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. 

Even though it's clear from this what the reason for polygamy was about how it was tied up in becoming a kingly male god with your kingdom harem of wives; the LDS Church today tries to ignore and deny all of this. 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 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 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.

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 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 the Mormon People.  

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 the Augustinian despising of the body and led to the growth of a quasi-ethnic culture.

In short, the early LDS polygamous mythology of hierarchy, wherein only the most emotionally 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 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 expansion were personified onto the Gods themselves; and male virility 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 D&C 132 and the Book of Abraham, can remain in the Canon but now 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 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 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.