Up to Location 1700 of the ebook, Selective Breeding by Alamariu, it occurred to me that it was the unbridled unconventional nature of Joseph Smith, which like the early warband, led him to break away from Protestant convention (nomos):
The primary function of nomos is “social control,” homogenization, taming, tribal survival, the continuation and preservation of mere life through a regime of commands, speech and teaching that covers up and suppresses nature. Excellence, virtue, on the other hand, is a matter of nature, of blood, and it cannot be taught.
[Selective Breeding, page 140]
For a time Joseph returned to Nature and rank order which is encapsulated in Orson Hyde's diagram The Kingdom of God. Hyde's diagram is in a way a version of the symbolism of the wolf in the early warband among the Romans and Greeks. Here are some quotes from the book Selective Breeding on this subject:
Nature, phusis, phue, refers first of all, and always, and above all, to a concrete material reality, to a biological reality that means very plainly: “the body.” (Pindar)
S. 122
Christianity was “Platonism for the people,” or, which is the same thing, an entirely exoteric Platonism. A Platonism with a priesthood that no longer understood nor cared for the fact that the outward moral and political orientation was meant as a protective outer wall for an inner garden where nature itself was nurtured and preserved. The quasi-Platonic priesthood of medieval Christianity, for all its spiritual profundity, was incompetent when it came to the needful task of caring for the “overall development” of man or the cultivation of human nature, a nature they denied.
S. 264
“Its fundamental belief must, in fact, be that the society should exist, not for the sake of the society, but only as a base and framework on which an exceptional kind of nature can raise itself to its higher function and, in general, to a higher form of being, comparable to those heliotropic climbing plants on Java – people call them sipo matador – whose tendrils clutch an oak tree so much and for so long until finally, high over the tree but supported by it, they can unfold their crowns in the open light and make a display of their happiness.”
S. 269f
The martial state, the Spartan state, is the prototype of the state: in its being dedicated to the production of military genius it lays the precondition, or presents the model, for the state as dedicated to the production of genius more generally, for the state as the cultivation of human nature or as the staging ground of higher culture.
S. 271
The founders are necessarily not determined by their time, but determine the horizon of a people; they stand outside this horizon and have nature as a guide much in the same way a horse breeder does.
S. 279
(Source)
By tapping into Nature (defined as spirit matter (D&C 131:7-8), God's law and the Logos or Christ in D&C 88, and the Mind of Deity in Lecture #5), and declaring that God the Father has a body of nature, of divinized flesh and bone (D&C 130:22), Joseph Smith broke free from puritanical Augustinian Christianity and the body-despising Creeds. Rather than the species of docile celibate priests, his priests would compete for rank via showing loyalty, courage and kingdom-building. Thus he restored the energy of Nature and the selection of the most intelligent, strong, and cooperative species of men through the practice of plural marriage: as those who were able to rise in status within the priesthood hierarchy and practice plural marriage were the one's who were most able to multiply their genes and personality traits; and thus it was their natures (genes) and personalities that formed the main body of the Mormon People.
Joseph did not operate only in the realm of our God-given unconscious instincts of lifeward vitality and Nature however. The Latter-day Saints would not be brute beasts and like ancient warrior terrorizers but peace-seeking gatherers seeking to avoid violence and instead act as warriors for Zion. As we read in Doctrine and Covenants 105: 14-17 (emphasis added):
For behold, I [the Lord] do not require at their hands to fight the battles of Zion; for, as I said in a former commandment, even so will I fulfil—I will fight your battles. Behold, the destroyer I have sent forth to destroy and lay waste mine enemies; and not many years hence they shall not be left to pollute mine heritage, and to blaspheme my name upon the lands which I have consecrated for the gathering together of my saints [LDS]. Behold, I have commanded my servant Joseph Smith, Jun., to say unto the strength of my house, even my warriors, my young men, and middle-aged, to gather together for the redemption of my people [i.e. Zion], and throw down the towers of mine enemies, and scatter their watchmen; But the strength of mine house have not hearkened unto my words. But inasmuch as there are those who have hearkened unto my words, I have prepared a blessing and an endowment for them, if they continue faithful.
LDS were to fight only in self-defense, as Americanized, civilized men, of decorum and virtue ethics. As a genius synthesizer, Joseph Smith integrated Haidt's "hive mind" with his vision of Zion; thus you have LDS apostle Orson Hyde's Kingdom diagram of ascending rank hierarchy, combined with the synergistic Beehive symbol.
