Transcription
I'm back. I have moved across the country. Been super busy, but I've been wanting to make this video for a long time now.
This is information from an episode on the 132 Problems podcast by Michelle Stone, and she has done extensive research on this topic. So, throughout her years of prayerfully studying the scriptures on this topic of polygamy and coming to the confirmation that she knows that polygamy was never a commandment of God, nor in biblical times, or in church history, or ever. Um, she was still on the fence of not knowing for sure if Joseph practiced it or not until she found this information.
And of course, as always, I'm going to put this episode in my Linktree. It's her episode called "Joseph Was Not a Polygamist." She goes into a ton of detail in her episode, but I'm just going to focus on this one little snippet that I think is so interesting.
She was reading in Doctrine and Covenants 128, which was revealed in September of 1842. This was the last recorded revelation of Joseph Smith's lifetime. And in it, he talks all about the sealing power. Verses 1-7 talk all about how important records are and that the scriptures say that we will be judged out of the book of life. And the book of life is actually the records kept on Earth of our works and ordinances.
And here in verse 8, it says, "Whatsoever you bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven, and whatsoever you loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven." Or, in other words, taking a different view of the translation, "Whatsoever you record on Earth shall be recorded in Heaven, and whatsoever you do not record on Earth shall not be recorded in Heaven." Meaning that if you don't keep a clear record of your ordinances, it is not recorded or sealed in Heaven.
Now, it's clear that the early church took this seriously, and they were meticulous in keeping records of all baptisms, baptisms for the dead, and endowments. They kept all these records, and they did this work for the dead because they believed, um, this scripture from Malachi, saying that there's a welding link that you need to do, um, to weld the living with the dead.
And the modern LDS church still references this scripture a lot, um, when they talk about temples. You know, that the hearts of the fathers are turned to the children, and the hearts of the children are turned to the fathers. And they talk about this in reference to sealings in the temple, um, like sealings for the dead and marriages and sealing families together. And that that's the welding link.
However, they're completely missing what Joseph Smith taught right here in verse 18, that says, "The Earth be smitten with a curse unless there is this welding link of some kind or another between the fathers and the children upon the subject." Or so, behold, what is that subject? It is the baptism for the dead. So Joseph taught in this revelation, whether it's from God or Joseph's words, that the welding link is not in sealings for marriages, but in baptism for the dead.
So the modern church gets this all twisted because they say, "Well, yeah, of course, um, everybody's baptism for the dead is important. Everybody has to be baptized. But the welding link is in sealing people as families and as couples." However, there are absolutely no records in the Nauvoo Temple of any sealings of any kind, like marriages or family sealings.
Michelle Stone confirmed this by emailing the Church History Records Department. Um, she's done extensive research in all of the records, and she's looked at a lot of it herself. And she emailed them to confirm, like, "Is there anywhere I can find Nauvoo Temple sealing records from before 1844?" And they basically said, "We don't have any records." But for reference, you can contact Todd Compton or Brian Hales.
Now, Michelle has actually had both of these men as guests on her podcast. And in her interview with Todd Compton, he confirmed that there are no records of marriage sealings or sealings of any kind like that in the Nauvoo Temple era before 1844. Brian Hales, as well, on his website, does not have any references to any sealings in the Nauvoo Temple.
Now, this is where critical thinking is so important. Now, it doesn't matter if you or I believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet, or if those were true revelations from God, or if what he said was true. He believed it was. He believed that was a revelation from God, and he believed that he had a sealing power on Earth. And if Joseph believed that in order to have things sealed in Heaven, they must be recorded on Earth, he would have records of all of these sealings to these women that he was manipulating, dating, and marrying, and whatever.
But it has been confirmed by three prominent historian record sources that there are no sealing records in Joseph Smith's lifetime. And in fact, the first marriage sealings that were recorded in the Nauvoo Temple occurred in 1846, two years after Joseph's death. Which confirms my and many other people's theory that Joseph was being honest when he vehemently denied the doctrine of polygamy and that he did not practice it. And that Brigham Young, Heber Kimball, and other Apostles went behind his back, took him out of the picture so that they could implement it into the church and take power.
In fact, the only sealings we have for Joseph are proxy sealings that occurred after 1846, and these were performed by Brigham Young and Heber Kimball. Um, they sealed their own wives as proxy wives to Joseph, therefore kind of triangulating, saying, you know, "This is of him. If you marry me, you can also be with him." You know, it was kind of this tradeoff, as if to imply that Joseph, throughout his lifetime, was marrying and sealing all these women to himself, yet never keeping a record of it, even though he took careful record of everything else.
And it's not because, oh, it was risky and promiscuous. No, everything they were doing was risky and promiscuous. You know, people were up in arms because they thought baptisms for the dead were weird. Polygamy was no less different. And in fact, there are records of other men like Brigham Young in their marriages to their plural wives, including one that took place like within two weeks of Joseph's death. He married another wife, and those are all recorded.
And so there is no reason Joseph's wives wouldn't be recorded if he truly believed that the sealing power was in keeping record. Now, this is just one little detail that I thought was so interesting from this episode. I highly recommend you go watch it. Michelle goes into a lot more detail with contemporary sources, um, like the claims from William Clayton and Joseph Bennett, and a lot more of the sermons and letters that Joseph and Hyrum wrote completely denouncing and calling this polygamy and secret wife system a false doctrine and anyone who practiced it, um, evil.
There is so much information that the church hides. And and they say that these things were carefully worded denials. It is so untrue. They were fighting it to their deaths. I'm going to do a whole other episode on these men who were excommunicated for practicing polygamy and claiming that it was from Joseph, like John C. Bennett. So stay tuned.