Why Polygamy was considered Necessary for Exaltation? Obtaining Godhood was about Godly Kingdom Building with your "Talents" & The Propagation of the Male Seed

 

Note that in laying out the evidence below I am not in any way advocating modern polygamy. I am also not arguing that the ideas below should be taught today as Mormon doctrine. This is only meant to show that original Mormonism was different from what is taught today in the modern LDS (Brighamite) Church. I am only presenting this information for its historical value as evidence that Mormonism after 1840 and up until about 1900, had grown into a more Indo-European religion in its rejection of the Pauline and Augustinian ideals of celibacy with its radical pendulum swing in the opposite direction: toward the doctrine of procreating male God-kings spreading their seed through wives and concubines. As I see it, neither extreme (celibate priests or polygamist priests) is healthy or ideal in our modern society. In other words, neither the body-despising Pauline ideal of celibacy nor the male-centered Nauvoo era LDS doctrine -- of accumulating wives to prove your worthiness for future godhood -- is ideal in today's world. Having said that, I'm not going to shy away from explaining below why polygamy was actually practiced in the Mormon Church for nearly a 100 years! 

Did early Mormon Prophets and Apostles teach the doctrine that plural marriage was necessary for the highest degree of glory in the celestial kingdom? Let's start with what Joseph Smith, the Prophet of the Restoration, had to say. According to Joseph's scribe Willam Clayton:

“ … [Joseph Smith taught that] the doctrine of plural and celestial marriage is the most holy and important doctrine ever revealed to man on earth, and that without obedience to that principle no man can ever attain to the fullness of exaltation in the celestial glory.

Source: William Clayton, Joseph Smith’s secretary, Historical Record, vol. 6, page 226

What we see below is the idea was that you had to be a polygamist in order to attain the highest exaltation among the Gods (see Abraham 4 on the Gods). This is because for an LDS Priest, becoming a God means growing his "talents," meaning spreading his seed kind of like compound interest; only in this case you are investing your seed into wives and concubines who produce your offspring; for they are given to the man in order to "bear the souls of men" (D&C 132: 63): wherein the sperm/seed of the male body is the priesthood per Abraham 2:11; and so "priesthood power" is procreation-power, i.e. the male seed creating lives (see D&C 132: 19-22); the lives are future progeny that become for the future human-turned-god, an expansion of his future kingdom. Being a god is to be a king over a kingdom with wives and concubines and servants (see D&C 132: 19-22, 37-63): in order to expand one’s kingdom thought all eternity. This is why LDS temples end with a reference to one's loins and their posterity. Becoming a god was thus modeled after Israelite kings like King David depicted below:

The images above is from King David’s Love Life: How Many Wives Did David Have? by Ana Coteneanu. As she writes in her article:

The Royal Harem: How Many Wives and Concubines Did David Have?

By the time David was ruling in Jerusalem, he had what was essentially a royal harem—dozens (if not hundreds) of women in his household. But this wasn’t just about romance or attraction. In ancient kingdoms, having a large harem was a status symbol. The more wives and concubines a king had, the more powerful he appeared. ...

It is clear that Joseph Smith saw himself as a modern day Israelite King and thus he felt he was justified in basically forming a kind of "royal harem" like King David did. As Smith begins D&C 132, verse 1 with: "I, the Lord, justified my servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as also Moses, [King] David and Solomon, my servants, as touching the principle and doctrine of their having many wives and concubines ..." Smith then dictated the following in verses 37-39: 

37 Abraham received concubines, and they bore him children; and it was accounted unto him for righteousness, because they were given unto him, and he abode in my law; ... and because they did none other things than that which they were commanded, they have entered into their exaltation, according to the promises, and sit upon thrones, and are not angels but are gods.

38 [King] David also received many wives and concubines, and also Solomon and Moses my servants, as also many others of my servants, from the beginning of creation until this time; and in nothing did they sin save in those things which they received not of me.

39 [King] David’s wives and concubines were given unto him of me [God], by the hand of Nathan, my servant, and others of the prophets who had the keys of this power; ...

Just as Israelite Kings grew in wealth, wives, status, and power, Joseph Smith sought to mimic their reign and glory: basically calling such a lifestyle the way of all the Gods themselves.

 Accumulating Mormon wives thus became a sign of the way of the Gods, a kind of divine recipe on becoming powerful like a god through kingdom building. Smith taught that the Gods accumulated wives and we should as well. On page 18 of An Intimate Chronicle: The Journals of William Clayton, edited by George D. Smith, we read:

In support of Clayton’s second marriage, Smith assured him: “You have a right to get all you can.”[41] Shortly afterward the prophet refused Clayton permission to marry Lydia, the third Moon sister, citing a revelation “he had lately, [that] a man could only take 2 of a family.” Smith then asked if Clayton would “give L[ydia] to him.” Lydia Moon refused Smith’s offer because she had promised not to marry while her mother lived.[42]

Footnote 41 reads:

Journal 2, “Nauvoo, Illinois,” August 11, 1843. In Appendix C, “William Clayton’s Testimony,” Clayton quotes Joseph Smith as saying, “It is your privilege to have all the wives you want.” Smith also once reportedly explained: “The result of our endless union will be offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven or the sands of the seashore” (HC 5: 391-92). Compare Journal 2, “Nauvoo, Illinois,” May 16, 1843.

Add to this the fact that Smith's revelation on plural marriage covered in D&C 130, 131, and 132, clearly argues that only those humans who enter into the Mormon practice of plural marriage, become gods in the highest level of the celestial kingdom of glory; for the virgin wives and concubines are given unto the polygamous male (section 132 explains) in order for him to have an increase of progeny via his seed/sperm (see Abraham 2:11); and thus through his seed implanted into multiple wives and concubines, he is able to bear the souls of men: through earthly and celestial polygamy which glorifies God the Father (as if God is a proud grandfather of his expanding grand kids through the practice of polygamy). 

This is why one of the earliest Mormon diagrams is Orson Hyde’s Kingdom of God Diagram, representing a polygamous male's ascending personal kingdom of added wives like rungs on a ladder leading to his exalted kingship, just like God the Father. To read Hyde's comments on his diagram see here or here. 

On Talents

Note that Smith described the practice of plural marriage to Nancy Rigdon in terms of entering into the practice as one of his wives or concubines being akin to the parable of the talents. Smith says to Nancy (footnotes from The Joseph Smith Papers) regarding her becoming his next plural wife:

... in obedience [to the law of plural marriage] there is joy and peace unspotted, unalloyed, and as God has designed our happiness, the happiness of all his creatures, he never has, he never will, institute an ordinance, or give a commandment to his people that is not calculated in its nature to promote that happiness which he has designed, and which will not end in the greatest amount of good and glory to those who become the recipients of his laws and ordinances. Blessings offered, but rejected, are no longer blessings, but become like the talent hid in the earth by the wicked and slothful servant [see Matthew 25:25–26]—the proffered good returns to the giver, the blessing is bestowed on those who will receive, and occupy; for unto him that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundantly; but unto him that hath not, or will not receive, shall be taken away that which he hath, [Matthew 13:12]or might have had. ...

