In this episode, we welcome Dr. Benjamin Park to discuss his recent RNS article: “The LDS Historical Department Just Published an 1886 Polygamy Revelation”. John Taylor was the third LDS Prophet-President, and this 1886 revelation was for the LDS church – though it has a controversial history, and an even more surprising entry in the headlines of 2025. In this episode, Dr. Park helps us better understand this oft-neglected LDS President in his context, as well as what this revelation means and does not mean relative to debates within and between the mainline LDS church and the many fundamentalist churches who have championed this revelation for nearly a century.
Article: “The LDS Historical Department Just Published an 1886 Polygamy Revelation”
LDS Church History Catalog: John Taylor revelation, 1886 September 27
Other resources by Dr. Benjamin Park:
American Zion: A New History of Mormonism (new Paperback edition: here)
Kingdom of Nauvoo: The Rise and Fall of a Religious Empire on the American Frontier
- Check out YouTube Channel
Other resources:
D&C 118:6; 124.129; 135
Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: John Taylor (official manual)
Unpublished Revelations, vol. 1 compiled by Fred Collier
The Works of John Taylor, compiled by David Hammer; including significant works, such as:
- The Government of God
- Mediation and Atonement
- “Succession in the Priesthood”
- “The Origin and Destiny of Woman”
Last public discourse before going into hiding: February 1, 1885
A sample of discourses:
“Man” (Feb. 19, 1860)
“Motives and Feelings of the Saints…” (June 12, 1853)
“Blessings of the Saints…” (Jan. 17, 1858)
“Reflections on the Sacrament, the Atonement and the Second Coming of Jesus” (Feb. 22, 1863)
“Blessings of the Gospel Contrasted with the Ideas of Men…” (Dec. 11, 1864)
“God is the Source of All Intelligence and Wisdom…” (Feb. 5, 1865)
“Revelation from God, True Knowledge” (Oct. 7, 1865)
“What the Gospel Teaches…” (Feb. 1, 1874)
“The Death of the Faithful No Cause for Mourning…” (July 24, 1882)
“The Church Based Upon the Principle of Perfect Freedom…” (Jan. 21, 1883)
The Life of John Taylor by B. H. Roberts
The Last Pioneer: John Taylor, a Mormon Prophet by Samuel W. Taylor
Worth including is this passage from The Mormon Jesus by John Turner:
“Young’s immediate successors promptly returned to the former model of revelation. Because Young had held many church properties in his own name, after his death there were conflicts of interest between his family and the church. At the time, John Taylor was president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles; he was formally sustained as church president three years later. Taylor prayed repeatedly for guidance about the thorny legal conflicts over Young’s estate, and he dictated a revelatory answer in November 1877: ‘Thus saith the Lord,’ the revelation began, ‘Be one, be united, be honest, act upon the principles of justice and righteousness to the living and to the dead and to my Church, and I, the Lord, will sustain you and acknowledge your labors.’ Taylor wrote or dictated at least eight additional revelations over the next decade.
Taylor’s revelatory process resembled that of Joseph Smith. Clerk George Reynolds recalled that he sometimes found the church president working on a revelation at the Gardo House (the mansion Young had built for two of his wives). Taylor would then ‘continue the revelation he commenced to write by dictating it to me.’ Reynolds next read it aloud several times. ‘On only one occasion do I remember that he made any alteration in that which was written.’ Taylor published only two of his revelations, and the church did not add any of them to new English-language editions of the Doctrine and Covenants (two were included in certain European editions). Church leaders circulated several of them, however, which were read aloud at local church meetings.
Taylor’s revelations were explicitly dialogic. He brought questions to the Lord and received specific responses. The identity of the divine voice is not clear in some of Taylor’s revelations, but others refer to ‘my father,’ making it clear that it is Jesus Christ who speaks. ‘As thou hast asked me concerning this Temple, thus saith the Lord,’ began a brief revelation about the just-dedicated Logan Temple, ‘I accept his house which thou hast built.’ Taylor’s revelations touched on a range of topics. Several encouraged the church to defend its principle of plural marriage. For example, an 1882 revelation clarified that men called to high offices should ‘conform to my law [of marriage]; for it is not meet that men who will not abide my law shall preside over my priesthood.’ As Joseph Smith had done, Taylor led the church as Jesus Christ’s oracle.” (pp. 110-111)
Joseph White Musser: A Mormon Fundamentalist by Cristina Rosetti
Conflict in the Quorum by Gary Bergera
