Mormon Polygamy LDS Video

A brief history of how Joseph Smith began Mormon polygamy, and how it ended.

[RKKJ]

This is a wonderful rundown! Thanks for making the video :)

[venus]

I love these videos. so clean cut and to the point ... all facts. Fantastic. bonus: the speaker is cute. ;)

[ldsvideoencyclopedia]

@scottwins2 So its only mob mentality if its not the Mormon people? Are you referring to the three witnesses to the BOM, all of whom were excommunicated from the church and Joseph even said some of them were untrustworthy? Or witnesses to the visions in the Nauvoo temple dedication who were known to have been drinking? I have no reason to believe anything Smith claimed.

[backcountryjame]

Excellent, this brings together all of my research on this topic. I really enjoyed this! THANKS!

[Spaseebo]

It fascinates me that even one month before he was killed in the gunfight. Joseph Smith was PUBLICLY denying his polygamy. Here's what he said: "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."
(History of the Church, vol 6, p. 411)
Joseph Smith made this statement preaching from the stand to the Latter-day Saints in Nauvoo on Sunday May 26, 1844. At the time he had at least 34 wives. The statement was made just a month before he was killed on June 27. This is one very obvious example of Joseph Smith's lying publicly.
When the mob approached the cell, Joseph fired the pepperbox pistol into the crowd, wounding three men (Dallin H. Oaks and Marvin S. Hill, Carthage Conspiracy, the Trial of the Accused Assassins of Joseph Smith).
The LDS church has acknowledged Joseph Smith's polygamy (up to 40 wives), so they have agreed that he was a liar, too!

In the Doctrine and Covenants of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, section 132 deals with POLYGAMY. The introduction reads:
"Revelation given through Joseph Smith the Prophet, at Nauvoo, Illinois, recorded July 12, 1843, relating to the new and everlasting covenant, including the eternity of the marriage covenant and the principle of plural marriage. Although the revelation was recorded in 1843, evidence indicates that some of the principles involved in this revelation were known by the Prophet as early as 1831. See Official Declaration
1–6, Exaltation is gained through the new and everlasting covenant; 7–14, The terms and conditions of that covenant are set forth; 15–20, Celestial marriage and a continuation of the family unit enable men to become gods; 21–25, The strait and narrow way leads to eternal lives; 26–27, The law is given relative to blasphemy against the Holy Ghost; 28–39, Promises of eternal increase and exaltation are made to prophets and Saints in all ages; 40–47, Joseph Smith is given the power to bind and seal on earth and in heaven; 48–50, The Lord seals upon him his exaltation; 51–57, Emma Smith is counseled to be faithful and true; 58–66, Laws governing plural marriage are set forth.".

Joseph Smith stated: "For behold, I reveal unto you a new and an everlasting covenant; and if ye abide not that covenant, then are ye damned; for no one can reject this covenant and be permitted to enter into my glory.".

How, then, can the Mormon church say that it does NOT approve of polygamy today? It is stuck with an "everlasting covenant" that cannot, by definition, be cancelled !
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[ldsvideoencyclopedia]

@scottwins2 The flipside of your logic is that a bunch of people called those two bad names too, and you don't get bad titles from demonstrably unimpeachable behavior. Does the logic hold?

[ldsvideoencyclopedia]

@scottwins2 You can find references at ldsvideo dot org. No contraceptives in the 1840s? Condoms existed for at least a hundred years before that, not to mention coitus interruptus and abortion. Your assertions are just as baseless as you believe mine to be. I'm convinced by the evidence, but I can understand why you would choose to think its some kind of lying conspiracy.

[ldsvideoencyclopedia]

@rjdnephi No debunking going on there, only hopeful assertions that Smith just COULDN'T have done those things. Nothing I've said has been factually disproven.

[safamuric]

Well I know Joe Smith was a scammer but I am curious, by which proofs people claim this polygamy.

[rev.stephena.cakouros]

According to the local Madam Smith was a regular to at her brothel while in Nauvoo Illinois. If you accept that he was secretly married to a number of women it means that he was one
sick puppy. Mormons practiced polyandry for a while just like the Muslims at their outset. Last I heard there is a dormitory named after one of the women involved at BYU.

[scottvance]

Pretty accurate overall (I have researched this topic extensively). The only thing that I would change is the ending. Do people still practice polygamy - sure. But they are not part of the mainstream mormon movement. They are part of the Fundimentalist LDS or other splinter faiths. Explaining the splinter groups that left the main group around 1930, etc., might be useful and more accurate. Otherwise Mormons will tend to dismiss the whole video as false, when in fact it is 95% correct with only a few slightly misleading statements...

