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The Lord often promises to protect His people — to lead and direct them, be their shield, and fight their battles. The Lord also warns of the rebukes and chastisements that will come to His people if they fail to serve Him and keep His commandments. In these uncertain times, when the Lord’s promises of protection may become increasingly important, what can we learn from how they have, or have not, been fulfilled in the past? What can we do to more fully qualify for the Lord’s promises of protection?
Transcript
[00:00:00] Welcome to 132 Problems revisiting Mormon polygamy, where we explore the scriptural and theological case for plural marriage. As always, I recommend listening to these podcasts in order since they start with the more basic topics and build on from there. My name is Michelle Stone, and this is episode 28, where we’ll consider the Lord’s promises of protection and compare them to the Lord’s warnings of being scattered and smitten. How have those promises played out in the past, especially regarding polygamy, and what lessons can we learn to help us more fully qualify for the Lord’s protection in our lives? Thank you for joining us as we take a deep dive into the murky waters of Mormon polygamy. This is not a topic that I had initially thought about or planned to do an episode on, but more and more it’s been on my mind, and after some recent conversations and interactions, I’ve just, I’ve decided this is something that I want to talk about and that I think is important for us to consider. Um, I’m recording this in August of 2022, and for many of us there is definitely a an awareness that life is changing, a feeling of uncertainty that. Empty shelves at grocery stores, the in the coming increases in the food shortage that are by some projections supposed to get pretty severe. The increasing civil unrest, the intense divisions that seem to still be growing and Whether people see the virus and other viruses as the potential threats or the government’s reaction to the threat of viruses as the biggest threat, we just generally feel like times are unsettled and uncertain, and it’s a time that we, many of us find ourselves thinking more about the promises of protection from the Lord because I don’t know, it doesn’t feel like life. Life feels like it might not continue on in the comfortable, predictable way that we have enjoyed our entire lives. And so I acknowledge, I have to say a couple of things. Um, I acknowledge that I was raised to be a bit of a prepper. So I’ve lived my whole life with this feeling of sort of impending doom, coming uncertainty and the need to store food and prepare against it. My mom used to take me to all kinds of conferences and You know, and I continued going to those, so this is not foreign territory for me. So in a way I’m talking to my own people that are, that are, um, also into food storage and preparations and, um, just recently I, I just, I know this is happening a lot in Utah and Idaho and many other places that people are. Establishing communities, places of refuge, this has been happening for the past several years. I guess it’s always been happening to some extent, but it’s been happening more and more with more people trying to establish communities with like-minded people that they can um That they are hoping to enjoy protection and refuge from the coming storm. And I think that um that it’s important to see how effective those efforts might be. I even recently had a long conversation with just a great guy, a really kind uh man. Who is part of a community where they have actually literally built homes inside of caves that they dynamited in large rocks, like kind of mountain rock structures, and they have dynamited holes in them and built dynamited caves into them and built homes. I think and just, you know, they, they’re storing. A ton of food and just really trying to find ways to be prepared to be safe for whatever might be coming. So I want to talk about these things and talk about what we can do to see how effective or promising our efforts might be based on the past, based on the Lord’s promises and warnings,
[00:04:00] and based on the way we’re living. I think it’s Important things for us to recognize so that we don’t have either wasted effort or false hope or just, just so we can, in general, feel more settled and comfortable and more filled with faith and less filled with fear. I guess that’s the goal for this episode. So for those of you who are not at all preppers who just think that we’re all a bunch of crazy people, I apologize. That’s more of this episode is geared toward, and I confess, yes, I do have food storage. And as I mentioned, I’m working hard to try to learn to garden effectively because that’s something I’ve always felt was important to do. But, um, I just think more and more, the more we can encourage ourselves and others to produce our own food, the better off we might be going forward unless I’m just crazy and none of it’s going to happen. And that’s a complete possibility. So, Anyway, I want to dive in first of all, to looking to look at the scriptures that promise divine protection. I just pulled, there are so many of these, and so I just pulled a random assortment. I have no idea if they’re the best ones, the most comprehensive ones. So go ahead and add your own that I might have missed. I’m just gonna read through some of them that I think give a bit of a picture of what I’m talking about. So let’s start in the Book of Mormon, Alma 11:15. This is what I read already regarding Captain Moron, the promises that the people had and that they believed based on their faithfulness, and it said, and this was their faith that by so doing God would prosper them in the land, or in other words, if they were faithful in keeping the commandments of God that He would prosper them in the land. Yeah, warn them to flee or prepare for war according to their danger, and also that God would make it known unto them whither they. Should go to defend themselves against their enemies, and by so doing, the Lord would deliver them, and this was the faith of the of Marona and his heart to glory in it, not in the shedding of blood, but in doing good, in preserving his people, yeah, and keeping the commandments of God and in resisting iniquity. So that’s one promise of protection. You can see the Lord would tell them where to go and what to do and so that they could rely on Him. Then let’s get to doctrine and covenants. There are several of the doctrine and covenants, both directions that we’re gonna cover. First, the promises of protection. This is um section 47, verse 27. Behold, I will go before you and be your rear word, and I will be in your midst, and you shall not be confounded. Um, Doctor Covenants 9837, and I, the Lord would fight their battles and their children’s battles and their children’s children’s until they had avenged themselves on all their enemies to the 3rd and 4th generation, skipping to the Bible. 2 Chronicles 32:7. Be strong and courageous, be not afraid nor dismayed, for the king of Assyria, nor, oh, be not dismayed for the king of Assyria, nor for all the multitude that is with him, for there be more with us than with him. With him is. An arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles. Um, Genesis 15:1,