Note that this aligns with D&C 132, wherein those who marry as polygamists have an increase of lives (progeny) through the male seed implanted in many wives and concubines ("given unto him"); while those who reject the law of polygamy are not "blessed" with celestial progeny (the ability to produce "eternal lives"), but remain permanently celibate in heaven without an "increase," i.e. without the ability to reproduce in heaven; thus, they remain without "blessings" because they basically "hid their talent" when on earth by refusing to practice plural marriage. 

Orson Hyde, who was eventually polygamous himself, clearly understood this idea that becoming a polygamous male was like investing your "talent" wisely, in this case "talent" meant investing your "seed" by forming a kingdom of earthly wives that grows you a kingdom of progeny. As Hyde explains his diagram by stating:

 

.... he that has been faithful over ten talents, shall have dominion over ten cities, and he that has been faithful over five talents, shall have dominion over five cities, and to every man will be given a kingdom and a dominion, according to his merit, powers, and abilities to govern and control. It will be seen by the above diagram that there are kingdoms of all sizes, an infinite variety to suit all grades of merit and ability. The chosen vessels unto God are the kings and priests that are placed at the head of these kingdoms.

Again, compare this to D&C 132, that basically teaches that those Mormons who are exalted are those who are basically wise with their "talents," i.e. they accumulate wives and concubines by practicing polygamy in order to gain exaltation and eternal lives (progeny) which grows one's kingdom; while those who do not practice polygamy, squander their talent (the ability to implant their seed/sperm into wives to grow a kingdom, see Abraham 2:11; D&C 132: 19-21, 37-39, 63) and in the afterlife lose the chance for the highest degree of celestial glory, and thus remain separate and single, i.e. celibate (without an increase of celestial progeny in the eternities), see D&C 132: 15-17; because to increase one's seed in the heavens as a god, they had to have entered into the law of plural marriage on earth: where they would have learned how to exercise their sphere of influence and acquire a kingdom of wives and concubines, which could prepare them for godhood and the role as a kingly god reproducing celestially in heaven via heavenly plural marriage; which would build new worlds and kingdoms of endless offspring to rule over as a god (which is the way of all the Gods as Joseph Smith explains in the King Follett Discourse and the Book of Abraham chapters 2-4). 

In Journal of Discourses, Volume 13, Discourse 22 on Celestial Marriage, Apostle Orson Pratt clearly teaches this as well. Here is what Orson Pratt says in his book The Seer (emphasis added):

God raised up Solomon to sit upon the throne of Israel; and He appeared unto him twice and gave him great wisdom above all others and the Lord was with him, and magnified him exceedingly before all Israel, and hearkened unto his prayer and filled the temple which he built with a cloud of glory, and caused fire to descend from Heaven to consume the sacrifice. [95] This great man was much better calculated to train up children in the way that they should go than any other man living, for God had given him greater wisdom; hence he had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines (1 Kings 11).  But even this wise man, turned away from the Lord, by taking wives from among surrounding nations who were idolaters which thing the Lord had expressly forbidden (see verses 1, 2).  Solomon was not condemned for marrying many wives of his own nation; but having transgressed the strict commandment of God in marrying out of his nation, he was left unto himself and turned away after the idolatrous gods of his wives; and God rent the kingdom in twain in the days of his son, and gave ten tribes to another not of his seed.

 

Thus it will be seen that even among the people of God there are some who are more worthy than others, consequently God gave such more wives and children than He did to others.  These blessings were dispensed, like all other blessings, according to the righteousness, wisdom, faith, holiness and qualifications of those who professed to be the people of God.  Some receiving more; some less; some none at all; and some having taken from them even those they had received.

 

Therefore though the males and females had been of equal number in Israel, yet God would confer upon some more than upon others, according to their worthiness.  As it was among Israel, so it is among the people of Utah.  Some are entitled to a greater number of wives than others, because of their righteousness.  Though the census should show an equal number of the sexes in that Territory, that does not prove that all the men are equally qualified to instruct, counsel, govern, and lead wives and children in the paths of righteousness.  A father would not confer upon his children equal blessings, authority, and power, unless they were equally faithful.  A wise king having many sons would confer authority and power upon [96] such only as would use the same for the benefit of the people.  Those who would not be subject to good laws themselves, he would not entrust to govern others.  Our Heavenly Father acts upon the same principle.  He is willing that all should enjoy equal rights and privileges, upon the ground of equal obedience.  We have this illustrated in the parable of the talents:  one having one; another two, and another five.  Those who made a proper use of what was entrusted to them, gained more:  those who made an improper use of their blessings, lost all they had:  their blessings were taken from them and given to others, who had more abundantly.  This explains the mystery why the Lord in ancient times gave more wives to one than what he did to another, when to all appearance the number of males and females were about equal. ... 

 

... The continuation of the name and posterity of a righteous man was considered a great blessing; hence David exclaims before the Lord, saying:  “The children of thy servants shall continue, and their seed shall be established before thee.” (Psalm 102:28).  To have the chain of posterity broken by death was considered a great calamity, therefore the Lord made strict provisions for such cases. ...

 

Brigham Young also uses the analogy of a talent to describe a man marrying polygamously. As this person online explains:

Brigham Young's sermon (1873) detailed role of non-polygamists in the Celestial Kingdom—as servants. Mormon polygamy seems very misogynistic—ah, but I repeat myself.

[Brigham Young, sermon at Paris, Idaho, August 31, 1873)] [skip down some] This doctrine of baptism for the dead is a great doctrine, one of the most glorious doctrines that was ever revealed to the human family; and there are light, power, glory, honor and immortality in it. After this doctrine was received, Joseph received a revelation on celestial marriage. You will recollect, brethren and sisters, that it was in July, 1843, that he received this revelation concerning celestial marriage. This doctrine was explained and many received it as far as they could understand it. Some apostatized on account of it; but others did not, and received it in their faith. This, also, is a great and noble doctrine. I have not time to give you many items upon the subject, but there are a few hints that I can throw in here that perhaps may be interesting. As far as this pertains to our natural lives here, there are some who say it is very hard. They say, “This is rather a hard business; I don't like my husband to take a plurality of wives in the flesh.” Just a few words upon this. We would believe this doctrine entirely different from what it is presented to us, if we could do so. If we could make every man upon the earth get him a wife, live righteously and serve God, we would not be under the necessity, perhaps, of taking more than one wife. But they will not do this; the people of God, therefore, have been commanded to take more wives. The women are entitled to salvation if they live according to the word that is given to them; and if their husbands are good men, and they are obedient to them, they are entitled to certain blessings, and they will have the privilege of receiving certain blessings that they cannot receive unless they are sealed to men who will be exalted. 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.

