Essays on the Book of Mormon, covenants, and the restoration by Lucas Jackson.https://www.adamawake.com/https://www.adamawake.com/prosper-in-the-land/https://www.adamawake.com/?p=1810“Keep my commandments and ye shall prosper in the land.” For Lehi’s family the commandments came by revelation, one wife among them, and prosper may mean pressing forward toward God’s presence.Sun, 27 Sep 2026 18:00:00 GMTbook-of-mormonpolygamyLucas Jacksonhttps://www.adamawake.com/joseph-and-jacob-2/https://www.adamawake.com/joseph-and-jacob-2/Joseph never used Jacob 2:30 to justify plural marriage. On the day he and Hyrum died, five statements on record said a man should have one wife.Sat, 26 Sep 2026 20:00:00 GMTpolygamybook-of-mormonLucas Jacksonhttps://www.adamawake.com/amuleks-women/https://www.adamawake.com/?p=4357Some scholars read Amulek’s “my women” in Alma 10:11 as plural wives. Alma gave the same household blessing to the whole city of Gideon.Sun, 19 Oct 2025 19:17:00 GMTbook-of-mormonpolygamyLucas Jacksonhttps://www.adamawake.com/kings/https://www.adamawake.com/?p=3725Mosiah II held every record of Israel’s, the Nephites’ and the Jaredites’ kings. Each told the same story, so he ended the kings. The Book of Mormon says there shall be no kings upon this land.Sat, 05 Apr 2025 12:07:00 GMTbook-of-mormonpolygamyLucas Jacksonhttps://www.adamawake.com/law-of-the-king/https://www.adamawake.com/law-of-the-king/Why would the Lord call David and Solomon’s many wives “abominable” if no law forbade them? The law of the king did, and Jacob 1 echoes it almost word for word.Sat, 05 Apr 2025 12:07:00 GMTbook-of-mormonpolygamyLucas Jacksonhttps://www.adamawake.com/heirs-of-the-kingdom/https://www.adamawake.com/?p=3799Abinadi asks, “Who shall be his seed?” Those who hear the prophets and believe: “the heirs of the kingdom of God.” Is that the seed of Jacob 2:30?Tue, 14 Jan 2025 22:11:00 GMTbook-of-mormonpolygamyLucas Jacksonhttps://www.adamawake.com/levirate-marriage/https://www.adamawake.com/?p=3764In the Bible, “raise up seed” is the language of levirate marriage: a brother keeping a dead man’s name alive. Could that be the narrow exception in Jacob 2:30?Thu, 02 Jan 2025 10:27:00 GMTbook-of-mormonpolygamyLucas Jacksonhttps://www.adamawake.com/whats-in-a-name/https://www.adamawake.com/?p=2176“Lord of Hosts” appears only 52 times in the Book of Mormon, usually in warnings of destruction. Six are in Jacob 2:28–33, the verses from Lehi’s record.Wed, 01 Jan 2025 11:58:00 GMTbook-of-mormonpolygamyLucas Jacksonhttps://www.adamawake.com/jacobs-prophecy/https://www.adamawake.com/?p=2321Jacob’s sermon ends in prophecy: break the one-wife commandment and the land is cursed, and the Lamanites will scourge you. Omni records it coming true.Sun, 28 Jul 2024 08:00:00 GMTbook-of-mormonpolygamyLucas Jacksonhttps://www.adamawake.com/covenant-land/https://www.adamawake.com/?p=1805Lehi’s promised land came with a covenant, with blessings and curses. The one-wife commandment is one of its conditions, which is why Jacob 2:29 says “cursed be the land.”Sat, 27 Jul 2024 12:50:00 GMTbook-of-mormonpolygamyLucas Jacksonhttps://www.adamawake.com/whos-voice/https://www.adamawake.com/?p=1765Jacob’s sermon has several voices. Verses 27–33, including verse 30, are the Lord’s commandment to Lehi, read back to the Nephites a generation later.Wed, 03 Apr 2024 07:00:00 GMTbook-of-mormonpolygamyLucas Jacksonhttps://www.adamawake.com/raise-up-seed/https://www.adamawake.com/?p=1716The only other time the Book of Mormon says “raise up seed,” the Lord tells Lehi’s sons to take wives, one each. Raising up seed was done through monogamy.Tue, 02 Apr 2024 07:00:00 GMTbook-of-mormonpolygamyLucas Jacksonhttps://www.adamawake.com/branch-of-joseph/https://www.adamawake.com/?p=1639Five verses before “raise up seed unto me,” the Lord says he led Lehi out “that I might raise up unto me a righteous branch.” Seed, branch, and fruit are covenant language.Mon, 01 Apr 2024 08:00:00 GMTbook-of-mormonpolygamyLucas Jacksonhttps://www.adamawake.com/the-thoughts-of-the-heart/https://www.adamawake.com/?p=1612Jacob didn’t catch the Nephites in the act. He saw it in their hearts. The sin he condemns begins as a desire, and the Lord treats the desire as the sin.Sun, 31 Mar 2024 08:00:00 GMTbook-of-mormonpolygamyLucas Jacksonhttps://www.adamawake.com/daughters-of-god/https://www.adamawake.com/?p=1582Jacob’s sermon is full of God’s daughters: tender wives, broken hearts, cries that reach heaven. Would the Lord command the very thing he says is