Joseph’s Lie about Polygamy
History of the Church 6:410-411; “[William Law] has gone to Carthage and swore that I had told him that I was guilty of adultery. This spiritual wifeism! Why, a man dares not speak or wink, for fear of being accused of this….A man asked me whether the commandment was given that a man may have seven wives; and now [William Law] has charged me with adultery….I am innocent of all these charges, and you can bear witness of my innocence, for you know me yourselves…What a thing it is for a man to be accused of committing adultery, and having seven wives, when I can only find one. I am the same man, and as innocent as I was fourteen years ago; and I can prove them all perjurers.”
Deuteronomy 17:17; “Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.”
Poor Joseph – it’s always someone else’s fault or someone’s lies that cause such persecution for him and the Saints…
The truth is that Smith propositioned Wm. Law’s wife and she told on him. Because Joseph wouldn’t own up to his unabashed need for sex with other men’s wives Mr. Law exposed him for what he was – a charlatan.
The Nauvoo Expositor published their first edition when Smith retaliated. As mayor of Nauvoo he ordered the printing press to be destroyed and that’s exactly what happened. The Church’s cronies dragged the press out to the street and set it ablaze.
At the time Joseph Smith denied he was practicing polygamy he was married to over 50 women – underage girls, sisters, mothers and daughters, married women, pregnant married women and even his own “adopted” daughters made up his harem.