 

But if the woman is determined not to enter into a plural-marriage, that woman when she comes forth will have the privilege of living in single blessedness through all eternity. Well, that is very good, a very nice place to be a minister to the wants of others. I recollect a sister conversing with Joseph Smith on this subject. She told him: “Now, don't talk to me; when I get into the celestial kingdom, if I ever do get there, I shall request the privilege of being a ministering angel; that is the labor that I wish to perform. I don't want any companion in that world; and if the Lord will make me a ministering angel, it is all I want.” Joseph said,“Sister, you talk very foolishly, you do not know what you will want.” He then said to me: “Here, brother Brigham, you seal this lady to me.” I sealed her to him. This was my own sister according to the flesh. Now, sisters, do not say, “I do not want a husband when I get up in the resurrection.” You do not know what you will want. I tell this so that you can get the idea. If in the resurrection you really want to be single and alone, and live so forever and ever, and be made servants, while others receive the highest order of intelligence and are bringing worlds into existence, you can have the privilege. They who will be exalted cannot perform all the labor, they must have servants and you can be servants to them.

 

The female portion of the human family have blessings promised to them if they are faithful. I do not know what the Lord could have put upon women worse than he did upon Mother Eve, where he told her: “Thy desire shall be to thy husband.” Continually wanting the husband. “If you go to work, my eyes follow you; if you go away in the carriage, my eyes follow you, and I like you and I love you; I delight in you, and I desire you should have nobody else.” I do not know that the Lord could have put upon women anything worse than this, I do not blame them for having these feelings. I would be glad if it were otherwise. Says a woman of faith and knowledge, “I will make the best of it; it is a law that man shall rule over me; his word is my law, and I must obey him; he must rule over me; this is upon me and I will submit to it,” and by so doing she has promises that others do not have.

 

The world of mankind, the world of man, not of woman, is full of iniquity. What are they doing? They are destroying every truth that they can; they are destroying all innocence that they can. Priest and people, governors, magistrates, kings, potentates, presidents, the political world and the religious world, are on the highroad to eternal misery. There are exceptions. There are honest persons wherever there is an honest principle. If the men of the world would be honest and full of good works, you would not see them living as they do. And the women are entitled to the kingdom, they are entitled to the glory, they are entitled to exaltation if they are obedient to the Priesthood, and they will be crowned with those that are crowned.

 

When Father Adam came to assist in organizing the earth out of the crude material that was found, an earth was made upon which the children of men could live. After the earth was prepared Father Adam came and stayed here, and there was a woman brought to him. Now I am telling you something that many of you know, it has been told to you, and the brethren and sisters should understand it. There was a certain woman brought to Father Adam whose name was Eve, because she was the first woman, and she was given to him to be his wife; I am not disposed to give any further knowledge concerning her at present. There is no doubt but that he left many companions. The great and glorious doctrine that pertains to this I have not time to dwell upon; neither should I at present if I had time. He understood this whole machinery or system before he came to this earth; and I hope my brethren and sisters will profit by what I have told them.

 

 A few notes about the fundamental doctrines of mormonism—Young learned at the foot of Joseph Smith:

 

1. Polygamy is a requirement because the men of the world are unrighteous. The women must be realigned to reproduce with the most righteous men. Joseph Smith and Brigham Young were much more righteous than the unworthy men they replaced (Jacobs, Hyde, Holmes, Lyon, Lightner).

 

2. Young equates polygamous marriages to the parable of the talents, Matthew 25. Women are chattel property and used as poker chips.

 

3. Women who refuse to enter the harem of the most righteous men in the Celestial Kingdom and insist on being single will take on the role of ministering angel to the elite polygamist gods. D&C 132:17

 

4. Young sealed his sister, Fanny Young, to Joseph Smith to ensure she wouldn't end up a servant and could be aligned in his harem of wives.

 

5. Women's fate in the resurrection relies on having a worthy man and being obedient to him. The man and all of his wives will be reunited in a glorious afterlife as a god, with the power to reproduce and make new worlds, etc. D&C 132:20

 

6. The earth is a manufactured object, made expressly for man to use and kick ass upon.

 

7. Father Adam had many more companions than Eve in the garden. 

Brigham Young also said (emphasis added):

I want every [Mormon] Elder to make his calculations to get rich here, and not go abroad to get riches from the Saints there. Plan and operate here to make as much property as you please; and if you can put it in a shape to gather the Saints, do so; and when you are abroad use every sovereign to emigrate the poor. You may have one shirt on and one at the washerwoman's, and decent and comfortable clothing; but what you  obtain over this must be used to gather the poor. "May I obtain money enough to come home?" Yes. "How many coats and pantaloons may we bring, and how many trunks packed with clothing of the most expensive kinds, for our wives and children?" I utterly forbid this practice. I forbid your bringing or sending home silk dresses and the like. Send and bring home the poor. I forbid your coming home in your carriages; I forbid your going out preachers and coming home merchants, but come home bringing your sheaves with you—the souls of the children of men—spirits clothed in tabernacles. I forbid the Elders of Israel coming home as they have; but men, women, and children must be all the property, means, wealth, glory, and power that they bring home.

 

O ye gentiles [non-Mormons], let me tell you that every Elder will do as I have told him, when he learns that the opposite course is wrong. And let me tell you that you will see the day when you will wish that you were "Mormon" Elders. By-and-by the Elders of Israel will have gold and silver for plates, cups, saucers, &c.; and when we have adorned and furnished our houses we will have gold and silver to pave our streets, and their enemies will be in hell, unable to raise a decent fiddler there, or any liquor, for it will all burn up, and every decent fiddler will go into a decent kingdom: we will have them. We are going to have the kingdom of God and the fulness thereof, and all the heights and depths of glory, power, and knowledge; and we shall have fathers and mothers, and wives and children.

 

Brother Cannon remarked that people wondered how many wives and children I had. He may inform them that I [Brigham Young] shall have wives and children by the million, and glory, and riches, and power, and dominion, and kingdom after kingdom, and reign triumphantly. "What will you do with all those who have sought to kill you?" Make them soap boilers and kitchen flunkeys. We are not going to send them into hell fire, for it takes a good Latter-day Saint apostatized to get down into that deep (did I say bottomless?) pit. A person, to become an angel of the Devil, has first to be a good Saint, and then deny the Lord who bought him.

 

Do you query why we give endowments to A., B., and C.? It is to make devils of those who will deny the faith, for that is also necessary, as a host of devils will be needed. We also want Saints, angels, holy ones, and those that are exalted to the highest glory—we want them to inherit kingdoms that number millions on millions.

 

... Will the Latter-day Saints so live that they can enjoy the fulness of the heights, depths, glory, and intelligence in which the Father and the Son dwell? If they do not, they must go into another kingdom. He has designed that we should become Gods—the sons of God—fathers of eternal lives, like Abraham. This is the promise he received—to be the father of endless lives, that his posterity and generation should never cease, in time nor eternity.

