We chose this week to postpone Sophie’s follow-up post until next week due to the anniversary date of a significant event we’d like to share with you.
Today is a somewhat special day in Mormon Fundamentalism. Today is 132 years since an event that is known among our fellow Fundamentalists as the 1886 revelation. I’ll include the text of it below. It was a revelation written, it seems, in the hand of John Taylor, the third president of the LDS church.
To sum it up, God has made His will concerning the New and Everlasting Covenant known. It’s an eternal law. He’s made His will plain on the matter. His people have been negligent and He has been patient with them. It’s more pleasing to Him for his children to use their agency in this matter. If we hope to receive the blessings of Abraham, we have to do the works of Abraham. He has not revoked this law and will not. It’s an eternal law.
This isn’t going to be an attempt by us to argue point by point the merits of this revelation. The validity of this revelation has been hotly debated for a century now. John W. Taylor, the son of John Taylor, claimed that he found it in his father’s papers when he was wrapping up the affairs of the estate after President Taylor’s passing away. It appears to be written in John Taylor’s handwriting. It has been circulated, cited, and believed in by Mormon Fundamentalists for over a century. Of course, active and faithful members of the LDS Church won’t assign any sort of validity or doctrinal importance to the revelation as it was never presented to the church for a sustaining vote.
Our belief on this is that it was a revelation received while John Taylor was in hiding. John Taylor passed away in hiding. His successor, Wilford Woodruff, signed what became known as the First Manifesto and ended the Church’s public support for plural marriage. In the climate of the time, it’s very unlikely that a revelation like the 1886 Revelation would have been presented to the Church. God would have seemed to have a mercurial disposition, indeed, if following a declaration that plural marriage was ending, a revelation was sustained in which God said it would never end.
Another common argument against the 1886 Revelation is that it doesn’t mention plural marriage implicitly in the text of the revelation. It does mention the New and Everlasting Covenant, however. There’s been a lot of debate as well over what this term actually encompasses. Modern members of the LDS Church teach and believe that the New and Everlasting Covenant (also known as Celestial Marriage) may be plural marriage when God commands it, but is monogamous marriage as a standard. This doesn’t seem to quite square up with us, however, as the terms “New and Everlasting Covenant” and “Celestial Marriage” in the early days of restoration were euphemisms for plural marriage.
John Taylor said in the Deseret News on the 23rd of April 1885:
“What would be necessary to bring about the results nearest the hearts of the opponents of Mormonism? Simply to renounce, abrogate, or apostatize from the New and Everlasting Covenant of marriage in its fullness. Were the Church to do that as an entirety, God would reject the saints as a body.”
If plural marriage wasn’t a vital component of the New and Everlasting Covenant, why would renouncing it be such a drastic violation of God’s will as to cause him to reject the saints? I’m not looking for an answer. I do believe that this bears some thought.
On October of 1884, John Taylor stated that:
“God has given us a revelation in regard to Celestial Marriage. I did not make it. He has told us certain things pertaining to this matter, and they would like us to tone that principle down and change it and make it applicable to the views of the day. This we cannot do; nor can we interfere with any of the commands of God to meet the persuasions or behests of men. I cannot do it, and will not do it.”
Several people later testified of an experience with John Taylor on the night prior to the occurrence of the 1886 Revelation. According to the narrative, President Taylor had been receiving a large amount of correspondence while in hiding from various leaders in the Church with requests and even demands for him to act in some fashion to end the practice of plural marriage to find some relief from the persecution that was being heaped upon them. At this time, a document resembling what would later become the First Manifesto was purportedly presented to President Taylor and an urgent request was made that he sign it. President Taylor’s response was “Sign that document? Never! I would suffer my right arm to be severed from my body. Sanction that document? Never! I would rather my tongue to be torn from its roots.” This group of people later testified that under the direction of John Taylor, they covenanted to see that “not a year should pass without plural marriages being performed and children born under the covenant.” This was the beginning of what would later be called the Mormon Fundamentalist movement.
If plural marriage wasn’t such a vital component of the New and Everlasting Covenant, why wouldn’t they just remove it before the persecution even became this bad? Why would they let it get so bad that men and women would choose persecution, imprisonment, even potentially death rather than sacrificing such an unimportant tenet of their faith? I sincerely can’t answer for anyone else. You are welcome to believe what you want. Our belief is that they wouldn’t sacrifice it because it was the New and Everlasting Covenant. If anything, monogamy was just a part of the covenant, the initial step, rather than plural marriage just being a facet of it. Our belief is that God, knowing what the eventual outcome would be when his saints had born all of the persecution they could bear, provided a way for those willing to accept his law and abide by it to receive the fullness of blessings pertaining to this covenant. He gave us our agency to choose this life, to choose this covenant, and to strive to become more like Him.
Wilford Woodruff presented the statement that is now known as the Manifesto (included in the Church’s current Doctrine and Covenants) in 1890, which marked the beginning of the Church’s exodus away from the doctrine of plural marriage. Plural marriages continued to happen with the sanction of leaders of the Church until 1904, when a second manifesto was issued and excommunication became the price to pay for choosing to live in obedience to the fullness of God’s restored gospel.
In presenting this information, our hope isn’t to ignite a religious debate. I could share quotes all day and active members of the LDS Church could share quotes back that are in opposition to my position. As with any religious belief, contradictions and counterarguments can be found. We won’t pretend that they don’t exist. They’re easily found out there if any of you choose to seek them out. We’ve studied and read our fair share of them. As with all religious belief, at some point in time an exercise in faith is required. Our hope in sharing these things is to present, in extremely simple terms, the foundation of our faith as Mormon Fundamentalists. We understand that the term “Mormon Fundamentalist” is such a loaded term in today’s religious world. There are so many groups and so many individuals that identify as such. Some of those groups and individuals have been so stained by sin and corruption that it is absolutely appalling. Others go about their lives and do the best they can to raise their families in peace and harmony with what they believe is the revealed will of the Lord. We hope to always condemn the former and always support the latter.
So on this day, whether you are a Latter Day Saint and believe that everything we’ve said here is completely false, or you are a Mormon Fundamentalist and agree with some or all of it, or none of it as the case may be, or if you aren’t any of the above and agree or disagree with us, we are still choosing to share this with you.
We didn’t choose this lifestyle because it was of popular opinion, or because it lacked controversy. We chose it because we knew it to be right for us. We recognize everyone has their own paths in life. Everyone has their own opinions as well, and we welcome others to do the same as we have, by embracing their path, and realizing that it’s okay to have differing beliefs.
We hope you have a great week, and join us next week, when we follow up with Sophie.
1886 Revelation text:
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- 1886 Revelation
- Given to President John Taylor September 27, 1886
- My son John, you have asked me concerning the New and Everlasting Covenant how far it is binding upon my people.
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- 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.
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- 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.