Today I read Doctrine and Covenants section 132, which is on the doctrine of plurality of wives. This is a hard doctrine for most people and it is consistently the one question I get asked more than any other when people find out that I am a Latter-day Saint. It is indeed a hard doctrine and from what I know of my church history, Joseph Smith knew about it for 12 years before he shared it with the church as a whole because he too had a hard time with it.
In the Old Testament there were several prophets who had more than one wife. The most famous were Abraham, Jacob, David and Solomon. This is well known and they were all men of God and did not offend God in doing this. This fact has caused many to go astray and not understand the doctrines of the church appropriately. For example the Nephites during the time of Jacob, Nephi's younger brother, had studied the scriptures and were using those righteous men's example to commit whoredoms and break the hearts of their wives.
In this section the Lord explains how those men were able to have multiple wives and not offend God. The answer is really quite simple. The difference is that God gave those men their wives. He authorized them to take those wives and they were not an offense to God. The difference being that once Solomon stopped waiting on the Lord to give him more wives and he started taking them himself, he lost his standing in the sight of God. The same happened to David with Uriah's wife, Bathsheba.
Even in the early days of the church, no one who had multiple wives just woke up one day and decided to take another wife. Rather the Prophet would come to them and reveal the will of the Lord that they should take so and so to wife. It was always a case where the Lord came to them and commanded them to take another wife, the men were not seeking another wife. In most cases, if I correctly recall my church history, most of the men had a real problem with it and it was only after much prayer, and I am sure fasting, that they were able to come to terms that it was indeed the Lord's will. In some cases the men were told to marry a woman who was already married, a direct violation of what we read today in Doctrine and Covenants section 132. But in all such cases it was a trial of faith for that woman and her husband, similar to Abraham being asked to sacrifice Isaac.
People tend to ask me if I am going to have multiple wives when they find out I am LDS. I tend to at first smile and joke saying that I can barely handle one wife. Then I sober up and explain the doctrine to them and let the know that any such people that practice plural marriage are not of our faith and that any who are of our faith who do this are excommunicated. That is usually where it ends, but occasionally I come across someone who really desires to know the truth so I explain a little further about it and tell them about the Official Declaration given by Wilford Woodruff in 1890. I have typically not had anyone ask me in earnest in years though and these days it's mainly debunking the myth that Latter-day Saints are still practicing plural marriage.
It is a hard doctrine and I am not sure how I would handle it if it were ever to come back and heaven forbid if I am ever called upon to practice it. Perhaps it is like children, people always wonder how they could ever love a second child as much as they love the first child but they always do, but I do not see how I could ever love another woman as much as I love my wife. I just don't see how it is possible and I am very glad that we are not called upon to live this doctrine anymore in this life. I do not know what the future holds or what the next life holds, but we do learn from section 132 that it is a celestial principle, so it is my thought that odds are we will all come across this again in the next life if we are living a celestial life. That is of course my opinion only and that is all I will say on the matter. Until tomorrow.
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