Posted by:
William Law
(
)
Date: October 23, 2014 02:07PM
If you are new here, or searching for information on Joseph Smith's practice of polygamy, I present you with a modern translation of D&C 132. I whip this out about once a year for newbies searching for real church history. With the essay on Joseph Smith's polygamy, the timing is perfect to get this back out there. You can read it below.
Personal note on the translation: Why would I feel a need to translate something that is under 200 years old? Simply, because the church and Joseph Smith are good at hiding the full impact of meaning behind passive, ambiguous language--we don't get the full message. Scripture should be clear on what it is saying.
D&C 132 Modern Translation:
1. Joseph, you wanted to know how I, God, let a whole bunch of ancient guys have a multiple wives and mistresses.
2. So I, God, will tell you why.
3. Get ready for what I’m going to tell you; because once I tell you this secret then you’ll be required to do it for yourself as well.
4. I’m telling you about a thing I call a “new and everlasting covenant”, and if you don’t do it, then I will send you straight to hell forever.
5. You’ll only be blessed by following what I tell you to do. To receive specific blessings there are specific commandments required.
6. I came up with the “new and everlasting covenant” to have glory, and if you don’t follow it, I’ll send you to hell.
7. Anytime people make a promise, it has to go through Joseph Smith because only he has a special power that I gave to only him. Only one person on the entire earth at a time can have this special power, and only through him can contracts like marriage carry on after dying and coming back to life.
8. God has a house of order, and not a house of confusion.
9. God won’t accept anything not done in his name.
10. God won’t take anything he doesn’t ask for.
11. God wouldn’t tell you this thing if it wasn’t the law of God.
12 You can’t live like God or with God if you don’t do what I say.
13 God doesn’t care who you are, a king or a pope, if you don’t follow my word through Joseph Smith, they will be thrown down and God will not resurrect you.
14 Everything I, God, don’t like will be destroyed.
15 If a man marries a wife they won’t be together when they die if they are married by any other power than the power I give to Joseph Smith.
16 They’ll never get married again in heaven. They will be servants to the far worthier followers of Joseph Smith.
17 These servants didn’t obey me, so they will remain damned forever, serving as angels to those who actually become gods through their obedience.
18 If a man marries a woman and promises that he’ll be with her forever, it’s not true because they weren’t married by Joseph Smith and his power. I won’t let them into my kingdom because I told them what to do and I only reward the obedient.
19 If Joseph Smith, who I gave my power to, marries a man and woman together they will be amongst the first to be resurrected. They will become gods and reign over kingdoms and powers of the universe forever. Then they can commit any sin, except for murdering an innocent person, and they will still become gods. That bond, which Joseph Smith puts on them, is so powerful that even God and his angels can’t break or renege on the promise. This blessing is to have many children throughout all eternity.
20 Then they will be gods, because they live and multiply children forever. They will be above everyone else, and everyone is subordinate to them. They will be gods because they have all power and even the mighty angels must obey and serve them.
21 However, if you don’t do this thing I’m about to tell you, I won’t make you an all-powerful god.
22 Receiving this godhood, and having an ever increasing number of children and power over others, is very hard to obtain because I’m very restrictive and demanding about obedience to me. Most people will never receive it because they don’t accept the real me or understand how I really am.
23 But if you accept me as I really am, I’ll give you power to procreate forever and complete power over others. That’s what I’m doing now, and you can do it too.
24 Eternal life is to really know and accept God and Jesus Christ, so obey this thing I tell you that you must do.
25 It’s easy to die when you don’t listen to me or do what I tell you to do.
26 If a man and woman are married by Joseph Smith, they can commit all kinds of sins, even blasphemies. If they don’t murder an innocent person, God will turn their souls over to Satan to punish them until the first part of the resurrection when they will come back to life and be made gods to have all power and be able to procreate forever.
27 If you do this thing and reject it, or speak against it, that is the only unpardonable sin. You will be cast out and be damned forever.
28 I’m God, and I’ll tell you about this law of the Holy Priesthood that’ been in existence longer than the world has existed.
29 Abraham got all his spiritual commandments this same way; by revelation. He has already been made an all powerful god, sitting on a throne just like God’s.
30 Joseph, you’re a direct descendant of the prophet Abraham, and he was given a promise that all his offspring would be like the number of stars in the sky or the sands of the beach—there would be so many of them that you couldn’t possibly count them all.
31 Joseph, God gives you that same promise because Abraham was your ancestor and he promised to obey this same secret teaching. It’s also how God is glorified by men.
32 So, do the same thing Abraham has done, have many wives and children and then you will be made a god as well.
33 If you don’t do it, you won’t be saved and you won’t become a god like Abraham.
34 God told Abraham to do it, so his wife Sarah gave her slave Hagar to him as a second wife. She did it because it was the law. Hagar had many offspring because of that coupling and it helped fulfill the promise from God to Abraham that he would have many descendants.
35 Did Abraham do anything wrong? I say “no” because I’m God, and I’m the one who told him to do it.
36 Abraham was commanded by me to murder his son for my pleasure. Even though it is already commanded somewhere else that, “thou shalt not murder”, Abraham still wanted to do it and I considered it righteousness.
37 Abraham procreated with mistresses and I counted it as righteousness as well, because I gave those mistresses to him to have children with. It was a gift for doing what I told him to do. Isaac, his son, and Jacob, his grandson, did the same thing in taking multiple wives and mistresses. So I allowed them to become gods on thrones like my own, to continue to procreate forever, and have others serve them. They are not angels, they are gods.
