4. Oliver Cowdery is Excommunicated
September 29, 20243. Contemporary Revelation Denounced Polygamy
September 30, 2024
On several occasions, Joseph said an angel with a drawn sword threatened him with destruction if he did not continue to practice polygamy and take on more wives
Table of contents
- On several occasions, Joseph said an angel with a drawn sword threatened him with destruction if he did not continue to practice polygamy and take on more wives
- A1) Some of Joseph Smith’s plural marriages included promises by Joseph of eternal life to the girls and their families, threats of loss of salvation if they did not marry him, and threats that he (Joseph) was going to be slain by an angel with a drawn sword if the girls didn’t marry him.
- Issues these Facts Raise
- Questions these Facts Raise
A1) Some of Joseph Smith’s plural marriages included promises by Joseph of eternal life to the girls and their families, threats of loss of salvation if they did not marry him, and threats that he (Joseph) was going to be slain by an angel with a drawn sword if the girls didn’t marry him.
Supporting Sources and Quotes
For example when Joseph married Zina D. Huntington Jacobs (who was currently married to Henry Jacobs) and she was hesitant to agree to Joseph’s proposal. “Joseph sent [her older brother] Dimick to her with a message: an angel with a drawn sword had stood over Smith and told him that if he did not establish polygamy, he would lose “his position and his life.” Zina, faced with the responsibility for his position as prophet, and even perhaps his life, finally acquiesced.” (Todd Compton, In Sacred Loneliness, page 80-81).
“When God commands a difficult task, He sometimes sends additional messengers to encourage His people to obey. Consistent with this pattern, Joseph told associates that an angel appeared to him three times between 1834 and 1842 and commanded him to proceed with plural marriage when he hesitated to move forward. During the third and final appearance, the angel came with a drawn sword, threatening Joseph with destruction unless he went forward and obeyed the commandment fully.”
–LDS.org, Plural Marriage in Kirtland and Navoo
What the LDS.org, Plural Marriage in Kirtland and Navoo Essay fails to specify is that these three occurrences happened at three different times, while he was actively practicing polygamy. So despite Joseph being already married to several women, the angel came around again (and again) to tell Joseph he had to marry another wife (and another).
There are at least “some twenty different reminiscences that recount Joseph Smith’s encounters with a sword-bearing angel who commanded him to establish the practice of plural marriage.” (Encouraging Joseph Smith to Practice Plural Marriage: The Accounts of the Angel with a Drawn Sword by Brian C. Hales. See also: Joseph Smith, an Angel with a Drawn Sword, and Plural Marriage by Don Bradley and Brian C. Wilcox).
Lorenzo Snow, LDS Prophet
“[Joseph Smith] said that the Lord had revealed [the doctrine of the plurality of wives] unto him and commanded him to have women sealed to him as wives, that he foresaw the trouble that would follow and sought to turn away from the commandment, that an angel from heaven appeared before him with a drawn sword, threatening him with destruction unless he went forward and obeyed the commandment.”
- Affidavit signed August 18, 1869; cited in Andrew Jenson, Historical Record, 6:222; see also Joseph Fielding Smith, Blood Atonement and the Origin of Plural Marriage (Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1905), 67. Copied from: Encouraging Joseph Smith to Practice Plural Marriage: The Accounts of the Angel with a Drawn Sword by Brian C. Hales. See also: Joseph Smith, an Angel with a Drawn Sword, and Plural Marriage by Don Bradley and Brian C. Wilcox
“[Joseph Smith declared] that an angel appeared unto him with a drawn sword, threatening to slay him if he did not proceed to fulfill the law that had been given to him.”
- Affidavit quoted in Andrew Jenson, Historical Record, 6:222.
“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.’”
- My Life’s Review 95-96
Copied from: Encouraging Joseph Smith to Practice Plural Marriage: The Accounts of the Angel with a Drawn Sword by Brian C. Hales. See also: Joseph Smith, an Angel with a Drawn Sword, and Plural Marriage by Don Bradley and Brian C. Wilcox
“[Joseph Smith] received the revelation in 1837, but he was himself afraid to promulgate it until the angel came and stood beside him with flaming sword and bade him do the command of God. Not until then did Joseph enter into polygamy, or get any of his disciples to take plural wives.”
