Promises and Plural Marriage

One of the greatest Old Testament prophets is Abraham, originally called Abram. The scriptures record that he was one of the most valiant spirits in the premortal world and chosen to be a leader in the kingdom of God before he was born (Abraham 1-5). Forced to leave his homeland after religious persecution threatened his life, Abraham would go on to receive great revelations and a special covenant from the Lord with promises of priesthood, property and posterity "as innumerable as the stars". Hundreds of millions that have and do live on the earth regard Abraham as the "father of the faithful" and many refer to the place of the righteous dead as "sitting down next to Abraham" or "Abraham's bosom" (Luke 16:22-23).

Those who rightfully consider Abraham among the righteous have reason to consider the account given in Genesis 16: "Now Sarai Abrahm's wife bare him no children: and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the Lord hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai. And Sarai Abram's wife took Hagar her maid the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife" (verses 1-3).

The Lord has commanded the faithful in every generation to keep sexual relations within the bounds of marriage, to not commit adultery, to cleave unto a spouse and unto none else; yet here and hereafter the Lord seems okay with Abraham's plural marriage to not only Hagar but several other women as well. How can this be?

This is the question that the prophet Joseph Smith asked the Lord in the summer of 1843. "Inasmuch as you have inquired of my hand to know and understand wherein I, the Lord, justified my servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as also Moses, David and Solomon, my servants, as touching the principle and doctrine of their having many wives and concubines," the Lord responded, "Behold, and lo, I am the Lord thy God, and will answer thee as touching this matter" (D&C 132:1-2).

The following 64 verses detail the Lord's doctrine of eternal marriage. "If a man marry a wife by my word, which is my law," the Lord instructs, "it shall be done unto them in all things whatsoever my servant hath put upon them, in time, and through all eternity; and shall be of full force when they are out of the world... to their exaltation and glory" (D&C 132:19). Those married in holy temples by those authorized to exercise the appropriate priesthood keys can expect relationships far beyond the bounds of this life.

With that background, the Lord provided several reasons why righteous women and men obey the principle of plural marriage at certain times. The first is because God has commanded it and made it his law at those times.

"God commanded Abraham, and Sarah gave Hagar to Abraham to wife. And why did she do it? Because this was the law; and from Hagar sprang many people. This, therefore, was fulfilling, among other things, the promises. Was Abraham, therefore, under condemnation? Verily I say unto you, Nay; for I, the Lord, commanded it" (D&C 132:34-35, emphasis added).

The Lord's perspective is different than our own. "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:8-9). God's commandments are designed by an omniscient Father to execute his plan for his children and complete his mission for our immortality and eternal life.

At certain times, the Lord's commandment to a particular individual or group may surprise us because it is different from what we would expect it to be under normal circumstances. There are several examples of this in the scriptures including Nephi killing Laban, Moses killing the master builder, and several specific instances of plural marriage. "Abraham was commanded to offer his son Isaac; nevertheless, it was written: Thou shalt not kill. Abraham, however, did not refuse, and it was accounted unto him for righteousness" (D&C 132:36).

In the case of Abraham and Hagar, the Lord seems to be saying that the fulfillment of his promise to Abraham is of greatest importance. This is a powerful reassurance for us to whom the Lord has promised forgiveness, salvation and exaltation. As promised, the union of Abraham and Hagar has resulted in millions of posterity who revere their father Abraham.

The proliferation of children and grandchildren is another obvious reason for the Lord to command the faithful to practice plural marriage, particularly when their numbers are few. The Lord explained to Jacob: "For there shall not any man among you have save it be one wife; and concubines he shall have none... For if I will, saith the Lord of Hosts, raise up seed unto me, I will command my people; otherwise they shall hearken unto these things" (Jacob 2:27, 30). 

At such times, plural wives "are given unto [a man] to multiply and replenish the earth, according to [the Lord's] commandment"; but also "to fulfill the promise which was given [to the wives] by my Father before the foundation of the world, and for their exaltation in the eternal worlds, that they may bear the souls of men" (D&C 132:63).

Finally, the law of plural marriage is part of the "restitution of all things" promised before the Second Coming of Christ (Acts 3:20-21, D&C 132:40). As in other dispensations, the Lord required early members of the church in our dispensation to follow this law.

This was not a desirable or easy thing for those required to follow this commandment. Marriage has been weakened and redefined over several decades in modern Western culture; it was much less selfish and much more sacred in the 1840s. Joseph Smith delayed for a decade until the Lord sent an angel with a drawn sword who threatened to remove him from his place if he did not obey. When first taught the principle of plural marriage, Heber C. Kimball "became sick in body [from anxiety], but his mental wretchedness was too great to allow of his retiring, and he would walk the floor till nearly morning, and sometimes the agony of his mind was so terrible that he would wring his hands and weep like a child, and beseech the Lord to be merciful" (as told by Vilate Kimball, wife of Heber C. Kimball, in Orson F. Whitney, Life of Heber C. Kimball [1967], 325-38).

President John Taylor recalled, "I had always entertained strict ideas of virtue, and I felt as a married man that [plural marriage] was to me, outside of this principle, an appalling thing to do... It was a thing calculated to stir up feelings from the innermost depths of the human soul... Nothing but a knowledge of God, and the revelations of God, and the truth of them, could have induced me to embrace such a principle as this" (in B.H. Roberts, The Life of John Taylor, Third President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints [1963], 100). And Brigham Young summarized, "I was not desirous of shrinking from any duty nor failing in the least to do as I was commanded, but it was the first time in my life that I had desired the grave, and I could hardly get over it for a long time. And when I saw a funeral I felt to envy the corpse its situation, and to regret that I was not in the coffin" (in "Provo Conference," Deseret News, Nov. 14, 1855, 282).

