etc. When you hear someone speak of being good enough to go to heaven, let your mind be filled with passages such as Eph. 2:8-10, Romans 4:5, Eccl. 7:20 etc. 3. Stay with the passages and conside the text. The cults love to go quickly from verse to verse. Be sure not to allow them to tell you what a passage means without carefully examining the verse and the surrounding text. Mormon's and Jehovah's Witnesses in particular are trained to do this, yet most only know about 60 passages of the Bible. 4. Be Firm! This is one area many fail at. If they incorrectly state what a scripture means tell them boldly they are
wrong and give them the proper interpretation! It isn't how they see it
or you see it, the question is - What does it say! Do not allow them
to intimidate you, you have the truth if you have a King James Bible and
you are born again! 5. Go in the power of the Holy Spirit of God!
Probably the most important point brethren. Remember that you are
faithfully witnessing for Christ, He is present! The Holy Ghost needs
to convict and work and He can do far more good than any flesh-filled
witness. Make sure you are right with the Lord, and have no unconfessed
(and unrepented) sin, ask for His power and go
Temple
Tour
.
Preparing for your
Temple Tour by mrm.org
New Name
Another
unique aspect of the Mormon temple ritual are the special names given to
patrons. All men participating in the temple on a given day are given the same
name. The same is true for the women. Normally they are names found in either
the Bible or Book of Mormon. Historically, Mormon leaders have
taught that the husband has the ability to call his wife from the grave on the
resurrection day by using this special name. According to Charles Penrose, who
later became a First Counselor to President Heber J. Grant, “In the resurrection,
they stand side by side and hold dominion together. Every man who overcomes all
things and is thereby entitled to inherit all things, receives power to bring
up his wife to join him in the possession and enjoyment thereof” (Mormon
Doctrine Plain and Simple,
1888,
p.51). You might wish to ask your tour guide what happens to the wife should
the husband forget her temple name.
Endowment Room
Your
temple tour will include a stop in one of several ordinance rooms. These have
the appearance of a mini-movie theater. Here patrons watch a film on the Mormon
view of the creation and fall of man. It is in one of these rooms where patrons
will be taught secret handshakes and passwords known as “tokens” and
“keywords.” It is very necessary that the Mormon memorize these handshakes and
passwords, otherwise they will not be able to gain entrance into the presence
of their God. Second LDS President Brigham Young taught, “Your endowment is, to
receive all those ordinances in the house of the Lord, which are necessary for
you, after you have departed this life, to enable you to walk back to the presence
of the Father, passing the angels who stand as sentinels, being enabled to give
them the key words, the signs and tokens, pertaining to the holy Priesthood,
and gain your eternal exaltation in spite of earth and hell” (Discourses of
Brigham Young, p.416).
You
may wish to ask your tour guide to explain to your group the use of these
tokens and keywords. You might also ask your guide where in the Bible it
teaches that entrance into heaven depends on secret handshakes or passwords.
Isn’t faith in Christ enough?
Sealing Room
Marriage
is very important in Mormon theology. In fact, it is only by being married that
a Mormon can hope to get the best his religion has to offer. Brigham Young taught
that if a man wishes to be saved, “he cannot be saved without a woman by his
side” (Cited in Kimball’s The Miracle of Forgiveness, p.245). However, a
marriage that ends at death is unacceptable to most Mormons since they are
taught to believe that marriage can extend beyond the grave by being sealed
together for “time and eternity.” This ritual takes place in what I known as a
“sealing room.” Sealing rooms are rather small in comparison to some of the
other rooms in Mormon temples. They consist of several chairs surrounding a
kneeling bench in the middle of the room. You will also notice mirrors on the
walls that are strategically placed to give the effect of “eternity.”
One
of the primary desires of faithful Mormons is to be sealed to their families
for eternity. However, this is a conditional promise based on individual
faithfulness. If a family member leaves the Mormon Church, or does not keep all
the laws and ordinances, they will not achieve exaltation in the Celestial
Kingdom. This holds true for husbands and wives. Despite the fact that they
have been sealed in a Mormon temple, this ability to be married in eternity is
only on condition of complete obedience to God’s laws.
According
to the Encyclopedia of Mormonism (2:479), “Exaltation is the greatest of
all the gifts and attainments possible. It is available only in the highest degree
of the Celestial Kingdom and is reserved for members of the Church of the
Firstborn. This exalted status, called eternal life, is available to be
received by a man and wife... Blessings and privileges of exaltation require
unwavering faith, repentance, and complete obedience to the gospel of Jesus
Christ.”
Conclusion
It
should be clear that the Mormon Church is very misleading when it draws a
comparison between their temples and the Old Testament tabernacle and the Jerusalem
temple. There is actually no comparison. Instead, much of what goes on in
Mormon temples more closely resembles the ceremony common in Freemasonry. This
would make perfect sense since Joseph Smith became a Mason on March 15, 1842 (History
of the Church 4:550-551). Shortly after his initiation into Masonry he
instituted the Mormon temple endowment ceremony.
Please
be advised that there is much to Mormonism you will not be told on your temple tour.
Be wise and examine this religion very closely. Not all groups that claim to be
Christian actually are Christian. Should you have further questions, please
contact:
Mormonism
Research Ministry
PO
Box 1746
Draper,
Utah 84020-1746
Visit
us on the Web at: www.mrm.org
The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons) places a big emphasis
on its temples. The importance of these buildings cannot be overstressed, for
it is only by participating in the temple ritual that a faithful Mormon hopes
to achieve exaltation or godhood.
Though
the Jews recognized only the Jerusalem temple as being God-ordained, the
Mormons have built dozens of these special buildings throughout the world.
However, unlike LDS chapels that are open to the public, entrance into a Mormon
temple is reserved only for members who follow a strict code of conduct and are
deemed worthy. The only time the general public is invited to see the
inside of a Mormon temple is during a brief “open house” which usually precedes
the dedication of the building.
This
pamphlet is specially prepared for those who may be interested in the Mormon
temple ritual and its purpose, as well as for those who plan to visit a temple
open house in their area.
EXPOSING MORMONISM-Joseph Smith's Visions
The histories of
Oliver Cowdery and Joseph Smith follow the same general outline, but
differ markedly in the details. When describing their baptism and
ordination into the priesthood, Joseph does not say, as Oliver does,
that he heard the voice of the Redeemer or that he was rapt in a vision
of the Almighty. Oliver refers to the messenger from heaven only as an
angel, but Joseph specifically identifies him as John the Baptist.
Oliver refers only to the holy priesthood and does not even hint at a
future ordination into a higher priesthood. However, Joseph says that
they were ordained into the priesthood of Aaron and that they would
later be ordained into the priesthood of Melchizedek. Although Oliver
did say "that from his hand I received baptism, by the direction of the
angel of God" (Letter I), he did not say that he in turn baptized
Joseph, or that they went through an ordination ceremony, after having
the priesthood conferred upon them by the angel, or that after being
baptized, they were filled with the spirit of prophecy. Joseph and
Oliver also quote the words of the messenger differently.
Oliver insisted that he was writing his account with Joseph's cooperation and with the assistance of "authentic documents." He started Letter III by stating that when Joseph Smith was fifteen years old, there was a religious excitement in the vicinity of Palmyra created by a Methodist elder. But in Letter IV he changed this, stating that it was an error, and that the year was 1823, when Joseph was seventeen years old. Oliver then writes as if Joseph's fervent prayer, and the subsequent first visitation of Moroni, arose from the religious excitement and Joseph's desire to know that his sins were forgiven. Joseph Smith, however, says that he was fifteen, when the religious excitement occurred, and that he went into the woods to pray in order to learn which of the religious sects was right. He then describes his vision of the Father and Son, which is wholly missing from Oliver Cowdery's account. This is not something which Oliver could have done by mistake, because Joseph had already given an account of his two separate visions in his 1832 history, and he also stated that no one believed his first vision and that he was persecuted for making the claim. Furthermore, the 1832 history and the two versions which Joseph gave in 1835 are all different. In the first account, it was the Lord who appeared to Joseph, but in the second, it was two distinct personages, while in the third Joseph spoke only of angels.
In the 1838 account Joseph Smith said that the messenger quoted Malachi 3 and 4, Isaiah 11, Acts 3:22-23 and Joel 2:28-32. But in Letter IV, Oliver uses quotations from 1 Cor. 1:27-29 and Isaiah 29:11, 13-14, and in Letter VI, when Oliver explains further the message of the angel, he assembles a pastiche of verses from Isaiah 1, Deuteronomy 32, Psalms 107, Isaiah 2 and 4, Jeremiah 30 and 31, Isaiah 43, Jeremiah 50, Isaiah 11, and Jeremiah 16. Oliver never refers to Malachi, Acts, or Joel.
Oliver Cowdery mentions only in passing that the angel appeared to Joseph two more times before morning, but Joseph Smith gives detailed information about these appearances. Joseph mentions that the messenger told him that Satan would tempt him, but Oliver stresses the fact that Joseph was already plotting how he could get rich, even before he arrived at the place where the plates were buried. Oliver and Joseph give different descriptions of the manner in which the stone box was constructed. Joseph says only that he made one attempt to take the plates out of the box (although he had referred to three attempts in the 1832 history), but was forbidden to do so by the messenger, because the time for that would not arrive for four more years. However, Oliver says that Joseph made three attempts to take the plates out of the box, but each time received a shock which weakened him. Finally, the angel told Joseph that he could not obtain the plates, because he had not kept the commandment of the Lord. Then as the glory of the Lord shone upon Joseph, he experienced a vision of the prince of darkness and his minions. Joseph says that he was told to return every year to the place where the plates were buried, where he received instructions from the messenger, but Oliver says that Joseph continued to receive instructions until he was told to return to the burial spot.
The various accounts of Joseph Smith's visions show a great deal of confusion about the identity of the messenger who told Joseph about the plates in 1823. In the 1832 history, the angel does not state his name but does say that the plates "was engraven by Maroni & his fathers the servants of the living God in ancient days." Oliver Cowdery's account did not supply the name of the heavenly messenger until Letter VI: "I believe that the angel Moroni, whose words I have been rehearsing, who communicated the knowledge of the record of the Nephites, in this age, saw also, before he hid up the same unto the Lord, great and marvellous things." In his conversation with Joshua in November 1835, Joseph did not refer to the messenger as Moroni, but only as "the angel." However, in the 1838 history, Joseph said of the personage who appeared to him: "He called me by name and said unto me that he was a messenger sent from the presence of God to me and that his name was Nephi" (Joseph Smith 1984, 203). Nonetheless, in July 1838, Joseph wrote: "Moroni, the person who deposited the plates, from whence the book of Mormon was translated, in a hill in Manchester, Ontario County New York, being dead, and raised again therefrom, appeared unto me, and told me where they were" (Elders' Journal, July 1838). This followed directly after an article by David Patten, in which he referred to "Moroni, who holds the keys of the stick of Ephraim."
Orson Pratt published a tract in 1840, which included a description of Joseph's vision, in which he identified the personage only as an angel. In fact, he deliberately omitted the name of Moroni from two passages which he quoted from Oliver Cowdery's Letter VIII. These two passages read: "How far below the surface these records were placed by Moroni, I am unable to say," and "however deep this box might have been placed by Moroni at first . . . ." In both cases, the words "by Moroni" are missing from Orson's quotations, which makes it certain that these omissions could not have occurred by mistake.
On 1 March 1842, Joseph Smith wrote a letter to John Wentworth, the editor of the Chicago Democrat, which gave an account that closely followed the wording of Orson Pratt's publication. In this letter, Joseph also withheld the name of the personage, referring to him only as "the angel." However, when Joseph's history was published in the Times and Seasons on 15 April 1842, the angel was identified as Nephi, as stated in the 1838 manuscript. Furthermore, the Times and Seasons was at this time under the editorship of Joseph Smith.
In 1851 Franklin D. Richards published Joseph's history in the first edition of the Pearl of Great Price. Richards used the history as it was printed in the Times and Seasons: "He called me by name and said unto me, that he was a messenger sent from the prescence of God to me, and that his name was Nephi." In 1853 Orson Pratt published Lucy Smith's family history, which also quotes the same words from the Times and Seasons. Orson inserted an asterisk by the name "Nephi" and added a footnote, which cited the Doctrine and Covenants, the Elders' Journal, Joseph's 1838 history, and the Deseret News as evidence that the name should be "Moroni." Although the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants and the 1838 Elders' Journal did refer to Moroni, the manuscript of Joseph's 1838 history clearly stated that the angel's name was Nephi. Apparently the identity of the angel still had not been cleared up as late as 1878, because in September of that year, John Christensen wrote a letter to Orson pointing out that in the Millennial Star the angel's name was given as Nephi, while a catechism published by John Jaques said that his name was Moroni. In his reply, Orson again appealed to the Doctrine and Covenants as proof that the angel was Moroni. However, in 1888 J. C. Whitmer made this statement: "I have heard my grandmother (Mary M. Whitmer) say on several occasions that she was shown the plates of the Book of Mormon by an holy angel, whom she always called Brother Nephi" (Quinn 1987, 157). The appearance of Nephi to Mary Whitmer occurred in 1829.
Some notes recorded by John Taylor in July or August of 1839 may help us to understand why there was so much confusion about the identity of the angel. Taylor wrote: "The Priesthood was first given to Adam: he obtained the first Presidency & held the Keys of it, from generation to Generation . . . . He is Michael, the Archangel, spoken of in the Scriptures, -- Then to Noah, who is Gabriel, he stands next in authority to Adam in the Priesthood." In another entry, Taylor added: "Michael = = Adam. Noah. I am Gabriel -- Well says I. Who are you? I am Peter, the angel flying through the midst of heaven Moroni delivered the Book of Mormon" (Joseph Smith 1980, 8, 13). This note states that Moroni delivered the Book of Mormon, but it implies something more. If Adam was Michael and Noah was Gabriel, the angel Moroni might actually be Peter. And why would Moroni be Peter? Taylor also wrote: "The Savior, Moses, & Elias -- gave the Keys to Peter, James & John on the Mount when they were transfigured before him" (Joseph Smith 1980, 9). Thus we may reason that if an angel aided Joseph Smith in the restoration of the gospel, he must be someone of importance, someone who held the keys of the priesthood. And since the keys were conferred upon Peter, he must have been the angel Moroni. In 1838 David Patten had said that the keys of this dispensation were given to Joseph Smith by an angel and that anyone who sinned against Joseph also sinned against Moroni (Elders' Journal, July 1838). This again implies that Moroni was the last person to hold the keys of this dispensation, and since no one held the keys between Peter and Joseph Smith, Moroni must be Peter. If the Savior conferred the keys on Peter, James, and John and then appeared on the American continent, where he chose twelve other disciples, it is apparent that he could not have also given the keys to any of those disciples. Therefore, the Moroni of the Book of Mormon could not have had any great authority; he might have held the priesthood, but he could not have held the keys. Joseph Smith may have realized this and may have taught that "Moroni" was really an angelic name, like Michael or Gabriel, and was a code word for Peter. John Taylor's notes seem to identify both Peter and Moroni with the angel in the apostle John's vision: "And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people" (Rev. 14.6).
However, Joseph must have later decided that he could not identify Moroni with Peter. On 6 September 1842 Joseph wrote a letter, in which he said:
And again, what do we hear? Glad tidings from Cumorah! Moroni, an angel from heaven, declaring the fulfillment of the prophets -- the book to be revealed . . . . The voice of Michael on the banks of the Susquehanna, detecting the devil when he appeared as an angel of light! The voice of Peter, James, and John . . . declaring themselves as possessing the keys of the kingdom, and of the dispensation of the fulness of times! . . . And the voice of Michael, the archangel; the voice of Gabriel, and of Raphael, and of divers angels, from Michael or Adam down to the present time, all declaring their dispensation, their rights, their keys . . . and the power of their priesthood . . . . (D&C 128:20-21)
Here, Moroni is still the revealer of the book, but he is distinguished from Peter, who holds the keys of the dispensation. Joseph Smith was now claiming that he had been visited not merely by one angel, but by a whole host of angels, all of whom held various keys; Moroni was only one of a number of messengers.
The differences between the accounts of Oliver Cowdery and Joseph Smith suggest that they were both drawing upon the same story, but chose to change details and stress different aspects. Oliver did not want to talk about the distinction between the Aaronic and Melchizedek priesthoods, and he also had nothing to say about the authority of John the Baptist, as compared to Peter, James, and John. Oliver placed more stress on the restoration of the gospel and the restoration of Israel, but Joseph emphasized the restoration of the priesthood and the authority of the priesthood orders. It might be understandable that Oliver decided not to relate Joseph's vision of the Father and Son, but it didn't seem to matter to Oliver whether the period of religious excitement occurred when Joseph was fifteen or seventeen years old, despite the fact that this detail has a direct bearing on the nature of the vision which followed. While Oliver was adjusting his account and identified the 1823 visitor as Moroni, Joseph apparently could not decide whether the messenger who visited him was Nephi or Moroni.
Many of the elements of Joseph Smith's visions can be found in the Book of Mormon. Joseph said that mention of baptism for the remission of sins on the Nephite plates was followed by the vision of May 1829. Oliver stated that they first heard the voice of the Redeemer and then an angel descended. Oliver described the angel's voice: "Then his voice, though mild, pierced to the center, and his words, 'I am thy fellow servant,' dispelled every fear." Nephi chastises his brothers: "Ye have seen an angel, and he spake unto you; yea, ye have heard his voice from time to time; and he hath spoken unto you in a still small voice" (1 Nephi 17:45). When Nephi and Lehi, the sons of Helaman, were thrown in prison, a voice was heard: "And it came to pass when they heard this voice, and beheld that it was not a voice of thunder, neither was it a voice of a great tumultuous noise, but behold, it was a still voice of perfect mildness, as if it had been a whisper, and it did pierce even to the very soul" (Helaman 5:30). When Jesus appeared to the Nephites, they heard the voice of the Father: "and it was not a harsh voice, neither was it a loud voice; nevertheless, and notwithstanding it being a small voice it did pierce them that did hear to the center" (3 Nephi 11:3). Joseph said that the angel ordained them into the Priesthood of Aaron, which held the keys "of baptism by immersion for the remission of sins," but "not the power of laying on hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost," which they would receive later. Oliver also wrote that after the plates were translated, "the Lord will give the holy priesthood to some, and they shall begin to proclaim this gospel and baptize by water, and after that they shall have power to give the Holy Ghost by the laying on of their hands." In 2 Nephi 31, Nephi declares: "And also, the voice of the Son came unto me, saying: He that is baptized in my name, to him will the Father give the Holy Ghost, like unto me; wherefore, follow me, and do the things which ye have seen me do. Therefore, my beloved brethren, I know that if ye shall follow the Son, with full purpose of heart, acting no hypocrisy and no deception before God, but with real intent, repenting of your sins, witnessing unto the Father that ye are willing to take upon you the name of Christ, by baptism -- yea, by following your Lord and your Savior down into the water, according to his word, behold, then shall ye receive the Holy Ghost; yea, then cometh the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost; and then can ye speak with the tongue of angels, and shout praises unto the Holy One of Israel" (2 Nephi 31:12-13). After Jesus' crucifixion, people on the American continent heard the voice of the Lord, saying: "And ye shall offer for a sacrifice unto me a broken heart and a contrite spirit. And whoso cometh unto me with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, him will I baptize with fire and with the Holy Ghost, even as the Lamanites, because of their faith in me at the time of their conversion, were baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost, and they knew it not" (3 Nephi 9:20). Jesus also told the people that he had given his twelve American disciples "power that they may baptize you with water; and after that ye are baptized with water, behold, I will baptize you with fire and with the Holy Ghost" (3 Nephi 12:1).
Joseph Smith said that after he and Oliver had baptized each other, the Holy Ghost fell upon them and they prophesied. The Book of Mormon says of the twelve disciples: "And they did pray for that which they most desired; and they desired that the Holy Ghost should be given unto them. And when they had thus prayed they went down unto the water's edge, and the multitude followed them. And it came to pass that Nephi went down into the water and was baptized. And he came up out of the water and began to baptize. And he baptized all those whom Jesus had chosen. And it came to pass when they were all baptized and had come up out of the water, the Holy Ghost did fall upon them, and they were filled with the Holy Ghost and with fire" (3 Nephi 19:9-13).
The Book of Mormon has further parallels with Joseph Smith's 1820 vision of the Father and Son in the woods. Enos relates: "And I will tell you of the wrestle which I had before God, before I received a remission of my sins. Behold, I went to hunt beasts in the forests; and the words which I had often heard my father speak concerning eternal life, and the joy of the saints, sunk deep into my heart. And my soul hungered; and I kneeled down before my Maker, and I cried unto him in mighty prayer and supplication for mine own soul; and all the day long did I cry unto him; yea, and when the night came I did still raise my voice high that it reached the heavens. And there came a voice unto me, saying: Enos, thy sins are forgiven thee, and thou shalt be blessed" (Enos 2-5). Joseph Smith states that when he started to pray, he "was seized upon by some power which entirely overcame me, and had such an astonishing influence over me as to bind my tongue so that I could not speak." When an angel appeared to Alma, "the astonishment of Alma was so great that he became dumb, that he could not open his mouth" (Mosiah 27:19). Joseph Smith said further that he was surrounded by thick darkness and felt doomed to destruction, but then "I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me. It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air." When Nephi and Lehi, the sons of Helaman, went on a mission to the land of Nephi, they were thrown in prison, but they "were encircled about with a pillar of fire." Those in the prison were then "overshadowed with a cloud of darkness, and an awful solemn fear came upon them. And it came to pass that there came a voice as if it were above the cloud of darkness . . . . And it came to pass that the Lamanites could not flee because of the cloud of darkness which did overshadow them; yea, and also they were immovable because of the fear which did come upon them." Nephi and Lehi conversed with angels above them. After the people cried to the Lord, the cloud of darkness dispersed and "they were encircled about, yea every soul, by a pillar of fire," after which they heard the voice of the Father and saw angels (Helaman 5:24-48).
In relating Joseph Smith's 1823 visit from Moroni, Joseph and Oliver emphasized the brilliant light surrounding Moroni and the whiteness of his robe. In one of Lehi's early visions, he beheld the Lord descend from heaven and "his luster was above that of the sun at noon-day." In a later dream, Lehi was led by a man dressed in a white robe to a field, where he saw a tree and "the fruit thereof was white, to exceed all the whiteness that I had ever seen." Nephi also beheld a man dressed in a white robe, and he later describes the justice of God: "the brightness thereof was like unto the brightness of a flaming fire . . . ." (1 Nephi 1:9; 8:5,11; 14:19; 15:30). When Jesus appeared to the Nephites, he was dressed in a white robe: "And it came to pass that Jesus blessed them as they did pray unto him; and his countenance did smile upon them, and the light of his countenance did shine upon them, and behold they were as white as the countenance and also the garments of Jesus; and behold the whiteness thereof did exceed all the whiteness, yea, even there could be nothing upon earth so white as the whiteness thereof" (3 Nephi 11:8; 19:25).
Joseph Smith described the conclusion of his 1820 vision: "When I came to myself again, I found myself lying on my back, looking up into heaven." He also said that after his 1823 visions, "I found my strength so exhausted as to render me entirely unable [to work]. . . . I started with the intention of going to the house; but, . . . my strength entirely failed me, and I fell helpless on the ground, and for a time was quite unconscious of anything." After Lehi's first vision of a pillar of fire, "he returned to his own house at Jerusalem; and he cast himself upon his bed, being overcome with the Spirit and the things which he had seen" (1 Nephi 1:7). Nephi also complains that "I have workings in the spirit, which doth weary me even that all my joints are weak" (1 Nephi 19:20). When an angel appeared to him, Alma "became weak, even that he could not move his hands," and he remained in that condition for two days (Mosiah 27:19-23). After king Lamoni was converted by Ammon, "he fell unto the earth, as if he were dead," and like Alma, remained so for two days (Alma 18:42-43). Lamoni's father had a similar experience (Alma 22:18). And a number of people also fell to the earth both before and after Christ's crucifixion (3 Nephi 1:16-17; 11:12).
Oliver Cowdery stressed the fact that Joseph Smith was required to have no expectations of getting gain from the gold plates, and Joseph said that Moroni told him that "I must have no other object in view in getting the plates but to glorify God, and must not be influenced by any other motive than that of building his kingdom; otherwise I could not get them." According to Cowdery, Joseph made three attempts to take the plates out of the stone box, but was shocked each time. Moroni told him that he could not obtain the plates, because he had thoughts of getting rich. Joseph then "beheld the prince of darkness, surrounded by his innumerable train of associates," and was told that the plates "are not deposited here for the sake of accumulating gain and wealth for the glory of this world: they were sealed by the prayer of faith, and because of the knowledge which they contain they are of no worth among the children of men, only for their knowledge." Samuel the Lamanite prophesied: "For I will, saith the Lord, that they shall hide up their treasures unto me; and cursed be they who hide not up their treasures unto me; for none hideth up their treasures unto me save it be the righteous; and he that hideth not up his treasures unto me, cursed is he, and also the treasure, and none shall redeem it because of the curse of the land. And the day shall come that they shall hide up their treasures, because they have set their hearts upon riches; . . . because they will not hide them up unto me, cursed be they and also their treasures . . . . Behold, we are surrounded by demons, yea, we are encircled about by the angels of him who hath sought to destroy our souls" (Helaman 13:19-37). Moroni also states: "And I am the same who hideth up this record unto the Lord; the plates thereof are of no worth, because of the commandment of the Lord. For he truly saith that no one shall have them to get gain; but the record thereof is of great worth; and whoso shall bring it to light, him will the Lord bless. For none can have power to bring it to light save it be given him of God; for God wills that it shall be done with an eye single to his glory, or the welfare of the ancient and long dispersed covenant people of the Lord" (Mormon 8:14-15).
Other sources provide parallels for Joseph Smith's visions. Joseph said that his visions left him weakened and even resulted in unconsciousness. Daniel describes the effect which his visions had upon him: "Therefore I was left alone, and saw this great vision, and there remained no strength in me . . . . then was I in a deep sleep on my face, and my face toward the ground" (Dan. 10:8-9). Both Joseph and Oliver said that Moroni's countenance was like lightning. Daniel declared: "Then I lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a certain man clothed in linen . . . and his face as the appearance of lightning" (Dan. 10:5-6). John described his vision: "And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire: and he had in his hand a little book open" (Rev. 10:1-2).
Joseph said that prior to his first vision, he had opened his Bible to James 1:5: "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him." He then retired to the woods, where he prayed and beheld a pillar of light and two personages, "whose brightness and glory defy all description." Daniel Defoe used a similar motif in Robinson Crusoe. Crusoe repeatedly sought guidance by opening his Bible at random. He described his initial experience: "only having opened the book casually, the first words that occurred to me were these, 'Call on me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver, and thou shalt glorify me'" (Defoe 1980, 95). This followed a vision which Crusoe had seen in a dream: "I saw a man descend from a great black cloud, in a bright flame of fire, and light upon the ground. He was all over as bright as a flame, so that I could but just bear to look towards him; his countenance was most inexpressibly dreadful, impossible for words to describe; when he stepped upon the ground with his feet, I thought the earth trembled, just as it had done before in the earthquake, and all the air looked, to my apprehension, as if it had been filled with flashes of fire" (Defoe 1980, 89). Lehi "did quake and tremble exceedingly," after beholding a pillar of fire. The Book of Mormon describes Alma's vision: "the angel of the Lord appeared unto them; and he descended as it were in a cloud; and he spake as it were with a voice of thunder, which caused the earth to shake upon which they stood" (Mosiah 27:11).
Joseph Smith's visions should also be compared to Jonathan Edwards' "Personal Narrative," first published in 1765. Edwards said that he had two "remarkable seasons of awakening."
The first time was when I was a boy, some years before I went to college, at a time of remarkable awakening in my father's congregation. I was then very much affected for many months, and concerned about the things of religion, and my soul's salvation . . . . And besides, I had particular secret places of my own in the woods, where I used to retire by myself; and was from time to time much affected.
But in process of time, my convictions and affections wore off . . . and went on in the ways of sin. Indeed I was at times very uneasy, especially towards the latter part of my time at college; when it pleased God, to seize me with the pleurisy; in which he brought me nigh to the grave, and shook me over the pit of hell. And yet, it was not long after my recovery, before I fell again into my old ways of sin. But God would not suffer me to go on with my quietness; I had great and violent inward struggles . . . .
Not long after I began to experience these things, I gave an account to my father of some things that had passed in my mind. I was pretty much affected by the discourse we had together; and when the discourse was ended, I walked abroad alone, in a solitary place in my father's pasture for contemplation. And as I was walking there and looking up on the sky and clouds, there came into my mind so sweet a sense of the glorious majesty and grace of God, that I know not how to express. . . .
After this my sense of divine things gradually increased, and became more and more lively, and had more of that inward sweetness. . . . God's excellency, his wisdom, his purity and love, seemed to appear in every thing; in the sun, moon, and stars; in the clouds, and blue sky; in the grass, flowers, trees; in the water, and all nature; which used greatly to fix my mind. . . .
I very frequently used to retire into a solitary place, on the banks of Hudson's river, at some distance from the city, for contemplation on divine things, and secret converse with God; and had many sweet hours there. Sometimes Mr. Smith and I walked there together, to converse on the things of god; and our conversation used to turn much on the advancement of Christ's kingdom in the world, and the glorious things that God would accomplish for his church in the latter days. . . .
Once as I rode out into the woods for my health, in 1737, having alighted from my horse in a retired place, as my manner commonly has been, to walk for divine contemplation and prayer, I had a view that for me was extraordinary, of the glory of the Son of God, as Mediator between God and man, and his wonderful, great, full, pure and sweet grace and love, and meek and gentle condescension. This grace that appeared so calm and sweet, appeared also great above the heavens. The person of Christ appeared ineffably excellent with an excellency great enough to swallow up all thought and conception -- which continued as near as I can judge, about an hour; which kept me the greater part of the time in a flood of tears, and weeping aloud. (Edwards 1962, 88-97)
According to Oliver Cowdery's account, it was necessary for Joseph Smith to behold a vision of the prince of darkness and his minions, so that he could learn how to judge spirits correctly and detect works of darkness. In the latter part of his life, Joseph delivered a number of teachings on the subject of spirits and angels. In June 1839, Wilford Woodruff wrote in his journal that Joseph delivered a "key" to the twelve apostles. Essentially the key was that if you shake hands with an angel, you will feel a substantial hand, like a human hand, but if the devil appears as an angel and offers his hand, you will feel nothing. In July or August of 1839, John Taylor wrote: "A Spirit cannot come but in glory. An angel has flesh and bones, we see not their glory" (Joseph Smith 1980, 12). In another passage, Taylor wrote: "The innumerable company of Angels are those that have been resurrected from the dead. the Spirits of Just men made perfect are those without bodies" (Joseph Smith 1980, 14). On 15 October 1841 the Times and Seasons reported some of the teachings of Joseph Smith, which he delivered during a conference: "He explained a difference between an angel and a ministering spirit; the one a resurrected or translated body, with its spirit, ministering to embodied spirits -- the other a disembodied spirit, visiting and ministering to disembodied spirits. Jesus Christ became a ministering spirit, while his body laying in the sepulcher, to the spirits in prison . . . . After his resurrection, he appeared as an angel to his disciples &c. Translated bodies cannot enter into rest until they have undergone a change equivalent to death" (Joseph Smith 1980, 77). On 9 February 1843, Joseph again gave instructions on the discerning of spirits: "There are two kinds of beings in heaven, namely: Angels, who are resurrected personages, having bodies of flesh and bones . . . . Secondly: the spirits of just men made perfect, they who are not resurrected, but inherit the same glory. When a messenger comes saying he has a message from God, offer him your hand and request him to shake hands with you. If he be an angel he will do so, and you will feel his hand. If he be the spirit of a just man made perfect he will come in his glory; for that is the only way he can appear" (D&C 129:1-6). On 2 April 1843, Joseph made a distinction between the Father and Son and the Holy Ghost: "The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man's; the Son also; but the Holy ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of Spirit. Were it not so, the Holy Ghost could not dwell in us" (D&C 130:22). In another article in the Times and Seasons (15 September 1843), Joseph reportedly said: "Spirits can only be revealed in flaming fire, or glory. Angels have advanced farther -- their light and glory being tabernacled, and hence appear in bodily shape." The James Burgess Notebook also records the teaching of Joseph Smith: "The spirit of a just man made perfect if he made his appearance he would appear or be enveloped in flaming fire and no man in this mortal state could endure it, but an angel could come and appear as an other man" (Joseph Smith 1980, 253, 255).
This classification of spiritual beings as angels and ministering spirits may have been an attempt to bring order to the various accounts of spirits and angels in the Bible. The idea that spirits can appear only in flaming fire may be derived from Exodus, Psalms, and Acts. When Moses came to Horeb, "the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed" (Exod. 3:2) When the Israelites fled from Egypt, the Lord led them by night in a pillar of fire (Exod. 13:21), and when they reached Sinai, the Lord descended upon the mount in fire (Exod. 19:18). Exodus also states, "And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel" (Exod. 24:17). The angel who appeared to Manoah, the father of Samson, ascended in the flame of the altar (Judg. 13:20). Psalm 104:4 says that the Lord "maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire." Acts states that on the day of Pentecost, "there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost" (Acts 2:3-4).
However, spiritual beings in the Bible sometimes appear as ordinary men. The Lord and two angels appeared as men to Abraham at the oaks of Mamre, and the two angels journeyed on to Lot's dwelling in Sodom. Moses, Aaron, and seventy-two other men saw God standing upon a pavement of sapphire on mount Sinai. Angels also sometimes touch humans. Elijah rested under a tree near Beersheba: "And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat. . . . And the angel of the Lord came again the second time, and touched him" (1 Kings 19:5-7). Jeremiah stated that "the Lord put forth his hand, and touched my mouth" (Jer. 1:9). Daniel was touched by Gabriel: "there stood before me as the appearance of a man. And I heard a man's voice between the banks of Ulai, which called, and said, Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision. . . . Now as he was speaking with me, I was in a deep sleep on my face toward the ground: but he touched me, and set me upright" (Dan. 8:15-18). In a later passage, Daniel says, "Yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation" (Dan 9:21). After his crucifixion, Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene and told her, "Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father" (John 20:17). Later, when Christ appeared to his disciples, the gospels insist on the fact that he had a body of substance. According to Luke, Jesus said, "Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have" (Luke 24:39). Jesus instructed Thomas, "Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side" (John 20:27).
It was probably from passages such as these that the distinction was drawn between angels, which have translated or resurrected bodies, and ministering spirits, which appear in flaming fire. However, this distinction creates many problems. Joseph Smith said that the Father and Son appeared to him in a pillar of fire or light, and the brightness and glory of the two personages defied all description. He and Oliver also stated that the appearance of Moroni was accompanied by a bright light, like a "consuming and unquenchable fire" and that an additional glory surrounded him. However, Joseph stated in the Elders' Journal that Moroni had been raised from the dead. Therefore, both Christ and Moroni should have been resurrected beings, angels rather than spirits.
Works Cited
Defoe, Daniel. 1980. Robinson Crusoe. New York: New American Library.
Edwards, Jonathan. 1962. "Personal Narrative." In The American Tradition in Literature, rev., vol. 1, edited by Sculley Bradley, Richmond Croom Beatty, and E. Hudson Long. New York: W. W. Norton & Company Inc.
Quinn, D. Michael. 1987. Early Mormonism and the Magic World View. Salt Lake City: Signature Books.
Smith, Joseph. 1980. The Words of Joseph Smith. Compiled and edited by Andrew F. Ehat and Lyndon W. Cook. Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University.
Smith, Joseph. 1984. The Personal Writings of Joseph Smith. Edited by Dean C. Jessee. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book.
Salvation
----------
"All men are saved by grace alone without any act on their part, meaning they are resurrected" (Bruce McConkie, What Mormons Think of Christ", LDS tract, p.28).
"In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, there is no Hell. All will find a measure of salvation" (Joseph Smith-Seeker After Truth, p.177-178, 1951).
Joseph Fielding Smith again: "Those who live lives of wickedness may also be heirs of salvation, that is, they too shall be redeemed from death and from hell eventually" (Doctrines of Salvation, vol.2, p.133).
"Those who gain only this general or unconditional salvation will still be judged according to their works and
receive places in a Terrestial or Telestial kingdom. They will, therefore, be damned; their eternal progression will be cut short; they will not fill the full measure of their creation, but in eternity will be ministering servants to more worthy persons."Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, "Salvation",pg 669,670
(1966 Edition)
Exaltation - eternal life
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Third Article of Faith states: "We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel" (Pearl of Great Price: Articles of Faith).
"As man is, God once was; as God is, man may become."
Lorenzo Snow, Millennial Star, Vol 54, pg 404
"Mormonism does not tend to debase God to the level of man,but to exalt man to the perfection of God."
Charles W. Penrose,Millenial Star,Vol 23, pg 181 Milton R Hunter G.T.the A. p 107
Dr John A Widtsoe "God and man are of the same race, differing only in their degrees of advancement" Rational Theology p61
hunter gta p107
Joseph Fielding Smith explains what that last phrase means: "that which man merits through his own acts through life and by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel" (Doctrines of Salvation, vol. 1, p.134).
Spencer W. Kimball states: "however powerful the saving grace of Christ, it brings exaltation to no man who does not comply with the works of the gospel" (The Miracle of Forgiveness, pg. 207); "Each command we obey sends us another rung up the ladder to perfected manhood and toward godhood; and every law disobeyed is a sliding toward the bottom where man merges into the brute world" (Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, pg. 153); "living all the commandments guarantees total forgiveness of sins and assures one of exaltation...trying is not sufficient. Nor is repentence when one merely tries to abandon sin" (The Miracle of Forgiveness, p.164-165, 354-355).
Bruce McConkie claimed: "Jesus kept the commandments of his Father and thereby worked out his own salvation, and also set an example as to the way and the means whereby all men may be saved" (The Mortal Messiah, Vol.4, p.434).
This full salvation is obtained in and through the continuation of the family unit in eternity, and those who obtain it are gods.
D. & C. 131:1-4 the celestial glory there are three heavens or degrees; And in order to obtain the highest, a man must enter into this border of the priesthood [meaning the new and deverlasting covenant of marriage]; And if he does not, he cannot obtain it.He may enter into the other, but that is the end of his kingdom; he cannot have an increase.
DC 132:20 Then shall they be gods, because they have no end; therefore shall they be from everlasting to everlasting, because they continue; then shall they be above all, because all things are subject unto them. Then shall they be gods, because they have call power, and the angels are subject unto them. Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye abide my alaw ye cannot attain to this glory.
ETERNAL LIFE IS EXALTATION. Now there is a difference between immortality and eternal life. Immortality is the gift to live forever. It comes to every creature. Eternal life is to have the kind of life that God has. All those who become servants will have immortality, but they who become sons and daughters of God will have the additional gift of eternal life, which is the greatest gift of God.
Eternal life is life in the presence of the Father and the Son. Those who receive it become members of the ‘Church of the Firstborn’ and are heirs as sons and daughters of God. They receive the fulness of blessings. They become like the Father and the Son and are joint-heirs with Jesus Christ.
What is eternal life? It is to have “a continuation of the seeds forever and ever.” No one receives eternal life except those who receive the exaltation. dos v2 p 8-9
"Here then is eternal life - to know the only wise and true God; and you have got to learn how to be gods yourselves, and to be kings and priest to God, the same as all gods have done before you --- and to sit in glory, as do those who sit in everlasting power --- What is it? To inherit the same power, the same glory and the same exaltation, until you arrive at the station of a god ---"
Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pg 345-347;
Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, "Godhood", 1966
Edition, pg 321
History of the Church, Volume 6, page 306
"They are they into whose hands the Father has given all things - they are they who are priest and kings, who have received of His fulness, and his glory -- they are gods --" Doctrine & Covenants, 76:55-58
"Men may become gods"
"Even the doctrine of a knowledge of God as the avenue to Godhood made its way outward from the Divine Fountain of Truth into the heathenistic religions of the Mediterranean world. The teaching of the HERMETIC pagan cult sound quite familiar to those who are acquainted with the doctrine taught by Jesus, by John the Beloved, by Paul, and by Joseph Smith, the American Prophet". Milton R Hunter Gospel through the ages p 117
This
teaches LDS Mormons that the king of Egypt (a Black African) is of the seed of
CAIN and HAM by birth
21 Now this king of Egypt was a descendant from the loins of Ham, and was a partaker of the blood of the Canaanites by birth.
This teaches LDS Mormons that the king of Egypt (a Black African) can't have the priesthood because he is of the seed of CAIN.
Oliver insisted that he was writing his account with Joseph's cooperation and with the assistance of "authentic documents." He started Letter III by stating that when Joseph Smith was fifteen years old, there was a religious excitement in the vicinity of Palmyra created by a Methodist elder. But in Letter IV he changed this, stating that it was an error, and that the year was 1823, when Joseph was seventeen years old. Oliver then writes as if Joseph's fervent prayer, and the subsequent first visitation of Moroni, arose from the religious excitement and Joseph's desire to know that his sins were forgiven. Joseph Smith, however, says that he was fifteen, when the religious excitement occurred, and that he went into the woods to pray in order to learn which of the religious sects was right. He then describes his vision of the Father and Son, which is wholly missing from Oliver Cowdery's account. This is not something which Oliver could have done by mistake, because Joseph had already given an account of his two separate visions in his 1832 history, and he also stated that no one believed his first vision and that he was persecuted for making the claim. Furthermore, the 1832 history and the two versions which Joseph gave in 1835 are all different. In the first account, it was the Lord who appeared to Joseph, but in the second, it was two distinct personages, while in the third Joseph spoke only of angels.
In the 1838 account Joseph Smith said that the messenger quoted Malachi 3 and 4, Isaiah 11, Acts 3:22-23 and Joel 2:28-32. But in Letter IV, Oliver uses quotations from 1 Cor. 1:27-29 and Isaiah 29:11, 13-14, and in Letter VI, when Oliver explains further the message of the angel, he assembles a pastiche of verses from Isaiah 1, Deuteronomy 32, Psalms 107, Isaiah 2 and 4, Jeremiah 30 and 31, Isaiah 43, Jeremiah 50, Isaiah 11, and Jeremiah 16. Oliver never refers to Malachi, Acts, or Joel.
Oliver Cowdery mentions only in passing that the angel appeared to Joseph two more times before morning, but Joseph Smith gives detailed information about these appearances. Joseph mentions that the messenger told him that Satan would tempt him, but Oliver stresses the fact that Joseph was already plotting how he could get rich, even before he arrived at the place where the plates were buried. Oliver and Joseph give different descriptions of the manner in which the stone box was constructed. Joseph says only that he made one attempt to take the plates out of the box (although he had referred to three attempts in the 1832 history), but was forbidden to do so by the messenger, because the time for that would not arrive for four more years. However, Oliver says that Joseph made three attempts to take the plates out of the box, but each time received a shock which weakened him. Finally, the angel told Joseph that he could not obtain the plates, because he had not kept the commandment of the Lord. Then as the glory of the Lord shone upon Joseph, he experienced a vision of the prince of darkness and his minions. Joseph says that he was told to return every year to the place where the plates were buried, where he received instructions from the messenger, but Oliver says that Joseph continued to receive instructions until he was told to return to the burial spot.
The various accounts of Joseph Smith's visions show a great deal of confusion about the identity of the messenger who told Joseph about the plates in 1823. In the 1832 history, the angel does not state his name but does say that the plates "was engraven by Maroni & his fathers the servants of the living God in ancient days." Oliver Cowdery's account did not supply the name of the heavenly messenger until Letter VI: "I believe that the angel Moroni, whose words I have been rehearsing, who communicated the knowledge of the record of the Nephites, in this age, saw also, before he hid up the same unto the Lord, great and marvellous things." In his conversation with Joshua in November 1835, Joseph did not refer to the messenger as Moroni, but only as "the angel." However, in the 1838 history, Joseph said of the personage who appeared to him: "He called me by name and said unto me that he was a messenger sent from the presence of God to me and that his name was Nephi" (Joseph Smith 1984, 203). Nonetheless, in July 1838, Joseph wrote: "Moroni, the person who deposited the plates, from whence the book of Mormon was translated, in a hill in Manchester, Ontario County New York, being dead, and raised again therefrom, appeared unto me, and told me where they were" (Elders' Journal, July 1838). This followed directly after an article by David Patten, in which he referred to "Moroni, who holds the keys of the stick of Ephraim."
Orson Pratt published a tract in 1840, which included a description of Joseph's vision, in which he identified the personage only as an angel. In fact, he deliberately omitted the name of Moroni from two passages which he quoted from Oliver Cowdery's Letter VIII. These two passages read: "How far below the surface these records were placed by Moroni, I am unable to say," and "however deep this box might have been placed by Moroni at first . . . ." In both cases, the words "by Moroni" are missing from Orson's quotations, which makes it certain that these omissions could not have occurred by mistake.
On 1 March 1842, Joseph Smith wrote a letter to John Wentworth, the editor of the Chicago Democrat, which gave an account that closely followed the wording of Orson Pratt's publication. In this letter, Joseph also withheld the name of the personage, referring to him only as "the angel." However, when Joseph's history was published in the Times and Seasons on 15 April 1842, the angel was identified as Nephi, as stated in the 1838 manuscript. Furthermore, the Times and Seasons was at this time under the editorship of Joseph Smith.