 

Source: Journal of Discourses  Volume 8, Discourse 46

 

This is echoed in the 1844  anonymous poem Buckey’s Lamentation for Want of More Wives, attributed to Wilson Law, someone who clearly understood Mormon Doctrine at the time (emphasis added): 

The narrow gate did well enough
  When Peter, James,and John,
Did lead the saints on Zion-ward,
  In single file along:
When bachelors, like good old Paul,
  Could win the glorious prize,
And maids, without a marriage rite, 
  Reach “mansions in the skies.”

But we have other teaching now,
  Of greater glories far;
How a single glory”s nothing more
  Than some lone twinkling star.
A two-fold glory”s like the moon,
  That shines so sweet at night,
Reflecting from her gracious lord
  Whatever he thinks right.

A tenfold glory-that”s the prize!
  Without it you”re undone!
But with it you will shine as bright
  As the bright shining sun.
There you may reign' like mighty Gods,
  Creating worlds so fair;-
At least a world for every wife 
  That you take with you there.

 The man that has got ten fair wives, Ten worlds he may create;

And he that has got less than this, Will find a bitter fate.

The one or two that he may have, He'd be deprived of then; And they'll be given as talents were 

To him who has got ten.

All this is coroberated in Kingdom of God Vol. 1 (June 1999) by Ogden Kraut (emphasis added):

... The Gods planned to create a world, (a territory) and place a God (a King) over it, then put His children (subjects) on it and give them the gospel (law). Thus, this definition fits perfectly the description of the Kingdom of God as proposed by the Council of the Gods in the beginning. …

Joseph Fielding Smith [said]:

 

"Christ Created Many Worlds. Under the direction of his Father, Jesus Christ created this earth. No doubt others helped him, but it was Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, who, under the direction of his Father, came down and organized matter and made this planet, so that it might be inhabited by the children of God.

Jesus Christ is the light and the life of men; he was a Creator before this world was made. * * *

This we know, and that will suffice until all things are revealed, the inhabitants of these worlds created by Jesus Christ, are begotten sons and daughters unto God." (Doc. of Sal., Smith, p. 70).

[Joseph Smith said]:

"If a man gets a fullness of the Priesthood of God, he has to get it in the same way that Jesus Christ obtained it, and that was by keeping all the commandments and obeying all the ordinances of the house of the Lord." (Joseph Smith, TPJS, p. 308)

 

The first great commandment which God gave unto mankind, as recorded in the scriptures, was to “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.” (Gen. 1:28) The principal object was to people this creation with myriads of intelligent mortal beings, after His own image and likeness, endowed with God-like capacities, and capable of progressing in the grand scale of knowledge and happiness, until they should receive a fullness, and become like God, and be glorified in Him, and He in them, that they might be one in glory, and in power, and in dominion. Herein is God glorified, because there are millions of beings who eventually become like Himself, with whom He can associate, and who are capable of understanding and appreciating all the fullness of His glorious attributes, and of acting with Him in the most perfect harmony in all the magnificent works of Creation. Herein are the dominions of the Almighty enlarged, by the accession of new worlds, peopled with beings in His own form and of His own order. And herein joy, and gladness, and happiness, reign in the bosom of the great Creator, in all their fullness and perfection, because He exercises His infinite goodness in the formation of numberless worlds, peopled with beings upon whom, if obedient, He bestows all the fullness of His own great perfections. (The Seer, Orson Pratt, p. 25)

 

Just as a man increases the number of his children and expands the size of his real estate, he is adding power and dominion to his own kingdom here. This, in a nutshell, is the great mystery to God and His Kingdom.

 

… THE LAW [is the] The Gospel

 

To build a kingdom of our own, or even remain with God in His Kingdom, we must “obey the rules of the house”–in other words, we must obey the laws of His Kingdom. Joseph Smith explains the nature of those laws and why they are given:

"The first principles of man are self-existent with God. God himself, finding he was in the midst of spirits and glory, because he was more intelligent, saw proper to institute laws whereby the rest could have a privilege to advance like himself. The relationship we have with God places us in a situation to advance in knowledge. He has power to institute laws to instruct the weaker intelligences, that they may be exalted with himself, so that they might have one glory upon another, and all that knowledge, power, glory, and intelligence, which is requisite in order to save them in the world of spirits." (TPJS, p. 354)

 

… And the grand key to understanding this information was given by Joseph Smith:

 

"Here, then, is eternal life–to know the only wise and true God; and you have got to learn how to be Gods yourselves, and to be kings and priests to God, the same as all Gods have done before you, namely, by going from one small degree to another, and from a small capacity to a great one; from grace to grace, from exaltation to exaltation, until you attain to the resurrection of the dead, and are able to dwell in everlasting burnings, and to sit in glory, as do those who sit enthroned in everlasting power. * * * To inherit the same power, the same glory and the same exaltation, until you arrive at the station of a God, and ascend the throne of eternal power, the same as those who have gone before." (TPJS, pp. 346-7)

The law that God has given to His children is the “Gospel,” referred to more appropriately as “The Gospel of the Kingdom.” (See Matt. 4:23)

…. The Prophet Joseph Smith leaves us with this thought:

"Who but those who have duly considered the condescension of the Father of our spirits, in providing a sacrifice for His creatures, a plan of redemption, a power of atonement, a scheme of salvation, having as its great objects, the bringing of men back into the presence of the King of heaven, crowning them in the celestial glory, and making them heirs with the Son to that inheritance which is incorruptible, undefiled, and which fadeth not away–who but such can realize the importance of a perfect walk before all men, and a diligence in calling upon all men to partake of these blessings? How indescribably glorious are these things to mankind! Of a truth they may be considered tidings of great joy to all people; and tidings, too, that ought to fill the earth and cheer the heart of every one when sounded in his ears. The reflection that everyone is to receive according to his own diligence and perseverance while in the vineyard, ought to inspire everyone who is called to be a minister of these glad tidings, to so improve his talent that he may gain other talents, that when the Master sits down to take an account of the conduct of His servants, it may be said, Well done, good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things; I will now make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." (TPJS, p. 48)

… Chapter 9 THE PRE-EXISTENT ROLE OF WOMEN

"To be a priestess queen upon thy Heavenly Father’s throne, and a glory to thy husband and offspring, to bear the souls of men, to people other worlds (as thou didst bear their tabernacles in mortality) while eternity goeth and eternity cometh; and if thou wilt receive it, lady, this is eternal life." (John Taylor, “Origin and Destiny of Women,” as quoted in Marriage Covenant, Kraut, p. 25)

Continuing along the lines of the previous chapter on representation, women are often considered as representatives of many wonderful attributes: love, kindness, emotion, caring, mercy, creation, life, endurance, and jewels in a man’s crown. The scriptures speak of the Zion of the Lord and the New Jerusalem as being like the bride of Christ. (See Rev. 18:23, 21:2.)

