Was plural marriage a test like Abraham's?

→ Watch on YouTube

→ Detailed Show Notes

→ Timestamps:
(00:00) Three grand keys on the nature of ministering angels and spirits.
(02:04) Joseph Smith teaches that God has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s. Traditional Christianity has lost the understanding of Heavenly Father’s physical nature.
(07:53) God resides on a globe like a sea of glass and fire.
(09:08) Joseph asks the Lord about the timing of His Second Coming.
(10:34) Truths learned in mortality will rise with us in the resurrection. Blessings are predicated upon obedience to law.
(12:52) Section 130 prepares the Saints for truths that are revealed in the temple.
(13:46) The crowning blessing of the gospel is to seal families for eternity. There are requirements for making marriage eternal.
(18:39) Elder Howard’s story of the silver as it relates to eternal marriage. If you want something to last forever, you treat it differently.
(24:23) 1st Scenario: If we choose to neither be married nor given in marriage in the eternities, we will remain separately and singly without exaltation. The compensatory grace of Jesus Christ will make this blessing available to all who were deprived of it through no blame of their own.
(28:25) 2nd Scenario: If our marriage is not sealed by the Holy Spirit of Promise then it is not in force when we are out of the world.
(30:03) 3rd Scenario: If we marry in the temple and strive to keep the covenant, we will inherit the highest degree of the celestial kingdom and have continued increase. We will be as God, participating in His divine nature. The covenant allows for mistakes, repentance, and forgiveness.
(37:01) Section 132 addresses plural marriage. Plural marriage played a role in Joseph’s martyrdom in 1844.
(38:52) Plural marriage can be compared to Abraham’s test.
(41:15) Plural marriage was practiced by the Patriarchs in Genesis.
(42:59) The historical background of Section 132.
(45:44) The RLDS Church (now The Community of Christ) contended that the President of the Church should be a direct descendant of Joseph Smith and that plural marriage was never taught by Joseph Smith. This letter to Emma (D&C 132) was used as a polemic against the RLDS teaching that Joseph did not practice plural marriage.
(46:55) The Temple Lot Case was a property dispute between the RLDS Church and Church of Christ. In these proceedings, women testified under oath that they were married to the prophet Joseph Smith. This legal dispute provided a wealth of information about plural marriage in the Nauvoo period.
(48:46) Plural marriage is not a requirement for exaltation. One man and one woman is the Lord’s standing law of marriage.
(51:38) In D&C 132 the Lord gives several reasons why plural marriage was commanded.
(53:51) Baruch Spinoza’s advice in our quest to understand the past.
(54:41) Joseph Smith wrestled with plural marriage as early as 1830 or 1831 as he worked on his translation of the Bible. We have few details of his marriage to Fanny Alger during the Kirtland period.
(59:53) During the Nauvoo era Joseph taught several close friends about plural marriage. Estimates are given of how many members lived this law.
(1:01:45) The Saints during this time thought differently about temple sealings than we do today. They believed that the law of adoption and dynastic ties increased their glory.
(1:07:36) Wilford Woodruff saw that adoption theology wasn’t right and worked to bring the Church into a greater understanding of what it means to seal families for eternity.
(1:08:52) There were 3 types of plural marriages: time, time and eternity, and adoptive/dynastic/eternal only. Some examples of Joseph’s dynastic marriages include Elizabeth Rollins Lightner and Helen Mar Kimball.
(1:15:11) A timeline of how long plural marriage was practiced. The Reed Smoot Hearings.
(1:17:27) None of Joseph Smith’s plural wives ever accused him of abuse or deception. Despite the difficulty of understanding plural marriage, we testify that Joseph was a prophet.

→ For more of Bryce Dunford’s podcast classes, click here.

→ Enroll in Institute

→ YouTube → Apple Podcasts → Spotify → Amazon Music → Facebook

The post Ep 346 | D&C 129-132, Come Follow Me 2025 (November 10-16) appeared first on LDS Scripture Teachings.