Joseph's "warriors" we're not sword-wielding Norse Vikings or Greek warrior men on chariots, but men endowed with power to open their mouth and speak with courage and conviction in order to persuade through good communication. Thus you read in the autobiography of Parley P. Pratt showing his adventurous spirit and his bravery and valor in being willing to compete verbally with the Ministers of the day, and win over converts. The early years of Mormonism was a time of being on the offensive, attacking the Protestant dogmas and Creeds in speeches and pamphlets. For example, Joseph openly criticized the Creedal Trinity dogma. Thus it was a competition of minds, a war of ideas, and Mormonism was superior to the competition in my view, offering the genius of Joseph Smith's better theology: wherein he not only had the creativity and Midrashic skills of the apostle Paul in revealing new scriptures; but he was ingenious in how he surrounded himself with the most intelligent, creative and strong-willed men and devout women to be his friends and counselors. He thus bred a leadership of elites which bolstered the LDS Movement with the scholarly intelligence of those like Orson Hyde (who taught Joseph grammar and formed one of the earliest LDS visuals The Kingdom of God), the poetic artistry of Parley P. Pratt (who articulated Mormonism in books and pamphlets), and the strong-willed nature of those like Brigham Young (who succeeded Smith after his death and championed the Mormons in their arduous trek to Utah).
At location 1652 of the ebook Selective Breeding, Alamariu writes:
Without this precise type of aristocracy as a social precondition, an extreme parochialism reigns and there is no looking and no ability to look beyond the boundaries of one people's nomos to begin with.
Very few charismatic preachers dared to go beyond the Creeds and the closed Canon, those who did lacked the aristocratic warrior spirit, the anti-fragility or ability to withstand the scrutiny and criticism and personal attacks. In this regard, Joseph Smith was a breed apart, and he surrounded himself with other strong-willed and creative individuals, like Orson Hyde, Parley P. Pratt and Brigham Young. And from out of the effort and innovations of these higher men, Mormonism broke away from both Catholicism and Protestantism and produced a more life-affirming theology and a Jewish-like Peoplehood.
Selecting of the Choice Spirits/Intelligences through the Seed of Noble Bodies
A video on Joseph Smith and spirit birth offers these quotes (I was able to verify the second quote with a link in brackets but not the first quote):
“When plurality was first taught in Nauvoo the following arguments were used, that supposing Male & female be about equal in number -- are there not some, more righteous than others. Spirits are begotten in the spirit world, by the righteous -- the wicked have not the privilege of procreating their species, and why not the same restrictions in this world. The wicked, here, have the privilege of begetting tabernacles in this life, but not to beget the intelligent spirit in the eternal world” ~ Orson Pratt (Salt Lake City School of the Prophet Minutes 18 June 1870, page 94)
The “spiritual wife” doctrine I will explain, as taught me by Elder W___e, as taught by Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, Elder Adams, William Smith, and the rest of the quorum, &c., &c. It is as follows: -- Joseph had a revelation from God that there were a number of spirits to be born into the world, before their exaltation in the next; that Chrsit would not come until all these spirits received or entered their “tabernacle of clay;” that these spirits were hovering around the world, and at the door of bad houses, watching a chance, however dishonorably, of getting into their tabernacle; that God had provided an honorable way for them to come forth -- that was, by the “Elders of Israel” sealing up virtuous women, and as there was no provision made for woman in the scriptures, their only chance of heaven was to be “sealed up” to some Elder for time and eternity, and be a star in his crown forever; that those who were the cause of bringing forth these spirits would receive a reward -- the ratio of which reward should be the greater or less according to the number they were the means of bringing forth. This, Mr. Editor, is the substance of the “Mysterious of the Kingdom,” in as few words as I can use to explain it.”
(Letter to the Editor by Henry Rowe, 3 February 1845, Messenger and Advocate vol. 1, no. 9, March 1845); [Also see Boston Investigator Vol. XIV. Boston, Mass., Wednesday, February 12, 1845. No. 41.]
These quotes are unreliable but they point to the idea of spirit being born through noble men. These spirits would be the Intelligences mentioned in the Book of Abraham chapter 3, where first future polygamist Abraham is told by the Lord in verse 14, "I will multiply thee, and thy seed [genes] after thee, like unto these [stars in the sky]; and if thou canst count the number of sands, so shall be the number of thy seeds." Then in verse 18-26 we read (emphasis added):
Howbeit that he made the greater star; as, also, if there be two spirits, and one shall be more intelligent than the other, yet these two spirits, notwithstanding one is more intelligent than the other, have no beginning; they existed before, they shall have no end, they shall exist after, for they are gnolaum, or eternal. I [the Lord] dwell in the midst of them all; I now, therefore, have come down unto thee to declare unto thee the works which my hands have made, wherein my wisdom excelleth them all, for I rule in the heavens above, and in the earth beneath, in all wisdom and prudence, over all the intelligences thine eyes have seen from the beginning; I came down in the beginning in the midst of all the intelligences thou hast seen.
