Celestial marriage [aka polygamy] is required for salvation according to mormon doctrine.
"The Journal of Discourses is a vehicle of doctrine, counsel, and instruction to ALL people, but especially to the Saints. It follows then, then, [sic] that each successive volume is more and more valuable as the Church increases in numbers and importance in the earth." Journal of Discourses, vol. 11, p. iii (1867) " — Brigham Young
LDS Apostle Erastus Snow preached the following on Sunday, Oct. 4, 1857:
" Do the women, when they pray, remember their husbands?... Do you uphold your husband before God as your lord? "What!—my husband to be my lord?" I ask, Can you get into the celestial kingdom without him? Have any of you been there? You will remember that you never got into the celestial kingdom [during the temple ceremony] without the aid of your husband. If you did, it was because your husband was away, and some one had to act proxy for him. No woman will get into the celestial kingdom, except her husband receives her, if she is worthy to have a husband; and if not, somebody will receive her as a servant.“(Journal of Discourses, vol. 5, p. 291)
”But what of the many mature members of the Church who are not married? Through no failing of their own, they deal with the trials of life alone. Be we all reminded that, in the Lord’s own way and time, no blessings will be withheld from His faithful Saints. The Lord will judge and reward each individual according to heartfelt desire as well as deed.
Celestial marriage
Why don't the mormons compare the teachings of Mormon "prophets", who taught polygamy was essential for the "salvation of man" vs. what is taught in the Bible?
The pithy and obtuse reply, as usual, "the non-issue is found at the links."
But it’s not. It’s been whitewashed away. Consigned to some dustbin of unpalatable and blasphemous mormon doctrines mormons no longer acknowledge. I'm not talking about polygamy in general, the SLC mormons already told the fLdS that they aren't mormon. I'm talking about the SLC mormon prophets [the ones who claim to be the "true" Mormons] saying it is essential for man's SALVATION.
So, remembering that “The prophet does not have to say "Thus saith the Lord" to give us [mormons] scripture.” Here’s what JS is purported to have originally rec’d as “revelation”; ["MARRIAGE. v. 4 "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 the case of death, when either is at liberty to marry again." 1835 Doctrine and Covenants, C1, p. 251 (1835)]
Yet in D&C 132, he receives different “revelation”. That plural marriage (polygamy) was “a new and everlasting covenant essential to exaltation to the highest glory in which men may become gods.”
So, is this “revelation” reinforced by others? Let's take a look... Brigham Young - "Now if any of you will deny the plurality of wives, and continue to do so, I promise that you will be damned." Journal of Discourses, vol. 3, p. 266 (1855)
Heber C. Kimball - ”Opponents of polygamy will be "cut off" by God.” Journal of Discourses, vol. 4, p. 108 (1856)
”If you are someone who objects to plural marriage, then I would challenge you to search within yourselves. There is no doubt in my mind that your attitude towards plural marriage will determine your place in eternity.”
President Brigham Young also warned:
"Now, where a man in this Church says, "I don't want but one wife, I will live my religion with one," he will perhaps be saved in the celestial kingdom; but when he gets there he will not find himself in possession of any wife at all. He has had a talent that he has hid up. He will come forward and say, "Here is that which thou gavest me, I have not wasted it, and here is the one talent," and he will not enjoy it, but it will be taken and given to those who have improved the talents they received, and he will find himself without any wife, and he will remain single for ever and ever. But if the woman is determined not to enter into a plural marriage, that woman when she comes forth will have the privilege of living in single blessedness through all eternity." (Journal of Discourses, Vol.16, p.166 - p.167)
Joseph F. Smith - "Plural marriage is not some sort of superfluity or non-essential to the salvation or exaltation of mankind. Marriage to only one woman is only partial compliance to the law of exaltation." Journal of Discourses, vol. 20, p. 28 (1878)
Now this one is just flat out blasphemy---
Orson Pratt - Jesus a polygamist, God the Father had a plurality of wives. "We have also proved that both God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ inherit their wives in eternity as well as in time." The Seer, p. 172 (1853)
"Plural marriage is not essential to salvation or exaltation." Bruce R. McConkie Doctrine of plural marriage
But all those other apostles and prophets have said just the opposite? How does this affect all those other poor souls who followed those doctrines and revelations? Is the mormon god so feckless and incompetent that he can’t get it right the first time?
But before we dismiss the references to the JoD’s as just “opinion”, as has been claimed in the past, let’s remember the words of Brigham shall we? "The Journal of Discourses is a vehicle of doctrine, counsel, and instruction to ALL people, but especially to the Saints. It follows then, then, [sic] that each successive volume is more and more valuable as the Church increases in numbers and importance in the earth." Journal of Discourses, vol. 11, p. iii (1867) " — Brigham Young
BY has said that the JoD are a “vehicle of doctrine” and that “each successive volume is more valuable”. Who is to be believed?
But you know what the Bible says about all of this?
Simply this; Mark 12:25 For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels which are in heaven.
Matthew 22:30 For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in HEAVEN.
So all of those “requirements” the mormons want you to meet in order to attain the celestial kingdom and to be able to dwell with God are superfluous. God has already said you will not be married in heaven. What's so hard to understand about God's Word?
Seriously, did Constantine and the evil ne’er do wells of the Council of Nicea remove all of that confusing mormon stuff and replace it with something so simple to trick us? That’s what the mormons claim and want us to believe. This is supposed to be some of that "restoration of the fullness of the gospel" mormons claim.
They want you to believe that you "must" be married in the temple in order to gain exaltation [aka; salvation]. But they don't tell you that polygamy was an essential component to that and the bonus for engaging in celestial polygamy is you get to dwell with God and Jesus. The two are inseparable and for those mormons who don't make it, tough.
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“... in his [H.B. Jacobs] absence, she [Mrs. Jacobs] was sealed to the Prophet Joseph and was his wife.”
- Confessions of John D. Lee, p. 132
“He [Joseph] preached polygamy... It was given to him before he gave it to the Church. An angel came to him and the last time he came with a drawn sword in his hand and told Joseph if he did not go into that principle he would slay him...
“I know he had six wives and I have known some of them from childhood up. I know he had three children. They told me. I think two of them are living today, they are not known as his children as they go by different names.”
- Mary E. Lightner, wife of Joseph Smith, Jr., Speech given at Brigham Young University, April 14, 1905
“Joseph not only paid his addresses to the young and unmarried women, but he sought ‘spiritual alliance’ with many married ladies.... He taught them that all former marriages were null and void, and that they were at perfect liberty to make another choice of a husband. The marriage covenants were not binding, because they were ratified only by Gentile laws. These laws the Lord did not recognize; consequently all the women were free...
“One woman said to me not very long since, while giving me some of her experiences in polygamy: ‘The greatest trial I ever endured in my life was living with my husband and deceiving him, by receiving Joseph’s attentions whenever he chose to care to me.’ ... some of these women have since said they did not know who was the Father of her children; this is not to be wondered at, for after Joseph’s declaration annulling all Gentile marriages, the greatest promiscuity was practiced; and, indeed, all sense of morality seemed to have been lost by a portion at least of the church.”
- Ann Eliza Young, wife of Brigham Young, Wife No. 9, 1876, pp. 70-71