- "Two Prophets' Widows A Visit to the Relicts of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young," J. J. J., in St. Louis Globe-Democrat (St. Louis, MO) Thursday, August 18, 1887; pg. 6; Issue 85; col E Copied from: Encouraging Joseph Smith to Practice Plural Marriage: The Accounts of the Angel with a Drawn Sword by Brian C. Hales. See also: Joseph Smith, an Angel with a Drawn Sword, and Plural Marriage by Don Bradley and Brian C. Wilcox
“This angel, he [Joseph ] states, stood over him with a drawn sword prepared to inflict the penalty of death if he should be disobedient.”
- Helen Mar Whitney, Plural Marriage as Taught by the Prophet Joseph: A Reply to Joseph Smith, Editor of the Lamoni Iowa “Herald,” Salt Lake City: Juvenile Instructor Office, 1882, 13. Copied from: Encouraging Joseph Smith to Practice Plural Marriage: The Accounts of the Angel with a Drawn Sword by Brian C. Hales. See also: Joseph Smith, an Angel with a Drawn Sword, and Plural Marriage by Don Bradley and Brian C. Wilcox
“The angel came to me three times between the years of 1834 and 1842 and said I was to obey that principle or he would slay me.”
Address at Brigham Young University April 14, 1905.
“The angel came to him [Joseph Smith] three times, the last time with a drawn sword and threatened his life.”
Extracts from Mr. Lightner’s autobiography, Utah Genealogical and Historical Magazine, vol. XVII (1926), 193 ff. Cited in See Brodie, Fawn M. No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet, 2nd rev. ed. New York, 1971, 467. Copied from: Encouraging Joseph Smith to Practice Plural Marriage: The Accounts of the Angel with a Drawn Sword by Brian C. Hales. See also: Joseph Smith, an Angel with a Drawn Sword, and Plural Marriage by Don Bradley and Brian C. Wilcox
“[Joseph] sent word to me by my brother, saying, ‘Tell Zina I put it off and put it off till an angel with a drawn sword stood by me and told me if I did not establish that principle upon the earth, I would lose my position and my life.’”
- Comments made at a Memorial Services in honor of the Prophet Joseph Smith's Birthday, held in the Sixteenth Ward Meeting House, Sunday Evening, December 23, 1894.Quoted in Brian Stuy, Collected Discourses, 5:32. Copied from: Encouraging Joseph Smith to Practice Plural Marriage: The Accounts of the Angel with a Drawn Sword by Brian C. Hales. See also: Joseph Smith, an Angel with a Drawn Sword, and Plural Marriage by Don Bradley and Brian C. Wilcox
Issues these Facts Raise
This feels like a no win situation. As I see it, either:
1. God did threaten Joseph’s life with an Angel as Joseph claimed. But for this to be true, God will have people murdered if they don’t follow a single commandment. What kind of free agency is that? Also, Joseph seems to not be getting polygamy right as he tries again and again. The Lord keeps sending an angel to threaten Joseph (at least 3 separate occasions). Can’t the angel explain how to do it right on one of these visits? Or is it a numbers game and Joseph wasn’t marrying enough people? And of all the things God is so insistent that it happens and needs to get right is for Joseph to marry more women? If God is going to coerce others with an enforcer for something can’t it be for something good like stopping a war or something?
2. Joseph was lying and using this story as a way to try to convince women to marry him (likely for the reason to sleep with him, although there are other personal benefits for Joseph beyond just sex).
Questions these Facts Raise
How is it that Joseph keeps getting polygamy wrong after an angel visits with him? The angel appeared three separate occasions, sometimes with a drawn sword. Why the continued visits? Also, have to assume these were all actions God directly commanded Joseph to do.
Note: D&C 132:8 (from the revelation on polygamy): Behold, mine house is a house of order, saith the Lord God, and not a house of confusion.
God forces his prophets into something that feels totally wrong? Joseph had to be persuaded by an angel with a sword on at least three separate occasions. Isn’t using a sword to force someone to do something unrighteous dominion?
Now I’m not sure how the original temple endowment went (as it evolved over time), but polygamy was not legal or lawful. Doesn’t this directly contradict a covenant to “have no sexual relations except with their husbands or wives to whom they are legally and lawfully wedded.”? This seems a conflict for all of those who are practicing polygamy, if on the other hand they are making covenants regarding chastity and those who are legally and lawfully married to them.