In 1851 Franklin D. Richards published Joseph's history in the first edition of the Pearl of Great Price. Richards used the history as it was printed in the Times and Seasons: "He called me by name and said unto me, that he was a messenger sent from the prescence of God to me, and that his name was Nephi." In 1853 Orson Pratt published Lucy Smith's family history, which also quotes the same words from the Times and Seasons. Orson inserted an asterisk by the name "Nephi" and added a footnote, which cited the Doctrine and Covenants, the Elders' Journal, Joseph's 1838 history, and the Deseret News as evidence that the name should be "Moroni." Although the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants and the 1838 Elders' Journal did refer to Moroni, the manuscript of Joseph's 1838 history clearly stated that the angel's name was Nephi. Apparently the identity of the angel still had not been cleared up as late as 1878, because in September of that year, John Christensen wrote a letter to Orson pointing out that in the Millennial Star the angel's name was given as Nephi, while a catechism published by John Jaques said that his name was Moroni. In his reply, Orson again appealed to the Doctrine and Covenants as proof that the angel was Moroni. However, in 1888 J. C. Whitmer made this statement: "I have heard my grandmother (Mary M. Whitmer) say on several occasions that she was shown the plates of the Book of Mormon by an holy angel, whom she always called Brother Nephi" (Quinn 1987, 157). The appearance of Nephi to Mary Whitmer occurred in 1829.
Some notes recorded by John Taylor in July or August of 1839 may help us to understand why there was so much confusion about the identity of the angel. Taylor wrote: "The Priesthood was first given to Adam: he obtained the first Presidency & held the Keys of it, from generation to Generation . . . . He is Michael, the Archangel, spoken of in the Scriptures, -- Then to Noah, who is Gabriel, he stands next in authority to Adam in the Priesthood." In another entry, Taylor added: "Michael = = Adam. Noah. I am Gabriel -- Well says I. Who are you? I am Peter, the angel flying through the midst of heaven Moroni delivered the Book of Mormon" (Joseph Smith 1980, 8, 13). This note states that Moroni delivered the Book of Mormon, but it implies something more. If Adam was Michael and Noah was Gabriel, the angel Moroni might actually be Peter. And why would Moroni be Peter? Taylor also wrote: "The Savior, Moses, & Elias -- gave the Keys to Peter, James & John on the Mount when they were transfigured before him" (Joseph Smith 1980, 9). Thus we may reason that if an angel aided Joseph Smith in the restoration of the gospel, he must be someone of importance, someone who held the keys of the priesthood. And since the keys were conferred upon Peter, he must have been the angel Moroni. In 1838 David Patten had said that the keys of this dispensation were given to Joseph Smith by an angel and that anyone who sinned against Joseph also sinned against Moroni (Elders' Journal, July 1838). This again implies that Moroni was the last person to hold the keys of this dispensation, and since no one held the keys between Peter and Joseph Smith, Moroni must be Peter. If the Savior conferred the keys on Peter, James, and John and then appeared on the American continent, where he chose twelve other disciples, it is apparent that he could not have also given the keys to any of those disciples. Therefore, the Moroni of the Book of Mormon could not have had any great authority; he might have held the priesthood, but he could not have held the keys. Joseph Smith may have realized this and may have taught that "Moroni" was really an angelic name, like Michael or Gabriel, and was a code word for Peter. John Taylor's notes seem to identify both Peter and Moroni with the angel in the apostle John's vision: "And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people" (Rev. 14.6).
However, Joseph must have later decided that he could not identify Moroni with Peter. On 6 September 1842 Joseph wrote a letter, in which he said:
And again, what do we hear? Glad tidings from Cumorah! Moroni, an angel from heaven, declaring the fulfillment of the prophets -- the book to be revealed . . . . The voice of Michael on the banks of the Susquehanna, detecting the devil when he appeared as an angel of light! The voice of Peter, James, and John . . . declaring themselves as possessing the keys of the kingdom, and of the dispensation of the fulness of times! . . . And the voice of Michael, the archangel; the voice of Gabriel, and of Raphael, and of divers angels, from Michael or Adam down to the present time, all declaring their dispensation, their rights, their keys . . . and the power of their priesthood . . . . (D&C 128:20-21)
Here, Moroni is still the revealer of the book, but he is distinguished from Peter, who holds the keys of the dispensation. Joseph Smith was now claiming that he had been visited not merely by one angel, but by a whole host of angels, all of whom held various keys; Moroni was only one of a number of messengers.
The differences between the accounts of Oliver Cowdery and Joseph Smith suggest that they were both drawing upon the same story, but chose to change details and stress different aspects. Oliver did not want to talk about the distinction between the Aaronic and Melchizedek priesthoods, and he also had nothing to say about the authority of John the Baptist, as compared to Peter, James, and John. Oliver placed more stress on the restoration of the gospel and the restoration of Israel, but Joseph emphasized the restoration of the priesthood and the authority of the priesthood orders. It might be understandable that Oliver decided not to relate Joseph's vision of the Father and Son, but it didn't seem to matter to Oliver whether the period of religious excitement occurred when Joseph was fifteen or seventeen years old, despite the fact that this detail has a direct bearing on the nature of the vision which followed. While Oliver was adjusting his account and identified the 1823 visitor as Moroni, Joseph apparently could not decide whether the messenger who visited him was Nephi or Moroni.
Many of the elements of Joseph Smith's visions can be found in the Book of Mormon. Joseph said that mention of baptism for the remission of sins on the Nephite plates was followed by the vision of May 1829. Oliver stated that they first heard the voice of the Redeemer and then an angel descended. Oliver described the angel's voice: "Then his voice, though mild, pierced to the center, and his words, 'I am thy fellow servant,' dispelled every fear." Nephi chastises his brothers: "Ye have seen an angel, and he spake unto you; yea, ye have heard his voice from time to time; and he hath spoken unto you in a still small voice" (1 Nephi 17:45). When Nephi and Lehi, the sons of Helaman, were thrown in prison, a voice was heard: "And it came to pass when they heard this voice, and beheld that it was not a voice of thunder, neither was it a voice of a great tumultuous noise, but behold, it was a still voice of perfect mildness, as if it had been a whisper, and it did pierce even to the very soul" (Helaman 5:30). When Jesus appeared to the Nephites, they heard the voice of the Father: "and it was not a harsh voice, neither was it a loud voice; nevertheless, and notwithstanding it being a small voice it did pierce them that did hear to the center" (3 Nephi 11:3). Joseph said that the angel ordained them into the Priesthood of Aaron, which held the keys "of baptism by immersion for the remission of sins," but "not the power of laying on hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost," which they would receive later. Oliver also wrote that after the plates were translated, "the Lord will give the holy priesthood to some, and they shall begin to proclaim this gospel and baptize by water, and after that they shall have power to give the Holy Ghost by the laying on of their hands." In 2 Nephi 31, Nephi declares: "And also, the voice of the Son came unto me, saying: He that is baptized in my name, to him will the Father give the Holy Ghost, like unto me; wherefore, follow me, and do the things which ye have seen me do. Therefore, my beloved brethren, I know that if ye shall follow the Son, with full purpose of heart, acting no hypocrisy and no deception before God, but with real intent, repenting of your sins, witnessing unto the Father that ye are willing to take upon you the name of Christ, by baptism -- yea, by following your Lord and your Savior down into the water, according to his word, behold, then shall ye receive the Holy Ghost; yea, then cometh the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost; and then can ye speak with the tongue of angels, and shout praises unto the Holy One of Israel" (2 Nephi 31:12-13). After Jesus' crucifixion, people on the American continent heard the voice of the Lord, saying: "And ye shall offer for a sacrifice unto me a broken heart and a contrite spirit. And whoso cometh unto me with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, him will I baptize with fire and with the Holy Ghost, even as the Lamanites, because of their faith in me at the time of their conversion, were baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost, and they knew it not" (3 Nephi 9:20). Jesus also told the people that he had given his twelve American disciples "power that they may baptize you with water; and after that ye are baptized with water, behold, I will baptize you with fire and with the Holy Ghost" (3 Nephi 12:1).
Joseph Smith said that after he and Oliver had baptized each other, the Holy Ghost fell upon them and they prophesied. The Book of Mormon says of the twelve disciples: "And they did pray for that which they most desired; and they desired that the Holy Ghost should be given unto them. And when they had thus prayed they went down unto the water's edge, and the multitude followed them. And it came to pass that Nephi went down into the water and was baptized. And he came up out of the water and began to baptize. And he baptized all those whom Jesus had chosen. And it came to pass when they were all baptized and had come up out of the water, the Holy Ghost did fall upon them, and they were filled with the Holy Ghost and with fire" (3 Nephi 19:9-13).
The Book of Mormon has further parallels with Joseph Smith's 1820 vision of the Father and Son in the woods. Enos relates: "And I will tell you of the wrestle which I had before God, before I received a remission of my sins. Behold, I went to hunt beasts in the forests; and the words which I had often heard my father speak concerning eternal life, and the joy of the saints, sunk deep into my heart. And my soul hungered; and I kneeled down before my Maker, and I cried unto him in mighty prayer and supplication for mine own soul; and all the day long did I cry unto him; yea, and when the night came I did still raise my voice high that it reached the heavens. And there came a voice unto me, saying: Enos, thy sins are forgiven thee, and thou shalt be blessed" (Enos 2-5). Joseph Smith states that when he started to pray, he "was seized upon by some power which entirely overcame me, and had such an astonishing influence over me as to bind my tongue so that I could not speak." When an angel appeared to Alma, "the astonishment of Alma was so great that he became dumb, that he could not open his mouth" (Mosiah 27:19). Joseph Smith said further that he was surrounded by thick darkness and felt doomed to destruction, but then "I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me. It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air." When Nephi and Lehi, the sons of Helaman, went on a mission to the land of Nephi, they were thrown in prison, but they "were encircled about with a pillar of fire." Those in the prison were then "overshadowed with a cloud of darkness, and an awful solemn fear came upon them. And it came to pass that there came a voice as if it were above the cloud of darkness . . . . And it came to pass that the Lamanites could not flee because of the cloud of darkness which did overshadow them; yea, and also they were immovable because of the fear which did come upon them." Nephi and Lehi conversed with angels above them. After the people cried to the Lord, the cloud of darkness dispersed and "they were encircled about, yea every soul, by a pillar of fire," after which they heard the voice of the Father and saw angels (Helaman 5:24-48).
In relating Joseph Smith's 1823 visit from Moroni, Joseph and Oliver emphasized the brilliant light surrounding Moroni and the whiteness of his robe. In one of Lehi's early visions, he beheld the Lord descend from heaven and "his luster was above that of the sun at noon-day." In a later dream, Lehi was led by a man dressed in a white robe to a field, where he saw a tree and "the fruit thereof was white, to exceed all the whiteness that I had ever seen." Nephi also beheld a man dressed in a white robe, and he later describes the justice of God: "the brightness thereof was like unto the brightness of a flaming fire . . . ." (1 Nephi 1:9; 8:5,11; 14:19; 15:30). When Jesus appeared to the Nephites, he was dressed in a white robe: "And it came to pass that Jesus blessed them as they did pray unto him; and his countenance did smile upon them, and the light of his countenance did shine upon them, and behold they were as white as the countenance and also the garments of Jesus; and behold the whiteness thereof did exceed all the whiteness, yea, even there could be nothing upon earth so white as the whiteness thereof" (3 Nephi 11:8; 19:25).
Joseph Smith described the conclusion of his 1820 vision: "When I came to myself again, I found myself lying on my back, looking up into heaven." He also said that after his 1823 visions, "I found my strength so exhausted as to render me entirely unable [to work]. . . . I started with the intention of going to the house; but, . . . my strength entirely failed me, and I fell helpless on the ground, and for a time was quite unconscious of anything." After Lehi's first vision of a pillar of fire, "he returned to his own house at Jerusalem; and he cast himself upon his bed, being overcome with the Spirit and the things which he had seen" (1 Nephi 1:7). Nephi also complains that "I have workings in the spirit, which doth weary me even that all my joints are weak" (1 Nephi 19:20). When an angel appeared to him, Alma "became weak, even that he could not move his hands," and he remained in that condition for two days (Mosiah 27:19-23). After king Lamoni was converted by Ammon, "he fell unto the earth, as if he were dead," and like Alma, remained so for two days (Alma 18:42-43). Lamoni's father had a similar experience (Alma 22:18). And a number of people also fell to the earth both before and after Christ's crucifixion (3 Nephi 1:16-17; 11:12).
Oliver Cowdery stressed the fact that Joseph Smith was required to have no expectations of getting gain from the gold plates, and Joseph said that Moroni told him that "I must have no other object in view in getting the plates but to glorify God, and must not be influenced by any other motive than that of building his kingdom; otherwise I could not get them." According to Cowdery, Joseph made three attempts to take the plates out of the stone box, but was shocked each time. Moroni told him that he could not obtain the plates, because he had thoughts of getting rich. Joseph then "beheld the prince of darkness, surrounded by his innumerable train of associates," and was told that the plates "are not deposited here for the sake of accumulating gain and wealth for the glory of this world: they were sealed by the prayer of faith, and because of the knowledge which they contain they are of no worth among the children of men, only for their knowledge." Samuel the Lamanite prophesied: "For I will, saith the Lord, that they shall hide up their treasures unto me; and cursed be they who hide not up their treasures unto me; for none hideth up their treasures unto me save it be the righteous; and he that hideth not up his treasures unto me, cursed is he, and also the treasure, and none shall redeem it because of the curse of the land. And the day shall come that they shall hide up their treasures, because they have set their hearts upon riches; . . . because they will not hide them up unto me, cursed be they and also their treasures . . . . Behold, we are surrounded by demons, yea, we are encircled about by the angels of him who hath sought to destroy our souls" (Helaman 13:19-37). Moroni also states: "And I am the same who hideth up this record unto the Lord; the plates thereof are of no worth, because of the commandment of the Lord. For he truly saith that no one shall have them to get gain; but the record thereof is of great worth; and whoso shall bring it to light, him will the Lord bless. For none can have power to bring it to light save it be given him of God; for God wills that it shall be done with an eye single to his glory, or the welfare of the ancient and long dispersed covenant people of the Lord" (Mormon 8:14-15).
Other sources provide parallels for Joseph Smith's visions. Joseph said that his visions left him weakened and even resulted in unconsciousness. Daniel describes the effect which his visions had upon him: "Therefore I was left alone, and saw this great vision, and there remained no strength in me . . . . then was I in a deep sleep on my face, and my face toward the ground" (Dan. 10:8-9). Both Joseph and Oliver said that Moroni's countenance was like lightning. Daniel declared: "Then I lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a certain man clothed in linen . . . and his face as the appearance of lightning" (Dan. 10:5-6). John described his vision: "And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire: and he had in his hand a little book open" (Rev. 10:1-2).
Joseph said that prior to his first vision, he had opened his Bible to James 1:5: "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him." He then retired to the woods, where he prayed and beheld a pillar of light and two personages, "whose brightness and glory defy all description." Daniel Defoe used a similar motif in Robinson Crusoe. Crusoe repeatedly sought guidance by opening his Bible at random. He described his initial experience: "only having opened the book casually, the first words that occurred to me were these, 'Call on me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver, and thou shalt glorify me'" (Defoe 1980, 95). This followed a vision which Crusoe had seen in a dream: "I saw a man descend from a great black cloud, in a bright flame of fire, and light upon the ground. He was all over as bright as a flame, so that I could but just bear to look towards him; his countenance was most inexpressibly dreadful, impossible for words to describe; when he stepped upon the ground with his feet, I thought the earth trembled, just as it had done before in the earthquake, and all the air looked, to my apprehension, as if it had been filled with flashes of fire" (Defoe 1980, 89). Lehi "did quake and tremble exceedingly," after beholding a pillar of fire. The Book of Mormon describes Alma's vision: "the angel of the Lord appeared unto them; and he descended as it were in a cloud; and he spake as it were with a voice of thunder, which caused the earth to shake upon which they stood" (Mosiah 27:11).
Joseph Smith's visions should also be compared to Jonathan Edwards' "Personal Narrative," first published in 1765. Edwards said that he had two "remarkable seasons of awakening."
The first time was when I was a boy, some years before I went to college, at a time of remarkable awakening in my father's congregation. I was then very much affected for many months, and concerned about the things of religion, and my soul's salvation . . . . And besides, I had particular secret places of my own in the woods, where I used to retire by myself; and was from time to time much affected.
But in process of time, my convictions and affections wore off . . . and went on in the ways of sin. Indeed I was at times very uneasy, especially towards the latter part of my time at college; when it pleased God, to seize me with the pleurisy; in which he brought me nigh to the grave, and shook me over the pit of hell. And yet, it was not long after my recovery, before I fell again into my old ways of sin. But God would not suffer me to go on with my quietness; I had great and violent inward struggles . . . .
Not long after I began to experience these things, I gave an account to my father of some things that had passed in my mind. I was pretty much affected by the discourse we had together; and when the discourse was ended, I walked abroad alone, in a solitary place in my father's pasture for contemplation. And as I was walking there and looking up on the sky and clouds, there came into my mind so sweet a sense of the glorious majesty and grace of God, that I know not how to express. . . .
After this my sense of divine things gradually increased, and became more and more lively, and had more of that inward sweetness. . . . God's excellency, his wisdom, his purity and love, seemed to appear in every thing; in the sun, moon, and stars; in the clouds, and blue sky; in the grass, flowers, trees; in the water, and all nature; which used greatly to fix my mind. . . .
I very frequently used to retire into a solitary place, on the banks of Hudson's river, at some distance from the city, for contemplation on divine things, and secret converse with God; and had many sweet hours there. Sometimes Mr. Smith and I walked there together, to converse on the things of god; and our conversation used to turn much on the advancement of Christ's kingdom in the world, and the glorious things that God would accomplish for his church in the latter days. . . .
Once as I rode out into the woods for my health, in 1737, having alighted from my horse in a retired place, as my manner commonly has been, to walk for divine contemplation and prayer, I had a view that for me was extraordinary, of the glory of the Son of God, as Mediator between God and man, and his wonderful, great, full, pure and sweet grace and love, and meek and gentle condescension. This grace that appeared so calm and sweet, appeared also great above the heavens. The person of Christ appeared ineffably excellent with an excellency great enough to swallow up all thought and conception -- which continued as near as I can judge, about an hour; which kept me the greater part of the time in a flood of tears, and weeping aloud. (Edwards 1962, 88-97)
According to Oliver Cowdery's account, it was necessary for Joseph Smith to behold a vision of the prince of darkness and his minions, so that he could learn how to judge spirits correctly and detect works of darkness. In the latter part of his life, Joseph delivered a number of teachings on the subject of spirits and angels. In June 1839, Wilford Woodruff wrote in his journal that Joseph delivered a "key" to the twelve apostles. Essentially the key was that if you shake hands with an angel, you will feel a substantial hand, like a human hand, but if the devil appears as an angel and offers his hand, you will feel nothing. In July or August of 1839, John Taylor wrote: "A Spirit cannot come but in glory. An angel has flesh and bones, we see not their glory" (Joseph Smith 1980, 12). In another passage, Taylor wrote: "The innumerable company of Angels are those that have been resurrected from the dead. the Spirits of Just men made perfect are those without bodies" (Joseph Smith 1980, 14). On 15 October 1841 the Times and Seasons reported some of the teachings of Joseph Smith, which he delivered during a conference: "He explained a difference between an angel and a ministering spirit; the one a resurrected or translated body, with its spirit, ministering to embodied spirits -- the other a disembodied spirit, visiting and ministering to disembodied spirits. Jesus Christ became a ministering spirit, while his body laying in the sepulcher, to the spirits in prison . . . . After his resurrection, he appeared as an angel to his disciples &c. Translated bodies cannot enter into rest until they have undergone a change equivalent to death" (Joseph Smith 1980, 77). On 9 February 1843, Joseph again gave instructions on the discerning of spirits: "There are two kinds of beings in heaven, namely: Angels, who are resurrected personages, having bodies of flesh and bones . . . . Secondly: the spirits of just men made perfect, they who are not resurrected, but inherit the same glory. When a messenger comes saying he has a message from God, offer him your hand and request him to shake hands with you. If he be an angel he will do so, and you will feel his hand. If he be the spirit of a just man made perfect he will come in his glory; for that is the only way he can appear" (D&C 129:1-6). On 2 April 1843, Joseph made a distinction between the Father and Son and the Holy Ghost: "The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man's; the Son also; but the Holy ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of Spirit. Were it not so, the Holy Ghost could not dwell in us" (D&C 130:22). In another article in the Times and Seasons (15 September 1843), Joseph reportedly said: "Spirits can only be revealed in flaming fire, or glory. Angels have advanced farther -- their light and glory being tabernacled, and hence appear in bodily shape." The James Burgess Notebook also records the teaching of Joseph Smith: "The spirit of a just man made perfect if he made his appearance he would appear or be enveloped in flaming fire and no man in this mortal state could endure it, but an angel could come and appear as an other man" (Joseph Smith 1980, 253, 255).
This classification of spiritual beings as angels and ministering spirits may have been an attempt to bring order to the various accounts of spirits and angels in the Bible. The idea that spirits can appear only in flaming fire may be derived from Exodus, Psalms, and Acts. When Moses came to Horeb, "the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed" (Exod. 3:2) When the Israelites fled from Egypt, the Lord led them by night in a pillar of fire (Exod. 13:21), and when they reached Sinai, the Lord descended upon the mount in fire (Exod. 19:18). Exodus also states, "And the sight of the glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel" (Exod. 24:17). The angel who appeared to Manoah, the father of Samson, ascended in the flame of the altar (Judg. 13:20). Psalm 104:4 says that the Lord "maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire." Acts states that on the day of Pentecost, "there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost" (Acts 2:3-4).
However, spiritual beings in the Bible sometimes appear as ordinary men. The Lord and two angels appeared as men to Abraham at the oaks of Mamre, and the two angels journeyed on to Lot's dwelling in Sodom. Moses, Aaron, and seventy-two other men saw God standing upon a pavement of sapphire on mount Sinai. Angels also sometimes touch humans. Elijah rested under a tree near Beersheba: "And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat. . . . And the angel of the Lord came again the second time, and touched him" (1 Kings 19:5-7). Jeremiah stated that "the Lord put forth his hand, and touched my mouth" (Jer. 1:9). Daniel was touched by Gabriel: "there stood before me as the appearance of a man. And I heard a man's voice between the banks of Ulai, which called, and said, Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision. . . . Now as he was speaking with me, I was in a deep sleep on my face toward the ground: but he touched me, and set me upright" (Dan. 8:15-18). In a later passage, Daniel says, "Yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation" (Dan 9:21). After his crucifixion, Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene and told her, "Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father" (John 20:17). Later, when Christ appeared to his disciples, the gospels insist on the fact that he had a body of substance. According to Luke, Jesus said, "Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have" (Luke 24:39). Jesus instructed Thomas, "Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side" (John 20:27).
It was probably from passages such as these that the distinction was drawn between angels, which have translated or resurrected bodies, and ministering spirits, which appear in flaming fire. However, this distinction creates many problems. Joseph Smith said that the Father and Son appeared to him in a pillar of fire or light, and the brightness and glory of the two personages defied all description. He and Oliver also stated that the appearance of Moroni was accompanied by a bright light, like a "consuming and unquenchable fire" and that an additional glory surrounded him. However, Joseph stated in the Elders' Journal that Moroni had been raised from the dead. Therefore, both Christ and Moroni should have been resurrected beings, angels rather than spirits.
Works Cited
Defoe, Daniel. 1980. Robinson Crusoe. New York: New American Library.
Edwards, Jonathan. 1962. "Personal Narrative." In The American Tradition in Literature, rev., vol. 1, edited by Sculley Bradley, Richmond Croom Beatty, and E. Hudson Long. New York: W. W. Norton & Company Inc.
Quinn, D. Michael. 1987. Early Mormonism and the Magic World View. Salt Lake City: Signature Books.
Smith, Joseph. 1980. The Words of Joseph Smith. Compiled and edited by Andrew F. Ehat and Lyndon W. Cook. Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University.
Smith, Joseph. 1984. The Personal Writings of Joseph Smith. Edited by Dean C. Jessee. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book.
EXPOSING MORMONISM-The LDS Plan of Salvation
Salvation----------
"All men are saved by grace alone without any act on their part, meaning they are resurrected" (Bruce McConkie, What Mormons Think of Christ", LDS tract, p.28).
"In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, there is no Hell. All will find a measure of salvation" (Joseph Smith-Seeker After Truth, p.177-178, 1951).
Joseph Fielding Smith again: "Those who live lives of wickedness may also be heirs of salvation, that is, they too shall be redeemed from death and from hell eventually" (Doctrines of Salvation, vol.2, p.133).
"Those who gain only this general or unconditional salvation will still be judged according to their works and
receive places in a Terrestial or Telestial kingdom. They will, therefore, be damned; their eternal progression will be cut short; they will not fill the full measure of their creation, but in eternity will be ministering servants to more worthy persons."Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, "Salvation",pg 669,670
(1966 Edition)
Exaltation - eternal life
----------
Third Article of Faith states: "We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel" (Pearl of Great Price: Articles of Faith).
"As man is, God once was; as God is, man may become."
Lorenzo Snow, Millennial Star, Vol 54, pg 404
"Mormonism does not tend to debase God to the level of man,but to exalt man to the perfection of God."
Charles W. Penrose,Millenial Star,Vol 23, pg 181 Milton R Hunter G.T.the A. p 107
Dr John A Widtsoe "God and man are of the same race, differing only in their degrees of advancement" Rational Theology p61
hunter gta p107
Joseph Fielding Smith explains what that last phrase means: "that which man merits through his own acts through life and by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel" (Doctrines of Salvation, vol. 1, p.134).
Spencer W. Kimball states: "however powerful the saving grace of Christ, it brings exaltation to no man who does not comply with the works of the gospel" (The Miracle of Forgiveness, pg. 207); "Each command we obey sends us another rung up the ladder to perfected manhood and toward godhood; and every law disobeyed is a sliding toward the bottom where man merges into the brute world" (Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, pg. 153); "living all the commandments guarantees total forgiveness of sins and assures one of exaltation...trying is not sufficient. Nor is repentence when one merely tries to abandon sin" (The Miracle of Forgiveness, p.164-165, 354-355).
Bruce McConkie claimed: "Jesus kept the commandments of his Father and thereby worked out his own salvation, and also set an example as to the way and the means whereby all men may be saved" (The Mortal Messiah, Vol.4, p.434).
This full salvation is obtained in and through the continuation of the family unit in eternity, and those who obtain it are gods.
D. & C. 131:1-4 the celestial glory there are three heavens or degrees; And in order to obtain the highest, a man must enter into this border of the priesthood [meaning the new and deverlasting covenant of marriage]; And if he does not, he cannot obtain it.He may enter into the other, but that is the end of his kingdom; he cannot have an increase.
DC 132:20 Then shall they be gods, because they have no end; therefore shall they be from everlasting to everlasting, because they continue; then shall they be above all, because all things are subject unto them. Then shall they be gods, because they have call power, and the angels are subject unto them. Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye abide my alaw ye cannot attain to this glory.
ETERNAL LIFE IS EXALTATION. Now there is a difference between immortality and eternal life. Immortality is the gift to live forever. It comes to every creature. Eternal life is to have the kind of life that God has. All those who become servants will have immortality, but they who become sons and daughters of God will have the additional gift of eternal life, which is the greatest gift of God.
Eternal life is life in the presence of the Father and the Son. Those who receive it become members of the ‘Church of the Firstborn’ and are heirs as sons and daughters of God. They receive the fulness of blessings. They become like the Father and the Son and are joint-heirs with Jesus Christ.
What is eternal life? It is to have “a continuation of the seeds forever and ever.” No one receives eternal life except those who receive the exaltation. dos v2 p 8-9
"Here then is eternal life - to know the only wise and true God; and you have got to learn how to be gods yourselves, and to be kings and priest to God, the same as all gods have done before you --- and to sit in glory, as do those who sit in everlasting power --- What is it? To inherit the same power, the same glory and the same exaltation, until you arrive at the station of a god ---"
Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pg 345-347;
Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, "Godhood", 1966
Edition, pg 321
History of the Church, Volume 6, page 306
"They are they into whose hands the Father has given all things - they are they who are priest and kings, who have received of His fulness, and his glory -- they are gods --" Doctrine & Covenants, 76:55-58
"Men may become gods"
"Even the doctrine of a knowledge of God as the avenue to Godhood made its way outward from the Divine Fountain of Truth into the heathenistic religions of the Mediterranean world. The teaching of the HERMETIC pagan cult sound quite familiar to those who are acquainted with the doctrine taught by Jesus, by John the Beloved, by Paul, and by Joseph Smith, the American Prophet". Milton R Hunter Gospel through the ages p 117
EXPOSING MORMONISM -LDS QUOTES ON POLYGAMY
Polygamy
Back to Mormon Quotes Index
“For behold, thus saith the Lord: This people begin to wax in iniquity; they understand not the scriptures, for they seek to excuse themselves in committing whoredoms, because of the things which were written concerning David, and Solomon his son.
“Behold, David and Solomon truly had many wives and concubines, which thing was abominable before me, saith the Lord.”
- Book of Mormon, 1830 edition, p. 111, verses 23-24
“Verily, thus saith the Lord... you have inquired of my hand to know and understand wherein I, the Lord justified my servants... David and Solomon... as touching the principle and doctrine of-having many wives and concubines – David’s wives and concubines were given unto him of me...”
- Doctrine and Covenants, Section 132, verses 1, 39
“... if any man espouse a virgin, and desire to espouse another, and the first give her consent, and if he espouses the second, and they are virgins, and have vowed to no other man, then he is justified.”
- Doctrine and Covenants, Section 132, verse 61
“Some of the nations of Europe who believe in the one wife system have actually forbidden a plurality of wives by their laws; and the consequences are that the whole country among them is overrun with the most abominable practices: adulteries and unlawful connections through all their villages, towns, cities, and country places to a most fearful extent.”
- Apostle Orson Pratt, The Seer, p. 12
“This law of monogamy, or the monogamic system, laid the foundation for prostitution and the evils and diseases of the most revolting nature and character under which modern Christendom groans…”
- Apostle Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses, v. 13, p. 195
“Verily, I say unto you, that the wisdom of man, in his fallen state, knoweth not the purposes and the privileges of my hold priesthood, but ye shall know when ye receive a fullness by reason of the anointing: For it is my will, that in time, ye should take unto you wives of the Lamanites and Nephites, that their posterity may become white, delightsome and just, for even now their females are more virtuous then the gentiles.”
- Prophet Joseph Smith, Jr., 1831 revelation, recorded in a letter from W.W. Phelps to Brigham Young, dated August 12, 1861
“In addition to this, and to co-operate with it, it has been made known by revelation, that it will be pleasing to the Lord, should they forma matrimonial alliance with the Natives; and by this means the Elders, who comply with the thing so pleasing to the Lord, and for which the Lord has promised to bless those who do it abundantly, gain a residence in the Indian territory, independent of the agent. It has been made known to one, who has left his wife in the state of N.Y. that he is entirely free from his wife, and he is at liberty to take him a wife from among the Lamanites. It was easily perceived that his permission was perfectly suited to his desires. I have frequently heard him state, that the Lord had made it known to him, that he is as free from his wife as from any other woman; and the only crime that I have ever heard alleged against her is, she is violently opposed to Mormonism.”
- Ezra Booth, Ohio Star, December 8, 1831
“The response of the men who were introduced into polygamy between 1841 and 1846 was anything but enthusiastic. The same was true of the women who were offered the chance of becoming plural wives. Apart from the fact that the new system collided with moral assumptions they had grown up with, there were practical difficulties that made polygamy less attractive. For the men to support additional wives was seldom easy. And for women to be married on this basis without being legally acknowledged as wives can hardly have been reassuring. It was not the kind of scheme that aroused cheers and applause.”
- Mormon Experience, by Leonard J. Arrington and Davis Bitton, p. 197
“One Mormon raised the question with his spouse, who minched no words in replying, ‘All right Jody – you get another wife and I’ll get another husband!’”
- Mormon Experience, by Leonard J. Arrington and Davis Bitton, p. 200
“Martin Harris... claimed he had a revelation when he first came to Kirtland for him to go to Missouri, and obtain a Lamanite squaw for a wife to aid them in propagating Mormonism. Martin told me soon after Joseph, the prophet, left Kirtland, that two years before, he had told him that as his wife had left him he needed a woman as other men.”
- S.F. Whitney, Naked Truths About Mormonism, 1888, p. 3
“We are now going to the Lamanites, to whom we intend to be messengers of instruction... We will show them that in consequence of their transgressions a curse has been inflicted upon them – in the darkness of their skins. We will have intermarriages with them, they marrying our young women, and we taking their young squaws to wife. By these means it is the will of the Lord that the curse of their color shall be removed and they restored to their pristine beauty...”
- Prophet Brigham Young, quoted in The Abominations of Mormonism Exposed, pp. 58-59
“... Brigham now teaches that ‘the way God has revealed for the purification of the Indians, and making them “a white and delightsome people,” as Joseph prophesied, is by us taking the Indian squaws for wives!!’ Accordingly several of these tawny beauties have been already ‘sealed’ to some of the Mormon authorities.”
- John Hyde, Jr., Mormonism: Its Leaders and Designs, pp. 109-110
“The Latter-day Saints, from the rise of the Church in 1830, till the year 1843, had no authority to marry any more than one wife each. To have done otherwise, would have been a great transgression.”
- Millennial Star, v. 19, p. 475
Joseph Smith was married to at least 12 women prior to July 12, 1843
“The charge of adulterous relations ‘with a certain girl’ was leveled against Smith by Cowdery in Missouri in 1837; this accusation became one of the complaints the Church had against Cowdery in his excommunication trial in Far West, April 12, 1838. In rationalizing Cowdery’s accusation, the Prophet testified that Oliver Cowdery had been his bosom friend, therefore he entrusted him with many things.”
- Conflict at Kirtland, by Max Parkin, 1966, p. 166
“When he [Joseph Smith, Jr.] was there we had some conversation in which in every instance I did not fail to affirm that what I had said was strictly true. A dirty, nasty, filthy affair of his and Fanny Alger’s was talked over in which I strictly declared that I had never deviated from the truth in the matter, and as I supposed was admitted by himself.”
- Oliver Cowdery, Letter dated January 21, 1838
“The law of the land and the rules of the church do not allow one man to have more than one wife alive at once...”
- Times and Seasons, Nov. 15, 1844, v. 5, p. 715
“Now for my proposition; it is more particularly for my sisters, as it is frequently happening that women say they are unhappy. Men will say, ‘My wife, though a most excellent woman, has not seen a happy day since I took my second wife; No, not a happy day for a year,’ says one; and another has not seen a happy day for five years. It is said that women are tied down and abused: that they are misused and have not he liberty they ought to have; that many of them are wading through a perfect flood of tears, because of the conduct of some men together with their own folly.
“I wish my own women to understand that what I am going to say is for them as well as others, and I want those who are here to tell their sisters, yes, all the women of this community, and then write it back to the States, and do as you please with it. I am going to give you from this time to the 6th day of October next, for reflection, that you may determine whether you wish to stay with your husbands or not, and then I am going to set every woman at liberty and say to them, No go your way, my women with the rest, go your way. And my wives have got to do one of two things; either round up their shoulders to endure the afflictions of this world, and live their religion, or they may leave, for I will not have them about me. I will go into heaven alone, rather than have scratching and fighting around me. I will set all at liberty. ‘What, first wife too?’ Yes, I will liberate you all....
“I wish my women, and brother Kimball’s and brother Grant’s to leave, and every woman in this Territory, or else say in their hearts that they will embrace the Gospel – the whole of it.... say to your wives, ‘Take all that I have and be set at liberty; but if you stay with me you shall comply with the law of God, and that too without any murmuring and whining. You must fulfill the law of God in every respect, and round up your shoulders to walk up to the mark without any grunting.’ Now recollect that two weeks from tomorrow I am going to set you at liberty. But the first wife will say, ‘It is hard, for I have lived with my husband twenty years, or thirty, and have raised a family of children for him, and it is a great trial to me for him to have more women;’ then I say it is time that you gave him up to other women who will bear children. If my wife had borne me all the children that she ever would bare, the celestial law would teach me to take young women that would have children....
“Sisters, I am not joking, I do not throw out my proposition to banter your feelings, to see whether you will leave your husbands, all or any of you. But I do know that there is no cessation to the everlasting whining of many of the women in this Territory; I am satisfied that this is the case. And if the women will turn from the commandments of God and continue to despise the order of heaven, I will pray that the curse of the Almighty may be close to their heels, and that it may be following them all day long....
“Prepare yourselves for two weeks from tomorrow; and I will tell you now, that if you will tarry with your husbands, after I have set you free, you must bow down to it, and submit yourselves to the celestial law. You may go where you please, after two weeks from tomorrow; but, remember, that I will not hear any more of this whining.”
- Prophet Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, v. 4, pp. 55-57, also printed in the Deseret News, v. 6, pp. 235-236
“Yes, [polygamy is] one of the relics of Adam, of Enoch, of Noah, of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob, of Moses, David, Solomon, the Prophets, of Jesus, and his apostles.”
- Prophet Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, v. 11, p. 328
“The Scripture says that He, the Lord, came walking in the Temple, with His train; I do not know who they were, unless His wives and children; but at any rate they filled the Temple, and how many there were who could not get into the Temple I cannot say. This is the account given by Isaiah, whether he told the truth or not I leave every body to judge for himself.”
- Prophet Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, v. 13, p. 309
“... it will be seen that the great Messiah who was the founder of the Christian religion was a polygamist... the Messiah chose... by marrying many honorable wives himself, to show to all future generations that he approbated the plurality of wives under the Christian dispensation in which His polygamist ancestors lived.
“We have clearly show that God the Father had a plurality of wives, one or more being in eternity, by whom He begat our spirits as well as the spirit of Jesus His First Born, and another being upon the earth by whom He begat the tabernacle of Jesus, as his only begotten in this world. We have also proved most clearly that the Son followed the example of his Father, and became the great Bridegroom to whom Kings’ daughters and many honorable wives were to be married. We have also proved that both God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ inherit their wives in eternity as well as in time... And then it would be so shocking to the modesty of the very pious ladies of Christendom to see Abraham and his wives, Jacob and his wives, Jesus and his honorable wives, all eating occasionally at the same table, and visiting one another, and conversing about their numerous children and their kingdoms. Oh, ye delicate ladies of Christendom, how can you endure such a scene as this?... If you do not want your morals corrupted, and your delicate ears shocked, and your pious modesty put to the blush by the society of Polygamists and their wives, do not venture near the New Earth; for polygamists will be honored there, and will be among the chief rules in that Kingdom.”
- Apostle Orson Pratt, The Seer, p. 172
“The next man who came on to the carpet wanted to know how many wives brother Brigham had. I replied... ‘I will guess, if that will do you any good.... if I may judge from appearances, I should presume he has some fifty or sixty.’”
- Apostle Ezra T. Benson, Journal of Discourses, v. 6, pp. 180-181
“Verily, thus saith the Lord unto my servants N.K. Whitney, the thing that my servant Joseph Smith has made known unto you and your family and which you have agreed is right in mine eyes... These are the words which you shall pronounce unto my servant Joseph and your daughter S.A. Whitney. They shall take each other by the hand and you shall say, You both mutually agree, calling them by name, to be each other’s companion so long as you both shall live... If you both agree to the covenant and do this, I then give you, S.A. Whitney, my daughter, to Joseph Smith, to be his wife... Let immortality and eternal life hereafter be sealed upon your heads forever and ever.”
- Prophet Joseph Smith, Jr. revelation, in The Strange Marriages of Sarah Ann Whitney, by Michael Marquardt, p. 23
This revelation was given July 27, 1842, a year earlier than the one published in the Doctrine and Covenants
“Emma [Smith] took the revelation, [on polygamy] supposed she had all there was; but Joseph had wisdom enough to take care of it, and he had handed the revelation to Bishop Whitney, and he wrote it all off.... She went to the fireplace and put it in, and put a candle under it and burnt it, and she thought that was the end of it, and she will be damned as sure as she is a living woman. Joseph used to say that he would have her hereafter, if he had to go to hell for her, and he will have to go to hell for her as sure as he ever gets her.”
- Prophet Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, v. 17, p. 159
“Wednesday, 12 – I received the following revelation... Revelation on the Eternity of the Marriage Covenant, including the Plurality of Wives. Given through Joseph, the Seer, in Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois, July 12, 1843.”
- History of the Church, v. 5, pp. 500-501
Joseph had married at least 12 women prior to July 12, 1843
“If I had forty wives in the United States, they did not know it, and could not substantiate it, neither did I ask any lawyer, judge, or magistrate for them. I live above the law, and so do this people.”
- Prophet Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, v. 1, p. 361
“The Chairman: That is the Book of Mormon?
Joseph F. Smith: Yes, sir; that is the Book of Mormon.
The Chairman: Is the doctrine of polygamy taught in that revelation?
Mr. Smith: Taught in it?
The Chairman: Yes.
Mr. Smith: It is emphatically forbidden in that book.
The Chairman: In that book it is emphatically forbidden?
Mr. Smith: It is.”
- Reed Smoot Case, v. 1, p. 480
“Sat. 25. – Joseph Smith learned that the grand jury at Carthage had found two indictments against him, one of them for polygamy.”
- Church Chronology, p. 25
“I was married to Joseph Smith on the 4th of March 1843... My sister Eliza was also married to Joseph a few days later. This was done without the knowledge of Emma Smith.”
- Historical Record, v. 6, p. 240
“... my father... was taught the plural wife doctrine, and was told by Joseph, the Prophet, three times, to go and take a certain woman as his wife; but not till he commanded him in the name of the Lord did he obey. At the same time Joseph told him not to divulge this secret, not even to my mother, for fear that she would not receive it... This was one of the greatest test of his faith he had ever experienced. The thought of deceiving the kind and faithful wife of his youth... was more than he felt able to bear.... his sorrow and misery were increased by the thought of my mother hearing it from some other source, which would no doubt separate them, and he shrank from the thought of such a thing, or of causing her any unhappiness.”
- Life of Heber C. Kimball (Apostle), by Orson F. Whitney, pp. 335-336
“Senator Pettus. Have there been any past plural marriages without the consent of the first wife?
Mr. [Joseph F.] Smith. I do not know of any, unless it may have been Joseph Smith himself.
Senator Pettus. Is the language that you have read construed to mean that she is bound to consent?
Mr. Smith. The condition is that if she does not consent the Lord will destroy her, but I do not know how He will do it.
Senator Bailey. Is it not true that in the very next verse, if she refuses her consent her husband is exempt from the law which requires her consent?
Mr. Smith. Yes; he is exempt from the law which requires her consent.
Senator Bailey. She is commanded to consent, but if she does not, then he is exempt from the requirement?
Mr. Smith. Then he is at liberty to proceed without her consent, under the law.
Senator Beveridge. In other words, her consent amounts to nothing?
Mr. Smith. It amounts to nothing but her consent.”
- Reed Smoot Case, v. 1, p. 201
“Kimball always kept an eye out for romance. ‘Brethren,’ he instructed some departing missionaries, ‘I want you to understand that it is not to be as it has been heretofore. The brother missionaries have been in the habit of picking out the prettiest women for themselves before they get here, and bringing on the ugly ones for us; hereafter you have to bring them all here before taking any of them, and let us all have a fair shake.”
- The Lion of the Lord, by Stanley P. Hirshon, pp. 129-130
“The implied assumption in this theory, that there have been more female than male members in the Church, is not supported by existing evidence. On the contrary, there seems always to have been more males than females in the Church....
“The United States census records from 1850 to 1940, and all available Church records, uniformly show a preponderance of males in Utha, and in the Church. Indeed, the excess in Utah has usually been larger than for the whole United State... there was no surplus of women.”
- Apostle John A. Widstoe, Apostle, Evidences and Reconciliations, pp. 390-392
“But then the proportion of the sexes in Utah would not, at present, admit of an extensive practice of plural marriage. When the census was taken five years ago, there were 143,963 souls in Utah Territory, not counting untaxed Indians. In this number there was an excess of 5,055 males over females. This does not have the appearance of permitting an extensive practice of plural marriage...”
- Juvenile Instructor, v. 20, p. 133
“There is a great deal of quarrelling in the houses, and contending for power and authority; and the second wife is against the first wife, perhaps, in some instances.”
- Apostle Heber C. Kimball, Journal of Discourses, v. 4, p. 178
“A few years ago one of my wives, when talking about wives leaving their husbands said, ‘I wish my husband’s wives would leave him, every soul of them except myself.’ That is the way they all feel, more or less, at times, both old and young.”
- Prophet Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, v. 9, p. 195
Sisters, do you wish to make yourselves happy? Then what is your duty? It is for you to bear children... are you tormenting yourselves by thinking that your husbands do not love you? I would not care whether they loved a particle or not; but I would cry out, like one of old, in the joy of my heart, ‘I have got a man from the Lord! Hallelujah! I am a mother...’”
- Prophet Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, v. 9, p. 37
“It is the duty of the first wife to regard her husband not with a selfish devotion... she must regard her husband with indifference, and with no other feeling than that of reverence, for love we regard as a false sentiment; a feeling which should have no existence in polygamy... we believe in the good old custom by which marriages should be arranged by the parents of the young people.”
- Zina Huntington, wife of Prophet Brigham Young, New York World, November 17, 1869, as cited in The Lion of the Lord, pp. 229-230
“Plural marriage... is calculated in its nature to severely try the women even to nearly tear their heart strings out of them...”
- Journal and Autobiography of Joseph Lee Robinson, p. 50
“When James Hunter took his second wife, the first who had accompanied the couple to the Endowment House for the ceremony could not sleep and walked the floor all night as she thought of her husband lying in the arms of his bride...
“A person brought up in a polygamist household... told this story: ‘There is one real tragedy in polygamy that I can remember. One evening a man brought home a second wife. It was winter and the first wife was very upset. That night she climbed onto the roof and froze to death.’”
- Isn’t One Wife Enough?, by Kimball Young, pp. 147-148
“Thus did Satan sow the seeds of discord in the Prophet’s own home, cause a torment of mind to Emma, distress to Joseph, and lay the groundwork of the apostate Reorganized Church, eventually taking Emma and their sons outside the true Church.”
