Of course marriage is forever

#Of Course Marriage is Forever!

The critic may say, “I understand it is the teaching of the Mormon Church that to enter the highest degree of the first heaven or celestial kingdom, you must be married in a Mormon temple. And you think marriage lasts forever! How do you account for the fact that Christ was not married and that undoubtedly many of the other apostles were not married?”

The Bible teaches that marriage is ordained of God. Man was told to “multiply and replenish the earth” (Genesis 1:28). The Creator said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make an help meet for him” (Genesis 2:18). Genesis 2:24 says, “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.” Christ taught the Pharisees, “Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder” (Matthew 19:6). Paul taught, “Neither is man without the woman, neither woman without the man in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 11:11).

We simply don’t know whether or not Jesus or all of his apostles were married during Jesus’s mortal sojourn.

Also, we may be asked, “How do you account for Matthew 19:12?” This verse says: “For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother’s womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.”

Some added background and additional information is needed to understand fully what is meant by this teaching about eunuchs. In the true Church and among normal people, there is no place for the practice of celibacy. Elder Bruce R. McConkie wrote: “Apparently those who made themselves eunuchs were men who in false pagan worship had deliberately mutilated themselves in the apostate notion that such would further their salvation. It is clear that such was not a true gospel requirement of any sort. There is no such thing in the gospel as willful emasculation; such a notion violates every true principle of procreation and celestial marriage” (Mormon Doctrine, 223).

The Jehovah’s Witnesses and others will always claim that death terminates the marriage bond and marriage cannot last forever. They may cite Romans 7:2: “For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband” and Matthew 22:30: “For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.”

Romans 7:2 simply describes the tenet in the law of Moses that applied to civil marriage. Let us consider carefully the discussion between Jesus and his Sadducean detractors in Matthew 22:23-30. Just previously Jesus had clearly taught the principle of eternal marriage to the Pharisees: “The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause? And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away? He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so. And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery (Matthew 19:4-9).

The Lord explained to the Pharisees that the Israelites had not been able to live the higher law of eternal marriage, therefore “because of the hardness of your hearts” they were given the lesser law or the law of Moses which included a provision for divorces for certain few transgressions including that of fornication.

We know that marriage is an eternal principle. Paul wrote: “Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 11:11). Ecclesiastes 3:14 declares: “I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever.”

Now, back to Matthew 22:23-30:

The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him, Saying, Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother. Now there were with us seven brethren: and the first, when he had married a wife, deceased, and, having no issue, left his wife unto his brother: Likewise the second also, and the third, unto the seventh. And last of all the woman died also. Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her. Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven (Matthew 22:23-30).

In this interchange, Jesus was being confronted by the Sadducees who did not believe in the resurrection and were challenging the Savior on that point. It is apparent from the context of these verses that the Jewish nation in general believed that marriage was eternal. That fact is assumed by the Sadducees who were present. It is apparent from the text that the Sadducees knew that marriage after death was a commonly held belief among the Jews. Without doubt, Jesus, the apostles, the seventies, and the disciples generally had discussed this doctrine. The Sadducees, in order to challenge the concept of resurrection, concocted a preposterous scenario and presented it as a question to Jesus. Not wanting to cast pearls before swine, Jesus did not answer as if he had been asked a sincere question by one who was genuinely seeking the truth. He also did not deny the prevailing belief in marriage after the resurrection. Rather, he told them that for people like them, there would be no marriage in the life to come.

The Lord said very much the same thing to Joseph Smith in this dispensation:

Therefore, if a man marry him a wife in the world, and he marry her not by me nor by my word, and he covenant with her so long as he is in the world and she with him, their covenant and marriage are not of force when they are dead, and when they are out of the world; therefore, they are not bound by any law when they are out of the world. Therefore, when they are out of the world they neither marry nor are given in marriage; but are appointed angels in heaven, which angels are ministering servants, to minister for those who are worthy of a far more, and an exceeding, and an eternal weight of glory. For these angels did not abide my law; therefore, they cannot be enlarged, but remain separately and singly, without exaltation, in their saved condition, to all eternity; and from henceforth are not gods, but are angels of God forever and ever (D&C 132:15-17).

Thus, in the resurrection, the unmarried remain everlastingly as angels or servants, but the married gain exaltation and godhood. This latter group consists of those who enter into that “order of the priesthood” named “the new and everlasting covenant of marriage,” and who then keep the terms and conditions of that eternal covenant (D&C 131:1-4)” (Bruce R. McConkie, Doctrinal New Testament Commentary, 3 volumes, Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1965-1973, 1: 607).