Who Was This Man? ... Why Did He Have 19 Wives & 64 Children?

He is John D. Lee, Mormon pioneer, adopted son of Brigham Young and my paternal great-grandfather about whom torrents of lurid tales have been told regarding his part in the infamous “Mountain Meadows Massacre.” “For a right smart spell,” as Grandpa would say, “I’ve been hankering” to set the record straight; to relate our family’s side of his tragic story and to proclaim my family’s continued pride in him and their Mormon heritage. But most of all I’ve longed to share what Jesus now means to me and what He – Immanuel, GOD WITH US – longs to mean to my beloved Mormon people and Grandpa Lee’s vast progeny.

GODHOOD FOR GRANDPA

Even though Grandpa Lee’s personal history is a kaleidoscope of heroism, fanaticism, intrigue and murder – ending with his death and disgrace – we loved and honored him anyway. We applauded his sacrificial loyalty to the infant Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) and his obedience to her “authorities” and their commandments. Most especially we gloried in his temple marriages to his nineteen wives who bore him his 64 children. All of which, plus “faithfulness to the end,” promised to exalt him to Godhood, his wives to Queendom and eventually even us to that lofty status if we, too, remained compliant to the end.

And so, you see, Great Grandsire John Doyle Lee, at the behest of his Mormon Prophets, married those nineteen wives so that he, his wives and his offspring could become Gods and Godesses,

MOUNTAIN MEADOWS MASSACRE

This same blind devotion to Mormonism’s first and second prophets caused him to forsake the comforts and pleasures of his own warm marital beds to stand guard for Joseph Smith and Brigham Young as they “visited” their own hundred or so secret wives. Grandpa’s long-time devotion to his Prophet flared to its most deadly heights when Brigham Young declared war against the United States. Assured by his priesthood/military superior Lt. Col. Isaac Haight that Brigham Young was in full accord, Grandpa again prepared to follow orders from Mormon headquarters; to disobey would cost him his priesthood, his homes, his wives and children, and his life. He, therefore, helped recruit and lead the local Utah Indians in the attack and robbery of a California-bound wagon train from Arkansas and Missouri, which culminated in the murder of 127 men, women and children.

Church and civil history prove that Brigham Young and his subordinates must bear the responsibility for this wholesale slaughter. The Journal History of the Church reveals that on Sept. 1, 1857, Brigham Young incited twelve Utah Indian Chiefs to fight the war against the “Mericats” (Americans) for “they must either help us or the United States will kill us both.” Just seven days later 400 Indians attacked the emigrant train encamped at Mt. Meadows. There they were joined by Bishop/Major John D. Lee and “fifty to sixty” other members of the Iron County (Utah) Mormon Militia. (See Comprehensive Church History, 153. But be warned that LDS Histories do not tell all the facts.) On the tenth day, Sept. 11, after successfully enticing the emigrants to surrender and while marching them back to Cedar City – the promised sanctuary – Iron County Militia Major John M. Higbee gave the pre-arranged signal, “Halt! Boys, do your duty.” Mormons and Indians performed their assigned duties. Each Mormon elder gunned down the unarmed male victim marching by his side. Grandpa Lee and two drivers dealt death to the wounded men and women huddled in wagon beds. The Indians knifed and bludgeoned to death the terrified, fleeing women and children. So ended the lives of 127 fellow Americans more than a century ago. But to this day Grandpa John D. Lee alone bears the blame and his progeny the shame.

Of the scores of Mormon elders involved in this infamous “Mountain Meadows Massacre” only John D. Lee was tried, convicted and executed. He was made the scapegoat for the Mormon Church and her military priesthood authorities who had ordered the murder of all but the youngest children and babies. He alone bore the public loathing and disgrace, and suffered the penalty for this heartless priesthood-plotted butchery at Mountain Meadows.

At his execution on the very spot of the Massacre, Grandpa Lee seated himself on his coffin, calmly faced the US firing squad and bade them: “Center my heart, boys. Don’t let my body be mangled.” He then bore his testimony that the Mormon church was the “true church” and Joseph Smith was a “true Prophet,” and went out to meet God – totally unafraid. Unafraid for he still believed, “If you do things according to counsel and they are wrong the consequences will fall on the heads of those who counseled you, so don’t be troubled.” (Heber C. Kimball, Aug. 1, 1847, as reported in W. Clayton’s “Journal” Aug. 1, 1847). Grandpa, therefore, believed he would be blameless as he stood before God clothed in his “holy (under) garments,” his white Mormon priesthood wedding/resurrection suit and green fig leaf apron – all betokening his faithfulness to his LDS Prophets and temple oaths and covenants.

THE TRUE COVENANT

I rejoice that now my testimony and trust is in the Blood of the Lamb and His Sure Covenant of the Blood: Not in any Church, for Christ is “the way, the truth and the life” (John 14:6); Not in good works for it is “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us…” (Titus 3:5). “This is the WORK of God, that ye BELIEVE on Him whom He hath sent.” (John 6:29); Nor in my own righteousness for “all our righteousnesses (yours and mine) are as filthy rags…” (Isaiah 64:6). Through faith in God’s word and by experience I now know that God’s True Everlasting Covenant is that the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross makes an atonement for ALL the sins of all those who will trust completely and exclusively in Him. This Everlasting Covenant is so eternal that Christ the Lamb pledged to become the ransom for sin ere he spake the world into existence.