- Brigham Young and His Wives, by John J. Stewart
“Mr. W.: ‘Joseph kept eight girls in his house, calling them his “daughters.” Emma threatened that she would leave the house, and Joseph told her, “All right, you can go.” She went, but when Joseph reflected that such a scandal would hurt his prophetic dignity, he followed his wife and brought her back. But the eight “daughters” had to leave the house.’”
- Mormon Portraits, by Dr. W. Wyl, 1886, pp. 57-58
“Willard realized that Emma had refused to believe that any of the young women boarding at the Mansion when it was first used as a hotel had been married to Joseph. She had struck Eliza Snow at the head of the stairs, and Eliza, it was whispered, had lost her unborn child.”
- Intimate Disciple, a Portrait of Willard Richards, by Claire Noall, 1957, p. 407
“... over two hundred women, apparently at their own request, were sealed as wives to Joseph Smith after his death in special temple ceremonies. Moreover, a great many distinguished women in history, including several Catholic saints, were also sealed to Joseph Smith in Utah. I saw these astonishing lists in the Latter-day Saint Genealogical Archives in Salt Lake City in 1944.”
- No Man Knows My History, by Fawn Brodie, Preface to Second Edition
“The contract when I married Mr. Kimball was that I should be his wife for time, and time only, and the contract on the part of Mr. Kimball was that he would take care of me during my lifetime, and in the resurrection would surrender me, with my children, to Joseph Smith...
“I decline to answer whether I had any children while I was sealed to Joseph Smith. I have nine children since I was married to Heber C. Kimball.”
- Lucy W. Kimball, as quoted in The Temple Lot Case, 1893, p. 379
“... Young often joked about his wives. ‘Tell the Gentiles,’ he once observed, ‘I do not know half of them [his wives] when I see them.’ Laer, asked the usual question by a Gentile governor of Utah, Young answered: ‘I don’t know myself! I never refuse to marry any respectable woman who asks me, and it is often the case that I separate from the woman at the marriage alter, never to meet her again to know her. My children I keep track of, however. I have fifty-seven now living, and have lost three.’”
- The Lion of the Lord, by Stanley P. Hirshon, pp. 188-189
“Brother Cannon remarked that people wondered how many wives and children I had. He may inform them that I shall have wives and children by the million, and glory, and riches, and power, and dominion, and Kingdom after Kingdom, and reign triumphantly.”
- Prophet Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, v. 8, pp. 178-179
“Do you think that I am an old man? I could prove to this congregation that I am young; for I could find more girls who would choose me for a husband than can carry any of the young men.”
- Prophet Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, v. 5, p. 210
“THURSDAY, APRIL 5, 1894... I met with the Quorum and Presidency in the temple... President Woodruff then spoke... ‘In searching out my genealogy I found about four hundred of my femal[e] kindred who were never married. I asked Pres. Young what I should do with them. He said for me to have them sealed to me unless there were more than 999 of them. The doctrine startled me, but I had it done.”
- Daily Journal of Abraham H. Cannon (Apostle), April 5, 1894, v. 18, pp. 66-67
“Says one brother to another, ‘Joseph says all covenants are done away, and none are binding but the new covenants; now suppose Joseph should come and say he wanted your wife, what would you say to that? I would tell him to go to hell.’ This was the spirit of many in the early days of this Church...
“What would a man of God say, who felt aright, when Joseph asked him for his money? He would say, ‘Yes, and I wish I had more to help to build up the Kingdom of God.’ Or if he came and said ‘I want your wife?’ ‘O Yes,’ he would say, ‘here she is, there are plenty more.’ ... Did the Prophet Joseph want every man’s wife he asked for? He did not.... If such a man of God should come to me and say, ‘I want your gold and silver, or your wives,’ I should say, ‘Here they are, I wish I had more to give you, take all I have got.”
- Apostle Jebediah M. Grant, Journal of Discourses, v. 2, pp. 13-14
“Joseph Smith finally demanded the wives of all the twelve Apostles were at home then in Nauvoo.... Vilate Kimball, the first wife of Heber C. Kimball... loved her husband, and he... loved her, hence a reluctance to comply with the Lord’s demand that Vilate should be consecrated... They thought the command of the Lord must be obeyed in some way, and a ‘proxy’ way suggested itself to their minds. They had a young daughter only getting out of girlhood; and the father apologizing to the prophet for his wife’s reluctance to comply with his desires, stating, however, that the act must be right or it would not be counseled... asked Joe if his daughter wouldn’t do as well as his wife. Joe replied that she would do just as well, and the Lord would accept her instead. The half-ripe bud of womanhood was delivered over to the Prophet.”
- Mormon Portraits, by Dr. W. Wyl, pp. 70-72, also in The Life of Heber C. Kimball, p. 339
“... in his [H.B. Jacobs] absence, she [Mrs. Jacobs] was sealed to the Prophet Joseph and was his wife.”
- Confessions of John D. Lee, p. 132
“He [Joseph] preached polygamy... It was given to him before he gave it to the Church. An angel came to him and the last time he came with a drawn sword in his hand and told Joseph if he did not go into that principle he would slay him...
“I know he had six wives and I have known some of them from childhood up. I know he had three children. They told me. I think two of them are living today, they are not known as his children as they go by different names.”
- Mary E. Lightner, wife of Joseph Smith, Jr., Speech given at Brigham Young University, April 14, 1905
“Joseph not only paid his addresses to the young and unmarried women, but he sought ‘spiritual alliance’ with many married ladies.... He taught them that all former marriages were null and void, and that they were at perfect liberty to make another choice of a husband. The marriage covenants were not binding, because they were ratified only by Gentile laws. These laws the Lord did not recognize; consequently all the women were free...
“One woman said to me not very long since, while giving me some of her experiences in polygamy: ‘The greatest trial I ever endured in my life was living with my husband and deceiving him, by receiving Joseph’s attentions whenever he chose to care to me.’ ... some of these women have since said they did not know who was the Father of her children; this is not to be wondered at, for after Joseph’s declaration annulling all Gentile marriages, the greatest promiscuity was practiced; and, indeed, all sense of morality seemed to have been lost by a portion at least of the church.”
- Ann Eliza Young, wife of Brigham Young, Wife No. 9, 1876, pp. 70-71
“... the only thing to be careful of, is to find out when Emma comes then you cannot be safe, but when she is not here, there is the most perfect safety... I think Emma won’t come tonight – if she don’t, don’t fail to come tonight, I subscribe myself your obedient and affectionate companion and friend. Joseph Smith.
- Prophet Joseph Smith, Jr., letter to Mr. and Mrs. Whitney and their daughter, Sarah Ann, as cited in Mormonism – Shadow or Reality?, by Jerald and Sandra Tanner, p. 58
“They did not abide by the rules of plural marriage as set forth in the Bible. Pratt himself had married two sisters. Others had done the same thing and even married mothers and daughters.”
- Orson Pratt: Early Mormon Leader, by T. Edgar Lyon, Thesis (M.A.), University of Chicago, Dept. of Church History, 1932, p. 104
“Sylvia Pratt, Patty’s daughter and the wife of Windsor J. Lyon, was already sealed to Joseph. This afternoon she was to put her mother’s hand in the Prophet’s.”
- Intimate Disciple: A Portrait of Willard Richards, Apostle to Joseph Smith, cousin of Brigham Young, by Claire Augusta Wilcox Noall, 1957, p. 317
“The marriage to the Lawrence sisters became public knowledge when William Law, Joseph’s [Joseph Smith, Jr.] second counselor in the First Presidency, became alienated from the prophet.... On May 23 he filed suit against the Mormon leader in Hancock County Circuit Court, at Carthage, charging that Smith had been living with Maria Lawrence ‘in an open state of adultery’ from October 12, 1843, to the day of the suit. In response, Smith flatly denied polygamy in a speech delivered on May 26.... As polygamy was illegal under U.S. law, Smith had little choice but to repudiate the practice.”
- In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith, pp. 476-477
“It would be quite impossible, with any regard to propriety, to relate all the horrible results of this disgraceful system.... Marriages have been contracted between the nearest of relatives; and old men tottering on the brink of the grave have been united to little girls scarcely in their teens; while unnatural alliances of every description, which in any other community would be regarded with disgust and abhorrence, are here entered into in the name of God....
“It is quite a common thing in Utah for a man to marry two and even three sisters... I know also another man who married a widow with several children; and when one of the girls had grown into her teens he insisted on marrying her also, having first by some means won her affections. The mother, however, was much opposed to this marriage, and finally gave up her husband entirely to her daughter; and to this very day the daughter bears children to her stepfather, living as wife in the same house with her mother!”
- T.B.H. Stenhouse, former polygamist wife, Tell It All: The Story of a Life’s Experience in Mormonism: An Autobography, 1874, pp. 468-469
“Some Utah matches were even more startling. A man named Winchester married his mother, and Young himself sealed a mother and daughter to their cousin Luman A. Surtliff... He also sealed an elderly man to a fifty-seven-year-old woman and her fourteen-year-old granddaughter.”
- The Lion of the Lord: A Biography of Brigham Young, Stanley P. Hirshon, 1969, p. 126
“The following named deceased persons were sealed to me (John M. Bernhisel) on Oct. 26th, 1843, by Pres. Joseph Smith –
Maria Bernhisel – Sister
Brother Samuel’s wife, Catherine Kremer
Mary Shatto (Aunt)”
- Joseph Smith's Diary (Prophet), Oct. 26, 1843, recorded by Robert L. Cam[p]bell, July 29, 1868
“She said that her brother John the late President John Taylor had told her some 30 years ago that if she could not be reconciled to continue with any of her husbands she might be sealed to him. This is a very curious proceeding and which I don’t understand.”
- Journal of L. John Nuttall, v. 2, pp. 362-363
“I have noticed that a man who has but one wife, and is inclined to that doctrine, soon begins to wither and dry up, while a man who goes into plurality looks fresh, young, and sprightly. Why is this? Because God loves that man, and because he honors his word. Some of you may not believe this, but I not only believe it but I also know it. For a man of God to be confined to one woman is small business... I do not know what we should do if we had only one wife apiece.”
- Apostle Heber C. Kimball, Deseret News, April 22, 1857
“Monogamy, or restrictions by law to one wife, is no part of the economy of heaven among men. Such a system was commenced by the founders of the Roman Empire... Rome became the mistress of the world, and introduced this order of monogamy wherever her sway was acknowledged. Thus this monogamic order of marriage, so esteemed by modern Christians as a hold sacrament and divine institution, is nothing but a system established by a set of robbers.”
- Prophet Brigham Young, Deseret News, August 6, 1862
“Why do we believe in and practice polygamy? Because the Lord introduced it to his servants in a revelation given to Joseph Smith, and the Lord’s servants have always practiced it. ‘And is that religion popular in heaven?’ It is the only popular religion there...”
- Prophet Brigham Young, Deseret News, August 6, 1862
“Since the founding of the Roman empire monogamy has prevailed more extensively than in times previous to that. The founders of that ancient empire were robbers and women stealers, and made laws favoring monogamy in consequence of the scarcity of women among them, and hence this monogamic system which now prevails throughout all Christendom, and which has been so fruitful a source of prostitution and whoredom throughout all the Christian monogamic cities of the Old and New World, until rottenness and decay are at the root of their institutions both national and religious.”
- Prophet Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, v. 11, p. 128
“It is a fact worthy of note that the shortest-lived nations of which we have record have been monogamic. Rome, with her arts, sciences and warlike instincts, was once the mistress of the world; but her glory faded. She was a mono-gamic nation, and the numerous evils attending that system early laid the foundation for that ruin which eventually overtook her.”
- Apostle George Q. Cannon, Journal of Discourses, v. 13, p. 202
“We breathe the free air, we have the best looking men and handsomest women, and if they envy our position, well they may, for they are a poor, narrow minded, pinch-backed race of man, who chain themselves down to the law of monogamy and live all their days under the dominion of one wife. They aught to be ashamed of such conduct, and the still fouler channel which flows from their practices.”
- Prophet George A. Smith, Apostle, Deseret News, April 16, 1856
“... the one-wife system not only degenerates the human family, both physically and intellectually, but it is entirely incompatible with philosophical notions of immortality; it is a lure to temptation, and has always proved a curse to people.”
- Millennial Star, v. 15, p. 227
“[Children of polygamists] besides being equally as bright and brighter intellectually, are much more healthy and strong.”
- Apostle George Q. Cannon, Journal of Discourses, v. 13, p. 207
“Talk about polygamy! There is no true philosopher on the face of the earth but what will admit that such a system, properly carried out according to the order of heaven, is far superior to monogamy for the raising of healthy, robust children!”
- Prophet Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, v. 13, p. 317
“When our father Adam came into the garden of Eden, he came into it with a celestial body, and brought Eve, one of his wives, with him.”
- Prophet Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, v. 1, p. 50
“The grand reason of the burst of public sentiment in anathemas upon Christ and his disciples, causing his crucifixion, was evidently based upon polygamy, according to the testimony of the philosophers who rose in that age. A belief in the doctrine of a plurality of wives caused the persecution of Jesus and his followers. We might almost think they were ‘Mormons.’”
- Apostle Jebediah M. Grant, Journal of Discourses, v. 1, p. 346
“I discover that some of the Eastern papers represent me as a great blasphemer, because I said, in my lecture on Marriage, at our last Conference, that Jesus Christ was married at Cana of Galilee, that Mary, Martha, and others were his wives, and that he begat children.”
- Apostle Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses, v. 2, p. 210
“We have now clearly shown that God the Father had a plurality of wives, one or more being in eternity, by whom He begat our spirits as well as the Spirit of Jesus His first Born...”
- Apostle Orson Pratt, The Seer, p. 172
“Yes, sir, President Woodruff, President Young, and President John Taylor, taught me and all the rest of the ladies here in Salt Lake that a man in order to be exalted in the Celestial Kingdom must have more than one wife, that having more than one wife was a means of exaltation.”
- Temple Lot Case, p. 362
“We, the first presidency and apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, beg to respectfully to Your Excellency the following facts:
We formerly taught to our people that polygamy or Celestial Marriage as commanded by God through Joseph Smith was right; that it was a necessity to man’s highest exaltation in the life to come.”
- Reed Smoot Case, v. 1, p. 18
“And we... are believers in the principles of plural marriage or polygamy... as a principle revealed by God, underlying our every hope of eternal salvation and happiness in heaven... we cannot view plural marriage in any other light than as a vital principle of our religion.”
- Millennial Star, v. 40, pp. 226-227
“Damnation was the awful penalty affixed to a refusal to obey this law [polygamy]. It became an acknowledged doctrine of the Church; it was indissolubly interwoven in the minds of its members with their hopes of eternal salvation and exaltation in the presence of God...”
- Millennial Star, v. 47, p. 711
“... [Joseph Smith taught] the doctrine of plural and celestial marriage is the most holy and important doctrine ever revealed to man on the earth, and that without obedience to that principle no man can ever attain to the fullness of exaltation in the celestial glory.”
- William Clayton, Joseph Smith's secretary, Historical Record, v. 6, p. 226
“[If I] had not obeyed that command of God, concerning plural marriage, I believe that I would have been damned.”
- Apostle George Q. Cannon, Journal of Discourses, v. 23, p. 278
“The only men who become Gods, even the Sons of God, are those who enter into polygamy.”
- Prophet Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, v. 11, p. 269
“One man recalled a Stake Conference in Southern Utah where the brethren were bluntly told to marry in polygamy or ‘resign their church offices.’”
- Kimball Young, Isn’t One Wife Enough?, 1954, p. 108
“The Church ever operates in full light. There is no secrecy about its doctrine, aim, or work.”
- Apostle John A. Widtsoe, Evidence and Reconciliations: Aids to Faith in a Modern Day, 1943, p. 282
“In 1840 the doctrine [of polygamy] was taught to a few leading brethren who, with the Prophet, secretly married additional wives in the following year...”
- The Restored Church: A Brief History of the Growth and Doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, by William E. Berrett, Deseret Book Co., p. 247
What a thing it is for a man to be accused of committing adultery, and having seven wives, when I can only find one. I am the same man, and as innocent as I was fourteen years ago; and I can prove them all perjurers.”
- Prophet Joseph Smith, Jr., History of the Church, May 26, 1844, p. 411
* Even Mormon scholars admit that Smith had entered into polygamy before May 26, 1844 *
“We are accused here of polygamy, and actions the most indelicate, obscene, and disgusting, such that none but a corrupt and depraved heart could have contrived. These things are too outrageous to admit to belief...”
- Prophet John Taylor, as cited in Orson Pratt’s Works: Or the Doctrines of the Gospel, by Orson Pratt, 1851 ed., p. 8
* At the time of this statement in 1850, Taylor had at least 6 wives *
“We are charged with advocating a plurality of wives, and common property. Now this is as false as many other ridiculous charges which are brought against us... we do what others do not, practice what we preach.”
- Times and Seasons, v. 4, p. 143
“But, for the information of those who may be assailed by these foolish tales about two wives, we would say that no such principle ever existed among the Latter-day Saints, and never will... the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants; and also all our periodicals are very strict on that subject, indeed for more so than the Bible.”
- Millennial Star, v. 3, p. 74
“The principle of plurality of wives never will be done away...”
- Apostle Heber C. Kimball, Deseret News, November 7, 1855
“You might as well deny ‘Mormonism,’ and turn away from it, as to oppose the plurality of wives.”
- Apostle Heber C. Kimball, Journal of Discourses, v. 5, p. 203
“It would be as easy for the United States to build a tower to remove the sun, as to remove polygamy, or the Church and Kingdom of God.”
- Apostle Heber C. Kimball, Millennial Star, v. 28, p. 190
“On the morning of the 12th of July, 1843; Joseph and Hyrum Smith came into the office.... They were talking on the subject of plural marriage. Hyrum said to Joseph, ‘If you will write the revelation on celestial marriage, I will take it and read it to Emma, and I believe I can convince her of its truth, and you will hereafter have peace.’ Joseph smiled and remarked, ‘You do not know Emma as well as I do.’ ... Joseph then said, ‘Well I will write the revelation and we will see.’...
“Hyrum then took the revelation to read to Emma. Joseph remained with me in the office until Hyrum returned. When he came back, Joseph asked him how he had succeeded. Hyrum replied that he had never received a more severe talking to in his life, that Emma was very bitter and full of resentment and anger.
“Joseph quietly remarked, ‘I told you you did not know Emma as well as I did.’ Joseph then put the revelation in his pocket, and they both left the office.
“... Two or three days after the revelation was written Joseph related to me and several others that Emma had so teased, and urgently entreated him for the privilege of destroying it, that he became so weary of her teasing, and to get rid of her annoyance, he told her she might destroy it and she had done so, but he had consented to her wish in this matter to pacify her, realizing that he knew the revelation perfectly, and could rewrite it at any time if necessary.”
- History of the Church, Introduction to v. 5, pp. XXXII-XXXIII
“God has told us Latter-day Saints that we shall be condemned if we do not enter into that principle [of polygamy]; and yet I have heard now and then (I am very glad to say that only a low such instances have come under my notice) a brother or a sister say, ‘I am a Latter-day Saint, but I do not believe in polygamy.’ Oh, what an absurd expression! What an absurd idea! A person might as well say, ‘I am a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, but I do not believe in him.’ One is just as consistent as the other.... If the doctrine of polygamy, as revealed to the Latter-day Saints, is not true, I would not give a fig for all your other revelations that came through Joseph Smith the Prophet; I would renounce the whole of them, because it is utterly impossible, according to the revelations that are contained in these books, to believe a part of them to be from the devil... The Lord has said, that those who reject this principle reject their salvations, they shall be damned, saith the Lord...”
- Apostle Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses, v. 17, pp. 224-225
“Now if any of you will deny the plurality of wives and continue to do so, I promise that you will be damned; and I will go still further, and say that this revelation, or any other revelation that the Lord had given, and deny it in your feelings, and I promise that you will be damned.”
- Prophet Brigham Young, Deseret News, November 14, 1855
“’Do you think that we shall ever be admitted as a State into the Union without denying the principle of polygamy?’ If we are not admitted until then, we shall never be admitted.”
- Prophet Brigham Young, Deseret News, October 10, 1866
“If plural marriage be divine, as the Latter-day Saints say it is, no power on earth can suppress it, unless you crush and destroy the entire people.”
- Apostle George Q. Cannon, Journal of Discourses, v. 20, p. 276
“I believe in plural marriage as a part of the Gospel, just as much as I believe in baptism by immersion for the remission of sins.... I bear my testimony that it is a necessity, and that the Church of Christ in its fullness never existed without it. Where you have the eternity of marriage you are bound to have plural marriage...”
- Apostle George Teasdale, Journal of Discourses, v. 25, p. 21
“If we were to do away with polygamy, it would only be one feather in the bird... Do away with that, then we must do away with prophets and Apostles, with revelation and the gifts and graces of the Gospel... and finally give up our religion altogether.... We just can’t do that....”
- Prophet Wilford Woodruff, Journal of Discourses, v. 13, p. 166
Woodruff did away with polygamy in the Manifesto of 1890
“The doctrine of polygamy with the ‘Mormons,’ is not one of that kind that in the religious world is classed with ‘nonessentials.’ It is not an item of doctrine that can be yielded, and faith in the system remain. ‘Mormonism’ is that kind of religion the entire divinity of which is invalidated, and its truth utterly rejected, the moment that any one of its leading principles is acknowledged to be false...”
- Millennial Star, October 28, 1865
“There is no halfway house. The childish babble about another revelation [ending polygamy] is only an evidence how half informed men can talk...”
- Millennial Star, October 28, 1865
“At a priesthood meeting... the strongest language in regard to Plural Marriage was used that I ever heard, and among other things it was stated that all men in position who would not observe and fulfill that law should be removed from their places.”
- Daily Journal of Abraham H. Cannon (Apostle), April 6, 1884
“The Lord showed me by vision and revelation what would happen if we did not stop this practice... all ordinances would be stopped... many men would be made prisoners... I went before the Lord, and I wrote what the Lord told me to write...”
- Evidences and Reconciliations, by Apostle John A. Widtsoe, 1 vol. ed., pp. 105-106
“President Wilford Woodruff issued the manifesto... suspending the general practice of it in the Church, while still retaining it as a doctrine.”
- Brigham Young and His Wives, by John J. Stewart, pp. 29-30
“During our meeting a revelation was read which Pres. Woodruff received Sunday Evening, Nov.’r 24th [1889]. Propositions had been made for the Church to make some concessions to the courts in regard to its principles. Both of Pres. Woodruff’s counselors refused to advise him as to the course he should pursue, and he therefore laid the matter before the Lord. The answer came quick and strong. The Word of the Lord was for us not to yield one particle of that which he had revealed and established. He had done and would continue to care for His work and those of the Saints who were faithful, and we need have no fear of our enemies when we were in the line of duty.”
- Daily Journal of Abraham H. Cannon (Apostle), December 19, 1889
“When the statement called ‘The Manifesto,’ which was signed by President Wilford Woodruff, was voted upon for acceptance by the membership of the LDS Church... it appeared that there was a unanimous vote of support for abandonment of the practice of plural marriage. As time passed, however, it became apparent that not even among the general authorities of the Church was there unanimous support for abolishing the practice.”
- BYU Leadership Week, “Those Who Would Be Leaders,” by Russell R. Rich, p. 71
“I feel like saying ‘Damn the Law.’”
- Apostle George Q. Cannon, as recorded in The Daily Journal of Abraham Cannon, October 7, 1890
“Q. I want to ask you, President Woodruff, whether in your advice to the church officials, and the people of the Church, you advised them that your attention was, and that the requirement of the Church was, that the polygamous relations already formed before that should not be continued; that is, there should be no association with plural wives; in other words, that unlawful cohabitation as it is named and spoken of should also stop, as well as future polygamous marriages?
A.Yes, sir; that has been the intention.”
- Testimony of Wilford Woodruff (Prophet), in Reminiscences of Early Utah, p. 246
“It was, however, resolved that ‘we use our private influence at present to prevent our brethren from going into court and promising to obey the law; and as soon as possible we take steps to get some flavors from the government for those who already have more wives than one.’”
- Daily Journal of Abraham H. Cannon (Apostle), Oct. 2, 1890
“Some people have supposed that the doctrine of plural marriage was a sort of superfluity, or non-essential, to the salvation or exaltation of mankind. In other words, some of the Saints have said, and believe, that a man with one wife, sealed to him by the authority of the Priesthood for time and eternity, will receive an exaltation as great and glorious, if he is faithful, as he possibly could with more than one. I want here to enter my solemn protest against this idea, for I know it is false. There is no blessing promised except upon conditions, and no blessing can be obtained by mankind except by faithful compliance with the conditions, or law, upon which the same is promised. The marriage of one woman to a man for time and eternity by the sealing power, according to the will of God, is a fulfillment of the celestial law of marriage in part--and is good so far as it goes--and so far as a man abides these conditions of the law, he will receive his reward therefore, and this reward, or blessing, he could not obtain on any other grounds or conditions. But this is only the beginning of the law, not the whole of it. Therefore, whoever has imagined that he could obtain the fullness of the blessings pertaining to this celestial law, by complying with only a portion of its conditions, has deceived himself. He cannot do it. When that principle was revealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith ... [common background on Joseph Smith, skipped here] ... he did not falter, although it was not until an angel of God, with a drawn sword, stood before him; and commanded that he should enter into the practice of that principle, or he should be utterly destroyed, or rejected, that he moved forward to reveal and establish that doctrine.”
- Prophet Joseph F. Smith, Journal of Discourses, Vol.20, p.28 - p.29, July 7, 1878
“Patriarchal marriage involves conditions, responsibilities and obligations which do not exist in monogamy, and there are blessings attached to the faithful observance of that law, if viewed only upon natural principles, which must so far exceed those of monogamy, as the conditions responsibilities and power of increase are greater. This is my view and testimony in relation to this matter. I believe it is a doctrine that should be taught and understood.”
- Prophet Joseph F. Smith, Journal of Discourses, Vol.20, p.30, July 7, 1878
“The benefits derived from the righteous observance of this order of marriage do not accrue solely to the husband, but are shared equally by the wives; not only is this true upon the grounds of obedience to a divine law, but upon physiological and scientific principles. In the latter view, the wives are even more benefitted, (sp) if possible, than the husband physically. But, indeed, the benefits naturally accruing to both sexes, and particularly to their offspring, in time, say nothing of eternity, are immensely greater in the righteous practice of patriarchal marriage than in monogamy, even admitting the eternity of the monogamic marriage covenant.
“... As before stated no man can obtain the benefits of one law by the observance of another, however faithful he may be in that which he does, nor can he secure to himself the fullness of any blessing without he fulfills the law upon which it is predicated, but he will receive the benefit of the law he obeys. ... I understand the law of celestial marriage to mean that every man in this Church, who has the ability to obey and practice it in righteousness and will not, shall be damned, I say I understand it to mean this and nothing less, and I testify in the name of Jesus that it does mean that....”
- Prophet Joseph F. Smith, Journal of Discourses, Vol.20, p.31, July 7, 1878
“When did I ever teach anything wrong from this stand? When was I ever confounded? I want to triumph in Israel before I depart hence and am no more seen. I never told you I was perfect; but there is no error in the revelations which I have taught. Must I, then, be thrown away as a thing of naught?”
- Prophet Joseph Smith, Jr., Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, Section Six 1843 44, p.368
(At the Stand, May 12, 1844, Nauvoo, Ill.), also in History of the Church, v. 6, p. 366
Note that he is complaining that the saints were not obeying him or believing him to his satisfaction. What doctrine was it Joseph was advocating that was being resisted, yet one which he could not name publicly?
“Second, in the midst of all these things, Joseph like his colleague prophets was so busy being a special witness for the Savior that he had little time to heed all of the false witness being borne about him. Joseph was usually more inclined to endure than explain himself, even though the drumbeat of dissent was at certain points almost unrelieved. In Nauvoo, in March 1842, for instance, while intensively engaged "day and evening" in translating the Book of Abraham, he said that he simply did not have time to attend to all his public duties. His duties as a seer were more important than his ceremonial chores.
Joseph did not respond at times, of course, such as by issuing a summational disclaimer as from the temple stand in Nauvoo, saying, "I never told you I was perfect; but there is no error in the revelations which I have taught."
- Apostle Neal A. Maxwell, Meek and Lowly, pp. 105-106
“President John Taylor went to the Lord in the True Order of Prayer and asked the Lord concerning His mind and His will concerning continuing practice of plural marriage in the LDS Church? The voice of the Lord came to President Taylor saying - "My son John: You have asked me concerning the New and Everlasting Covenant and how far it is binding upon my people. Thus saith the Lord All commandments that I give must be obeyed by those calling themselves by my name unless they are revoked by me or by my authority and how can I revoke an everlasting covenant. For I the Lord am everlasting and my everlasting covenants cannot be abrogated nor done away with; they stand forever. Have I not given my word in great plainness on this subject? Yet have not great numbers of my people been negligent in the observance of my law and the keeping of my commandments, and yet I have borne with them these many years and this because of their weakness because of the perilous times. And furthermore it is more pleasing to me that men should use their free agency in regard to these matters. Nevertheless I the Lord do not change and my word and my covenants and my law do not. And as I have heretofore said by my servant Joseph all those who would enter into my glory must and shall obey my law. And have I not commanded men that if they were Abraham's seed and would enter into my glory they must do the works of Abraham. I have not revoked this law nor will I for it is everlasting and those who will enter into my glory must obey the conditions thereof, even so Amen."
- John Tayor Papers (Prophet), Church Historian's Office, Sept. 27th, Unpublished Revelations of the Prophets and Presidents of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, by Fred C. Collier, 1979
"The Prophet did not say that any law passed by Congress is the supreme law of the land. He knew better. He knew that Congress would pass laws that would be invalid. What he said was this - 'When a people or a church have received a divine command and a law is enacted against it, do they not know whether the law is constitutional or not, seeing that Congress is prohibited by that sacred instrument from passing any law respecting an establishment of religion? And if the Supreme Court, yielding to popular clamor against an unorthodox body rules that the unconstitutional law is constitutional, does that alter the stubborn, patient, invincible fact that the law is in violation of the great guarantee of religious freedom? Any man who says that he really and firmly believes a certain law of God binding on him, and who will not obey it in preference to a conflicting law of man or a decision of a court, has either an unsound mind or a cowardly soul, or is a most contemptible hypocrite.' A law has been specially framed against the establishment of their religion.
The issue is obedience to God or submission to man; choice between a divine decree about which they have no doubt, and a human enactment that they firmly believe to be unconstitutional and void. It is a matter of conscience"
- Deseret News, July 6th, 1886
“I speak of plurality of wives as one of the most holy principles that God ever revealed to man, and all those who exercise an influence against it, unto whom it is taught, man or woman will be damned, and they and all who will be influenced by them, will suffer the buffetings of Satan in the flesh; for the curse of God will be upon them, and poverty, and distress, and vexation of spirit will be their portion; while those who honor this and every sacred institution of heaven will shine forth as the stars in the firmament of heaven, and of the increase of their kingdom and glory there shall be no end. This will equally apply to Jew, Gentile, and Mormon, male and female, old and young.”
- Apostle Heber C. Kimball, Journal of Discourses, v. 11, p. 211
“But one thing I will name, and that is in regard to plural marriage. A great many men say--"Oh, well, I can get along, I can live, and I believe I shall only have one wife." Well, that is your privilege, nobody compels you to take more than one; but with the commandment of the Lord before us like a blaze of light, can we disregard it and serve him acceptably? If we can, then why not retain those laws and commandments in heaven, and not send them down here to earth? These commandments are sent for our good, for our salvation and exaltation. Here is a woman who, in speaking of celestial marriage, says, "It will do very well for others, but it will not do in my house;" "it may do very well for somebody else, because her feelings are not quite so fine as mine, she has been differently raised from what I have." I do not know that the Lord will pay any particular respect as to how we are raised, and how fine and delicate our feelings may be, or how coarse and uncultivated they may be. I believe that if we submit to the law of heaven, that law has power to refine us and to fit us for immortality and eternal life. That is my opinion. Now hear this good sister, she says--"It will not do for me, I am not going to submit to it." Another sister says--"I am willing to submit to the law of Christ." Let these two sisters come together and talk over the law of marriage, and see whether their spirits will run together. They will no more run together than water and oil will unite. ... I am thankful for this privilege of saying a few words. I hope I have done no harm, and that I have not said anything that is contrary to the will of God, or to the feelings of the pure in heart, for they are just as sacred to me as the law of God, and I do not want to unnecessarily offend the ungodly; but I am not so particular to spare or shield them. I want to tell the truth, and bear a faithful testimony. I have been in this Church about forty-three years--almost from the beginning, for I was baptized into the Church on the 31st of October, 1831, and ordained the same day and sent to preach the Gospel, and more or less, most of the time since, I have been engaged in that work.”
- Apostle Orson Hyde, Journal of Discourses, v. 16, p. 236
“Now, in relation to the position that we occupy concerning plurality, or, as it is termed, polygamy it differs from that of others. I have noticed the usage of several nations regarding marriage; but, as I have said, we are not indebted to any of them for our religion, nor for our ideas of marriage, they came from God. Where did this commandment come from in relation to polygamy? It also came from God. It was a revelation given unto Joseph Smith from God, and was made binding upon His servants. When this system was first introduced among this people, it was one of the greatest crosses that ever was taken up by any set of men since the world stood. Joseph Smith told others; he told me, and I can bear witness of it, ‘that if this principle was not introduced, this Church and kingdom could not proceed.’ When this commandment was given, it was so far religious, and so far binding upon the Elders of this Church that it was told them if they were not prepared to enter into it, and to stem the torrent of opposition that would come in consequence of it, the keys of the kingdom would be taken from them. When I see any of our people, men or women, opposing a principle of this kind, I have years ago set them down as on the high road to apostasy and I do to-day; I consider them apostates, and not interested in this Church and kingdom. It is so far, then, a religious institution, that it affects my conscience and the consciences of all good men--it is so far religious that it connects itself with time and with eternity. What are the covenants we enter into, and why is it that Joseph Smith said that unless this principle was entered into this kingdom could not proceed? We ought to know the whys and the wherefores in relation to these matters, and understand something about the principle enunciated. These are simply words; we wish to know their signification.”
- Prophet John Taylor, Journal of Discourses, v. 11, p. 221
“It would be as easy for the United States to build a tower to remove the sun, as to remove polygamy, or the Church and kingdom of God.
- Millennial Star, v. 28, p. 190
“This is our position, this is where we are to-day. We have accepted this doctrine, this principle of faith from the Lord Jesus Christ, and we, or some of us, have lived it more than thirty years in this Territory. And in the matter of our appeal, inasmuch as the government is determined to eradicate this item of our faith, and us with it, of course, and inasmuch as we can get no redress therefrom, our appeal must be to the government of heaven, to which we have vowed allegiance. Jehovah will hold a contention with this nation, and will show them which is the higher and eternal law, and which is the lesser and more recent law. While they are carrying on this high-handed proceeding, regardless of life, liberty, or the pursuit of happiness, the God of heaven and earth will notify the earthly government that the rights and liberties of His citizens must be respected and maintained. “
- Apostle Frankilin D. Richards, Journal of Discourses, v. 20, p. 315
“In the Latter-day Saints Millennial Star the following was printed:
Shortly before the revelation known as the manifesto (which put a stop to the practice of polygamy) was given, Lorenzo Snow, who later became President of the Mormon Church, was declaring that no such revelation would ever come. When Lorenzo Snow was on trial for practicing polygamy, Mr. Bierbower (the prosecuting attorney) predicted that if he was convicted, 'a new revelation would soon follow, changing the divine law of celestial marriage.' To this Mr. Snow replied: "Whatever fame Mr. Bierbower may have secured as a lawyer, he certainly will fail as a prophet. The severest prosecutions have never been followed by revelations changing a divine law, obedience to which brought imprisonment or martyrdom.
‘Though I go to prison, God will not change his law of celestial marriage. But the man, the people, the nation, that oppose and fight against this doctrine and the Church of God, will be overthrown.”
- Historical Record, p. 144
“As to President Young his labors have been with us. It has been remarked sometimes, by certain individuals, that President Young has said in public that he was not a prophet nor the son of a prophet. I have travelled (sp) with him since 1833 or the spring of 1834; I have travelled (sp) a good many thousand miles with him and have heard him preach a great many thousand sermons; but I have never heard him make that remark in my life. He is a prophet, I am a prophet, you are, and anybody is a prophet who has the testimony of Jesus Christ, for that is the spirit of prophecy. The Elders of Israel are prophets. A prophet is not so great as an Apostle. Christ has set in his Church, first, Apostles; they hold the keys of the kingdom of God. Any man who has travelled (sp) with President Young knows he is a prophet of God. He has foretold a great many things that have come to pass. All the Saints who are well acquainted with him know that he is governed and controlled by the power of God and the revelations of Jesus Christ. His works are before the world; they are before the heavens; before the earth; before the wicked as well as the righteous; and it is the influence of President Young that the world is opposed to. This Priesthood, these keys of the kingdom of God that have been sealed upon him, the world is at war against; let them say what they may, these things are what they are at enmity with. Their present objection to the Latter-day Saints, they say, is plurality of wives. It is this principle they are trying to raise a persecution against now. But how was it in Missouri, Kirtland, Jackson county, Far West, Caldwell county, in all our drivings (sp) and afflictions, before this principle was revealed to the Church? Certainly it was not polygamy then. No, it was prophets, it was revelation, it was the organization of an institution founded by revelation from God. They did not believe in that, and that was the objection in those days. If we were to do away with polygamy, it would only be one feather in the bird, one ordinance in the Church and kingdom. Do away with that, then we must do away with prophets and Apostles, with revelation and the gifts and graces of the Gospel, and finally give up our religion altogether and turn sectarians and do as the world does, then all would be right. We just can't do that, for God has commanded us to build up His kingdom and to bear our testimony to the nations of the earth, and we are going to do it, come life or come death. He has told us to do thus, and we shall obey Him in days to come as we have in days past.”
- Prophet Wilford Woodruff, Journal of Discourses, v. 13, pp. 165-166
“Efforts have been made among us to change this condition of affairs. There have been, and still are, perhaps, some who call themselves Latter-day Saints, who are almost ready to lend themselves to any scheme that has for its object the obtaining of a State organization for Utah. Such persons look upon this as so great a blessing and so great a boon, that they are almost willing to forego their religious belief and to pander to those who have got power, and to make some sort of a concession to them, in order to achieve this, what they consider, very desirable end. There has been some agitation in years past respecting plural marriage, and some people, calling themselves Latter-day Saints, have been almost ready to go into the open market, and bid for a State government, at the price of conceding this principle of our religion, for the privilege of becoming a State of the Union. Those who are ready to do this are ready also to cast off obedience to the Priesthood of the Son of God, and to say, "We do not believe that men who hold an office in the Church should have any voice in the affairs of the State." They are ready to sell out their belief as Latter-day Saints, and their veneration and reverence for that power which God has restored, for the sake of obtaining a little recognition of their rights as citizens, on the part of those in power. It does not require much familiarity with the Spirit of God, or with the principles of our holy religion to understand exactly the position that such persons as these to whom I allude, occupy among us. When a man is ready to barter any principle of salvation for worldly advantage, that man certainly has reached the position that he esteems worldly advantage above eternal salvation. Can such persons retain the Spirit of God, and take such a course as this? No, they cannot. That other spirit will lead such persons astray, and they will be left to themselves. Will there be such persons continue among us and be associated with us? I do not question it. I expect we shall have such characters with us, during our future career as we have had in the past. We have had all sorts of people connected with this Church. As the work rolls forth, as it increases in numbers, so will these characters increase--that is, for a certain time, until the day comes when the kingdom of God and the reign of righteousness shall be fully ushered in.”
- Apostle George Q. Cannon, Journal of Discourses, Vol.26, pp. 8-9
“Now, I wish to say that I realize that there are some in our midst--whether they are in your midst in this Stake of Zion or not, I am not prepared to say with any certainty, for I can only judge of the condition and feeling of the people as I am informed from time to time--I say, there are some whom Satan would stir to disobedience and try to make an impression upon their minds that the system of plural marriage, and those things that pertain to the sealing of men and women for time and for eternity, and the revelation which has been read in our hearing, given through the Prophet Joseph pertaining to this subject--that it was the work of man and not the work of God. We have recently had published in some of the Utah papers some letters on this subject, and one from Joseph Smith, the eldest son of the Prophet, in which a great deal of sophistry is made use of, special pleading, such as the lawyer that he is, seems only capable of using. And the object of this special pleading and the sophistry is to try to leave an impression upon the ignorant, those who know no better, that plural marriage was not introduced and sanctioned and practiced by his father, but that it has been an innovation of man, and does not belong to the system of religion which he believed and practiced and taught the people. And there are some among us who would fain take this view of the subject; not that there are many who believe it, but there are some who would like to believe it. And so there are in the world many people who fear that "Mormonism" as a whole is true and of God; they are very much afraid that it is, but they hope that it is not. They do not want to receive it; they do not want to live it, but they are afraid it is true, and multitudes of people have been convinced of its truth, but have not the honesty to acknowledge it; and many who would acknowledge it for a little season, would afterwards, because of the love of the world, fall away, and thus condemnation has fallen upon the world because they will not obey the truth when they hear it. And so it is with some among the Latter-day Saints. They are pretty well satisfied that this doctrine of plural marriage is true, and that it was revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith, but they would like an excuse for disavowing and rejecting it. And why so? Mainly because their minds are closed up and have not been able to comprehend the principles that are embraced in this doctrine and connected with it. Their minds are contracted and limited. They think more of this present life than they do of the future. They want to lay up riches; they want to gather personal comforts around them; they want to gratify the pride of life and the lusts of the flesh. They do not understand that which is for their real good, their real happiness. But I testify that there is more real happiness in serving God and abiding in His law, and submitting to all its conditions and requirements than there can be in taking an opposite course. This is the testimony of all who receive and abide in the truth, and there is abundant evidence in their lives and conduct to prove that they, in receiving the truth, enjoy more comfort and happiness than those who reject it. And touching our plural families, I will say that, with all the weaknesses that are common to frail humanity, and that manifest themselves in our midst-- the men who enter into this order in the sincerity of their hearts and with devotion to God, and the women who also enter into it in the love of the truth and in the earnestness of their souls, fearing God and desiring to do His will--that with all the weaknesses that manifest themselves, I say there is treble the genuine comfort and happiness in those families who enter into this order and abide in it, than is to be found in the same number of families in monogamy in this Church, to say nothing of the Gentile world. And then we will take the Latter-day Saints as a whole, whether in plural marriage or single marriage, and we will say that there is ten times more genuine happiness and comfort in believing and obeying the Gospel--whether in plural or single wedlock--than is to be found among the same number of people in any part of the world outside of this Church. Now, in this you are all my witnesses. Many of you have been in the world. You know what you were, and how you felt, and how your neighbors felt, and what kind of enjoyment you had before you heard the fullness of the Gospel. You know pretty well the condition of the world now--the condition of those who have not received the Gospel--and you know what your condition is and has been since you received the Gospel. And who among you, Latter-day Saints, would exchange your present condition for the condition of the outside world? Are we not prepared to testify that our happiness is trebled, through having believed and obeyed the Gospel?”
- Apostle Erastus Snow, Journal of Discourses, v. 24, p. 162
“I bear my testimony that it is a necessity, and that the Church of Christ in its fullness never existed without it. Where you have the eternity of marriage you are bound to have plural marriage; bound to; and it is one of the marks of the Church of Jesus Christ in its sealing ordinances. ‘Whatever you bind on earth is bound in heaven.’ We know how sensitive the Prophet Joseph was to introduce this principle. He knew the feeling that was against it. It had been taught from the days of heathen Rome down to the present time that a man should have but one wife, which has resulted in the prostitution of many of the fair daughters of Eve as mistresses. Here we have too much love for women to see them trampled in the dust. Here we have too much respect for unborn spirits to have them come into the world branded as bastards, illegitimate, in shame, without knowing their fathers. The children we have are legitimate. They are our own. We honor them and our wives. Our children are given unto us of God, for our wives are given to us of God. We never should have thought of practicing this principle if God had not revealed it from the heavens and commanded it, and we must stand by it and by every principle that He has revealed. It is more than I dare, to go back on that principle or any other principle; and I have besought the Lord with all my heart that He would give me strength according to my day that I might never fail in my integrity, but that I might stand firm as the pillars of heaven to the truths that He has revealed for the redemption of the human family. I understand my own weaknesses; I understand my own insufficiency; but my trust is in the living and true God. And I have a testimony that for over thirty years He has sustained my through some very crooked and tight places by His Almighty power. He has stood by me, been my friend; and so far my testimony and my love for the principles of righteousness are as deep and earnest as my first love, and more so; for I have witnessed His loving kindness in the sealing powers and bonds of the everlasting covenant; I have been privileged to see the magnificent manner in which He has provided for His children, in placing them in a position that they may become like unto Him--eternal, without end of years.
That God may give us grace to stand true and faithful to our covenants, and endure to the end, is my prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.”
- Apostle George Teasdale, Journal of Discourses, v. 25, pp. 19-22
“Now, treat your wives right, but do not subject yourselves to the infamous provisions of the Edmunds' act more than you can help, avoid all harsh expressions and improper actions, act carefully and prudently in all your social relations. Be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. A gentleman in Washington told another, who related it to me, in answer to the question, What will the ‘Mormons’ do with their wives and children when this bill passes? he was told: Turn them out in the streets as we do our harlots. I say in the name of God we will not do any such thing, and let all Israel say Amen. (The vast congregation, amounting to from 12,000 to 14,000 persons, responded Amen.) We will stand by our covenants, and the Constitution will bear us out in it. Among other things, that instrument says that Congress shall make no law impairing the validity of contracts. You have contracted to be united with your wives in time and in eternity, and it would not do for us to break a constitutional law, would it? (Laughter.) Others may do it, but we cannot. We cannot lay aside our honor, we cannot lay aside our principles; and if people cannot allow us freedom, we can allow freedom to them and to all men. We will be true to our wives and cherish them and maintain them, and stand by them in time, and we will reign with them in eternity, when thousands of others are weltering under the wrath of God. Any man that abuses his wife, or takes advantage of this law to oppress her, is not worthy of a standing in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; and let the congregation say Amen. (The immense congregation responded by a loud Amen.)
