1882 Revelation to John Taylor - Quick Question

[_kamenraider]

Question -- what does the phrase "my law" refer to in the above revelation?

I found this explanation in an article by Richard Holzapfel and Christopher Jones:

President Taylor and Wilford Woodruff, President of the Twelve, explained the meaning of the revelation in a meeting held on October 14, just a day after the revelation was received. President Taylor said, “A man obeying a lower Law is not qualified to preside over those who keep a higher Law.” President Woodruff added, “The leading men of Israel who are presiding over Stakes will have to obey the Law of Abraham or they will have to Stop.”[57]

[57] Woodruff Journal, October 14, 1882; as cited in Kenney, Wilford Woodruff’s Journal, 8:126.

--see Richard Neitzel Holzapfel and Christopher C. Jones, “‘John the Revelator’: The Written Revelations of John Taylor,” in Champion of Liberty: John Taylor, ed. Mary Jane Woodger (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2009), pgs. 273–308.

Any other ideas about this?

[_beefcalf]

Completely guessing at this, but the first thing which comes to mind is polygamy.

My understanding is that at that time, apostles and other GA's were essentially required to practice polygamy. Not practicing polygamy was something which called your loyalty into question.

Open to other ideas, however.

[_kamenraider]

Here is the full text of the revelation:

Revelation Given Through President John Taylor at Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, October 13, 1882

Thus saith the Lord to the Twelve, and to the Priesthood and people of my Church: Let my servants George Teasdale and Heber J. Grant be appointed to fill the vacancies in the Twelve, that you may be fully organized and prepared for the labors devolving upon you, for you have a great work to perform; and then proceed to fill up the presiding quorum of Seventies, and assist in organizing that body of my priesthood who are your co-laborers in the ministry. You may appoint Seymour B. Young to fill up the vacancy in the presiding quorum of Seventies, if he will conform to my law; for it is not meet that men who will not abide my law shall preside over my priesthood; and then proceed forthwith and call to your aid any assistance that you may require from among the Seventies to assist you in your labors in introducing and maintaining the gospel among the Lamanites throughout the land. And then let High Priests be selected, under the direction of the First Presidency, to preside over the various organizations that shall exist among this people; that those who receive the Gospel may be taught in the doctrines of my church and in the ordinances and laws thereof, and also in the things pertaining to my Zion and my Kingdom, saith the Lord, that they may be one with you in my Church and my Kingdom.

Let the Presidency of my Church be one in all things; and let the Twelve also be one in all things; and let them all be one with me as I am one with the Father.
And let the High Priests organize themselves, and purify themselves, and prepare themselves for this labor, and for all other labors that they may be called upon to fulfill.

And let the Presidents of the Stakes also purify themselves, and the priesthood and people of the Stakes over which they preside, and organize the priesthood in their various stakes according to my law, in all the various departments thereof, in the High Councils, in the Elders' quorums, and in the Bishops and their councils, and in the quorums of Priests, Teachers, and Deacons, that every quorum may be fully organized according to the order of My Church; and, then let them inquire into the standing and fellowship of all that hold my Holy Priesthood in their several stakes; and if they find those that are unworthy let them remove them, except they repent; for My Priesthood, whom I have called and whom I have sustained and honored, shall honor Me and obey My laws, and the laws of My Holy Priesthood, or they shall not be considered worthy to hold My Priesthood, saith the Lord. And let My Priesthood humble themselves before me, and seek not their own will but my will; for if my priesthood, whom I have chosen and called, and endowed with the spirit and gifts of their several callings, and with the powers thereof, do not acknowledge me I will not acknowledge them, saith the Lord; for I will be honored and obeyed by my priesthood.

And, then, I call upon My Priesthood and upon all of my people, to repent of all their sins and shortcomings, of their covetousness and pride and self-will, and of all their iniquities wherein they sin against me; and to seek with all humility to fulfill my law, as my priesthood, my Saints and my people; and I call upon the heads of families to put their houses in order according to the Law of God, and attend to the various duties and responsibilities associated therewith, and to purify themselves before me, and to purge out iniquity from their households. And I will bless and be with you, saith the Lord, and ye shall gather together in your holy places wherein ye assemble to call upon me, and ye shall ask for such things as are right, and I will hear your prayers and my spirit and power shall be with you and my blessings shall rest upon you, upon your families, your dwellings and your households, upon your flocks and herds and fields, your orchards and vineyards, and upon all that pertains to you; and you shall be my people and I will be your God; and your enemies shall not have dominion over you, for I will preserve you and confound them, saith the Lord, and they shall not have power nor dominion over you; for my words shall go forth, and my work shall be accomplished, and my Zion shall be established, and my rule and my power and my dominion shall prevail among my people, and all nations shall yet acknowledge Me. Even so, Amen.
--The Gospel Kingdom: Selections From the Writings and Discourses of John Taylor, ed. by G. Homer Durham, SLC: Bookcraft 1987, pg. 390.