When Adam and Eve sinned God pictured for us the eternal efficacy of the Blood of the Lamb. There in the Garden of Eden the very first blood, that of an innocent animal, (perhaps a lamb) was shed and its skin (still dripping with the warm blood of that first sacrifice for sin) was placed on Adam and Eve to cover their sins. [Gen. 3:21] Their fig leaf aprons had utterly failed (as will the Mormon temple fig leaf aprons) for “it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul” (Lev. 17:11). God later covenanted with Abraham, that his SEED (singular, meaning Jesus, Gal. 3:16) would shed his blood to redeem (set free) from all sin. “…Jesus Christ… loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own BLOOD” (Rev. 1:5). JESUS’ SHED BLOOD will eternally be THE NEW AND EVERLASTING COVENANT. It alone provides the resurrection, redemption, salvation of the body, soul and spirit (Heb. 13:20; Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:14; 1 Thess. 5:23). The BLOOD guarantees entrance into the Celestial Kingdom of God which begins right here on earth the very moment you invite Jesus into your heart! It is the BLOOD covenant that is the New and Everlasting Covenant, not the “new and everlasting Covenant,” “the eternal marriage covenant, especially the plurality of wives” (D & C 131; 132) that Joseph Smith has put in its place. In his asserted revelation of eternal plural marriage, Joseph Smith quotes God as saying, “…Behold, I reveal unto you a new and everlasting covenant, if you abide not that covenant, then are ye damned” (D & C 132:4). Brigham Young said, “The only men who become Gods, even the Sons of God, are those who enter into polygamy” (Journal of Discourses, 11:269). This means that only those Mormon who enter into polygamous temple marriages here on earth can go to the highest level of the Celestial Kingdom where God and Jesus with their thousands of wives supposedly dwell. Verse 37 “reveals” that “Abraham received concubines and they bore him children; and it was accounted unto him for righteousness…” BUT the Bible says God accounted Abraham’s faith as righteousness, “And he believed the Lord; and He counted it to him for righteousness” (Gen. 15:6; Romans 4:3-9; Gal. 3:6; James 2:23).

Even though the practice of plural marriage (polygamy) for the most part has been outwardly and temporarily suspended it is still upheld as a valid sacred doctrine of the Mormon Church. Polygamous marriages a still performed and sealed for heaven in Mormonism’s 40 [now 383 in 2026] world-wide temples. Every new edition of the Doctrine and Covenants contains the above quoted Section 132 and continues to proclaim that plural temple marriages are “essential for the attainment of the status of Godhood” and salvation.

MORMON GODS AND GODDESSES

Mormons hope to someday become Gods and Goddesses themselves. This false hope is based on their belief that God Himself is no more than just an exalted man. One of their favorite sayings is, “As man is, God once was; as God is, man may become.” [Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Lorenzo Snow (The Church of Jesus Christ of Letter-Day Saints, 2012), p. 83.] According to their prophets, back in aeons of eternity God the Father was once an “intelligence” co-equal and co-eternal with all us other “intelligences.” He, through our support and his obedience to natural and spiritual laws advanced to Godhood. “…The universe is filled with vast numbers of intelligences” wrote noted Brigham Young University Professor, W. Cleon Skousen. “…Elohim is God simply because all of these intelligences honor and sustain Him as such… the Father is actually dependent upon their sustaining influence or honor to accomplish His purposes. God’s “power” is derived from the honor and support of the intelligences over whom He rules… the present exalted position of our Heavenly Father was gradually built up. His glory and power is something which He slowly acquired… if He should ever do anything to violate the confidence or “sense of justice” of these intelligences, they would promptly withdraw their support, and the “power” of God would disintegrate… if God should change or act contrary to truth and justice “He would cease to be God.” (The First 2,000 Years, Bookcraft Publishers, 1976, p. 355.)

As a Mormon I intended to become a Goddess. Someday I would be “taken to the temple” by a bearer of the Holy Mormon Priesthood to be “washed and anointed,” “married and sealed for eternity.” He then could by the “new name” given me in the temple “call me forth”; lift my veil and thus would resurrect me, his Celestial Bride, all decked out in my Mormon “holy (under) garments,” temple bridal-resurrection gown, satin slippers and fig leaf apron. Through sexual procreation and nine months gestation periods my numerous sister-wives and I would eternally bear him spirit children in heaven so that he could qualify to become a God, organize his own planet-world and people it with his wives and offspring (as Adam had done on this earth). My husband would then become a God. I would become a Goddess and help my Husband-God rule over his own world and sexual spirit progeny as God and His Goddess Queens rule over this world.