[00:06:54] Fear not, Abraham, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. There are, it goes on. We’ll read a few more from Isaiah that the Savior attributed to, uh, told us to study for our day. Isaiah 4:4, when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning. And the Lord will create upon every dwelling place of um dwelling place of Mount Zion, and upon her assemblies a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night, for upon all the glory shall be a defense, and there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat and for a place of refuge and for a a cover from the storm and from rain. Isaiah 54:17, no weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper, and every time that shall rise against thee in judgment, thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, sayeth the Lord. Back to doctrine and Covenants, um, 8488. This is one of my favorites. I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my spirit shall be in your hearts and my angels round about you to bear you up. Some of these have personal application to me from experiences I’ve had in the past, so they touch. Me deeply, um, then to in Exodus, Exodus 13:21, and the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud to lead them, to lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light and to go to go by day and night. He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night from before the people and Exodus 14. Um 13 to 14, and Moses said unto the people, Fear not, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will show to you today. For the Egyptians whom ye have seen today, ye shall see them again no more forever, for the Lord shall fight for you, and he shall, and ye shall hold your peace again and again. The people of God are promised that according to their faithfulness and righteousness and need that the Lord will fight their battles. The Lord will be before them, behind them, protect them, bear them up, warn them, teach them what to do and where to go, and that, um, that we that we can put our trust in God. So I think that those are beautiful promises that we all always want to rely on and to look to. I think it’s interesting though, as I think about these promises because I find myself. You know, thinking that we can also can’t be um naive because there have been so many righteous people in societies that have been destroyed and like we know that Shadragy Shakabednego and Daniel were all righteous, and yet their families were killed, they were taken captive there, you know, their entire civilization was killed. They were taken captive, castrated, put. Became servants of the king and so it’s not necessarily easy to interpret how we should apply these promises to us, but I think that we can do our best to try to understand a little bit more of what the Lord is trying to teach us and maybe what we can do to understand what divine protection means and to learn how to qualify for it so um. And now that we’ve read those promises of dudine protection, I want to, by contrast,
[00:10:05] read some of the warnings that the Lord gives of, I guess we can call them covenant curses of being scattered and smitten or chastised. And again, these are, there are so many of these throughout the scriptures. So I’ve grabbed quite a few, but it’s by no means a comprehensive list. So we’ll start in the Old Testament, Ezekiel 5:10. Therefore, the father shall eat the sons in the midst of thee, and the son shall eat their fathers. I thought that was an interesting contrast to. I will turn the hearts of the children to their fathers, and the hearts of the fathers to the children here. They’re not serving one another. They are consuming one another. And I will execute judgments in thee, and the whole remnant of, of thee will I scatter into all the winds. Wherefore, as I live, sayeth the Lord God, surely because thou hast to Filed my sanctuary with all thy detestable things and with all thine abominations. Therefore, will I also diminish thee. Neither shall mine eye spare. Neither will I have any pity. Then Nehemiah 1:8, if you transgress, I will scatter you scatter you abroad among the nations. In Ezekiel 22:15, and I will scatter thee among the heathen and disperse thee into the countries and will consume thy filthiness out of thee. Um, again, jumping to doctrine covenants, this is 5:19, for a desolating scourge shall go forth among the inhabitants of the earth and shall continue to be poured out from time to time if they repent not until the earth is empty, and the inhabitants thereof are consumed away and utterly destroyed by the brightness of my coming. Behold, I tell you these things even as I told the people of the destruction of Jerusalem, and my word shall be verified at this time as it hath hitherto been verified. Doctrine and Covenants 45:19. There are both promises of destruction and of protection in Doctrine Covenants 45. But verily I say unto you that desolation shall come upon this generation as a thief in the night, and this people shall be destroyed and scattered among all nations. And this temple which ye now sees shall be thrown down that there shall not be left one stone upon another. Oh, I. I had an insight as I was reading through these, uh, reading all of these promises of destruction. I’m going to interrupt for just a second here because, um, it’s disconcerting, right? Feeling the uncertainty of the times and reading all of this just was like getting really heavy and really dark and trying to understand what these things might mean. But Reading this about the destruction of the temple, I just was all of a sudden just this like awareness, sort of this insight came to my mind that really hit me and troubled me. I was very unsettled. I called my husband to talk about it. I called my mom and they both kind of had the same reaction of being very troubled at first, but then as I think as we all thought about it more, it was like, That might be something worth considering, so I might talk about this more later. I might not, but I just want to point out when it talks about the temple being destroyed, just the story of Johnston’s army, which we’re going to get into a little bit, came to mind. And if you recall the original Salt Lake Temple Foundation, the story that I was always taught was that it was built out of sandstone. And that the, the saints were hiding it when Johnston’s army was coming, so they buried it. And then when they uncovered it, they found that the foundation was filled with cracks. The foundation had cracked.
