Lorenzo Snow’s statement after being sentenced to prison for living the Principle

[Luke]

“Respecting the doctrine of plural or celestial marriage to which the prosecution so often referred, it was revealed to me, and afterwards, in 1843, fully explained to me by Joseph Smith, the Prophet.

I married my wives because God commanded it. The ceremony, which united us for time and eternity, was performed by a servant of God, having authority. God being my helper, I would prefer to die a thousand deaths than renounce my wives and violate these sacred obligations.

The Prosecuting Attorney was quite mistaken in saying ‘the defendant Mr. Snow was the most scholarly and brightest light of the Apostles;’ and equally wrong when pleading with the jury to assist him and the ‘United States of America,’ in convicting Apostle Snow, and he ‘would predict that a new revelation would soon follow changing the Divine law of celestial marriage.’

Whatever fame Mr. Bierbower may have secured as a lawyer, he certainly will fail as a prophet. The severest prosecutions have never been followed by revelations changing a divine law, obedience to which brought imprisonment or martyrdom.

Though I go to prison, God will not change His law of celestial marriage.”

(Lorenzo Snow, 19 January 1886, as quoted in Millennial Star, Vol. 48, No. 7, pg. 110-111, 15 February 1886)

[Sarah]

“Respecting the doctrine of plural or celestial marriage to which the prosecution so often referred, it was revealed to me, and afterwards, in 1843, fully explained to me by Joseph Smith, the Prophet.

I married my wives because God commanded it. The ceremony, which united us for time and eternity, was performed by a servant of God, having authority. God being my helper, I would prefer to die a thousand deaths than renounce my wives and violate these sacred obligations.

The Prosecuting Attorney was quite mistaken in saying ‘the defendant Mr. Snow was the most scholarly and brightest light of the Apostles;’ and equally wrong when pleading with the jury to assist him and the ‘United States of America,’ in convicting Apostle Snow, and he ‘would predict that a new revelation would soon follow changing the Divine law of celestial marriage.’

Whatever fame Mr. Bierbower may have secured as a lawyer, he certainly will fail as a prophet. The severest prosecutions have never been followed by revelations changing a divine law, obedience to which brought imprisonment or martyrdom.

Though I go to prison, God will not change His law of celestial marriage.”

(Lorenzo Snow, 19 January 1886, as quoted in Millennial Star, Vol. 48, No. 7, pg. 110-111, 15 February 1886)

And yet Snow went along with Woodruff and became the prophet, and didn't bring back the practice.

God didn't change the divine law, he just told them they better stop living it the way they were living it or they would be destroyed. If it was a divine law that all followers of Christ should live all the time, why didn't the Nephites practice it?

[Luke]

“Respecting the doctrine of plural or celestial marriage to which the prosecution so often referred, it was revealed to me, and afterwards, in 1843, fully explained to me by Joseph Smith, the Prophet.

I married my wives because God commanded it. The ceremony, which united us for time and eternity, was performed by a servant of God, having authority. God being my helper, I would prefer to die a thousand deaths than renounce my wives and violate these sacred obligations.

The Prosecuting Attorney was quite mistaken in saying ‘the defendant Mr. Snow was the most scholarly and brightest light of the Apostles;’ and equally wrong when pleading with the jury to assist him and the ‘United States of America,’ in convicting Apostle Snow, and he ‘would predict that a new revelation would soon follow changing the Divine law of celestial marriage.’

Whatever fame Mr. Bierbower may have secured as a lawyer, he certainly will fail as a prophet. The severest prosecutions have never been followed by revelations changing a divine law, obedience to which brought imprisonment or martyrdom.

Though I go to prison, God will not change His law of celestial marriage.”

(Lorenzo Snow, 19 January 1886, as quoted in Millennial Star, Vol. 48, No. 7, pg. 110-111, 15 February 1886)

And yet Snow went along with Woodruff and became the prophet, and didn't bring back the practice.

God didn't change the divine law, he just told them they better stop living it the way they were living it or they would be destroyed. If it was a divine law that all followers of Christ should live all the time, why didn't the Nephites practice it?

Snow et al. were authorising it in secret. You know that.

God didn’t say any such thing. He said in 1886 that He was never going to change the law. And he didn’t, hence the leaders of the Church were keeping it alive in secret as were Lorin Woolley and others who were given that task.

The Nephites had that privilege taken away from them because of wickedness. I think this has been explained sufficiently before.

[Sarah]

“Respecting the doctrine of plural or celestial marriage to which the prosecution so often referred, it was revealed to me, and afterwards, in 1843, fully explained to me by Joseph Smith, the Prophet.

I married my wives because God commanded it. The ceremony, which united us for time and eternity, was performed by a servant of God, having authority. God being my helper, I would prefer to die a thousand deaths than renounce my wives and violate these sacred obligations.

