JOSEPH SMITH AND PLURAL MARRIAGE

I mentioned some time ago (around 9 years ago) to my bishop at the time, that Joseph Smith had many wives and that polyandry was practiced (sealed to another man's wife for eternity) while she lived with him for time (on this earth only).

I am perfectly fine with it.  We are to journey together and if one cannot meet the other's eternal needs, they are not going to be a ball and chain in their companion's or companions' eternal progression.  That applies to the man and to the woman - there is NO double standard.  We must qualify our sealing to each other - or it is ineffectual.  Null and void.  It is quite simple to me.  It is all part of the "survival of the spiritual fittest" - and that which the parable of the ten talents talks of.  Jesus had at least two, if not three or more wives.  If that is shocking or repulsive to you - all I can say is, "Get over it".....  Its just the way it is.

When I first got married, my wife became a bitter enemy of this principle and I told her that she would have to pass thru many sorrows until she was humble enough to accept it, for she was not only rejecting Joseph, but the Lord and the entire economy of heaven.  By force of circumstance in life, she has come around.  I am glad the Church is finally coming out with the goods on the doctrine.  When I shared it with this young bishop, I am not sure if was about ready to interview me and ask me for my recommend - for apostasy.......

I recently had a most "lively" conversation with my wife about how Jesus came about and what the term "begotten" means.  My wife is again on the short side of the argument - and says that there is no way that God had an incestuous relationship with one of His own daughters.  Again, a perspective tainted by our earthly perceptions of sexuality and stewardship.  I could not believe I was hearing arguments akin to support for the "immaculate conception" doctrine of the Catholics.  I have nothing against the Catholics, but they have some really screwy concepts of marriage and the role of sexual relations within those bounds.  The whole immaculate conception concept is dizzying, at best.  A logical fallacy of the highest order (okay, done bashing the doctrinal sets of other religions....).

So again, I have a mortal to which I am tied to at the hip, calling out a Supreme Being as a freak.  You know - you can only get bashed over head so many times before you call "uncle" on the practice of calling people with some pretty great titles out for their "perversity".  I mean I support God in His efforts to reform a mere mortal - and that reform will come at my expense, to a degree.  That is my only concern.  When lightning strikes, keep a good distance I always say.......

Anyway, here is what got me spun up.  Sorry if there are still any anti-polygamy naysayers out there, but the evidence is mounting against your arguments.  So glad the Church decided to just put it out there so I could have some relief from the bashers I come up against.  Facts are facts - get over it.  If you do not, you will just be a blip of data on how the historians will quantify the results of "the great test and purge of the Church" in the decades to come.  When all the men are wiped out in the coming events, those who still like the company of a man will come around.  Most of the living and preaching of the gospel, unfortunately, will have to be done by force of circumstance because the membership is too high-minded and stiff-necked to figure it out on their own.  Truly, part of extracting oneself from Bablyon is throwing out the degenerate concepts that feminism has taught the last several generations of men and women.  "Equality" does not mean "same":

Quote:
About the first of April, 1843, the Prophet with some of the Twelve and others came to Macedonia to hold a meeting, which was to convene in a large cabinet shop owned by Brother Joseph E. and myself, and as usual he put up at my house. Early on Sunday morning he said, "Come Brother Bennie, let us have a walk." I took his arm and he led the way into a by-place in the edge of the woods surrounded by tall brush and trees. Here, as we sat down upon a log he began to tell me that the Lord had revealed to him that plural or patriarchal marriage was according to His law; and that the Lord had not only revealed it to him but had commanded him to obey it; that he was required to take other wives; and that he wanted my Sister Almira for one of them, and wished me to see and talk to her upon the subject. If a thunderbolt had fallen at my feet I could hardly have been more shocked or amazed. He saw the struggle in my mind and went on to explain. But the shock was too great for me to comprehend anything, and in almost an agony of feeling I looked him squarely in the eye, and said, while my heart gushed up before him, "Brother Joseph, this is all new to me; it may all be true--you know, but I do not. To my education it is all wrong, but I am going, with the help of the Lord to do just what you say, with this promise to you--that if ever I know you do this to degrade my sister I will kill you, as the Lord lives." He looked at me, oh, so calmly, and said, "Brother Benjamin, you will never see that day, but you shall see the day you will know it is true, and you will fulfill the law and greatly rejoice in it." And he said, "At this morning's meeting, I will preach you a sermon that no one but you will understand. And furthermore, I will promise you that when you open your mouth to your sister, it shall be filled."

