Mormonism gives the image and the impression to many who do not know better. The image is that they believe in family and that it is of the utmost importance today and in the afterlife. But the cover of a book doesn’t always tell the whole story.

How would you feel as a wife if your husband could have many wives not only here on earth but in Paradise in heaven. If this sounds like a non-family value, you're right, it is. This actually goes against the family. Jesus himself quotes Gen.2:24 about a husband and wife becoming one flesh, In Mt.19:5. he never said anything about wives, its singular not plural. 1 Tim.3:2,12 1 Cor.7:2 all state about leaders and believers in the church having only one wife This is intentionally ignored and distorted by the Mormon church in the past and today. We find at a closer examination Mormon family values certainly are not Bible family values.

They as a church practiced polygamy from about 1832 to after 1890 while the 1835 D&C 101:4 (which was Scripture until 1876), both the Bible (Timothy 3:1-13) and the Book of Mormon (Mosiah 11:2;  Ether 10:5 Jacob 1:15, 2:24;) originally condemned the practice of polygamy.

The Prophet Joseph Smith actually took a very strong stand against polygamy when he originally wrote the Book of Mormon. In Jacob 2:23-24 we read: "But the word of God burdens me because of your grosser crimes. For behold, thus saith the Lord: This people begin to wax in iniquity; they understand not the scriptures, for they seek to excuse themselves in committing whoredoms, because of the things which were written concerning David, and Solomon his son."Behold, David and Solomon truly had many wives and concubines, which thing was abominable before me, saith the Lord."

Even the first edition of the Doctrine and Covenants, printed in 1835, also denounced the practice: "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." (Doctrine and Covenants, section 101, verse 4) This denial of polygamy, was printed in all editions of the Doctrine and Covenants until the year 1876. At that time the Mormon leaders inserted section 132, which permits a plurality of wives which was given by new revelation. Its obvious that to have both in the same book, to have one section condemning polygamy and another approving of it would have been contradictory! So the section condemning polygamy was completely removed out of the Doctrine and Covenants.

Then a section which was added to the Doctrine and Covenants in 1876 was a revelation given by Joseph Smith on July 12, 1843. It is still published in the Doctrine and Covenants even though the church has gone back to practicing monogamy.

The following is taken from Joseph Smith's revelation (first thing noticeable is that it begins by contradicting the statement in the Book of Mormon which said that "David and Solomon truly had many wives and concubines, which thing was abominable before me,...): "Here is the revelation in D & C "And if he have ten virgins given unto him by this law, he cannot commit adultery... therefore is he justified (Doctrine and Covenants, Section 132, verses 1, 61-62) Why the change?

the Introduction to volume 5 of Joseph Smith's History of the Church, Mormon historian B. H. Roberts reveals that the "date in the heading of the Revelation [July 12, 1843]... notes the time at which the revelation was committed to writing, not the time at which the principles set forth in the revelation were first made known to the Prophet." The Mormon writer John J. Stewart commented: "...Joseph as a servant of God was authorized to enter plural marriage, and it is not at all unlikely that he did so in the early or mid-1830's.

On page 96 of Brigham Young and his Wives,, Stewart noted that Joseph Smith also had " 150 dead women…sealed to him; also a few women sealed to him after his death." In the Preface to the Second Edition of her book No Man Knows My History, Fawn Brodie revealed: "...over 200 women, apparently at their own request, were sealed as wives to Joseph Smith after his death in special temple ceremonies. Moreover, a great many distinguished women in history, including several Catholic saints, were also sealed to Joseph Smith in Utah. It becomes very apparent that J. Smith had a problem that could not be solved during his lifetime and certainly not afterwards where he thought he could continue as he did on earth Not that anyone could top this but Wilford Woodruff, the 4th president of the church, was sealed to about 400 dead women. According to the journal of the Mormon Apostle Abraham H. Cannon, a man could have up to 999 wives sealed to him for eternity: (Daily Journal of Abraham H. Cannon," April 5, 1894, vol. 18, pp. 66-67; original located at the Brigham Young University Library)

Mormon leaders admit that by July 12, 1843, when the revelation was supposed to have been given, Joseph Smith had already acquired plural wives. The revelation itself makes it clear that he was already involved with a number of women besides his wife, Emma: "And let mine handmaid, Emma Smith, receive all those that have been given unto my servant Joseph,..." (verse 52)