… Parley P. Pratt explained:

"The Sodomites, Canaanites, etc., received the reverse of this blessing. Instead of giving them a multiplicity of wives and children, He cut them off, root and branch, and blotted their name from under heaven, that there might be an end of a race so degenerate. Now this severity was a mercy. If we were like the people before the flood, full of violence and oppression; or if we, like the Sodomites or Canaanites, were full of all manner of lawless abominations, holding promiscuous intercourse with the other sex, and stooping to a level with the brute creation, and predisposing our children, by every means in our power, to be fully given to strange and unnatural lusts, appetites, and passions, would it not be a mercy to cut us off, root and branch, and thus put an end to our increase upon the earth? You will all say it would. The spirits in heaven would thank God for preventing them from being born into the world under such circum-stances. Would not the spirits in heaven rejoice in the covenant and blessings of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in relation to the multiplying of their seed, and in every additional wife which God gave to them as a means of multiplying? Yes, they would; for they could say–“Now there is an opportunity for us to take bodies in the lineage of a noble race, and to be educated in the true science of life, and in the commandments of God.” O what an unspeakable contrast, between being a child of Sodom, and a child of Abraham!" (JD 1:259)

 

… Joseph Smith [said]:

 

"Gods have an ascendency over the angels, who are ministering servants. In the resurrection, some are raised to be angels, others are raised to become Gods." (TPJS, p. 312)

Here [and in D&C 132] it is clear that some people will be resurrected as angels or servants, while others will become Gods. In mortality we decide our eternal inheritance–either to become a God over our own kingdom, or to be like the son who “wasted his substance” and spent his inheritance on the things of this world and merely asked to “make me as one of thy hired servants.” How much better to have the Father say, “Son, thou are ever with me, and all that I have is thine.”

Note how Kraut explains that the concept in Mormonism of "God's Kingdom" is about territory, status, and governing control over subjects. Thus, the access to women through the law of polygamy was about male status, and governance and control over women. This tendency to form a "controlled harem of wives" is just like in the polygamous animal kingdom among many ape species. As I see it, it's clear from this what the real reason for polygamy was? It was human men with power creating a theology where becoming a god in the "kingdoms of the gods" was about gaining a kingly harem which was justified as the means of procreating endless offspring with those wives as the pathway toward achieving godhood. As I see it, such a theology is obviously based on acting out the biologically mammalian male instinctual drives to gain territory (resources or riches), status, and dominate and spread one's seed (genes). Thus it was for Joseph Smith a theological justification for his own preconscious instincts; by teaching the idea of becoming a kingly male-god with your kingdom-harem of celestial wives, which earned one their kingly status as a god, Smith was acting out his biological drives for territory,  status, and control.

As celestial wives, women were to bear the souls of men throughout all eternity. Thus securing the male imperative to survive and reproduce being projected into the eternities where the male's seed (genes) carries on forever (through the means of celestial wives and concubines). So that "psychologically speaking," the Mormon man himself gains a kind of immortality of his person (self), through an infinite increase: through his biological self image continuing beyond death via his genes and lineage being reproduced forever. Meanwhile those who did not enter into polygamy were theologically excluded from the highest degree of heaven reserved for the men with a "celestial harem"; as D&C 132 basically explains that men and women who willfully  rejected celestial plural marriage are made non-procreating servants in lower kingdoms; just like is the case with many other mammals, where the lower ranking males do not have the same degree of access to the females as the higher status males. For example, among our closest living relatives, chimpanzees, "male rank typically predicts male chimpanzee reproductive success ..." (Source: Male dominance rank and reproductive success in chimpanzees).

From this we can see that despite the unpleasantries of actual Mormon polygamy in the 1800s, it was a counteractive mythological practice: in that it reversed the Pauline mythology of ideally becoming a celibate Gentile as a "male-Bride" who was allegedly supernaturally inseminated by the seed of an Israelite "Husband"; by instead Joseph Smith declaring that all Mormon converts are among the Lost Tribes of Israel, most of whom from the northern countries, of mostly British, Germanic, and Scandinavian ancestry. So that one's Indo-European genes were not "swapped out", but instead one was to continue their own Indo-European genetic lineage by spreading their seed on earth and into the eternities.

The LDS Church, in contrast, today, tries to ignore and/or deny the actual real reason for why polygamy was practiced. For example, in a new Questions and Answers section on plural marriage on the Church's official website in 2025, on the page titled Church and Gospel Questions: Plural Marriage, the LDS Church states the following (words in bold my own for emphasis):

Does the Church teach that plural marriage is required for exaltation?

No. No scripture or revelation teaches that plural marriage is a requirement for exaltation nor has this been an established doctrine of the Church. In the 19th century, some Church leaders taught this idea. Since that time, however, the consistent, unanimous teaching of Church leaders is that only monogamous temple marriage is necessary for exaltation. They have also emphasized that such a marriage will eventually be available to all who worthily seek it.

I think it's less than fully honest to say plural marriage was never a requirement for exaltation and that it was not an established doctrine; when D&C 132 was considered doctrine. But at least they acknowledged that in the 1800s some Church leaders taught the idea. They just carefully omitted the fact that among those Church Leaders was none other than Joseph Smith himself which nearly all Mormon Scripture derives from. 

The point I am making is that the LDS Church does not want to fully own its original doctrine in today's current culture, and it seems they want to appear today to be basically just another Protestant sect that teaches monogamy. I understand this. They don't want to throw all the polygamist Mormon Pioneers of the 1800s under the bus so to speak. Some of whom are my very own ancestors. But they can't have their cake and eat it too without sounding like they are talking out both sides of their mouth. LDS women are often told at church that polygamy was "just for the widows," an untrue folk tale in LDS Church culture; while today LDS men can be sealed in an LDS temple to more than one woman. 

The LDS Church should make a decision in my opinion. If the Leaders want to deny that polygamy was at the core of Joseph Smith's Mormonism, why not just remove D&C sections 130 to 132 from the canon? Why not de-canonize the Book of Abraham and verses like Abraham 2:11? Why not reinstate the 1835 edition of D&C section 101 that said the doctrine is monogamy only? They could do this.

As I see it, the other option is what I am proposing on this website: which is to see polygamy as being a mere temporary practice, done in the past but no longer necessary today because it has already fulfilled its purpose: that purpose being a kind of midrashic mythological means to the end of revitalizing the masculinity in Mormon men in the 19th century through what I call a midrash of expiation, which led to the birthing of a quasi-ethnic Indo-European Mormon People during the 1800s.  

From this perspective, polygamy can be seen as a temporary mythology and practice; and so although it was probably not actually divinely sanctioned in how it was carried out and practiced in every detail; nevertheless, it did practically function in the past as the means to the end of counteracting the Augustinian despising of the body by reaffirming biological life and also leading to the growth of a quasi-ethnic culture.

In short, the early LDS polygamous mythology of rank hierarchy, wherein only the most emotionally and socially intelligent, virile, and masculine of men gained access to the most polygamous wives, led to a funneling effect in the birthing of the Mormon People; while the plural wife doctrine of Supercouples (who join the Gods as Supercouples), led to the changing of the minds of the first Mormons: wherein they stopped seeing the sexual body as depraved and inherently sinful. Afterall, God the Father himself had a sensual body and wives, while the very way of the Gods themselves was the pursuit of the biologically masculine drives for territory, status, and powerful expansion through the male seed and kingdom building; therefore, within the early polygamist mythology, the bio-masculine attributes and instincts for dominance and expansion were personified onto the Gods themselves; and male virility and the will to power became godlike and divine.  

