that a brighter destiny awaits us?--has been fostered by custom and
ignorance, and even taught as doctrine by substituting the precepts
of men for the word of God. It is embodied in the marriage ceremony,
wherein the officiating minister, addressing the principals at the
moment of their supreme concern, says: I join you in the bonds of
matrimony until death does you part.
How like the thud of clods upon the casket in an open grave! Must we
tolerate the shadow of death as an intruding guest at every wedding?
Verily so, if marriage be nothing more than an earthly contract,
regulated by law solely as a human institution; for no legislature,
congress, or parliament of men, no synod, church, council, or
ecclesiastical hierarchy of human origination, can legislate or
administer ordinances of other than earthly validity. To claim
jurisdiction in post-mortal affairs on the basis of human assumption is
both sacrilege and blasphemy.
The current marriage ceremony, uniting the parties until death does
them part, is framed in consistency and propriety. As an institution of
men it is honorable and legally binding. And so are all the obligations
and endowments resulting therefrom, including the exalting status
of parenthood. But all such relationships are to end with death if
validated only by man's authority. Can we consistently affirm that if
the grave terminates the claim of parents upon each other it shall not
likewise end the claim of parents upon children, and of children upon
parents?
But behold, there is hope! God has provided a way by which the family
unit may survive the grave and endure throughout eternity. It is
the Divine intent that marriage be an eternal union, and that the
relationship between parents and offspring shall be made valid in the
hereafter as here.
We affirm that the Holy Priesthood has been restored to earth by direct
dispensation from the heavens, and this in accordance with prophecy and
Scripture, and that the authority of this Priesthood, when administered
as God has directed, is effective both on earth and in heaven. (Compare
Matt. 16:19; 18:18.)
We affirm that even as baptism, when administered as our Lord
prescribed, by those invested with the Holy Priesthood, shall be a
means to salvation beyond the grave, so other ordinances, including
the sealing of wives to husbands and children to parents, may be
authoritatively solemnized so as to be valid after death. To this
effect hath the Lord spoken respecting the everlasting covenant, which
embraces marriage for both time and eternity.
"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. . . . And again, verily I say unto you, if
a man marry a wife by my word, which is my law, and by the new and
everlasting covenant, and it is sealed unto them by the Holy Spirit
of promise . . . it shall be done unto them in all things whatsoever
my servant hath put upon them, in time, and through all eternity,
and shall be of full force when they are out of the world; and they
shall pass by the angels, and the Gods, which are set there, to their
exaltation and glory in all things, as hath been sealed upon their
heads, which glory shall be a fulness and a continuation of the seeds
for ever and ever." (D&C 132.)
-- 62 --
THEY NEITHER MARRY
Nor Give in Marriage
CERTAIN Sadducees once came to Christ with a question concerning
martial relations following the resurrection. The real point of their
inquiry was in part hidden, or, in current vernacular, camouflaged.
Their chief purpose was that of disputing the doctrine of the
resurrection itself, the actuality of which the Sadducees as a sect
strenuously denied.
They cited a case, presumably hypothetical, of a woman who had been
married, and then six times remarried under the levirate law, and seven
times widowed, and who eventually had died, childless. The question as
submitted was: "Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be
of the seven?"
"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." (Matt. 22:28-30.)
Three of the evangelists make record of the incident; and the most
extended version of our Lord's reply is given by Luke (20:34-38).
From this we gather that while marriage and giving in marriage--that
is to say the association of eligible parties in wedlock, and
the authoritative solemnization of the union by a duly qualified
official--are necessary and honorable undertakings among mortals,
they to whom the Savior referred shall neither marry nor be given in
marriage in the resurrection, but at best shall be made equal to the
angels.
The inquisitorial Sadducees must have felt the force of the Master's
rebuke in being told that they were in error "not knowing the
scriptures nor the power of God," for they prided themselves on their
learning and superior qualities of understanding. Nevertheless, the
reproof was merited, for had they opened their hearts to the spirit
of Scripture, had they considered with honest desire to comprehend
the words of the Lord who spoke to them, whose utterances were and
are Scripture of the highest and most sacred order, they would have
been able to distinguish between ceremonies performed for time only
under the regulations of human law, and ordinances administered by the
authority of God for both time and eternity.
Sacred rites that pertain both to the period of mortality and to the
life beyond must be solemnized on earth. Compliance with the laws
and ordinances of the Gospel, or the rejection of these, determines
the individual test for which the world was prepared as the abode
of men--to "prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things
whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them." (Pearl of Great
Price, p. 66.)