The revelation itself (verse 61) makes it clear that the first wife must "give her consent." Joseph Smith, however, did not follow the rules of his own revelation, for he took plural wives without seeking consent. Emily Dow Partridge, for instance, testified that she and her sister were married to Joseph without Emma's consent:

In 1843 Joseph Smith prophesied his first and only legal wife Emma would be damned or destroyed if she did not accept polygamy (Doctrine & Covenants 132). Emma never accepted polygamy, and while Joseph Smith died in 1844 at the age of 38, Emma lived to the old age of 75 and became the driving force behind the founding of the reorganization that we know today known as the RLDS church located Independence, Missouri.

Ann Eliza Young, who had been married to Brigham Young, charged that Joseph Smith was guilty of adultery: "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.... consequently all the women were free....

Mary Elizabeth Rollins Lightner, the wife of Adam Lightner, stated: "Joseph said I was his before I came here and he said all the Devils in Hell should never get me from him. I was sealed to him in the Masonic Hall,... by Brigham Young in February 1842 and then again in the Nauvoo Temple by Heber C. Kimball (Affidavit of Mary Elizabeth Rollins Lightner, as cited in No Man Knows My History, page 444)

How did J. Smith get this new revelation ? In a speech given at Brigham Young University (see Mormonism-- Shadow or Reality ? pages 215-216), Mrs. Lightner said that Joseph claimed an "angel" came with a "drawn sword" and told him that if he did not enter into polygamy "he would slay him." After 1852, when the Mormon Church was openly practicing polygamy, the leaders of the church were declaring that it was absolutely essential for exaltation. Joseph F. Smith, who served as the 6th president of the church, made this clear declaration concerning the importance of polygamy:

"Some people have supposed that the doctrine of plural marriage was a sort of superfluity, or nonessential to the salvation of mankind. In other words, some of the Saints have said, and believe that a man with one wife, sealed to him by the authority of the Priesthood for time and eternity, will receive an exaltation as great and glorious, if he is faithful, as he possibly could with more than one. I want here to enter my protest against this idea, for I know it is false... Therefore, whoever has imagined that he could obtain the fullness of the blessings pertaining to this celestial law, by complying with only a portion of its conditions, has deceived himself. He cannot do it. When that principle was revealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith,... he did not falter, although it was not until an angel of God, with a drawn sword, stood before him and commanded that he should enter into the practice of that principle, or he should be utterly destroyed, or rejected.... I understand the law of celestial marriage to mean that every man in this Church, who has the ability to obey and practice it in righteousness and will not, shall be damned, I say I understand it to mean this and nothing less, and I testify in the name of Jesus that it does mean that." (Journal of Discourses, vol. 20, pp. 28-31) Mormonism’s revelations seem to be consistently accompanied by threats and coercion.

Brigham Young made this uncompromising statement on August 19, 1866: "The only men who become Gods, even the Sons of God, are those who enter into polygamy." (Journal of Discourses, vol. 11, page 269) so if you want to become a god one day you must violate the already given law of God now. "- his fifty wives and fifty children attest to the fact of his practicing what he preached!

I guess this is how Jesus after growing to adulthood became a polygamist so he could attain Godhood. according to several LDS Apostles, Jesus was married to at least three wives. As a scriptural proof text for this doctrine, Orson Hyde, one of the original Apostles of the LDS Church, cited Johns Gospel chpt.2. "Jesus was the bridegroom at the marriage of Cana of Galilee, and he told them what to do. Now there was actually a marriage; and if Jesus was not the bridegroom on that occasion, please tell who was. We say it was Christ who Was married, to be brought into the relation whereby he could see his seed. before he was crucified...I shall say here, that before the Savior died, he looked upon his own natural children, as we look upon ours" (Journal of Discourses, Vol. 2, p. 82 p. 92; see 1853, 1963a).). Thus, not only was Jesus married, be He also, according to Mormonism, had a family.

Orson Hyde in the J of D vol. P.210 stated…"In my lecture on marriage, at our last conference, that Jesus Christ was married at Cana of Galilee, that Mary, Martha and others were his wives, and that he begot children."