For more details on how all of this radically shifted the consciousness of early Mormons, moving them further away from an anti-body worldview and toward a more pro-body worldview, see my post here. 

What I am proposing therefore is that just as the "Hell fire and brimstone" language of the Book of Mormon was used by Smith as a means to the end of encouraging conversion (but was not to actually be taken literally according D&C 19), so too, the early Mormon polygamy doctrine can be seen as equally "mythologically useful" as a means to an end but not literally true. 

So that as I see it, D&C 132 and the Book of Abraham, can remain in the Mormon Canon but can be seen as a kind of temporary midrash or mythos, that has fulfilled its purpose and is now obsolete, just as the New Testament replaced many Old Testament ideas and practices; or just as the Book of Mormon's Hell language fulfilled its purpose among the first LDS readers. So that a Father God with wives and men taking on multiple wives in order to be fully exalted, should no longer be taken seriously or literally today. Meanwhile, LDS members have the option of going back to the original Godhead doctrine as found in The Lectures on Faith, if they so choose.

LDS Article on Tribal Lineage and Generating Posterity through the Seed of the Body, Joseph as Deliverer (Rescuer) from the Creeds & The Temple is about Seeing an Embodied God the Father Face to Face like Moses Saw God

If one reads this article with my theory here in mind, one will find this LDS author indirectly confirming my theory.

From The Gathering of Israel by Joseph Fielding McConkie (emphasis added):

An understanding of the doctrine of the gathering of Israel is essential to a sound understanding of the gospel. Of the gathering, the Prophet Joseph Smith said, “It is a principle I esteem to be of the greatest importance to those who are looking for salvation in this generation.”[1]

The doctrine of the gathering stands at the very heart of the message of the restored gospel. We do not really understand who we are as a people, the covenants God has made with us, or the destiny that is ours until we gain a meaningful understanding of this doctrine.

On Sunday, April 3, 1836, a week after Joseph Smith dedicated the Kirtland Temple, the Prophet recorded that after he administered the Lord’s Supper, “I retired to the pulpit, the veils being dropped, and bowed myself, with Oliver Cowdery, in solemn and silent prayer. After rising from prayer, the following vision was opened to both of us” (D&C 110, section heading). This vision is recounted in section 110 of the Doctrine and Covenants. ...

“Moses,” the Prophet said, “appeared before us, and committed unto us the keys of the gathering of Israel from the four parts of the earth, and the leading of the ten tribes from the land of the north” (D&C 110:11). Then Elias appeared. He committed the keys of the dispensation of Abraham, which means that he restored that power and authority that is unique to Abraham’s dispensation. He said “that in us and our seed all generations after us should be blessed” (v. 12). ...

... As we proceed with this discussion, let us do so in the form of a conversation. You ask the questions, as it were, and I, with the aid of the scriptures and the words of prophets, will attempt to answer them. We begin:

Question: Who is included in the term Israel?

Answer: The term Israel refers to the literal descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The greatest promise the Lord can give to a righteous man, beyond the promise of his own salvation, is that of a righteous posterity. This promise, along with a host of attendant promises, God made to Abraham. He made the promise anew to Abraham’s son Isaac, and made it yet again to Isaac’s son Jacob.

Question: Why was Abraham chosen to receive this covenant?

Answer: The covenant had come down from the beginning through the fathers to Abraham (see Abraham 1:3). Abraham, in what constituted a new dispensation, sought for the blessings of this covenant, and the Lord chose to renew it again through him (see Abraham 2:9–11).

.... Answer: After four hundred years of bondage in Egypt, the Lord sent Moses to the children of Israel. Having turned them to Christ, Moses was to liberate them from their enslavement and bring them as a nation to Mount Sinai. Here the Lord intended to sanctify them and renew with them the covenant he had made with their father Abraham. Having been so empowered, they were to return to the land the Lord had promised the seed of Abraham and there build a temple to their God.

Note that Joseph Smith is described as one who is "great like unto Moses, ... to deliver [God's] people, [... house of Israel]" (2 Nephi 3:9). My theory is that Smith delivered early Mormons from the abominable Creeds that denied God's bodily parts and passions, which is why the temple ritual pre-1990 had a sectarian Minister preaching the Nicene Creed and a god without parts and passions. The article continues:

... Question: Does scripture foretell that Moses would come to restore Israel to the covenants made with their fathers?

Answer: Yes. The Lord promised Joseph of Egypt “that he would preserve his seed forever, saying, I will raise up Moses, and a rod shall be in his hand, and he shall gather together my people, and he shall lead them as a flock, and he shall smite the waters of the Red Sea with his rod” (Joseph Smith Translation, Genesis 50:34).

Note that Joseph Smith is the seed of Joseph of Egypt according to Joseph Smith Translation, Genesis 50. Thus it is clear that Smith is seeing a pattern of the seed (sperm) of men in the Old Testament producing a righteous posterity. This is what Mormon polygamy in the 1800s is all about, producing a People through the seed of men from the North. The article continues: 

... Question: Am I to understand that at the time of Moses, the reason the children of Israel were “gathered,” meaning freed from their Egyptian bondage and taken to Sinai, was to covenant with God to be his people?

Answer: Yes, exactly. God sought to renew with Israel the covenant he had made with their fathers. In Exodus 19, Moses led Israel to the base of Mount Sinai, where they camped. Then Moses ascended the mountain to speak with God. “Ye have seen,” God said to Moses, “what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine. And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation” (Exodus 19:4–6).

Moses reported this to his people, and they said, “All that the Lord hath spoken we will do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the Lord” (Exodus 19:8). Moses was then directed to sanctify his people preparatory to God’s appearing to them. The word sanctify means to be “separated” or “set apart.” It involved an ordinance of washing wherein the children of Israel were to be made clean that they might stand in the presence of God. If we add to the story what we learn from the revelations of the Restoration, it means that they were to be consecrated to God and that he was going to endow them with power from on high before they commenced their journey to their land of promise.

Again we see the type: In Joseph Smith’s day, those liberated from the bondage of false religions were to gather with the Saints at Nauvoo. Here they built their Sinai, or temple, and here they were endowed prior to their journey to the promised land in which they would build a temple to their God. In like manner, today all the children of Israel are invited to come to the house of the Lord where they will be sanctified and endowed with power from on high prior to making their journey through life.

Moses sought to gather Israel and restore to them that which they had lost. They had broken their covenants and lost their land of inheritance and the knowledge of how they were to worship their God. Elder Bruce R. McConkie stated the matter succinctly: Israel was scattered “because they forsook the Abrahamic covenant.”[2]

Question: So Israel is scattered when she breaks her covenants and gathered when she returns to them?

