VOTPJS 003 - Joseph Fought Polygamy

Описание: 📜 Joseph Smith on Polygamy — His Own Published Words (Episode 3)

In this episode of Vindication of the Prophet Joseph Smith, we set aside later interpretations, summaries, and retrospective explanations — and focus exclusively on what Joseph Smith himself published or wrote contemporaneously regarding polygamy.

No paraphrases.
No posthumous edits.
No theological reconstruction.

Just Joseph Smith’s own words, presented in chronological order.

In this video, we examine:

• The original Doctrine and Covenants Section 101 (1835) marriage statement
• Joseph Smith’s Elder’s Journal Q&A on plural marriage
• His Liberty Jail letter explicitly rejecting adultery and “community of wives”
• The October 5, 1843 journal entry where Joseph forbids the practice of plural marriage
• The excommunication of Hiram Brown for preaching polygamy, signed by Joseph and Hyrum Smith

Taken together, these documents form a consistent, contemporaneous public record in which Joseph Smith repeatedly denies, condemns, and disciplines plural marriage.

This episode does not argue theology.
It establishes the historical record.

📌 Key question explored:
If Joseph Smith practiced or secretly taught polygamy, why do all of his contemporaneous public statements say the opposite?

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📚 Sources Referenced in This Episode

🔹 Doctrine and Covenants (1835 Edition), Section CI (later Section 101)

Official marriage statement published while Joseph Smith was alive:

“One man should have one wife; and one woman, but one husband.”

📎 Joseph Smith Papers – 1835 Doctrine and Covenants

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🔹 Elder’s Journal Q&A (July 1838)

Direct question and answer under Joseph Smith’s editorship:

“Do the Mormons believe in having more wives than one?
Answer: No, not at the same time.”

📎 Elder’s Journal, Vol. 1, No. 3 (Archive scan)

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🔹 Liberty Jail Letter (December 1838)

Joseph Smith explicitly rejects adultery and “community of wives”:

“Satan… has transfigured it into lasciviousness, such as a community of wives, which is an abomination in the sight of God.”

📎 Personal Writings of Joseph Smith, ed. Dean C. Jessee, pp. 419–420

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🔹 Joseph Smith Journal — October 5, 1843

Recorded while Joseph Smith was alive and presiding:

“Joseph forbids it. And the practice thereof — no man shall have but one wife.”

📎 Joseph Smith Papers – Journals, Dec 1842–June 1844

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🔹 Times and Seasons — Excommunication of Hiram Brown (1844)

Official disciplinary action for preaching polygamy:

“He has been cut off from the church, for his iniquity.”

Signed:
Joseph Smith
Hyrum Smith

📎 Times and Seasons, Vol. 5, p. 423

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📌 Series Continuity Note

This is Episode 3 of the Vindication of the Prophet Joseph Smith series.

• Episode 2 examined editorial changes to Joseph’s words
• Episode 2.5 addressed a specific interpretive objection
• Episode 3 presents Joseph Smith’s own published record, uninterrupted

Future episodes will examine:
• the doctrine taught by Joseph and Hyrum
• what Hyrum Smith taught publicly

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