A Case for Joseph Smith; A Case Against
Polygamy
Part 4
(Please start on Part 1: http://www.confessionsofanelder.blogspot.com/2012/06/case-for-joseph-smith-case-against.html)
“NOTICE
As we have
lately been credibly informed, that an Elder of the Church of Jesus Christ, of
Latter-day Saints, by the name of Hiram Brown, has been preaching Polygamy, and
other false and corrupt doctrines, in the county of Lapeer, state of Michigan.
This is to
notify him and the Church in general, that he has been cut off from the church,
for his iniquity; and he is further notified to appear at the Special
Conference, on the 6th of April next, to make answer to these charges.
JOSEPH
SMITH,
HYRUM SMITH,
Presidents of said Church.”
HYRUM SMITH,
Presidents of said Church.”
“Resolved
unanimously. That while we render
credence to the doctrines of Paul, that neither the man is without the woman;
neither is the woman without the man in the Lord, yet we raise our voices and
hands against John C. Bennett’s ‘spiritual wife system,’ as a scheme of
profligates to seduce women; and they that harp upon it, wish to make it
popular for the convenience of their own cupidity; wherefore, while the
marriage bed, undefiled is honorable, let polygamy, bigamy, fornication[,]
adultery, and prostitution, be frowned out of the hearts of honest men to drop
in the gulf of fallen nature, ‘where the worm dieth not and the fire is not
quenched!’ and let all the saints say, Amen!” – The Relief Society (March 20, 1844)
“History
of Joseph Smith”
Joseph began the year of 1844 by republishing a revelation
from the Doctrine and Covenants on marriage. When Joseph was killed he was in the process
of publishing his PERSONAL history entitled “History of Joseph Smith.” In his January 1844 account the Prophet
published a revelation which he had received in 1831, which stated that a man
was to have but one wife. Joseph
prefaced the revelation with an explanation of how he came to receive the word
of God on the subject of marriage. Joseph
wrote:
“About this time came Lemon Copley,
one of the sect called Shaking Quakers; and embraced the fullness of the
everlasting gospel, apparently honest hearted, but still retained ideas that
the Shakers were right in some particulars of their faith [which included the
belief that it was not right to marry]; and in order to have more perfect understanding
on the subject [of marriage], I inquired of the Lord and received the following
revelation.
Revelation to Sidney Rigdon, Parley
P. Pratt, and Lemon Copley, given March 1831 . . . .
‘And again, I say unto you, that
whoso forbiddeth to marry, is not ordained of God, for marriage is ordained of
God unto man: wherefore it is lawful that he should have one wife, and they
twain shall be one flesh, and all this that the earth might answer the end of
its creation: and that it might be filled with the measure of man, according to
his creation before the world was made.’”
Times and Seasons 5 [January
15, 1844]: 401–402 (emphasis added); see
also D&C 49:16 (May 1831) (“Wherefore, it is lawful that he should have
one wife,
and they twain shall be one
flesh, and all this that the earth
might answer the end of its creation.”)
According to the claims of the LDS Church (excluding Brigham
Young’s ridiculous claims that polygamy was first revealed in 1829), Joseph
supposedly revealed the doctrine of polygamy in 1831. See
B.H. Roberts, A Comprehensive History of the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints, vol. ii, p. 95 (“As early as 1831 the rightfulness of a
plurality of wives under certain limitations and special conditions was made
known to Joseph Smith.”); see also the
Testimony of Orson Pratt, 1878, Millennial Star, vol. xl, nos. 49, 50 (“Joseph
had made known to [Lyman Johnson] as early as 1831, that plural marriage was a
correct principle.”). Do the LDS
Church’s claims match Joseph’s statements written in his personal journal?
“On
Marriage” Declaration Against Polygamy
The editor of the Millennial
Star also sounded the warning against polygamy, and quoted from the article
“On Marriage” which had been unanimously
accepted as the law of the Church at Kirtland, and was published as the
marriage law in the 1835 Edition of the Doctrine and Covenants. The writer advised:
“And on another subject we wish
furthermore to add, that we, as a church, believe that all legal contracts of
marriage, made before a person is baptized into this church, should be held sacred
and be fulfilled. Inasmuch as this church of Christ
has been reproached with the crime of fornication and polygamy, we declare that
we believe, that one man should have but one wife, and one woman but one
husband, except in case of death, when either is at liberty to marry again .
. . .
We wish these doctrines to be
taught by all that are in the ministry, that the people may know our faith
respecting them, and also to correct the public mind in respect to the church;
and we hope, that the Saints will hearken to this counsel for their own good,
and for the prosperity of the cause of God.”
The Latter-Day Saints’ Millennial
Star 4 [January 1844]: 144 (emphasis added).
Joseph
and Hyrum Expelled Elder Hiram Brown for Teaching Polygamy
Presidents Joseph and Hyrum Smith were informed that Elder
Hiram Brown of Michigan was preaching the doctrine of polygamy and other
corrupt doctrines, and they took immediate action by cutting him off from the
Church. Joseph and Hyrum Smith made the
following formal public announcement [Times
and Seasons 5 [February 1, 1844]: 423 (emphasis added)].
“NOTICE
As we have lately been credibly
informed, that an Elder of the Church of Jesus Christ, of Latter-day Saints, by
the name of Hiram Brown, has been preaching Polygamy, and other false and
corrupt doctrines, in the county of Lapeer, state of Michigan.
This is to notify him and the
Church in general, that he has been cut off from the church, for his iniquity;
and he is further notified to appear at the Special Conference, on the 6th of
April next, to make answer to these charges.
JOSEPH SMITH,
HYRUM SMITH,
Presidents of said Church.”
HYRUM SMITH,
Presidents of said Church.”
It is apparent, Joseph and Hyrum took severe public action
against Elder Brown. Joseph and Hyrum
could have relegated this action to another Church official, but they wanted everyone
to know that Joseph and Hyrum opposed polygamy.
Again, there was no equivocation or denouncement of only the
“unauthorized” practice of polygamy.
As shown above, Joseph and Hyrum cut Brown off from the
Church on February 1, 1844. The LDS Church claims that only six months earlier, on July 12, 1843, Joseph supposedly received
the polygamous “revelation” known as Section 132 in the LDS Doctrine and
Covenants (and nearly three years from which the LDS Church claims Joseph first
revealed the doctrine). Either Joseph
and Hyrum were unabashed hypocrites and weak liars, or Section 132 is a fraud.
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