Item Detail
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25934
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6
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21
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English
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"A Continuation of the Seeds" : Joseph Smith and Spirit Birth
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Journal of Mormon History
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Fall 2012
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38
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4
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Salt Lake City, UT
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Mormon History Association
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105-130
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Today, an accepted doctrine of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints interprets verses in Doctrine and Covenants 132 as references to the birth of spirit offspring by exalted married couples in the celestial kingdom. This revelation, dictated in the summer of 1843, came in response to mounting tensions over plural marriage between Joseph Smith and his legal wife, Emma. Apparently, she had threatened divorce and/or exposure of his extra-legal marital unions. So to assuage her concerns, Hyrum Smith, the Prophet's brother, encouraged him to dictate a revelation to create a document which, he was confident, he could use to convince her of restored polygamy's legitimacy.
This article investigates the doctrine of "spirit birth," examining the evidence to help determine whether it was authored by Joseph Smith or whether it arose as a later addition to LDS theology, tracing the known references to it over time but particularly in Mormonism's early years. [From the article]
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A Descriptive Bibliography of the Mormon Church, Volume One, 1830-1847
An Intimate Chronicle : The Journals of William Clayton
Biography and Family Record of Lorenzo Snow, One of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Doctrines of Salvation : Sermons and Writings of Joseph Fielding Smith
Early Mormonism and the Magic World View
Eliza R. Snow : The Complete Poetry
In Heaven as It Is on Earth : Joseph Smith and the Early Mormon Conquest of Death
Joseph Smith's Polygamy
Minutes of the Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
On the Potter's Wheel : The Diaries of Heber C. Kimball
Plural Marriage
The Autobiography of Parley Parker Pratt
The Development of the Doctrine of Preexistence, 1830-1844
The Early Mormon Chain of Belonging
The History of the Saints : Or, An Expose of Joe Smith and Mormonism
The Idea of Pre-Existence in the Development of Mormon Thought
The Joseph/Hyrum Smith Funeral Sermon
The Origin of the Human Spirit in Early Mormon Thought
The Orson Pratt Journals
The True Origin of Mormon Polygamy
The Words of Joseph Smith : The Contemporary Accounts of the Nauvoo Discourses of the Prophet Joseph