Thus, in the case of the initiatory ordinance, baptism, it is essential
that it be administered to mankind in the flesh; for Scripture nowhere
avers that in and after the resurrection men shall be baptized in water
for the remission of sins done in mortality. And so is it with respect
to marriage.
True, as we have heretofore seen, the merciful economy of God makes
possible the vicarious administration of baptism for the disembodied,
that is for the dead prior to their resurrection; but the actual
baptism is to be solemnized by and upon mortal beings, who, having
been already baptized for themselves, may officiate for their dead
kindred by complying with the revealed laws and regulations. So also
the marital union of the worthy dead, who have lived in lawful and
honorable wedlock as regulated by secular law, may be confirmed and
superseded by the ordinance of Celestial Marriage, wherein the family
relationship is perpetuated by sealing under the authority of the Holy
Priesthood, to be of force and effect in and after the resurrection
from the dead.
The family relationship was primarily designed to be perpetual; and
only as mankind have forfeited or rejected the ministration of the Holy
Priesthood has mere temporal union become a necessary yet but partial
substitute for the eternal order of marriage. Paul's comprehensive
precept "Neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman
without the man, in the Lord" (1 Cor. 11:11) has an application beyond
the marital state in mortality.
The full measure of progression in eternity is unattainable without
the perpetuity of the family organization; and the family unit must be
established on earth through the order of Celestial Marriage, which
comprises marriage for time as well as for eternity, or, in the case of
the dead by the confirmation and extension of earthly wedlock through
the vicarious sealing of the parties in Celestial Marriage. Otherwise,
that is if the marriage of any couple shall have been by secular
authority only, without the authority of the Holy Priesthood, the
parties shall find in the resurrection that neither are they married
nor can they then be given in marriage.
Following the visitation of the Risen Christ to the Nephites on the
Western Continent we read of the marriage institution associated with
specific blessings, indicating the authorized administration of the
higher and eternal order of matrimony: "And they were married, and
given in marriage, and were blessed according to the multitude of the
promises which the Lord had made unto them." (Book of Mormon, 4 Nephi
1:11.)
Concerning those who are wedded for this life only, the word of God
as revealed in the present age is in strict accord with the Lord's
affirmation to the Sadducees:
"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." (D&C 132:16.)
-- 63 --
CELESTIAL MARRIAGE
Eternal Relationship of the Sexes
"NEITHER is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the
man, in the Lord." (1 Cor. 11:11.)
This scriptural epigram loses much of its significance if restricted
to the period of mortal life. Admitting the actuality of individual
existence after death, both during the interval of disembodiment and
beyond in the resurrected state, we must in consistency accept the
fact of the eternity of sex. Man will be man and woman woman in the
hereafter as here.
Marriage as regarded by the Latter-day Saints is ordained of God and
designed to be an eternal relationship. The Church affirms it to be not
only a temporal and legal contract, of binding effect during the mortal
life of the parties, but also a solemn covenant that shall endure
beyond the grave. In the complete ordinance of marriage as administered
within the Church, the man and the woman are placed under covenant of
mutual fidelity and union not until death does them part, but for time
and for all eternity.
A contract as far-reaching as this, extending not only throughout the
period of earth-life, but beyond death, requires for its validation an
authority superior to any that can be originated by human enactment;
and such authority is found in the Holy Priesthood, which, given of
God, is eternal.
Only as God delegates authority to man, with promise that
administration under that authority shall be acknowledged in heaven,
can any contract be made in this world and be of assured validity after
the death of the parties concerned. Marriage is properly authorized by
legal statute; and every contract of matrimony entered into as the law
provides is honorable, and unless dissolved by the operation of law is
effective during the life of the respective parties thereto. But it is
beyond the power of man to legislate for eternity.
This is made plain in a revelation given to the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints in 1843, part of which follows:
"All covenants, contracts, bonds, obligations, oaths, vows,
performances, connections, associations, or expectations, that are not
made, and entered into, and sealed, by the Holy Spirit of promise,
of him who is anointed, both as well for time and for all eternity,
and that too most holy, by revelation and commandment . . . are of no
efficacy, virtue or force, in and after the resurrection from the dead;
for all contracts that are not made unto this end, have an end when
men are dead. . . . And everything that is in the world, whether it be
ordained of men, by thrones, or principalities, or powers, or things of
name, whatsoever they may be, that are not by me, or by my word, saith
the Lord, shall be thrown down, and shall not remain after men are
dead, neither in nor after the resurrection, saith the Lord your God."
(D&C 132:7, 13.)