Now the Lord had shown unto me, Abraham, the intelligences that were organized before the world was; and among all these there were many of the noble and great ones; And God saw these souls that they were good, and he stood in the midst of them, and he said: These I will make my rulers; for he stood among those that were spirits, and he saw that they were good; and he said unto me: Abraham, thou art one of them; thou wast chosen before thou wast born. And there stood one among them that was like unto God, and he said unto those who were with him: We will go down, for there is space there, and we will take of these materials, and we will make an earth whereon these may dwell; And we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them [see D&C 132]; And they who keep their first estate shall be added upon; and they who keep not their first estate shall not have glory in the same kingdom with those who keep their first estate; and they who keep their second estate shall have glory added upon their heads for ever and ever.
In the 2020 thesis Defending "The Principle": Orson Pratt and the Rhetoric of Plural Marriage by Jake D. Simmondson, we read on pages 19-25 that regarding the 1852 LDS General Conference, Orson Pratt gave the following reasons for Plural Marriage. Note that I have not quoted every defense from the thesis, but have focused on one theme in particular:
… Pratt then leads the congregation on a careful journey through several interrelated doctrines in order to finally land at several points regarding marriage, including plural marriage.
[1] In the premortal existence of mankind, man was sired as a spirit child of a divine
Father in heaven.
The “Mormons” have a peculiar doctrine in regard to our pre-existence… Why
the fact is, that being that animates this body, that gives life and energy, and
power to move, to act, and to think; that being that dwells within this
tabernacle is much older than what the tabernacle is. … the spirits of all men,
male and female, did have an existence, before man was formed out of the dust
of the ground. But who was their Father? I have already quoted a saying that
God is the Father of our spirits.[49]
[2] The work of the Father is eternal in nature; His designs and the course of the lives of
men fit into an eternal plan.
Suffice it to say, that Abraham and many others of the great and noble ones in
the family of spirits, were chosen before they were born, for certain purposes,
to bring about certain works, to have the privilege of coming upon the stage of
action, among the host of men, in favorable circumstances.[50]
[3] All of the spirit children of Heavenly Father are to be born on the earth in order to
receive a mortal body and fulfill the eternal plan of the Father.
The Lord has ordained that these spirits should come here and take tabernacles
by a certain law, through a certain channel … Here, then, we perceive, just
from this one principle, reasoning from the blessings of Abraham alone, the
necessity—if we would partake of the blessings of Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob—of doing their works; and he that will not do the works of Abraham
and walk in his footsteps, will be deprived of his blessings.[51]
[4] His last point (which was his most important in the context of plural marriage) argues
that marriage, being eternal, is the divinely appointed method of offering bodies to
these spirits from heaven. Thus, plural marriage, in a household of faith and
obedience, offer the highest number of spirits possible the opportunity to receive an
earthly tabernacle in a setting wherein they can learn the Gospel of Jesus Christ and
live a life that will allow them to return to their God.
The Lord ordained marriage between male and female as a law through which
spirits should come here and take tabernacles, and enter into the second state of
existence … [they are] reserved until the dispensation of the fullness of times,
to come forth upon the face of the earth, through a noble parentage that shall
train their young and tender minds in the truths of eternity, that they may grow
up in the Lord, and be strong in the power of His might, be clothed upon with
His glory, be filled with exceeding great faith … among the Saints is the most
likely place for these spirits to take their tabernacles, through a just and
righteous parentage … like unto the Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob of
Old. [52]
That final line, “like unto the patriarchs”, is a clear reference to plural marriage as practiced by the ancient prophets, and the function of polygamy in fulfilling the grand objectives of God that Pratt mentioned. …
… Participants in plural marriage are able to experience and enjoy the promises offered
to Abraham and his posterity:
We read that those who do the works of Abraham, are to be blessed with the
blessing of Abraham… Here then, was a foundation laid for the fulfillment of
the great and grand promise concerning the multiplicity of his seed. It would
have been rather a slow process, if Abraham had been confined to one wife, like
some of those narrow, contracted nations of modern Christianity.[54]
- The Abrahamic covenant was very important to the Latter-day Saints. [Footnote 55: See modern scripture taught and published by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, such as The Book of Abraham, Doctrine and Covenants 76:56, Doctrine and
Covenants 86, and Doctrine and Covenants 132:30]. They saw themselves as the modern-day house of Israel and were anxious to obtain the blessings of this covenant.[56] Plural Marriage was another opportunity to secure these deeply desired blessings.
