Entering The Principle, Neccesary For Exaltation?

[kamenraider]

Thank you again for the information. Your right it is possible to believe in polygamy and do your home teaching. If you wish to believe polygamy is necessary for exaltation you can do that.

I choose not to.

It doesn't sound like too great of an idea to me to choose what laws you will or will not believe. Joseph Smith said he had never heard of someone being damned for believing too much truth, but rather they're damned for unbelief (TPJS pg. 374).

Please consider this quote from the Current Lving President of the Church, Gordon B. Hinckley.

"If any of our members are found to be practicing plural marriage, they are excommunicated, the most serious penalty the Church can impose. Not only are those so involved in direct violation of the civil law, they are in violation of the law of this Church. An article of our faith is binding upon us. It states, â??We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the lawâ? (A of F 1:12). One cannot obey the law and disobey the law at the same time.

There is no such thing as a â??Mormon Fundamentalist.â? It is a contradiction to use the two words together.

More than a century ago God clearly revealed unto His prophet Wilford Woodruff that the practice of plural marriage should be discontinued, which means that it is now against the law of God. Even in countries where civil or religious law allows polygamy, the Church teaches that marriage must be monogamous and does not accept into its membership those practicing plural marriage."

Larry King interview.

I guess I'm not very good at following dead prophets. More into following the Living Prophet.

The question we're considering in this thread is whether polygamy is necessary for exaltation, not whether it is necessary to live it now. No matter whether it's now, though, or a hundred years from now, or a thousand years from now, each of us will have to decide whether we accept that law or reject it.

When polygamy was practiced in Nauvoo by Joseph Smith and others it was against the law. Convicted offenders could receive up to $1000 fine and two years in prison. It was also against the law of the Church:

"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 one wife, and one woman, but one husband, except in the case of death, when either is at liberty to marry again."

--1835 Doctrine and Covenants, 101:4.

"NOTICE,

As we have 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."

--Times & Seasons, Feb. 1, 1844, Vol. 5, pg. 423.

Yet here is the advice that the living Prophet gave privately to William Clayton:

"...He [Joseph Smith] said it was her [Emma Smith's] advice that I should keep M [Clayton's plural wife Margaret Moon] at home and it was also his council. Says he just keep her at home and brook it and if they raise trouble about it and bring you before me I will give you an awful scourging and probably cut you off from the church and then I will baptise you and set you ahead as good as ever."

--An Intimate Chronicle: The Journals of William Clayton, ed. by George D. Smith, SLC: Signature 1995, entry for Thurs. Oct. 19, 1843, pg. 122.

Fast forward to 1904 -- here is the living Prophet, Joseph F Smith, testifying at the Reed Smoot hearings:

"The CHAIRMAN. Do you obey the law in having five wives at this time, and having them bear to you eleven children since the manifesto of 1890?

"Mr. SMITH. Mr. Chairman, I have not claimed that in that case I have obeyed the law of the land.

'The CHAIRMAN. That is all.

"Mr. SMITH. I do not claim so, and I have said before that I prefer to stand my chances against the law." --Reed Smoot Case, Vol. 1, Washington DC: U.S. Govt. Printing Office 1904, pg. 197

"The CHAIRMAN. ...you are violating the law?

"Mr. SMITH. The law of my State?

"The CHAIRMAN. Yes.

"Mr. SMITH. Yes, sir.

"Senator OVERMAN. Is there not a revelation published in the Book of Covenants here that you shall abide by the law of the State?

"Mr. SMITH. It includes both unlawful cohabitation and polygamy.

"Senator OVERMAN. Is there not a revelation that you shall abide by the laws of the State and of the land?

"Mr. SMITH. Yes, sir.

"Senator OVERMAN. If that is a revelation, are you not violating the laws of God?

"Mr. SMITH. I have admitted that, Mr. Senator, a great many times here."

--Ibid., pgs. 334-335

Joseph F. Smith did a similar thing for John W. Taylor (son of John Taylor and an Apostle, who had been excommunicated for continuing polygamy after the manifesto) to what Joseph Smith promised to do for William Clayton. According to the Taylor family, he sent someone to rebaptize him and restore his blessings in 1916, and then showed up at John W. Taylor's home with temple robes for his wife to dress him in to be buried after his death later that year. An acquaintance of mine who had known Matthias Cowley told me that he was told by him that Pres. Smith said he did it because he knew he'd have to die and face Pres. John Taylor soon. Due to rumors about this, Pres. Smith publicly declared this null and void in 1917, and it wasn't until 1965 that John W. Taylor's blessings were officially restored by Joseph F. Smith's son, Joseph Fielding Smith.

[Lee]

It doesn't sound like too great of an idea to me to choose what laws you will or will not believe. Joseph Smith said he had never heard of someone being damned for believing too much truth, but rather they're damned for unbelief (TPJS pg. 374).

The question we're considering in this thread is whether polygamy is necessary for exaltation, not whether it is necessary to live it now. No matter whether it's now, though, or a hundred years from now, or a thousand years from now, each of us will have to decide whether we accept that law or reject it.

When polygamy was practiced in Nauvoo by Joseph Smith and others it was against the law. Convicted offenders could receive up to $1000 fine and two years in prison. It was also against the law of the Church:

Yet here is the advice that the living Prophet gave privately to William Clayton:

Fast forward to 1904 -- here is the living Prophet, Joseph F Smith, testifying at the Reed Smoot hearings:

Joseph F. Smith did a similar thing for John W. Taylor (son of John Taylor and an Apostle, who had been excommunicated for continuing polygamy after the manifesto) to what Joseph Smith promised to do for William Clayton. According to the Taylor family, he sent someone to rebaptize him and restore his blessings in 1916, and then showed up at John W. Taylor's home with temple robes for his wife to dress him in to be buried after his death later that year. An acquaintance of mine who had known Matthias Cowley told me that he was told by him that Pres. Smith said he did it because he knew he'd have to die and face Pres. John Taylor soon. Due to rumors about this, Pres. Smith publicly declared this null and void in 1917, and it wasn't until 1965 that John W. Taylor's blessings were officially restored by Joseph F. Smith's son, Joseph Fielding Smith.

Had I lived during polygamy I would have followed The Living Prophet. I am living today and Gorden B. Hinckley is The Living Prophet and stands at the head of Christ's Church in light of what he has to say on the subject of polygamy I don't consider my exaltation at risk.

Maybe we should remember that the LDS church is a living church subject to change as directed by Christ.

Should polygamy again become a doctrine of the Church as directed by Christ then I would consider my exaltation at risk if I chose to reject polygamy.

Again thanks for the information.

[kamenraider]

Have I said we need to be living it now?

I hope you dont think that truth the truth of one of God's laws could be something that changes according to peoples perceptions of it, or the difficulty of obeying it.

[Olavarria]

Have I said we need to be living it now?

I hope you dont think that truth the truth of one of God's laws could be something that changes according to peoples perceptions of it, or the difficulty of obeying it.

Excellent point. Polygamy now, is not the topic of the thread.

Kamen, assuming your right, when will these marriages take place for people who live in a monogamist age? My guess is thru vicarious work.

[kamenraider]

Vicarious work is one way, I'm sure. Sometimes men wind up being sealed to more than one woman when the first wife dies. For example, my stepfather was sealed for eternity to my mother as a second wife (after his first died) in the LA Temple in 1986. I also think there are cases where a couple divorces but don't get the sealing cancelled, then the man is sealed to another woman after getting a First Pres. sealing clearance.