Critics of the Church argue that because Joseph Smith practiced plural marriage, he could not have been a prophet. That conclusion depends on modern assumptions about what “marriage” is and how it works.

The Assumptions Behind the Criticism

Assumption 1: Polygamy Is Never Ordained of God

This assumption starts by deciding in advance that polygamy is always evil and therefore could never come from God. Once that conclusion is fixed, every historical source is read through that lens.

The problem is that the Bible itself includes prophets and covenant leaders who practiced polygamy, including Abraham, Jacob, Moses, David, and Solomon. Whatever a modern reader thinks of the practice, scripture does not treat plural marriage by itself as proof that someone cannot be a prophet.

Latter-day Saints believe Joseph Smith practiced plural marriage because he believed God commanded it for a limited time, not because he invented it for personal reasons. The Church’s own historical summaries state that Joseph received a commandment and slowly and cautiously introduced the practice.

Assumption 2: Joseph Smith’s Sealings Were Basically the Same as Marriage Today

This is one of the biggest category errors in the discussion. Joseph Smith’s Nauvoo-era sealings do not look like modern marriage, and they also do not look like the plural household system that developed later in Utah.

Many sealings were understood as covenant connections for eternity, not as marriages for daily life. Joseph did not establish publicly recognized plural households, and most of these relationships were kept secret, which is why the documentation is limited.

JosephSmithsPolygamy.org shows the first hand sources that many sealings, especially those involving “teenage girls” and women who were already legally married, were for eternity-only. In other words, they were not marriages for this life in the way people usually mean when they use the word “marriage.”

Assumption 3: Joseph Smith Practiced Plural Marriage Mainly for Sex

This assumption is often repeated, but it is not supported by the evidence. The historical record does not show Joseph Smith fathering children with plural wives, and evidence of sexual relationships exists for only a small number of sealings.

Assumption 4: Modern Cultural Standards Apply Cleanly to the 1840s

Critics often judge Nauvoo sealings using modern ideas about romance, marriage, and household life. Doing that strips away the historical and religious context. It is true that teenage marriage was legal in the 19th century and did occur.

We also need to be careful to look at what actual historical records say rather than later speculation from people who were not even familiar with the actual events of Joseph Smith’s Polgamy.

Why Sealing Theology Matters

Importance of Families and Stability

From the beginning of life, people depend on connection. Children are wired to seek closeness with their parents, and those early bonds shape emotional stability and a basic sense of safety. As people grow, that same need for connection continues to influence happiness and well-being.

Strong relationships provide meaning, accountability, and support. Research consistently shows that people with lasting relationships tend to have better mental health and greater life satisfaction than those who are isolated. Families are the most stable place where those bonds form, but the principle is broader. People do better when they are known, valued, and connected to others.

If connection in this life matters that much, it makes sense to ask whether it would matter in the life to come. Joseph Smith taught that relationships formed here are not lost after death but can be preserved and perfected. That belief shaped the doctrine of sealings and explains why early Church leaders wanted to remain connected beyond the grave.

Doctrine and Covenants 130:2
“That same sociality which exists among us here will exist among us there, only it will be coupled with eternal glory, which glory we do not now enjoy.”

Joseph Smith’s Teaching on Eternal Relationships

Joseph Smith, along with figures such as Heber C. Kimball and families like the Partridges and the Whitneys, believed that covenant relationships endured beyond the grave. These were some of the strongest families in the latter-day restorations. These are bishop’s and apostles who went through the fire of persecution but always remained faithful.

Their desire to be eternally connected with the Prophet Joseph Smith, of whom they loved, was rooted in the conviction that God’s plan is relational, that heaven is organized by family bonds, and that individuals are meant to be connected, sealed, and welded together into an eternal family structure that would bless them all through forms of eternal connection that are not fully understood.

The Historical Record of Joseph Smith’s Sealings

Why Did Joseph Smith Introduce Polygamy?

Joseph Smith began practicing plural marriage because he believed he was commanded to by God. According to later accounts, he resisted the command and was visited multiple times by an angel, with the final visitation described as involving a drawn sword.

Like many early Church leaders and women, Joseph struggled deeply with this commandment. It ran against their culture, their instincts, and what they had been taught their entire lives about marriage.