In application of this principle and law to the covenants of matrimony,
the revelation continues:
"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."
This holy order of matrimony, involving covenant and blessing for both
time and eternity, is distinctively known in the Church as Celestial
Marriage, and is administered to those only who are adjudged to be
of worthy life, eligible for admission to the House of the Lord; for
this sacred ordinance together with others of eternal validity may
be solemnized only within the Temples reared and dedicated for such
exalted service.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, however, sanctions and
acknowledges legal marriages for mortality alone, and solemnizes such
unions, as the secular law provides, between parties who do not enter
the Temple or who voluntarily choose the lesser and temporal order of
matrimony. The ordinance of Celestial Marriage comprises and includes
marriage for time, and is therefore administered to none who are not
legally eligible to marry according to the law of the land.
Marriage that shall be valid after death must be solemnized here, as
must all other ordinances required of men in the flesh, and that under
the authority given of God for earthly administration. The resurrected
state of those, otherwise worthy, who are wedded for mortality alone
and that under laws created by man, is set forth in both ancient and
modern Scripture as that of angels or ministers, unblessed by eternal
increase:
"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, for ever and ever." (D&C 132:17.)
-- 64 --
THERE WAS WAR IN HEAVEN
Primeval Conflict Over Satanic Autocracy
"AND there was war in heaven; Michael and his angels fought against
the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not;
neither was their place found any more in heaven." See Rev. 12:7-9.
John the Revelator beheld in vision this scene of primeval conflict
between the hosts of unembodied spirits. Plainly this battle antedated
the beginning of human history, for the dragon or Satan had not then
been expelled from heaven, and at the time of his first recorded
activity among mortals he was a fallen being.
In this antemortal contest the forces were unequally divided; Satan
drew to his standard only a third of the spirit children of God (Rev.
12:4; D&C 29:36-38 and 76:25-27), while the majority either fought
with Michael or refrained from active opposition, and so accomplished
the purpose of their "first estate." The angels who followed Satan
"kept not their first estate" (Jude 6) and so forfeited the glorious
possibilities of an advanced or "second estate." (Pearl of Great Price,
p. 66.) The victory was won by Michael and his angels; and Satan,
theretofore a "son of the morning," was cast out of heaven, yea "he was
cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him." (Rev.
12:9.)
About eight centuries prior to John's time, the principal facts of
these momentous occurrences were revealed to Isaiah the prophet, who
lamented with inspired pathos the fall of so great a one as Lucifer,
and specified selfish ambition as the cause. Read Isa. 14:12-15.
The question at issue in the war in heaven is of first importance to
human-kind. From the record of Isaiah we learn that Lucifer, then
of exalted rank among the spirits, sought to aggrandize himself
without regard to the rights and agency of others. He aspired to the
unrighteous powers of absolute autocracy. The principle for which
Michael, the archangel contended, and which Lucifer sought to nullify,
comprised the individual liberties or the free agency of the spirit
hosts destined to be embodied in the flesh. The whole matter is set
forth in a revelation given to Moses and repeated through Joseph Smith,
the first prophet of the present dispensation:
"And I, the Lord God, spake unto Moses, saying: That Satan, whom thou
hast commanded in the name of mine Only Begotten, is the same which
was from the beginning, and he came before me, saying--Behold, here
am I, send me, I will be thy son, and I will redeem all mankind, that
one soul shall not be lost, and surely I will do it; wherefore give
me thine honor. But, behold, my Beloved Son, which was my Beloved and
Chosen from the beginning, said unto me--Father, thy will be done, and
the glory be thine forever. Wherefore, because that Satan rebelled
against me, and sought to destroy the agency of man, which I, the Lord
God, had given him, and also, that I should give unto him mine own
power; by the power of mine Only Begotten, I caused that he should be
cast down. And he became Satan, yea, even the devil, the father of all
lies, to deceive and to blind men, and to lead them captive at his
will, even as many as would not hearken unto my voice." (Pearl of Great
Price, pp. 15-16.)
Thus it is shown that before this earth was tenanted by man, Christ and
Satan together with the hosts of the spirit offspring of God existed as
intelligent individuals, with ability and power of choice, and freedom
to follow the leaders whom they elected to obey. In that innumerable
concourse of spirit intelligences, the Father's plan, whereby His
children would be advanced to their second estate, was submitted and
doubtless discussed.
