Celestial marriage

For the Mormon temple marriage ceremony, see Sealing (Mormonism).
A couple following their marriage in the Manti Utah Temple

Celestial marriage (also called the New and Everlasting Covenant of Marriage, Eternal Marriage, Temple Marriage) is a doctrine that marriage can last forever in heaven that is taught in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and branches of Mormon fundamentalism.[1]

In the LDS Church

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LDS Church leaders teach that family relationships can continue beyond death via the sealing ordinance.[citation needed] The ordinance is associated with a covenant that takes place inside temples by those authorized to hold the sealing power.[citation needed] The only people allowed to enter the temple, be married there, or attend these sealings are those who hold an official temple recommend.[citation needed] Obtaining a temple recommend requires one to abide by LDS Church doctrine and be interviewed and considered worthy by their bishop and stake president.[citation needed] A prerequisite to contracting an eternal marriage, in addition to obtaining a temple recommend, involves undergoing the temple endowment, which involves making of covenants of obedience and devotion to God.[2]

To receive the promised blessings of the sealing covenant, one must fulfill his or her promise to be obedient to all the Lord's commandments, including living a clean chaste life, abstaining from any impure thing, willing to sacrifice and consecrate all that one has for the Lord. In the marriage ceremony, a man and a woman make covenants to God and to each other and are said to be sealed as husband and wife for time and all eternity.[citation needed] The religion, citing Matthew 16:19 and Matthew 18:18, distinguishes itself on this point from some other religious traditions by emphasizing that marriage relationships and covenants made in this life in the temple will continue to be valid in the next life if they abide by these covenants.[3]

In the 19th century, the term "celestial marriage" was essentially synonymous with polygamy (called plural marriage).[4] New polygamous unions were partially ceased in the LDS Church with the 1890 Manifesto and completely ceased with the 1904 Second Manifesto. Existing polygamous members continued as married couples living together into the 1950s.[5] The term "celestial marriage" is still used in the polygamous sense by Mormon fundamentalists denominations which branched from the LDS Church.[citation needed]

In the LDS Church today, both men and women may enter a celestial marriage with only one living partner at a time.[citation needed] A man may be sealed to more than one woman.[citation needed] If his wife dies, he may enter another celestial marriage, and be sealed to both his living wife and deceased wife or wives.[citation needed] Many Mormons believe that all these marriages will be valid in the eternities and the husband will live together in the celestial kingdom as a family with all to whom he was sealed.[citation needed] In 1998, the LDS Church changed the policy and now also allows women to be sealed to more than one man.[citation needed] A woman, however, may not be sealed to more than one man at a time while she is alive. She may only be sealed to subsequent partners after she has died.[6] Proxy sealings, like proxy baptisms, are offered to the person in the afterlife.[citation needed] According to church teachings, the celestial marriage covenant, as with other covenants, requires the continued righteousness of the couple to remain in effect after this life.[citation needed] If only one remains righteous that person is promised a righteous eternal companion in eternity.[citation needed]

New Testament

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In Matthew 22:28–30, Jesus is asked about the continuing state of marriage after death and he replies that after the resurrection of the dead, "people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven." Mormons do not interpret Jesus' statement as meaning "that marriages will not exist after the Resurrection, but that marriages will not be performed after the Resurrection; for all questions of marital status must be settled before that time."[7] Thus, Mormons believe that only mortals can be the subject of an eternal marriage ordinance; mortals may receive the ordinance for themselves or by proxy for those who have already died.

Sealing

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Main article: Sealing (Latter Day Saints)

Celestial marriage is an instance of the LDS Church doctrine of sealing.[citation needed] Following a celestial marriage, not only are the couple sealed as husband and wife, but children born into the marriage are also sealed to that family.[citation needed] In cases where the husband and wife have been previously married civilly and there are already children from their union, the children accompany their parents to the temple and are sealed to their parents following the marriage ceremony.[citation needed]

LDS Church members believe that through this sealing, the family, constituted of a man, wife, and children will live together forever, if obedient to God's commandments.[citation needed]

Relationship to plural marriage

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There is substantial doctrinal dispute between the LDS Church and its offshoots as to whether celestial marriage is plural or monogamous.[citation needed] Some critics[who?] argue that the official Mormon scripture, Doctrine and Covenants section 132,[8] which describes celestial marriage, specifies that only plural marriages qualify. Others[who?] argue that the text indicates "a wife", which would mean that any temple sealing ordinance of marriage could qualify. The latter view is supported by the official History of the Church, which indicates that marriage for eternity was monogamous except in "some circumstances":[9]

[I]t is borne in mind that at this time the new law of marriage for the Church—marriage for eternity, including plurality of wives under some circumstances—was being introduced by the Prophet [Joseph Smith], it is very likely that the following article was written with a view of applying the principles here expounded to the conditions created by introducing said marriage system.