And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.

And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law [D&C 132?], and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.” (Isaiah 2:2–3)

Here, Isaiah is saying that after the gospel has come to you, you must go to the temple. It is there that you will be taught in the ways of the God of Jacob. It is there that the promises of the covenant are given.

Question: So you are saying that to be gathered means to be baptized and then to go to the temple to receive the same promises that were made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

 

[Note that the promise is that of a righteous posterity and a flourishing people]

Answer: Exactly. Now, consider Joseph Smith’s testimony alongside that of Isaiah: “What was the object of gathering the Jews, or the people of God in any age of the world? . . . The main object was to build unto the Lord a house whereby He could reveal unto his people the ordinances of his house and the glories of his kingdom, and teach the people the way of salvation; for there are certain ordinances and principles that, when they are taught and practiced, must be done in a place or house built for that purpose.”[3]

In the context of a revelation dealing with the building of the temple in Nauvoo, the Lord said,

How shall your washings be acceptable unto me, except ye perform them in a house which you have built to my name?

For, for this cause I commanded Moses that he should build a tabernacle, that they should bear it with them in the wilderness, and to build a house in the land of promise, that those ordinances might be revealed which had been hid from before the world was.

Therefore, verily I say unto you, that your anointings, and your washings, and your baptisms for the dead, and your solemn assemblies, and your memorials for your sacrifices by the sons of Levi, and for your oracles in your most holy places wherein you receive conversations, and your statutes and judgments, for the beginning of the revelations and foundation of Zion, and for the glory, honor, and endowment of all her municipals, are ordained by the ordinance of my holy house, which my people are always commanded to build unto my holy name. (D&C 124:37–39)

Doctrine and Covenants 84 gives us the best understanding of what was involved at the time of Moses. It tells us that without the ordinances and authority of the priesthood, no man could see God. Remember that Moses had to be translated to enter his presence. Our text reads thus:

For without this no man can see the face of God, even the Father, and live.

Now this Moses plainly taught to the children of Israel in the wilderness, and sought diligently to sanctify his people that they might behold the face of God;

But they hardened their hearts and could not endure his presence; therefore, the Lord in his wrath, for his anger was kindled against them, swore that they should not enter into his rest while in the wilderness, which rest is the fullness of his glory.

Therefore, he took Moses out of their midst, and the Holy Priesthood also;

And the lesser priesthood continued, which priesthood holdeth the key of the ministering of angels and the preparatory gospel. (D&C 84:22–26)

Note that my theory is that Smith restored plural marriage and the Hebrew theology of an embodied God the Father through the temple ritual of the 1800s which ended with seeing God face to face as represented by a male priest playing the role of God. 

 

Question: So if I understand these texts correctly, they are telling us that what was to take place at Sinai prior to the children of Israel making their epic journey to their holy land was the same thing that took place in the early history of the Church in this dispensation?

Answer: It is the same story all over again. The one story is but the type and shadow of the other. Thus to those of our day, the Lord says,

Behold, I say unto you, the redemption of Zion must needs come by power;

Therefore, I will raise up unto my people a man [Joseph Smith], who shall lead them like as Moses led the children of Israel.

For ye are the children of Israel, and of the seed of Abraham, and ye must needs be led out of bondage by power, and with a stretched-out arm.

And as your fathers were led at the first, even so shall the redemption of Zion be. (D&C 103:16–18)

Question: I thought the gathering of Israel centered in her rightful descendants being given the lands that had been promised to their progenitors. You are telling me that the gathering centers in their returning to the covenants of salvation?

Answer: Yes; let me show you how the revelations of the Restoration teach this doctrine. In Doctrine and Covenants 39, we have an account of the Lord speaking to a Baptist minister by the name of James Covill. The Lord tells him that he needs to be baptized. “And if thou do this, I have prepared thee for a greater work. Thou shalt preach the fulness of my gospel, which I have sent forth in these last days, the covenant which I have sent forth to recover my people, which are of the house of Israel” (D&C 39:11; emphasis added). The point here is that to gather Israel is to baptize Israel, wherein they turn to Christ, taking his name upon them.

... Question: So who has claim to the lands promised to Abraham’s seed?

Answer: I will answer your question with the words of Abraham himself: “But, I Abraham, and Lot, my brother’s son, prayed unto the Lord, and the Lord appeared unto me, and said unto me: Arise, and take Lot with thee; for I have purposed to take thee away out of Haran, and to make of thee a minister to bear my name in a strange land which I will give unto thy seed after thee for an everlasting possession, when they hearken to my voice” (Abraham 2:6; emphasis added). Only those who hearken to the voice of the Lord and keep the covenants we have referenced ever had or ever will have any claim from God to a land of inheritance.

Question: So what is the doctrine of the scattering of Israel?

Answer: In ancient times, when Israel turned from Christ and broke her covenants, she lost the right to a land of inheritance, it being a seal or token of the covenant; she was then scattered among the nations of the earth. Prophecy repeatedly foretold that Israel would be scattered among all the nations of the earth, and that scattering continues to this day.

We as a Church have been commissioned to gather scattered Israel, which we do by sending out missionaries to declare Christ and to invite all who believe to be baptized. When appropriate, those baptized are invited to gather with the Saints as they did in Kirtland, Nauvoo, and the Rocky Mountains during pioneer days. This is so that they can receive the full blessings of the temple. Now that the Church is in a position to take temples to the ends of the earth, members of the Church in foreign lands are asked to stay in their homelands and build up Zion there.

... Question: What were the promises that were made to their fathers?

Answer: We know these promises as the Abrahamic covenant. This is what was restored by the Elias from Abraham’s day to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery in the Kirtland Temple. It is the power and authority to perform eternal marriage [note that this initially meant primarily plural marriage]. When a couple is married in the temple, they, like Abraham, receive the promise that they will have seed that is as countless as the sands of the sea or the stars of the heaven. This is the promise of the continuation of the family unit throughout the endless expanses of eternity.

Abraham was promised that his seed would hold the priesthood and be the missionaries that would take the gospel to all other nations. This is why Joseph and Oliver [as polygamists] were told that in their seed all generations after them would be blessed. This promise is extended to all who enter into to the new and everlasting covenant of  marriage.

Elder Bruce R. McConkie, who wrote more on this subject than perhaps any of our latter-day leaders, said: “The crowning blessings of the gospel are received in temples, in holy sanctuaries apart from the world, in the places where only the faithful assemble. It is in temples—whether they be the portable tabernacle of testimony used by Moses, or the magnificent wonder of the world built by Solomon, or the temples of the latter days—that the saints receive the mysteries of godliness. It is in these holy houses that faithful couples enter into the ordinance of celestial marriage through which they become parties to the Abrahamic covenant, the covenant of eternal increase, the covenant that in them and in their seed all generations shall be blessed.[4]

... Christ talked at length about this doctrine at the temple in Bountiful. His remarks centered on the necessity of those who were lost repenting and hearing his words. “But if they will repent and hearken unto my words, and harden not their hearts, I will establish my church among them, and they shall come in unto the covenant and be numbered among this the remnant of Jacob, unto whom I have given this land for their inheritance” (3 Nephi 21:22; emphasis added).