In Messages of the First Presidency, Vol. 2, we read:

B. H. Roberts says (CHC 6:105) that President John Taylor submitted this
revelation to the Twelve Apostles and that it was accepted by them and that
afterwards it was also submitted for a vote of the presidents of stakes, the
First Council of Seventy, and others and accepted by them.
--Messages of the First Presidency Vol. 2, ed. by James R. Clark, SLC: Bookcraft 1965, pg. 347.

Holzapfel and Jones, in their article cited above, also have this to say regarding this revelation being included in the Doctrine and Covenants:

The two revelations, dated October 13, 1882, and April 14, 1883, published in English, were eventually included in the 1888 Swedish edition of the Doctrine and Covenants as sections 137 and 138 respectively. Over the course of the next forty years, these documents—the October 13, 1882, and the revelation and the instructions regarding the Seventies, dated April 14, 1883—were also printed in other European editions of the book, including three German editions (1893, 1903, and 1920), a Danish edition (1900), and a 1928 Swedish edition (this edition omitted the April 14, 1883, revelation but included the instructions to the Seventies and the October 13, 1882, revelation); See L. R. Jacobs, Mormon Non-English Scriptures, Hymnals, and Periodicals 1830–1986 (Ithaca, NY: L. R. Jacobs, 1986).

[_kamenraider]

I think you're right, beefcalf.

Since there hasn't been much response to this thread, let me get to the points I meant to make:

1. The Lord, in this revelation, refers to plural marriage (much the same way as He does in D&C 132) as "my law" and as a law of the priesthood that is required to be lived in order to be worthy of holding the priesthood and being in a presiding position in it.

2. This revelation was voted on by the Twelve, the Seventies, Stake Presidents, etc., and accepted as the word of the Lord. It was added to certain editions of the Doctrine and Covenants as Section 137 and can therefore be considered authentically canonical and scriptural.

3. In this revelation, the Lord urges certain priesthood leaders to break the law of the land by taking plural wives, and this is 20 years after the Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act, three years after it was declared constitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in the Reynolds v. United States decision in 1879, and only a few months after the Edmunds Act, which increased punishments for convicted polygamists. The Lord seems to have rejected and disregarded the Supreme Court decision regarding the constitutionality of the laws against plural marriage, to the point of requiring his priesthood leaders to break them, thus following the principle He set forth in D&C 98:6-7 that any law that is not constitutional cometh of evil.

4. This raises the question of whether this revelation is still canonical/scriptural and whether the principles taught in it still apply to priesthood holders today.

[_daheshism]

The last "Thus saith the LORD" Revelation received by any LDS President was to Wilford Woodruf in 1889 (one year before the Manifesto), and basically the "Lord" in that Revelation reiterated that the law of plural marriage was eternal and had to be practiced no matter what.

One year later, the U.S. government threatened to confescate the personal property of all Mormons practicing plural marriage (i.e. all leaders and "vip" members). That is when Woodruff wrote the Manifesto.

Woodruff had NO INTENTION of giving up Plural Marriage via the Manifesto. It was just "double talk". He appointed George Q. Cannon to continue to arrange plural marriages, but these sealings were to take place OUTSIDE the territory of Utah. This way, Woodruff could "honesty" testify in court: "There are no plural marriages being performed in this Terrority to my knowledge". That was "true" since he told Cannon to arrange them and NOT TELL HIM about the sealings.

Cannon of course continued to arrange plural marriages both inside and outside the Territory of Utah. Plural marriages were greatly reduced, but they continued secretly.

Joseph F. Smith delivered the "Second Manifesto" in 1904 (14 years later), which STILL did not halt all approved plural marriages; which continued APPROVED in Mexico and in ships in international waters.

It was Heber J. Grant who effectively stopped ALL plural marriages in the Church internationally.