JOSEPH SMITH’S CHARACTER AS A “PROPHET”

 
1. On February 8, 1843, Joseph Smith, Jr. said:

2. Let us test this teaching of Joseph Smith on when a prophet is really a prophet, by using what he taught and practiced throughout his life on the subject of polygamy. If he was a true prophet of God, we should be able to determine when he was really God’s prophet.

3. Please read: Matthew 7:15-20; 1 John 4:1.

DATE

TEACHING AND/OR PRACTICE

February 9, 1831

“Thou shalt love thy wife with all thy heart, and shalt cleave unto her and none else.”

(Doctrine & Covenants, 42:22)

 

1835

“Inasmuch as this church of Christ has been reproached with the crime of fornication, and polygamy: we declare that we believe, that one man should have one wife; and one woman, but one husband, except in case of death, when either is at liberty to marry again.”

(1835 edition of the Doctrine & Covenants, Sec. 101)

 

April 5, 1841

Louise Beaman, plural wife of Joseph Smith, Jr.

 

October 27, 1841

Zina Huntington Jacobs (wife of Henry B. Jacobs), plural wife of Joseph Smith, Jr.

 

December 11, 1841

Precindia L. Huntington, plural wife of Joseph Smith, Jr.

 

February, 1842

Mary Elizabeth Rollins Lightner (wife of Adam Lightner), plural wife of Joseph Smith, Jr.

 

March 9, 1842

Patty Bartlett Sessions (wife of David Sessions), plural wife of Joseph Smith, Jr.

 

June 29, 1842

Eliza Roxey Snow, Eliza Roxey Snow, plural wife of Joseph Smith, Jr.

 

July 27, 1842

Sarah Ann Whitney, plural wife of Joseph Smith, Jr.

 

May 1, 1843

Lucy Walker, plural wife of Joseph Smith, Jr.

 

May 11, 1843

Eliza M. Partridge, plural wife of Joseph Smith, Jr.

 

May 11, 1843

Emily D. Partridge, plural wife of Joseph Smith, Jr.

-(Taken from the LDS Historical Record, Volume 5, 1886)

 

* July 12, 1843

Revelation received & recorded on plurality of wives (Doctrine & Covenants 132; see especially verses 61-62).

[This revelation was not published until 1852 in a Deseret News extra, dated September 14, 1852.]

 

                HOWEVER:

October 5, 1843

Joseph Smith implied that monogamy was still the only marriage arrangement sanctioned by God:“...and I have constantly said no man shall have but one wife at a time, unless the Lord directs otherwise.”

(History of the Church, VI:46)

 

February 1, 1844

Hiram Brown was “cut off from the church” for preaching “polygamy and other false and corrupt doctrines.”“As we have lately been credibly informed, that an Elder of the Church of Jesus Christ, of Latter-day Saints, by the name of Hiram Brown, has been preaching Polygamy, and other false and corrupt doctrines, in the county of Lapeer, state of Michigan.

“This is to notify him and the Church in general, that he has been cut off from the church, for his iniquity: and he is further notified to appear at the Special Conference, on the 6th of April next, to answer to these charges.

JOSEPH SMITH,
HYRUM SMITH,
Presidents of said Church.”

-(Times and Seasons, Feb. 1, 1844)

 

April 13, 1844

“A charge was preferred against Harrison Sagers for teaching spiritual wife doctrine and neglecting his family, which was handed over to the High Council to act upon.”

-(History of the Church, VI:333, emp. jrp)

 

May 26, 1844

In a public address, Joseph Smith had this to say:

“What a thing it is for a man to be accused of committing adultery, and having seven wives, when I can only find one. “I am the same man, and as innocent as I was fourteen years ago, and I can prove them all perjurers.”

-(History of the Church, VI:411, emp. jrp)

 
* NOW THEN, WHEN WAS JOSEPH SMITH, JR. REALLY ACTING AS A PROPHET?!

1. Was he acting as God’s prophet when he gave the February 9, 1831 revelation which said a man should cleave to his wife (singular) and none else?

  -If so, he consistently violated his own revelation with at least 10 wives (actually, many more) besides Emma until 1843!

2. Was he acting as God’s prophet in 1843, when he received the plural wife revelation (D & C 132)?

  -If so, he was repeatedly a public liar and hypocrite (until his death), while privately he was “obeying” the “revelation!”

3. In either case, he was a deliberate fraud, deceiver and hypocrite!

4. Joseph Smith, Jr. was (and still is) a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” whose character and “fruit production” reveals him to be a false prophet! (Matthew 7:15-20)

[MORMONISM: THE WORD & WISDOM OF MAN, Part 2]