- Prophet John Taylor, Journal of Discourses, v. 23, p. 68
“God has given us a revelation in regard to celestial marriage. I did not make it. He has told us certain things pertaining to this matter, and they would like us to tone that principle down and change it and make it applicable to the views of the day. This we cannot do; nor can we interfere with any of the commands of God to meet the persuasions or behests of men. I cannot do it, and will not do it.”
- Prophet John Taylor, Journal of Discourses, v. 25, p. 309
“‘But,’ says this Christian, ‘I really do not like this; I see this is a polygamous city. I wonder if there is not some other place for me! I do not like the company of polygamists. They were hated very badly back yonder. Congress hated them, the President hated them, the cabinet hated them, the Priests hated them, and everybody hated them, and I engendered the same hatred, and I have not got rid of it yet. I wonder if there is not some other place for me?' Oh yes, there is another place for you. Without the gates of the city there are dogs, sorcerers, whoremongers, adulterers and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. Now take your choice, Amen.”
- Apostle Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses, v. 17, p. 229
“Result of the manifesto. Following the issuance of the Manifesto the sentiment grew that those who had entered into plural marriages before that date should not be interfered with, and men were not to be compelled to desert their wives and children….
“The Granting of Amnesty. December 19, 1891, the First Presidency and apostles petitioned for amnesty. This petition was endorsed by the governor, Arthur L. Thomas, and Charles S. Zane, who had again become chief justice, and many leading “Gentiles.” It was read before the senate committee on territories and became a part of the published record of that body. President Benjamin Harrison, who a short time before had visited Utah, on January 4, 1895, issued a proclamation of amnesty to polygamists for past offenses limited to those who entered into that relation before November 1, 1890. The Utah commission acting on the pardon of the President, ruled that restrictions against voters in the territory should be removed.”
- Essentials of Church History, by Prophet Joseph Fielding Smith, p. 496
“W[ilford]. Woodruff: ‘This manifesto only refers to future marriages, and does not affect past conditions.’”
- Prophet Wilford Woodruff, as quoted in The Daily Journal of Abraham H. Cannon, Oct. 7, 1890
“Brother Wolfe, don’t you know that the Manifesto is only a trick to beat the devil at his own game?”
- Apostle John H. Smith, according to the testimony of Walter M. Wolfe, in the Reed Smoot Case, v. 4, p. 13
“President Joseph F. Smith admitted that he had had eleven children borne to him by his five wives, since pledging himself to obey the ‘revealed’ manifesto of 1890... apostle Francis Marian Lyman... made a similar admission of guilt, though to a lesser degree. So did John Henry Smith and Charles W. Penrose, apostles... So did a score of others.... And they confessed that they were living in violation of their pledges to the nation and the terms of their amnesty, against the laws and the constitution of the state, and contrary to the ‘revelation of God’ by which the doctrine of polygamy had been withdrawn from practice in the Church!... Bishop Chas. E. Merrill, the son of an apostle, testified that his father had married him to a plural wife in 1891... Mrs. Clara Kennedy testified that she had been married to a polygamist in 1896, in Juarez, Mexico, by Apostle John W. Taylor had taken two plural wives within four years, and that Apostle M.F. Cowley had taken one; and both these men fled from the country in order to escape a summons to appear before the senate committee.”
- Frank J. Cannon, Under the Prophet in Utah, pp. 268-270
“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 inculate or encourage polygamy... 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.”
- Prophet Wilford Woodruff, “Official Declaration 1” (also known as "The 1890 Manifesto") in the Doctrine and Covenants, 1981 ed.
“The Chairman: Do you obey the law in having five wives at this time, and having them bear to you eleven children since the manifesto of 1890?
Mr. Joseph F. Smith: Mr. Chairman, I have not claimed that in that case I have obeyed the law of the land.
The Chairman: That is all.
Mr. Smith: I do not claim so, and I have said before that I prefer to stand my chances against the law.”
- Reed Smoot Case, v. 1, p. 197
“Mr. Tayler. You say there is a state law forbidding unlawful cohabitation?
Mr. [Joseph F.] Smith. That is my understanding.
Mr. Tayler. And ever since that law was passed you have been violating it?
Mr. Smith. I think likely I have been practicing the same thing even before the law was passed.”
- Reed Smoot Case, v. 1, p. 130
“The Chairman. ... you are violating the law?
Mr. [Joseph F.] Smith. The law of my state?
The Chairman. Yes.
Mr. Smith. Yes, sir.
Senator Overman. Is there not a revelation published in the Book of Covenants here that you shall abide by the law of the state?
Mr. Smith. Yes, sir.
Senator Overman. If that is a revelation, are you not violating the laws of God?
Mr. Smith. I have admitted that, Mr. Senator, a great many times here.”
- Reed Smoot Case, v. 1, pp. 334-335
“Senator Hoar. ... You have said more than once that in living in polygamous relations with your wives, which you do and intend to do, you knew that you were disobeying this revelation?
Mr. Francis M. Lyman. Yes, sir.
Senator Hoar. ... And that in disobeying this revelation you were disobeying the law of God?
Mr. Lyman. Yes, sir.
Senator Hoar. ... Very well. So that you say that you, an apostle of your church, expecting to succeed, if you survive Mr. Smith, to the office in which you will be the person to be the medium of Divine revelations, are living and are known to your people to live in disobedience of the law of the land and the law of God?
Mr. Lyman. Yes, sir.”
- Reed Smoot Case, v. 1, p. 430
“Mr. Tayler. And the next marriage took place in 1891?
Mr. [Charles E. Merrill]. Yes, sir.
Mr. Tayler. Who married you in 1891?
Mr. Merrill. My father.
Mr. Tayler. Was your father then an apostle?
Mr. Merrill. Yes, sir.”
- Reed Smoot Case, v. 1, p. 409
“Mr. [Walter M.} Wolfe. In the summer of 1897 I was in Colorado. On my return, at the beginning of the school year, I found that Ovena Jorgensen was not in attendance. She returned to school some time during the month of October. Shortly after her return, she came to my house and asked to see me privately. She said: ‘Brother Wolfe, I have something that I must tell you, the reason why I have been late in coming back to school. I have been married.’ I said, ‘Not in polygamy.’ She said: ‘Yes, sir; in polygamy. I have married Brother Okey.’
Mr. Worthington. I say, it was in October, 1897, that she told you?
Mr. Wolfe. Yes, sir... she said that some years before she had gone into service at the house of this man Okey; that he had loved her and she loved him. He had asked her to marry him and she had declined, saying that it was impossible on account of the manifesto.... In August, 1897, Okey and the girl went together to see President Wilford Woodruff, and they laid the case before him. He brushed them aside with the wave of his hand and said he would have nothing to do with the matter, but referred them to President George Q. Cannon. George Q. Cannon asked if the girl had been through the Temple and received her endowments. They told him no. He said that that must be done first and then he would see as to the rest of it. They went through the Temple and the girl received her endowments. Then they were given a letter by President George Q. Cannon to President Ivins, of the Juarez Stake, and they went to Mexico.
The Chairman. Who was this letter to?
Mr. Wolfe. President A.W. Ivins, of the Juarez Stake.
The Chairman. Mexico?
Mr. Wolfe. Mexico; yes, sir. They went to Mexico, and there the girl told me the marriage ceremony was performed, and they returned to Utah.”
- Reed Smoot Case, v. 4, pp. 10-11
“With a sweep of his hand toward [Joseph F.] Smith at his desk – a gesture and a look the most unkind I ever saw him [George Q. Cannon] use – he answered: ‘A few weeks ago, Abraham [H. Cannon] took a plural wife, Lillian Hamlin. It became known. He would have had to face a prosecution in Court. His death has saved us from a calamity that would have been dreadful for the Church – and for the state.’ ‘Father!’ I cried. ‘Has this thing come back again!... How did it happen?’
“My father replied: ... ‘I was asked for my consent, and I refused it. President [Joseph F.] Smith obtained the acquiescence of President Woodruff, on the plea that it wasn’t an ordinary case of polygamy but merely a fulfillment of the biblical instruction that a man should take his dead brother’s wife. Lillian was betrothed to David, and had been sealed to him in eternity after death. I understand that President Woodruff told Abraham he would leave the matter with them if he wished to take the responsibility – and President [Joseph F.] Smith performed the ceremony. ‘... here was the beginning of a policy of treachery which the present church leaders, under Joseph F. Smith, have since consistently practiced, in defiance of the laws of the state and the ‘revelation of God,’ with lies and evasions, with perjury and its subordination, in violation of the most solemn pledges to the country, and through the agency of a political tyranny that makes serious prosecution impossible and immunity a public boast.”
- Apostle Frank J. Cannon, Under the Prophet in Utah, pp. 176, 177, 179
“Mr. Tayler. What relation are you to Lilliam Hamlin?
Mr. Hamlin. Brother.
Mr. Tayler. And whom did she marry?
Mr. Hamlin. I only know what I heard.
Mr. Tayler. What was your family conviction and understanding about that?
Mr. Hamlin. That she was married to a Mr. Cannon.
Mr. Tayler. An apostle of the church?
Mr. Hamlin. I believe so. I understand so.
Mr. Tayler. That was in the summer of 1896, was it not?
Mr. Hamlin. Yes, sir.
Mr. Tayler. And where did you understand she was married?
Mr. Hamlin. On the Pacific Coast.
Mr. Tayler. By whom?
Mr. Hamlin. Well, our understanding was that President Joseph F. Smith married her.”
- Reed Smoot Case, v. 2, pp. 67-68, testimony confirmed by Mrs. Wilhelmina L. Ellis in Reed Smoot Case, v. 2, pp. 141-144.
“The Presidents Woodruff and Smith both said they were willing for such a ceremony to occur, if done in Mexico, and Pres. Woodruff promised the Lord’s blessing to follow such an act.”
- Daily Journal of Abraham H. Cannon (Apostle), October 24, 1894, v. 18, p. 170
“It is a fact of no little significance in itself, bearing on the question whether polygamous marriages have been recently contracted in Utah by the connivance of the first presidency and twelve apostles of the Mormon Church, that the authorities of said church have endeavored to suppress, and have succeeded in suppressing, a great deal of testimony by which the fact of plural marriages contracted by those who were high in the councils of the church might have been established beyond a shadow of a doubt....
“Subpoenas were issued for each one of the witnesses named, but in the case of Samuel Newton only could the process of the committee be served. Mr. Newton refused to obey the order of the committee... John W. Taylor was sent out of the country by Joseph F. Smith on a real or pretended mission for the church... It would be nothing short of self-stultification for one to believe that all these most important witnesses chanced to leave the United States at about the same time and without reference to the investigation. All the facts and circumstances surrounding the transaction point to the conclusion that every one of the witnesses named left the country at the instance [sic] of the rulers of the Mormon Church and to avoid testifying before the committee....
“In the case of other witnesses who were believed to have contracted plural marriages since the year 1890 all sorts of shifts, tricks, and evasions were resorted to in order to avoid service of a subpoena to appear before the committee and testify....
“The list of those who are guilty of violating the laws of the state and the rules of public decency is headed by Joseph F. Smith, the first president, prophet, seer, and revelator.’”
- Reed Smoot Case, v. 4, pp. 476-482
“... President [Joseph F.] Smith appeared forthwith and entered a plea of guilty and was fined three hundred dollars. The fine was promptly paid and the defendant discharged.”
- Deseret Evening News, November 23, 1906
Heber J. Grant was also convicted of unlawful cohabitation. (Daily Tribune, September 9, 1899)
“ ‘... 72 percent of Utah’s 900,000 citizens are Mormon. And while most practiced monogamy, they are aware of their polygamous heritage.... This, coupled with the Mormon history of persecution,’ says Rogers, ‘makes them sympathetic toward the Fundamentalists. They feel that prison – and excommunication – is too harsh a penalty. And they refuse to testify against their polygamous neighbors.’”
- William M. Rogers, former special assistant to the Utah State Attorney General, Ladies Home Journal, June 1967, p. 78
“... the Lord frequently did command his ancient saints to practice plural marriage... the whole history of ancient Israel was one in which plurality of wives was the divinely accepted and approved order of matrimony. Millions of those who entered this order have, in and through it, gained for themselves eternal exaltation in the highest heaven of the celestial world... the Prophet and leading brethren were commanded to enter into the practice, which they did in all virtue and purity of heart... plural marriage was openly taught and practiced until the year 1890. At that time conditions were such that the Lord by revelation withdrew the command to continue the practice.... Obviously the holy practice will commence again after the Second Coming of the Son of Man and the ushering in of the millennium...
“Any who pretend to assume to engage in plural marriage in this day, when the one holding the keys has withdrawn the power by which they are performed, are guilty of gross wickedness. Thy are living in adultery, have already sold their souls to Satan, and (whether their acts are based on ignorance or lust or both) they will be damned in eternity.”
- Apostle Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, pp. 522-523
“The only men who become Gods, even the Sons of God, are those who enter into polygamy.”
- Prophet Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, v. 11, p. 269
“Plural marriage is not essential to salvation or exaltation.”
- Apostle Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, p. 523.
“Now, where a man in this church says, ‘I don’t want but one wife, I will live my religion with one.’ He will perhaps be saved in the Celestial Kingdom; but when he gets there he will not find himself in possession of any wife at all.... and he will remain single forever and ever.”
- Prophet Brigham Young, Deseret News, September 17, 1873
“The Church has never, and certainly will never, renounce this doctrine. The revelation on plural marriage is still an integral part of LDS scripture, and always will be.”
- John J. Stewart, Brigham Young and His Wives, pp. 13-14.
“Polygamy in the ordinary and Asiatic sense of the term, never was and is not now a tenet of the Latter-day Saints. That which Joseph and Hyrum denounced... was altogether different to the order of celestial marriage including a Plurality of wives.... Joseph and Hyrum were consistent in their action against the false doctrines of polygamy and spiritual wifeism, instigated by the devil and advocated by men who did not comprehend sound doctrine nor the purity of celestial marriage which God revealed for the holiest of purposes.”
- Deseret News, May 20, 1866, Prophet Joseph F. Smith, editor, is most likely the author of this statement
“Inasmuch as this church of Christ has been reproached with the crime of fornication, and polygamy; and one woman, but one husband, except in the case of death, when either is at liberty to marry again.”
- Doctrine and Covenants, Section 101, verse 4
“This doctrine of polygamy, or spiritual wife-system, that has been taught and practiced among us, will prove our destruction and overthrow. I have been deceived; it is a curse to mankind, and we shall have to leave the United States soon, unless it can be put down, and its practice stopped in the Church. Now Brother Marks, you have not received this doctrine, and I want you to go into the high council, and I will have charges preferred against all who practice this doctrine, and I want you to try them by the laws of the Church, and cut them off, if they will not repent, and cease the practice of this doctrine, and I will go into the stand and preach against it with all my might, and in this way we will rid the Church of this damnable heresy.”
- Prophet Joseph Smith, Jr., as recorded in an interview with William Marks in Zion’s Harbinger and Baneemy’s Organ, v. 3, July 1853, pp. 52-53, also in No Man Knows My History, by Fawn M. Brodie
“I condemn [polygamy], yes, as a practice, because I think it is not doctrinal. It is not legal. And this church takes the position that we will abide by the law.”
- Prophet Gordon B. Hinckley, on Larry King Live, September 8, 1998
“[Polygamists] have no connection with us whatsoever. They don’t belong to the church. There are actually no Mormon fundamentalists.”
- Prophet Gordon B. Hinckley, on Larry King Live, September 8, 1998
“Repeatedly we are told that this is a dead issue – that polygamy has been renounced by the Mormon authorities and the matter need be argued no further. It is not a dead issue, nor can it be so long as their book of Doctrine and Covenants goes into all parts of the world bearing an alleged revelation which sets forth polygamy (and with equal validity concubinage) as the will of heaven and says that those who reject these documents will be damned.
“This cannot be called dead so long as our friends among the Mormon missionaries everywhere defend the doctrine when pressed in argument, and often when not even questioned about it.”
- Differences That Persist Between the RLDS and LDS Churches, by Elbert A. Smith, 1959, p. 21
“The Lord showed him [Joseph Smith, Jr.] those women... and at that time some of these women were named and given to him, to become his wives when the time should come that this principle would be established.”
- Prophet Joseph F. Smith, Deseret Evening News, February 18, 1882, also in A Study of the Mormon Practice of Plural Marriage Before the Death of Joseph Smith, by Daniel W. Bachman, p. 67
“We declare, as was taught by Joseph Smith and the former prophets of this dispensation, that plural marriage is the marriage order of the heavens. This order of marriage was given to us by the prophet of this dispensation, Joseph Smith, to be a necessary principle of the fullness of the gospel. We believe as Joseph and his contemporaries taught, that a man or a woman cannot attain the highest degree of exaltation without living this high and refining principle.
“We do not believe that the principle of plural marriage should be entered into or considered for purposes of fleshly gratification. If such purposes are at the forefront of the motivation for a plural relationship, it will bring about unhappiness and failure. If lived righteously and properly, this principle will teach men righteous leadership and sensitivity; wives learn to overcome jealousies and to live in unity and cooperation; all will learn patience-and thus this principle can lead to great happiness. This principle, coupled with other principles of the fullness of the gospel, are to enable righteous members of the latter-day House of Israel to truly build and redeem Zion, to welcome the Savior and the City of Enoch back to the earth and to usher in the Millennium.”
- The True and Living Church of Jesus Christ of Saints of the Last Days (Mormon Fundamentalist Church), Official Statement on Marriage and Family Government
“[The Manifesto was] a cowardly proceeding, the more I thought of it the less I liked it.”
- LDS Historian and Seventy B.H. Roberts, as quoted in B.H. Roberts and the Woodruff Manifesto, pp. 363-366
“The Manifesto was not a divine production but something manufactured to outwit the church's enemies.”
- Apostle Charles W. Penrose, as reported in Solemn Covenant, by Carmon Hardy, 1992
“[Apostle] Penrose told me once in the city of Mexico, that he had written the manifesto, and it was gotten up so that it did not mean anything and President Smith had told me the same. I mention these things only to show the training I have had from those over me.”
- Apostle Matthias F. Cowley, testimony under oath, May 10, 1911, The Trials of Apostle John W. Taylor and Matthias F. Cowley, p. 28
“The severest prosecutions have never been followed by revelations changing a divine law, obedience to which brought imprisonment or martyrdom. Though I go to prison, God will not change his law of celestial marriage.”
- Prophet Lorenzo Snow, Historical Record, 1887, v. 6, p. 144
“The abandonment of polygamy, that is considered by some to be so easy of accomplishment, is more untenable even than fighting. However much the people might desire to do this, they could not without yielding every other principle, for it is the very key stone of our faith, and is so closely interwoven into every-thing that pertains to our religion, that to tear it asunder and cast it away would involve the entire structure.”
- “Expressions from the People,” Deseret News, April 14, 1885
“They accuse me of polygamy, and of being a false Prophet, and many other things which I do oft now remember; but I am no false Prophet; I am no impostor; I have had no dark revelations; I have had no revelations from the devil; I made no revelations; I have got nothing up of myself. The same God that has thus far dictated me and directed me and strengthened me in this work, gave me this revelation and commandment on Celestial and plural marriage (D&C 132) and the same God commanded me to obey it. He said to me that unless I accepted it and introduced it, and practiced it, I, together with my people, would be damned and cut off from this time hence forth. And they say if I do so, they will kill me. O, what shall I do? If I do not practice it, I shall be damned with my people. If I do teach it, and practice it, and urge it, they say they will kill me, and I know they will. But we have got to observe it. It is an eternal principle and was given by way of commandment and not by way of instruction.”
- Prophet Joseph Smith, Jr., Contributor, v. 5, p. 259, 1843
"The laws prohibiting plural marriage were regarded as unconstitutional and unjust by the Church, and their execution was bitterly opposed.*** While this storm raged John Taylor stood immovable in his conviction that the anti-polygamy law was unjust, and died without making any concession. This was the outstanding feature of his administration.”
- Conference Report, April 1922, p. 38
“Have I not given my word in great plainness on this subject? Yet have not great numbers of my people been negligent in the observance of my laws and the keeping of my commandments, and yet have I borne with them these many years; and this because of their weakness, because of the perilous times, and furthermore, it is more pleasing to me that men should use their free agency in regards to these matters. Nevertheless, I the Lord do not change and my word and my covenants and my law do not.
“And as I have heretofore said by my servant Joseph: All those who would enter into my glory must and shall obey my law. And have I not commanded men that if they were Abraham's seed and would enter into my glory, they must do the works of Abraham?
“I have not revoked this law, nor will I, for it is everlasting, and those who will enter into my glory must obey the conditions thereof; Even so Amen.”
- Prophet John Taylor revelation, September 26-27, 1886, PDF of original document online here
"When he became President, Joseph F. Smith renewed permission for Anthony W. Ivins to perform plural marriages for Mexican residents. And Ivins did this from 1902 to 1904. And then he extended that to include permission for Ivins to perform marriages for non-residents. This was more dangerous, because this required written permission from Salt Lake. These written letters for Anthony W. Ivins to perform marriages for non-residents of Juarez Stake, occurred from 1903 to 1904. But President Smith never told Ivins about MacDonald, so President Ivins down in Mexico had no idea that Patriarch MacDonald was performing marriages with authorization.
“On 17 April 1902, I have the only contemporary account of Joseph F. Smith as Church President gibing authorization for a man to marry polygamously. And he did it in this way: "As president of the Church I cannot authorize you to marry this plural wife. However, I will not oppose our doing it." And that's the kind of authorization he gave.
As Church President, Joseph F. Smith did not want to know the specifics of new ceremonies, but he increased financial support for post-Manifesto plural wives and children of apostles and mission presidents, and he gave advice for the hiding of plural wives so that they would not be subject to arrest. Joseph F. Smith probably authorized Apostles Clawson and Cowley to marry their plural wives after the second Manifesto of 1904, since he did authorize a close friend to perform one plural marriage as late as 1906, and o.k.'d another one that occurred in 1907.”
- D. Michael Quinn, Mormon historian, “Plural Marriages After the 1890 Manifesto,” August 1991
“Today probably no modern people is more anti-polygamy than the orthodox Mormons.”
- Davis Bitton, Journal of Mormon History, 1977, no. 4, p. 101
“I think these two quotations from such a reliable authority fully solve the question as to the relationship existing between Father Adam and the Savior of the world, and prove beyond question the power that Adam possessed in regard to taking his body again after laying it down--which power he never could have attained unless he had received first a resurrection from the grave to a condition of immortality. We further say that this power was not forfeited when as a celestial being he voluntarily partook of the forbidden fruit, and thereby rendered his body mortal in order that he might become the father of mortal tabernacles, as he was already the father of immortal spirits--thus giving opportunity to the offspring of his own begetting to pass through the ordeals necessary to prepare them for a resurrection from the dead, a celestial glory.
“All that Father Adam did upon this earth, from the time that he took up his abode in the Garden of Eden, was done for his posterity's sake and the success of his former mission as the savior of a world, and afterwards, or now, as the father of a world only added to the glory which he already possessed. If, as the savior of a world, he had the power to lay down his life and take it up again, therefore, as the father of a world which is altogether an advanced condition, we necessarily conclude that the grave was powerless to hold him after that mission was completed...”
- Joseph E. Taylor, Collected Discourses, v. 1, June 2, 1888
“Who begat the Son of God? Infidels say that Jesus was a bastard, but let me tell you the truth concerning that matter. Our Father begat all the spirits that were, before any tabernacles were made. When our Father came into the garden, He came with His celestial body and brought one of His wives with Him and ate of the fruit of the garden until He could beget a tabernacle, and Adam is Michael or God and all the God that we have anything to do with. They eat of this fruit and formed the first tabernacle that was formed. And when the Virgin Mary was begotten with child, it was by the Father and in no other way, in no other way, only as we were begotten. I will tell you the truth as it is in God. The world don't know that Jesus Christ our elder brother was begotten by our Father in Heaven. Handle it as you please, it will either seal the damnation or salvation of man. He was begotten by the Father and not by the Holy Ghost.”
- Prophet Wilford Woodruff, Wilford Woodruff's Journal, April 9, 1852
“As a girl I had been proud that my father and mother had obeyed the highest principle in the Church... I was aware now that my mother’s early married life must have been humiliating and joyless on many occasions because of her position as a second wife.”
- Annie Clark Tanner, A Mormon Mother, 1969, p. 133
“A woman in polygamy is compelled by her lone position to make a confidant of her children.”
- Annie Clark Tanner, A Mormon Mother, 1969, p. 236
“This [the requirement for Heber to take a plural wife] was the greatest test of his faith he had ever experienced... the thought of deceiving the kind and faithful wife of his youth, whom he loved with all his heart, and who with him had borne so patiently their separation and all the trials and sacrifices they had been called to endure, was more than he felt able to bear.”
- Women’s Exponent, v. 10, October 15, 1881, p. 74
“She [the plural wife] must lay aside wholly all interest or thought in what her husband was doing while he was away from her... [and be] pleased to see him when he came in as she was pleased to see any friend.”
- Vilate Kimball, in “Theatrical and Social Affairs in Utah,” by S.A. Cooks, pp. 5-6, Bancroft Library, see Isn’t One Wife Enough, p. 209
“The First Command was to ‘Multiply’ and the Prophet taught us that Dominion & powr in the great Future would be Comensurate with the no [number] of ‘Wives Childin & Friends’ that we inheret here and that our great mission to earth was to Organize a Neculi [nucleus] of Heaven to take with us. To the increase of which there would be no end.”
- Benjamin F. Johnson, I Knew the Prophets: An Analysis of the Letter of Benjamin F. Johnson to George F. Gibbs, Reporting Doctrinal Views of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, 1976, ed. by Dean R. Zimmerman, p. 47
“The Second Way in which a wife can be separated from her husband, while he continues to be faithful to his God and his priesthood, I have not revealed, except to a few persons in this Church; and a few have received it from Joseph the prophet as well as myself. If a woman can find a man holding the keys of the priesthood with higher power and authority than her husband, and he is disposed to take her he can do so, otherwise she has got to remain where she is... there is no need for a bill of divorcement... To recapitulate. First if a man forfeits his covenants with a wife, or wives, becoming unfaithful to his God, and his priesthood, that wife or wives are free from him without a bill of divorcement. Second. If a woman claimes protection at the hands of a man, possessing more power in the priesthood and higher keys, if he is disposed to rescue her and has obtained the consent of her husband to make her his wife he can do so without a bill of divorcement.”
- Prophet Brigham Young, “A Few Words on Doctrine,” speech at tabernacle, October 8, 1861, see In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith, by Todd Compton, p. 17
“”In 1835 at Kirtland I learned from my Sisters Husband Lyman R. Shirman, who was close to the Prophet and Received it from him. That the ancient order of plural marriage was again to be practiced by the Church.”
- Benjamin F. Johnson, I Knew the Prophets: An Analysis of the Letter of Benjamin F. Johnson to George F. Gibbs, Reporting Doctrinal Views of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, 1976, ed. by Dean R. Zimmerman, p. 38
“Concerning the doctrine of celestial marriage the Prophet told my father in the days of Kirtland, that it was the will of the Lord for His servants who were faithful to step forth in that order... My father made some things known to me concerning those days, and the part he took with the Prophet in trying to assist him to start the principle with a few chosen friends in those days. My father had required of me to bear testimony of these things at a proper time.”
- Mosiah Hancock, “Letter to the Editor,” Deseret Evening News, February 21, 1884, p. 4
“As early as Spring of 1832 Bro Joseph said ‘Brother Levi [Mosiah’s father], the Lord has revealed to me that it is his will that righteous men shall take Righteous women even a plurality of Wives that a Righteous race may be sent forth upon the Earth preparatory to the ushering in of the Millenial Reign of our Redeemer – For the Lord has such a high respect for the nobles of his kingdom that he is not willing for them to come through the Loins of a Careless People – Therefore; it behoves those who embrace that Principle to pay strict attention to even the Least requirement of our Heavenly Father.”
- Mosiah Hancock Autobiography, pp. 61-62
“Any man who will teach and practice the doctrine of spiritual wifery will go to hell; I don’t care if it is my brother Joseph.”
- Don Carlos Smith, Joseph’s brother, The Return, v. 2, June 1890, p. 287
“I want you for the rest of your life to be an honest man.”
- Don Carlos Smith’s last request to Joseph Smith, Jr., in Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith, by Lucy Mack Smith, pp. 290-291
“... it [the introduction of the doctrine of polygamy] was the first time in my life that I desired the grave, and I could hardly get over it for a long time. And when I saw a funeral, I felt to envy the corpse its situation.”
- Prophet Brigham Young, Brigham Young, by Lavar Arrington, p. 100
“... if she [Emma Smith] will not abide this commandment [polygamy] she shall be destroyed.”
- Doctrine and Covenants 132:54
“I have not revoked this law nor will I for it is everlasting and those who will enter into my glory must obey the conditions thereof, even so amen.”
- Prophet John Taylor, as quoted in Mormon Polygamy, by Van Wagoner, p. 128
“The whole history of ancient Israel was one in which plurality of wives was a divinely accepted and approved order of matrimony ... Obviously the holy practice will commence again after the Second Coming of the Son of Man and the ushering in of the millennium.”
- Apostle Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, “Plural Marriage”
“All commandments that I give must be obeyed unless they are revoked by me or by my authority and how can I revoke an everlasting covenant for I the Lord am everlasting and my everlasting covenants cannot be abrogated nor done away with but stand forever.”
- Prophet John Taylor, speaking for God in this unpublished and suppressed 1886 revelation; see Quadrant, May 1999, Ray Agnostini, "Mormons and the Media", v. 43, issue 5, p. 55
Joseph Smith’s attempt at plural marriage with Orson Pratt’s wife:
“Sister Pratt, the Lord has given you to me as one of my spiritual wives. I have the blessings of Jacob granted me, as God granted holy men of old, and as I have long looked upon you with favor, and an earnest desire of connubial bliss, I hope you will not repulse or deny me.”
SARAH PRATT REPLIED:
“And is that the great secret that I am not to utter? Am I called upon to break the marriage covenant, and prove recreant to my lawful husband! I never will…. I care not for the blessings of Jacob. I have one good husband, and that is enough for me….
“Joseph, if you ever attempt any thing of the kind with me again, I will make a full disclosure to Mr. Pratt on his return home. Depend upon it, I will certainly do it.”
JOSEPH SMITH RESPONDED:
“Sister Pratt, I hope you will not expose me, for if I suffer, all must suffer; so do not expose me. Will you promise me that you will not do it?”
SARAH PRATT:
“If you will never insult me again, I will not expose you unless strong circumstances should require it.”
SMITH:
“If you should tell, I will ruin your reputation, remember that.”
- History of the Saints, pp. 228-231
“Sarah [Pratt] ordered the Prophet out of the house, and the Prophet used obscene language to her…”
- Nelson Winch Green, Fifteen Years among the Mormons: Being the Narrative of Mrs. Mary Ettie V. Smith, 1859, p. 31
“Br Orson Pratt is in trubble in consequence of his wife, hir feelings are so rought up that he dos not know whether his wife is wrong, or whether Josephs testimony and others are wrong and do lie and he deceived for 12 years or not; his is all but crazy about matters… we will not let Br. Orson go away from us he is too good a man to have a woman destroy him.”
- Apostle Jebediah M. Grant, Sunday Tabernacle Discourse, March 23, 1856, Journal History
“In his endeavors to ruin my [Sarah’s] character Joseph went so far as to publish an extra-sheet containing affidavits against my reputation. When this sheet was brought to me I discovered to my astonishment the names of two people on it, man and wife, with whom I had boarded for a certain time…. I went to their house; the man left the house hurriedly when he saw me coming. I found the wife and said to her rather excitedly: ‘What does it all mean?’ She began to sob. ‘It is not my fault’ said she. ‘Hyrum Smith came to our house, with the affidavits all written out, and forced us to sign them. ‘Joseph and the Church must be saved,’ said he. We saw that resistance was useless, they would have ruined us; so we signed the papers.”
- Sarah Pratt, in Wilhelm Wyl, Mormon Portraits, 1886, pp. 62-63
“She [Sarah] lied about me. I never made the offer which she said I did. I will not advise you to break up your family – unless it were asked of me. Then I would council you to get a bill from your wife and marry a virtuous woman – and a new family but if you do not do it [I] shall never throw it in your teeth.”
- Prophet Joseph Smith, Jr. according to Brigham Young, Minutes of the Quorum of the Twelve, January 20, 1843, Brigham Young Collection
“[Joseph] ha[s] lately endeavored to seduce my wife, and ha[s] found her a virtuous woman.”
- Apostle William Law, former counselor in the First Presidency, in Lyndon W. Cook, “William Law, Nauvoo Dissenter,” BYU Studies, v. 22, Winter 1982, p. 65
“The Prophet had made dishonorable proposals to [my] wife… under cover of his asserted ‘Revelation.’… [Smith told his wife Jane] the Lord had commanded that he should take plural wives, to add to his glory… [Joseph] asked her to give him half her love; she was at liberty to keep the other half for her husband.”
- Apostle William Law, as quoted in Ann Eliza Young, Wife No. 9, 1876, p. 61
“My wife would not speak evil of … anyone … without cause. Joseph is a liar and not she. That Smith admired and lusted after many men’s wives and daughters, is a fact, but they could not help that. They or most of them considered his admiration an insult, and treated him with scorn. In return for this scorn, he generally managed to blacken their reputations – see the case of… Mrs. Pratt, a good, virtuous woman.”
- Apostle William Law, Salt Lake Tribune, January 20, 1887
“It is said that the Prophet admitted to [Orson] the attempt he made on his wife’s virtue, but that it was only done to see whether she was true to her absent husband.”
- New York Herald, September 14, 1877
“It is a fact, so well known that the Twelve and their adherents have endeavored to carry on this spiritual wife business… and have gone to the most shameful and desperate lengths to keep it from the public. First, insulting innocent females, and when they resented the insult, these monsters in human shape would assail their characters by lying, and perjuries, with a multitude of desperate men to help them effect the ruin of those whom they had insulted, and all this to enable them to keep these corrupt practices from the view of the world.”
- Apostle Sidney Rigdon, Messenger and Advocate, October 15, 1844
“When a man who has a wife, teaches her the law of God, as revealed to the ancient patriarchs, and as manifested by new revelation, and she refuses to give her consent for him to marry another according to that law, then, it becomes necessary, for her to state before the President the reasons why she withholds her consent; if her reasons are sufficient and justified and the husband is found in the fault, or in transgression, then, he is not permitted to take any step in regard to obtaining another. But if the wife can show no good reason why she refuses to comply with the law which was given unto Sarah of old, then it is lawful for her husband, if permitted by revelation through the prophet, to be married to others without her consent, and he will be justified, and she will be condemned, because she did not give them unto him, as Sarah gave Hagar to Abraham, and as Rachel and Leah gave Bilhah and Zilpah to their husband, Jacob.”
- Apostle Orson Pratt, The Seer, p. 41
“I do not wish to wrongfully accuse my husband, although we have been hopelessly separated for ten years. I believed, when he decided to enter upon the practice of polygamy, that he did so not from any violence of individual passion, but from sheer fanaticism. He told me that he believed it was his duty to take other women besides myself to wife, and at first he said that this would make no difference in his affection for me, which would continue pure and single as it had ever been. But think of the horror of such an announcement. He took wife after wife until they numbered five, and for a long time they were kept away from me and I was spared from intercourse with them. By and by he told me that he intended to put these five women on an exact equality with me; that he could spend a week with one, a week with another, and so on, and that I should have the sixth week! Then patience forsook me. I told him plainly that I wouldn’t endure it. I said, ‘If you take five wives with your other women you can take the sixth with them also.’ Orson responded, ‘If you don’t choose to live with me I don’t know that I’m obliged to support you. You may have my permission to go to hell. Stick to it or to starvation.”
- Sarah Pratt, New York Herald, May 18, 1877
“[Hyrum] instructed me in Nov or Dec 1843 to make a selection of some young woman and he would seal her to me, and I should take her home, and if she should have an offspring [I was to] give out word that she had a husband, an Elder, who had gone on a foreign mission.”
- Ebenezer Robinson, letter to Jason W. Briggs, January 28, 1860, LDS archives; see Abanes, One Nation Under Gods, p. 282
“[Joseph] used to state to his intended victims, as he did to me: ‘God does not care if we have a good time, if only other people do not know it.’ He only introduced a marriage ceremony when he found out he could not get certain women without it.... If any woman, like me, opposed his wishes, he used to say: ‘Be silent, or I shall ruin your character. My character must be sustained in the interest of the Church.”
- Sarah Pratt, Orson Pratt’s first wife, quoted in W. Wyl, Mormon Portraits, 1886, p. 62
“In the spirit... world we will go to brother Joseph.... He will say to us, ‘Come along my boys, we will give you a good suit of clothes. Where are your wives.’ [Answering Joseph] ‘They are back yonder; they would not follow us.’ ‘Never mind,’ says Joseph, ‘here are thousands, have all you want.’”
- Apostle Heber C. Kimball, Journal of Discourses, v. 4, p. 209, February 1, 1857
“I think no more of taking another wife than I do of buying a cow, and if you want to build up the kingdom you must take more wives.”
- Apostle Heber C. Kimball, quoted in Jennie Anderson Froiseth, ed., The Women of Mormonism: or the Story of Polygamy As Told by the Victims Themselves, 1886; see Abanes, One Nation Under Gods, p. 295
“If President Young wants my wives I will give them to him without a grumble, and he can take them whenever he likes.”
- Apostle Jebediah M. Grant, quoted in T.B.H. Stenhouse, Tell It All, p. 294; see Abanes, One Nation Under Gods, p. 295
“[Polygamy] I could not have done if I had not believed it to be right in the Sight of god, and believed it to be one principal of his gospel once again restored to earth.”
- Sarah D. Rich, quoted in Leonard J. Arrington, Charles C. Rich: Mormon General and Western Frontiersman, 1974, p. 288
“God will be very cruel if he does not give us poor women adequate compensation for the trials we have endured in polygamy.”
- Mary Ann Angell Young, quoted in Anti-Polygamy Standard, August 1882, p. 36
“O, if my husband could only love me even a little and not seem to be perfectly indifferent to any sensation of that kind.... O my poor aching heart when shall it rest its burden only on the Lord.”
- Emmeline B. Wells, diary date of September 30, 1874, quoted in Van Wagoner, Mormon Polygamy, p. 94
“It is the very refinement of cruelty, this polygamy, and it hurts are deeper and more poisonous than any other wounds can be. They never heal, but grow constantly more painful, until it makes life unendurable.”
- Ann Eliza Young, letter to Mormon Women, “Letter Number Two,” in Froiseth, ed. The Women of Mormonism, pp. 169-170
“Where did this commandment come from in relation to polygamy? It also came from God.... When I see any of our people, men or women, opposing a principle of this kind... I consider them apostates.”
- Prophet John Taylor, Journal of Discourses, v. 11, p. 221, April 7, 1866
“I can never tell the horrors of the next few hours.... I went to my room and dressed for the reception, which took place at Cannon’s other house, where he kept his three wives. When I went down, there was a crowd there, among the rest a plain looking girl in a calico dress, to whom I was introduced. It was Emily Spencer.... I told her to get up. Miles came forward and said, ‘Sit still Emily Spencer, my wife.’ I felt as though I had been shot. I said, Your wife! Then what am I?’ He said, ‘You are both my wives.’ All at once my shame flashed over me. Here I was dishonored, the polygamous wife of a Mormon. I ran out of the house, bent only on escape, I did not think where. I could not do it, though for Miles and young Cannon, a son of the Delegate, ran after me and dragged me back.... [B]ut I stole away and returned to the other house, where I had been living the three weeks since my arrival from England. I noticed there was no key in the lock, but shot a little bolt and piled chairs against the door. I cried myself to sleep. The next thing I knew, I don’t know what time it was, Miles stood in the room and was locking the door on the inside. I screamed... Miles said I need not take on, for Brother Cannon had anticipated that I would make trouble and had the house cleared of everyone else. I found out that it was so. He told me that I might as well submit; there was no law here to control the saints. There was no power on earth that would save me.”
- Caroline Owens, in Matilda Joslyn Gage, Women, Church and State, 1998, pp. 238-240
“Now, sisters, list to what I say; with trials this world is rife. You can’t expect to miss them all; help husband get a wife! Now this advice I feely give, if exalted you will be, Remember that your husband must, be blessed with more than thee. Chorus: Then, oh, let us say, God bless the wife that strives, And aids her husband all she can to obtain a dozen wives.”
- Early pioneer song, in Songs of Zion, published by the LDS Church; see Abanes, One Nation Under Gods, p. 303
“It is the duty of a woman to be obedient to her husband, and unless she is, I would not give a damn for all her queenly right and authority, nor for her either, if she will quarrel and lie about the work of God and the principles of plurality.”
- Apostle Heber C. Kimball, Journal of Discourses, v. 4, p. 82, November 9, 1856; also Deseret News, v. 6, p. 291
“And now it came to pass that the people of Nephi... began to grow hard in their hears, and indulge themselves somewhat in wicked pratices, such as like unto David of old desiring many wives and concubines.”
- Book of Mormon, Jacob 1:15
“Behold, David and Solomon truly had many wives and concubines, which thing was abominable before me, saith the Lord.... [T]here is not any man among you have save it be one wife; and concubines he shall have none.”
- Book of Mormon, Jacob 2:24-27
“Behold, the Lamanites... are more righteous than you; for they have not forgotten the commandment of the Lord, which was given unto our father – that they should have save it were one wife, and concubines they should have none, and there should not be whoredoms committed among htem.”
- Book of Mormon, Jacob 3:5
“... if a man take a wife and her mother, it is wickedness; they shall be burnt with fire both he and they; that there be no wickedness among you.”
- Holy Bible, KJV, Leviticus 20:14
“In 1882 President John Taylor issued an Epistle, ‘On Marriage,’ authorizing church marriages outside the Endowment House and temples. Two years later he admitted in court testimony that he had authorized hundreds of men to perform secret marriages at any place convenient.”
- Samuel W. Taylor, Rocky Mountain Empire, pp. 20-21, footnote #15
“Thus saith the Lord.... I the Lord hold the destiny of the courts in your midst, and the destiny of this nation, and all other nations of the earth, in mine own hands, and all that I have revealed and promised and decreed concerning the generation in which you live shall come to pass, and no power shall stay my hand. Let not my servants who are called to the Presidency of my Church deny my word or my law [i.e., plural marriage], which concerns the salvation of the children of men.... If the Saints will hearken unto my voice, and the counsel of my servants, the wicked shall not prevail.... Let my servants who officiate as your counselors before the courts make their pleadings as they are moved upon by the Holy Spirit, without any further pledges from the Priesthood, and they will be justified. I, the Lord, will hold the courts, with the officers of government and the nation responsible for their acts towards the inhabitants of Zion. I, Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world, am in your midst. I am your advocate with the Father. Fear not, little flock, it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom. Fear not the wicked and ungodly.... I the Lord will deliver my Saints from the dominion of the wicked in mine own due time and way. I cannot deny my Word, neither in blessings nor judgments. Therefore let mine anointed gird up their loins, watch and be sober, and keep my commandments.”
- Prophet Wilford Woodruff revelation, from Wilford Woodruff Journal; see New Mormon Studies CD ROM: Comprehensive Resource Library, 2000; see also Abanes, One Nation Under Gods, p. 323
“Take care of your polygamous wives; we don’t care for Uncle Sam now.”
- Prophet Joseph F. Smith, 1896 dedication speech for the Payson, Utah meeting house, quoted in William Edward Biederwolf, Mormonism Under the Searchlight, 1915, p. 65
“In 1897, the first full year after Utah attained statehood, the number of plural marriages jumped nearly five-fold. Political pressures created by attempts for statehood subsided after Utah became a state, and church leaders realized they could allow more polygamous marriages than before because federal interference would be minimized.... There seems to have been little criticism of such marriages among those Latter-day Saints who knew about them.”
- Kenneth L. Cannon II, “After the Manifesto: Mormon Polygamy 1890-1906,” in D. Michael Quinn, ed., The New Mormon History, 1992, pp. 203-204
“In 1897, the first full year after Utah attained statehood, the number of plural marriages jumped nearly five-fold. Political pressures created by attempts for statehood subsided after Utah became a state, and church leaders realized they could allow more polygamous marriages than before because federal interference would be minimized.... There seems to have been little criticism of such marriages among those Latter-day Saints who knew about them.”
- Kenneth L. Cannon II, “After the Manifesto: Mormon Polygamy 1890-1906,” in D. Michael Quinn, ed., The New Mormon History, 1992, pp. 203-204
“Plural marriage is the patriarchal order of marriage lived by God and others who reign in the Celestial Kingdom.”
- John J. Stewart, Mormon writer, Brigham Young and His Wives and The True Story of Plural Marriage, 1961, p. 41
“My wives will be mine in eternity.”
- Prophet Joseph Fielding Smith, upon the death of his first wife, Doctrines of Salvation, 1955, v. 2, p. 67
“I’m no more a lawbreaker than they are , and if they were lawbreakers for keeping God’s commandments, they’re my example.”