THE JESUS OF MORMONISM

Many Mormons believe that both God the Father and Jesus are married and each have many wives. God the Father is said to have thousands of wives by whom He continues to sexually procreate billions of “spirit children” to people this world. For every baby born on this earth there has been and continues to be a sexual mating and an ensuing birth in heaven. Many millions of bodiless spirits supposedly wait anxiously in heaven for physical bodies to be prepared for them to enter – most especially the super elite white Mormon bodies. I gloried in my Mormon parentage and white skin for they indicated to us Mormons that I had been one of God’s choicest, most intelligent spirit children in heaven. So special, in fact, that God had retained me in heaven until He “in the fullness” of time sent one of his most special sons, Joseph Smith, to usher in “the greatest dispensation of all times,” to restore the “only true Church,” the gospel and its priesthood, and to earn his exaltation to Godhood. Jesus, Mormons say, had already been privileged to come in “the meridian of time” to receive His required earthly body and thus advance Himself to Godhood. I rejoice that I now know that “…when the fulness of time was come God sent forth His Son (Jesus)…” (Gal. 4:4). “…in the fulness of time He (Jesus) cometh to bring salvation unto men.” (2 Ne. 2:3).

I grieve that I was once taught and blindly believed that:

· The Bible is a “polluted, insufficient guide.” How do we know that even one verse of the Bible has escaped pollution so as to convey its original meaning?

· Jesus was “merely” the first of God’s billions of sexually begotten sons.

· Lucifer, the second born – a full brother to Jesus – could have been the Saviour if he had had a better plan than Jesus.

· Because of Lucifer’s rebellion he can never receive a mortal body and become a God “of body, parts and passions” as God is now.

· The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s. (D & C 130:22)

One of the many major Mormon doctrines withheld from me and most Mormons is that: “When the time came that… the Saviour, should come into the world and take a tabernacle, the Father came Himself and favoured that spirit with a tabernacle (body) instead of letting any other man do it. The Saviour was begotten by the Father of His spirit, by the same Being who is the Father of our spirits, and that is all the organic difference between Jesus Christ and you and me” (Journal of Discourses, 4:218). “…the Father and Mother of Jesus, according to the flesh, must have been associated together in the capacity of Husband and Wife; hence the Virgin Mary must have been, for the time being, the lawful wife of God the Father:… He had a lawful right to overshadow the Virgin Mary in the capacity of a husband, and beget a Son, although she was espoused to another; …the Holy Ghost gave her strength to abide the presence of the Father without being consumed; but it was the personage of the Father who begat the body of Jesus;…” (The Seer, 158). “When the Virgin Mary conceived the child Jesus, the Father had begotten him in his own likeness. He was not begotten by the Holy Ghost. And who is the Father? He is the first of the human family;…” (Journal of Discourses, 1:50).

The saddest, most soul-destroying Mormon doctrine taught me was that: “the idea that the Father and Son dwell in a man’s heart is an old sectarian notion, and is false” (D & C 130:3). Imagine my joy when years later I learned that God the Son came to earth to receive a body so that He could shed His blood for my sins and dwell in my heart? Today my heart thrills as I recall the glorious day, Jan. 5, 1947, when I trusted Jesus as my Saviour and He came into my heart to stay. But my heart aches as I think that 6.2 million [17.5 million as of Dec 2024] of my Mormon people still believe that it is a foolish and false notion that Jesus can dwell in their hearts.

MY NEW SONG

For 31 years I sang of Joseph Smith, of his love for me and “the Saints”: “…For them he lived, for them he died… now unchanged in death with a Saviour’s love he (Joseph) pleads their cause in the courts above. He (Joseph) waits on Zion’s shore to welcome the Saints forevermore.” I truly believed that: “no man or woman of this dispensation can enter the Celestial Kingdom (highest heaven) without the consent of Joseph Smith” (Journal of Discourses 7:289) (L.D. Prophets Speak, 66). But I no longer sing about Joseph Smith for I have a new song – a song about Jesus – the Lover of my soul. He now “Pleads my cause in the courts above.” I now trust completely and solely in His blood which is still the only True Everlasting Covenant. That first Sunday of a glorious New Year (for me) I first heard and realized that I owed Christ preeminence for:

“…He is before all things, and by Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church… that in all things He might have the preeminence.” (Col.1:17-18).

I realized then that Jesus is – and always has been God! He, God the Son, the Mighty Creator, had so loved me that He had come to be made sin for me! And I – for whose sins Christ had writhed in agony and was put to open shame – had always taken Him for granted.

In a veritable flood of contrition and new-found love I prayed, “Thank you God for Jesus. Thank you, Jesus for loving me so much that you willingly laid aside the eternal, heavenly glory that had always been Yours and came to die in my stead. Forgive me that I never thanked you before and that I’ve kept you waiting so long. I bid thee take first place – the preeminent place – in my heart and life.” And He did! As the song says, “He forgave my sins and He cleansed my soul; He lifted me up and out (Psalm 40:2) and He made me whole.”

Does your heart know and thrill that Jesus is God Almighty? That His name is Immanuel, meaning God with us? Can you, as I do now, make that very personal and say, “God with me, as well as in me, my only hope of glory” (see Col. 1:27)?

God bless and direct your life and faith to Him who alone pleads our cause in the courts above.

- Thelma “Granny” Geer