This accords with the Book of Abraham 2: 9-11 below (emphasis added), where Abraham as a body is the source, through his seed (sperm), of producing a great nation as God’s People (emphasis added):
9 And I will make of thee [Abraham] a great nation, and I will bless thee above measure, and make thy name great among all nations, and thou shalt be a blessing unto thy seed after thee, that in their hands they shall bear this ministry and Priesthood unto all nations;
10 And I will bless them through thy name; for as many as receive this Gospel shall be called after thy name, and shall be accounted thy seed, and shall rise up and bless thee, as their father;
11 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee; and in thee (that is, in thy Priesthood) and in thy seed (that is, thy Priesthood), for I give unto thee a promise that this right shall continue in thee, and in thy seed after thee (that is to say, the literal seed, or the seed of the body) shall all the families of the earth be blessed, even with the blessings of the Gospel, which are the blessings of salvation, even of life eternal.
This is why the last verses of D&C 132 speak of plural marriage as the way to have children on earth (or bear the souls in the pre-existence). As we read in an original version of the text below on page 8 of Revelation, 12 July 1843 [D&C 132] (words in brackets my own and some original footnotes pasted within brackets below):
… for they [plural wives or concubines] are given unto him [the LDS male in the 1800s] to multiply & replenish the Earth according to my Commandment [See Genesis 1:28; 9:1.] & to fulfill the promise which was given by my father [God] before the foundation of the world & for thine exaltation in the eternal worlds, that they may have <bear> the Souls of men, for herein is the work of my father Continued that he may be Glorified— And again verily verily I Say unto you if any man have a wife who holds the Keys of this power [Authority or knowledge of God given to humankind. In the earliest records, the term keys primarily referred to Joseph Smith’s authority to unlock the “mysteries of the kingdom.”]& he teaches unto her the Law of my priesthood as pertaining to these things, they then Shall She believe & administer unto him …. for I will magnify my name upon all those these who receive & abide in my law … I Commanded Abraham to take Hagar to wife[Genesis chapter 16 discusses Sarai, who instructed her husband, Abram, to have children by her servant Hagar.]
I used to read this as bearing souls in a future heaven as gods, however the paragraph could be read as those who practice having many wives better able to bear the souls of men (pre-existent spirits) into mortality (i.e. life on earth).
The thesis by Simmondson continues:
Those who participate in plural marriage provide mortal bodies within ideal families
to the most valiant and righteous sons and daughters of Heavenly Father. In so doing,
they help to build up the Kingdom of God through successive righteous generations:
This is the reason why the Lord is sending them here, brethren and sisters; they are appointed to come and take their bodies here, that in their generations they may be raised up among the righteous… this would be their highest pleasureand joy, to know that they could have the privilege of being born of such noble parentage. Then is it not reasonable and consistent that the Lord should say unto His faithful and chosen servants… take unto yourselves more wives?[60]
- The Saints were fixated upon the idea of Zion, and their focus was that of building Zion, both in a literal and figurative sense. An essential component of the building of Zion was raising a righteous posterity. According to Brigham Young, this was an individual endeavor as well as a family affair:
When we conclude to make a Zion we will make it, and this work commences in the heart of each person. When the father of a family wishes to make a Zion in his own house, he must take the lead in this good work, which it is impossible for him to do unless he himself possesses the spirit of Zion. Before he can produce the work of sanctification in his family, he must sanctify himself, and by this means God can help him to sanctify his family…[61]
One way to establish and strengthen Zion was for God’s “faithful and chosen” to participate in plural marriage, increasing the number of children raised in homes with “noble parentage”.
