S02E96 - Two Gospels on Marriage: Utah Sermons vs. What Joseph, Hyrum & Emma Published
HumblyMyBrain
733 views
Between 1852 and 1878, leading men of the LDS Church in Utah taught that plural marriage was a public test of exaltation. In the Journal of Discourses, Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, Orson Pratt, and Joseph F. Smith said that a man who would not enter the practice—or at least receive it as a living commandment—could not obtain Abraham’s fullness, could not become a god, and would be damned. Those sermons are hard to reconcile with what Joseph, Hyrum, and Emma Smith published while Joseph was alive: the 1835 marriage article (“one man should have one wife”), Doctrine and Covenants 42:22 and 49:16, the 1838 Elders’ Journal denial, Joseph’s 1843 order to try teachers of plurality, his 1844 public answer that he could find only one wife, and Hyrum’s 1844 Times and Seasons letter calling the doctrine false. The text now called Doctrine and Covenants 132 was first printed for the Church in 1852, eight years after Joseph and Hyrum were dead; Emma later said she had never seen that document or any manuscript authorizing polygamy, and that Joseph never taught her those principles. This episode sets the contemporaneous public record beside the later Utah requirement and the modern Church’s return to monogamy as “God’s standard.”
👉 Full essay and sources: https://humblymybrain.substack.com/p/...
Explore the full Polygamy Origins Directory
If this topic interests you, I’ve compiled a comprehensive master directory of all my research on the origins of polygamy in early Latter Day Saint history:
👉 Exploring the Origins of Polygamy in Mormonism: A Directory of Historical Analyses and Denials: https://humblymybrain.substack.com/p/...
It organizes primary sources, pre-1844 official statements, testimonies, RLDS responses, and deeper analyses showing that Joseph Smith neither taught nor practiced plural marriage. Bookmark it as a one-stop resource for the evidence.
Disclaimer: This article is not in any way affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, its leaders, or its official organizations. It represents my personal analysis and reflections as an independent student of the Restoration and its scriptures. The views expressed here are solely my own.
2 Comments
The whole point of knowing the Lord is to walk in His virtue, His morality [Romans 1:22-32; 2 Timothy 3:1-7], and His character! If you are married and look upon another woman to lust after her, ye “hath committed adultery with her in his heart already” (Mathew 5: 27-28; JST Mathew 5: 29-31) (3 Nephi 12:27-30). I do not know how any man in their right mind who is married could conceive of departing from that holy relationship of marriage to one woman and entertain polygamy as an alternative and call it justified before God… to this the Lord said: “ye have blasphemed against me in the midst of [your own body temple] my house, saith the Lord” (D&C 112: 26). “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; [damn] for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. Let no man deceive himself.” "Let no man deceive himself," Let no man deceive himself." I don't know about you, but I would say the brethren who lead the LDS Church today are prophetic prophecies of "Let no man deceive himself."
(New Testament | 1 Corinthians 3:16 - 18)
S02E96 - Two Gospels on Marriage: Utah Sermons vs. What Joseph, Hyrum & Emma Published
HumblyMyBrain
733 views
Between 1852 and 1878, leading men of the LDS Church in Utah taught that plural marriage was a public test of exaltation. In the Journal of Discourses, Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, Orson Pratt, and Joseph F. Smith said that a man who would not enter the practice—or at least receive it as a living commandment—could not obtain Abraham’s fullness, could not become a god, and would be damned. Those sermons are hard to reconcile with what Joseph, Hyrum, and Emma Smith published while Joseph was alive: the 1835 marriage article (“one man should have one wife”), Doctrine and Covenants 42:22 and 49:16, the 1838 Elders’ Journal denial, Joseph’s 1843 order to try teachers of plurality, his 1844 public answer that he could find only one wife, and Hyrum’s 1844 Times and Seasons letter calling the doctrine false. The text now called Doctrine and Covenants 132 was first printed for the Church in 1852, eight years after Joseph and Hyrum were dead; Emma later said she had never seen that document or any manuscript authorizing polygamy, and that Joseph never taught her those principles. This episode sets the contemporaneous public record beside the later Utah requirement and the modern Church’s return to monogamy as “God’s standard.”
👉 Full essay and sources: https://humblymybrain.substack.com/p/...
Explore the full Polygamy Origins Directory
If this topic interests you, I’ve compiled a comprehensive master directory of all my research on the origins of polygamy in early Latter Day Saint history:
👉 Exploring the Origins of Polygamy in Mormonism: A Directory of Historical Analyses and Denials: https://humblymybrain.substack.com/p/...
It organizes primary sources, pre-1844 official statements, testimonies, RLDS responses, and deeper analyses showing that Joseph Smith neither taught nor practiced plural marriage. Bookmark it as a one-stop resource for the evidence.
Disclaimer: This article is not in any way affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, its leaders, or its official organizations. It represents my personal analysis and reflections as an independent student of the Restoration and its scriptures. The views expressed here are solely my own.