[00:13:18] And so they learned, you know, I was always taught that story in sort of a faith affirming way that I guess, I guess the lesson was that good things can come even from bad things because if they hadn’t buried it, they wouldn’t have known that it was cracked and then The the temple wouldn’t have stood. And so they rebuilt the foundation out of granite, right? But as I was reading this this time, that story just came to my mind. And I know that I always tend to think that symbolism is important and what, you know, the signs that the Lord gives us, and we pay so much attention to signs that That sort of go along with our desired beliefs and teachings and then maybe we ignore them when they don’t tell a story that we want to hear. But the possible profundity of the foundation of the temple cracking. Just hit me really hard, hit me really hard. And, you know, and I’m not going to claim. I, I of course have my own thoughts as I’ve pondered on this of what lessons we maybe should take from that. And, you know, for those who maybe have read The Harbinger, that was a book kind of about 9/11 and the prophecies from there and the attitude of the people, we’ll build that stronger, we’ll make it, you know, instead of saying, OK, God, what does this mean and turning to the Lord. And seeing what maybe they were getting wrong in their foundation. Instead they were like, we’ll build back in our own strength. We’ll make it a 6 ft thick granite and 16 ft granite. And so anyway, I think that there might be something to consider there. Similarly, a few years ago we had an earthquake in Utah in Salt Lake and the trumpet of Moroni was dropped out of his hand, and I don’t claim to know what that means, but I wonder if we should pay attention to these symbols that the Lord might be giving us or maybe not. It’s up to each of every individualable person to decide. I just, since that hit me so hard, I thought I would include it as we were reading about the destruction of the temple because, you know, really, at the time that the mem that the saints were building the temple, the foundation of Utah Mormonism was polygamy. And that was incorporated into the temple. And the Book of Mormon clearly defines polygamy as abomination, maybe more strongly than it does anything else. And we’re told about the abominations in the temple will lead to these. Curses. I used to interpret these things very differently than I do now that I said, I guess my eyes have been opened about this topic. So that’s something that each of us can consider. I’m just going to leave it there. Hopefully I didn’t offend anybody too badly just by sharing some insights. So we’re going to move on. OK. Doctrine Covenants 8554 says, and your minds and time past have been darkened because of Unbelief. Oh, and I just, again, our unbelief in the Book of Mormon. We really don’t believe what it says because we continue to believe in the possibility of God ordained polygamy, which the Book of Mormon, we’ve been given and tells us that is not true. So anyway, and because you have treated lightly the things you have received,
[00:16:20] which vanity and unbelief have brought the whole church under condemnation. And this condemnation resteth upon the children of Zion even and all, and they shall remain under this condemnation until they repent and remember the covenant, even the Book of Mormon and the former commandments which I have given them from the beginning, from Adam. To have marriage between one man and one wife and um not only to say but to do according to that which I have written that they may bring forth fruit, meat for the Father’s kingdom. Otherwise there remaineth a scourge and a judgment to be poured out upon the children of Zion. For shall the children of Zion, uh, for shall the children of the king kingdom pollute my holy land, verily I say unto you, nay. And then a very well known one, hopefully this is familiar to you, Doctrine Covenants 1:12:24, and on from there, behold, vengeance cometh speedily upon the inhabitants of the earth, a day of wrath, a day of burning, a day of desolation, of weeping, of mourning, and of lamentation. And as a whirlwind shall it come upon the face of the earth saith the Lord, and upon my house shall it begin, and from my house shall it go forth, sayeth the Lord. First among those among you saith the Lord who have professed to know my name and have not known me and have blasphemed against me in the midst of my house, sayeth the Lord. Therefore, see to it that ye trouble not yourselves concerning the affairs of my church in this place, sayeth the Lord, but purify your hearts before me. I included that verse 27 about don’t trouble yourself concerning the affairs of my church because I think that’s such a an important promise to us that what we can do even if there are things we disagree with or things that we see as problems is that we can continue to purify our own hearts and trust the church to God, right? We, we don’t have the ability or the calling. To in any way straighten the arc, right? That steady the arc. we can just do the best that we can to purify our own hearts and to do what we feel inspired to do to, um, to make sure that we are serving the Lord the best that we can, even if there might be. Some problems, right? OK, and as we’re reading through both the promises of protection that we went through before and then these warnings of being scattered and smitten, I think it’s useful. I don’t at all claim to say there’s one reason or one cause or anything like that, but since this is the topic. That we are looking at, I think it’s useful to look again at the warnings given to us in the Book of Mormon. So this is Jacob 2:24. Behold, David and Solomon truly had many wives and concubines, which thing was abominable before me, sayeth the Lord. Again, clearly polygamy defined as an abomination. Um, wherefore, thus sayeth the Lord, I have led this people forth out of the land of Jerusalem by the power of my arm that I might raise up a righteous branch from the fruit of the loins of Joseph. So it’s interesting. That the Lord warned Lehi Jerusalem’s going to be destroyed. I want you to come out of Jerusalem so that you won’t be part of this destruction. And now it’s telling us perhaps part of the abominations that would lead to the destruction of Jerusalem. Um, continuing verse 26, wherefore I, the Lord will not suffer that this people shall do like unto them of old. Wherefore, my brethren, hear me and hearken to the word of the Lord, for there not, for there shall not any man among you have save it be one wife and concubines he shall have none.