A restricted number of the early Saints were tested and tried by the principle of plural marriage. Those who obeyed the voice of the Lord and his prophet received the promised blessings of posterity, divine power and assistance, hearts full of rejoicing, forgiveness of sin and preparation for exaltation.

"Plural marriage did result in the birth of large numbers of children within faithful Latter-day Saint homes. It also shaped 19th-century Mormon society in may ways: marriage became available to virtually all who desired it; per-capita inequality of wealth was diminished as economically disadvantaged women married into more financially stable households; and ethnic intermarriages were increased, which helped to unite a diverse immigrant population. Plural marriage also helped create and strengthen a sense of cohesion and group identification among Latter-day Saints. Church members came to see themselves as a 'peculiar people,' covenant-bound to carry out the commands of God despite outside opposition" (in Plural Marriage in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, www.lds.org/topics).

We do not know all the reasons why the Lord sometimes requires the faithful to live the principle of plural marriage. We know that it is carefully guarded and governed by priesthood keys: "For I [the Lord] have conferred upon you [the president of the Church] the keys and power of the priesthood, wherein I restore all things... And again, verily I say unto you, that whatsoever you give on earth, and to whomsoever you give any one on earth, by my word and according to my law, it shall be visited with blessings and not cursings, and with my power, saith the Lord, and shall be without condemnation on earth and in heaven" (D&C 132:45, 48). Plural marriage is acceptable only when commanded of the Lord and authorized only through the keys held by the president of the Church. It has been strictly forbidden since 1904.

We are not asked to live the principle of plural marriage today, but we can benefit from the promises given as a result. We can see the Lord's pattern and restoration in modern times and have greater faith in the divine origins of the modern Church. We can see that the Lord always makes a way to keep his commandments and prepare our hearts to hearken to his voice, as Abraham did. Perhaps best of all, we can know and be assured that when we keep the commandments of God, he will always keep his promises.

Stripling Fathers

Every Latter-day Saint youth has heard the story of the two thousand stripling warriors. Speaking of those young men after a great military victory, the prophet Helaman, who was also their leader in battle, wrote:

Now they never had fought, yet they did not fear death; and they did think more upon the liberty of their fathers than they did upon their lives...

And now it came to pass that when [the Lamanites] had surrendered themselves up unto us, behold, I numbered those young men who had fought with me, fearing lest there were many of them slain. But behold, to my great joy, there had not one soul of them fallen to the earth; yea, and they had fought as with the strength of God; yea, never were men known to have fought with such miraculous strength; and with such mighty power did they fall upon the Lamanites, that they did frighten them; and for this cause did the Lamanites deliver themselves up as prisoners of war (Alma 56:47, 55-56).

Helaman explained that "they had been taught by their mothers, that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them. And they rehearsed unto me the words of their mothers, saying: We do not doubt our mothers knew it" (Alma 56:47-48). As these young warriors put their faith in their mothers' promise that God would deliver them, they were able to fight with "miraculous strength" and "as with the strength of God" so that not one soul of them was lost despite their own inexperience and overwhelming odds.

Without trying to steal any of the credit from the valiant mothers, which is often noticed and appropriately so, popular youth speaker John Bytheway has wondered aloud what the fathers of these young men were doing the whole time. The simple answer comes about twenty verses earlier in the same chapter:

And now it came to pass in the second month of this year, there was brought unto us many provisions from the fathers of those my two thousand sons (Alma 56:27).

The Lord has shared his plan for successful families in The Family: A Proclamation to the World. It reads in part:

By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families. Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children. In these sacred responsibilities, fathers and mothers are obligated to help one another as equal partners.

Fathers are given three roles in this paragraph: to preside, to provide, and to protect. Presiding in love and righteousness requires knowing the doctrines of the gospel, striving toward self-improvement first, gently and meekly leading in the home and then teaching children what they need to know and do. Whenever possible, fathers should also provide for their family's needs and maintain the home as a sanctuary that is safe from the physical and spiritual dangers of the world.

The fathers of the stripling warriors were valiant and brave men who led by example. They had been violent and savage before they were converted to the Lord, but when they were taught the gospel they committed with all of their heart, might, mind and strength. They left their homeland to seek religious freedom, ultimately settling as peaceful neighbors among a people who had previously been their most bitter enemies. They covenanted with the Lord that they would never again shed the blood of mankind and kept that promise even at the peril of their own lives.

When war broke out between their home country and their new country, they were loyal to the Lord. Though they could not fight themselves, they offered their faith and their two thousand sons in defense of their freedoms. While their sons were away, they continued to magnify their duty as fathers by sending 'many provisions'. From these verses we see that both the mothers and fathers of the stripling warriors were fulfilling their divinely appointed roles and contributing to the divine protection and ultimate success of their sons in battle.

As our kids leave the house each morning, and one day for good, they step onto a great battlefield. The perils are no less serious than those faced by the stripling warriors. The enemy of their souls will attempt to prey on their inexperience and use every strategy he knows to make them feel outnumbered, doubtful and discouraged. He will seek to wrap them in the chains of sin and drag them down to a miserable destruction.

Parents have a sacred duty to rear their children in love and righteousness, to provide for their physical and spiritual needs, and to teach them to love and serve one another, observe the commandments of God, and be law-abiding citizens wherever they live.

As we fulfill the same divinely appointed roles that existed two thousand years ago, and that have been taught again in our time, we prepare our children to fight with the strength of God and to be preserved by his miraculous power. And what's more, we will teach them how to raise their own families in the joy and protection of the Lord.