In the following quote, apostle Lorenzo Snow, who later became president of the LDS Church, refers to "celestial plural marriage" rather than simply "celestial marriage":

He knew the voice of God—he knew the commandment of the Almighty to him was to go forward—to set the example, and establish Celestial plural marriage. He knew that he had not only his own prejudices and pre-possessions to combat and to overcome, but those of the whole Christian world...; but God ... had given the commandment.[10] Nevertheless, it is correct that "celestial marriage" was often used to refer to plural marriage.[11][12][13]

Mormon fundamentalists cleave to the view that there is no celestial marriage that is not plural, while the LDS Church teaches otherwise.[citation needed] As viewed by the LDS Church, plural marriages in the early church, when properly authorized and conducted, were, in fact, celestial marriages; but celestial marriages need not be plural marriages.[citation needed] In addition, since celestial marriages must be performed by someone with proper priesthood authority, and since plural marriage is no longer authorized by the LDS Church, no authorized celestial plural marriages can be performed today.[citation needed] Mormon fundamentalists argue, in return, that they have retained the priesthood authority to perform these marriages.[citation needed]

Swedenborg

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The Christian theologian Emanuel Swedenborg taught in his 1750s book Heaven and Hell that marriage will exist after death,[14] but not procreation.[15] Church Presiding Bishop Edward Hunter (Mormon) said Joseph Smith told him he believed Swedenborg "had a view of the world to come",[16] and LDS historian D. Michael Quinn wrote that Smith was influenced by Swedenborg's teachings.[17]: 490–493  Swedenborg's teachings spawned several Swedenborgian branches of Christianity.[18]

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Daynes, Kathryn M. (2015), "Celestial Marriage (Eternal and Plural)", in Givens, Terryl L.; Barlow, Philip L. (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Mormonism, Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199778362.013.23, ISBN 978-0-19-977836-2
  2. ^ Todd, Jay M. (June 1971). "Information For Brides and Grooms Planning a Temple Marriage". New Era. LDS Church.
  3. ^ "What is marriage?". ChurchofJesusChrist.org. LDS Church. Retrieved May 8, 2019.
  4. ^ Smith, William Victor (February 27, 2018). Textual Studies of the Doctrine and Covenants: The Plural Marriage Revelation. Greg Kofford Books. p. 23. The term celestial marriage was almost universally synonymous with polygamy in Mormonism until 1890, after which it gradually came to refer exclusively to sealing.
  5. ^ Embry, Jessie L. (1994). "The History of Polygamy". Heritage.Utah.gov. Utah State Historical Society. Archived from the original on November 7, 2018. Retrieved December 31, 2018. Those involved in plural marriages after 1904 were excommunicated; and those married between 1890 and 1904 were not to have church callings where other members would have to sustain them. Although the Mormon church officially prohibited new plural marriages after 1904, many plural husbands and wives continued to cohabit until their deaths in the 1940s and 1950s.
  6. ^ Church Handbook of Instructions, LDS Church, 1998, p. 72
  7. ^ "Chapter 7: Matthew 19–23". New Testament Student Manual. Salt Lake City, Utah: LDS Church. 2014.
  8. ^ Doctrine and Covenents 132
  9. ^ Roberts 1909, pp. 134–136 (emphasis added)
  10. ^ Snow, Eliza R. (1884), The Biography and Family Record of Lorenzo Snow, Salt Lake City: Deseret News, pp. 69–70, OCLC 4623484
  11. ^ Cannon 1869[page needed]
  12. ^ Pratt 1869[page needed]
  13. ^ Smith 1869[page needed]
  14. ^ Almond, Philip C. (May 26, 2016). Afterlife: A History of Life after Death. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 165–166. ISBN 978-0-85772-806-7 – via Google Books. This leads Swedenborg again to break with the long Christian tradition of there being no marriage in heaven (or at least of no weddings in heaven). Marriage in heaven is, however, different to that on earth. It is a meeting not of bodies but of minds. 'Marriage love,' he wrote, finds its source in the union of two people in one mind. In heaven, this is called 'living together', and they are not called 'two' but 'one'. Consequently two spouses in heaven are not called two angels but one angel. Because the heavenly communities consist of like-minded people, it is a matter of instant attraction: 'So at first sight they love each other most deeply, see each other as married partners, and enter into their marriage.' Heavenly weddings are followed by feasts that are attended by many.
  15. ^ Meyers, Mary Ann (April 1, 1981). "Death in Swedenborgian and Mormon Eschatology". Dialogue. 14 (1): 61–62. doi:10.2307/45224958. ISSN 0012-2157.
  16. ^ Hunter, William Edward (1970). Cannon, Janath Rusell (ed.). Edward Hunter: Faithful Steward. Mrs. W.E. Hunter. p. 51 – via Family Search.
  17. ^ Quinn, D. Michael (1998). Early Mormonism and the Magic World View (Revised and Enlarged ed.). Salt Lake City: Signature Books. ISBN 1-56085-089-2.
  18. ^ Spinks, Bryan D. (March 2, 2017). Reformation and Modern Rituals and Theologies of Baptism: From Luther to Contemporary Practices. Routledge. p. 116. ISBN 978-1-351-90583-1.

References

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