[00:19:45] Wherefore this people shall keep my commandment, sayeth the Lord of hosts, or cursed be the land for their sakes. So if they fail to on this land, if they fail to keep these. Commandments, they will experience covenant curses being scattered and smitten. The divine chastisement that the Lord warns comes as a result of polygamy both in the old world and in the new world, and this is skipping down to verse 33, for they shall not lead away captive the daughters of my people because of their tenderness, save I shall visit them with a sore curse even unto destruction, for they shall not commit hordoms like unto them of old saith the Lord of hosts, right, so. Committing um participating in polygamy will lead to curses. That’s, that’s pretty clearly defined and I know. I know I’m not including verse 30, which some people think of as the loophole, but I want to make one point. We’re going to go into this more. It’s important to recognize that verse 30 starts with the word for, not but. It’s building on not in contrast, and strangely and sadly, that was actually changed in some of our lesson manuals and put in parentheses, but we actually changed the wording of the scriptures to try to make that claim. So that’s something we’ll go over. At a later time, but please recognize that verse 30 says 4, this is, this is the truth. And then verse 31 continuing on also says 4, which gives us the reasons that polygamy is forbidden, which are always, are always, it’s, it’s because of the pain it causes, right? So anyway, we’ll just, we’ll, we’ll go on to that more. I just wanted to at least acknowledge it. Then let’s look at 3 ne by 269 we calling the Doctrine of Covenants where it told us that we’re under condemnation for taking lightly. The things in the Book of Mormon that we have been taught like maybe ignoring what it teaches us on this central topic. Then, um, this is 35 26 9. And when they shall have received this, the first portion of the book of the Book of Mormon of the seal the golden plates, which is expedient that they shall have first to try their faith, and if it shall so be that they shall believe these things, then shall the greater things be made manifest unto them. And if it so be that they will not believe these things, then shall the greater things be withheld from them unto their condemnation. I would say it’s pretty clear that the greater things so far have been withheld. Both the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and covenants warn that we are under condemnation for not believing the things in the Book of Mormon, and I can’t by any means believe that it’s that the people didn’t try hard enough, that they didn’t have enough faith or or effort. I mean, I think that most of us would be hard pressed to make the kind of sacrifices that the early members made. And um and experience the kind of persecution they they experienced. So maybe it wasn’t that they didn’t try hard enough. Maybe it’s it’s that some of their beliefs were wrong. That’s, that’s what I think we should at least considered because we should at least consider. So let’s look at how this has played out historically, right? Now, I, again, it was really heavy reading so much of the tragic history, both just thinking about the, the, just the pain of humanity throughout time and the history is really hard to read. Our lives have been so blessed and so comfortable. Even the hard things that we experienced just, I, I mean just leave us unable to even imagine these things. So. So the Jews,
[00:23:10] right, where we know that polygamy was being lived, again, I’m not claiming that’s the only reason. The main reason I don’t know. I just am reading the promises and the warnings given in the Book of Mormon and in other places. So the Jews were scattered and smitten repeatedly. We know that in 600 BC, King Nebuchadnezzar of the Babylonians completely scattered and murdered and destroyed Jerusalem. And then, um, many, many of the prophets, Old Testament prophets prophesized of that. And then again, Jerusalem was destroyed in 17,080 by Titus, the leader of the Romans, and Jesus prophesized that in Matthew 24 and in Luke chapter 19 and chapter 21, and again, the vast majority were killed, the residue were scattered and enslaved. So two major destructions of Jerusalem occurred occurred in our history. And then, um, then I just I’m also going to look at because I’m looking at what I understand to be the covenant people of the Lord, right? And whether they experienced the divine protection or the covenant curses. And so early church again, again, it’s hard to read, but we just have such a history of being scattered and smitten and I’m, I just want to clarify yet again I’m not claiming to know why or whether they qualified for the Lord’s protection. These can be read different ways, and I’ll go on to that a little bit more later on. I’ll go into that a little bit more. So I’m not going to claim that I could have done any better or claim that they lacked faith or anything like that. I’m just going to look at. At the history of what happened and compare it to what the scriptures teach and and we can all draw our own conclusions, right? But um I think we should try to learn what we can so that hopefully, hopefully we can learn to somehow qualify more for the promises of protection that the Lord gives us so. Let’s look back to the beginning. If we are to believe what is taught in the Gospel Topics essay, um, specifically the one called Plural Marriage in Kirtland and Navvo, and I can put the link to that if it will let me in the show notes. Polygamy, according to the church narrative now started as early as 1830 or the early 1830s, so it was already apparently happening according to the for me, the jury’s out on this, but that it was happening in um Kirtland. And so, um. So we’re going to look at how this practice coincided with the church being scattered and smitten, right? So after the failure of the bank, the church was forced to flee K Kirtland, Ohio. Joseph was arrested and escaped and right, he had to flee. And then, uh man, reading about Missouri was hard reading about Jackson County just every time, but The saints were brutalized and violently chased out of Jackson County, Missouri, and I won’t get his name right. Was it Edward Partridge, who was the bishop there? If I got his name right, forgive me, but he was a good man who tried really hard and ended up dying very young as a result of the suffering that he had to oversee the saints through in Jackson County, Missouri, and then They went to Clay County for refuge. They were expelled from Clay County, then they were expelled completely from Missouri. Then they finally created a beautiful city out of the out of the swamp, right, where the rumors of polygamy began to spread in earnest,