- Tom Green, fundamentalist Mormon polygamist, in Geoffrey Fattah, “History piqued Green’s Interest, He Says Stories of Pioneers Led to His Polygamy,” Deseret News, August 22, 2001
“If prosecutors in the state of Utah continue on the path they are on in seeking us out, I hate to tell you what might happen. To put it bluntly – the mountains could come down upon them. I think they are going to get shook up. I think we are in store for a lot of things if we don’t reprent and return to the way of God.”
- Tom Green, fundamentalist Mormon polygamist, see Julie Cart, “Polygamy Verdict Set Precedent Law: Utah Is Likely to Go After Others,” Los Angeles Times, May 20, 2001
“... the holy practice [of polygamy] will commence again after the Second Coming of the Son of Man and the ushering in of the millennium.”
- Apostle Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, 1958, p. 578
“Every scholar with whom I am acquainted agrees that there is yet official Church reticence when it comes to using certain records, diaries, and other materials in the church’s archives and in the First Presidency’s possession relating to polygamy.”
- B. Carmon Hardy, Mormon historian, “Truth and Mistruth in Mormon History,” in Lavina Fielding Anderson and Janice Merrill Allred, eds., Case Reports of the Mormon Alliance, 1997, v. 3, p. 279
"It [polygamy] was a very limited practice; carefully safeguarded. In 1890, that practice was discontinued."
- Prophet Gordon B. Hinckley, Larry King Live, online at http://www.lds-mormon.com/lkl_00.shtml
“He [Woodruff] told me he had written it [the Manifesto] himself, and it certainly appeared to me to be in his handwriting. Its authorship has since been variously attributed. Some of the present-day polygamists say that it was I who wrote it. Chas. W. Penrose and George Reynolds have claimed they edited it.”
- Apostle Frank J. Cannon; see Abanes, One Nation Under Gods, p. 591, footnote 52
“I, Charles W. Penrose, wrote the Manifesto with the assistance of Frank J. Cannon and John White…. Wilford Woodruff signed it to beat the devil at his own game.”
- Apostle Charles W. Penrose, in D. Michael Quinn, “LDS Church Authority and New Plural Marriages, 1890-1904,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, v. 18, no. 1, pp. 11-12; online here
“U.S.: State whether or not it would be contrary to the law of the church, for any member of the church to enter into or contract a plural marriage.
WOODRUFF: It would be contrary to the laws of the church.
U.S.: What would be the penalty?
WOODRUFF: Any person entering into plural marriage after that date, would be liable to become excommunicated from the church.
U.S.: Do you understand that that language was to be expanded and to include a further statement of living or associating in plural marriage by those already in the status?
WOODRUFF: Yes, sir; I intended the proclamation to cover the ground, to keep the laws – to obey the law myself, and expected the people to obey the law….
U.S.: Was the manifesto intended to apply to the church everywhere?
WOODRUFF: Yes, sir.
U.S.: In every nation and every country?
WOODRUFF: Yes, sir; as far as I had a knowledge in the matter.
U.S.: In places outside of the United States as well as within the United States?
WOODRUFF: Yes, sir; we are given no liberties for entering into that anywhere….
U.S.: Unlawful cohabitation, as it is named, and spoken of, should also stop, as well as future polygamous marriages?
WOODRUFF: Yes sir, that has been the intention.
U.S.: And that has been your views and explanation to it?
WOODRUFF: Yes, sir, that has been my view.”
- Prophet Wilford Woodruff testimony, quoted in Van Wagoner, Mormon Polygamy, pp. 149-150
“All First Presidency members either allowed or authorized new plural marriages from 1890 to 1904, and a few as late as 1906 and 1907. One Church President married a plural wife, and three Counselors in the First Presidency performed marriages for men who had living wives already. A Presidency’s secretary proposed polygamous marriage in 1907. Of the sixteen men who served only as Apostles… eight of these sixteen men married post-Manifsto plural wives. Three of them who did not do so, performed plural marriages. Two of them who did not do either of the above, arranged for plural marriages…. Now, looking at the men individually. Wilford Woodruff… personally approved 7 new plural marriages, to be performed in Mexico. He also approved polygamous ceremonies for a couple of Mexican residents as early as 1891. He delgated George Q. Cannon, his first counselor, to give approval for plural marriages from 1892 to 1898. That approval was in the form of written letters…. Woodruff himself married a new Plural Wife in 1897…. [Lorenzo Snow] cohabited with his youngest plural wife who went to Canada briefly, in 1896, to bear his last child. And in so doing, he violated the testimony that he had given publicly in 1891, that the Manifesto prohibited cohabitation with plural wives…. [Joseph F. Smith] In 1896 as a counselor, he performed in the Salt Lake Temple a ‘proxy plural marriage’ for Abraham Cannon, which had been approved earlier by the First Presidency…. Smith instructed Seymour B. Young of the First council of seventy, to perform two plural marriages in Mexico. And later that same year, second counselor Smith authorized Patriarch Alexander F. MacDonald to perform new plural marriages in Mexico for any Mexican residents who requested them…. George Q. Cannon was Presidency counselor and next in line to be Church President from 1899 to 1901. He personally authorized new plural marriages performed in Mexico, Canada, and the United States, from 1892 until his death in 1901. This included plural marriages performed for 3 of his sons and 3 of his nephews.”
- D. Michael Quinn, “Plural Marriages After The 1890 Manifesto,” lecture, August 1991 at Bluffdale, Utah, online here
“[A] man who did not have but one wife in the Resurrection that woman will not be his but [be] taken from him & given to another.”
- Prophet Brigham Young, quoted by Wilford Woodruff, in Abanes, One Nation Under Gods, p. 579
“Celestial marriage is for the fullness of the glory of god. It is the crowning glory. A man has no right to one wife unless he is worthy of two…. There is no provision made for those who have had the chance & opperternity [sic] and have disregarded that law. Men who disregard that law are in the same situation as if they broke any other law. they are transgressors.”
- Apostle Francis M. Lyman, quoted in Van Wagoner, Mormon Polygamy, p. 97
“I believe in sisters marrying brothers, and brothers having their sisters for wives…. This is something pertaining to our marriage relation. The whole world will think what an awful thing it is. What an awful thing it would be if the Mormons should just say we believe in marrying brothers and sisters.”
- Prophet Brigham Young, October 8, 1854, in Fred C. Collier, ed., The Teachings of President Brigham Young, 1987, v. 3, p. 362, 368
“Bro Snow said I would live to see the time when brothers and sisters would marry each other in this church. All our horror at such an union was due entirely to prejudice and the offspring of such union would be healthy and pure as any other. These were the decided views of Pres. Young when alive, for Bro. S. talked to him freely on this matter.”
- Apostle Abraham H. Cannon, quote in Journal of Mormon History, 1992, p. 106
“I know also another man who married a widow with several children; and when one of the girls had grown into her teens he insisted on marrying her also… and to this very day the daughter bears children to her step-father, living as wife in the same house with her mother.”
- Fanny Stenhouse, Tell It All, 1875, p. 469
“In Utah it has been the custom with the Priesthood to make eunuchs of such men as were obnoxious to the leaders. This was done for a double purpose: first, it gave a perfect revenge, and next, it left the poor victim a living example to others of the dangers of disobeying counsel and not living as ordered by the Priesthood. In Nauvoo it was the orders from Joseph Smith and his apostles to beat, wound and castrate all Gentiles that the police could take in the act of entering or leaving a Mormon household under circumstances that led to the belief that they had been there for immoral purposes…. In Utah it was the favorite revenge of old, worn-out members of the Priesthood, who wanted young women sealed to them, and found that the girl preferred some handsome young man. The old priests generally got the girls, and many a young man was unsexed for refusing to give up his sweetheart at the request of the old and failing, but still sensual apostle or member of the Priesthood…. [If] he refused to consent to give up the girl. The lights were then put out. An attack was made on the young man. He was severely beaten, and then tied with his back down on a bench, when Bishop Snow took a bowie-knife, and performed the operation in a most brutal manner, and then took the portion severed from his victim and hung it up in the school-house on a nail, so that it could be seen by all who visited the house afterwards. The party then left the young man weltering in his blood, and in a lifeless condition. During the night he succeeded in releasing himself from his confinement, and dragged himself to some hay-stacks, where he lay until the next day, when he was discovered by his friends. The young man regained his health, but has been an idiot or quite lunatic ever since, and is well known by hundreds of both Mormons and Gentiles in Utah.”
- Elder John D. Lee, Mormonism Unveiled; Including The Remarkable Life And Confessions Of The Late Mormon Bishop, John D. Lee, 1877, pp. 284-285, 286; online here
“… men who go on missions are very guarded in preaching the doctrine [polygamy], and advocate it only where they are very certain that it will be received. They admit its existence, but they by no means are willing to confess to what an extent it is practiced; and to this day many of them win wives under false pretences…. [A] gentleman living in the British Provinces… spoke of a visit he had received quite recently from a lady friend from England… who had become converted to Mormonism, and married one of the elders of the church, and was on her way to Utah with him…. [She] deplored the existence of polygamy as its only drawback to a perfect faith. Yet she said her husband had told her that it was only a doctrine of the church that was rarely practiced, except by the older Saints, who had received the Revelation directly from Joseph, and had considered the adoption of the system a duty; that in time it would, be entirely done away with, except in theory, and that at all events she need have no fear…. She, who so fondly believed herself the only wife of her husband, made Number 5 or 6 of his plural wives.”
- Ann Eliza Young, Wife No. 9, Chapter Nine; online at http://www.antimormon.8m.com/youngchp9.html
“We were next led into what is called the Terrestrial Glroy; where Brigham Young received us, … he gave each a pass-word and grip necessary, he said, to admit us into the Celestial Glory;” … there are many gods, and they do not acknowledge the one Triune God of the Bible, but that every man will sometime be a ‘god;’ and that women are to be the ornaments of his kingdom, and dependent upon him for resurrection and salvation; and that our salvation is dependent upon the recollection of these passwords.”
- Mary Ettie V. Smith, in Nelson Winch Green, ed., Mormonism: Its Rise, Progress, and Present Condition, 1870 edition, pp. 42-48
“[We] were also told that floating through space were thousands of infant spirits, who were waiting for bodies; that into every child that was born one of these spirits entered, and was thereby saved; but if they had no bodies given them, their wails of despair would ring through all eternity; and that it was, in order to insure their future happiness, necessary that as many of them as possible should be given bodies by Mormon parents. If a woman refused to marry into polygamy, or, being married, to allow her husband to take other wives, these spirits would rise up in judgment against her, because she had, by her act, kept them in darkness.”
- Ann Eliza Young, Wife No. 9, Chapter 18; online here
“Supposing that I have a wife or a dozen of them…. Suppose that I lose the whole of them before I go into the spirit world, but that I have been a good, faithful man all the days of my life, and lived my religion, and had favour with God, and was kind to them, do you think I will be destitute there [the “spirit-world”]? No, the Lord says there are more [females] there than there are here…. In the spirit world there is an increase of males and females, there are millions of them, nad if I am faithful all the time, and continue right along with brother Brigham, we will go to brother Joseph [Smith] and say, ‘Here we are brother Joesph’…. He will say to us,…. ‘Where are you wives?’ ‘They are back yonder; they would not follow us.’ ‘Never mind,’ says Joseph, ‘here are thousands, have all you want.’ Perhaps some do not believe that, but I am just simple enough to believe it…. I am looking for the day, and it is close at hand, when we will have a most heavenly time, one that will be romantic, one with all kinds of ups and downs, which is what I call romantic, for it will occupy in full all the time.”
- Apostle Heber C. Kimball, Journal of Discourses, v. 4, p. 209
“… if the doctrine of plural marriage was repudiated so must be the glorious principle of marriage for eternity, the two being indissolubly interwoven with each other.”
- Apostle Charles Penrose, quoted in “Plural Marriage,” Millennial Star, volume XLV, no. 29, July 16, 1883, p. 454
“My Son John. You have asked me concerning the new and everlasting covenant [polygamy] & how far it is binding upon my people. [T]hus saith the Lord all commandments that I give must be obeyed by those calling themselves by my name unless they are revoked by me or by my authority, and how can I revoke an everlasting covenant; for I the Lord am everlasting and my everlasting covenants cannot be abrogated nor done away with; but they stand for ever. Have I not given my word in great plainness on this subject? … I the Lord do not change & my word & my covenants & my law do not, & as I have heretofore said by my servant Joseph all those who would enter into my glory must & shall obey my law & have I not commanded men that if they were Abraham’s seed & would enter into my glory, they must do the works of Abraham. I have not revoked this law nor will I for it is everlasting & those who will enter into my glory must obey the conditions thereof.”
- Prophet John Taylor to John W. Taylor, revelation to John Taylor, September 27, 1886; reprinted in Abanes, One Nation Under Gods, p. 587, footnote 15
“… wo unto that Nation or house or people who seek to hinder my People from obeying the Patriarchal Law of Abraham [polygamy] which leadeth to a Celestial Glory… for whosoever doeth those things shall be damned Saith the Lord.”
- Prophet Wilford Woodruff, in Scott G. Kenney, ed., Wilford Woodruff’s Journal 1833-1898,, under January 26, 1880, v. 7, pp. 546
“God the Father had a plurality of wives, one or more being in eternity, by whom He begat our spirits as well as the spirit of Jesus His Firstborn.”
- Apostle Orson Pratt, The Seer, November 1853, v. 1, no. 11, p. 172
“… we must accept the fact that there was a time when Deity was much less powerful than He is today. Then how did He become glorified and exalted and attain His present status of Godhood? In the first place, aeons ago God undoubtedly took advantage of every opportunity to learn the laws of truth…. From day to day He exerted His will vigorously,… he gained more knowledge…. Thus he grew in experience and continued to grow until He attained the status of Godhood. In other words, he became God by absolute obedience to all the eternal laws of the Gospel…. No prophet of record gave more complete and forceful explanations of the doctrine that men may become Gods than did the American Prophet [Joseph Smith, Jr.].”
- Seventy Milton R. Hunter, Gospel Through the Ages, 1958, p. pp. 114-115
“The fleshy body of Jesus required a Mother as well as a Father. Therefore, the Father and Mother of Jesus, according to the flesh, must have been associated together in the capacity of Husband and Wife; hence the Virgin Mary must have been, for the time being, the lawful wife of God the Father: we use the term lawful Wife, because it would be blasphemous in the highest degree to say that He overshadowed her or begat the Saviour unlawfully. It would have been unlawful for any man to have interfered with Mary, who was already espoused to Joseph; for such a heinous crime would have subjected both the guilty parties to death, according to the law of Moses. But God having created all men and women, had the most perfect right to do with His own creation, according to His holy will and pleasure: He had a lawful right to overshadow the Virgin Mary in the capacity of a husband, and beget a Son, although she was espoused to another; for the law which He gave to govern men and women was not intended to govern Himself, or to prescribe rules for his own conduct. It was also lawful in Him, after leaving thus dealt with Mary, to give her to Joseph her espoused husband. Whether God the Father gave Mary to Joseph for time only, or for time and eternity, we are not informed. Inasmuch as God was the first husband to her, it may be that He only gave her to be the wife of Joseph while in this mortal state, and that He intended after the resurrection to again take her as one of his own wives to raise up immortal spirits in eternity.”
- Apostle Orson Pratt, “Celestial Marriage,” The Seer, October 1853, v. 1, no. 10, p. 158
“And there was some trouble with Oliver Cowdery, and whisper said it was relating to a girl then living in his (the Prophet’s) family; and I was afterwards told by Warren Parish, that he himself and Oliver Cowdery did not that Joseph had Fannie Alger as wife, for they were spied upon and found together. And I can now see that at Nauvoo, so at Kirtland, that the suspicion or knowledge of the Prophet’s plural relation was one of the causes of apostasy and disruption at Kirtland, although at the time there was little said publicly on the subject.”
- Benjamin F. Johnson, 1903 letter in LDS archives, MS 1289, online here
“I will not be influenced, governed, or controlled, in my temporal interests by any ecclesiastical authority or pretended revelation whatever, contrary to my own judgment.”
- Oliver Cowdery, letter to church leaders, April 12, 1838; see Abanes, One Nation Under Gods, p. 537, footnote 17; online here
“… the Prophet invited me to walk with him. During our walk, he said he had learned that there was a sister back in England, to whom I was very much attached. I replied there was, but nothing further than an attachment such as a brother and sister in the Church might rightfully entertain for each other. He then said, ‘Why don’t you send for her?’ I replied, ‘In the first place, I have no authority to send for her, and if I had, I have not the means to pay expenses.’ To this he answered, ‘I give you authority to send for her, and I will furnish you with means,’ which he did. This was the first time the Prophet Joseph talked with me on the subject of plural marriage. He informed me that the doctrine and principle was right in the sight of our Heavenly Father, and that it was a doctrine which pertained to celestial order and glory. After giving me lengthy instructions and information concerning the doctrine of celestial or plural marriage, he concluded his remarks by the words, ‘It is your privilege to have all the wives you want.’”
- William Clayton, in Fillerup, comp., William Clayton’s Nauvoo Diaries and Personal Writings, under March 9, 1843; online here
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“For behold, thus saith the Lord: This people begin to wax in iniquity; they understand not the scriptures, for they seek to excuse themselves in committing whoredoms, because of the things which were written concerning David, and Solomon his son.
“Behold, David and Solomon truly had many wives and concubines, which thing was abominable before me, saith the Lord.”
- Book of Mormon, 1830 edition, p. 111, verses 23-24
“Verily, thus saith the Lord... you have inquired of my hand to know and understand wherein I, the Lord justified my servants... David and Solomon... as touching the principle and doctrine of-having many wives and concubines – David’s wives and concubines were given unto him of me...”
- Doctrine and Covenants, Section 132, verses 1, 39
“... if any man espouse a virgin, and desire to espouse another, and the first give her consent, and if he espouses the second, and they are virgins, and have vowed to no other man, then he is justified.”
- Doctrine and Covenants, Section 132, verse 61
“Some of the nations of Europe who believe in the one wife system have actually forbidden a plurality of wives by their laws; and the consequences are that the whole country among them is overrun with the most abominable practices: adulteries and unlawful connections through all their villages, towns, cities, and country places to a most fearful extent.”
- Apostle Orson Pratt, The Seer, p. 12
“This law of monogamy, or the monogamic system, laid the foundation for prostitution and the evils and diseases of the most revolting nature and character under which modern Christendom groans…”
- Apostle Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses, v. 13, p. 195
“Verily, I say unto you, that the wisdom of man, in his fallen state, knoweth not the purposes and the privileges of my hold priesthood, but ye shall know when ye receive a fullness by reason of the anointing: For it is my will, that in time, ye should take unto you wives of the Lamanites and Nephites, that their posterity may become white, delightsome and just, for even now their females are more virtuous then the gentiles.”
- Prophet Joseph Smith, Jr., 1831 revelation, recorded in a letter from W.W. Phelps to Brigham Young, dated August 12, 1861
“In addition to this, and to co-operate with it, it has been made known by revelation, that it will be pleasing to the Lord, should they forma matrimonial alliance with the Natives; and by this means the Elders, who comply with the thing so pleasing to the Lord, and for which the Lord has promised to bless those who do it abundantly, gain a residence in the Indian territory, independent of the agent. It has been made known to one, who has left his wife in the state of N.Y. that he is entirely free from his wife, and he is at liberty to take him a wife from among the Lamanites. It was easily perceived that his permission was perfectly suited to his desires. I have frequently heard him state, that the Lord had made it known to him, that he is as free from his wife as from any other woman; and the only crime that I have ever heard alleged against her is, she is violently opposed to Mormonism.”
- Ezra Booth, Ohio Star, December 8, 1831
“The response of the men who were introduced into polygamy between 1841 and 1846 was anything but enthusiastic. The same was true of the women who were offered the chance of becoming plural wives. Apart from the fact that the new system collided with moral assumptions they had grown up with, there were practical difficulties that made polygamy less attractive. For the men to support additional wives was seldom easy. And for women to be married on this basis without being legally acknowledged as wives can hardly have been reassuring. It was not the kind of scheme that aroused cheers and applause.”
- Mormon Experience, by Leonard J. Arrington and Davis Bitton, p. 197
“One Mormon raised the question with his spouse, who minched no words in replying, ‘All right Jody – you get another wife and I’ll get another husband!’”
- Mormon Experience, by Leonard J. Arrington and Davis Bitton, p. 200
“Martin Harris... claimed he had a revelation when he first came to Kirtland for him to go to Missouri, and obtain a Lamanite squaw for a wife to aid them in propagating Mormonism. Martin told me soon after Joseph, the prophet, left Kirtland, that two years before, he had told him that as his wife had left him he needed a woman as other men.”
- S.F. Whitney, Naked Truths About Mormonism, 1888, p. 3
“We are now going to the Lamanites, to whom we intend to be messengers of instruction... We will show them that in consequence of their transgressions a curse has been inflicted upon them – in the darkness of their skins. We will have intermarriages with them, they marrying our young women, and we taking their young squaws to wife. By these means it is the will of the Lord that the curse of their color shall be removed and they restored to their pristine beauty...”
- Prophet Brigham Young, quoted in The Abominations of Mormonism Exposed, pp. 58-59
“... Brigham now teaches that ‘the way God has revealed for the purification of the Indians, and making them “a white and delightsome people,” as Joseph prophesied, is by us taking the Indian squaws for wives!!’ Accordingly several of these tawny beauties have been already ‘sealed’ to some of the Mormon authorities.”
- John Hyde, Jr., Mormonism: Its Leaders and Designs, pp. 109-110
“The Latter-day Saints, from the rise of the Church in 1830, till the year 1843, had no authority to marry any more than one wife each. To have done otherwise, would have been a great transgression.”
- Millennial Star, v. 19, p. 475
Joseph Smith was married to at least 12 women prior to July 12, 1843
“The charge of adulterous relations ‘with a certain girl’ was leveled against Smith by Cowdery in Missouri in 1837; this accusation became one of the complaints the Church had against Cowdery in his excommunication trial in Far West, April 12, 1838. In rationalizing Cowdery’s accusation, the Prophet testified that Oliver Cowdery had been his bosom friend, therefore he entrusted him with many things.”
- Conflict at Kirtland, by Max Parkin, 1966, p. 166
“When he [Joseph Smith, Jr.] was there we had some conversation in which in every instance I did not fail to affirm that what I had said was strictly true. A dirty, nasty, filthy affair of his and Fanny Alger’s was talked over in which I strictly declared that I had never deviated from the truth in the matter, and as I supposed was admitted by himself.”
- Oliver Cowdery, Letter dated January 21, 1838
“The law of the land and the rules of the church do not allow one man to have more than one wife alive at once...”
- Times and Seasons, Nov. 15, 1844, v. 5, p. 715
“Now for my proposition; it is more particularly for my sisters, as it is frequently happening that women say they are unhappy. Men will say, ‘My wife, though a most excellent woman, has not seen a happy day since I took my second wife; No, not a happy day for a year,’ says one; and another has not seen a happy day for five years. It is said that women are tied down and abused: that they are misused and have not he liberty they ought to have; that many of them are wading through a perfect flood of tears, because of the conduct of some men together with their own folly.
“I wish my own women to understand that what I am going to say is for them as well as others, and I want those who are here to tell their sisters, yes, all the women of this community, and then write it back to the States, and do as you please with it. I am going to give you from this time to the 6th day of October next, for reflection, that you may determine whether you wish to stay with your husbands or not, and then I am going to set every woman at liberty and say to them, No go your way, my women with the rest, go your way. And my wives have got to do one of two things; either round up their shoulders to endure the afflictions of this world, and live their religion, or they may leave, for I will not have them about me. I will go into heaven alone, rather than have scratching and fighting around me. I will set all at liberty. ‘What, first wife too?’ Yes, I will liberate you all....
“I wish my women, and brother Kimball’s and brother Grant’s to leave, and every woman in this Territory, or else say in their hearts that they will embrace the Gospel – the whole of it.... say to your wives, ‘Take all that I have and be set at liberty; but if you stay with me you shall comply with the law of God, and that too without any murmuring and whining. You must fulfill the law of God in every respect, and round up your shoulders to walk up to the mark without any grunting.’ Now recollect that two weeks from tomorrow I am going to set you at liberty. But the first wife will say, ‘It is hard, for I have lived with my husband twenty years, or thirty, and have raised a family of children for him, and it is a great trial to me for him to have more women;’ then I say it is time that you gave him up to other women who will bear children. If my wife had borne me all the children that she ever would bare, the celestial law would teach me to take young women that would have children....
“Sisters, I am not joking, I do not throw out my proposition to banter your feelings, to see whether you will leave your husbands, all or any of you. But I do know that there is no cessation to the everlasting whining of many of the women in this Territory; I am satisfied that this is the case. And if the women will turn from the commandments of God and continue to despise the order of heaven, I will pray that the curse of the Almighty may be close to their heels, and that it may be following them all day long....
“Prepare yourselves for two weeks from tomorrow; and I will tell you now, that if you will tarry with your husbands, after I have set you free, you must bow down to it, and submit yourselves to the celestial law. You may go where you please, after two weeks from tomorrow; but, remember, that I will not hear any more of this whining.”
- Prophet Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, v. 4, pp. 55-57, also printed in the Deseret News, v. 6, pp. 235-236
“Yes, [polygamy is] one of the relics of Adam, of Enoch, of Noah, of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob, of Moses, David, Solomon, the Prophets, of Jesus, and his apostles.”
- Prophet Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, v. 11, p. 328
“The Scripture says that He, the Lord, came walking in the Temple, with His train; I do not know who they were, unless His wives and children; but at any rate they filled the Temple, and how many there were who could not get into the Temple I cannot say. This is the account given by Isaiah, whether he told the truth or not I leave every body to judge for himself.”
- Prophet Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, v. 13, p. 309
“... it will be seen that the great Messiah who was the founder of the Christian religion was a polygamist... the Messiah chose... by marrying many honorable wives himself, to show to all future generations that he approbated the plurality of wives under the Christian dispensation in which His polygamist ancestors lived.
“We have clearly show that God the Father had a plurality of wives, one or more being in eternity, by whom He begat our spirits as well as the spirit of Jesus His First Born, and another being upon the earth by whom He begat the tabernacle of Jesus, as his only begotten in this world. We have also proved most clearly that the Son followed the example of his Father, and became the great Bridegroom to whom Kings’ daughters and many honorable wives were to be married. We have also proved that both God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ inherit their wives in eternity as well as in time... And then it would be so shocking to the modesty of the very pious ladies of Christendom to see Abraham and his wives, Jacob and his wives, Jesus and his honorable wives, all eating occasionally at the same table, and visiting one another, and conversing about their numerous children and their kingdoms. Oh, ye delicate ladies of Christendom, how can you endure such a scene as this?... If you do not want your morals corrupted, and your delicate ears shocked, and your pious modesty put to the blush by the society of Polygamists and their wives, do not venture near the New Earth; for polygamists will be honored there, and will be among the chief rules in that Kingdom.”
- Apostle Orson Pratt, The Seer, p. 172
“The next man who came on to the carpet wanted to know how many wives brother Brigham had. I replied... ‘I will guess, if that will do you any good.... if I may judge from appearances, I should presume he has some fifty or sixty.’”
- Apostle Ezra T. Benson, Journal of Discourses, v. 6, pp. 180-181
“Verily, thus saith the Lord unto my servants N.K. Whitney, the thing that my servant Joseph Smith has made known unto you and your family and which you have agreed is right in mine eyes... These are the words which you shall pronounce unto my servant Joseph and your daughter S.A. Whitney. They shall take each other by the hand and you shall say, You both mutually agree, calling them by name, to be each other’s companion so long as you both shall live... If you both agree to the covenant and do this, I then give you, S.A. Whitney, my daughter, to Joseph Smith, to be his wife... Let immortality and eternal life hereafter be sealed upon your heads forever and ever.”
- Prophet Joseph Smith, Jr. revelation, in The Strange Marriages of Sarah Ann Whitney, by Michael Marquardt, p. 23
This revelation was given July 27, 1842, a year earlier than the one published in the Doctrine and Covenants
“Emma [Smith] took the revelation, [on polygamy] supposed she had all there was; but Joseph had wisdom enough to take care of it, and he had handed the revelation to Bishop Whitney, and he wrote it all off.... She went to the fireplace and put it in, and put a candle under it and burnt it, and she thought that was the end of it, and she will be damned as sure as she is a living woman. Joseph used to say that he would have her hereafter, if he had to go to hell for her, and he will have to go to hell for her as sure as he ever gets her.”
- Prophet Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, v. 17, p. 159
“Wednesday, 12 – I received the following revelation... Revelation on the Eternity of the Marriage Covenant, including the Plurality of Wives. Given through Joseph, the Seer, in Nauvoo, Hancock County, Illinois, July 12, 1843.”
- History of the Church, v. 5, pp. 500-501
Joseph had married at least 12 women prior to July 12, 1843
“If I had forty wives in the United States, they did not know it, and could not substantiate it, neither did I ask any lawyer, judge, or magistrate for them. I live above the law, and so do this people.”
- Prophet Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, v. 1, p. 361
“The Chairman: That is the Book of Mormon?
Joseph F. Smith: Yes, sir; that is the Book of Mormon.
The Chairman: Is the doctrine of polygamy taught in that revelation?
Mr. Smith: Taught in it?
The Chairman: Yes.
Mr. Smith: It is emphatically forbidden in that book.
The Chairman: In that book it is emphatically forbidden?
Mr. Smith: It is.”
- Reed Smoot Case, v. 1, p. 480
“Sat. 25. – Joseph Smith learned that the grand jury at Carthage had found two indictments against him, one of them for polygamy.”
- Church Chronology, p. 25
“I was married to Joseph Smith on the 4th of March 1843... My sister Eliza was also married to Joseph a few days later. This was done without the knowledge of Emma Smith.”
- Historical Record, v. 6, p. 240
“... my father... was taught the plural wife doctrine, and was told by Joseph, the Prophet, three times, to go and take a certain woman as his wife; but not till he commanded him in the name of the Lord did he obey. At the same time Joseph told him not to divulge this secret, not even to my mother, for fear that she would not receive it... This was one of the greatest test of his faith he had ever experienced. The thought of deceiving the kind and faithful wife of his youth... was more than he felt able to bear.... his sorrow and misery were increased by the thought of my mother hearing it from some other source, which would no doubt separate them, and he shrank from the thought of such a thing, or of causing her any unhappiness.”
- Life of Heber C. Kimball (Apostle), by Orson F. Whitney, pp. 335-336
“Senator Pettus. Have there been any past plural marriages without the consent of the first wife?
Mr. [Joseph F.] Smith. I do not know of any, unless it may have been Joseph Smith himself.
Senator Pettus. Is the language that you have read construed to mean that she is bound to consent?
Mr. Smith. The condition is that if she does not consent the Lord will destroy her, but I do not know how He will do it.
Senator Bailey. Is it not true that in the very next verse, if she refuses her consent her husband is exempt from the law which requires her consent?
Mr. Smith. Yes; he is exempt from the law which requires her consent.
Senator Bailey. She is commanded to consent, but if she does not, then he is exempt from the requirement?
Mr. Smith. Then he is at liberty to proceed without her consent, under the law.
Senator Beveridge. In other words, her consent amounts to nothing?
Mr. Smith. It amounts to nothing but her consent.”
- Reed Smoot Case, v. 1, p. 201
“Kimball always kept an eye out for romance. ‘Brethren,’ he instructed some departing missionaries, ‘I want you to understand that it is not to be as it has been heretofore. The brother missionaries have been in the habit of picking out the prettiest women for themselves before they get here, and bringing on the ugly ones for us; hereafter you have to bring them all here before taking any of them, and let us all have a fair shake.”
- The Lion of the Lord, by Stanley P. Hirshon, pp. 129-130
“The implied assumption in this theory, that there have been more female than male members in the Church, is not supported by existing evidence. On the contrary, there seems always to have been more males than females in the Church....
“The United States census records from 1850 to 1940, and all available Church records, uniformly show a preponderance of males in Utha, and in the Church. Indeed, the excess in Utah has usually been larger than for the whole United State... there was no surplus of women.”
- Apostle John A. Widstoe, Apostle, Evidences and Reconciliations, pp. 390-392
“But then the proportion of the sexes in Utah would not, at present, admit of an extensive practice of plural marriage. When the census was taken five years ago, there were 143,963 souls in Utah Territory, not counting untaxed Indians. In this number there was an excess of 5,055 males over females. This does not have the appearance of permitting an extensive practice of plural marriage...”
- Juvenile Instructor, v. 20, p. 133
“There is a great deal of quarrelling in the houses, and contending for power and authority; and the second wife is against the first wife, perhaps, in some instances.”
- Apostle Heber C. Kimball, Journal of Discourses, v. 4, p. 178
“A few years ago one of my wives, when talking about wives leaving their husbands said, ‘I wish my husband’s wives would leave him, every soul of them except myself.’ That is the way they all feel, more or less, at times, both old and young.”
- Prophet Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, v. 9, p. 195
Sisters, do you wish to make yourselves happy? Then what is your duty? It is for you to bear children... are you tormenting yourselves by thinking that your husbands do not love you? I would not care whether they loved a particle or not; but I would cry out, like one of old, in the joy of my heart, ‘I have got a man from the Lord! Hallelujah! I am a mother...’”
- Prophet Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, v. 9, p. 37
“It is the duty of the first wife to regard her husband not with a selfish devotion... she must regard her husband with indifference, and with no other feeling than that of reverence, for love we regard as a false sentiment; a feeling which should have no existence in polygamy... we believe in the good old custom by which marriages should be arranged by the parents of the young people.”
- Zina Huntington, wife of Prophet Brigham Young, New York World, November 17, 1869, as cited in The Lion of the Lord, pp. 229-230
“Plural marriage... is calculated in its nature to severely try the women even to nearly tear their heart strings out of them...”
- Journal and Autobiography of Joseph Lee Robinson, p. 50
“When James Hunter took his second wife, the first who had accompanied the couple to the Endowment House for the ceremony could not sleep and walked the floor all night as she thought of her husband lying in the arms of his bride...
“A person brought up in a polygamist household... told this story: ‘There is one real tragedy in polygamy that I can remember. One evening a man brought home a second wife. It was winter and the first wife was very upset. That night she climbed onto the roof and froze to death.’”
- Isn’t One Wife Enough?, by Kimball Young, pp. 147-148
“Thus did Satan sow the seeds of discord in the Prophet’s own home, cause a torment of mind to Emma, distress to Joseph, and lay the groundwork of the apostate Reorganized Church, eventually taking Emma and their sons outside the true Church.”
- Brigham Young and His Wives, by John J. Stewart
“Mr. W.: ‘Joseph kept eight girls in his house, calling them his “daughters.” Emma threatened that she would leave the house, and Joseph told her, “All right, you can go.” She went, but when Joseph reflected that such a scandal would hurt his prophetic dignity, he followed his wife and brought her back. But the eight “daughters” had to leave the house.’”
- Mormon Portraits, by Dr. W. Wyl, 1886, pp. 57-58
“Willard realized that Emma had refused to believe that any of the young women boarding at the Mansion when it was first used as a hotel had been married to Joseph. She had struck Eliza Snow at the head of the stairs, and Eliza, it was whispered, had lost her unborn child.”
- Intimate Disciple, a Portrait of Willard Richards, by Claire Noall, 1957, p. 407
“... over two hundred women, apparently at their own request, were sealed as wives to Joseph Smith after his death in special temple ceremonies. Moreover, a great many distinguished women in history, including several Catholic saints, were also sealed to Joseph Smith in Utah. I saw these astonishing lists in the Latter-day Saint Genealogical Archives in Salt Lake City in 1944.”
- No Man Knows My History, by Fawn Brodie, Preface to Second Edition
“The contract when I married Mr. Kimball was that I should be his wife for time, and time only, and the contract on the part of Mr. Kimball was that he would take care of me during my lifetime, and in the resurrection would surrender me, with my children, to Joseph Smith...
“I decline to answer whether I had any children while I was sealed to Joseph Smith. I have nine children since I was married to Heber C. Kimball.”
- Lucy W. Kimball, as quoted in The Temple Lot Case, 1893, p. 379
“... Young often joked about his wives. ‘Tell the Gentiles,’ he once observed, ‘I do not know half of them [his wives] when I see them.’ Laer, asked the usual question by a Gentile governor of Utah, Young answered: ‘I don’t know myself! I never refuse to marry any respectable woman who asks me, and it is often the case that I separate from the woman at the marriage alter, never to meet her again to know her. My children I keep track of, however. I have fifty-seven now living, and have lost three.’”
- The Lion of the Lord, by Stanley P. Hirshon, pp. 188-189
“Brother Cannon remarked that people wondered how many wives and children I had. He may inform them that I shall have wives and children by the million, and glory, and riches, and power, and dominion, and Kingdom after Kingdom, and reign triumphantly.”
- Prophet Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, v. 8, pp. 178-179
“Do you think that I am an old man? I could prove to this congregation that I am young; for I could find more girls who would choose me for a husband than can carry any of the young men.”
- Prophet Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, v. 5, p. 210
“THURSDAY, APRIL 5, 1894... I met with the Quorum and Presidency in the temple... President Woodruff then spoke... ‘In searching out my genealogy I found about four hundred of my femal[e] kindred who were never married. I asked Pres. Young what I should do with them. He said for me to have them sealed to me unless there were more than 999 of them. The doctrine startled me, but I had it done.”
- Daily Journal of Abraham H. Cannon (Apostle), April 5, 1894, v. 18, pp. 66-67
“Says one brother to another, ‘Joseph says all covenants are done away, and none are binding but the new covenants; now suppose Joseph should come and say he wanted your wife, what would you say to that? I would tell him to go to hell.’ This was the spirit of many in the early days of this Church...
“What would a man of God say, who felt aright, when Joseph asked him for his money? He would say, ‘Yes, and I wish I had more to help to build up the Kingdom of God.’ Or if he came and said ‘I want your wife?’ ‘O Yes,’ he would say, ‘here she is, there are plenty more.’ ... Did the Prophet Joseph want every man’s wife he asked for? He did not.... If such a man of God should come to me and say, ‘I want your gold and silver, or your wives,’ I should say, ‘Here they are, I wish I had more to give you, take all I have got.”
- Apostle Jebediah M. Grant, Journal of Discourses, v. 2, pp. 13-14
“Joseph Smith finally demanded the wives of all the twelve Apostles were at home then in Nauvoo.... Vilate Kimball, the first wife of Heber C. Kimball... loved her husband, and he... loved her, hence a reluctance to comply with the Lord’s demand that Vilate should be consecrated... They thought the command of the Lord must be obeyed in some way, and a ‘proxy’ way suggested itself to their minds. They had a young daughter only getting out of girlhood; and the father apologizing to the prophet for his wife’s reluctance to comply with his desires, stating, however, that the act must be right or it would not be counseled... asked Joe if his daughter wouldn’t do as well as his wife. Joe replied that she would do just as well, and the Lord would accept her instead. The half-ripe bud of womanhood was delivered over to the Prophet.”
- Mormon Portraits, by Dr. W. Wyl, pp. 70-72, also in The Life of Heber C. Kimball, p. 339
“... in his [H.B. Jacobs] absence, she [Mrs. Jacobs] was sealed to the Prophet Joseph and was his wife.”
- Confessions of John D. Lee, p. 132
“He [Joseph] preached polygamy... It was given to him before he gave it to the Church. An angel came to him and the last time he came with a drawn sword in his hand and told Joseph if he did not go into that principle he would slay him...
“I know he had six wives and I have known some of them from childhood up. I know he had three children. They told me. I think two of them are living today, they are not known as his children as they go by different names.”
- Mary E. Lightner, wife of Joseph Smith, Jr., Speech given at Brigham Young University, April 14, 1905
“Joseph not only paid his addresses to the young and unmarried women, but he sought ‘spiritual alliance’ with many married ladies.... He taught them that all former marriages were null and void, and that they were at perfect liberty to make another choice of a husband. The marriage covenants were not binding, because they were ratified only by Gentile laws. These laws the Lord did not recognize; consequently all the women were free...
“One woman said to me not very long since, while giving me some of her experiences in polygamy: ‘The greatest trial I ever endured in my life was living with my husband and deceiving him, by receiving Joseph’s attentions whenever he chose to care to me.’ ... some of these women have since said they did not know who was the Father of her children; this is not to be wondered at, for after Joseph’s declaration annulling all Gentile marriages, the greatest promiscuity was practiced; and, indeed, all sense of morality seemed to have been lost by a portion at least of the church.”
- Ann Eliza Young, wife of Brigham Young, Wife No. 9, 1876, pp. 70-71
“... the only thing to be careful of, is to find out when Emma comes then you cannot be safe, but when she is not here, there is the most perfect safety... I think Emma won’t come tonight – if she don’t, don’t fail to come tonight, I subscribe myself your obedient and affectionate companion and friend. Joseph Smith.
- Prophet Joseph Smith, Jr., letter to Mr. and Mrs. Whitney and their daughter, Sarah Ann, as cited in Mormonism – Shadow or Reality?, by Jerald and Sandra Tanner, p. 58
“They did not abide by the rules of plural marriage as set forth in the Bible. Pratt himself had married two sisters. Others had done the same thing and even married mothers and daughters.”
- Orson Pratt: Early Mormon Leader, by T. Edgar Lyon, Thesis (M.A.), University of Chicago, Dept. of Church History, 1932, p. 104
“Sylvia Pratt, Patty’s daughter and the wife of Windsor J. Lyon, was already sealed to Joseph. This afternoon she was to put her mother’s hand in the Prophet’s.”
- Intimate Disciple: A Portrait of Willard Richards, Apostle to Joseph Smith, cousin of Brigham Young, by Claire Augusta Wilcox Noall, 1957, p. 317
“The marriage to the Lawrence sisters became public knowledge when William Law, Joseph’s [Joseph Smith, Jr.] second counselor in the First Presidency, became alienated from the prophet.... On May 23 he filed suit against the Mormon leader in Hancock County Circuit Court, at Carthage, charging that Smith had been living with Maria Lawrence ‘in an open state of adultery’ from October 12, 1843, to the day of the suit. In response, Smith flatly denied polygamy in a speech delivered on May 26.... As polygamy was illegal under U.S. law, Smith had little choice but to repudiate the practice.”
- In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith, pp. 476-477
“It would be quite impossible, with any regard to propriety, to relate all the horrible results of this disgraceful system.... Marriages have been contracted between the nearest of relatives; and old men tottering on the brink of the grave have been united to little girls scarcely in their teens; while unnatural alliances of every description, which in any other community would be regarded with disgust and abhorrence, are here entered into in the name of God....
“It is quite a common thing in Utah for a man to marry two and even three sisters... I know also another man who married a widow with several children; and when one of the girls had grown into her teens he insisted on marrying her also, having first by some means won her affections. The mother, however, was much opposed to this marriage, and finally gave up her husband entirely to her daughter; and to this very day the daughter bears children to her stepfather, living as wife in the same house with her mother!”
- T.B.H. Stenhouse, former polygamist wife, Tell It All: The Story of a Life’s Experience in Mormonism: An Autobography, 1874, pp. 468-469
“Some Utah matches were even more startling. A man named Winchester married his mother, and Young himself sealed a mother and daughter to their cousin Luman A. Surtliff... He also sealed an elderly man to a fifty-seven-year-old woman and her fourteen-year-old granddaughter.”
- The Lion of the Lord: A Biography of Brigham Young, Stanley P. Hirshon, 1969, p. 126
“The following named deceased persons were sealed to me (John M. Bernhisel) on Oct. 26th, 1843, by Pres. Joseph Smith –
Maria Bernhisel – Sister
Brother Samuel’s wife, Catherine Kremer
Mary Shatto (Aunt)”
- Joseph Smith's Diary (Prophet), Oct. 26, 1843, recorded by Robert L. Cam[p]bell, July 29, 1868
“She said that her brother John the late President John Taylor had told her some 30 years ago that if she could not be reconciled to continue with any of her husbands she might be sealed to him. This is a very curious proceeding and which I don’t understand.”
- Journal of L. John Nuttall, v. 2, pp. 362-363
“I have noticed that a man who has but one wife, and is inclined to that doctrine, soon begins to wither and dry up, while a man who goes into plurality looks fresh, young, and sprightly. Why is this? Because God loves that man, and because he honors his word. Some of you may not believe this, but I not only believe it but I also know it. For a man of God to be confined to one woman is small business... I do not know what we should do if we had only one wife apiece.”
- Apostle Heber C. Kimball, Deseret News, April 22, 1857
“Monogamy, or restrictions by law to one wife, is no part of the economy of heaven among men. Such a system was commenced by the founders of the Roman Empire... Rome became the mistress of the world, and introduced this order of monogamy wherever her sway was acknowledged. Thus this monogamic order of marriage, so esteemed by modern Christians as a hold sacrament and divine institution, is nothing but a system established by a set of robbers.”
- Prophet Brigham Young, Deseret News, August 6, 1862
“Why do we believe in and practice polygamy? Because the Lord introduced it to his servants in a revelation given to Joseph Smith, and the Lord’s servants have always practiced it. ‘And is that religion popular in heaven?’ It is the only popular religion there...”
- Prophet Brigham Young, Deseret News, August 6, 1862
“Since the founding of the Roman empire monogamy has prevailed more extensively than in times previous to that. The founders of that ancient empire were robbers and women stealers, and made laws favoring monogamy in consequence of the scarcity of women among them, and hence this monogamic system which now prevails throughout all Christendom, and which has been so fruitful a source of prostitution and whoredom throughout all the Christian monogamic cities of the Old and New World, until rottenness and decay are at the root of their institutions both national and religious.”
- Prophet Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, v. 11, p. 128
“It is a fact worthy of note that the shortest-lived nations of which we have record have been monogamic. Rome, with her arts, sciences and warlike instincts, was once the mistress of the world; but her glory faded. She was a mono-gamic nation, and the numerous evils attending that system early laid the foundation for that ruin which eventually overtook her.”