[bh]

I am not a Mormon, but while looking for a Bible in a NY hotel I instead found the Book of Mormon. I decided to find out what it was all about so I read it cover to cover. I had a very odd experience after reading going to sleep I felt I is good and bad in everything and I choose then, electricity flowed all inside my head and I saw golden glitter showering through my eyes. Then my arms started to become paralyzed and it freaked me out and it stopped. But anyone who says that book promotes polygamy is WRONG. That book match all that I learned through being a Lutheran. The Book of Mormon changed my life for, the better!!!!

[hollayevladimiroff]

Fantastic, it is all very disgusting, especially that he married fourteen-year old's and other men's wives. Now you know why he was run out of town or killed; they did not want their daughters marrying a pervert!

[quintenarmijo]

if you read jacob 2:27-29 it says that.
but if you read the next verse jacob 2:30 where god indicates that there are times when he commands His people to live the law of plural marriage, and give reason for why he would do so.

[scottwins]

@ldsvideoencyclopedia Its called the Mob, you should be able to relate, nothing could be said for you to release your poor opinion of Joseph. He had witnesses to what he experienced you don't.

[jamesbaldwin]

Of course polygamy became against the law as the Federal Government passed laws against it (specifically targeting the LDS Church and it's leadership.) In Illinois it was already illegal, but that was unusual. Most states had no such prohabitions.
I'd still like to know (in a country that permits homosexual marriage and transgender athletics) what business does the Federal Government have in dictating who marries who? Is it really the responsibility of the Federal Government to police marital relationships?
Polygamy is legal in approximately 29% of the world right now.
Polygamy is certainly a part of the Bible and the lives of all the Patriarchs and Prophets (especially but not limited to the Old Testament.) Some native Americans were practicing polygamists during the 19th Century.
It's a fact that humans have probably lived in polygamist relationships longer than in monogamous ones.
I'm not a polygamy advocate and would not be in favor of a return to it. I fully recognize and acknowledge potential problems and abuses too, but I resent the intrusion in any private/religious practice or belief, by Uncle Sam. Freedom of Religion is supposed to be an inalienable right in this country (isn't it?) And what about "consenting adults?" Leave under-age marriages aside. What adults choose to do with their lives and who they choose to marry or not, or how many times, should be no one's business but their own.

[Spaseebo]

In the Doctrine and Covenants of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, section 132 deals with POLYGAMY ~~~ and is STILL IN FORCE TODAY (at April 2018).
"Revelation given through Joseph Smith the Prophet, at Nauvoo, Illinois, recorded July 12, 1843, relating to the new and everlasting covenant, including the eternity of the marriage covenant and the principle of plural marriage. Although the revelation was recorded in 1843, evidence indicates that some of the principles involved in this revelation were known by the Prophet as early as 1831.
"Exaltation is gained through the new and everlasting covenant; 7–14, The terms and conditions of that covenant are set forth; 15–20, Celestial marriage and a continuation of the family unit enable men to become gods; 21–25, The strait and narrow way leads to eternal lives; 26–27, The law is given relative to blasphemy against the Holy Ghost; 28–39, Promises of eternal increase and exaltation are made to prophets and Saints in all ages; 40–47, Joseph Smith is given the power to bind and seal on earth and in heaven; 48–50, The Lord seals upon him his exaltation; 51–57, Emma Smith is counseled to be faithful and true; 58–66, Laws governing plural marriage are set forth.".

Joseph Smith states:
"For behold, I reveal unto you a new and an everlasting covenant; and if ye abide not that covenant, then are ye damned; for no one can reject this covenant and be permitted to enter into my glory.".

Section 132 is still in force, not only teaching polygamy, but ordering it! Note that it is an "everlasting covenant", i.e. it lasts forever, cannot be cancelled. You can read Section 132 here:

Brigham Young: "Now if any of you will deny the plurality of wives, and continue to do so, I promise that you will be damned." (Journal of Discourses, Vol. 3, p. 266).
He also stated: "The only men who become Gods, even the Sons of God, are those who enter into polygamy." (Journal of Discourses, Vol. 11, page 269).

How, then, can the Mormon church say that it does NOT teach polygamy today?
WHAT a bind the Latter-day Saints are in ! They cannot enter into Joseph Smith's glory unless they abide by the covenant, and if they do not abide by it, then they are damned !!
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[scottwins]

@ldsvideoencyclopedia Martin Harris and Oliver Cowdery willingly came back to the church solidifying there testimonies of The Angel and the Plates, David Whitmer bore his testimony on his death bed of the visitation then had his testimony put on his tombstone. Accuse accuse does not make factsn Joseph had witnesses.

[CountryballsAledonia]

you are full of that and you know it !!!

[quintenarmijo]

just give up man.
and btw, Joesph smith did not revalate it, he translated it get your faacts straight.