Because plural marriage was especially difficult for Emma, Joseph appears to have been hesitant to treat most sealings as full marriages in everyday life. He seems to have moved forward only because he believed the principle had to be established and lived, at least in limited form, to prepare the Saints for what would come later as they moved west.

When Did Joseph Smith Start Practicing Plural Marriage?

Pinpointing a single “start date” is difficult because the record is limited and many events were not documented contemporaneously. Some accounts place an early plural relationship in Kirtland in the 1830s (connected to Fanny Alger), but there is no direct first-hand documentation of this supposed marriage. Clearer documentation of sealings appears in Nauvoo in the early 1840s.

How Many “Wives” Did Joseph Smith Have?

This question depends on definition of what is a wife?

If “wife” means a woman to whom Joseph was sealed by priesthood authority (often for eternity only), the count is roughly 30 to 40. We don’t have full records, and some of the “sealings” happened after Jospeh Smith was already dead. So, if your definition of wife is someone that Joseph Smith is sealed to, in an eternal definition that you do not understand, then 34 could be an accurate answer as claimed in Letter For My Wife.

If “wife” means a publicly recognized domestic partner in a shared household, the answer is only a a few.

How Many Plural Marriages Were Consummated?

According to JosephSmithsPolygamy.org, the historical record supports evidence of sexual relations in only four of Joseph Smith’s plural sealings. In those cases, the evidence comes from firsthand or clearly documented sources. For the rest of Joseph Smith’s sealings, there is no reliable evidence of sexual relations, as these were non-conjugal or eternity-only sealings.

These are the marriages that Joseph Smith likely consummated and that were considered full plural marriages for this life as well as eternity, based on the historical record.

It’s also important to note that these are also the marriages that Emma Smith either approved of or was at least aware of. After Joseph’s death, all four women remarried within plural families and remained faithful members of the Church throughout their lives.

Did Joseph Smith “Live With” Plural Wives?

Joseph Smith did not establish separate plural households. The only instance where he lived in the same household as known plural wives was for a brief period when the Partridge sisters were in the Smith household at the Mansion House in Nauvoo.

Even in that case, the setting was not a recognized plural household as we think of today, or like those seen later during the Utah period of plural marriage. The historical record does not support treating those living arrangements as equivalent to a modern marriage or family structure. Emma was openly hostile toward the sisters, and her consent to their marriages was short-lived.

Children From Plural Relationships

Joseph Smith had nine children with Emma Smith. There are no known children from any of his other plural wives. Given that Joseph was clearly fertile, if he had dozens of full marital relationships, we would reasonably expect at least some children to have resulted from them?

Rumor of Children Through Sylvia Lyons

In the early 1900’s, seven decades after Joseph Smith died, there was a claim that Joseph Smith fathered a child with Sylvia Sessions Lyon.  Sylvia was legally married to Windsor Lyon, who had been a member of the Church and was excommunicated during the Nauvoo period. While excommunicated, Sylvia was eternally sealed to Joseph.

The rumor originates from a 1915 statement by Sylvia’s daughter, Josephine Rosetta Lyon Fisher, who said her mother told her near the end of her life that she was a daughter of Joseph Smith. The statement did not distinguish between biological parentage and sealing language, which also referred to eternal or covenant relationships.

DNA testing of Josephine’s descendants has confirmed that Joseph Smith was not her biological father, and that Windsor Lyon was. The most likely explanation is that Josephine understood her relationship to Joseph Smith in an eternal, covenant sense based on her mother’s sealing, not as a biological relationship.

The only known children of Joseph Smith were Emma’s children of which only four lived to adulthood (plus his adopted daughter Julia Murdock).

Was Joseph Smith Married to Married Women?

We know of six women who were legally married to other men that Joseph was sealed to. These were “eternity-only” sealings, not marriages for this life, and the women generally continued living with their legal husbands. This is more evidence that what we think of and understand of marriage and sealings is very different from the understanding of the early saints.

Most of these women were fully faithful devoted church members their entire lives. Read their full stories and experiences by the following links:

Was Joseph Smith Married to Teenage Girls!?

“Joseph Smith was married to a 14 year old girl!”