This is again repeated "Jesus got married at Cana and had many wives Martha , mary and others he also had many children,"(J & D vol.1 345-346, vol.2 79-82, vol.4:259-260) and in the Seer p.172"Both God the father and our Lord Jesus Christ inherit their wives in eternity as well as time…"

In the 143rd General Conference, Apostle LeGrand Richards recounted an incident which had occurred earlier in his career. After speaking to a group of ministers from other churches, one of them raised a question. "He said, `We have heard it said that you believe that God has a wife. Would you explain that to us?' I think he thought he had me in trouble, and so rather facetiously I said, `I don't see how in the world he could have a son without a wife, do you?'" (Ensign July 1973, p. 79).

"Therefore, a Father... could increase his kingdoms with his own children, in a hundred fold ratio above that of another who had only secured to himself one wife. As yet, we have only spoken of the hundred fold ratio as applied to his own children; but now let us endeavor to form some faint idea of the multiplied increase of worlds peopled by his grandchildren, over which he, of course, would hold authority and dominion as the Grand Patriarch of the endless generations of his posterity" … Using multiplication to justify their false doctrine of heavenly adultery Pratt continues "While their Father, therefore, was peopling the second world, these millions of redeemed sons would people one million of worlds.... the number in the third generation amounts to one billion three million and three worlds. The fourth generation would people over a trillion, and the fifth over a quadrillion of worlds; while the one-hundredth generation would people more worlds than could be expressed by raising one million to the ninety-ninth power. (The Seer, March 1853, page 39 Apostle Pratt)

Jesus whose name they claim is on their church said something quite different on celestial marriages. In Mt.22:30 Jesus said very clearly the Sadducee’s were mistaken, after the resurrection their is no marriage or marrying we become like the angels of God who have no offspring.

1879 Reynolds decision, Church members who were brought to bar for sentencing, told federal judges that the law of God was higher than the law of the land and deserved prior obedience. This is true except what law of God are they speaking of?  New revelation or Jesus words. One is the real law the other is not.

The Manifesto officially ending polygamy as Church practice was not issued until 1890, and excommunication for practicing plural marriage did not come until 1904." (Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Summer 1966, page 128) The Mormons continued to openly preach polygamy until the year 1890. During this period the leaders taught that it was going to be a permanent part of the church and that it would never be stopped. Heber C. Kimball, First Counselor to Brigham Young, emphasized that the "principle of plurality of wives never will be done away,..." (Deseret News, Nov. 7, 1855) Kimball also warned: "Some quietly listen to those who speak... against the plurality of wives, and against almost every principle that God has revealed. Such persons have half-a-dozen devils with them all the time. You might as well deny 'Mormonism,' and turn away from it, as to oppose the plurality of wives. Let the Presidency of this Church, and the Twelve Apostles, and all the authorities unite and say with one voice that they will oppose the doctrine, and the whole of them will be damned." (Journal of Discourses, vol. 5, p. 203)

(Apostle Orson Pratt seer p,172) Both God the father and our Lord Jesus Christ inherit their wives in eternity as well as time…" "Now if you deny the plurality of wives, and continue to do so, I promise that you will be damned ."

Apostle Orson Pratt strongly affirmed that it was absolutely essential that polygamy was not be given up by the church: "God has told us Latter-day Saints that we shall be condemned if we do not enter into that principle; and yet I have heard now and then... a brother or sister say, 'I am a Latter-day Saint, but I do not believe in polygamy.' Oh, what an absurd expression! What an absurd idea! A person might as well say, 'I am a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, but I do not believe in him.' One is just as consistent as the other....

If the doctrine of polygamy, as revealed to the Latter-day Saints, is not true, I would not give a fig for all your other revelations that came through Joseph Smith the Prophet; I would renounce the whole of them, because it is utterly impossible,... to believe a part of them to be divine--from God--and a part of them to be from the devil;... The Lord has said that those who reject this principle reject their salvation, they shall be damned, saith the Lord;...

"Now I want to prophecy a little.... I want to prophecy that all men who oppose the revelation which God has given in relation to polygamy will find themselves in darkness; the Spirit of God will withdraw from them the very moment of their opposition to that principle, until they will finally go down to hell and be damned, if they do not repent... if you do not become as dark as midnight there is no truth in Mormonism." (Journal of Discourses, vol. 17, pp. 224-225) Notice he starts by saying he will prophecy, how true a statement that this whole revelation is from the fallen spirit of man motivated by the lusts and desires of the corrupted nature.

