Joseph Smith, Jr., Did NotTeach nor Practice Polygamy

Joseph Smith, Jr., Did NotTeach nor Practice Polygamy

by Evan A. Fry

Life Magazine, in the issue of October 27, [1947], carries a three-page story about a centennial reunion in Salt Lake City, Utah, participated in by some 400 of the 2,000 living descendants of an early Mormon pioneer and his six wives. The magazine story asserts that in the year 1834, one Charles C. Rich first met Joseph Smith. "In 1843, Revelator Smith 'revealed' a new doctrine which sanctified the institution of plural marriages. Follower Rich soon began to practice polygamy. By the time Rich arrived in Salt Lake City, Utah, on October 2, 1847, he had six wives and a growing family," says Life.

Joseph Smith Never Taught Polygamy

The Reorganized Church asserts now, and has from the beginning, that Joseph Smith never revealed, preached, practiced, sanctioned, or condoned polygamy. The law he gave to the Church in his lifetime was plain and completely in harmony with the Biblical law that one man and one woman-"they twain," not three or six or any other plural number-should be one flesh.

Joseph Smith Gave Revelation Man Should Cleave To one Wife

A revelation received on February 9, 1831, and published to this day in the Utah edition of the Doctrine and Covenants as well as our own, commands: "Thou shalt love thy wife with all thy heart, and shall cleave unto her and none else" (RLDS Section 42:7; Utah Section 42:22).

Second Revelation Marriage Against Pural Marriage

The following month, another revelation contained this language: "Marriage is ordained of God unto man; wherefore it is lawful that he should have one wife, and they twain shall be one flesh, and all this that the earth might answer the end of its creation" (Doctrine and Covenants 49:3).

1835 Marriage LDS Marriage Ceremony

On August 18, 1835, a conference of the Church considered the form of marriage ceremony to be used in the Church and adopted the following covenant, which is used in every marriage ceremony in this Church to the present day: "You both mutually agree to be each other's companion, husband and wife, observing the legal rights belonging to this condition; that is, keeping yourselves wholly for each other, and from all others, during your lives?" (Doctrine and Covenants 111:2b). The same section which includes this marriage covenant incorporates also this declaration of belief from the Church: "We declare that we believe that one man should have one wife; and one woman but one husband" (Doctrine and Covenants 111:4b. This section was removed from the Utah edition in 1876, and the "revelation" on polygamy substituted). The Book of Mormon, which was translated by Joseph Smith, calls polygamy an abomination and states the rule that one man shall have one wife, "and concubines he shall have none" (Jacob 2:36).

Polygamy First Proclaimed By Brigham Young 8 Years After Smith's Death

Joseph Smith was killed on June 27, 1844. Polygamy was first publicly proclaimed by Brigham Young in Salt Lake on August 29, 1852, eight years and two months after the prophet's death. It was presented as a revelation from Smith, received in 1843, but kept secret for all those years. Young stated ... to the conference, "Though that doctrine [polygamy] has not been practiced by the elders, this people have believed in it for years. " Therefore, if the magazine story is correct, Mr. Rich arrived in Utah with six wives almost five years before Brigham Young proclaimed polygamy with the assertion that it had not yet been practiced by the Church.


Young predicted on this occasion, "And I tell you ... it [the principle of polygamy] will sail over and ride triumphantly above all the prejudice and priestcraft of the day." How that prediction has been fulfilled, I leave you to decide.

The Bible Does Not Justify Polygamy, Book of Mormon Calls Polygamy An Abomination

The purported revelation (Section 132, Utah Edition of the Doctrine and Covenants) presented thus in 1852, quotes Joseph Smith as inquiring of the Lord as to how He "justified" the patriarchs of old in polygamy-when the Bible contains no mention of such a justification, and the Book of Mormon calls polygamy an abomination. It [the Utah Section 132] commands Joseph to "prepare thy heart to receive and obey the instructions which I am about to give unto you" (verse 1), and in a later paragraph commands Emma Smith to "receive all that have been given unto my servant Joseph" (verse 52). The purported revelation teaches not only a plurality of wives, but makes salvation dependent on obedience to the principle of polygamy (verse 4). It teaches also a plurality of gods and promises that those who practice polygamy "shall pass by the angels, and the gods, which are set there, to their exaltation and glory in all things" (verses 20 and 21). It promises that if a man marry a wife according to this law, any sin save shedding of innocent blood will be forgiven him (verse 26).

Joseph Smith's Teaching About God and Marriage

Contrast this with the teachings of Joseph Smith in his lifetime, and it is like contrasting black with white. He taught that there is one God; that only belief in and obedience to the gospel of Christ- not polygamy- cancels and forgives sin; that men must respect and obey the laws of the land as well as the law of God and be judged according to the deeds done in the flesh. We have already quoted his teachings regarding marriage.

Joseph Smith's Plural Marriages Were By Proxy

After Smith's Death

After the declaration of this document [Utah Section 132] in 1852, many women in Utah claimed to have been wives to Joseph Smith. But examination of each claim will reveal that the marriage was performed by proxy after Smith's death. In all of Utah- in all of the world- not a single child of Joseph Smith has ever been produced save by his one and only wife, Emma Hale Smith.
When you consider that the so-called revelation promised Joseph that he would be blessed and multiplied an hundredfold in this world of wives and children (see verse 55), and when you consider the pride and satisfaction in polygamous ancestry which still exists in Utah (exemplified by the family gathering described in Life), does it seem probable that there could have been a single polygamous child begotten by Joseph Smith who would not blazon that fact from the housetops? You may be sure that if even one such child- let alone the hundreds promised to him-could have been produced in evidence, he would have been produced long before this.

Emma Smiths Testimony To A Faithful Husband

Emma Smith, who was the wife of Joseph's youth, testified in her old age: "He had no other wife but me; nor did he to my knowledge ever have.... He did not have any improper relation with any woman that ever came to my knowledge.... I know that he had no other wife, or wives, than myself, in any sense- spiritual, or otherwise." "Young Joseph," the son of Joseph and Emma, though not quite twelve years old at his father's death, was old enough to know whether his father's family life was all that it should be, and his evidence corroborates the statement of his mother.

U.S. Court Rules Utah Church Started Polygamy

In a court trial involving possession of certain real estate, Judge John F. Phillips, of the Circuit Court of the United States Western District of Missouri, found as follows in his decision given March 16, 1894: "...That the church in Utah has largely departed from the faith, doctrines, laws, ordinances, and usages of said original church ... and has incorporated into its system of faith the doctrines of celestial marriages and a plurality of wives."
We stand on this record to deny again that Joseph Smith ever revealed, preached, practiced, condoned, or sanctioned polygamy.