- Apostle George Q. Cannon, Journal of Discourses, v. 13, p. 202
“We breathe the free air, we have the best looking men and handsomest women, and if they envy our position, well they may, for they are a poor, narrow minded, pinch-backed race of man, who chain themselves down to the law of monogamy and live all their days under the dominion of one wife. They aught to be ashamed of such conduct, and the still fouler channel which flows from their practices.”
- Prophet George A. Smith, Apostle, Deseret News, April 16, 1856
“... the one-wife system not only degenerates the human family, both physically and intellectually, but it is entirely incompatible with philosophical notions of immortality; it is a lure to temptation, and has always proved a curse to people.”
- Millennial Star, v. 15, p. 227
“[Children of polygamists] besides being equally as bright and brighter intellectually, are much more healthy and strong.”
- Apostle George Q. Cannon, Journal of Discourses, v. 13, p. 207
“Talk about polygamy! There is no true philosopher on the face of the earth but what will admit that such a system, properly carried out according to the order of heaven, is far superior to monogamy for the raising of healthy, robust children!”
- Prophet Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, v. 13, p. 317
“When our father Adam came into the garden of Eden, he came into it with a celestial body, and brought Eve, one of his wives, with him.”
- Prophet Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, v. 1, p. 50
“The grand reason of the burst of public sentiment in anathemas upon Christ and his disciples, causing his crucifixion, was evidently based upon polygamy, according to the testimony of the philosophers who rose in that age. A belief in the doctrine of a plurality of wives caused the persecution of Jesus and his followers. We might almost think they were ‘Mormons.’”
- Apostle Jebediah M. Grant, Journal of Discourses, v. 1, p. 346
“I discover that some of the Eastern papers represent me as a great blasphemer, because I said, in my lecture on Marriage, at our last Conference, that Jesus Christ was married at Cana of Galilee, that Mary, Martha, and others were his wives, and that he begat children.”
- Apostle Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses, v. 2, p. 210
“We have now clearly shown that God the Father had a plurality of wives, one or more being in eternity, by whom He begat our spirits as well as the Spirit of Jesus His first Born...”
- Apostle Orson Pratt, The Seer, p. 172
“Yes, sir, President Woodruff, President Young, and President John Taylor, taught me and all the rest of the ladies here in Salt Lake that a man in order to be exalted in the Celestial Kingdom must have more than one wife, that having more than one wife was a means of exaltation.”
- Temple Lot Case, p. 362
“We, the first presidency and apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, beg to respectfully to Your Excellency the following facts:
We formerly taught to our people that polygamy or Celestial Marriage as commanded by God through Joseph Smith was right; that it was a necessity to man’s highest exaltation in the life to come.”
- Reed Smoot Case, v. 1, p. 18
“And we... are believers in the principles of plural marriage or polygamy... as a principle revealed by God, underlying our every hope of eternal salvation and happiness in heaven... we cannot view plural marriage in any other light than as a vital principle of our religion.”
- Millennial Star, v. 40, pp. 226-227
“Damnation was the awful penalty affixed to a refusal to obey this law [polygamy]. It became an acknowledged doctrine of the Church; it was indissolubly interwoven in the minds of its members with their hopes of eternal salvation and exaltation in the presence of God...”
- Millennial Star, v. 47, p. 711
“... [Joseph Smith taught] the doctrine of plural and celestial marriage is the most holy and important doctrine ever revealed to man on the earth, and that without obedience to that principle no man can ever attain to the fullness of exaltation in the celestial glory.”
- William Clayton, Joseph Smith's secretary, Historical Record, v. 6, p. 226
“[If I] had not obeyed that command of God, concerning plural marriage, I believe that I would have been damned.”
- Apostle George Q. Cannon, Journal of Discourses, v. 23, p. 278
“The only men who become Gods, even the Sons of God, are those who enter into polygamy.”
- Prophet Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, v. 11, p. 269
“One man recalled a Stake Conference in Southern Utah where the brethren were bluntly told to marry in polygamy or ‘resign their church offices.’”
- Kimball Young, Isn’t One Wife Enough?, 1954, p. 108
“The Church ever operates in full light. There is no secrecy about its doctrine, aim, or work.”
- Apostle John A. Widtsoe, Evidence and Reconciliations: Aids to Faith in a Modern Day, 1943, p. 282
“In 1840 the doctrine [of polygamy] was taught to a few leading brethren who, with the Prophet, secretly married additional wives in the following year...”
- The Restored Church: A Brief History of the Growth and Doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, by William E. Berrett, Deseret Book Co., p. 247
What a thing it is for a man to be accused of committing adultery, and having seven wives, when I can only find one. I am the same man, and as innocent as I was fourteen years ago; and I can prove them all perjurers.”
- Prophet Joseph Smith, Jr., History of the Church, May 26, 1844, p. 411
* Even Mormon scholars admit that Smith had entered into polygamy before May 26, 1844 *
“We are accused here of polygamy, and actions the most indelicate, obscene, and disgusting, such that none but a corrupt and depraved heart could have contrived. These things are too outrageous to admit to belief...”
- Prophet John Taylor, as cited in Orson Pratt’s Works: Or the Doctrines of the Gospel, by Orson Pratt, 1851 ed., p. 8
* At the time of this statement in 1850, Taylor had at least 6 wives *
“We are charged with advocating a plurality of wives, and common property. Now this is as false as many other ridiculous charges which are brought against us... we do what others do not, practice what we preach.”
- Times and Seasons, v. 4, p. 143
“But, for the information of those who may be assailed by these foolish tales about two wives, we would say that no such principle ever existed among the Latter-day Saints, and never will... the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants; and also all our periodicals are very strict on that subject, indeed for more so than the Bible.”
- Millennial Star, v. 3, p. 74
“The principle of plurality of wives never will be done away...”
- Apostle Heber C. Kimball, Deseret News, November 7, 1855
“You might as well deny ‘Mormonism,’ and turn away from it, as to oppose the plurality of wives.”
- Apostle Heber C. Kimball, Journal of Discourses, v. 5, p. 203
“It would be as easy for the United States to build a tower to remove the sun, as to remove polygamy, or the Church and Kingdom of God.”
- Apostle Heber C. Kimball, Millennial Star, v. 28, p. 190
“On the morning of the 12th of July, 1843; Joseph and Hyrum Smith came into the office.... They were talking on the subject of plural marriage. Hyrum said to Joseph, ‘If you will write the revelation on celestial marriage, I will take it and read it to Emma, and I believe I can convince her of its truth, and you will hereafter have peace.’ Joseph smiled and remarked, ‘You do not know Emma as well as I do.’ ... Joseph then said, ‘Well I will write the revelation and we will see.’...
“Hyrum then took the revelation to read to Emma. Joseph remained with me in the office until Hyrum returned. When he came back, Joseph asked him how he had succeeded. Hyrum replied that he had never received a more severe talking to in his life, that Emma was very bitter and full of resentment and anger.
“Joseph quietly remarked, ‘I told you you did not know Emma as well as I did.’ Joseph then put the revelation in his pocket, and they both left the office.
“... Two or three days after the revelation was written Joseph related to me and several others that Emma had so teased, and urgently entreated him for the privilege of destroying it, that he became so weary of her teasing, and to get rid of her annoyance, he told her she might destroy it and she had done so, but he had consented to her wish in this matter to pacify her, realizing that he knew the revelation perfectly, and could rewrite it at any time if necessary.”
- History of the Church, Introduction to v. 5, pp. XXXII-XXXIII
“God has told us Latter-day Saints that we shall be condemned if we do not enter into that principle [of polygamy]; and yet I have heard now and then (I am very glad to say that only a low such instances have come under my notice) a brother or a sister say, ‘I am a Latter-day Saint, but I do not believe in polygamy.’ Oh, what an absurd expression! What an absurd idea! A person might as well say, ‘I am a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, but I do not believe in him.’ One is just as consistent as the other.... If the doctrine of polygamy, as revealed to the Latter-day Saints, is not true, I would not give a fig for all your other revelations that came through Joseph Smith the Prophet; I would renounce the whole of them, because it is utterly impossible, according to the revelations that are contained in these books, to believe a part of them to be from the devil... The Lord has said, that those who reject this principle reject their salvations, they shall be damned, saith the Lord...”
- Apostle Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses, v. 17, pp. 224-225
“Now if any of you will deny the plurality of wives and continue to do so, I promise that you will be damned; and I will go still further, and say that this revelation, or any other revelation that the Lord had given, and deny it in your feelings, and I promise that you will be damned.”
- Prophet Brigham Young, Deseret News, November 14, 1855
“’Do you think that we shall ever be admitted as a State into the Union without denying the principle of polygamy?’ If we are not admitted until then, we shall never be admitted.”
- Prophet Brigham Young, Deseret News, October 10, 1866
“If plural marriage be divine, as the Latter-day Saints say it is, no power on earth can suppress it, unless you crush and destroy the entire people.”
- Apostle George Q. Cannon, Journal of Discourses, v. 20, p. 276
“I believe in plural marriage as a part of the Gospel, just as much as I believe in baptism by immersion for the remission of sins.... I bear my testimony that it is a necessity, and that the Church of Christ in its fullness never existed without it. Where you have the eternity of marriage you are bound to have plural marriage...”
- Apostle George Teasdale, Journal of Discourses, v. 25, p. 21
“If we were to do away with polygamy, it would only be one feather in the bird... Do away with that, then we must do away with prophets and Apostles, with revelation and the gifts and graces of the Gospel... and finally give up our religion altogether.... We just can’t do that....”
- Prophet Wilford Woodruff, Journal of Discourses, v. 13, p. 166
Woodruff did away with polygamy in the Manifesto of 1890
“The doctrine of polygamy with the ‘Mormons,’ is not one of that kind that in the religious world is classed with ‘nonessentials.’ It is not an item of doctrine that can be yielded, and faith in the system remain. ‘Mormonism’ is that kind of religion the entire divinity of which is invalidated, and its truth utterly rejected, the moment that any one of its leading principles is acknowledged to be false...”
- Millennial Star, October 28, 1865
“There is no halfway house. The childish babble about another revelation [ending polygamy] is only an evidence how half informed men can talk...”
- Millennial Star, October 28, 1865
“At a priesthood meeting... the strongest language in regard to Plural Marriage was used that I ever heard, and among other things it was stated that all men in position who would not observe and fulfill that law should be removed from their places.”
- Daily Journal of Abraham H. Cannon (Apostle), April 6, 1884
“The Lord showed me by vision and revelation what would happen if we did not stop this practice... all ordinances would be stopped... many men would be made prisoners... I went before the Lord, and I wrote what the Lord told me to write...”
- Evidences and Reconciliations, by Apostle John A. Widtsoe, 1 vol. ed., pp. 105-106
“President Wilford Woodruff issued the manifesto... suspending the general practice of it in the Church, while still retaining it as a doctrine.”
- Brigham Young and His Wives, by John J. Stewart, pp. 29-30
“During our meeting a revelation was read which Pres. Woodruff received Sunday Evening, Nov.’r 24th [1889]. Propositions had been made for the Church to make some concessions to the courts in regard to its principles. Both of Pres. Woodruff’s counselors refused to advise him as to the course he should pursue, and he therefore laid the matter before the Lord. The answer came quick and strong. The Word of the Lord was for us not to yield one particle of that which he had revealed and established. He had done and would continue to care for His work and those of the Saints who were faithful, and we need have no fear of our enemies when we were in the line of duty.”
- Daily Journal of Abraham H. Cannon (Apostle), December 19, 1889
“When the statement called ‘The Manifesto,’ which was signed by President Wilford Woodruff, was voted upon for acceptance by the membership of the LDS Church... it appeared that there was a unanimous vote of support for abandonment of the practice of plural marriage. As time passed, however, it became apparent that not even among the general authorities of the Church was there unanimous support for abolishing the practice.”
- BYU Leadership Week, “Those Who Would Be Leaders,” by Russell R. Rich, p. 71
“I feel like saying ‘Damn the Law.’”
- Apostle George Q. Cannon, as recorded in The Daily Journal of Abraham Cannon, October 7, 1890
“Q. I want to ask you, President Woodruff, whether in your advice to the church officials, and the people of the Church, you advised them that your attention was, and that the requirement of the Church was, that the polygamous relations already formed before that should not be continued; that is, there should be no association with plural wives; in other words, that unlawful cohabitation as it is named and spoken of should also stop, as well as future polygamous marriages?
A.Yes, sir; that has been the intention.”
- Testimony of Wilford Woodruff (Prophet), in Reminiscences of Early Utah, p. 246
“It was, however, resolved that ‘we use our private influence at present to prevent our brethren from going into court and promising to obey the law; and as soon as possible we take steps to get some flavors from the government for those who already have more wives than one.’”
- Daily Journal of Abraham H. Cannon (Apostle), Oct. 2, 1890
“Some people have supposed that the doctrine of plural marriage was a sort of superfluity, or non-essential, to the salvation or exaltation of mankind. In other words, some of the Saints have said, and believe, that a man with one wife, sealed to him by the authority of the Priesthood for time and eternity, will receive an exaltation as great and glorious, if he is faithful, as he possibly could with more than one. I want here to enter my solemn protest against this idea, for I know it is false. There is no blessing promised except upon conditions, and no blessing can be obtained by mankind except by faithful compliance with the conditions, or law, upon which the same is promised. The marriage of one woman to a man for time and eternity by the sealing power, according to the will of God, is a fulfillment of the celestial law of marriage in part--and is good so far as it goes--and so far as a man abides these conditions of the law, he will receive his reward therefore, and this reward, or blessing, he could not obtain on any other grounds or conditions. But this is only the beginning of the law, not the whole of it. Therefore, whoever has imagined that he could obtain the fullness of the blessings pertaining to this celestial law, by complying with only a portion of its conditions, has deceived himself. He cannot do it. When that principle was revealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith ... [common background on Joseph Smith, skipped here] ... he did not falter, although it was not until an angel of God, with a drawn sword, stood before him; and commanded that he should enter into the practice of that principle, or he should be utterly destroyed, or rejected, that he moved forward to reveal and establish that doctrine.”
- Prophet Joseph F. Smith, Journal of Discourses, Vol.20, p.28 - p.29, July 7, 1878
“Patriarchal marriage involves conditions, responsibilities and obligations which do not exist in monogamy, and there are blessings attached to the faithful observance of that law, if viewed only upon natural principles, which must so far exceed those of monogamy, as the conditions responsibilities and power of increase are greater. This is my view and testimony in relation to this matter. I believe it is a doctrine that should be taught and understood.”
- Prophet Joseph F. Smith, Journal of Discourses, Vol.20, p.30, July 7, 1878
“The benefits derived from the righteous observance of this order of marriage do not accrue solely to the husband, but are shared equally by the wives; not only is this true upon the grounds of obedience to a divine law, but upon physiological and scientific principles. In the latter view, the wives are even more benefitted, (sp) if possible, than the husband physically. But, indeed, the benefits naturally accruing to both sexes, and particularly to their offspring, in time, say nothing of eternity, are immensely greater in the righteous practice of patriarchal marriage than in monogamy, even admitting the eternity of the monogamic marriage covenant.
“... As before stated no man can obtain the benefits of one law by the observance of another, however faithful he may be in that which he does, nor can he secure to himself the fullness of any blessing without he fulfills the law upon which it is predicated, but he will receive the benefit of the law he obeys. ... I understand the law of celestial marriage to mean that every man in this Church, who has the ability to obey and practice it in righteousness and will not, shall be damned, I say I understand it to mean this and nothing less, and I testify in the name of Jesus that it does mean that....”
- Prophet Joseph F. Smith, Journal of Discourses, Vol.20, p.31, July 7, 1878
“When did I ever teach anything wrong from this stand? When was I ever confounded? I want to triumph in Israel before I depart hence and am no more seen. I never told you I was perfect; but there is no error in the revelations which I have taught. Must I, then, be thrown away as a thing of naught?”
- Prophet Joseph Smith, Jr., Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, Section Six 1843 44, p.368
(At the Stand, May 12, 1844, Nauvoo, Ill.), also in History of the Church, v. 6, p. 366
Note that he is complaining that the saints were not obeying him or believing him to his satisfaction. What doctrine was it Joseph was advocating that was being resisted, yet one which he could not name publicly?
“Second, in the midst of all these things, Joseph like his colleague prophets was so busy being a special witness for the Savior that he had little time to heed all of the false witness being borne about him. Joseph was usually more inclined to endure than explain himself, even though the drumbeat of dissent was at certain points almost unrelieved. In Nauvoo, in March 1842, for instance, while intensively engaged "day and evening" in translating the Book of Abraham, he said that he simply did not have time to attend to all his public duties. His duties as a seer were more important than his ceremonial chores.
Joseph did not respond at times, of course, such as by issuing a summational disclaimer as from the temple stand in Nauvoo, saying, "I never told you I was perfect; but there is no error in the revelations which I have taught."
- Apostle Neal A. Maxwell, Meek and Lowly, pp. 105-106
“President John Taylor went to the Lord in the True Order of Prayer and asked the Lord concerning His mind and His will concerning continuing practice of plural marriage in the LDS Church? The voice of the Lord came to President Taylor saying - "My son John: You have asked me concerning the New and Everlasting Covenant and how far it is binding upon my people. Thus saith the Lord All commandments that I give must be obeyed by those calling themselves by my name unless they are revoked by me or by my authority and how can I revoke an everlasting covenant. For I the Lord am everlasting and my everlasting covenants cannot be abrogated nor done away with; they stand forever. Have I not given my word in great plainness on this subject? Yet have not great numbers of my people been negligent in the observance of my law and the keeping of my commandments, and yet I have borne with them these many years and this because of their weakness because of the perilous times. And furthermore it is more pleasing to me that men should use their free agency in regard to these matters. Nevertheless I the Lord do not change and my word and my covenants and my law do not. And as I have heretofore said by my servant Joseph all those who would enter into my glory must and shall obey my law. And have I not commanded men that if they were Abraham's seed and would enter into my glory they must do the works of Abraham. I have not revoked this law nor will I for it is everlasting and those who will enter into my glory must obey the conditions thereof, even so Amen."
- John Tayor Papers (Prophet), Church Historian's Office, Sept. 27th, Unpublished Revelations of the Prophets and Presidents of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, by Fred C. Collier, 1979
"The Prophet did not say that any law passed by Congress is the supreme law of the land. He knew better. He knew that Congress would pass laws that would be invalid. What he said was this - 'When a people or a church have received a divine command and a law is enacted against it, do they not know whether the law is constitutional or not, seeing that Congress is prohibited by that sacred instrument from passing any law respecting an establishment of religion? And if the Supreme Court, yielding to popular clamor against an unorthodox body rules that the unconstitutional law is constitutional, does that alter the stubborn, patient, invincible fact that the law is in violation of the great guarantee of religious freedom? Any man who says that he really and firmly believes a certain law of God binding on him, and who will not obey it in preference to a conflicting law of man or a decision of a court, has either an unsound mind or a cowardly soul, or is a most contemptible hypocrite.' A law has been specially framed against the establishment of their religion.
The issue is obedience to God or submission to man; choice between a divine decree about which they have no doubt, and a human enactment that they firmly believe to be unconstitutional and void. It is a matter of conscience"
- Deseret News, July 6th, 1886
“I speak of plurality of wives as one of the most holy principles that God ever revealed to man, and all those who exercise an influence against it, unto whom it is taught, man or woman will be damned, and they and all who will be influenced by them, will suffer the buffetings of Satan in the flesh; for the curse of God will be upon them, and poverty, and distress, and vexation of spirit will be their portion; while those who honor this and every sacred institution of heaven will shine forth as the stars in the firmament of heaven, and of the increase of their kingdom and glory there shall be no end. This will equally apply to Jew, Gentile, and Mormon, male and female, old and young.”
- Apostle Heber C. Kimball, Journal of Discourses, v. 11, p. 211
“But one thing I will name, and that is in regard to plural marriage. A great many men say--"Oh, well, I can get along, I can live, and I believe I shall only have one wife." Well, that is your privilege, nobody compels you to take more than one; but with the commandment of the Lord before us like a blaze of light, can we disregard it and serve him acceptably? If we can, then why not retain those laws and commandments in heaven, and not send them down here to earth? These commandments are sent for our good, for our salvation and exaltation. Here is a woman who, in speaking of celestial marriage, says, "It will do very well for others, but it will not do in my house;" "it may do very well for somebody else, because her feelings are not quite so fine as mine, she has been differently raised from what I have." I do not know that the Lord will pay any particular respect as to how we are raised, and how fine and delicate our feelings may be, or how coarse and uncultivated they may be. I believe that if we submit to the law of heaven, that law has power to refine us and to fit us for immortality and eternal life. That is my opinion. Now hear this good sister, she says--"It will not do for me, I am not going to submit to it." Another sister says--"I am willing to submit to the law of Christ." Let these two sisters come together and talk over the law of marriage, and see whether their spirits will run together. They will no more run together than water and oil will unite. ... I am thankful for this privilege of saying a few words. I hope I have done no harm, and that I have not said anything that is contrary to the will of God, or to the feelings of the pure in heart, for they are just as sacred to me as the law of God, and I do not want to unnecessarily offend the ungodly; but I am not so particular to spare or shield them. I want to tell the truth, and bear a faithful testimony. I have been in this Church about forty-three years--almost from the beginning, for I was baptized into the Church on the 31st of October, 1831, and ordained the same day and sent to preach the Gospel, and more or less, most of the time since, I have been engaged in that work.”
- Apostle Orson Hyde, Journal of Discourses, v. 16, p. 236
“Now, in relation to the position that we occupy concerning plurality, or, as it is termed, polygamy it differs from that of others. I have noticed the usage of several nations regarding marriage; but, as I have said, we are not indebted to any of them for our religion, nor for our ideas of marriage, they came from God. Where did this commandment come from in relation to polygamy? It also came from God. It was a revelation given unto Joseph Smith from God, and was made binding upon His servants. When this system was first introduced among this people, it was one of the greatest crosses that ever was taken up by any set of men since the world stood. Joseph Smith told others; he told me, and I can bear witness of it, ‘that if this principle was not introduced, this Church and kingdom could not proceed.’ When this commandment was given, it was so far religious, and so far binding upon the Elders of this Church that it was told them if they were not prepared to enter into it, and to stem the torrent of opposition that would come in consequence of it, the keys of the kingdom would be taken from them. When I see any of our people, men or women, opposing a principle of this kind, I have years ago set them down as on the high road to apostasy and I do to-day; I consider them apostates, and not interested in this Church and kingdom. It is so far, then, a religious institution, that it affects my conscience and the consciences of all good men--it is so far religious that it connects itself with time and with eternity. What are the covenants we enter into, and why is it that Joseph Smith said that unless this principle was entered into this kingdom could not proceed? We ought to know the whys and the wherefores in relation to these matters, and understand something about the principle enunciated. These are simply words; we wish to know their signification.”
- Prophet John Taylor, Journal of Discourses, v. 11, p. 221
“It would be as easy for the United States to build a tower to remove the sun, as to remove polygamy, or the Church and kingdom of God.
- Millennial Star, v. 28, p. 190
“This is our position, this is where we are to-day. We have accepted this doctrine, this principle of faith from the Lord Jesus Christ, and we, or some of us, have lived it more than thirty years in this Territory. And in the matter of our appeal, inasmuch as the government is determined to eradicate this item of our faith, and us with it, of course, and inasmuch as we can get no redress therefrom, our appeal must be to the government of heaven, to which we have vowed allegiance. Jehovah will hold a contention with this nation, and will show them which is the higher and eternal law, and which is the lesser and more recent law. While they are carrying on this high-handed proceeding, regardless of life, liberty, or the pursuit of happiness, the God of heaven and earth will notify the earthly government that the rights and liberties of His citizens must be respected and maintained. “
- Apostle Frankilin D. Richards, Journal of Discourses, v. 20, p. 315
“In the Latter-day Saints Millennial Star the following was printed:
Shortly before the revelation known as the manifesto (which put a stop to the practice of polygamy) was given, Lorenzo Snow, who later became President of the Mormon Church, was declaring that no such revelation would ever come. When Lorenzo Snow was on trial for practicing polygamy, Mr. Bierbower (the prosecuting attorney) predicted that if he was convicted, 'a new revelation would soon follow, changing the divine law of celestial marriage.' To this Mr. Snow replied: "Whatever fame Mr. Bierbower may have secured as a lawyer, he certainly will fail as a prophet. The severest prosecutions have never been followed by revelations changing a divine law, obedience to which brought imprisonment or martyrdom.
‘Though I go to prison, God will not change his law of celestial marriage. But the man, the people, the nation, that oppose and fight against this doctrine and the Church of God, will be overthrown.”
- Historical Record, p. 144
“As to President Young his labors have been with us. It has been remarked sometimes, by certain individuals, that President Young has said in public that he was not a prophet nor the son of a prophet. I have travelled (sp) with him since 1833 or the spring of 1834; I have travelled (sp) a good many thousand miles with him and have heard him preach a great many thousand sermons; but I have never heard him make that remark in my life. He is a prophet, I am a prophet, you are, and anybody is a prophet who has the testimony of Jesus Christ, for that is the spirit of prophecy. The Elders of Israel are prophets. A prophet is not so great as an Apostle. Christ has set in his Church, first, Apostles; they hold the keys of the kingdom of God. Any man who has travelled (sp) with President Young knows he is a prophet of God. He has foretold a great many things that have come to pass. All the Saints who are well acquainted with him know that he is governed and controlled by the power of God and the revelations of Jesus Christ. His works are before the world; they are before the heavens; before the earth; before the wicked as well as the righteous; and it is the influence of President Young that the world is opposed to. This Priesthood, these keys of the kingdom of God that have been sealed upon him, the world is at war against; let them say what they may, these things are what they are at enmity with. Their present objection to the Latter-day Saints, they say, is plurality of wives. It is this principle they are trying to raise a persecution against now. But how was it in Missouri, Kirtland, Jackson county, Far West, Caldwell county, in all our drivings (sp) and afflictions, before this principle was revealed to the Church? Certainly it was not polygamy then. No, it was prophets, it was revelation, it was the organization of an institution founded by revelation from God. They did not believe in that, and that was the objection in those days. If we were to do away with polygamy, it would only be one feather in the bird, one ordinance in the Church and kingdom. Do away with that, then we must do away with prophets and Apostles, with revelation and the gifts and graces of the Gospel, and finally give up our religion altogether and turn sectarians and do as the world does, then all would be right. We just can't do that, for God has commanded us to build up His kingdom and to bear our testimony to the nations of the earth, and we are going to do it, come life or come death. He has told us to do thus, and we shall obey Him in days to come as we have in days past.”
- Prophet Wilford Woodruff, Journal of Discourses, v. 13, pp. 165-166
“Efforts have been made among us to change this condition of affairs. There have been, and still are, perhaps, some who call themselves Latter-day Saints, who are almost ready to lend themselves to any scheme that has for its object the obtaining of a State organization for Utah. Such persons look upon this as so great a blessing and so great a boon, that they are almost willing to forego their religious belief and to pander to those who have got power, and to make some sort of a concession to them, in order to achieve this, what they consider, very desirable end. There has been some agitation in years past respecting plural marriage, and some people, calling themselves Latter-day Saints, have been almost ready to go into the open market, and bid for a State government, at the price of conceding this principle of our religion, for the privilege of becoming a State of the Union. Those who are ready to do this are ready also to cast off obedience to the Priesthood of the Son of God, and to say, "We do not believe that men who hold an office in the Church should have any voice in the affairs of the State." They are ready to sell out their belief as Latter-day Saints, and their veneration and reverence for that power which God has restored, for the sake of obtaining a little recognition of their rights as citizens, on the part of those in power. It does not require much familiarity with the Spirit of God, or with the principles of our holy religion to understand exactly the position that such persons as these to whom I allude, occupy among us. When a man is ready to barter any principle of salvation for worldly advantage, that man certainly has reached the position that he esteems worldly advantage above eternal salvation. Can such persons retain the Spirit of God, and take such a course as this? No, they cannot. That other spirit will lead such persons astray, and they will be left to themselves. Will there be such persons continue among us and be associated with us? I do not question it. I expect we shall have such characters with us, during our future career as we have had in the past. We have had all sorts of people connected with this Church. As the work rolls forth, as it increases in numbers, so will these characters increase--that is, for a certain time, until the day comes when the kingdom of God and the reign of righteousness shall be fully ushered in.”
- Apostle George Q. Cannon, Journal of Discourses, Vol.26, pp. 8-9
“Now, I wish to say that I realize that there are some in our midst--whether they are in your midst in this Stake of Zion or not, I am not prepared to say with any certainty, for I can only judge of the condition and feeling of the people as I am informed from time to time--I say, there are some whom Satan would stir to disobedience and try to make an impression upon their minds that the system of plural marriage, and those things that pertain to the sealing of men and women for time and for eternity, and the revelation which has been read in our hearing, given through the Prophet Joseph pertaining to this subject--that it was the work of man and not the work of God. We have recently had published in some of the Utah papers some letters on this subject, and one from Joseph Smith, the eldest son of the Prophet, in which a great deal of sophistry is made use of, special pleading, such as the lawyer that he is, seems only capable of using. And the object of this special pleading and the sophistry is to try to leave an impression upon the ignorant, those who know no better, that plural marriage was not introduced and sanctioned and practiced by his father, but that it has been an innovation of man, and does not belong to the system of religion which he believed and practiced and taught the people. And there are some among us who would fain take this view of the subject; not that there are many who believe it, but there are some who would like to believe it. And so there are in the world many people who fear that "Mormonism" as a whole is true and of God; they are very much afraid that it is, but they hope that it is not. They do not want to receive it; they do not want to live it, but they are afraid it is true, and multitudes of people have been convinced of its truth, but have not the honesty to acknowledge it; and many who would acknowledge it for a little season, would afterwards, because of the love of the world, fall away, and thus condemnation has fallen upon the world because they will not obey the truth when they hear it. And so it is with some among the Latter-day Saints. They are pretty well satisfied that this doctrine of plural marriage is true, and that it was revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith, but they would like an excuse for disavowing and rejecting it. And why so? Mainly because their minds are closed up and have not been able to comprehend the principles that are embraced in this doctrine and connected with it. Their minds are contracted and limited. They think more of this present life than they do of the future. They want to lay up riches; they want to gather personal comforts around them; they want to gratify the pride of life and the lusts of the flesh. They do not understand that which is for their real good, their real happiness. But I testify that there is more real happiness in serving God and abiding in His law, and submitting to all its conditions and requirements than there can be in taking an opposite course. This is the testimony of all who receive and abide in the truth, and there is abundant evidence in their lives and conduct to prove that they, in receiving the truth, enjoy more comfort and happiness than those who reject it. And touching our plural families, I will say that, with all the weaknesses that are common to frail humanity, and that manifest themselves in our midst-- the men who enter into this order in the sincerity of their hearts and with devotion to God, and the women who also enter into it in the love of the truth and in the earnestness of their souls, fearing God and desiring to do His will--that with all the weaknesses that manifest themselves, I say there is treble the genuine comfort and happiness in those families who enter into this order and abide in it, than is to be found in the same number of families in monogamy in this Church, to say nothing of the Gentile world. And then we will take the Latter-day Saints as a whole, whether in plural marriage or single marriage, and we will say that there is ten times more genuine happiness and comfort in believing and obeying the Gospel--whether in plural or single wedlock--than is to be found among the same number of people in any part of the world outside of this Church. Now, in this you are all my witnesses. Many of you have been in the world. You know what you were, and how you felt, and how your neighbors felt, and what kind of enjoyment you had before you heard the fullness of the Gospel. You know pretty well the condition of the world now--the condition of those who have not received the Gospel--and you know what your condition is and has been since you received the Gospel. And who among you, Latter-day Saints, would exchange your present condition for the condition of the outside world? Are we not prepared to testify that our happiness is trebled, through having believed and obeyed the Gospel?”
- Apostle Erastus Snow, Journal of Discourses, v. 24, p. 162
“I bear my testimony that it is a necessity, and that the Church of Christ in its fullness never existed without it. Where you have the eternity of marriage you are bound to have plural marriage; bound to; and it is one of the marks of the Church of Jesus Christ in its sealing ordinances. ‘Whatever you bind on earth is bound in heaven.’ We know how sensitive the Prophet Joseph was to introduce this principle. He knew the feeling that was against it. It had been taught from the days of heathen Rome down to the present time that a man should have but one wife, which has resulted in the prostitution of many of the fair daughters of Eve as mistresses. Here we have too much love for women to see them trampled in the dust. Here we have too much respect for unborn spirits to have them come into the world branded as bastards, illegitimate, in shame, without knowing their fathers. The children we have are legitimate. They are our own. We honor them and our wives. Our children are given unto us of God, for our wives are given to us of God. We never should have thought of practicing this principle if God had not revealed it from the heavens and commanded it, and we must stand by it and by every principle that He has revealed. It is more than I dare, to go back on that principle or any other principle; and I have besought the Lord with all my heart that He would give me strength according to my day that I might never fail in my integrity, but that I might stand firm as the pillars of heaven to the truths that He has revealed for the redemption of the human family. I understand my own weaknesses; I understand my own insufficiency; but my trust is in the living and true God. And I have a testimony that for over thirty years He has sustained my through some very crooked and tight places by His Almighty power. He has stood by me, been my friend; and so far my testimony and my love for the principles of righteousness are as deep and earnest as my first love, and more so; for I have witnessed His loving kindness in the sealing powers and bonds of the everlasting covenant; I have been privileged to see the magnificent manner in which He has provided for His children, in placing them in a position that they may become like unto Him--eternal, without end of years.
That God may give us grace to stand true and faithful to our covenants, and endure to the end, is my prayer in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.”
- Apostle George Teasdale, Journal of Discourses, v. 25, pp. 19-22
“Now, treat your wives right, but do not subject yourselves to the infamous provisions of the Edmunds' act more than you can help, avoid all harsh expressions and improper actions, act carefully and prudently in all your social relations. Be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. A gentleman in Washington told another, who related it to me, in answer to the question, What will the ‘Mormons’ do with their wives and children when this bill passes? he was told: Turn them out in the streets as we do our harlots. I say in the name of God we will not do any such thing, and let all Israel say Amen. (The vast congregation, amounting to from 12,000 to 14,000 persons, responded Amen.) We will stand by our covenants, and the Constitution will bear us out in it. Among other things, that instrument says that Congress shall make no law impairing the validity of contracts. You have contracted to be united with your wives in time and in eternity, and it would not do for us to break a constitutional law, would it? (Laughter.) Others may do it, but we cannot. We cannot lay aside our honor, we cannot lay aside our principles; and if people cannot allow us freedom, we can allow freedom to them and to all men. We will be true to our wives and cherish them and maintain them, and stand by them in time, and we will reign with them in eternity, when thousands of others are weltering under the wrath of God. Any man that abuses his wife, or takes advantage of this law to oppress her, is not worthy of a standing in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; and let the congregation say Amen. (The immense congregation responded by a loud Amen.)
- Prophet John Taylor, Journal of Discourses, v. 23, p. 68
“God has given us a revelation in regard to celestial marriage. I did not make it. He has told us certain things pertaining to this matter, and they would like us to tone that principle down and change it and make it applicable to the views of the day. This we cannot do; nor can we interfere with any of the commands of God to meet the persuasions or behests of men. I cannot do it, and will not do it.”
- Prophet John Taylor, Journal of Discourses, v. 25, p. 309
“‘But,’ says this Christian, ‘I really do not like this; I see this is a polygamous city. I wonder if there is not some other place for me! I do not like the company of polygamists. They were hated very badly back yonder. Congress hated them, the President hated them, the cabinet hated them, the Priests hated them, and everybody hated them, and I engendered the same hatred, and I have not got rid of it yet. I wonder if there is not some other place for me?' Oh yes, there is another place for you. Without the gates of the city there are dogs, sorcerers, whoremongers, adulterers and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. Now take your choice, Amen.”
- Apostle Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses, v. 17, p. 229
“Result of the manifesto. Following the issuance of the Manifesto the sentiment grew that those who had entered into plural marriages before that date should not be interfered with, and men were not to be compelled to desert their wives and children….
“The Granting of Amnesty. December 19, 1891, the First Presidency and apostles petitioned for amnesty. This petition was endorsed by the governor, Arthur L. Thomas, and Charles S. Zane, who had again become chief justice, and many leading “Gentiles.” It was read before the senate committee on territories and became a part of the published record of that body. President Benjamin Harrison, who a short time before had visited Utah, on January 4, 1895, issued a proclamation of amnesty to polygamists for past offenses limited to those who entered into that relation before November 1, 1890. The Utah commission acting on the pardon of the President, ruled that restrictions against voters in the territory should be removed.”
- Essentials of Church History, by Prophet Joseph Fielding Smith, p. 496
“W[ilford]. Woodruff: ‘This manifesto only refers to future marriages, and does not affect past conditions.’”
- Prophet Wilford Woodruff, as quoted in The Daily Journal of Abraham H. Cannon, Oct. 7, 1890
“Brother Wolfe, don’t you know that the Manifesto is only a trick to beat the devil at his own game?”
- Apostle John H. Smith, according to the testimony of Walter M. Wolfe, in the Reed Smoot Case, v. 4, p. 13
“President Joseph F. Smith admitted that he had had eleven children borne to him by his five wives, since pledging himself to obey the ‘revealed’ manifesto of 1890... apostle Francis Marian Lyman... made a similar admission of guilt, though to a lesser degree. So did John Henry Smith and Charles W. Penrose, apostles... So did a score of others.... And they confessed that they were living in violation of their pledges to the nation and the terms of their amnesty, against the laws and the constitution of the state, and contrary to the ‘revelation of God’ by which the doctrine of polygamy had been withdrawn from practice in the Church!... Bishop Chas. E. Merrill, the son of an apostle, testified that his father had married him to a plural wife in 1891... Mrs. Clara Kennedy testified that she had been married to a polygamist in 1896, in Juarez, Mexico, by Apostle John W. Taylor had taken two plural wives within four years, and that Apostle M.F. Cowley had taken one; and both these men fled from the country in order to escape a summons to appear before the senate committee.”
- Frank J. Cannon, Under the Prophet in Utah, pp. 268-270
“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 inculate or encourage polygamy... 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.”
- Prophet Wilford Woodruff, “Official Declaration 1” (also known as "The 1890 Manifesto") in the Doctrine and Covenants, 1981 ed.
“The Chairman: Do you obey the law in having five wives at this time, and having them bear to you eleven children since the manifesto of 1890?
Mr. Joseph F. Smith: Mr. Chairman, I have not claimed that in that case I have obeyed the law of the land.
The Chairman: That is all.
Mr. Smith: I do not claim so, and I have said before that I prefer to stand my chances against the law.”
- Reed Smoot Case, v. 1, p. 197
“Mr. Tayler. You say there is a state law forbidding unlawful cohabitation?
Mr. [Joseph F.] Smith. That is my understanding.
Mr. Tayler. And ever since that law was passed you have been violating it?
Mr. Smith. I think likely I have been practicing the same thing even before the law was passed.”
- Reed Smoot Case, v. 1, p. 130
“The Chairman. ... you are violating the law?
Mr. [Joseph F.] Smith. The law of my state?
The Chairman. Yes.
Mr. Smith. Yes, sir.
Senator Overman. Is there not a revelation published in the Book of Covenants here that you shall abide by the law of the state?
Mr. Smith. Yes, sir.
Senator Overman. If that is a revelation, are you not violating the laws of God?
Mr. Smith. I have admitted that, Mr. Senator, a great many times here.”
- Reed Smoot Case, v. 1, pp. 334-335
“Senator Hoar. ... You have said more than once that in living in polygamous relations with your wives, which you do and intend to do, you knew that you were disobeying this revelation?
Mr. Francis M. Lyman. Yes, sir.
Senator Hoar. ... And that in disobeying this revelation you were disobeying the law of God?
Mr. Lyman. Yes, sir.
Senator Hoar. ... Very well. So that you say that you, an apostle of your church, expecting to succeed, if you survive Mr. Smith, to the office in which you will be the person to be the medium of Divine revelations, are living and are known to your people to live in disobedience of the law of the land and the law of God?
Mr. Lyman. Yes, sir.”
- Reed Smoot Case, v. 1, p. 430
“Mr. Tayler. And the next marriage took place in 1891?
Mr. [Charles E. Merrill]. Yes, sir.
Mr. Tayler. Who married you in 1891?
Mr. Merrill. My father.
Mr. Tayler. Was your father then an apostle?
Mr. Merrill. Yes, sir.”
- Reed Smoot Case, v. 1, p. 409
“Mr. [Walter M.} Wolfe. In the summer of 1897 I was in Colorado. On my return, at the beginning of the school year, I found that Ovena Jorgensen was not in attendance. She returned to school some time during the month of October. Shortly after her return, she came to my house and asked to see me privately. She said: ‘Brother Wolfe, I have something that I must tell you, the reason why I have been late in coming back to school. I have been married.’ I said, ‘Not in polygamy.’ She said: ‘Yes, sir; in polygamy. I have married Brother Okey.’
Mr. Worthington. I say, it was in October, 1897, that she told you?
Mr. Wolfe. Yes, sir... she said that some years before she had gone into service at the house of this man Okey; that he had loved her and she loved him. He had asked her to marry him and she had declined, saying that it was impossible on account of the manifesto.... In August, 1897, Okey and the girl went together to see President Wilford Woodruff, and they laid the case before him. He brushed them aside with the wave of his hand and said he would have nothing to do with the matter, but referred them to President George Q. Cannon. George Q. Cannon asked if the girl had been through the Temple and received her endowments. They told him no. He said that that must be done first and then he would see as to the rest of it. They went through the Temple and the girl received her endowments. Then they were given a letter by President George Q. Cannon to President Ivins, of the Juarez Stake, and they went to Mexico.
The Chairman. Who was this letter to?
Mr. Wolfe. President A.W. Ivins, of the Juarez Stake.
The Chairman. Mexico?
Mr. Wolfe. Mexico; yes, sir. They went to Mexico, and there the girl told me the marriage ceremony was performed, and they returned to Utah.”
- Reed Smoot Case, v. 4, pp. 10-11
“With a sweep of his hand toward [Joseph F.] Smith at his desk – a gesture and a look the most unkind I ever saw him [George Q. Cannon] use – he answered: ‘A few weeks ago, Abraham [H. Cannon] took a plural wife, Lillian Hamlin. It became known. He would have had to face a prosecution in Court. His death has saved us from a calamity that would have been dreadful for the Church – and for the state.’ ‘Father!’ I cried. ‘Has this thing come back again!... How did it happen?’
“My father replied: ... ‘I was asked for my consent, and I refused it. President [Joseph F.] Smith obtained the acquiescence of President Woodruff, on the plea that it wasn’t an ordinary case of polygamy but merely a fulfillment of the biblical instruction that a man should take his dead brother’s wife. Lillian was betrothed to David, and had been sealed to him in eternity after death. I understand that President Woodruff told Abraham he would leave the matter with them if he wished to take the responsibility – and President [Joseph F.] Smith performed the ceremony. ‘... here was the beginning of a policy of treachery which the present church leaders, under Joseph F. Smith, have since consistently practiced, in defiance of the laws of the state and the ‘revelation of God,’ with lies and evasions, with perjury and its subordination, in violation of the most solemn pledges to the country, and through the agency of a political tyranny that makes serious prosecution impossible and immunity a public boast.”
- Apostle Frank J. Cannon, Under the Prophet in Utah, pp. 176, 177, 179
“Mr. Tayler. What relation are you to Lilliam Hamlin?
Mr. Hamlin. Brother.
Mr. Tayler. And whom did she marry?
Mr. Hamlin. I only know what I heard.
Mr. Tayler. What was your family conviction and understanding about that?
Mr. Hamlin. That she was married to a Mr. Cannon.
Mr. Tayler. An apostle of the church?
Mr. Hamlin. I believe so. I understand so.
Mr. Tayler. That was in the summer of 1896, was it not?
Mr. Hamlin. Yes, sir.
Mr. Tayler. And where did you understand she was married?
Mr. Hamlin. On the Pacific Coast.
Mr. Tayler. By whom?
Mr. Hamlin. Well, our understanding was that President Joseph F. Smith married her.”
- Reed Smoot Case, v. 2, pp. 67-68, testimony confirmed by Mrs. Wilhelmina L. Ellis in Reed Smoot Case, v. 2, pp. 141-144.
“The Presidents Woodruff and Smith both said they were willing for such a ceremony to occur, if done in Mexico, and Pres. Woodruff promised the Lord’s blessing to follow such an act.”
- Daily Journal of Abraham H. Cannon (Apostle), October 24, 1894, v. 18, p. 170
“It is a fact of no little significance in itself, bearing on the question whether polygamous marriages have been recently contracted in Utah by the connivance of the first presidency and twelve apostles of the Mormon Church, that the authorities of said church have endeavored to suppress, and have succeeded in suppressing, a great deal of testimony by which the fact of plural marriages contracted by those who were high in the councils of the church might have been established beyond a shadow of a doubt....
“Subpoenas were issued for each one of the witnesses named, but in the case of Samuel Newton only could the process of the committee be served. Mr. Newton refused to obey the order of the committee... John W. Taylor was sent out of the country by Joseph F. Smith on a real or pretended mission for the church... It would be nothing short of self-stultification for one to believe that all these most important witnesses chanced to leave the United States at about the same time and without reference to the investigation. All the facts and circumstances surrounding the transaction point to the conclusion that every one of the witnesses named left the country at the instance [sic] of the rulers of the Mormon Church and to avoid testifying before the committee....
“In the case of other witnesses who were believed to have contracted plural marriages since the year 1890 all sorts of shifts, tricks, and evasions were resorted to in order to avoid service of a subpoena to appear before the committee and testify....
“The list of those who are guilty of violating the laws of the state and the rules of public decency is headed by Joseph F. Smith, the first president, prophet, seer, and revelator.’”
