New Book!
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Books by Brian C. Hales dealing with "Mormon
fundamentalist" polygamy:
On August 29, 1852 at a general conference of the Church, President Young commissioned Apostle Orson Pratt to proclaim to the world that plural marriage was a principle of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Elder Pratt explained: “The Latter-day Saints have embraced the doctrine of a plurality of wives, as a part of their religious faith. It is not, as many have supposed, a doctrine embraced by them to gratify the carnal lusts and feelings of man; that is not the object of the doctrine.”[1] The most common explanation advanced by believers argued that Old Testament polygamy needed to be restored.[2]
Through his writings and discourses, Orson Pratt produced more teachings concerning plural marriage than any other priesthood authority in the nineteenth century. In 1874 he explained that the restoration of plural marriage was part of the “restitution of all things” prophesied in Acts 3:20-21: “Inasmuch then as the Lord has promised to restore all things spoken of by the mouth of all the holy Prophets since the world began, supposing that he should begin this great work of restoration in our day, how are we going to help ourselves? I can't help it. Brigham Young, our President, can't help it; Joseph Smith could not help it. If God sees proper to accomplish this great work of restoration--the restitution of all things, it will include… a plurality of wives.”[3]
The need for a restoration of “all things” was also mentioned in the revelation on celestial marriage, section 132: “I am the Lord thy God, and I gave unto thee, my servant Joseph, an appointment, and restore all things. Ask what ye will, and it shall be given unto you according to my word… For I have conferred upon you the keys and power of the priesthood, wherein I restore all things, and make known unto you all things in due time.” (D&C 132:40, 45.) Joseph Smith taught: “God purposed in himself that there should not be an eternal fulness until every dispensation should be fulfilled and gathered together in one and that all things whatsoever that should be gathered together in one in those dispensations… all things had under the Authority of the Priesthood at any former period shall be had again—bringing to pass the restoration spoken of by the mouth of all the Holy Prophets.”[4]
This view continues to be promoted by Utah Church leaders today. While serving as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Gordon B. Hinckley explained: “Mormonism claims to be a restoration of God's work in all previous dispensations. The Old Testament teaches that the patriarchs—those men favored of God in ancient times—had more than one wife under divine sanction. In the course of the development of the Church in the nineteenth century, it was revealed to the leader of the Church that such a practice of marriage again should be entered into.”[5]
Most Bible-believers today express discomfiture with observations that Old Testament patriarchs and others who practiced plural marriage. Despite their distaste, the book itself does not condemn the practice.[6] The New Bible Dictionary concedes: “Polygamy… is not forbidden in Scripture… It is difficult to know how far polygamy was practiced, but on economic grounds it is probable that it was found more among the well-to-do than among the ordinary people.”[7]
Throughout the Old Testament, polygamy is treated with the same level of respect as monogamy. The two options appear to be subject to the individual choices of the men and women involved, choices that carry no inherent level of increased righteousness or wickedness. Men are instructed: “If he take him another wife; her [the first wife’s] food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage, shall he not diminish” (Exodus 21:10, see also Malachi 2:11-15). Regulations concerning the marriage of the daughters of captured enemies are described (Deuteronomy 21:10-14). Direct counsel was also given: “If a man have two wives, one beloved, and another hated, and they have born him children, both the beloved and the hated; and if the firstborn son be hers that was hated: Then it shall be, when he maketh his sons to inherit that which he hath, that he may not make the son of the beloved firstborn before the son of the hated, which is indeed the firstborn” (Deuteronomy 21:15-16).
At times plural marriages were clearly authorized by God. “And Nathan said to David… Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul; And I gave thee thy master's house, and thy master's wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah… (2 Samuel 12:7-8; italics mine).
Not all discussions of polygamy in the Old Testament are positive:
When thou art come unto the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee, and shalt possess it, and shalt dwell therein, and shalt say, I will set a king over me, like as all the nations that [are] about me;
Thou shalt in any wise set [him] king over thee, whom the LORD thy God shall choose: [one] from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee: thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which [is] not thy brother.
But he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses: forasmuch as the LORD hath said unto you, Ye shall henceforth return no more that way.
Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold. (Deuteronomy 17:14-17; italics added.)
Sometimes these verses are cited as a general condemnation of plural marriage.[8] But when kept in context, it appears to constitute a warning against esteeming things, including plural wives, above the Lord.
Apparently polygamy under the law of Moses was more strict than that practiced by the early patriarchs. The Israelites were commanded to not marry sisters or a “woman and her daughter” (Leviticus 18:17-18). In contrast, Jacob married sisters, Rachel and Leah.[9]
In one situation under the Law of Moses, polygamy was actually commanded. “If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger: her husband's brother shall go in unto her, and take her to him to wife, and perform the duty of an husband's brother unto her” (Deuteronomy 25:5). If the deceased husband’s brother was previously married, then marrying his brother’s widow would create a polygamous union. This commandment is called the “levirate” law; the New Bible Dictionary states: “The first instance of this custom occurs in the patriarchal period, where Onan is called upon to marry his brother Er’s widow (Genesis 38:8).”[10] “The name is derived from Lat. Levir. meaning ‘husband’s brother’. When a married man died without a child his brother was expected to take his wife. Children of the marriage counted as children of the first husband.”[11] Apparently the brother could refuse (Deuteronomy 25:6-10) and later directives have been interpreted as contradictory by some interpreters (see Leviticus 18:16; 20:21).[12] However, the levirate law was apparently still valid in Jesus Christ day. The Sadducees referred to it as they posed a question to the Savior regarding the resurrection (Matthew 22:23).
