Posted by:
rutabaga
(
)
Date: April 17, 2013 10:26AM
This is a “homework assignment” given to me by the bishop after I told him: “I don’t like polygamy, the temple is about polygamy, I don’t do the temple.” He asked me to support that bold statement. Here is my response.
Section 132
1961 Edition of the Doctrine and Covenants
Revelation given through Joseph Smith the Prophet, at Nauvoo, Illinois, recorded July 12, 1843, relating to the new and everlasting covenant, including the eternity of the marriage covenant, as also plurality of wives.
-------The Prophet’s inquiry of the Lord--He is told to prepare himself to receive the new and everlasting covenant--Conditions of this law--The power of the Holy Priesthood instituted by the Lord must be operative in ordinances to be in effect beyond the grave--
Marriage by secular authority is of effect during mortality only--Though the form of marriage should make it appear to be for time and eternity, the ordinance is not valid beyond the grave unless solemnized by the authority of the Holy Priesthood as the Lord directs--
Marriage duly authorized for time and eternity to be attended by surpassing blessings--
Essentials for the attainment of the status of godhood -- The meaning of eternal lives--Plurality of wives acceptable only when commanded by the Lord--The sin of adultery--Commandment to Emma Smith, wife of the prophet.
Section 132
Current Edition of the Doctrine and Covenants
Revelation given through Joseph Smith the Prophet, at Nauvoo, Illinois, recorded July 12, 1843, relating to the new and everlasting covenant, including the eternity of the marriage covenant, as also plurality of wives. HC 5: 501–507. Although the revelation was recorded in 1843, it is evident from the historical records that the doctrines and principles involved in this revelation had been known by the Prophet since 1831.
Statements by Church Leaders
Elder Charles W. Penrose: “the revelation... was [the] only one published on Celestial Marriage, and if the doctrine of plural marriage was repudiated so must the glorious principle of marriage for eternity, the two being indissolubly interwoven with each other." (Millennial Star, Vol. 45, page 454)
Apostle Orson Pratt: "If plurality of marriage is not true or in other words, if a man has no divine right to marry two wives or more in this world, then marriage for eternity is not true, and your faith is in vain, and all the sealing ordinances and powers pertaing to marriages for eternity are vain, worthless, good for nothing; for as sure as one is true the other also must be true." (Journal of Discourses, Vol. 21, page 296)
Joseph F. Smith: "I understand the law of celestial marriage to mean that every man in this Church, who has the ability to obey and practice it in righteousness and will not, shall be damned, I say I understand it to mean this and nothing less, and I testify in the name of Jesus that it does mean that." (Journal of Discourses, vol. 20, p. 28-31)
In 1891 during the Reed Smoot hearings before Congress, the First Presidency and Apostles of the Mormon Church: "We formerly taught to our people that polygamy or celestial marriage as commanded by God through Joseph Smith was right; that it was a necessity to man's highest exaltation in the life to come." (Reed Smoot Case, vol. 1, page 18)
Brigham Young: "The only men who become Gods, even the Sons of God, are those who enter into polygamy." (Journal of Discourses, vol. 11, page 269)
Heber C. Kimball: "the principle of plurality of wives never will be done away,..." (Deseret News, Nov. 7, 1855)
"Some quietly listen to those who speak... against the plurality of wives, and against almost every principle that God has revealed. Such persons have half-a-dozen devils with them all the time. You might as well deny 'Mormonism,' and turn away from it, as to oppose the plurality of wives. Let the Presidency of this Church, and the Twelve Apostles, and all the authorities unite and say with one voice that they will oppose the doctrine, and the whole of them will be damned." (Journal of Discourses, vol. 5, p. 203)
Brigham Young responding to the question: " 'Do you think that we shall ever be admitted as a State into the Union without denying the principle of polygamy?' If we are not admitted until then, we shall never be admitted." Deseret News for Oct. 10, 1866
Charles W. Penrose: “In the case of a man marrying a wife in the everlasting covenant who dies while he continues in the flesh and marries another by the same divine law, each wife will come forth in her order and enter with him into his glory “ ("Mormon" Doctrine Plain and Simple, or Leaves from the Tree of Life, by Charles W. Penrose, p.66, 1897, Salt Lake City, UT).
Gordon B. Hinckley Oct. 2007 at the funeral for the second wife of President Howard W. Hunter, the fourteenth President of the LDS Church. The Deseret News reported:
President Hinckley affirmed the eternal nature of the marriage between Sister [Inis] Hunter and the former church president, whose first wife, Claire Jeffs, died after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease and is now buried beside him in the Salt Lake Cemetery. Inis Hunter "will now be laid to rest on the other side," he said. "They were sealed under the authority of the Holy Melchizedek Priesthood for time and for all eternity," he said, Hinckley performed the marriage ceremony for them in the Salt Lake Temple in April 1990. Deseret News, Oct. 22, 2007).
The official LDS Church Handbook of Instruction:
Living Women — A living woman may be sealed to only one husband. . . .
Living Men — If a husband and wife have been sealed and the wife dies, the man may have another woman sealed to him if she is not already sealed. (Church Handbook of Instruction)
Dallin Oaks, Russell Nelson, Harold B. Lee and possibly hundreds of other church men have been sealed to more than one wife. Therefore in principle and in practice, they are polygamists.
The Plan of Salvation and the New and Everlasting Covenant of Marriage
The Plan of Salvation is perhaps the core doctrine of the Church. It is a roadmap from the Pre-existence to Exaltation in the Celestial Kingdom and a return to Heavenly Father.
There is a simplicity to the Plan: baptism, confirmation, ordination, endowment in the Temple and the attainment of Exaltation by Celestial Marriage or Sealling in the Temple.
Can one be exalted without Celestial Marriage? No.
Can one be sealed without Temple ordinances and covenants? No.
It is a combination of the covenants in the Temple endowment and the New and Everlasting Covenant of Marriage that allow us the possibility of exaltation.
The endowment is the preparation for the New and Everlasting Covenant of Marriage. In the endowment, we make covenants of obedience, sacrifice, gospel, chastity and consecration that apply directly to the Plan of salvation.
Arguably the Law of Consecration is the most important because the covenant requires us to dedicate ourselves and all we have to the church. It is perhaps this test of total dedication that qualifies us for the New and Everlasting Covenant of Marriage.
We gain exaltation by being sealed according to the New and Everlasting Covenant of Marriage which is Plurality of Wives as outlined in Section 132. The New and Everlasting Covenant of Marriage requires us to covenant to the practice of polygamy or plurality of wives.
Plurality of wives is specifically mentioned in the section heading of Section 132. It is not an optional form of marriage. (DC 132:4)
Summary
At this time, the practice of polygamy is in abeyance on earth, but required in the Celestial Kingdom. But the doctrine and principle of plural marriage is still valid.
The New and Everlasting Covenant of Marriage which is Plurality of Wives remains canonized scripture of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and plural marriage is authorized by the Church Handbook of Instructions.
Considering that the elements of the Plan of Salvation; baptism, confirmation, ordination and endowment in the Temple are precursors to the New and Everlasting Covenant of Marriage and its requirement of plurality of wives, my position stands.
The Temple is about Polygamy.