[00:26:35] and they again were chased out of there. Joseph and Hiram were killed. Samuel, their younger brother, was also died soon after that. They were chased out of Navvo. And they suffered and gathered in winter quarters and then they eventually came over 1200 miles, 2000 miles from where the church started with the continual fleeing west trying to go to. Less and less desirable places where they might have a better chance of not being kicked out. They eventually came 1200 miles to the unwanted desert by the Great Salt Lake, right, that they, they thought that finally they could be left alone here. They left America and they left civilization. So they came here and great trials followed. They had, um, persecutions followed them, but first they had much famine and starvation. The Crickets and seagulls. I know we pay more attention to the seagulls, but you know, the crickets came to, there was a lot of starvation in early Utah, the, um, hand cart tragedies that happened, and then the first legislations began, the moral anti-Bigamy Act of 1862 and that year was also Johnston’s army in 1862, which we just talked about, so. The church was threatened. The foundation of the temple cracked. Um, then the persecution continued. The Edmonds Act in 1882 led to over 1300 arrests of leading Mormon men. Then a few years later in 1887, the one with real teeth, the Edmonds Tucker Act, was enacted, which led to the church, the loss of possessions, they, they lost control of the Utah government. They lost their um. The possessions like it just was a mess and that led directly to just less than 3 years later, Wilfred Woodruff with the first manifesto of 1890 saying at least claiming to be disavowing polygamy. So you can see how all of this happened, right? And Wilfred Woodruff’s revelation where he prophesized where he claimed to have a revelation and prophesized, this is a quote from. The manifesto found in the doctrine of covenants, the confiscation and loss of all the temples and the stopping of all the ordinances therein, both for the living and the dead and the imprisonment of the first presidency and the 12 and the heads of families in the church and the confiscation of personal property of the people, all of which themselves would stop the practice. So we went into that in detail in more depth in episode 7, the Emergence of 132. That’s called The Emergence of 132. It’s episode 7. I hope you’ll watch that because we compare the fulfillment of prophecy, um, between the prophecies of polygamy and not doing polygamy, right? I didn’t explain that well, but that’s a good episode worth watching if you haven’t already. So, so that’s where this all led, right? And Even Wilfred Woodruff, as the president of the church who believed in polygamy, prophesized that if the church continued polygamy, it would be destroyed. Um,
[00:29:38] the church ended polygamy. I know, gradually step by step, first just pretending to, but then eventually ending it in earnest and interestingly, since then, the church seems to have been prospered, right? There hasn’t been anything like the same kind of persecution the church has grown and spread and And it’s a really interesting comparison, but at the same time, let’s look at what happened to those who continue to follow polygamy as the foundation of the church, right? We’ll just give a few examples. I know that a historian who specializes in polygamist groups could do a much more comprehensive. Um, covering up, um, the handling of this, but I’m just going to talk about some of the things that I know of and that I looked up. So first, many of the saints went to Mexico, right? We talked about, I hadn’t heard of colonial Diaz as much. Now I know why, but colonial Dublon and colonial Juarez is where they went. That’s where my great grandfather was married to his second wife in 1906, 2 years after the second manifesto, when they were like, we’re really, really not doing this at all, so. Anyway, they went there and it’s interesting to consider that. Um, they had those three settlements in and in Chihuahua, Mexico, and When the Mexican revolution happened, the uprising and I believe it was, um, I didn’t write it down I guess, but 1910 to 1912 is what I’m remembering, but the polygamists, the people in the colonies were disarmed and then driven from their homes and lands. All 45 residents of those colonies fled back to the US due to the violence and the threats. Colonial Diaz, that first colony, was completely destroyed. It was burned to the ground. Um, the other two colonies, Colonial Dublo and Colonial Juarez, some people eventually moved back to, but nobody went back to colonial Diaz because it was completely destroyed. And so some, some polygamists after all of those uprisings went back to Mexico. My understanding is that one of one of the Main families there are the Le Barons and you know we know what happened with Irvil. I think he was a break off, so it’s not fair to compare all of the Le Barons to just the worst, the worst representation of them, but they have continued to face a lot of violence and persecution of various kinds, including tragic things that have happened due to the cartels and just a lot of other violence, even the violence from Irville split off group that has continued. So there’s been a lot more trouble there than there has been in the main body of the church. Um, Then many of the, many of the early polygamist saints who left Mexico settled in Short Creek, right? Um, Short Creek, which is now called Hildale, um, is it Colorado City, Arizona, and Hilldale, Utah, yeah, that is,
