Posted by:
snowowl
(
)
Date: August 22, 2011 03:10AM
Your question represents one of the theological problems that discontinuing the practice of polygamy created. Prior to the Manifesto of 1890, polygamy was to be initiated in this life, so that when a person was exalted in the Celestial Kingdom, they already had wives that had been sealed to them during their temporal life on earth.
However, Mormon theology is continually changing and so did the view of heaven, and the inability to practice polygamy in this temporal life necessitated a belief that it would be practiced in heaven, and as such, wives would be obtained there. That is not a new concept in Mormon theology, as is revealed by a quote by Heber C. Kimbal that I used on another thread.
In the quote, he is using himself and Brigham Young as the examples of two men whose wives either left them or divorced them in this temporal life. Heber and Brigham then die without any wives and find themselves in heaven in the presence of Joseph Smith and explain their predicament because they cannot obtain exaltation without more than one wife:
"Supposing that I have a wife or a dozen of them, and she should say 'you cannot be exalted with me,' and suppose they all should say so, what of that? They never will affect my salvation one particle. Whose salvation will they affect? Their own. . .
In the spirit world there is an increase of males and females, there are millions of them, and if I am faithful all the time, and continue right along with brother Brigham [Young], we will go to brother Joseph [Smith] and say, 'Here we are brother Joseph; we are here ourselves are we not, with none of the property we possessed in our probationary state, not even the rings on our fingers?' He will say to us, 'Come along, my boys, we will give you a good suit of clothes. Where are your wives?' 'They are back yonder; they would not follow us.' 'Never mind' says Joseph, 'here are thousands, have all you want.'"
Journal of Discourses, vol. 4, p. 209 209
Apparently Heber C. Kimball believed that all the Mormons who had died and been exalted before him were procreating children in heaven, so "there is an increase of males and females" in heaven and he and Brigham could have their choice of untold millions of females and were told to "have all you want."
Of course, all of those females would be spirit beings and it would be presumed that Heber and Brigham were spirit beings also until the resurrection at which time they would have bodies of flesh and bone. The problem is, when would their new wives have bodies of flesh and bone, since they were spirit beings in heaven and had never obtained a body on earth? The plot thickens.
Today, I don't think Mormon theology would accept Heber C. Kimball's simple example as being correct, but the problem still remains as you note, where do the women come from who are going to be the polygamous wives.
Today, it can only be speculated as to the source.
1. Perhaps it is Mormon women who do not marry in this life and refuse to marry in the next life. However, those women become servants to the exalted Mormons in the Celestial Kingdom and are not available for marriage and procreation because they did not fulfil their duties on earth and cannot be exalted.
2. Your other two choices are a possibility:
- Young girls who died might fit the bill, but are there enough of them?
- Nevermo women would be a good source (since there are gazillions in relation to the Mormon men) when they accept the Mormon gospel in heaven. But even though they might believe in the next life, they cannot be exalted and bear children.
One of the problems with changing doctrine is that it leaves gaping holes in what was previously believed and creates contradictions in relation to current belief. This is a very tricky problem that reveals the church simply makes-up theology to deal with an issue at the time with no thought for the consequences of the changes. So much for direct revelation.