- Reed Smoot Case, v. 4, pp. 476-482
“... President [Joseph F.] Smith appeared forthwith and entered a plea of guilty and was fined three hundred dollars. The fine was promptly paid and the defendant discharged.”
- Deseret Evening News, November 23, 1906
Heber J. Grant was also convicted of unlawful cohabitation. (Daily Tribune, September 9, 1899)
“ ‘... 72 percent of Utah’s 900,000 citizens are Mormon. And while most practiced monogamy, they are aware of their polygamous heritage.... This, coupled with the Mormon history of persecution,’ says Rogers, ‘makes them sympathetic toward the Fundamentalists. They feel that prison – and excommunication – is too harsh a penalty. And they refuse to testify against their polygamous neighbors.’”
- William M. Rogers, former special assistant to the Utah State Attorney General, Ladies Home Journal, June 1967, p. 78
“... the Lord frequently did command his ancient saints to practice plural marriage... the whole history of ancient Israel was one in which plurality of wives was the divinely accepted and approved order of matrimony. Millions of those who entered this order have, in and through it, gained for themselves eternal exaltation in the highest heaven of the celestial world... the Prophet and leading brethren were commanded to enter into the practice, which they did in all virtue and purity of heart... plural marriage was openly taught and practiced until the year 1890. At that time conditions were such that the Lord by revelation withdrew the command to continue the practice.... Obviously the holy practice will commence again after the Second Coming of the Son of Man and the ushering in of the millennium...
“Any who pretend to assume to engage in plural marriage in this day, when the one holding the keys has withdrawn the power by which they are performed, are guilty of gross wickedness. Thy are living in adultery, have already sold their souls to Satan, and (whether their acts are based on ignorance or lust or both) they will be damned in eternity.”
- Apostle Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, pp. 522-523
“The only men who become Gods, even the Sons of God, are those who enter into polygamy.”
- Prophet Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, v. 11, p. 269
“Plural marriage is not essential to salvation or exaltation.”
- Apostle Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, p. 523.
“Now, where a man in this church says, ‘I don’t want but one wife, I will live my religion with one.’ He will perhaps be saved in the Celestial Kingdom; but when he gets there he will not find himself in possession of any wife at all.... and he will remain single forever and ever.”
- Prophet Brigham Young, Deseret News, September 17, 1873
“The Church has never, and certainly will never, renounce this doctrine. The revelation on plural marriage is still an integral part of LDS scripture, and always will be.”
- John J. Stewart, Brigham Young and His Wives, pp. 13-14.
“Polygamy in the ordinary and Asiatic sense of the term, never was and is not now a tenet of the Latter-day Saints. That which Joseph and Hyrum denounced... was altogether different to the order of celestial marriage including a Plurality of wives.... Joseph and Hyrum were consistent in their action against the false doctrines of polygamy and spiritual wifeism, instigated by the devil and advocated by men who did not comprehend sound doctrine nor the purity of celestial marriage which God revealed for the holiest of purposes.”
- Deseret News, May 20, 1866, Prophet Joseph F. Smith, editor, is most likely the author of this statement
“Inasmuch as this church of Christ has been reproached with the crime of fornication, and polygamy; and one woman, but one husband, except in the case of death, when either is at liberty to marry again.”
- Doctrine and Covenants, Section 101, verse 4
“This doctrine of polygamy, or spiritual wife-system, that has been taught and practiced among us, will prove our destruction and overthrow. I have been deceived; it is a curse to mankind, and we shall have to leave the United States soon, unless it can be put down, and its practice stopped in the Church. Now Brother Marks, you have not received this doctrine, and I want you to go into the high council, and I will have charges preferred against all who practice this doctrine, and I want you to try them by the laws of the Church, and cut them off, if they will not repent, and cease the practice of this doctrine, and I will go into the stand and preach against it with all my might, and in this way we will rid the Church of this damnable heresy.”
- Prophet Joseph Smith, Jr., as recorded in an interview with William Marks in Zion’s Harbinger and Baneemy’s Organ, v. 3, July 1853, pp. 52-53, also in No Man Knows My History, by Fawn M. Brodie
“I condemn [polygamy], yes, as a practice, because I think it is not doctrinal. It is not legal. And this church takes the position that we will abide by the law.”
- Prophet Gordon B. Hinckley, on Larry King Live, September 8, 1998
“[Polygamists] have no connection with us whatsoever. They don’t belong to the church. There are actually no Mormon fundamentalists.”
- Prophet Gordon B. Hinckley, on Larry King Live, September 8, 1998
“Repeatedly we are told that this is a dead issue – that polygamy has been renounced by the Mormon authorities and the matter need be argued no further. It is not a dead issue, nor can it be so long as their book of Doctrine and Covenants goes into all parts of the world bearing an alleged revelation which sets forth polygamy (and with equal validity concubinage) as the will of heaven and says that those who reject these documents will be damned.
“This cannot be called dead so long as our friends among the Mormon missionaries everywhere defend the doctrine when pressed in argument, and often when not even questioned about it.”
- Differences That Persist Between the RLDS and LDS Churches, by Elbert A. Smith, 1959, p. 21
“The Lord showed him [Joseph Smith, Jr.] those women... and at that time some of these women were named and given to him, to become his wives when the time should come that this principle would be established.”
- Prophet Joseph F. Smith, Deseret Evening News, February 18, 1882, also in A Study of the Mormon Practice of Plural Marriage Before the Death of Joseph Smith, by Daniel W. Bachman, p. 67
“We declare, as was taught by Joseph Smith and the former prophets of this dispensation, that plural marriage is the marriage order of the heavens. This order of marriage was given to us by the prophet of this dispensation, Joseph Smith, to be a necessary principle of the fullness of the gospel. We believe as Joseph and his contemporaries taught, that a man or a woman cannot attain the highest degree of exaltation without living this high and refining principle.
“We do not believe that the principle of plural marriage should be entered into or considered for purposes of fleshly gratification. If such purposes are at the forefront of the motivation for a plural relationship, it will bring about unhappiness and failure. If lived righteously and properly, this principle will teach men righteous leadership and sensitivity; wives learn to overcome jealousies and to live in unity and cooperation; all will learn patience-and thus this principle can lead to great happiness. This principle, coupled with other principles of the fullness of the gospel, are to enable righteous members of the latter-day House of Israel to truly build and redeem Zion, to welcome the Savior and the City of Enoch back to the earth and to usher in the Millennium.”
- The True and Living Church of Jesus Christ of Saints of the Last Days (Mormon Fundamentalist Church), Official Statement on Marriage and Family Government
“[The Manifesto was] a cowardly proceeding, the more I thought of it the less I liked it.”
- LDS Historian and Seventy B.H. Roberts, as quoted in B.H. Roberts and the Woodruff Manifesto, pp. 363-366
“The Manifesto was not a divine production but something manufactured to outwit the church's enemies.”
- Apostle Charles W. Penrose, as reported in Solemn Covenant, by Carmon Hardy, 1992
“[Apostle] Penrose told me once in the city of Mexico, that he had written the manifesto, and it was gotten up so that it did not mean anything and President Smith had told me the same. I mention these things only to show the training I have had from those over me.”
- Apostle Matthias F. Cowley, testimony under oath, May 10, 1911, The Trials of Apostle John W. Taylor and Matthias F. Cowley, p. 28
“The severest prosecutions have never been followed by revelations changing a divine law, obedience to which brought imprisonment or martyrdom. Though I go to prison, God will not change his law of celestial marriage.”
- Prophet Lorenzo Snow, Historical Record, 1887, v. 6, p. 144
“The abandonment of polygamy, that is considered by some to be so easy of accomplishment, is more untenable even than fighting. However much the people might desire to do this, they could not without yielding every other principle, for it is the very key stone of our faith, and is so closely interwoven into every-thing that pertains to our religion, that to tear it asunder and cast it away would involve the entire structure.”
- “Expressions from the People,” Deseret News, April 14, 1885
“They accuse me of polygamy, and of being a false Prophet, and many other things which I do oft now remember; but I am no false Prophet; I am no impostor; I have had no dark revelations; I have had no revelations from the devil; I made no revelations; I have got nothing up of myself. The same God that has thus far dictated me and directed me and strengthened me in this work, gave me this revelation and commandment on Celestial and plural marriage (D&C 132) and the same God commanded me to obey it. He said to me that unless I accepted it and introduced it, and practiced it, I, together with my people, would be damned and cut off from this time hence forth. And they say if I do so, they will kill me. O, what shall I do? If I do not practice it, I shall be damned with my people. If I do teach it, and practice it, and urge it, they say they will kill me, and I know they will. But we have got to observe it. It is an eternal principle and was given by way of commandment and not by way of instruction.”
- Prophet Joseph Smith, Jr., Contributor, v. 5, p. 259, 1843
"The laws prohibiting plural marriage were regarded as unconstitutional and unjust by the Church, and their execution was bitterly opposed.*** While this storm raged John Taylor stood immovable in his conviction that the anti-polygamy law was unjust, and died without making any concession. This was the outstanding feature of his administration.”
- Conference Report, April 1922, p. 38
“Have I not given my word in great plainness on this subject? Yet have not great numbers of my people been negligent in the observance of my laws and the keeping of my commandments, and yet have I borne with them these many years; and this because of their weakness, because of the perilous times, and furthermore, it is more pleasing to me that men should use their free agency in regards to these matters. Nevertheless, I the Lord do not change and my word and my covenants and my law do not.
“And as I have heretofore said by my servant Joseph: All those who would enter into my glory must and shall obey my law. And have I not commanded men that if they were Abraham's seed and would enter into my glory, they must do the works of Abraham?
“I have not revoked this law, nor will I, for it is everlasting, and those who will enter into my glory must obey the conditions thereof; Even so Amen.”
- Prophet John Taylor revelation, September 26-27, 1886, PDF of original document online here
"When he became President, Joseph F. Smith renewed permission for Anthony W. Ivins to perform plural marriages for Mexican residents. And Ivins did this from 1902 to 1904. And then he extended that to include permission for Ivins to perform marriages for non-residents. This was more dangerous, because this required written permission from Salt Lake. These written letters for Anthony W. Ivins to perform marriages for non-residents of Juarez Stake, occurred from 1903 to 1904. But President Smith never told Ivins about MacDonald, so President Ivins down in Mexico had no idea that Patriarch MacDonald was performing marriages with authorization.
“On 17 April 1902, I have the only contemporary account of Joseph F. Smith as Church President gibing authorization for a man to marry polygamously. And he did it in this way: "As president of the Church I cannot authorize you to marry this plural wife. However, I will not oppose our doing it." And that's the kind of authorization he gave.
As Church President, Joseph F. Smith did not want to know the specifics of new ceremonies, but he increased financial support for post-Manifesto plural wives and children of apostles and mission presidents, and he gave advice for the hiding of plural wives so that they would not be subject to arrest. Joseph F. Smith probably authorized Apostles Clawson and Cowley to marry their plural wives after the second Manifesto of 1904, since he did authorize a close friend to perform one plural marriage as late as 1906, and o.k.'d another one that occurred in 1907.”
- D. Michael Quinn, Mormon historian, “Plural Marriages After the 1890 Manifesto,” August 1991
“Today probably no modern people is more anti-polygamy than the orthodox Mormons.”
- Davis Bitton, Journal of Mormon History, 1977, no. 4, p. 101
“I think these two quotations from such a reliable authority fully solve the question as to the relationship existing between Father Adam and the Savior of the world, and prove beyond question the power that Adam possessed in regard to taking his body again after laying it down--which power he never could have attained unless he had received first a resurrection from the grave to a condition of immortality. We further say that this power was not forfeited when as a celestial being he voluntarily partook of the forbidden fruit, and thereby rendered his body mortal in order that he might become the father of mortal tabernacles, as he was already the father of immortal spirits--thus giving opportunity to the offspring of his own begetting to pass through the ordeals necessary to prepare them for a resurrection from the dead, a celestial glory.
“All that Father Adam did upon this earth, from the time that he took up his abode in the Garden of Eden, was done for his posterity's sake and the success of his former mission as the savior of a world, and afterwards, or now, as the father of a world only added to the glory which he already possessed. If, as the savior of a world, he had the power to lay down his life and take it up again, therefore, as the father of a world which is altogether an advanced condition, we necessarily conclude that the grave was powerless to hold him after that mission was completed...”
- Joseph E. Taylor, Collected Discourses, v. 1, June 2, 1888
“Who begat the Son of God? Infidels say that Jesus was a bastard, but let me tell you the truth concerning that matter. Our Father begat all the spirits that were, before any tabernacles were made. When our Father came into the garden, He came with His celestial body and brought one of His wives with Him and ate of the fruit of the garden until He could beget a tabernacle, and Adam is Michael or God and all the God that we have anything to do with. They eat of this fruit and formed the first tabernacle that was formed. And when the Virgin Mary was begotten with child, it was by the Father and in no other way, in no other way, only as we were begotten. I will tell you the truth as it is in God. The world don't know that Jesus Christ our elder brother was begotten by our Father in Heaven. Handle it as you please, it will either seal the damnation or salvation of man. He was begotten by the Father and not by the Holy Ghost.”
- Prophet Wilford Woodruff, Wilford Woodruff's Journal, April 9, 1852
“As a girl I had been proud that my father and mother had obeyed the highest principle in the Church... I was aware now that my mother’s early married life must have been humiliating and joyless on many occasions because of her position as a second wife.”
- Annie Clark Tanner, A Mormon Mother, 1969, p. 133
“A woman in polygamy is compelled by her lone position to make a confidant of her children.”
- Annie Clark Tanner, A Mormon Mother, 1969, p. 236
“This [the requirement for Heber to take a plural wife] was the greatest test of his faith he had ever experienced... the thought of deceiving the kind and faithful wife of his youth, whom he loved with all his heart, and who with him had borne so patiently their separation and all the trials and sacrifices they had been called to endure, was more than he felt able to bear.”
- Women’s Exponent, v. 10, October 15, 1881, p. 74
“She [the plural wife] must lay aside wholly all interest or thought in what her husband was doing while he was away from her... [and be] pleased to see him when he came in as she was pleased to see any friend.”
- Vilate Kimball, in “Theatrical and Social Affairs in Utah,” by S.A. Cooks, pp. 5-6, Bancroft Library, see Isn’t One Wife Enough, p. 209
“The First Command was to ‘Multiply’ and the Prophet taught us that Dominion & powr in the great Future would be Comensurate with the no [number] of ‘Wives Childin & Friends’ that we inheret here and that our great mission to earth was to Organize a Neculi [nucleus] of Heaven to take with us. To the increase of which there would be no end.”
- Benjamin F. Johnson, I Knew the Prophets: An Analysis of the Letter of Benjamin F. Johnson to George F. Gibbs, Reporting Doctrinal Views of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, 1976, ed. by Dean R. Zimmerman, p. 47
“The Second Way in which a wife can be separated from her husband, while he continues to be faithful to his God and his priesthood, I have not revealed, except to a few persons in this Church; and a few have received it from Joseph the prophet as well as myself. If a woman can find a man holding the keys of the priesthood with higher power and authority than her husband, and he is disposed to take her he can do so, otherwise she has got to remain where she is... there is no need for a bill of divorcement... To recapitulate. First if a man forfeits his covenants with a wife, or wives, becoming unfaithful to his God, and his priesthood, that wife or wives are free from him without a bill of divorcement. Second. If a woman claimes protection at the hands of a man, possessing more power in the priesthood and higher keys, if he is disposed to rescue her and has obtained the consent of her husband to make her his wife he can do so without a bill of divorcement.”
- Prophet Brigham Young, “A Few Words on Doctrine,” speech at tabernacle, October 8, 1861, see In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith, by Todd Compton, p. 17
“”In 1835 at Kirtland I learned from my Sisters Husband Lyman R. Shirman, who was close to the Prophet and Received it from him. That the ancient order of plural marriage was again to be practiced by the Church.”
- Benjamin F. Johnson, I Knew the Prophets: An Analysis of the Letter of Benjamin F. Johnson to George F. Gibbs, Reporting Doctrinal Views of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, 1976, ed. by Dean R. Zimmerman, p. 38
“Concerning the doctrine of celestial marriage the Prophet told my father in the days of Kirtland, that it was the will of the Lord for His servants who were faithful to step forth in that order... My father made some things known to me concerning those days, and the part he took with the Prophet in trying to assist him to start the principle with a few chosen friends in those days. My father had required of me to bear testimony of these things at a proper time.”
- Mosiah Hancock, “Letter to the Editor,” Deseret Evening News, February 21, 1884, p. 4
“As early as Spring of 1832 Bro Joseph said ‘Brother Levi [Mosiah’s father], the Lord has revealed to me that it is his will that righteous men shall take Righteous women even a plurality of Wives that a Righteous race may be sent forth upon the Earth preparatory to the ushering in of the Millenial Reign of our Redeemer – For the Lord has such a high respect for the nobles of his kingdom that he is not willing for them to come through the Loins of a Careless People – Therefore; it behoves those who embrace that Principle to pay strict attention to even the Least requirement of our Heavenly Father.”
- Mosiah Hancock Autobiography, pp. 61-62
“Any man who will teach and practice the doctrine of spiritual wifery will go to hell; I don’t care if it is my brother Joseph.”
- Don Carlos Smith, Joseph’s brother, The Return, v. 2, June 1890, p. 287
“I want you for the rest of your life to be an honest man.”
- Don Carlos Smith’s last request to Joseph Smith, Jr., in Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith, by Lucy Mack Smith, pp. 290-291
“... it [the introduction of the doctrine of polygamy] was the first time in my life that I desired the grave, and I could hardly get over it for a long time. And when I saw a funeral, I felt to envy the corpse its situation.”
- Prophet Brigham Young, Brigham Young, by Lavar Arrington, p. 100
“... if she [Emma Smith] will not abide this commandment [polygamy] she shall be destroyed.”
- Doctrine and Covenants 132:54
“I have not revoked this law nor will I for it is everlasting and those who will enter into my glory must obey the conditions thereof, even so amen.”
- Prophet John Taylor, as quoted in Mormon Polygamy, by Van Wagoner, p. 128
“The whole history of ancient Israel was one in which plurality of wives was a divinely accepted and approved order of matrimony ... Obviously the holy practice will commence again after the Second Coming of the Son of Man and the ushering in of the millennium.”
- Apostle Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, “Plural Marriage”
“All commandments that I give must be obeyed unless they are revoked by me or by my authority and how can I revoke an everlasting covenant for I the Lord am everlasting and my everlasting covenants cannot be abrogated nor done away with but stand forever.”
- Prophet John Taylor, speaking for God in this unpublished and suppressed 1886 revelation; see Quadrant, May 1999, Ray Agnostini, "Mormons and the Media", v. 43, issue 5, p. 55
Joseph Smith’s attempt at plural marriage with Orson Pratt’s wife:
“Sister Pratt, the Lord has given you to me as one of my spiritual wives. I have the blessings of Jacob granted me, as God granted holy men of old, and as I have long looked upon you with favor, and an earnest desire of connubial bliss, I hope you will not repulse or deny me.”
SARAH PRATT REPLIED:
“And is that the great secret that I am not to utter? Am I called upon to break the marriage covenant, and prove recreant to my lawful husband! I never will…. I care not for the blessings of Jacob. I have one good husband, and that is enough for me….
“Joseph, if you ever attempt any thing of the kind with me again, I will make a full disclosure to Mr. Pratt on his return home. Depend upon it, I will certainly do it.”
JOSEPH SMITH RESPONDED:
“Sister Pratt, I hope you will not expose me, for if I suffer, all must suffer; so do not expose me. Will you promise me that you will not do it?”
SARAH PRATT:
“If you will never insult me again, I will not expose you unless strong circumstances should require it.”
SMITH:
“If you should tell, I will ruin your reputation, remember that.”
- History of the Saints, pp. 228-231
“Sarah [Pratt] ordered the Prophet out of the house, and the Prophet used obscene language to her…”
- Nelson Winch Green, Fifteen Years among the Mormons: Being the Narrative of Mrs. Mary Ettie V. Smith, 1859, p. 31
“Br Orson Pratt is in trubble in consequence of his wife, hir feelings are so rought up that he dos not know whether his wife is wrong, or whether Josephs testimony and others are wrong and do lie and he deceived for 12 years or not; his is all but crazy about matters… we will not let Br. Orson go away from us he is too good a man to have a woman destroy him.”
- Apostle Jebediah M. Grant, Sunday Tabernacle Discourse, March 23, 1856, Journal History
“In his endeavors to ruin my [Sarah’s] character Joseph went so far as to publish an extra-sheet containing affidavits against my reputation. When this sheet was brought to me I discovered to my astonishment the names of two people on it, man and wife, with whom I had boarded for a certain time…. I went to their house; the man left the house hurriedly when he saw me coming. I found the wife and said to her rather excitedly: ‘What does it all mean?’ She began to sob. ‘It is not my fault’ said she. ‘Hyrum Smith came to our house, with the affidavits all written out, and forced us to sign them. ‘Joseph and the Church must be saved,’ said he. We saw that resistance was useless, they would have ruined us; so we signed the papers.”
- Sarah Pratt, in Wilhelm Wyl, Mormon Portraits, 1886, pp. 62-63
“She [Sarah] lied about me. I never made the offer which she said I did. I will not advise you to break up your family – unless it were asked of me. Then I would council you to get a bill from your wife and marry a virtuous woman – and a new family but if you do not do it [I] shall never throw it in your teeth.”
- Prophet Joseph Smith, Jr. according to Brigham Young, Minutes of the Quorum of the Twelve, January 20, 1843, Brigham Young Collection
“[Joseph] ha[s] lately endeavored to seduce my wife, and ha[s] found her a virtuous woman.”
- Apostle William Law, former counselor in the First Presidency, in Lyndon W. Cook, “William Law, Nauvoo Dissenter,” BYU Studies, v. 22, Winter 1982, p. 65
“The Prophet had made dishonorable proposals to [my] wife… under cover of his asserted ‘Revelation.’… [Smith told his wife Jane] the Lord had commanded that he should take plural wives, to add to his glory… [Joseph] asked her to give him half her love; she was at liberty to keep the other half for her husband.”
- Apostle William Law, as quoted in Ann Eliza Young, Wife No. 9, 1876, p. 61
“My wife would not speak evil of … anyone … without cause. Joseph is a liar and not she. That Smith admired and lusted after many men’s wives and daughters, is a fact, but they could not help that. They or most of them considered his admiration an insult, and treated him with scorn. In return for this scorn, he generally managed to blacken their reputations – see the case of… Mrs. Pratt, a good, virtuous woman.”
- Apostle William Law, Salt Lake Tribune, January 20, 1887
“It is said that the Prophet admitted to [Orson] the attempt he made on his wife’s virtue, but that it was only done to see whether she was true to her absent husband.”
- New York Herald, September 14, 1877
“It is a fact, so well known that the Twelve and their adherents have endeavored to carry on this spiritual wife business… and have gone to the most shameful and desperate lengths to keep it from the public. First, insulting innocent females, and when they resented the insult, these monsters in human shape would assail their characters by lying, and perjuries, with a multitude of desperate men to help them effect the ruin of those whom they had insulted, and all this to enable them to keep these corrupt practices from the view of the world.”
- Apostle Sidney Rigdon, Messenger and Advocate, October 15, 1844
“When a man who has a wife, teaches her the law of God, as revealed to the ancient patriarchs, and as manifested by new revelation, and she refuses to give her consent for him to marry another according to that law, then, it becomes necessary, for her to state before the President the reasons why she withholds her consent; if her reasons are sufficient and justified and the husband is found in the fault, or in transgression, then, he is not permitted to take any step in regard to obtaining another. But if the wife can show no good reason why she refuses to comply with the law which was given unto Sarah of old, then it is lawful for her husband, if permitted by revelation through the prophet, to be married to others without her consent, and he will be justified, and she will be condemned, because she did not give them unto him, as Sarah gave Hagar to Abraham, and as Rachel and Leah gave Bilhah and Zilpah to their husband, Jacob.”
- Apostle Orson Pratt, The Seer, p. 41
“I do not wish to wrongfully accuse my husband, although we have been hopelessly separated for ten years. I believed, when he decided to enter upon the practice of polygamy, that he did so not from any violence of individual passion, but from sheer fanaticism. He told me that he believed it was his duty to take other women besides myself to wife, and at first he said that this would make no difference in his affection for me, which would continue pure and single as it had ever been. But think of the horror of such an announcement. He took wife after wife until they numbered five, and for a long time they were kept away from me and I was spared from intercourse with them. By and by he told me that he intended to put these five women on an exact equality with me; that he could spend a week with one, a week with another, and so on, and that I should have the sixth week! Then patience forsook me. I told him plainly that I wouldn’t endure it. I said, ‘If you take five wives with your other women you can take the sixth with them also.’ Orson responded, ‘If you don’t choose to live with me I don’t know that I’m obliged to support you. You may have my permission to go to hell. Stick to it or to starvation.”
- Sarah Pratt, New York Herald, May 18, 1877
“[Hyrum] instructed me in Nov or Dec 1843 to make a selection of some young woman and he would seal her to me, and I should take her home, and if she should have an offspring [I was to] give out word that she had a husband, an Elder, who had gone on a foreign mission.”
- Ebenezer Robinson, letter to Jason W. Briggs, January 28, 1860, LDS archives; see Abanes, One Nation Under Gods, p. 282
“[Joseph] used to state to his intended victims, as he did to me: ‘God does not care if we have a good time, if only other people do not know it.’ He only introduced a marriage ceremony when he found out he could not get certain women without it.... If any woman, like me, opposed his wishes, he used to say: ‘Be silent, or I shall ruin your character. My character must be sustained in the interest of the Church.”
- Sarah Pratt, Orson Pratt’s first wife, quoted in W. Wyl, Mormon Portraits, 1886, p. 62
“In the spirit... world we will go to brother Joseph.... He will say to us, ‘Come along my boys, we will give you a good suit of clothes. Where are your wives.’ [Answering Joseph] ‘They are back yonder; they would not follow us.’ ‘Never mind,’ says Joseph, ‘here are thousands, have all you want.’”
- Apostle Heber C. Kimball, Journal of Discourses, v. 4, p. 209, February 1, 1857
“I think no more of taking another wife than I do of buying a cow, and if you want to build up the kingdom you must take more wives.”
- Apostle Heber C. Kimball, quoted in Jennie Anderson Froiseth, ed., The Women of Mormonism: or the Story of Polygamy As Told by the Victims Themselves, 1886; see Abanes, One Nation Under Gods, p. 295
“If President Young wants my wives I will give them to him without a grumble, and he can take them whenever he likes.”
- Apostle Jebediah M. Grant, quoted in T.B.H. Stenhouse, Tell It All, p. 294; see Abanes, One Nation Under Gods, p. 295
“[Polygamy] I could not have done if I had not believed it to be right in the Sight of god, and believed it to be one principal of his gospel once again restored to earth.”
- Sarah D. Rich, quoted in Leonard J. Arrington, Charles C. Rich: Mormon General and Western Frontiersman, 1974, p. 288
“God will be very cruel if he does not give us poor women adequate compensation for the trials we have endured in polygamy.”
- Mary Ann Angell Young, quoted in Anti-Polygamy Standard, August 1882, p. 36
“O, if my husband could only love me even a little and not seem to be perfectly indifferent to any sensation of that kind.... O my poor aching heart when shall it rest its burden only on the Lord.”
- Emmeline B. Wells, diary date of September 30, 1874, quoted in Van Wagoner, Mormon Polygamy, p. 94
“It is the very refinement of cruelty, this polygamy, and it hurts are deeper and more poisonous than any other wounds can be. They never heal, but grow constantly more painful, until it makes life unendurable.”
- Ann Eliza Young, letter to Mormon Women, “Letter Number Two,” in Froiseth, ed. The Women of Mormonism, pp. 169-170
“Where did this commandment come from in relation to polygamy? It also came from God.... When I see any of our people, men or women, opposing a principle of this kind... I consider them apostates.”
- Prophet John Taylor, Journal of Discourses, v. 11, p. 221, April 7, 1866
“I can never tell the horrors of the next few hours.... I went to my room and dressed for the reception, which took place at Cannon’s other house, where he kept his three wives. When I went down, there was a crowd there, among the rest a plain looking girl in a calico dress, to whom I was introduced. It was Emily Spencer.... I told her to get up. Miles came forward and said, ‘Sit still Emily Spencer, my wife.’ I felt as though I had been shot. I said, Your wife! Then what am I?’ He said, ‘You are both my wives.’ All at once my shame flashed over me. Here I was dishonored, the polygamous wife of a Mormon. I ran out of the house, bent only on escape, I did not think where. I could not do it, though for Miles and young Cannon, a son of the Delegate, ran after me and dragged me back.... [B]ut I stole away and returned to the other house, where I had been living the three weeks since my arrival from England. I noticed there was no key in the lock, but shot a little bolt and piled chairs against the door. I cried myself to sleep. The next thing I knew, I don’t know what time it was, Miles stood in the room and was locking the door on the inside. I screamed... Miles said I need not take on, for Brother Cannon had anticipated that I would make trouble and had the house cleared of everyone else. I found out that it was so. He told me that I might as well submit; there was no law here to control the saints. There was no power on earth that would save me.”
- Caroline Owens, in Matilda Joslyn Gage, Women, Church and State, 1998, pp. 238-240
“Now, sisters, list to what I say; with trials this world is rife. You can’t expect to miss them all; help husband get a wife! Now this advice I feely give, if exalted you will be, Remember that your husband must, be blessed with more than thee. Chorus: Then, oh, let us say, God bless the wife that strives, And aids her husband all she can to obtain a dozen wives.”
- Early pioneer song, in Songs of Zion, published by the LDS Church; see Abanes, One Nation Under Gods, p. 303
“It is the duty of a woman to be obedient to her husband, and unless she is, I would not give a damn for all her queenly right and authority, nor for her either, if she will quarrel and lie about the work of God and the principles of plurality.”
- Apostle Heber C. Kimball, Journal of Discourses, v. 4, p. 82, November 9, 1856; also Deseret News, v. 6, p. 291
“And now it came to pass that the people of Nephi... began to grow hard in their hears, and indulge themselves somewhat in wicked pratices, such as like unto David of old desiring many wives and concubines.”
- Book of Mormon, Jacob 1:15
“Behold, David and Solomon truly had many wives and concubines, which thing was abominable before me, saith the Lord.... [T]here is not any man among you have save it be one wife; and concubines he shall have none.”
- Book of Mormon, Jacob 2:24-27
“Behold, the Lamanites... are more righteous than you; for they have not forgotten the commandment of the Lord, which was given unto our father – that they should have save it were one wife, and concubines they should have none, and there should not be whoredoms committed among htem.”
- Book of Mormon, Jacob 3:5
“... if a man take a wife and her mother, it is wickedness; they shall be burnt with fire both he and they; that there be no wickedness among you.”
- Holy Bible, KJV, Leviticus 20:14
“In 1882 President John Taylor issued an Epistle, ‘On Marriage,’ authorizing church marriages outside the Endowment House and temples. Two years later he admitted in court testimony that he had authorized hundreds of men to perform secret marriages at any place convenient.”
- Samuel W. Taylor, Rocky Mountain Empire, pp. 20-21, footnote #15
“Thus saith the Lord.... I the Lord hold the destiny of the courts in your midst, and the destiny of this nation, and all other nations of the earth, in mine own hands, and all that I have revealed and promised and decreed concerning the generation in which you live shall come to pass, and no power shall stay my hand. Let not my servants who are called to the Presidency of my Church deny my word or my law [i.e., plural marriage], which concerns the salvation of the children of men.... If the Saints will hearken unto my voice, and the counsel of my servants, the wicked shall not prevail.... Let my servants who officiate as your counselors before the courts make their pleadings as they are moved upon by the Holy Spirit, without any further pledges from the Priesthood, and they will be justified. I, the Lord, will hold the courts, with the officers of government and the nation responsible for their acts towards the inhabitants of Zion. I, Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world, am in your midst. I am your advocate with the Father. Fear not, little flock, it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom. Fear not the wicked and ungodly.... I the Lord will deliver my Saints from the dominion of the wicked in mine own due time and way. I cannot deny my Word, neither in blessings nor judgments. Therefore let mine anointed gird up their loins, watch and be sober, and keep my commandments.”
- Prophet Wilford Woodruff revelation, from Wilford Woodruff Journal; see New Mormon Studies CD ROM: Comprehensive Resource Library, 2000; see also Abanes, One Nation Under Gods, p. 323
“Take care of your polygamous wives; we don’t care for Uncle Sam now.”
- Prophet Joseph F. Smith, 1896 dedication speech for the Payson, Utah meeting house, quoted in William Edward Biederwolf, Mormonism Under the Searchlight, 1915, p. 65
“In 1897, the first full year after Utah attained statehood, the number of plural marriages jumped nearly five-fold. Political pressures created by attempts for statehood subsided after Utah became a state, and church leaders realized they could allow more polygamous marriages than before because federal interference would be minimized.... There seems to have been little criticism of such marriages among those Latter-day Saints who knew about them.”
- Kenneth L. Cannon II, “After the Manifesto: Mormon Polygamy 1890-1906,” in D. Michael Quinn, ed., The New Mormon History, 1992, pp. 203-204
“In 1897, the first full year after Utah attained statehood, the number of plural marriages jumped nearly five-fold. Political pressures created by attempts for statehood subsided after Utah became a state, and church leaders realized they could allow more polygamous marriages than before because federal interference would be minimized.... There seems to have been little criticism of such marriages among those Latter-day Saints who knew about them.”
- Kenneth L. Cannon II, “After the Manifesto: Mormon Polygamy 1890-1906,” in D. Michael Quinn, ed., The New Mormon History, 1992, pp. 203-204
“Plural marriage is the patriarchal order of marriage lived by God and others who reign in the Celestial Kingdom.”
- John J. Stewart, Mormon writer, Brigham Young and His Wives and The True Story of Plural Marriage, 1961, p. 41
“My wives will be mine in eternity.”
- Prophet Joseph Fielding Smith, upon the death of his first wife, Doctrines of Salvation, 1955, v. 2, p. 67
“I’m no more a lawbreaker than they are , and if they were lawbreakers for keeping God’s commandments, they’re my example.”
- Tom Green, fundamentalist Mormon polygamist, in Geoffrey Fattah, “History piqued Green’s Interest, He Says Stories of Pioneers Led to His Polygamy,” Deseret News, August 22, 2001
“If prosecutors in the state of Utah continue on the path they are on in seeking us out, I hate to tell you what might happen. To put it bluntly – the mountains could come down upon them. I think they are going to get shook up. I think we are in store for a lot of things if we don’t reprent and return to the way of God.”
- Tom Green, fundamentalist Mormon polygamist, see Julie Cart, “Polygamy Verdict Set Precedent Law: Utah Is Likely to Go After Others,” Los Angeles Times, May 20, 2001
“... the holy practice [of polygamy] will commence again after the Second Coming of the Son of Man and the ushering in of the millennium.”
- Apostle Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, 1958, p. 578
“Every scholar with whom I am acquainted agrees that there is yet official Church reticence when it comes to using certain records, diaries, and other materials in the church’s archives and in the First Presidency’s possession relating to polygamy.”
- B. Carmon Hardy, Mormon historian, “Truth and Mistruth in Mormon History,” in Lavina Fielding Anderson and Janice Merrill Allred, eds., Case Reports of the Mormon Alliance, 1997, v. 3, p. 279
"It [polygamy] was a very limited practice; carefully safeguarded. In 1890, that practice was discontinued."
- Prophet Gordon B. Hinckley, Larry King Live, online at http://www.lds-mormon.com/lkl_00.shtml
“He [Woodruff] told me he had written it [the Manifesto] himself, and it certainly appeared to me to be in his handwriting. Its authorship has since been variously attributed. Some of the present-day polygamists say that it was I who wrote it. Chas. W. Penrose and George Reynolds have claimed they edited it.”
- Apostle Frank J. Cannon; see Abanes, One Nation Under Gods, p. 591, footnote 52
“I, Charles W. Penrose, wrote the Manifesto with the assistance of Frank J. Cannon and John White…. Wilford Woodruff signed it to beat the devil at his own game.”
- Apostle Charles W. Penrose, in D. Michael Quinn, “LDS Church Authority and New Plural Marriages, 1890-1904,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, v. 18, no. 1, pp. 11-12; online here
“U.S.: State whether or not it would be contrary to the law of the church, for any member of the church to enter into or contract a plural marriage.
WOODRUFF: It would be contrary to the laws of the church.
U.S.: What would be the penalty?
WOODRUFF: Any person entering into plural marriage after that date, would be liable to become excommunicated from the church.
U.S.: Do you understand that that language was to be expanded and to include a further statement of living or associating in plural marriage by those already in the status?
WOODRUFF: Yes, sir; I intended the proclamation to cover the ground, to keep the laws – to obey the law myself, and expected the people to obey the law….
U.S.: Was the manifesto intended to apply to the church everywhere?
WOODRUFF: Yes, sir.
U.S.: In every nation and every country?
WOODRUFF: Yes, sir; as far as I had a knowledge in the matter.
U.S.: In places outside of the United States as well as within the United States?
WOODRUFF: Yes, sir; we are given no liberties for entering into that anywhere….
U.S.: Unlawful cohabitation, as it is named, and spoken of, should also stop, as well as future polygamous marriages?
WOODRUFF: Yes sir, that has been the intention.
U.S.: And that has been your views and explanation to it?
WOODRUFF: Yes, sir, that has been my view.”
- Prophet Wilford Woodruff testimony, quoted in Van Wagoner, Mormon Polygamy, pp. 149-150
“All First Presidency members either allowed or authorized new plural marriages from 1890 to 1904, and a few as late as 1906 and 1907. One Church President married a plural wife, and three Counselors in the First Presidency performed marriages for men who had living wives already. A Presidency’s secretary proposed polygamous marriage in 1907. Of the sixteen men who served only as Apostles… eight of these sixteen men married post-Manifsto plural wives. Three of them who did not do so, performed plural marriages. Two of them who did not do either of the above, arranged for plural marriages…. Now, looking at the men individually. Wilford Woodruff… personally approved 7 new plural marriages, to be performed in Mexico. He also approved polygamous ceremonies for a couple of Mexican residents as early as 1891. He delgated George Q. Cannon, his first counselor, to give approval for plural marriages from 1892 to 1898. That approval was in the form of written letters…. Woodruff himself married a new Plural Wife in 1897…. [Lorenzo Snow] cohabited with his youngest plural wife who went to Canada briefly, in 1896, to bear his last child. And in so doing, he violated the testimony that he had given publicly in 1891, that the Manifesto prohibited cohabitation with plural wives…. [Joseph F. Smith] In 1896 as a counselor, he performed in the Salt Lake Temple a ‘proxy plural marriage’ for Abraham Cannon, which had been approved earlier by the First Presidency…. Smith instructed Seymour B. Young of the First council of seventy, to perform two plural marriages in Mexico. And later that same year, second counselor Smith authorized Patriarch Alexander F. MacDonald to perform new plural marriages in Mexico for any Mexican residents who requested them…. George Q. Cannon was Presidency counselor and next in line to be Church President from 1899 to 1901. He personally authorized new plural marriages performed in Mexico, Canada, and the United States, from 1892 until his death in 1901. This included plural marriages performed for 3 of his sons and 3 of his nephews.”
- D. Michael Quinn, “Plural Marriages After The 1890 Manifesto,” lecture, August 1991 at Bluffdale, Utah, online here
“[A] man who did not have but one wife in the Resurrection that woman will not be his but [be] taken from him & given to another.”
- Prophet Brigham Young, quoted by Wilford Woodruff, in Abanes, One Nation Under Gods, p. 579
“Celestial marriage is for the fullness of the glory of god. It is the crowning glory. A man has no right to one wife unless he is worthy of two…. There is no provision made for those who have had the chance & opperternity [sic] and have disregarded that law. Men who disregard that law are in the same situation as if they broke any other law. they are transgressors.”
- Apostle Francis M. Lyman, quoted in Van Wagoner, Mormon Polygamy, p. 97
“I believe in sisters marrying brothers, and brothers having their sisters for wives…. This is something pertaining to our marriage relation. The whole world will think what an awful thing it is. What an awful thing it would be if the Mormons should just say we believe in marrying brothers and sisters.”
- Prophet Brigham Young, October 8, 1854, in Fred C. Collier, ed., The Teachings of President Brigham Young, 1987, v. 3, p. 362, 368
“Bro Snow said I would live to see the time when brothers and sisters would marry each other in this church. All our horror at such an union was due entirely to prejudice and the offspring of such union would be healthy and pure as any other. These were the decided views of Pres. Young when alive, for Bro. S. talked to him freely on this matter.”
- Apostle Abraham H. Cannon, quote in Journal of Mormon History, 1992, p. 106
“I know also another man who married a widow with several children; and when one of the girls had grown into her teens he insisted on marrying her also… and to this very day the daughter bears children to her step-father, living as wife in the same house with her mother.”
- Fanny Stenhouse, Tell It All, 1875, p. 469
“In Utah it has been the custom with the Priesthood to make eunuchs of such men as were obnoxious to the leaders. This was done for a double purpose: first, it gave a perfect revenge, and next, it left the poor victim a living example to others of the dangers of disobeying counsel and not living as ordered by the Priesthood. In Nauvoo it was the orders from Joseph Smith and his apostles to beat, wound and castrate all Gentiles that the police could take in the act of entering or leaving a Mormon household under circumstances that led to the belief that they had been there for immoral purposes…. In Utah it was the favorite revenge of old, worn-out members of the Priesthood, who wanted young women sealed to them, and found that the girl preferred some handsome young man. The old priests generally got the girls, and many a young man was unsexed for refusing to give up his sweetheart at the request of the old and failing, but still sensual apostle or member of the Priesthood…. [If] he refused to consent to give up the girl. The lights were then put out. An attack was made on the young man. He was severely beaten, and then tied with his back down on a bench, when Bishop Snow took a bowie-knife, and performed the operation in a most brutal manner, and then took the portion severed from his victim and hung it up in the school-house on a nail, so that it could be seen by all who visited the house afterwards. The party then left the young man weltering in his blood, and in a lifeless condition. During the night he succeeded in releasing himself from his confinement, and dragged himself to some hay-stacks, where he lay until the next day, when he was discovered by his friends. The young man regained his health, but has been an idiot or quite lunatic ever since, and is well known by hundreds of both Mormons and Gentiles in Utah.”
- Elder John D. Lee, Mormonism Unveiled; Including The Remarkable Life And Confessions Of The Late Mormon Bishop, John D. Lee, 1877, pp. 284-285, 286; online here
“… men who go on missions are very guarded in preaching the doctrine [polygamy], and advocate it only where they are very certain that it will be received. They admit its existence, but they by no means are willing to confess to what an extent it is practiced; and to this day many of them win wives under false pretences…. [A] gentleman living in the British Provinces… spoke of a visit he had received quite recently from a lady friend from England… who had become converted to Mormonism, and married one of the elders of the church, and was on her way to Utah with him…. [She] deplored the existence of polygamy as its only drawback to a perfect faith. Yet she said her husband had told her that it was only a doctrine of the church that was rarely practiced, except by the older Saints, who had received the Revelation directly from Joseph, and had considered the adoption of the system a duty; that in time it would, be entirely done away with, except in theory, and that at all events she need have no fear…. She, who so fondly believed herself the only wife of her husband, made Number 5 or 6 of his plural wives.”
- Ann Eliza Young, Wife No. 9, Chapter Nine; online at http://www.antimormon.8m.com/youngchp9.html
“We were next led into what is called the Terrestrial Glroy; where Brigham Young received us, … he gave each a pass-word and grip necessary, he said, to admit us into the Celestial Glory;” … there are many gods, and they do not acknowledge the one Triune God of the Bible, but that every man will sometime be a ‘god;’ and that women are to be the ornaments of his kingdom, and dependent upon him for resurrection and salvation; and that our salvation is dependent upon the recollection of these passwords.”
- Mary Ettie V. Smith, in Nelson Winch Green, ed., Mormonism: Its Rise, Progress, and Present Condition, 1870 edition, pp. 42-48
“[We] were also told that floating through space were thousands of infant spirits, who were waiting for bodies; that into every child that was born one of these spirits entered, and was thereby saved; but if they had no bodies given them, their wails of despair would ring through all eternity; and that it was, in order to insure their future happiness, necessary that as many of them as possible should be given bodies by Mormon parents. If a woman refused to marry into polygamy, or, being married, to allow her husband to take other wives, these spirits would rise up in judgment against her, because she had, by her act, kept them in darkness.”
- Ann Eliza Young, Wife No. 9, Chapter 18; online here
“Supposing that I have a wife or a dozen of them…. Suppose that I lose the whole of them before I go into the spirit world, but that I have been a good, faithful man all the days of my life, and lived my religion, and had favour with God, and was kind to them, do you think I will be destitute there [the “spirit-world”]? No, the Lord says there are more [females] there than there are here…. In the spirit world there is an increase of males and females, there are millions of them, nad if I am faithful all the time, and continue right along with brother Brigham, we will go to brother Joseph [Smith] and say, ‘Here we are brother Joesph’…. He will say to us,…. ‘Where are you wives?’ ‘They are back yonder; they would not follow us.’ ‘Never mind,’ says Joseph, ‘here are thousands, have all you want.’ Perhaps some do not believe that, but I am just simple enough to believe it…. I am looking for the day, and it is close at hand, when we will have a most heavenly time, one that will be romantic, one with all kinds of ups and downs, which is what I call romantic, for it will occupy in full all the time.”
- Apostle Heber C. Kimball, Journal of Discourses, v. 4, p. 209
“… if the doctrine of plural marriage was repudiated so must be the glorious principle of marriage for eternity, the two being indissolubly interwoven with each other.”
