In a letter dated July 8, 1966, Morris L. Reynolds asked the following question to LeGrand Richards:
4. Would explain Jacob, 2:23-27 compared to D.&C. 132:1. In one
place it said it was "abominable" and the other
"justified."
This is how LeGrand Richards responded in a letter
dated July 14, 1966:
Your fourth question: "Would explain Jacob, 2:23-27 compared to
D.&C 12:1. In one place it said it was "abominable" and the other
"justified"." I am afraid I can't adequately reconcile these two
statements. If the one in Doctrine and Covenants 131:1 had omitted the names of
David and Solomon I think I could reconcile these two statements. However, we
read in 2 Samuel 12, verses 7 and 8, the fact that the Lord gave those wives to
David. I quote:
"And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. Thus saith the Lord
God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel and I delivered thee out of the
hand of Saul;
"And I gave thee thy mater's house, and thy master's wives into thy
bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too
little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things."
In I Kings 15:5, we are told that David only sinned in the case of
Uriah:
"Because David did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord,
and turned not aside from any thing that he commanded him all the days of his
life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite."
I think I told you in one of my previous letters that there are some
passages of scriptures that I cannot reconcile--I suppose this is one of those
cases.
I reproduce this in full as critics often just quote the
first part of Richards’ response, as if could not provide any response
to Morris. For example:
Notice that the revelation states that David and Solomon were
justified in their polygamous practices, whereas the Book of Mormon states that
it was an abominable practice. When the Mormon Apostle LeGrand Richards
was asked concerning this contradiction, he stated:
Your fourth question: . . . explain Jacob, 2:23-27 compared to D.
& C. 1[3]2:1. In one place it said it was “abominable” and the other
“justified.” I am afraid I can’t adequately reconcile these two statements.
If the one in Doctrine and Covenants 131:1 had omitted the
names of David and Solomon, then I think I could reconcile the two statements.
(Letter from LeGrand Richards to Morris L. Reynolds, dated July 14, 1966) (Jerald
Tanner and Sandra Tanner, Mormonism: Shadow or Reality? [5th ed.; Salt
Lake City: Utah Lighthouse Ministry, 1987, 2008], 205)
Richards did provide some rationale for explaining the
passage, even if he had the intellectual honesty to admit he did not have a
100% satisfactory answer.
With that being said, I do believe that the two texts easily
reconcilable in light of Deut 17:17. For more, see, for e.g.:
Polygamy, Deuteronomy 17:17, and Jacob 2:24 cf. (Rashi on Deuteronomy 17:17 and the King Having Plural Wives)