[00:32:27] that is the original Short Creek. They changed the name after the raids, but Short Creek was raided in 1953. It was the largest mass arrest in US history, at least until that time. I don’t know if there’s been a bigger one. The entire community was taken into custody, all of the men, women, and children, except for six individuals who, I guess, were not polygamists, and so they were all taken into custody. It was hundreds of children. Most of those children were not returned to their families for at least 2 years. And several of them never were returned to their families, so it was a really tragic thing that happened to these families. Um, after that, they tried to rebuild again, they changed the name of the community to Hildale, Utah and Colorado City, Arizona. They established the Yearning for Zion Ranch, right? We had the um the Jeffs come into leadership and then we watched what happened. Under Warren Jeff’s leadership, he was arrested in 2006. The Yearning for Zion Ranch. Hildal in Colorado City were again raided in 2008, a somewhat similar story, the children taken into custody. Those families just kind of decimated, and now that community because of some really bad things were ingested, that community lost possession of those cities and um now my understanding is that only the. Like a tiny tiny minority of the residents there are now the the FLDS faithful. It’s well under 10%. The vast majority of them have again been scattered, right? And um And so we can look at it time and time and time again that these communities are scattered and smitten. Shouldn’t we pause and ask why is that? What can we possibly learn from it, right? I think that for the most part, these are good people for, well. I think that most of them are really trying to be good people. I think that there are things about this principle that creates bad things in people and the principle of plural marriage. It does not bring out the best in most people. But, um, but still, it’s tragic to see what’s happened now. I want to clarify a couple of things. I am by no means saying that all of the things that have been done to lead to these persecutions, these scatterings and and smitings, I guess is that. That I’m not claiming that they’re good, right? I, I think that, I mean, it’s well known that the Edmonds Act and the Edmonds Tucker Act were kind of ridiculous, you know, like if they had been applied throughout the nation, then anyone who was having affairs or cohabiting, right? And, and the destruction of these families, like it’s all really tragic and heartbreaking. I’m not claiming to say, oh, this is good that this all happened. I’m just saying that it did happen and that it was allowed to happen and that the promises of protection didn’t seem to be there. Instead, it seemed to be
[00:35:25] the warnings of being scattered and smitten. Those seem to be what. What was being enacted. So now I want to say admittedly there are different ways to interpret these things, right? We know we can view this. Like, I think our tendency is to view persecution as evidence that we are God’s people, right? So we look at, um, Proverbs 3:11. My son despised not. The chastening of the Lord, neither be weary of his correction, for whom the Lord loveth He correcteth, even as a Father, the Son whom he delight in whom he delighteth. So we can look at it that way and say, OK, this is good. It means that God, that we’re God’s people and we should expect persecution. And I think that there is definitely some truth to that. Like we can look throughout time to see where, you know, I mean, Jesus certainly wasn’t protected from hardship, right? So I’m not claiming that like, if, if we are qualifying for the Lord’s protection, we won’t have hard hardship. That’s not the point. I think though that if we read that, that, um, in, in Proverbs, it’s also repeated in Hebrews 12 and um, and I think that we can look at the chastisement of the Lord. And recognize that it has a critical purpose if we continue on in Proverbs. Let’s see, um, oh, Proverbs 13, the next verse says, Happy is the man that findeth wisdom and the man that getteth understanding. The chastisement of the Lord is not just. Useless suffering. It’s not just the Lord saying you must suffer. It is the Lord trying to help us learn more, trying to teach us, trying to correct us. That’s why we are chastised, right? It’s like a a coach like really giving a lot of feedback to a good player that he knows can become better, or it’s like a parent. Trying to teach their children to make better choices and to behave in better ways through discipline, right? Through consequences. It’s not a parent saying you need to learn to suffer, so I’m going to just. Make you suffer. That that’s not a good and loving parent. It’s trying to teach right there I think when we experience chastening from the Lord, it’s so we can learn. I should also read Hebrews 12:11. This is where Paul is talking about it. It says, now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward, it yiedeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. It’s up to us if we will learn the lessons that the Lord is giving us the opportunity to learn through being chastised, right? Can we say, can we, can we make them that. That suffering as useful as possible so that we can learn all that we can, so,