The Prosecuting Attorney was quite mistaken in saying ‘the defendant Mr. Snow was the most scholarly and brightest light of the Apostles;’ and equally wrong when pleading with the jury to assist him and the ‘United States of America,’ in convicting Apostle Snow, and he ‘would predict that a new revelation would soon follow changing the Divine law of celestial marriage.’

Whatever fame Mr. Bierbower may have secured as a lawyer, he certainly will fail as a prophet. The severest prosecutions have never been followed by revelations changing a divine law, obedience to which brought imprisonment or martyrdom.

Though I go to prison, God will not change His law of celestial marriage.”

(Lorenzo Snow, 19 January 1886, as quoted in Millennial Star, Vol. 48, No. 7, pg. 110-111, 15 February 1886)

And yet Snow went along with Woodruff and became the prophet, and didn't bring back the practice.

God didn't change the divine law, he just told them they better stop living it the way they were living it or they would be destroyed. If it was a divine law that all followers of Christ should live all the time, why didn't the Nephites practice it?

Snow et al. were authorising it in secret. You know that.

God didn’t say any such thing. He said in 1886 that He was never going to change the law. And he didn’t, hence the leaders of the Church were keeping it alive in secret as were Lorin Woolley and others who were given that task.

The Nephites had that privilege taken away from them because of wickedness. I think this has been explained sufficiently before.

The 1886 revelation, even if it's a true revelation which I highly suspect it isn't, doesn't say the privilege will never be taken away. If the privilege could be taken from the Nephites, why couldn't it be taken from the saints?

Any leader or member keeping the practice alive in secret was doing so to their detriment and peril. They were cut off from the temples and ordinances.

[Sarah]

“Respecting the doctrine of plural or celestial marriage to which the prosecution so often referred, it was revealed to me, and afterwards, in 1843, fully explained to me by Joseph Smith, the Prophet.

I married my wives because God commanded it. The ceremony, which united us for time and eternity, was performed by a servant of God, having authority. God being my helper, I would prefer to die a thousand deaths than renounce my wives and violate these sacred obligations.

The Prosecuting Attorney was quite mistaken in saying ‘the defendant Mr. Snow was the most scholarly and brightest light of the Apostles;’ and equally wrong when pleading with the jury to assist him and the ‘United States of America,’ in convicting Apostle Snow, and he ‘would predict that a new revelation would soon follow changing the Divine law of celestial marriage.’

Whatever fame Mr. Bierbower may have secured as a lawyer, he certainly will fail as a prophet. The severest prosecutions have never been followed by revelations changing a divine law, obedience to which brought imprisonment or martyrdom.

Though I go to prison, God will not change His law of celestial marriage.”

(Lorenzo Snow, 19 January 1886, as quoted in Millennial Star, Vol. 48, No. 7, pg. 110-111, 15 February 1886)

And yet Snow went along with Woodruff and became the prophet, and didn't bring back the practice.

God didn't change the divine law, he just told them they better stop living it the way they were living it or they would be destroyed. If it was a divine law that all followers of Christ should live all the time, why didn't the Nephites practice it?

Snow et al. were authorising it in secret. You know that.

God didn’t say any such thing. He said in 1886 that He was never going to change the law. And he didn’t, hence the leaders of the Church were keeping it alive in secret as were Lorin Woolley and others who were given that task.

The Nephites had that privilege taken away from them because of wickedness. I think this has been explained sufficiently before.

And no, I don't know the details about all the secret marriages that were supposedly authorized by Snow. People said a lot of things back then that weren't true, so go ahead and present the evidence.

[ParticleMan]

....
Though I go to prison, God will not change His law of celestial marriage.”

....
God didn't change the divine law, he just told them they better stop living it the way they were living it or they would be destroyed. If it was a divine law that all followers of Christ should live all the time, why didn't the Nephites practice it?

Although it isn't indicated whether the Nephites practiced the law of plural marriage ("celestial marriage" could be monogamous or polygynyous), the Lord left open the possibility. Either way, it's no different now than it was then or in any dispensation, for in every age, according to changing circumstances, are some teachings and practices constant and others not.

Jacob 2:
27 Wherefore, my brethren, hear me, and hearken to the word of the Lord: For there shall not any man among you have save it be one wife; and concubines he shall have none;
....
30 For if I will, saith the Lord of Hosts, raise up seed unto me, I will command my people; otherwise they shall hearken unto these things.

[Luke]

....
Though I go to prison, God will not change His law of celestial marriage.”

....
God didn't change the divine law, he just told them they better stop living it the way they were living it or they would be destroyed. If it was a divine law that all followers of Christ should live all the time, why didn't the Nephites practice it?