- Apostle Charles Penrose, quoted in “Plural Marriage,” Millennial Star, volume XLV, no. 29, July 16, 1883, p. 454
“My Son John. You have asked me concerning the new and everlasting covenant [polygamy] & how far it is binding upon my people. [T]hus saith the Lord all commandments that I give must be obeyed by those calling themselves by my name unless they are revoked by me or by my authority, and how can I revoke an everlasting covenant; for I the Lord am everlasting and my everlasting covenants cannot be abrogated nor done away with; but they stand for ever. Have I not given my word in great plainness on this subject? … I the Lord do not change & my word & my covenants & my law do not, & as I have heretofore said by my servant Joseph all those who would enter into my glory must & shall obey my law & have I not commanded men that if they were Abraham’s seed & would enter into my glory, they must do the works of Abraham. I have not revoked this law nor will I for it is everlasting & those who will enter into my glory must obey the conditions thereof.”
- Prophet John Taylor to John W. Taylor, revelation to John Taylor, September 27, 1886; reprinted in Abanes, One Nation Under Gods, p. 587, footnote 15
“… wo unto that Nation or house or people who seek to hinder my People from obeying the Patriarchal Law of Abraham [polygamy] which leadeth to a Celestial Glory… for whosoever doeth those things shall be damned Saith the Lord.”
- Prophet Wilford Woodruff, in Scott G. Kenney, ed., Wilford Woodruff’s Journal 1833-1898,, under January 26, 1880, v. 7, pp. 546
“God the Father had a plurality of wives, one or more being in eternity, by whom He begat our spirits as well as the spirit of Jesus His Firstborn.”
- Apostle Orson Pratt, The Seer, November 1853, v. 1, no. 11, p. 172
“… we must accept the fact that there was a time when Deity was much less powerful than He is today. Then how did He become glorified and exalted and attain His present status of Godhood? In the first place, aeons ago God undoubtedly took advantage of every opportunity to learn the laws of truth…. From day to day He exerted His will vigorously,… he gained more knowledge…. Thus he grew in experience and continued to grow until He attained the status of Godhood. In other words, he became God by absolute obedience to all the eternal laws of the Gospel…. No prophet of record gave more complete and forceful explanations of the doctrine that men may become Gods than did the American Prophet [Joseph Smith, Jr.].”
- Seventy Milton R. Hunter, Gospel Through the Ages, 1958, p. pp. 114-115
“The fleshy body of Jesus required a Mother as well as a Father. Therefore, the Father and Mother of Jesus, according to the flesh, must have been associated together in the capacity of Husband and Wife; hence the Virgin Mary must have been, for the time being, the lawful wife of God the Father: we use the term lawful Wife, because it would be blasphemous in the highest degree to say that He overshadowed her or begat the Saviour unlawfully. It would have been unlawful for any man to have interfered with Mary, who was already espoused to Joseph; for such a heinous crime would have subjected both the guilty parties to death, according to the law of Moses. But God having created all men and women, had the most perfect right to do with His own creation, according to His holy will and pleasure: He had a lawful right to overshadow the Virgin Mary in the capacity of a husband, and beget a Son, although she was espoused to another; for the law which He gave to govern men and women was not intended to govern Himself, or to prescribe rules for his own conduct. It was also lawful in Him, after leaving thus dealt with Mary, to give her to Joseph her espoused husband. Whether God the Father gave Mary to Joseph for time only, or for time and eternity, we are not informed. Inasmuch as God was the first husband to her, it may be that He only gave her to be the wife of Joseph while in this mortal state, and that He intended after the resurrection to again take her as one of his own wives to raise up immortal spirits in eternity.”
- Apostle Orson Pratt, “Celestial Marriage,” The Seer, October 1853, v. 1, no. 10, p. 158
“And there was some trouble with Oliver Cowdery, and whisper said it was relating to a girl then living in his (the Prophet’s) family; and I was afterwards told by Warren Parish, that he himself and Oliver Cowdery did not that Joseph had Fannie Alger as wife, for they were spied upon and found together. And I can now see that at Nauvoo, so at Kirtland, that the suspicion or knowledge of the Prophet’s plural relation was one of the causes of apostasy and disruption at Kirtland, although at the time there was little said publicly on the subject.”
- Benjamin F. Johnson, 1903 letter in LDS archives, MS 1289, online here
“I will not be influenced, governed, or controlled, in my temporal interests by any ecclesiastical authority or pretended revelation whatever, contrary to my own judgment.”
- Oliver Cowdery, letter to church leaders, April 12, 1838; see Abanes, One Nation Under Gods, p. 537, footnote 17; online here
“… the Prophet invited me to walk with him. During our walk, he said he had learned that there was a sister back in England, to whom I was very much attached. I replied there was, but nothing further than an attachment such as a brother and sister in the Church might rightfully entertain for each other. He then said, ‘Why don’t you send for her?’ I replied, ‘In the first place, I have no authority to send for her, and if I had, I have not the means to pay expenses.’ To this he answered, ‘I give you authority to send for her, and I will furnish you with means,’ which he did. This was the first time the Prophet Joseph talked with me on the subject of plural marriage. He informed me that the doctrine and principle was right in the sight of our Heavenly Father, and that it was a doctrine which pertained to celestial order and glory. After giving me lengthy instructions and information concerning the doctrine of celestial or plural marriage, he concluded his remarks by the words, ‘It is your privilege to have all the wives you want.’”
- William Clayton, in Fillerup, comp., William Clayton’s Nauvoo Diaries and Personal Writings, under March 9, 1843; online here
LETTER REFUTING LDS CLAIMS THE BOOK OF MORMON IS EVIDENCED BY ARGHEOLOGY
LETTER FROM SMITHSONIAN CONCERNING BOOK OF MORMON
Smithsonian
Letter 1996
Information from theNational Museum of Natural History
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION WASHINGTON, D.C. 20560
Your recent inquiry concerning the Smithsonian Institution's alleged use of the Book of Mormon as a scientific guide has been received in the Smithsonian's Department of Anthropology.
The Book of Mormon is a religious document and not a scientific guide. The Smithsonian Institution has never used it in archeological research and any information that you have received to the contrary is incorrect. Accurate information about the Smithsonian's position is contained in the enclosed "Statement Regarding the Book of Mormon," which was prepared to respond to the numerous inquiries that the Smithsonian receives on this topic.
Because the Smithsonian regards the unauthorized use of its name to disseminate inaccurate information as unlawful, we would appreciate your assistance in providing us with the names of any individuals who are misusing the Smithsonian's name. Please address any correspondence to:
Anthropology Outreach Office
Department of Anthropology
National Museum of Natural History MRC 112
Smithsonian Institution
Washington, DC 20560
MORMON RACISM
Racism, Racist, Bigot
=========================================================
The Bible
There is no mention in the Bible of the mark upon Cain
being of any color.
“And the LORD
said unto him, Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on
him sevenfold. And the LORD set a mark upon Cain, lest any finding him should
kill him.
And Cain went out
from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of
Eden. (Genesis 4:15-16)
=========================================================
Racism in the Book of Mormon (Also see below)
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2 Nephi
5: 13-21
14 And I, Nephi, did take the sword of Laban, and after the manner of it did make many swords, lest by any
means the people who were now called Lamanites should come upon us and destroy
us; for I knew their hatred towards me and my children and those who were called my people.
15 And I did teach my
people to build buildings, and to work in all manner of wood, and of iron, and of copper,
and of brass, and of steel,
and of gold, and of silver,
and of precious ores, which were in great abundance.
16 And I, Nephi, did build a temple; and I did
construct it after the manner of the temple of Solomon save it were not built of so many precious things; for they were not to be found upon the land, wherefore, it could
not be built like unto Solomon’s temple. But the manner
of the construction was like unto the temple of Solomon; and the
workmanship thereof was exceedingly fine.
17 And it came to pass that I, Nephi, did cause
my people to be industrious, and to labor with their hands.
18 And it came to pass that they would that I
should be their king. But I, Nephi,
was desirous that they should have no king; nevertheless, I did for them
according to that which was in my power.
19 And behold, the words of the Lord had been
fulfilled unto my brethren, which he spake concerning them, that I should be
their ruler and their teacher. Wherefore, I had been their ruler and their teacher, according to the
commandments of the Lord, until the time they sought to take away my life.
20 Wherefore, the word of the Lord was
fulfilled which he spake unto me, saying that: Inasmuch as they will not hearken unto thy words they shall be cut off from the presence of the Lord. And behold, they were cut off from his presence.
21 And
the Lord had caused the cursing to come upon them, yea, even a sore cursing,
because of their iniquity. For behold, they had hardened their hearts against him that they had become like
unto a flint; wherefore, as they were white, and exceedingly fair and
delightsome, that they might not be enticing unto my people the Lord God did
cause a skin of blackness to come upon them.
[BoM 1830, Page 73] And he had caused the cursing to come
upon them, yea, even a sore cursing, because of their iniquity. For behold,
thay had hardened their hearts against him, that they had become like unto a
flint; wherefore, as they were white, and exceeding fair and delightsome, that
they might not be enticing unto my people, therefore the Lord God did cause a
skin of blackness to come upon them.
22 And thus saith the
Lord God: I will cause that they shall be loathsome unto thy people, save they shall repent of their iniquities.
[BoM 1830, Page 73] And thus saith the Lord God, I will cause
that they shall be loathsome unto thy people, save they shall repent of their
iniquities.
23 And cursed shall
be the seed of him that mixeth with their seed; for they shall be
cursed even with the same cursing. And the Lord spake it, and it was done.
[BoM 1830, Page 73] And cursed shall be the seed of him that
mixeth with their seed: for they shall be cursed even with the same cursing.
And the Lord spake it, and it was done.
24 And because of
their cursing which was upon them they did become an idle people,
full of mischief and subtlety, and did seek in the wilderness for beasts of
prey.
[BoM 1830, Page 73] And because of their cursing which was
upon them, they did become and idle people, full of mischief and subtlety, and
did seek in the wilderness for beasts of prey.
25 And the Lord God said unto me: They shall be
a scourge unto thy seed, to stir them up in remembrance of me; and inasmuch as they will not remember me,
and hearken unto my words, they shall scourge them even unto destruction.
[BoM 1830, Page 73] And the Lord God said unto me, they shall
be a scourge unto thy seed, to stir them up in remembrance of me, and inasmuch
as they will not remember me, and hearken unto my words, they shall scourge
them even unto destruction.
=========================================================
Book of Mormon 1830 Edition
White and Delightsome
changed to Pure and Delightsome
2 Nephi 5:21 (1830
the same in 1981)
"And he had caused the cursing to come upon them, yea, even a sore cursing, because of their iniquity. For behold, they had hardened their hearts against him, and they had become like unto a flint; wherefore, as they were white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome, that they might not be enticing unto my people the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them."
"And he had caused the cursing to come upon them, yea, even a sore cursing, because of their iniquity. For behold, they had hardened their hearts against him, and they had become like unto a flint; wherefore, as they were white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome, that they might not be enticing unto my people the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them."
2 Nephi 6:30 (1830 changed in 1981)
"...their scales of darkness shall begin to fall from their eyes; and many generations shall not pass away among them, save they shall be a white (pure) and a delightsome people."
"...their scales of darkness shall begin to fall from their eyes; and many generations shall not pass away among them, save they shall be a white (pure) and a delightsome people."
3 Nephi 2:15 (1830 the same in 1981)
"And their curse was taken from them, and their skin became white like unto the Nephites."
=========================================================
"And their curse was taken from them, and their skin became white like unto the Nephites."
=========================================================
Book of Mormon, a fable, sacred only by Mormons, shows
their so-called heavenly father is a racist
"And the Lord had caused the cursing to come upon them,
yea, even a sore cursing, because of their iniquity. For behold, they had
hardened their hearts against him that they had become like unto a flint;
wherefore, as they were white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome, that they
might not be enticing unto my people the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness
to come upon them" 2 Nephi 5:21
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Book of Mormon, a fable, sacred only by Mormons, shows
their so-called heavenly father is a racist
"And the Lord had caused the cursing to come upon them,
yea, even a sore cursing, because of their iniquity. For behold, they had
hardened their hearts against him that they had become like unto a flint;
wherefore, as they were white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome, that they
might not be enticing unto my people the LORD GOD DID CAUSE A SKIN OF BLACKNESS
TO COME UPON THEM" 2 Nephi 5:21
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Book of Mormon, a
fable, sacred only to Mormons, shows their exalted man god is a racist.
"And the
LORD HAD CAUSED THE CURSING TO COME UPON THEM, yea, even a sore cursing,
BECAUSE OF THEIR INIQUITY. For behold, they had hardened their hearts against him that they had become like
unto a flint; wherefore, as they were white, and exceedingly fair and
delightsome, that they might not be enticing unto my people the LORD GOD DID
CAUSE A SKIN OF BLACKNESS TO COME UPON THEM" (2 Nephi 5:21)
Even today’s
version of The Book of Mormon repeatedly emphasizes the notion that dark skin
is "filthy and loathsome."
The Book of
Mormon repeatedly emphasizes the notion that white skin is "pure and delightsome" and that
brown skin is "filthy and loathsome."
(1 Nephi 12:23; 2 Nephi 5:21-24; Jacob 3:3-5; Alma 3:6; Mormon 5:15). (3 Nephi 2:15, 2 Nephi 30:6, and Alma 23:18).
Then you have not read much of the Book of Mormon. Here are
some of the passages concerning blacks, 1 Nephi 12:23; 2 Nephi 5:21-24; Jacob 3:3-5; Alma 3:6; Mormon 5:15. These passages refute what you
have said and verify what is in the video.
For none of these iniquities
come of the Lord; for he doeth that which is good among the children of men;
and he doeth nothing save it be plain unto the children of men; and he inviteth them all to come unto him
and partake of his goodness; and he denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free,
male and female; and he remembereth the heathen; and all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile. (2 Nephi 26:33)
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End: Racism in the Book of Mormon
=========================================================
=========================================================
Brigham Young, 2nd Prophet
of the Mormon Church
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1/3) Brigham Young said Mormons supported slavery in
Missouri.
"In
our first settlement in Missouri, it was said by our enemies that we intended
to tamper with the slaves, not that we had any idea of the kind, for such a
thing never entered our minds. We knew
that the children of Ham were to be the ‘servant of servants,’
(2/3) Brigham Young said Mormons supported slavery in
Missouri.
“and
no power under heaven could hinder it, so long as the Lord would permit them to
welter under the curse and those were known to be our religious views
concerning them."
(3/3) Brigham Young said Mormons supported slavery in
Missouri.
This was part of
Brigham Young, 2nd Prophet of
The Mormon Church, Sunday Service Massage given to the self-proclaimed
latter-day saints, in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Utah, February 18, 1855.
(A discourse
by President Brigham Young, 2nd false Prophet of LDS Church delivered
in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Feb. 18, 1855, Journal
of Discourses, an official
Mormon Church Publication, Vol. 2 p172)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1/2)
Brigham Young 2nd
prophet of the Mormon Church preached this racism non-sense in his Sunday
Service Message to the self-proclaimed latter-day saints in The Tabernacle,
Salt Lake City, October 9,
1859.
"You
see some classes of the human family that are black, uncouth, uncomely,
disagreeable and low in their habits, wild, and seemingly derived of nearly all
the blessings of the intelligence that is generally bestowed upon mankind.” (continued)
(2/2) Brigham Young 2nd
prophet of the Mormon Church preached this racism in his Sunday Service
Message…
“….The
first man that committed the odious crime of killing one of his brethren will
be cursed the longest of any one of the children of Adam.”
Brigham Young preached
this racism in his Sunday Service Message to the self-proclaimed latter-day
saints in The Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, October 9, 1859.
(Journal
of Discourses, an official
Mormon Church Publication, Vol. 7 p290)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE CHILDREN OF
CAIN CANNOT RECEIVE THE FIRST ORDINANCES OF THE PRIESTHOOD. They were the first
that were cursed, and they will be the
last from whom the curse will be removed. When the residue of the family of
Adam come up and receive their blessings, then the curse will be removed from the seed of Cain, and
they will receive blessings in like proportion."
Brigham Young, 2nd
false Prophet of the Mormon Church, preached this racism as part of his Sunday
Service Message to the self-proclaimed latter-day saints in The Tabernacle,
Salt Lake City, October 9 1859.
(Journal of Discourses,
an official Mormon Church Publication, Vol. 7 pp 290-291)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1/2) Brigham Young, 2nd false Prophet
of the Mormon Church, preached his Mormon exalted man god’s racism to the
self-proclaimed latter-day saints
in The
Tabernacle, as part of his Sunday Service Message, Salt Lake City, October 9 1859.
“You see some classes of the human family that
are black, uncouth, uncomely, disagreeable and low in their habits, wild and
seemingly deprived of nearly all the blessings of the intelligence that is generally bestowed upon mankind…”
------------------------------------------
(2/2) Brigham Young, 2nd false Prophet
of the Mormon Church, preached his Mormon exalted man god’s racism to the
self-proclaimed latter-day saints
in The
Tabernacle, as part of his Sunday Service Message, Salt Lake City, October 9 1859.
“CAIN SLEW HIS BROTHER.
Cain might have been killed, and that would put a termination to that line of
human beings. This was not to be, and the Lord PUT A MARK UPON HIM, WHICH WAS
THE FLAT NOSE AND BLACK SKIN.”
(Journal of Discourses, an official Mormon Church
Publication, Vol. 7 p290)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1/2) Brigham
Young was no friend of the abolitionists, as he preached against them in Sunday
Sermon to the self-proclaimed latter-day saints in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake
City, March 8, 1863.
“The rank, rabid
abolitionists, whom I call black-hearted Republicans, have set the whole
national fabric on fire. Do you know this, Democrats? They have kindled the
fire that is raging now from the north to the south, and from the south to the
north.” (continued, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 10 p110)
(2/2) Brigham
Young was no friend of the abolitionists, …
“I am no
abolitionist, neither am I a proslavery man; I hate some of their principles
and especially some of their conduct, as I do the gates of hell.
The Southerners
make the negroes, and the Northerners worship them; this is all the difference
between slaveholders and abolitionists. I would like the President of the
United States and all the world to hear this.”
(Journal of Discourses, an official Mormon Church Publication, Vol. 10 p110)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shall I tell you
the law of God in regard to the African race? If the white man who belongs to
the chosen seed mixes his blood with the seed of Cain, the penalty, under the
law of God, is death on the spot. This will always be so. The nations of the
earth have transgressed every law that God has given, they have changed the
ordinances and broken every covenant made with the fathers, and they are like a
hungry man that dreameth that he eateth, and heawaketh and behold he is empty.
The following saying of the prophet is fulfilled: "Now also many nations
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brigham Young
preached this racisms in his Sunday Sermon to the self-proclaimed latter-day
saints in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, March 8, 1863
(1/2) Brigham
Young, 2nd false prophet of the Mormon Church, preached the racism of the
exalted man god of the Mormon Church.
“SHALL I TELL YOU
THE LAW OF GOD IN REGARD TO THE AFRICAN RACE? IF THE WHITE MAN WHO BELONGS TO
THE CHOSEN SEED MIXES HIS BLOOD WITH THE SEED OF CAIN, the penalty, under the
law of God, is death on the spot. This will always be so.”
(2/2) Brigham
Young, 2nd false prophet of the Mormon Church, preached the racism of the
exalted man god of the Mormon Church.
This was part of Brigham
Young’s Sunday Sermon to the self-proclaimed latter-day saints in the
Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Utah, March 8, 1863.
(Journal of Discourses,
an official Mormon Church Publication, Vol. 10 p110)
Mormonism is
steeped in racism.
Brigham Young, 2nd
false Prophet of the Mormon Church, preached this racism as part of his Sunday
Service Message to the self-proclaimed latter-day saints in The Tabernacle,
Salt Lake City, March 8, 1863.
(Journal
of Discourses, an official
Mormon Church Publication, Vol. 10 p110)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If the Government of the United States, in Congress
assembled, had the right to pass an anti-polygamy bill, they had also the right
to pass a law that slaves should not be abused as they have been; they had also
a right to make a law that negroes should be used like human beings, and not
worse than dumb brutes. For their abuse of that race, the whites will be
cursed, unless they repent.
I am neither an abolitionist nor a proslavery man. If I
could have been influenced by private injury to choose one side in preference
to the other, I should certainly be against the pro-slavery side of the
question, for it was pro-slavery men that pointed the bayonet at me and my
brethren in Missouri, and said, "Damn you we will kill you." I have
not much love for them, only in the Gospel. I would cause them to repent, if I
could, and make them good men and a good community. I have no fellowship for
their avarice, blindness, and ungodly actions. To be great, is to be good
before the Heavens and before all good men. I will not fellowship the wicked in
their sins, so help me God.
Brigham Young’s Sunday
Sermon to the self-proclaimed latter-day saints in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake
City, March 8, 1863
(Journal of Discourses, an official Mormon Church Publication, Vol. 10 p111)
Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in The Tabernacle, Great
Salt Lake City, Sunday, March 8, 1863
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Why are so many of the
inhabitants of the earth cursed with a sin of blackness? It comes in
consequence of their fathers rejecting the power of the Holy Priesthood, and
the law of God. They will go down to death. And when all the rest of the
children have received their blessings in the Holy Priesthood, then that curse
will be removed from the seed of Cain, and they will then come up and possess
the priesthood, and receive all the blessings which we now are entitled to. The
volition of the creature is free; this is a law of their existence, and the Lord
cannot violate his own law; were he to do that, he would cease to be God”
Brigham Young, Sunday, August 19, 1866, in the Bowery, in Salt Lake City
(Journal of Discourses, an official Mormon Church Publication, Vol. 11 p272).
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End: Brigham
Young, 2nd Prophet of the Mormon Church
=========================================================
=========================================================
John Taylor, 3rd
Mormon Prophet
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Highly
racist statement by John Taylor, 3rd false Prophet of the Mormon
Church Delivered before the so-called Latter-day Saints, at Provo, Sunday
afternoon, August 28, 1881.
"And
after the flood we are told that the curse that had been pronounced upon Cain
was continued through Ham's wife, as he had married a wife of that seed. And
why did it pass through the flood? Because it was necessary that the devil
should have a representation upon the earth as well as God...."
(Journal of Discourses, an official Mormon Church Publication, Vol. 22 p304)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"..after the flood we are told that the CURSE that had been
pronounced UPON CAIN was continued through Ham's wife, as he had married a wife
of that seed. And why did it pass through the flood? Because it was necessary
that the DEVIL should have a representation a upon a the earth.."
John Taylor 3rd false Mormon Prophet, proclaimed
their Mormon exalted man god’s racism to the self-proclaimed latter-day saints
on a Sunday Afternoon, August 28, 1881 in Provo Utah
(Journal of Discourses, an official Mormon Church Publication, Vol. 22 p304)
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End:
John Taylor, 3rd Mormon Prophet
=========================================================
=========================================================
David O. McKay, 9th
Prophet of the Mormon Church
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“I know of no scriptural basis for denying the Priesthood to
Negroes other than one verse in the Book of Abraham 1:26.”
David O. McKay, 9th false Prophet of the Mormon
Church, quoting a verse from a book sacred only to Mormons, “The Pearl of Great
Price”
David O. McKay, 9th false Prophet of the Mormon
Church, quoting a verse from a book sacred only to Mormons, “The Pearl of Great
Price”
(The Church and the Negro by John Lewis Lund, page 91, where
he quotes
David O. McKay)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
End: David O. McKay, 9th Prophet of the
Mormon Church
=========================================================
=========================================================
Joseph Fielding
Smith, 10th Prophet of the
Mormon Church
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"There is a
reason why ONE MAN IS BORN BLACK AND WITH OTHER DISADVANTAGES, while ANOTHER IS
BORN WHITE WITH GREAT ADVANTAGES. The reason is that we once had an estate
before we came here, and were obedient, more or less, to the laws that were
given us there. THOSE WHO WERE FAITHFUL IN ALL THINGS THERE RECEIVED GREATER
BLESSINGS HERE, AND THOSE WHO WERE NOT FAITHFUL RECEIVED LESS."
Joseph Fielding
Smith 10th Mormon prophet wrote this racist statement in his book, Doctrines of
Salvation V 1 p61
"There were
no neutrals in the war in heaven. All took sides either with Christ or with
Satan. Every man had his agency there, and men receive rewards here based upon
their actions there, just as they will receive rewards hereafter for deeds done
in the body. The Negro, evidently, is receiving the reward he merits."
(Doctrines of
Salvation, by Joseph Fielding Smith pp65-66)
There is a reason why one man
is born black and with other disadvantages, while another is born white with
great advantages. The reason is that we once had an estate before we came here,
and were obedient; more or less, to the laws that were given us there. Those
who were faithful in all things there [pre-existence] received greater
blessings here, and those who were not faithful received less. . . . Joseph
Fielding Smith,
(Doctrines of
Salvation, by Joseph Fielding Smith pp65-66)
Mormons believe that Lucifer became Satan when he rebelled
and was thrown out of heaven with a third of the spirits. As for the other two
thirds, one third was faithful and stayed with Jesus in the battle. The other
and last third didn't fight as valiantly, but all the remaining two thirds were
the spirit children of God the Father and His wives. The ones who were faithful
to Jesus are born as babies with white skin.
(Doctrines of Salvation, by Joseph Fielding Smith Vol.1 p61)
Mormonism is steeped in racism
Mormon web sites sure paint a retouched glossy picture of their dark
history and prevented version of the gospel.
Mormon teaching says some are cursed because of the dark skin.
The Bible teaches,
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; (Romans 3:23)
For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus
Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
End: Joseph Fielding Smith, 10th Prophet of the Mormon Church
=========================================================
=========================================================
Ezra Taft Benson, 13th
Prophet of the Mormon Church
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“The arm of flesh may not approve
nor understand why God has not bestowed the priesthood on women or the seed of
Cain [Blacks], but God’s ways are not man’s ways”
Ezra Taft Benson 13th false Prophet of the Mormon Church, Made this
declaration in front of the so-called latter-day saints at their semi-Annual
General Conference in Salt Lake City first week in Oct. 1967
(Conference Reports, October
1967 p34)
You can go to a Mormon web site and be duped into thinking none of their
false prophets were racists.
The answer is obvious; the polygamist exalted man god of
Mormonism is a racist.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
End: Ezra Taft Benson, 13th Prophet of
the Mormon Church
=========================================================
=========================================================
Mark E.
Petersen, Apostle
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Think of
the Negro, cursed as to the priesthood...This Negro, who in the pre-existence
lived the type of life which justified the Lord in sending him to the earth in
the lineage of Cain with a black skin, and possibly being born in darkest
Africa--If that Negro is faithful all his days, he can and will enter the
celestial kingdom. He will go there as a SERVANT.”
Mark E.
Petersen, LDS Apostle, addresses The Convention of
Teachers of Religion on the College Level, BYU, Provo, Utah Aug 27, 1954
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1/2) Mormon theology is steeped in racism.
“Think of
the Negro, cursed as to the priesthood... [In 1978 Blacks were told they could
now hold the priesthood] This Negro, who in the pre-existence lived the type of
life which justified the Lord in sending him to the earth in the lineage of
Cain with a black skin, and possibly being born in darkest Africa--IF THAT NEGRO
IS FAITHFUL ALL HIS DAYS, he can and will ENTER THE CELESTIAL KINGDOM. He will
go there AS A SERVANT.”
(2/2) Mormon theology is steeped in racism.
--IF THAT
NEGRO IS FAITHFUL ALL HIS DAYS, he can and will ENTER THE CELESTIAL KINGDOM. He
will go there AS A SERVANT.”
Mark E. Petersen, ordained Mormon Apostle, ”Race
Problems – As They Affect The Church”
addresses The Convention of Teachers of Religion on the College
Level, BYU, Provo, Utah Aug 27, 1954
It was Mormon so-called Prophet, Mormon so-called Apostle
and members of the Mormon Quorum of Seventy that came up with what is depicted
in this video.
=========================================================
(1/4) Racism in Mormon theology runs deep.
“We cannot escape
the conclusion that because of PERFORMANCE IN THE PRE-EXISTENCE SOME OF US ARE
BORN as Chinese, some as Japanese, some as Indians, some as Negroes, some as
Americans, some AS LATTER-DAY SAINTS. THESE ARE REWARDS AND PUNISHMENTS, fully in
harmony with His established policy in dealing with sinners and saints,
rewarding all according to their deeds”
(2/4) Racism in Mormon theology runs deep.
This was part of Mark E.
Petersen, an Ordained Mormon Apostle, addresses to The Convention of
Teachers of Religion on the College Level, BYU, Provo, Utah Aug 27, 1954, The posted title of the message was “Race
Problems – As They Affect The Church”
(3/4) Racism in
Mormon theology runs deep.
I wrote the
following to help clarify what Petersen was saying, as Mormons attach certain
meanings to the term they use.
Performance in the
pre-existence in Mormonism is how we performed in our existence the Mormonism
heavenly father and mothers before we came to earth. (Continued)
(4/4) Racism in Mormon theology runs deep.
I wrote the
following… (Continuing)
Some were more
valiant the others.
[THE REWARD]
Because some were much more valiant were rewarded by being born into Mormon
families; “…some of us are born…as Latter-day Saints.”
[THE PUNISHMENT],
the inference is clear regarding the rest of us. We were born into families
that were less valiant.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“We cannot escape
the conclusion that because of performance in the pre-existence some of us are
born as Chinese, some as Japanese, some as Indians, some as Negroes, some as
Americans, some as latter-day saints. these are rewards and punishments, fully in
harmony with His established policy in dealing with sinners and saints,
rewarding all according to their deeds”
Mark E. Petersen, ordained Mormon Apostle,”Race
Problems – As They Affect The Church”
addresses The Convention of Teachers of Religion on the College
Level, BYU, Provo, Utah Aug 27, 1954
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
End: Mark E. Petersen, Apostle
=========================================================
=========================================================
George F. Richards,
Apostle
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mormonism is steeped in racism; through recently they try
and conceal it.
(1/2) In Mormon theology Blacks are less valiant.
“The NEGRO RACE have been forbidden the priesthood, and
the higher temple blessings, presumably because of their NOT HAVING BEEN
VALIANT while in the spirit. It does not pay to be anything but valiant”
(2/2) In Mormon theology Blacks are less valiant.
THIS RACIST STATEMENT part of the self-proclaimed latter-day saints’
semi-Annual Conference in Salt Lake City first week in Oct. 1947 by
George F. Richards, an Ordained Apostle later was President of the Quorum of
Twelve Apostles. (Conference Reports, Oct. 1947 p57)
(2:35-2:58) Banned
Mormon Cartoon - EXTENDED VERSION
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“The Negro race have been forbidden the priesthood, and
the higher temple blessings, presumably because of their not having been
valiant while in the spirit. It does not pay to be anything but valiant”
This racist teaching by George F. Richards, an ordained
Apostle later President of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles, to the
self-proclaimed latter-day saints during their semi-Annual Conference in Salt
Lake City, Oct. 1947 (Conference
Reports, Oct. 1947 p57)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
End: George F. Richards, Apostle
=========================================================
=========================================================
Interesting comments by a BYU Professor Randy Bott
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“God has always
been discriminatory” when it comes to whom he grants the authority of the
priesthood, says Bott... Bott compares blacks with a young child prematurely
asking for the keys to her father’s car, and explains that similarly until 1978, the Lord determined that
blacks were not yet ready for the priesthood.
“What is
discrimination?” Bott asks. “I think that is keeping something from somebody
that would be a benefit for them, right?
*cont*
But what if it
wouldn’t have been a benefit to them?” Bott says that the denial of the
priesthood to blacks on Earth—although not in the afterlife—protected them from
the lowest rungs of hell reserved for people who abuse their priesthood powers.
“You couldn’t fall off the top of the ladder, because you weren’t on the top
of the ladder. So, in reality the blacks not having the priesthood was the
greatest blessing God could give them.”....BYU Prof Randy Bott
=========================================================
http://bycommonconsent.com/2004/04/21/a-statement-from-the-first-presidency/
A Statement from the First Presidency:
April 21, 2004 — Aaron B
“August
17, 1949
The
attitude of the Church with reference to Negroes remains as it has always
stood. It is not a matter of the declaration of a policy but of direct
commandment from the Lord, on which is founded the doctrine of the Church from
the days of its organization, to the effect that Negroes may become members of
the Church but that they are not entitled to the priesthood at the present
time. The prophets of the Lord have made several statements as to the operation
of the principle. President Brigham Young said: “Why are so many of the
inhabitants of the earth cursed with a skin of blackness? It comes in
consequence of their fathers rejecting the power of the holy priesthood, and
the law of God. They will go down to death. And when all the rest of the
children have received their blessings in the holy priesthood, then that curse
will be removed from the seed of Cain, and they will then come up and possess
the priesthood, and receive all the blessings which we now are entitled to.”
President
Wilford Woodruff made the following statement: “The day will come when all that
race will be redeemed and possess all the blessings which we now have.”
The
position of the Church regarding the Negro may be understood when another
doctrine of the Church is kept in mind, namely, that the conduct of spirits in
the premortal existence has some determining effect upon the conditions and
circumstances under which these spirits take on mortality and that while the
details of this principle have not been made known, the mortality is a
privilege that is given to those who maintain their first estate; and that the
worth of the privilege is so great that spirits are willing to come to earth
and take on bodies no matter what the handicap may be as to the kind of bodies
they are to secure; and that among the handicaps, failure of the right to enjoy
in mortality the blessings of the priesthood is a handicap which spirits are
willing to assume in order that they might come to earth. Under this principle
there is no injustice whatsoever involved in this deprivation as to the holding
of the priesthood by the Negroes.
The
First Presidency”
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
End: Interesting
comments by a BYU Professor Randy Bott
=========================================================
Joseph A Smith Niggers JoD 5:110
The Book of Mormon, 1830 the original version of, as Joseph
Smith stated, “…the most correct book of any book on earth”, was racist. The phrase,
“white and delightsome” appears in several places through the book.
Brigham Young 2nd false prophet of the
self-proclaimed latter-day saints was even more of an outspoken racist. Many of the Mormon leaders made very racist
statement. Mormon theology is steeped in racism, though today they try and
conceal it.
“The Lord” of Mormonism as Joseph Smith declared is nothing
more than an exalted man who became a god. Other false Mormon prophets and
teachers went on to teach this exalted man god, who is a racist, and a
polygamist.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There is a reason
why one man is born black and with other disadvantages, while another is born white
with great advantages. The reason is that we once had an estate before we came
here, and were obedient; more or less, to the laws that were given us there. Those who were faithful in all things
there [pre-existence] received greater blessings here, and those who were not
faithful received less. . . . Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation,
1:61, 65-66
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
=========================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Why would a
mormon prophet call another human “NIGGER”? Jesus never spoke this filth!
John Taylor 3rd
Prophet of the Mormon Church concerning the abolitionist “This Greeley is one
of their popular characters in the East, and one that supports the stealing of
NIGGERS and the underground railroad....he is one of the prominent newspaper
editors in the Eastern country, and he is a POOR, MISERABLE CURSE.” (Journal of
Discourses, Vol. 5, page 119)
Mormons at your door will not tell you their prophet did
this evil.
"Thursday, 8--Held Mayor's court and tried two negroes
for attempting to marry two white women: fined one $25, and the other $5"
.(Joseph Fielding Smith, Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, ; History of
the Church,6-210 ). What a bigot is the founder of the mormon religion. He does
not reflect Jesus Christ in his words or behavior. Read Acts 8 for how the
Holy Spirit behaves toward the African.
THE LAWS OF GOD RELATIVE TO THE AFRICAN RACE.
Remarks by President Brigham Young, made in the Tabernacle,
Great Salt Lake City, Sunday, March 8, 1863.
Reported by G. D. Watt.
“Shall I tell you the law of god in regard to the African
race? If the white man belongs to the chosen seed mixes his blood with the
seed of Cain the penalty is death on the spot. This will always be”. Journals
of Discourses (10:110) This is a false prophet and a bigot god.
*We don't believe
that the neutral were cursed with darkened skin!*
Well Joseph
Fielding Smith obviously did when he wrote it in Doctrines of Salvation, George
Albert Smith obviously did when he supported the 1949 official statement on the
subject and David O McKay did when he supported the 1951 official statement on the
subject . . . by the mouths of 2 or 3 witnesses, eh? It started in the 19th century with Orson Pratt
and continued until the late 70's.
*We've never said
cursed people are born with black skin.*
You should have
told George Albert Smith, David O McKay and Joseph Fielding Smith that before
they produced the August 17, 1949 official statement of the first presidency or Joseph Fielding Smith wrote many books to
that effect.
The part about black
people used to be a half-truth . . . black people were 'less valiant', not
'neutral'--at least, that was the story until 1978.
It was an
explanation taught by prophets in the 1800's and officially repeated until
1966. Prophets until 1966 didn't have the brilliant idea to pray about whether
what the prophet said was true, though. They were teaching teachings that
former prophets gave as men, but they weren't "Preaching for doctrine the
precepts of men".
In Mormonism the
seed of Cain and Ham are the Africans who where cursed black in the Pearl of Great Price (This is not in the HOLY BIBLE)
". . . there
was a blackness came upon all the children of Canaan, that they were despised
among all people . . . (Pearl of Great Price, Moses 7:8)."
"And . . .
they were a mixture of all the seed of Adam save it was the seed of Cain, for
the seed of Cain were black, and had not place among
them (Pearl of
Great Price, Moses 7:22)
Joseph Fielding Smith said
"There were no neutrals in the war in heaven [got that right]. All took
sides either with Christ or with Satan, and men reap rewards here based on
their conduct there, just as they will reap rewards hereafter for deeds done
in the flesh--the Negro, evidently is receiving the reward he merits" You
should have shared your knowledge of what Mormons believe with Joseph Fielding.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
=========================================================
From:
TruthSeeker211
( PROPHET)) = A
person who speaks by divine inspiration or as the interpreter through whom the
will of a god is expressed
((SEER)) = an
authoritative person who divines the future
((REVELATOR)) =
one that reveals the will of God.
Look what your
MORmON PROPHETS say
Joseph Smith
"...rebellious NIGGERS... " (Millennial Star,22:602)"
JOHN TAYLOR
"...stealing of NIGGERS..."[Journal of Discourses,Vol. 5 page 119]
George A.
Smith...dead NIGGER'S...(Journal of Discourses, 5:110).
Mormon SCRIPTURES
Mormon God turns
the seed of CAIN BLACK>
"..A
BLACKNESS came upon all the children of Canaan..(Moses 7:8)"
seed of CAIN are
now BLACK>
SEED OF CAIN
KEEPS CURSE ON LAND THROUGH HAM>
BLACK SEED of
CAIN CAN NOT HOLD THE PRIESTHOOD>
=========================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE BOOK of Mormon says God
"cursed" the Lamanites (whom Joseph Smith alleged were originally
white-skinned Palestinian Jews from the family of Laman, son of Lehi, who
settled in the New World around the year 600 B.C.) in retaliation for their
sins by turning them into Indians with dark skin and hair (1 Nephi 12:23; 2 Nephi 5:21-24; Jacob 3:3-5; Alma 3:6; Mormon 5:15).
The bit about
people with dark skin being cursed hasn't been doctrine since 1966; there was
the official statement where they called it doctrine on August 17, 1949. Joseph
Fielding Smith wrote extensively on the topic, and it has been taught by
prophets between 1890 and 1966
*Oh yeah, god, "his
wife" and company were all blonde.*
They are just
"white and delightsome". . .
interestingly, the dark skinned people from the Book of Mormon who turned to
following Jesus in 3 Nephi had their skin turn white.
"The
negroes are not equal with other races where the receipt of certain spiritual
blessings are concerned, ...but this inequality is not of man's origin. it is
the lord's doing, is based on his eternal laws of justice, and grows out of the
lack of spiritual valiance of those concerned in their first estate [the Mormon
pre-existence]." LDS "Apostle" Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon
Doctrine, p. 527 - 528, 1966 edition,
"Those
who were less valiant in pre-existence and who thereby had certain spiritual
restrictions imposed upon them during mortality are known to us as the
NEGROES." LDS "Apostle" Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, p.
527, 1966 edition,
Ham
will continue to be servant of servants, as the Lord decreed, until the curse
is removed. Will the present struggle [the U.S. civil war] free the slave?
No.... Can you destroy the decrees of the Almighty? You cannot." Brigham
Young,2nd Prophet of the Mormon Church, Journal of Discourses, Vol.
10, p. 250, 1863.
---------------
"Not
only was Cain called upon to suffer, but because of his wickedness he became
THE FATHER OF AN INFERIOR RACE. A curse was placed upon him and that curse has
been continued through his lineage and must do so WHILE TIME ENDURES. Millions
of souls have come into this world cursed with a BLACK SKIN and have been
DENIED THE PRIVILEGE OF PRIESTHOOD and the fulness of the blessings of the
Gospel. These are the descendants of Cain. ...cont
Moreover,
they have been made to FEEL THEIR INFERIORITY and have been SEPARATED from the
rest of mankind from the beginning. Enoch saw the people of Canaan, descendants
of Cain, and he says, 'and there was a blackness came upon all the children of
Canaan, that they were DESPISED
AMONG
ALL PEOPLE.'" LDS "Prophet" Joseph Fielding Smith, The Way to
Perfection, pp. 101-102, 1931
"CASTE
SYSTEMS have their root and origin in the gospel itself, and when they operate
according to the DIVINE DECREE, the resultant RESTRICTIONS AND SEGREGATION ARE
RIGHT AND PROPER and have the APPROVAL OF THE LORD. To illustrate: Cain, Ham, and
the whole negro race have been cursed with a black skin, the mark of Cain, so
they can be identified as A CASTE APART, a people with whom the other
descendants of Adam should NOT INTERMARRY." Bruce McConkie, Mormon
Doctrine, pp. 108-109
Let
us consider the great mercy of God for a moment.a Chinese,born in China with a
dark skin,and with all the handicaps of that race seems to have little
opportunity but think of the mercy of god to Chinese people who are willing to
accept the gospel In spite of whatever they might have done in the
pre-existence to justify being born over there as Chinamen...LDS Apostle Mark
E. Petersen(Race Problems--As They Affect the Church,August 27,1954,address at
CES convention at BYU)
Now,
my brothers and sisters, I would like you to understand that long before we
were born into this earth we were tested and tried in our pre-existence, and
the fact that of the thousands of children born today, a certain proportion of
them went to the Hottentots of South Africa; thousands went to the Chinese
mothers; thousands went to Negro mothers; thousands to beautiful white
Latter-day Saint mothers:... (LDS MORMON Apostle Melvin Joseph Ballard Sermons
and Missionary Services)
“...I
want to talk to you a little bit now about something that is not missionary
work,and what I say is NOT to
be given to your investigators by any matter of means...Why is it that you are
white and not colored?...and not born a Chinese or a Hindu, or a Negro? Is God
such an unjust person that He would make you white and free and make a Negro
CURSED under the CURSING OF CAIN that he sould not hold the Priesthood...
( LDS
MORmON Apostle Alvin R. Dyer March 18,1961)
"If
that Negro is faithful all his days, he can and will enter the celestial kingdom.
He will go there as a servant, but he will get a celestial resurrection."
-Apostle Mark E. Petersen (Convention of Teachers of Religion, BYU, August 27, 1954)"
-Apostle Mark E. Petersen (Convention of Teachers of Religion, BYU, August 27, 1954)"
-----------------------------------
21 Now this king of Egypt was a descendant from the loins of Ham, and was a partaker of the blood of the Canaanites by birth.
This teaches LDS Mormons that the king of Egypt (a Black African) can't have the priesthood because he is of the seed of CAIN.
WITCHCRAFT, SATANISM AND OCCULT CRIME: A MANUAL OF REFERENCE MATERIALS FOR THE PROFESSIONAL INVESTIGATOR
(1991)
Part 1
WITCHCRAFT, SATANISM AND OCCULT CRIME: A MANUAL OF REFERENCE MATERIALS FOR THE PROFESSIONAL INVESTIGATOR
PART 2
WITCHCRAFT, SATANISM AND OCCULT CRIME: A MANUAL OF REFERENCE MATERIALS FOR THE PROFESSIONAL INVESTIGATOR
Part 3
WITCHCRAFT, SATANISM AND OCCULT CRIME: A MANUAL OF REFERENCE MATERIALS FOR THE PROFESSIONAL INVESTIGATOR
Part 4
WITCHCRAFT, SATANISM AND OCCULT CRIME: A MANUAL OF REFERENCE MATERIALS FOR THE PROFESSIONAL INVESTIGATOR
Part 5
WITCHCRAFT, SATANISM AND OCCULT CRIME: A MANUAL OF REFERENCE MATERIALS FOR THE PROFESSIONAL INVESTIGATOR
Part 6
WITCHCRAFT, SATANISM AND OCCULT CRIME: A MANUAL OF REFERENCE MATERIALS FOR THE PROFESSIONAL INVESTIGATOR
Part 7
WITCHCRAFT, SATANISM AND OCCULT CRIME: A MANUAL OF REFERENCE MATERIALS FOR THE PROFESSIONAL INVESTIGATOR
Part 8
WITCHCRAFT, SATANISM AND OCCULT CRIME: A MANUAL OF REFERENCE MATERIALS FOR THE PROFESSIONAL INVESTIGATOR
Part 9
WITCHCRAFT, SATANISM AND OCCULT CRIME: A MANUAL OF REFERENCE MATERIALS FOR THE PROFESSIONAL INVESTIGATOR
Part 10
WITCHCRAFT, SATANISM AND OCCULT CRIME: A MANUAL OF REFERENCE MATERIALS FOR THE PROFESSIONAL INVESTIGATOR
Part 11
WITCHCRAFT, SATANISM AND OCCULT CRIME: A MANUAL OF REFERENCE MATERIALS FOR THE PROFESSIONAL INVESTIGATOR
Part 12
WITCHCRAFT, SATANISM AND OCCULT CRIME: A MANUAL OF REFERENCE MATERIALS FOR THE PROFESSIONAL INVESTIGATOR
Part 13
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