[00:38:09] um. Let’s see what else I was going to say about this. Oh, I guess it brings to mind, um, what Mormon says and Mormon too, is it sorrowing unto repentance or kind of useless sorrowing, the sorrowing of the damned because we refuse to learn the lessons. We refuse to start actually believing the scriptures or the truth of God, right? Which I believe we have the opportunity to do. It should be so clear to us what is truth and what is error and what will help. qualify more for the blessings of God. So I guess one of the reasons I really wanted to go into this is because all of these settlements that are being established, many of them are by either practicing polygamists or more commonly people who are very strong believers in polygamy and perhaps look forward to the adoption of polygamy so that they can have their community become Zion. They’re still operating under that mindset. I’ve Engaged with some of them personally and and that is why I want to talk about this cause that’s my concern is that. If we continue to cling to this idea, then I don’t believe we can expect to qualify for the protection of the Lord. It’s just. Uh, again and again and again and again, the same thing happens. I think what is it? The definition of insanity is doing the same thing again and again, expecting a different outcome, right? If we keep going further away and further away and trying harder to get somewhere that nobody wants to establish a polygamist community, expecting God to protect us, it just doesn’t happen. It feels to me like how, um, people, people keep wanting to. I believe in Marxism, right, socialism or communism, and keep saying, well, if we do it right this time, like every time it’s ever been done, it has had the same outcome, but if we do it again, it will be better like no it won’t, and I think the same is true for trying to establish. Communities of refuge that are founded on the ideas that support polygamy. I just think we need to wake up and consider some different things. So now I didn’t want to just go to just the negative side of it because if we’re talking about the Lord’s promises of protection, I think it’s worthwhile to consider how we do qualify for those promises of protection, especially if we are heading into uncertain times and. The best example that I, I, I know of of the Lord’s promises of protection is definitely the city of Enoch, right? They were able to establish Zion, and it’s pretty clear how protected they were. This is, um, we read about it mostly in the Book of Moses, which I happen to love, the Book of Moses. So Moses 7:13 and so great was the faith of Enoch that he led the people of God and their enemies came to battle against. And he spake the word of the Lord, and the earth trembled, and the mountains fled even according to his command, and the rivers of water were turned out of their course, and the row of the roar of lions was heard about the wilderness, and all nations feared greatly. So powerful was the word of Enoch and so great was the power of the language which God had given him. That’s all really interesting. And then
[00:41:21] down to verse 17, the fear. Of the Lord was upon all nations, so great was the glory of the Lord, which was upon His people, and the Lord blessed the land, and they were blessed upon the mountains and upon the high places and did flourish. So the city of Enoch did qualify for the blessings of protection from the Lord, right? They established Zion, and they’re actually the only example that we have. Of where Zion, where the gospel completely fulfilled its purpose, right, where the people were able to establish Zion and then be translated. They were, they were able to overcome death and hell, both spiritual death, separation from God and physical death, right, which is, I believe, the ultimate purpose of the gospel that we’ve been given. So they could be brought back into the presence of God to dwell with God eternally and um that’s what that’s what the gospel is actually given to us for to accomplish those purposes. And so if we look at, we can ask what is required to establish Zion and Doctor Covenant’s 105 helps us a lot with that. Verse 5 says, and Zion cannot be built up unless it is by the principles of the law of the celestial kingdom. Otherwise I cannot receive her unto myself. And so we have to ask what are those laws? That’s what I used to think was polygamy, right? The law of consecration and polygamy. I used to think that’s what Doctrine Covenants 1055 was talking about. But as I have researched it more and looked into it, it’s just. I can’t even believe I used to believe that. I can’t understand why I used to believe that. So let’s read all of Dr. Covenant’s 5. I’m 105 verses 3 through 6. It gives us a little more. But behold, they have not learned to be obedient to the things which I require at their hands but are full of all manner of evil and do not impart. So here’s the, here’s the first clue, right, and do not impart of their substance as becometh saints to the poor and afflicted among them. And are not, so that’s the first thing, and they’re not united according to the union required by the law of the celestial kingdom. That’s the part that I used to think somehow hinted at polygamy, but as I read it now, there’s nothing at all to support that throughout all of Scripture. I think it’s a restatement of the Lord saying if you are not one, you are not mine, right? You need to be united in this way. Um, and then it goes on to say, and Zion cannot be built up unless it is by the principles of the law of the celestial kingdom, otherwise I cannot receive her unto myself, and my people must be chastened until they learn obedience if it must needs be by the things which they suffer, right? So there again is. The Lord explaining to us chastisement and chastening. And I think it’s interesting because these leaders, like, we’ll just take Warren Jeff for an example, right? Telling this, telling their people, we are going to be, you know, the promises of Zion are going to be fulfilled. And every time they weren’t, he would blame the people, their lack of faith, their lack of, right? He’d always blame them.