Although it isn't indicated whether the Nephites practiced the law of plural marriage ("celestial marriage" could be monogamous or polygynyous), the Lord left open the possibility. Either way, it's no different now than it was then or in any dispensation, for in every age, according to changing circumstances, are some teachings and practices constant and others not.

Jacob 2:
27 Wherefore, my brethren, hear me, and hearken to the word of the Lord: For there shall not any man among you have save it be one wife; and concubines he shall have none;
....
30 For if I will, saith the Lord of Hosts, raise up seed unto me, I will command my people; otherwise they shall hearken unto these things.

“Celestial Marriage” means “Plural Marriage”.

[Luke]

“Respecting the doctrine of plural or celestial marriage to which the prosecution so often referred, it was revealed to me, and afterwards, in 1843, fully explained to me by Joseph Smith, the Prophet.

I married my wives because God commanded it. The ceremony, which united us for time and eternity, was performed by a servant of God, having authority. God being my helper, I would prefer to die a thousand deaths than renounce my wives and violate these sacred obligations.

The Prosecuting Attorney was quite mistaken in saying ‘the defendant Mr. Snow was the most scholarly and brightest light of the Apostles;’ and equally wrong when pleading with the jury to assist him and the ‘United States of America,’ in convicting Apostle Snow, and he ‘would predict that a new revelation would soon follow changing the Divine law of celestial marriage.’

Whatever fame Mr. Bierbower may have secured as a lawyer, he certainly will fail as a prophet. The severest prosecutions have never been followed by revelations changing a divine law, obedience to which brought imprisonment or martyrdom.

Though I go to prison, God will not change His law of celestial marriage.”

(Lorenzo Snow, 19 January 1886, as quoted in Millennial Star, Vol. 48, No. 7, pg. 110-111, 15 February 1886)

And yet Snow went along with Woodruff and became the prophet, and didn't bring back the practice.

God didn't change the divine law, he just told them they better stop living it the way they were living it or they would be destroyed. If it was a divine law that all followers of Christ should live all the time, why didn't the Nephites practice it?

Snow et al. were authorising it in secret. You know that.

God didn’t say any such thing. He said in 1886 that He was never going to change the law. And he didn’t, hence the leaders of the Church were keeping it alive in secret as were Lorin Woolley and others who were given that task.

The Nephites had that privilege taken away from them because of wickedness. I think this has been explained sufficiently before.

The 1886 revelation, even if it's a true revelation which I highly suspect it isn't, doesn't say the privilege will never be taken away. If the privilege could be taken from the Nephites, why couldn't it be taken from the saints?

Any leader or member keeping the practice alive in secret was doing so to their detriment and peril. They were cut off from the temples and ordinances.

Your denials of the 1886 Revelation, to me, are mind blowing. It’s simply a fact that John Taylor had this revelation. It’s in his handwriting.

John W. Taylor spoke of it multiple times in the 1890s. Joseph Fielding Smith had a copy made and filed in the Church Archives. B. H. Roberts and Spencer W. Kimball both admitted of its truthfulness. In the 1980s, the Church Historical Department came out and said it was authentic. To top it off, we have the statements of John Woolley, Lorin Woolley, Samuel Bateman and Daniel Bateman, who were there when it was given!

Reading D. Michael Quinn’s Dialogue article on the leaders perpetuating the Principle after the Manifesto is a good start.

[Firecat]

“Respecting the doctrine of plural or celestial marriage to which the prosecution so often referred, it was revealed to me, and afterwards, in 1843, fully explained to me by Joseph Smith, the Prophet.

I married my wives because God commanded it. The ceremony, which united us for time and eternity, was performed by a servant of God, having authority. God being my helper, I would prefer to die a thousand deaths than renounce my wives and violate these sacred obligations.

The Prosecuting Attorney was quite mistaken in saying ‘the defendant Mr. Snow was the most scholarly and brightest light of the Apostles;’ and equally wrong when pleading with the jury to assist him and the ‘United States of America,’ in convicting Apostle Snow, and he ‘would predict that a new revelation would soon follow changing the Divine law of celestial marriage.’

Whatever fame Mr. Bierbower may have secured as a lawyer, he certainly will fail as a prophet. The severest prosecutions have never been followed by revelations changing a divine law, obedience to which brought imprisonment or martyrdom.

Though I go to prison, God will not change His law of celestial marriage.”

(Lorenzo Snow, 19 January 1886, as quoted in Millennial Star, Vol. 48, No. 7, pg. 110-111, 15 February 1886)

And yet Snow went along with Woodruff and became the prophet, and didn't bring back the practice.