breaking their hearts?Sat, 30 Mar 2024 08:00:00 GMTbook-of-mormonpolygamyLucas Jacksonhttps://www.adamawake.com/context/https://www.adamawake.com/?p=869Read everything Jacob says around verse 30 and it’s all condemnation: abominations, whoredoms, a cursed land. Does that sound like the setup for an exception?Fri, 29 Mar 2024 08:00:00 GMTbook-of-mormonpolygamyLucas Jacksonhttps://www.adamawake.com/alternate-universe/https://www.adamawake.com/?p=1243Ten years before Orson Pratt’s reading, Hyrum Smith preached from Jacob 2 at the temple and called its rule a perpetual principle. The historians who quote the sermon leave that part out.Thu, 28 Mar 2024 09:00:00 GMTpolygamyLucas Jacksonhttps://www.adamawake.com/chapter-and-verse/https://www.adamawake.com/?p=1388Jacob 2 and 3 were one sermon. The chapter break, verses, headings, and first footnotes came later, and the first note on verse 30 came from Orson Pratt.Thu, 28 Mar 2024 08:00:00 GMTpolygamyLucas Jacksonhttps://www.adamawake.com/the-root-of-the-interpretation/https://www.adamawake.com/?p=1155The conventional reading of Jacob 2:30 was first defended in print in 1853, in Orson Pratt’s The Seer, months after plural marriage was announced.Wed, 27 Mar 2024 16:06:00 GMTpolygamyLucas Jacksonhttps://www.adamawake.com/one-interpretation/https://www.adamawake.com/?p=1062Every official source reads Jacob 2:30 the same way: monogamy unless God commands otherwise, to raise up more children. The birth records don’t appear to bear that reason out.Tue, 26 Mar 2024 15:49:00 GMTpolygamyLucas Jacksonhttps://www.adamawake.com/wresting-the-scriptures/https://www.adamawake.com/?p=889The Nephites excused their sins by misreading the scriptures about David and Solomon. The Book of Mormon warns that wresting scripture leads to destruction.Mon, 25 Mar 2024 15:32:00 GMTpolygamyLucas Jacksonhttps://www.adamawake.com/intro/https://www.adamawake.com/?p=2150Jacob 2:30 is the exception Mormons rely on to allow a future commandment of polygamy. This series looks at what the Book of Mormon itself says the verse means.Sun, 24 Mar 2024 11:30:00 GMTpolygamyLucas Jacksonhttps://www.adamawake.com/hyrum-smith-polygamy/https://www.adamawake.com/?p=1497Three times in his last year, Hyrum Smith spoke out against polygamy: a sermon at the temple, a letter, and a conference talk.Fri, 01 Mar 2024 08:00:00 GMTgenconpolygamyLucas Jacksonhttps://www.adamawake.com/christ-will-show-unto-you-the-greater-things/https://www.adamawake.com/?p=453Mormon compiled the Book of Mormon; he started with the journey of Lehi and his family and abridged the entire record up to Mormon, Chapter 7. All of this took place sometime between 385 and 400 AD.Mon, 05 Feb 2024 08:00:00 GMTbook-of-mormonJean Valjeanhttps://www.adamawake.com/groups-in-the-book-of-mormon/https://www.adamawake.com/?p=451Groups are very important to understand, they NEVER apply to any individual. A group could almost be considered a trend or a fashion for understanding’s sake.Sun, 04 Feb 2024 08:00:00 GMTbook-of-mormonJean Valjeanhttps://www.adamawake.com/types-in-the-book-of-mormon/https://www.adamawake.com/?p=449We know we are under condemnation for treating lightly the things we have received, and we have been told how to receive them, or how to go about letting God do his own work in us.Sat, 03 Feb 2024 08:00:00 GMTbook-of-mormonJean Valjeanhttps://www.adamawake.com/nephi-is-a-good-place-to-start/https://www.adamawake.com/?p=447I am going to start in 2 Nephi 11. Nephi is about to write more of the words of Isaiah, chapters 2-14 specifically, and he gives us a few reasons why he is doing this.Fri, 02 Feb 2024 08:00:00 GMTbook-of-mormonJean Valjeanhttps://www.adamawake.com/the-incomparable-nephi/https://www.adamawake.com/?p=443Some things are difficult to write, or cannot be written in a manner that adequately portrays what the writer would like to share.Thu, 01 Feb 2024 08:00:00 GMTbook-of-mormonJean Valjeanhttps://www.adamawake.com/to-this-end-was-i-born/https://www.adamawake.com/?p=2468Okay. So Brian, in a sort of odd way, asked me to give a talk, or to speak on the subject of Christmas in conjunction with liberty and agency and freedom.Mon, 25 Dec 2023 08:00:00 GMTJean Valjeanhttps://www.adamawake.com/laws-of-men-vs-laws-of-god/https://www.adamawake.com/?p=2454This talk was given sometime in 2010 and it was given to a group of people who were interested in the Constitution and our role in saving the Constitution as a member of the LDS church.Sun, 03 Dec 2023 08:00:00 GMTbook-of-mormonJean Valjean