polygamy (church, Commandment, Lord, Mormon)

[Aqualung]

Why was it allowed in the early Joseph Smith days of the church?

[SoyLeche]

Originally Posted by Aqualung

Why was it allowed in the early Joseph Smith days of the church?

Because the Lord said so.

I can go into reasons that I personally think may have been why, but it is all speculation.

1. More women around then men in a situation in which they would need to be provided for / protected.

2. Raise up children.

[YmirGF]

More eager little Mormon mouths to feed. Sublime as it is simple.

[SoyLeche]

Originally Posted by YmirGF

More eager little Mormon mouths to feed. Sublime as it is simple.

I think in many ways it saved the church. It is rather simple.

[Buttons*]

Much in the same way the early Jews practiced polygamy?

[Bishka]

I think it was also to see if the Saints would follow a commandment, the Lord wanted obdience, so I think that's why.

[jonny]

I don't know, but I started reading the new bio on Joseph Smith (Rough Stone Rolling) last night, so if I find out anything cool and exciting I'll let you know.

BTW, the intro was great! I can't wait to read the rest of the book.

[Katzpur]

Originally Posted by gnosis_777

Much in the same way the early Jews practiced polygamy?

Pretty much the same, yes. And in both cases, not all men had more than one wife. At the height of the practice among the early Latter-day Saints, perhaps 5% of all men had more than one wife. Second and third marriage, etc. had to be approved by the President of the Church. There were a lot more women than men in the Church at that time. Frontier life for a single woman in those days was far, far more difficult than most people can imagine. Plus, as the Book of Mormon seems to imply, God would authorize the practice only when it was His will that "righteous seed" be raised to Him. Likely, this was His reasoning in Old Testament TImes, as well. You certainly don't see anywhere in the scriptures where God berated Abraham, for instance, for having multiple wives. And judging from the rest of the Old Testament, I suspect God would have made His displeasure pretty clear if He was, in fact, displeased with Abraham.