38 David, Solomon, Moses, and many other s have had many wives and mistresses. Men have done it since the beginning of the world, but they didn’t sin because I told them to do it.
39 I gave David all his wives and mistresses through Nathan the prophet. Other prophets also had this power. David never sinned having all those wives and mistresses until he murdered Uriah so he could sleep with his wife. David will never become a god because of that one sin.
40 I am the Master your God, and I give to Joseph Smith, Jr. the power to restore all things, including marriage to a multiplicity of wives and mistresses. Ask for anything you like to Joseph Smith, and I will give it to you.
41 Joseph, you have asked me about adultery to understand if you have committed it. If a man takes an additional wife in the “new and everlasting covenant” and she has sexual relationships with another man that I haven’t assigned her to, then that is adultery and she will be destroyed.
42 Even if she hasn’t been initiated into the secret of the “new and everlasting covenant” and she has sex with another man than that is adultery.
43 If her husband vows fidelity to his wife, but has sex with another woman then that is adultery.
44 If she hasn’t had sex with another man, and she knows it, I will tell you, Joseph Smith, the truth of it. They you can take her by the authority of the priesthood and give her to another man who hasn’t committed adultery so that the man can be blessed with many children and rule over them forever.
45 Because I have given you, Joseph Smith, all power and keys of the priesthood to reign over others I will restore every secret thing, like the plurality of wives and mistresses. I will tell you more about it later.
46 Joseph, whatever you bind together on earth will be bound together forever in heaven if you do it in my name. Whatever sin you forgive of people on earth will be recognized as being forgiven in heaven. And whoever you condemn on earth will be condemned by God in heaven.
47 Also, whoever you decided to bless, God will obey and bless them. Whoever you curse, I, God, will curse—this is true because I’m God and I say it.
48 If you, Joseph, want to give a person a gift like an additional wife, than I God will make sure it happens without condemnation in this life or in heaven.
49 I am your personal companion, Joseph Smith, in this life and in heaven for all eternity. In fact, I will promise to make you a god right now, to have eternal procreation with many wives and to have power over others. I will make you a godly throne like Abraham now has.
50 You, Joseph, have sacrificed so much to do what I tell you to do. So, I will forgive every sin you have committed. I will accept you because of your sacrifices like I accepted the sacrifices of Abraham and his son Isaac.
51 Emma Smith, your wife, shall not have extra-marital relationships as I promised to give her before. It was just a test to see if you are willing to sacrifice and let it happen.
52 However, make sure Emma Smith, my servant, accepts all those women and mistresses that I have given to you, Joseph Smith. They are virtuous and pure despite what the world may think. If they aren’t pure, they will be destroyed.
53 I am God, and you will do what I tell you to do. I give Joseph Smith power to rule over many people and many things because he has been faithful over a few things. From here on out, I will make him strong.
54 I command Emma Smith, my servant, to obey, tolerate, and stay with Joseph Smith and no other man. If Emma doesn’t do this, she will be destroyed. I am God who tells her what to do, and if she doesn’t do it, I will personally destroy her!
55 Joseph Smith said he would do anything for Emma, but if she doesn’t follow this thing I command her to do, I will still bless him with one hundred times the number of wives, families, houses, land, children, and many crowns of godhood with eternal procreation on many eternal worlds.
56 I command Emma to forgive Joseph of his wrongdoings, only then will I forgive her, because Emma has wronged me, God, and I will make her happy and a better person.
57 I say that Joseph should hold onto all his property because any enemy might come and destroy him if he doesn’t. Satan seeks to destroy him, but I will guard him as I did Abraham until I can make him an all-powerful god with eternal procreation.
58 To talk a little about the laws of the priesthood, there are many things I could say.
59 Joseph Smith has been called and given the gifts of the keys and powers just like Aaron the brother of Moses. This power is that according to me, Joseph is incapable of sin and whatever he wants to happen I will make sure it happens.
60 I don’t want anyone to say anything bad about Joseph because I will back him up, because he will sacrifice what I ask of him so that he can get rid of his wrongdoing.
61 Also, according to this law of the priesthood, if a man marries a virgin and desires to marry another one, he can have her provided she is a virgin and no other man hasn’t claimed her first. I will back up that man and not consider it a sin, and I will not count it as adultery because I gave the extra wives to him.
62 Even if I give him ten virgins, it’s not adultery and I won’t count it as sin because it falls under the law of the priesthood.
63 However, if any of the ten virgins he marries sleeps with another man, she has committed adultery and will be destroyed because they belong to him so that he can have many children. We, The Gods, promised it to him before the world was created so that he could become a god too and procreate forever and fill many worlds with the souls he fathers. I do this so God’s work of populating worlds can be fulfilled and his children will glorify him.
64 If a man has a wife and he teaches her this secret law of the priesthood, she is commanded to believe it and help him in any way to accomplish it. If she doesn’t, she will be destroyed because I God want it for the man that I might be honored.
65 I’m sure Joseph Smith will follow this new secret law since he follows everything I tell him to do, but if Emma doesn’t follow she will become the wrongdoer since she chooses not to believe it. If she doesn’t accept it, than Joseph isn’t required to have her permission or help to do it.
66 I will tell you more about this secret law later, but for now you know enough to get started. I am God, Alpha and Omega—and I say it’s true. The end.