This line is often used as a modern “gotcha,” presented as decisive proof that Joseph Smith could not have been a prophet, on the assumption that the situation is obviously evil by today’s standards and needs no further explanation.

But that conclusion depends on collapsing history, theology, and context into a  modern reaction. To understand what actually happened, it matters to slow down and examine what that sealing meant, who initiated it, how it functioned, and what purpose it was believed to serve.

Helen Mar Kimball – Age 14

Helen Mar Kimball was sealed to Joseph Smith in May 1843 when she was 14 years old. The sealing was not initiated by Joseph Smith. It was sought out by her father, Heber C. Kimball, one of Joseph Smith’s closest associates and a member of the First Presidency. Heber believed strongly in eternal sealings and wanted his family bound to the prophet through that covenant. Helen later wrote that she accepted the sealing out of obedience to her father and faith in Joseph Smith’s prophetic role.

After the sealing, Helen continued to live at home with her family. She did not live with Joseph Smith, no plural household was formed, and there is no evidence of a sexual relationship. The sealing was understood as an eternal covenant, not a marriage for daily life.

In later years, Helen became one of the most outspoken defenders of plural marriage. She wrote extensively in its support, including a full book Why We Practice Plural Marriage explaining why she believed the practice was commanded by God.

Throughout her life, she remained a faithful member of the Church and consistently described plural marriage as a test of obedience and sacrifice, not a pursuit of personal desire.

Sarah Ann Whitney – Age 17

Sarah Ann Whitney was 17 years old when she was sealed to Joseph Smith.

In the culture of the day, this was young but still culturally acceptable. The sealing had the written approval of both of her parents, who were among the most faithful and influential members of the Church, with her father, Newel K. Whitney, serving as the Presiding Bishop. Newel Whitney personally performed the ceremony sealing his daughter to Joseph Smith.

Like Heber C. Kimball, Newel, acting in faith and with an understanding of the importance of eternal sealing and “welding” between families, desired his family to be linked to the prophet Joseph Smith.

Joseph and Sarah Ann never lived together, and there is no evidence that the marriage was consummated. Sarah Ann continued to live at home with her parents and later married Joseph C. Kingsbury, in a ceremony performed by the prophet Joseph Smith.

This case clearly illustrates why Joseph Smith’s sealings cannot be equated with modern marriage, either legally or socially.

Conclusion – Joseph Smith Was Both A Prophet and a Polygamist

If the goal is to evaluate Joseph Smith fairly, it requires careful definitions. “Marriage” can mean a legal, public domestic arrangement, or it can mean a sealing covenant intended to bind relationships beyond death. Joseph Smith’s Nauvoo-era sealings were primarily rooted in a developing theology of eternal family connection, not a system of public plural households.

When critics assume that every sealing was equivalent to modern marriage, assume sexual motives by default, and impose modern categories without historical context, they build a case on the wrong foundation. The historical record is complex, but it does not support the claim that Joseph Smith’s sealings were simply “marriages like today.”

The faith and conviction of the early Saints, shown in their desire to be eternally sealed and to have their families, including their daughters and already married wives, connected to Joseph Smith, stands as a testament to how seriously they believed in the power and reality of eternal sealing.

Joseph Smith Was A Prophet

I have studied the history. I have studied the accounts of men and women who knew Joseph Smith and spoke of the good he did and the faith he instilled. I believe he was a prophet, and that belief is supported by the fruits of his work. One can focus on a narrow view of a few issues through a modern lens of bias and interpretation, or one can look at the totality of what he did and what he accomplished.

He testified that he saw the Father and the Son. He translated the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon teaches of Jesus Christ and leads people to better understand God and His plan. It teaches that we have a Savior, that we can rely on Him to overcome sin and affliction. There is real peace found in that message.

Joseph Smith endured persecution and tribulation, and so did those who followed him. They remained committed because they believed it was true. He restored teachings about family, eternal sealings, and work for the dead, and established the structure for the gospel to go forth throughout the earth in preparation for the Savior’s return. The Church today stands as evidence of that restoration, doing measurable good and helping people live better lives.

You can choose to treat Joseph Smith’s history, including plural marriage, as a barrier between you and Jesus Christ, or you can focus on the doctrine of Christ and rely on His grace to give you peace and comfort draw closer to Him.

 


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