From this it is clear that plural marriage was thought of as the means of providing a filtering pathway, a selection process, for birthing as many spirits/intelligences as possible to be born into the lineage of noble priesthood holders. In episode"696: Mormon Polygamy & Quest for the Presidency (Newell Bringhurst/Craig Foster 1 of 2)" on YouTube, at the one hour and 9-11 minute mark, Craig Foster talks and quotes from one of his books stating:
Just to give you an idea of the impact that plural marriage had on the Church, just using the LDS leaders (the Presidents of the Church), with these six men from Brigham Young through Heber J. Grant, there were 98 wives and 225 children. This means that the first 150 years of the Church -- from 1830 to almost the middle of the 20th century -- were presided over by polygamists; and to give you an idea of the continuing impact, the last of these 225 children (of these polygamist leaders) to die was Francis Marian Grant, the youngest daughter of Heber J. Grant and Emily Harris Wells. Francis ... died in 1995, 165 years after the founding of the Church and 151 years after the martyrdom of Joseph Smith. ... So pretty much in everyone's lifetime that's going to be reading these books, at least right now, we had remnants of plural marriage with the children of these leaders.
In other words, there was definitely a selection process of a certain type of person or personality, which built the main body of the Mormon People.
This is why in the book Wilford Woodruff: History of His Life and Labors as Recorded ...by Matthias F. Cowleyon, on page 546 he says, “The law of the Patriarchal order of marriage belongs to this dispensation, and after it was revealed to the Prophet Joseph he was commanded to receive it. If he and the people had rejected it, the Church and Kingdom of God would have advanced no further and God would have taken it from them and given it to another people.”
So basically the LDS Presidents birthing over 200 kids certainly filtered in a certain type of DNA and personality and characteristics. Like courage and strength and agreeableness and conscientiousness (on the Big 5 Personality traits that I discuss here).
In 1834 Joseph Smith said to the LDS members (emphasis added):
... it is only a little handful of Priesthood you see here tonight, but this Church will fill North and South America. it will fill the world.' ... 'it will fill the Rocky Mountains. There will be tens of thousands of Latter-day Saints who will be gathered in the Rocky Mountains ... This people will go into the Rocky Mountains; they will there build temples to the Most High. They will raise up a posterity there, and the Latter-day Saints who dwell in these mountains ...
In the documentary, America's Sacred Ground: Kirtland, an actor playing Joseph Smith is depicted prophesying the above quoted text on the future growth of the Mormon People. I took the following screenshots where the words were combined with Utah:
Click in images to Enlarge
Here, we get a visual of the meaning of multiplying and replenishing of lives through the male seed (Abr. 2:11), of bearing souls of men (D&C 132:63) through plural marriage, as it was all about raising up a righteous posterity through a select few righteous men.
If you think about it, why do the Gospels begin with a genealogy of Jesus? Because it mattered that he descended from the tribe of David as the Davidic Messiah, for it was through his Davidic line that the Messiah would produce the Jesus People, as a new spiritual species.
In the book Dominion and Dynasty: A Study in Old Testament Theology, Vol. 15 (New Studies in Biblical Theology) by Dempster, Stephen G., the author covers how Jesus descended from polygamists and the whole theology of the Hebrew Bible was about God's People (Israel) gaining dominion by forming dynasties just like Joseph Smith sought to do. Just as there was a selection process in forming the Jewish People and the Davidic line through which Jesus descended, similarly there was also selection process that took place in early Mormonism.
Jesus himself descended from polygamists who raised up a righteous seed. Christians interpret the Messiah being spoken of in Isaiah 9:7 below, to be Jesus, as quoted below from the Expanded Bible:
There will be no end to the ·growth [abundance; increase] of his ·rule [dominion; government],
nor to the peace he will bring.
He will rule as king on David’s throne
and over David’s kingdom [2 Sam. 7:11–16].
He will ·make it strong [establish and sustain it]
by ruling with justice and ·goodness [righteousness]
from now on and forever.
·The Lord All-Powerful will do this
because of his strong love for his people [L The zeal/jealousy of the Lord Almighty/of Heaven’s Armies/T of hosts will accomplish this].
The "the growth [abundance; increase] of his ·rule [dominion ...]" is interpreted in LDS Scripture as LDS Christians receiving the same glory, power and dominion as Christ as co-heirs with Christ (see Lecture #7 and D&C 132).
Note that not only does Jesus descend from polygamists but he metaphorically represents plural marriage by being the Bridegroom (husband) to many brides, as "His Bride" (that is the church/ecclesia) are Christians who are metaphorically his fiancés and future plural wives metaphorically. It is through the selection process of Jesus breathing his divine seed (sperma) into certain people, that he spiritually births a new species or deified People. From this perspective, Joseph Smith simply restored this biblical selection process of birthing a People, as plural marriage was the biblical method of bringing preexistent souls into an elite lineage of intelligence and kindness, as Joseph was according to scripture commissioned by Christ "to bring to pass the gathering of mine elect; for mine elect hear my voice and harden not their hearts ..." (D&C 29:7).