[00:44:15] And yet what he was doing was so appalling, right, but he never took responsibility and even those members of the FLDS who consider him a prophet still just have blinders on and will not look at what George Warne Jess was actually doing. I’m not talking just about the. Underage marriages, although that was a big thing. If you watch the Netflix series and there’s a lot more information you can get on what a really bad guy he was, right? And yet using these promises to control the people. We need to We need to wake up to this because people are still believing it. And so, um, so Doctrine Covenants 105, I think really clear clearly specifies what the laws of Zion are, and it’s that we are united, that we love one another, and that we take care of one another, right? We impart of our substance as we become a saints. To the poor among us, the poor and afflicted. Now this principle that that is what Zion is built up on is confirmed in every book of Scripture, so confirmed in Moses 7:18, and the Lord called His people Zion because they were of one heart and one mind and dwelt in righteousness, and there was no poor among them. Confirmed again in 4th Nephi 13. And they had all things common among them. Therefore, they were, there were not rich and poor, bond and free, but they were all made free and partakers of the heavenly gift. Wright confirmed again in Acts 4:32, and the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul. Neither said any of them that um that aught of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had all things common. The theme is universal. It was about their care for one another, their love of people more than their love of their possessions, right? And I think, I think it’s easy for people to hear these scriptures and interpret them again in sort of a Marxist lens of the principles of socialism, and I strongly, strongly disagree with that. I think that this principle is. Well, the problems with Marxism, right, is that the poor are also greedy. They want what the rich have and they want everyone’s, everyone is focused on possessions, and the principle here is that Nobody’s focused on possessions. Everybody contributes. We don’t have the habits that lead to poverty. We don’t have the greed and selfishness either with the rich or the poor. We just have people loving God and loving their fellow men far more than they love their possessions. And so I think that that’s the best lesson we can take from it is that we strive to. View all that we have as actually belonging to God and that we just constantly seek inspiration from the Lord as to how he would have us use use what we have been entrusted with to bless, to bless his children and to build up his kingdom. I think that that’s the best lesson we can take rather than I, I, I don’t know. I personally hope that none of us read those scriptures thinking, oh, hey, Marxism, socialism, nope, quite the opposite. Um, Marxism and socialism are built upon hate, greed, and envy, and the love of things. This is complete,
[00:47:24] the complete inversion of that, right? And so, um. Anyway, I think it is important though to recognize that there is zero evidence anywhere to support the idea that polygamy is a divine law that will help us establish Zion. I think it’s exactly the opposite. So just looking a little bit more into the city of Enoch. Um, when Enichus called, he’s told it’s, let’s see, um, it’s because the people, this is Moses 6:28, have not kept the commandments which I gave to their father Adam. So I looked to see, OK, what were those commandments given to Adam specifically in the book of Moses because that’s where this is taken from. And so in Moses 2:28, they were commanded to offer sacrifice. Oh no, they were commanded to multiply and replenish in Moses 228. They were commanded to offer sacrifice in Moses 5:5, and Um, let’s see. Oh, and then in Moses 7:33, it gives us more clarification, and unto thy brethren have I said and also given commandment that they should love one another and that they should choose me, their father. But behold, they were without affection and they hate their own blood. I think this is so fascinating that that’s the commandment. That they should love one another. So from the beginning, God commanded the people to love and serve God, offer sacrifices and to love one another, which is exactly what Jesus told us is all the law and the prophets, right? They all hang on that. It’s the ultimate essence of every commandment we have. Build upon these two original commandments to love God and to love our fellow men, and those are the principles of Zion. There is nothing about polygamy, but there is the opposite because we’ll look at the other commandments given to Adam, right? Moses 3:21 through 24, and I, the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam. And he slept, and I took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh in the stead thereof. Now recognize Moses, the book of Moses was the new Bible given to us, the, the Joseph Smith Bible, right, when he was working on the Bible. This was the further revelation he got to bring us more clarification into these stories. Joseph Smith had plenty of opportunity to add anything about plural wives if he felt so inclined. This is what he wrote instead. There was one rib, right, and the rib which I, the Lord God, had taken from man made I a woman and brought her into the man. And Adam said, This I now know, this I now know now is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. Therefore, shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh, and as the savior clarifies they twain, they too shall be one flesh, it could not be more clear that God commanded Adam in the establishment of marriage, and it was one man and one woman from the very beginning, and the only way we can pretend that that is different is to completely ignore. the actual word of God, the actual scriptures, to rest them and pretend they say the opposite of what they actually say. We have to rest every book of scripture the Old Testament,
[00:50:39] the New Testament, the Book of Mormon, the doctrine and covenants, and even the Pearl of Great Price, which is what Joseph revealed himself as clarification from his translation of the Bible that like there is no way to claim, there is no way to claim that. That polygamy is part of God’s law. I, I just, more and more, I can’t, I can’t see how we fall for that. Our eyes are so darkened. So I think it’s so important to recognize that if we continue to believe in polygamy, we are, well, if we live polygamy, we are breaking God’s foundational commandment. It is um it is repeatedly condemned and forbidden in every, uh, like in the Book of Mormon, and, and then also I know that I am not including Doctrine Covenants 132 because that please read the, I mean, listen to, I think it’s episode 7, the emergence of 132 to see some of the problems there. And to see if we should really use Doctor Katz 132 to override and undermine all the rest of scripture, including the things that were revealed by Joseph Smith, right, including the the pearl of Great Price. And so I think that this is important because we can see the pattern, right? We can plainly see the pattern of being scattered and smitten and chastised if we cling to this belief, right? Believing in polygamy leaves us open to All kinds of deceptions we, as I said before, are resting the scriptures, are ignoring the word of God, coming under the condemnations both given to us, both in the Book of Mormon and in the doctrine and covenants, and we’re depriving ourselves of the possibility of divine protection or the true establishment of Zion. I think it is so important we’re going to go into this a little bit further in another episode to talk about how actually polygamy is in direct contrast to the laws of Zion. So that will be another episode that I think that I think that you’ll enjoy later on. But so I also wanted to talk a little bit about what divine protection actually means and that it does not mean. Ease or lack of trials or the end of sorrow, it doesn’t mean that at all. I was going to share some things that I have learned, but again that will also have to wait for a future episode. So I’m going to leave this here right now, and I ask that each of you please share this with people that you think are concerned about things that may be coming in at at these times and people who are concerned about. qualifying for the Lord’s protection and um I think that it’s so important for us to realize that. There are things we can do to qualify for protection, and there also are things that we have done and continue to do that make it so that we cannot hope for those blessings. So again, thank you so much for joining us. I am Michelle Stone, and this is 132 Problems.
