DID JOSEPH REALLY TEACH POLYGAMY? -------- A Wake-Up Call for Honest Hearts
🌿 DID JOSEPH REALLY TEACH POLYGAMY?
A Wake-Up Call for Honest Hearts
🔥 A CRACKED FOUNDATION
The story we’ve been fed:
Joseph Smith received a “celestial” revelation on plural marriage.
He practiced it. Hyrum supported it. Emma fought it.
But the evidence?
📜 The original document was burned by Emma.
📜 The Kingsbury copy—our D&C 132—was written years later, based on memory and affidavits.
✏️ The Willard Richards draft had pencil edits and doctrinal tweaks just before Brigham Young announced it in 1852.
📰 The Deseret News version was different again.
If this came straight from God, why so many versions?
⚖️ UNDER OATH – THE TEMPLE LOT CASE
In the 1890s, the Temple Lot court case forced witnesses to speak truth under oath:
✅ Joseph Smith III testified his father never taught or practiced polygamy.
✅ Emma Smith’s letters said the same.
✅ Even Brighamite witnesses admitted Joseph never taught it publicly.
The judge noted:
Most credible witnesses placed polygamy after Joseph’s death—born in Utah, not Nauvoo.
👴 MY GREAT-GRANDFATHER’S STORY – A WARNING FROM HISTORY
This isn’t just dusty history to me—
it runs in my blood.
My great-grandfather lived polygamy.
Three wives. Twenty-seven children.
Two of those wives eventually left him.
The system that was supposed to be “celestial” tore his family apart.
He even landed in prison for practicing it.
And here’s the irony:
🕊️ President Grover Cleveland pardoned him—so grateful, he named my grandfather “Grover” as his middle name.
That’s the legacy polygamy left my family.
Not Zion.
Not holiness.
Just heartbreak and broken homes.
💬 AM I BITTER? NO — JUST HONEST
Yesterday, a church member told me I sounded “bitter.”
I get it.
When you touch tender traditions, it can feel that way.
But listen—
I am not bitter.
This isn’t about tearing down anyone’s faith.
This isn’t about winning arguments.
This is about building Zion.
And Zion won’t be built by defending men, or traditions, or edited documents.
It will be built by going straight to Jesus Christ for our truth.
🔥 Listen to His voice.
Not the noise of leaders.
Not the shouts of critics.
Just Him.
That’s what Joseph taught.
That’s what I’m choosing.
And that’s the only way Zion will rise.
📊 JOSEPH vs. BRIGHAM – WHO DO YOU BELIEVE?
| Topic | Joseph Smith | Brigham Young |
|---|---|---|
| Public Stance | Called polygamy “abominable,” denied it to his death. | Denied it until 1852, then claimed Joseph commanded it. |
| Revelation | Taught eternal marriage, not plural wives. | Produced edited manuscripts to justify polygamy. |
| Proof | Temple Lot testimony & family witnesses: Joseph never practiced it. | Claimed a burned original & late “copies” as proof. |
| Legacy | Built a people on Christ and Zion. | Built a polygamist hierarchy in Utah. |
🙏 A PRAYER TO DRAW CLOSE TO THE SAVIOR
"Lord Jesus Christ,
We don’t need to win debates.
We don’t need to convince anyone with clever words.
What we need is You.
Open our ears to hear Your voice above every other voice.
Teach us what is true, even if it shakes what we’ve been taught.
Make our hearts soft enough to follow wherever You lead—
even if it means letting go of traditions we love.
We want Zion, Lord…
not the Zion of men, but the Zion You promised.
Fill us with Your Spirit.
Heal our divisions.
Make us one heart and one mind in You.
We lay down our pride, our arguments, our fear.
Speak, Lord. We are listening.
In Your holy name—Jesus Christ, our Redeemer and King. Amen."
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