A variety of references to the Old Testament were recruited by Latter-day Saint authors to defend the practice of plural marriage including the observation that within the Savior's genealogical lines were polygamists.[13] The most obvious polygamists among Christ's ancestors are Abraham, Jacob and David.[14]
Defending the practice of polygamy in the Bible, Apostle Orson Pratt taught:
If plurality is offensive in the sight of God, why was Abraham, who practiced it, called the friend of God, and the father of the faithful? Why did the Lord promise that in him, as well as in his seed, all the families of the earth should be blessed? Why require all the families of the earth, under the Christian dispensation, to be adopted into the family of a Polygamist in order to be saved? Why choose a Polygamist to be the father of all saved families? Why require all Christian families in order to be saved, to walk in the steps and do the works of Abraham? Why did God proclaim Himself to be "The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob," and say that this shall "MY NAME AND MY MEMORIAL TO ALL GENERATIONS?" (See Exodus 3: 15.) If Polygamy is not to be sanctioned among the generations of Christendom, why did He represent Himself to be the God of Polygamists, and say that all generations should adopt that memorial of Him? Why choose these Polygamists to be examples for Christians, and say, that many should come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and sit down with them in the kingdom of God? Will Abraham's wives and concubines, and Jacob's four wives be in the kingdom of God with their husbands?...
Did not the Lord greatly bless and prosper Jacob both before and after he became a Polygamist? Did he not continue to give him many revelations and visions, and send hosts of angels to converse with him? If Polygamy were a crime, would not God have informed him of the fact? If it were sinful, would he have saved him in His kingdom without repentance? As Jacob did not repent, but continued a polygamist until his death, and as he was saved, he must have been saved in his sins; for God does not forgive sins without repentance; or, otherwise, polygamy is no sin…
Where was there ever a more holy man than Moses with whom God spake face to face? …Did not God himself give laws through Moses to regulate the descent of property in the families of polygamists? Was not Moses, though a polygamist saved in the kingdom of God? Did not Moses and Elias appear in glory to Peter, James, and John in the holy mount at the time of Christ's transfiguration?...
If polygamy was sinful and criminal, Why did God command the living brother to marry all the widows of his deceased brothers who died without children? Would God command his people under a heavy penalty to commit sin and then punish them for doing it? It must have been a hard case, if the children of Israel were to be cursed if they did not keep the law, and then again to be cursed if they did keep it! yet this must have been the case, if they were to be cursed for being polygamists when the law of God compelled them in certain cases to be such…
If polygamy is not a divine institution why did God command the prophet Hosea to marry two wives?...
Did our Saviour or any of his Apostles ever forbid polygamy or condemn it as sinful? If not why should Christendom now condemn it? Do they think to be more righteous in this respect, than Jesus Christ the great Author of Christianity?[15]
[1] Orson Pratt, August 29, 1852, Journal of Discourses, 1:54. See also Deseret News Extra, September 14, 1852.
[2] See, for example, [Franklin D. Richards, ed.], "Baptism and Plurality of Wives," Millennial Star, 17 (October 13, 1855) 41: 643; Parley P. Pratt, "Marriage and Morals in Utah," Millennial Star, 18 (May 31, 1856) 22: 337-44.
[3] Orson Pratt, October 7, 1874, Journal of Discourses, 17:221.
[4] Andrew F. Ehat, and Lyndon W. Cook, eds. The Words of Joseph Smith: The Contemporary Accounts of the Nauvoo Discourses of the Prophet Joseph Smith. Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Religious Studies Center, 1980, 39, 42; dictated discourse with Robert B. Thompson scribe.
[5] Gordon B. Hinckley, Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1997), 457.
[6] See A. Milton Musser, "Polygamy," Millennial Star, 39 (June 4) 24:375.
[7] J. D. Douglas, et al. eds., New Bible Dictionary, 2nd ed., Leicester, England: Tyndale House Publishers, 1962, 742-43.
[8] See for example, Gary Wharton, comp., The New Compact Topical Bible, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 371.
[9] Abraham’s marriage to Sarah was also against the law of Moses, see (Genesis 20:12). Apparently Joseph Smith practiced the Abrahamic form of plural marriage, being sealed to a mother and a daughter (Patty Bartlett and Sylvia Sessions) and two sets of sisters (Eliza and Emily Partridge and Sarah and Mariah Lawrence).
[10] William Smith, Smith’s Bible Dictionary (Old Tappan, N.J.: Spire Books, 1975), 376, s.v. “Marriage.”
[11] J. D. Douglas, et al. eds., New Bible Dictionary, 2nd ed., Leicester, England: Tyndale House Publishers, 1962, 745.
[12] See J. D. Douglas, et al. eds., New Bible Dictionary, 2nd ed., Leicester, England: Tyndale House Publishers, 1962, 745.
[13] See Matthew 1: 1-17 and Luke 3:23-38.
[14] See A. Milton Musser, "Polygamy," Millennial Star, 39 (May 28, 1877) 22: 342.
[15] Orson Pratt, The Seer, 1 (December 1853) 12: 187-91.