God didn't change the divine law, he just told them they better stop living it the way they were living it or they would be destroyed. If it was a divine law that all followers of Christ should live all the time, why didn't the Nephites practice it?

Sarah, I have seen you raise this argument on this thread and multiple others sharing the same theme. While I have no opinion one way or the other on this topic there is a point I would like to offer in response to your position. Firstly, for the sake of clarity, you ask why Lehi or the Nephites were not commanded to practice plural marriage? The answer is simply that Lehi and in direct relation the Nephite people were not commanded to establish or build Zion. The celestial law of marriage was not instituted until after the saints were commanded to establish and build Zion. Plural Marriage is a Zion Principle and practice. It is called the "Celestial Law" of marriage for a defining purpose and that is to associate it with a current societal condition of righteousness.

[Sarah]

And yet Snow went along with Woodruff and became the prophet, and didn't bring back the practice.

God didn't change the divine law, he just told them they better stop living it the way they were living it or they would be destroyed. If it was a divine law that all followers of Christ should live all the time, why didn't the Nephites practice it?

Snow et al. were authorising it in secret. You know that.

God didn’t say any such thing. He said in 1886 that He was never going to change the law. And he didn’t, hence the leaders of the Church were keeping it alive in secret as were Lorin Woolley and others who were given that task.

The Nephites had that privilege taken away from them because of wickedness. I think this has been explained sufficiently before.

The 1886 revelation, even if it's a true revelation which I highly suspect it isn't, doesn't say the privilege will never be taken away. If the privilege could be taken from the Nephites, why couldn't it be taken from the saints?

Any leader or member keeping the practice alive in secret was doing so to their detriment and peril. They were cut off from the temples and ordinances.

Your denials of the 1886 Revelation, to me, are mind blowing. It’s simply a fact that John Taylor had this revelation. It’s in his handwriting.

John W. Taylor spoke of it multiple times in the 1890s. Joseph Fielding Smith had a copy made and filed in the Church Archives. B. H. Roberts and Spencer W. Kimball both admitted of its truthfulness. In the 1980s, the Church Historical Department came out and said it was authentic. To top it off, we have the statements of John Woolley, Lorin Woolley, Samuel Bateman and Daniel Bateman, who were there when it was given!

Reading D. Michael Quinn’s Dialogue article on the leaders perpetuating the Principle after the Manifesto is a good start.

My doubts are highly logical. Other leaders saying it was authentic is different than them saying it was from God. John W said he found the revelation in his father's desk after his father passed, yet no one else had heard of it, nor did John W present it to anyone. And who else could forge someone's handwriting better than a son?

I am still open to it being a true revelation given to JT, but I think it was interpreted incorrectly:

There's the part where the Lord says that it is pleasing that men have their free agency in these matters? John W interpreted it to mean that you didn't need permission from one holding the keys to enter into these marriages. What does the Lord mean by that phrase? If it's a true revelation, I would say that it means he allows men to take more wives if he permits this power on the earth, because he wants them to use their agency to learn good from evil and learn from their mistakes. But that doesn't mean he can't take the power and privilege way:

"My son John, you have asked me concerning the New and Everlasting Covenant how far it is binding upon my people.

Thus saith the Lord: All commandments that I give must be obeyed by those calling themselves by my name unless they are revoked by me or by my authority, and how can I revoke an everlasting covenant, for I the Lord am everlasting and my everlasting covenants cannot be abrogated nor done away with, but they stand forever.

Have I not given my word in great plainness on this subject? Yet have not great numbers of my people been negligent in the observance of my law and the keeping of my commandments, and yet have I borne with them these many years; and this because of their weakness—because of the perilous times, and furthermore, it is more pleasing to me that men should use their free agency in regard to these matters. Nevertheless, I the Lord do not change and my word and my covenants and my law do not, and as I have heretofore said by my servant Joseph: All those who would enter into my glory must and shall obey my law. And have I not commanded men that if they were Abraham’s seed and would enter into my glory, they must do the works of Abraham. I have not revoked this law, nor will I, for it is everlasting, and those who will enter into my glory must obey the conditions thereof; even so, Amen.[14]"

The Lord is not afraid of giving false impressions, knowing his children will interpret his words incorrectly.

The New and Everlasting Covenant is the covenant of all the ordinances of the gospel done in his name and his authority, not simply plural marriage. The Lord has revealed laws, and he's given commandments. He states clearly here that commandments can be revoked, and laws cannot be revoked, because they are eternal laws. What you're saying is that the Nephites were commanded not to take multiple wives because the commandment was revoked. And that is what this revelation is saying, that a commandment can be revoked, therefore, this revelation is being grossly misinterpreted by all who think it means that the Lord will never revoke the command to take multiple wives. The Lord says he is not going to revoke the Law, because Law is eternal and commandments are not.