Growing Up Mormon – Religious Doctrine Lesson 2

Polygamy – Mormons believe that a man cannot become a God without multiple wives.

I already covered the infallibility of Mormon Prophets, but it's important so let's go over it again.  If a Prophet reveals something it is as if God were speaking directly. This is the power of the Prophet, Seer, and Revelator of the Mormon Church.  He is after all the man called by God to deliver God's word to the earth.

The above is a true statement and is supported:

Brigham Young also said: "I have never yet preached a sermon and sent it out to the children of men, that they may not call Scripture" (Journal of Discourses, vol. 13, p.95).

And to prove that very point, when he made the statement that Adam is God, F.D. Richards said, "Concerning the doctrine that Adam is our Father and God...the prophet and Apostle Brigham has declared it, and that is the word of the Lord" (Millenial Star, August 26, 1854, vol.16, p.534).

Interestingly, this is reinforced here:

"When Brigham Young proclaimed to the nations that Adam was our Father and God...-he made the most important revelation ever oracled to the race since the days of Adam himself" (The Women of Mormondom, p.79,179,196-197, 1877).

and here:

"if the President makes a statement it is not our prerogative to dispute it...when I first heard the doctrine of Adam being our Father and God, I was favorably impressed---enjoyed and hailed it as a new Revelation" (Minutes of the School of Prophets, Provo, UT, 1868-1871, p.38-39).

Enough about the Adam = God thing. Back to the infallibility of Mormon Prophets.

Here is a document and teaching aid of the Mormon Church, reviewed and approved by the Presidency, including the Prophet:

"When our leaders speak, the thinking has been done. When they point the way, there is no other which is safe. When they give direction, it should mark the end of controversy" (Ward teachers message for June, 1945).

And finally from some prophets themselves:

President and prophet Ezra Taft Benson stated: "...the Prophet does not have to say 'Thus saith the Lord' to give us scripture" (Fourteen Fundamentals in Following the Prophets, BYU Devotional, Feb 26, 1980, p.3,6).

President Heber C. Kimball said: "But if you are told by your leader to do a thing, do it. None of your business whether it is right or wrong" (Journal of Discourses, vol.6, p.32).

So there you have it.  The Prophet speaks for God and his commandments are law, his revelations are true, and his doctrine is Holy.

So, what did the Prophet say about Polygamy?

"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. He has had a talent that he has hid up. He will come forward and say, 'Here is that which thou gavest me, I have not wasted it, and here is the one talent,' and he will not enjoy it but it will be taken and given to those who have improved the talents they received, and he will find himself without any wife, and he will remain single forever and ever." - Brigham Young

If you don't want to practice polygamy here on earth, when you get to heaven you'll have no wives and you'll be single. 

"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 blesssing [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 law 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 therefor [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." - Joseph Fielding Smith (Journal Of Discourses, Vol 20, pg 29)

Well there you have it . . . if you do not have multiple wives you cannot gain your reward of Celestial Life, and subsequent God-hood if you only fulfill part of the commandment of marriage, and one wife is only partial obedience. 

If you believe that the prophet speaks the word of God, and if you believe that the word of God is the absolute truth, then you must believe what these prophets have said.

But what about the changes in the Mormon Church that ended Polygamy back in 1890?

Well, it seems that the answer is simple.  Those fellows who live now will have a wife on earth, but when they get to heaven, they'll get to pick out a few more to take with them to the highest level (celestial) where they'll become Gods.

Also, after Christ returns, when he's having his thousand-year rule on earth subsequent to destroying all us sinners and laying waste to everything not protected by Mormon property rights (Missouri), there will be polygamy restored once again.  (Apostle Bruce R McConkie – Mormon Doctrine pg. 578)

So in conclusion – no multiple wives = no Godhood. 

Oh and for you women, if you want multiple husbands . . . well, that's a sin.

- rick, teaching the word.

 

Comments

[a rose is a rose]

man what a load of horseshite
(picking only on mormonism here because that's what the post is about)

[Jane]

Oh, I see. Thanks for explaining; it all makes sense now.

[Success Warrior]

Obviously, if you are going to be a god and populate an entire planet, you would need multiple wives. A wife having multiple husbands would serve no purpose other than possibly some freaky sex and we all know that sex for pleasure is a sin. The eternal laws are just common sense.

[Ms Jane]

"If you believe that the prophet speaks the word of God, and if you believe that the word of God is the absolute truth, then you must believe what these prophets have said."

Of course, now they can backpedal and say that these prophets were speaking as men when they made erroneous statements/revelation, not as prophets of God. Never mind that when the prophets MADE these statements they were convinced themselves that they were speaking as prophets, and not as men. Which should only convince people to never take the prophet at his word when he says he is receiving revelation from God because he can't distinguish revelation from God from his own ideas. Still they treat everything he says as if it's The Last Word on the Subject. The Prophet has spoken! Or a man! Whatever, the man's a prophet, so it's all the same, right??? Crazy.

[CV Rick]

Rose, does that mean you won't be lining up in heaven to latch onto some man who's under-married . . . maybe entice him to take you on as his fourteenth or fifteenth honey? ;-)

Jane, isn't it just logical?

S.W. . . . common sense. now I see it.

Crazy is just the half of it, Ms Jane. Wait till next week, I'm just getting started on Mitt Romney's beliefs . . . oh, I mean Mormonism.

[a rose is a rose]

rick can you come over here so i can kick you in the shin? (i accidentially typed SIN first. funny, no?)

[a rose is a rose]

wait wait wait. i just thought of a question. what happens when a woman dies and she is OLD - past child bearing age. you know. in her 30s? (that part is a joke by the way).

will she be able to bear children on her man's planet? will she be young again? will she get along with the other 1377 wives?
seriously, do the dead dude/gods only mate with YOUNG babes or what?

[a rose is a rose]

this is it, i swear. what happens if she dies WAY before her husband/god? is there a planet that serves as a waiting room? if yes, does it have periodicals so she won't be bored while she waits for the old man to kick the bucket? (i PROMISE i'm done)

[Ms Jane]

Oh I can't wait for the Romney entry. That man is a chiseled robot. I'm sure he has been a bishop or stake president at one point. (I'm an Ex-Mo myself.)

[CV Rick]

Rose, you get to be resurrected in the height of your physical perfection. For women that'd be perfect child-bearing age I guess - whatever that is? She'll have to get along with the other 1377 wives, because discord is sin, right? I'm only going to mate with babes, that's for sure, but not so young . . I want them wild and experienced!

There is a waiting room, there really is. Mormons believe that there's a whole afterlife place for people who haven't been able to get to heaven yet. They're sitting around enjoying each other's company while they wait for their families to die or for someone down here to go to the temple and baptize them by proxy. You could be a Mormon with your prescient deductions!

[Melanie]

Wow, Rick, I wish I'd asked you when we had to do a book involving Utah (Transcontinental Railroad, one of our sub-assignments was to explain Mormonism). It was... strangely quite difficult to get anything but the barest of bare minimal information about Mormonism, heck, even from Britannica.