At the meeting he read the parable of the Talents, and showed plainly that to him that hath shall be given more, and from him that had but one should be taken that he seemed to have, and given to him who had ten. This, so far as I could understand, might relate to families, but to me there was a horror in the idea of speaking to my sister upon such a subject, the thought of which made me sick. But I had promised, and it must be done. I did not remember his words, and have faith that light would come, I only thought, "How dark it all looks to me.' But I must do it, and so told my sister I wished to see her in a room by herself, where I soon found her seated. I stood before her trembling, my knees shaking, but I opened my mouth and my heart opened to the light of the Lord, my tongue was loosened and I was filled with the Holy Ghost. I preached a sermon that forever converted me and her also to the principle, even though her heart was not yet won by the Prophet. And so I had great joy after my tribulation.

He had asked me to bring my sister to the city, which I soon did, where he saw her at my sister's, the Widow Sherman, who had already been sealed to him by proxy. His brother, Hyrum, said to me, "Now, Brother Benjamin, you know that Brother Joseph would not sanction this if it was not from the Lord. The Lord revealed this to Brother Joseph long ago, and he put it off until the Angel of the Lord came to him with a drawn sword and told him that he would be slain if he did not go forth and fulfill the law." He told my sister to have no fears, and he there and then sealed my sister, Almira, to the Prophet.

Soon after this he was at my house again, where he occupied my Sister Almira's room and bed, and also asked me for my youngest sister, Esther M. I told him she was promised in marriage to my wife's brother. He said, "Well, let them marry, for it will all come right."

The orphan girl--Mary Ann Hale--that my mother had raised from a child, was now living with us, of nearly the same age as my sister, and I asked him if he would not like her, as well as Almira. He said, "No, but she is for you. You keep her and take her for your wife and you will be blessed." This seemed like hurrying up my blessings pretty fast, but the spirit of it came upon me, and from that hour I thought of her as a wife that the Lord had given me.

In lighting him to bed one night he showed me his garments and explained that they were such as the Lord made for Adam from skins, and gave me such ideas pertaining to endowments as he thought proper. He told me Freemasonry, as at present, was the apostate endowments, as sectarian religion was the apostate religion.

In the evening he called me and my wife to come and sit down, for he wished to marry us according to the Law of the Lord. I thought it a joke, and said I should not marry my wife again, unless she courted me, for I did it all the first time. He chided my levity, told me he was in earnest, and so it proved, for we stood up and were sealed by the Holy Spirit of Promise.

This occurrence is referred to in the life of Joseph Smith as "Spending the evening in giving counsel to Brother Johnson and wife." At this time I knew that the Prophet had as his wives, Louisa Beeman, Eliza R. Snow, Maria and Sarah Lawrence, Sisters Lyon and Dibble, one or two of Bishop Partridge's daughters, and some of C. P. Lott's daughters, together with my own two sisters. And I also knew that Brother J. Bates Noble and others had plural wives, and that the Prophet had sealed to me my first and had given to me a second to be my wife. And I knew of other things in the Prophet's life and teachings that I will not now write, but I do so well remember his declarations in the meetings of the Saints, that the Lord had revealed to him principles, that should he teach and practice them, those who were now his best friends would become his bitterest enemies.


This comes directly from the journals of my family upline, Benjamin Johnson. Who knew the prophet personally obviously. Are you going to tell me that Ben made all of this up?