Speaking of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, Christ said, “Therefore it shall come to pass that whosoever will not believe in my words, who am Jesus Christ, which the Father shall cause him [meaning Joseph Smith] to bring forth unto the Gentiles, and shall give unto him power that he shall bring them forth unto the Gentiles, (it shall be done even as Moses said) they shall be cut off from among my people who are of the covenant” (3 Nephi 21:11). Here Christ is saying that those in the last days who reject his words found in the Book of Mormon and thus deny the testimony of Joseph Smith, the great revelator of Christ for this dispensation, will not, as Moses prophesied, be numbered among those who have rightful claim to the blessings of the covenant.

...  Question: Relative to the return of the ten tribes, what are we to understand about the promise that their prophets will lead them?

Answer: Again, Elder McConkie has responded:

Their prophets! Who are they? Are they to be holy men called from some unknown place and people? Are they prophets unbeknown to the presiding officers of “the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth”? (D&C 1:30.) Perish the thought! The President of the Church, who holds the keys to lead the Ten Tribes from the nations of the north wherein they now reside, holds also the keys of salvation for all men. There are not two true churches on earth, only one; there are not two gospels or two plans of salvation, only one; there are not two competing organizations, both having divine approval, only one. “Is Christ divided?” (1 Cor. 1:13.) God forbid. Their prophets are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They are stake presidents and bishops and quorum presidents who are appointed to guide and direct the destinies of their stakes and wards and quorums.[6]

... Question: Does this text indicate why the tribes will return?

Answer: It appears that they will come to receive the blessings of the temple. Consider this language: “And there shall they fall down and be crowned with glory, even in Zion, by the hands of the servants of the Lord, even the children of Ephraim. And they shall be filled with songs of everlasting joy” (D&C 133:32–33).

Question: Have the ten tribes been scattered thoughout all the nations of the earth or have they remained together as a people?

Answer: We have a host of scriptural texts that tell us that all twelve of the tribes of Israel have been scattered among all the nations of the earth. Mormon stated the matter thus:

And as surely as the Lord liveth, will he gather in from the four quarters of the earth all the remnant of the seed of Jacob, who are scattered abroad upon all the face of the earth.

And as he hath covenanted with all the house of Jacob, even so shall the covenant wherewith he hath covenanted with the house of Jacob be fulfilled in his own due time, unto the restoring all the house of Jacob unto the knowledge of the covenant that he hath covenanted with them.

And then shall they know their Redeemer, who is Jesus Christ, the Son of God; and then shall they be gathered in from the four quarters of the earth unto their own lands, from whence they have been dispersed; yea, as the Lord liveth so shall it be. Amen. (3 Nephi 5:24–26)

Scriptural language cannot be more emphatic than this. As both an introduction and a conclusion, Mormon states that if God lives, what he has said must be true. He tells us that all the tribes have been scattered among all nations and that they are to come to a knowledge of the covenant that God made with their fathers and to a knowledge of Christ before they can be returned to their lands of inheritance. It appears that the ten tribes were together in various groups and were visited by Christ after he visited the Nephites; but like the Nephites, they became “a lost and fallen people” and were scattered.

To capture and summarize the primary message of the Book of Mormon, Moroni paraphrases a charge given by Isaiah to the scattered remnants of Israel in the last days: “Awake, and arise from the dust, O Jerusalem; yea, and put on thy beautiful garments, O daughter of Zion; and strengthen thy stakes and enlarge thy borders forever, that thou mayest no more be confounded, that the covenants of the Eternal Father which he hath made unto thee, O house of Israel, may be fulfilled” (Moroni 10:31).

... Isaiah said, “Put on thy strength, O Zion” (Isaiah 52:1). In a revelation in the Doctrine and Covenants, the question is asked, “What is meant by the command in Isaiah, 52d chapter, 1st verse, which saith: Put on thy Strength, O Zion—and to what people had Isaiah reference to?” (D&C 113:7). The stated answer is that “he had reference to those whom God should call in the last days, who should hold the power of priesthood to bring again Zion, and the redemption of Israel; and to put on her strength is to put on the authority of the priesthood, which she, Zion, has a right to by lineage; also to return to that power which she had lost” (D&C 113:8). This clearly places the whole story of the gathering of Israel in the context of an event that is to take place under the direction of the priesthood. The birthright to the priesthood, it also notes, still rests with the scattered remnant of Abraham’s seed.

So it is that we return to the events that took place April 3, 1836, in the Kirtland Temple as recorded in D&C 110. Following the appearance of Christ to accept that edifice as his holy house came Moses, Elias, and Elijah, each to restore his distinctive priesthood keys. The order of their coming is a type—it represents perfectly the history of the house of Israel. First came Moses to restore the keys by which the great message of the Restoration would be declared to Israel, lost and scattered to the ends of the earth. She was to be gathered again to the covenant of her fathers, specifically and particularly the Abrahamic covenant. Then came an Elias from Abraham’s day to restore the authority by which a man and a woman are sealed together for time and all eternity and are granted all the blessings promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Then came Elijah, with the keys by which all gospel ordinances are sealed. The order is perfect, the doctrine sweet, and the way sure.

Question: If this covenant embraces the blessings of salvation, the salvation is a family affair. After the days of Abraham, no one could be saved in the kingdom of God unless they held a place in his family. Is this the case?

Answer: It most certainly is. Salvation is a family affair. We cannot, as those of the sectarian world would suppose, obtain it separately and singly. Salvation, meaning exaltation, requires the eternal union in marriage of a man and a woman (see D&C 131). That marriage must be performed by the sealing power restored to Joseph Smith in the Kirtland Temple on April 3, 1836 (see D&C 132:7–22).

It should also be noted that Joseph Smith taught that those not naturally of Abraham would be adopted as his seed when they received the gift of the Holy Ghost after baptism.[7] Elder McConkie summarizes the whole matter thus:

What, then, is involved in the gathering of Israel? The gathering of Israel consists in believing and accepting and living in harmony with all that the Lord once offered his ancient chosen people. It consists of having faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, of repenting, of being baptized and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and of keeping the commandments of God. It consists of believing the gospel, joining the Church and coming into the kingdom. It consists of receiving the holy priesthood, being endowed in holy places with power from on high, and receiving all the blessings of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, through the ordinance of celestial marriage. And it may also consist of assembling to an appointed place or land of worship.[8]

I conclude with an extract from the dedicatory prayer of the Kirtland Temple. The Prophet importuned the heavens, pleading, “May all the scattered remnants of Israel, who have been driven to the ends of the earth, come to a knowledge of the truth, believe in the Messiah, and be redeemed from oppression, and rejoice before thee” (D&C 109:67). To this we would but say, “Amen,” with the appended plea that we might play our rightful part in this the greatest drama of earth’s history.

 

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