In another discourse, Kimball made this emphatic declaration: "It would be as easy for the United States to build a tower to remove the sun, as to remove polygamy, or the Church and kingdom of God." (Millennial Star, vol. 28, p.190)

In the Deseret News for Oct.10, 1866, President Brigham Young responded to a question which was frequently asked: "'Do you think that we shall ever be admitted as a State into the Union without denying the principle of polygamy?" If we are not admitted until then, we shall never be admitted."

The government increased the pressure against polygamy, however the Mormons were determined to continue the practice. Shortly before the revelation known as the Manifesto was given (which declared an end to the practice of polygamy), Lorenzo Snow, who later became president of the church, was claiming that no such revelation would ever come. When Snow was on trial for practicing polygamy, Mr. Bierbower, the prosecuting attorney, predicted that if he was convicted, "a new revelation would soon follow, changing the divine law of celestial marriage." To this Lorenzo Snow responded: "Whatever fame Mr. Bierbower may have secured as a lawyer, he certainly will fail as a prophet. The severest prosecutions have never been followed by revelations changing a divine law, obedience to which brought imprisonment or martyrdom.

"Though I go to prison, God will not change his law of celestial marriage. But the man, the people, the nation, that oppose and fight against this doctrine and the Church of God, will be overthrown." (Historical Record, 1886, vol. 5, page 144)

Lorenzo Snow said that the "severest prosecutions have never been followed by revelations changing a divine law," the 4th president of the church Wilford Woodruff, , issued the Manifesto in 1890. He claimed the Manifesto was given to stop the continuing persecution the church was going through from holding to their practice of polygamy. He stated: "The Lord showed me by vision and revelation exactly what would happen if we did not stop this practice... all ordinances would be stopped... many men would be made prisoners... I went before the Lord, and I wrote what the Lord told me to write..." (Evidences and Reconciliations, 3 volume edition, pp. 105-106)

Today, Mormons who are caught practicing polygamy are excommunicated . Mormon men are not allowed by his church to have two or more living, legal wives at the same time. Yet there are some that in quietness continue to uphold this practice believing the original revelation.

While the present leaders of the Mormon Church condemn fornication, adultery, and incestuous relationships, during the time of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young some strange things were taught and practiced concerning this matter. Joseph Smith, for instance, "married five pairs of sisters" and even a "mother" and her own "daughter. " (No Man Knows My History, page 336) In her book, Intimate Disciple, page 317, Mormon writer Clair Noall verified that Smith did marry a mother and her daughter: "Sylvia Lyon, Patty's daughter and the wife of Windsor J. Lyon, was already sealed to Joseph. This afternoon she was to put her mother's hand in the Prophet's."

Unfortunately, Joseph Smith's desire to obtain many wives led him to take other men's wives, it appears that Mormon males projected their carnal needs and desires into heaven, and that their heaven probably does not resemble in any shape or form actual heaven. To think the average person thinks that Mormonism is pro family and together forever when they really teach not marriage but adultery forever.

"You have the privilege of forming tabernacles for those spirits. That is what plurality of wives is for, and not to gratify lustful desires. Sisters, do you wish to make yourselves happy? Then what is your duty? It is for you to bear children in the name of the Lord that are full of faith and power of God - receive, conceive, bear, and bring forth in the name of Israel's God, that you may have the honor of being the mothers of great and good men of kings, princes and potentates that shall yet live on the earth and govern and control the nations. Do you look forward to that? or are you tormenting yourselves by thinking that your husbands do not love you?  I would not care whether they loved a particle or not, but I would cry out, like one of old, in the joy of my heart, `I have got man from the Lord!'" (Journal of Discourses, Vol. 9, p. 37).

While he writes it is not to satisfy their lusts what would be the reason to have so many wives.When God spoke to Adam to be fruitful he had only one wife. He also states that the women  should be thankful they have a    man from the Lord. How blessed they are with all the other woman to share that one man.

Apostle Orson Pratt argued that "if plurality of marriage is not true or in other words, if a man has no divine right to marry two wives or more in this world, then marriage for eternity is not true, and your faith is in vain, and all the sealing ordinances and powers pertaining to marriages for eternity are vain, worthless, good for nothing; for as sure as one is true the other also must be true." (Journal of Discourses, vol. 21, page 296)

Question: Is polygamy an abomination like Jacob 2:23-24 says in the book of Mormon or a means of justification like in D & C 132:1. What about the Book of Mormon as the most perfect book and that no one could get closer to God without its precepts.

