Please explain this to me... I honestly don't understand

[Aelswyth]

I take issue with the same thing, you are not alone. I have been doing major research lately, and my opinion of the church history I was taught while growing up has changed. I wasn't told the truth by many of my leaders/teachers. If you go to the LDS' family website you will see that Joseph was married and sealed to women who were already married to living men.

I feel I should point out that if those women were not actually sealed to their husbands in a temple, then their marriages were not necessarily "valid", unbreakable ones in the eyes of the Lord. If they were sealed to their husbands, then Joseph Smith would certainly have been doing wrong in having them sealed to himself. But I believe the marriages were common ones, not eternal ones, so I don't see how Joseph Smith did anything wrong in this matter. Especially if he didn't even engage in physical intimacy with these women. It seems the sealing was intended to make them his wives after death, not take them away from their husbands in this life.

[boloki]

I feel I should point out that if those women were not actually sealed to their husbands in a temple, then their marriages were not necessarily "valid", unbreakable ones in the eyes of the Lord. If they were sealed to their husbands, then Joseph Smith would certainly have been doing wrong in having them sealed to himself. But I believe the marriages were common ones, not eternal ones, so I don't see how Joseph Smith did anything wrong in this matter. Especially if he didn't even engage in physical intimacy with these women. It seems the sealing was intended to make them his wives after death, not take them away from their husbands in this life.

Sound like EITHER way would be wrong. Whether someone is sealed or not, it's STILL someone else's wife. However, I don't blame Joseph Smith for doing what he needed to do. Solomon had lots of wives and concubines. We don't fully obey what the Prophets say, for example, the Prophet Joseph Smith wrote in articles 12 of the Articles of Faith that we are to sustain the laws of the land. Given the current debacle over illegal immigration, it's obvious that article #12 has been totally ignored. So, sometimes, things just "happen" as the case of marrying other people's wives an that was so long ago...Irrelevant today. Sometimes we just ignore the laws of the land or laws, period. It's unfortunate, but that's what people do.

[Aelswyth]

Originally Posted by Dr T:

>And you're saying that Joseph Smith did not sleep with his wives?

>Abraham took his concubine to have a child and Sarah told him to. Sarah is not God. Show me where God said it was right to do so I can reconsider my thoughts.

I'm saying that there is no clear evidence that he did. D&C 132 is what you're looking for. (you didn't say it had to be in the Bible ).

HiJolly

Also, the Law of Moses mandates that a man marry his dead brother's widow, regardless of whether he is already married; and also that a man must marry a girl he has seduced, whether he is already married or not. At least two instances where God COMMANDS men to enter into polygamous marriage, to provide for women who are in a bad situation and have no one else to take them in and provide for them.

Clearly, God does not have qualms about introducing polygamy when it becomes necessary for one reason or another. Scripture does state that the ideal arrangement is one woman and one man, but that there are times when a polygamous adaptation is advantageous for achieving God's purposes, no matter how inscrutable to us here on earth.