1) Source/link?Pazooka wrote: ↑July 19th, 2022, 10:19 amIn answer to your last question we have this:iWriteStuff wrote: ↑July 19th, 2022, 6:42 am Hi all,
Been thinking about this a little lately... There are tons of stories out there about Joseph's claim that an angel with a drawn sword essentially forced him into polygamy (source: https://docslib.org/angel-with-a-drawn-sword).
For one, that seems a little too convenient.
For another, did he even bother trying to shake hands with the angel first? Per D&C 129:
4 When a messenger comes saying he has a message from God, offer him your hand and request him to shake hands with you.
5 If he be an angel he will do so, and you will feel his hand.
6 If he be the spirit of a just man made perfect he will come in his glory; for that is the only way he can appear—
7 Ask him to shake hands with you, but he will not move, because it is contrary to the order of heaven for a just man to deceive; but he will still deliver his message.
8 If it be the devil as an angel of light, when you ask him to shake hands he will offer you his hand, and you will not feel anything; you may therefore detect him.
Is it possible he got a message from the devil and just took it for fact that it came from God?
Excerpt from ‘The Testimony of Mary Elizabeth Rollins Lightner’, (Mary, 23, was married to Adam Lightner at the time Joseph took her as a plural wife):
“I know whereon I stand, I know what I believe, I know what I know and I know what I testify to you is the living truth. As I expect to meet it at the bar of the eternal Jehovah, it is true. And when you stand before the bar you will know. He preached polygamy and he not only preached it, but he practiced it. I am a living witness to it. It was given to him before he gave it to the Church. An angel came to him and the last time he came with a drawn sword in his hand and told Joseph if he did not go into that principle, he would slay him.
…”Well,” said I, “don’t you think it was an angel of the devil that told you these things?” Said he, “No, it was an angel of God. God Almighty showed me the difference between an angel of light and Satan’s angels. The angel came to me three times between the years of 1834 and 1842 and said I was to obey that principle or he would slay me.
2) God commanded Joseph to take someone else's wife?
3) Again, God commands Joseph to take already married women and teenage brides under threat of death?
4) Did Joseph shake the angel's hand or not?
By way of commentary: yuck.