Those who do not practice this anymore are left with being condemned by their own prophets. What if this was 120 years ago and they practiced the new improved version of Mormonism, they would be condemned unable to go to heaven and be sent to hell. This is what kind of confusion arises when new revelation is added on later from a different source. In contradiction of Section 132, some Mormons now claim that polygamy is not even necessary for "salvation" (Mormon Doctrine, p. 578). But they still use Section 132 as a basis for their eternal marriage ceremony performed in Mormon temples.

Although Mormon Church leaders no longer sanction the practice of polygamy on earth, it remains an important part of their doctrinal view essential for the hereafter. "Both God the father and our Lord Jesus Christ inherit their wives in eternity as well as time…"(Apostle Orson Pratt seer p,172)

LDS President Wilford Woodruff said, "If we were to do away with polygamy, it would only be one feather in the bird, one ordinance in the Church and kingdom. Do away with that, then we must do away with prophets and Apostles, with revelation and the gifts and graces of the Gospel, and finally give up our religion altogether and turn sectarians and do as the world does, then all would be right. We just can't do that, for God has commanded us to build up His kingdom and to bear our testimony to the nations of the earth, and we are going to do it, come life or come death. He has told us to do thus, and we shall obey Him in days to come as we have in days past." (Journal of Discourses 13:166)

In 1891 the First Presidency and Apostles of the Mormon Church made the following statement in a petition to the President of the United States: "We formerly taught to our people that polygamy or celestial marriage as commanded by God through Joseph Smith was right; that it was a necessity to man's highest exaltation in the life to come." (Reed Smoot Case, vol. 1, page 18) Exaltation by adultery, all under Gods approval.

Such is Mormon history a changing revelation, as Man changes so does their God. In light of this major doctrinal change made by Mormon leaders, incredibly that Dr. Hugh Nibley boasted: "Yet of all churches in the world only this one has not found it necessary to readjust any part of its doctrine in the last hundred years. "The very opposite is true they have kept very little of the essentials they started with.

Today the church still teaches polygamy except its location has shifted from earth to heaven. Does the location makes this right? Actually it makes it more wrong. Does God's values change because the location has gone from earth to heaven where his abode is? Of course not. But what was prohibited on earth because of the law of the land, but it becomes restored where the Mormon thinks he will rule, because he is God of his own world.Yet the late Mormon Apostle Bruce R. McConkie claimed that polygamy would be reinstituted in the millennium here on earth. (Mormon Doctrine, p. 578).

Today they give the appeal of a forever marriage leaving out the details "'Parents will have eternal claim upon their posterity . and will have the gift of eternal increase, if they obtain exaltation.... a man and his wife when glorified will have spirit children who eventually will go to an earth like this one... There is no end to this development; it will go on forever. We will become god ;and have jurisdiction over worlds, and these worlds will be peopled by our own offspring. " (Doctrines of the Gospel Student Manual, Church Educational System, 1986)

Now we come to the fine that God imposes on those in Mormonism

Jesus said in Rev 2:22 "Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds."

Speaking of heaven Rev 22:15 "But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie."

Religious history repeats itself to those who do not pay attention, Jer. 3:8-9 "Then I saw that for all the causes for which backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but went and played the harlot also.

Jer. 29:2 "Because they have done disgraceful things in Israel, have committed adultery with their neighbors' wives, and have spoken lying words in My name, which I have not commanded them. Indeed I know, and am a witness, says the LORD."

Jer. 5:7 "How shall I pardon you for this? Your children have forsaken Me and sworn by those that are not gods. When I had fed them to the full, then they committed adultery and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots' houses."

The outcome of committing spiritual adultery lead Israel to commit physical adultery. Sin begins in the heart, Because it’s what is in ones heart that comes out, just as Jesus said Mark 7:20-23 "Its not what goes in that defiles him but what comes out, that defiles a man.21 "For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornication's, murders,22 "thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness.23 "All these evil things come from within and defile a man." The Mormon church promotes many of these in disguise of new truth given to their prophets

If the Mormon church wants to be called Christian there’s much to change,  VERY MUCH.