Satan's plan of compulsion whereby all would be forcibly guided
through mortality, bereft of freedom to act and agency to choose, so
circumscribed that forfeiture of salvation would be impossible and not
one soul could be lost, was rejected; and the humble offer to Jesus
the Firstborn--to live among men as their Exemplar, observing the
sanctity of man's agency while teaching men to use aright that Divine
heritage--was accepted. The decision brought war, which resulted in
the vanquishment of Lucifer and his angels, and they were cast out,
deprived of the boundless privileges incident to the mortal or second
estate.
Ever since the beginning of human existence on earth, the deposed son
of the morning and his followers have been compassing the captivity
of souls. The plan of salvation is the gospel of liberty. And now, in
these the last days, immediately precedent to the return of Christ, who
shall come to rule in righteousness on earth, the arch-fiend is making
desperate effort to enthrall mankind under the autocracy of hell. The
conflict under which the earth has been made to groan was a repetition
of the premundane war, whereby the free agency of spirits was
vindicated; and the eventual issue of the later struggle was equally
assured.
-- 65 --
WE LIVED BEFORE WE WERE BORN
Our Primeval Childhood
IT is a grievous error to assume that mortal birth marks the beginning
of one's individual existence. Quite as reasonable is it to hold that
death means annihilation of the soul. The preexistent or antemortal
state of man is as plainly affirmed by Scripture as is the fact of life
beyond the grave.
We are too prone to regard the body as the man, and this mistake breeds
the thought that life in the flesh is all there is to existence. There
is in man an immortal spirit that existed as an intelligent being
before the body was begotten, and that shall continue to exist as the
same immortal individual after the body has gone to decay. Divine
revelation attests the solemn truth that man is eternal.
No one who accepts the Holy Bible as the word of God can consistently
deny the preexistence of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the first chapter
of the Gospel written by John, Christ is designated as the Word, and
the Savior's preexistence and primeval Godship are thus set forth: "In
the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was
God." We read further: "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among
us." (John 1:1 and 14.)
Our Lord's personal testimony is to the same effect. Of the disciples
he asked: "What and if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he
was before?" (John 6:62.) And on another occasion He averred "I came
forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave
the world, and go to the Father." (John 16:28.) In solemn prayer He
implored, "And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with
the glory which I had with thee before the world was." (John 17:5.)
Nevertheless, as to earthly birth Christ was born a Child and lived to
maturity as a Man among men. Even as His bodily birth was the union of
a preexistent spirit with a tabernacle of flesh and bones, such also is
the birth of every human being.
Everyone of us was known by name and character to the Father, who is
"the God of the spirits of all flesh" (Numbers 16:22; 27:16), in our
antemortal or primeval childhood; and from among the hosts of His
unembodied children God chose for special service on earth such as were
best suited to the accomplishment of His purposes. In illustration
consider the Lord's definite revelation to Jeremiah the prophet:
"Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest
forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet
unto the nations." (Jer. 1:5.)
More than twelve centuries before Jeremiah's time God had revealed unto
Abraham the fact of the preexistence of the spirits of mankind, as also
the diverse capacities of those spirits, and the Divine purpose in
preparing the earth for their habitation. Thus runs the record:
"Now the Lord had shown unto me, Abraham, the intelligences that were
organized before the world was; and among all these there were many of
the noble and great ones; And God saw these souls that they were good,
and he stood in the midst of them, and he said: These I will make my
rulers; for he stood among those that were spirits, and he saw that
they were good; and he said unto me: Abraham, thou art one of them;
thou wast chosen before thou wast born. And there stood one among them
that was like unto God, and he said unto those who were with him: We
will go down, for there is space there, and we will take of these
materials, and we will make an earth whereon these may dwell; And we
will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever
the Lord their God shall command them; And they who keep their first
estate shall be added upon; and they who keep not their first estate
shall not have glory in the same kingdom with those who keep their
first estate; and they who keep their second estate shall have glory
added upon their heads forever and ever." (Pearl of Great Price, pp.
65-66.)
Our life in the flesh is but one stage in the course of the soul's
eternal progress, a link connecting the eternities past with the
eternities yet to come. The purpose of our mortal probation is that of
education, training, trial, and test, whereby we demonstrate whether we
will obey the commandments of the Lord our God and so lay hold on the
boundless opportunities of advancement in the eternal worlds, or elect
to do evil and forfeit the boon of citizenship in the Kingdom of Heaven.
The condition upon which mankind may have place in that Kingdom is
compliance with the requirements laid down by Jesus Christ the Redeemer
and Savior of the world, whose name is "the only name which shall be
given under heaven, whereby salvation shall come unto the children of
men." (Pearl of Great Price, p. 33.)
-- 66 --
MAN IS ETERNAL
Successive Stages of Existence
THERE are four states, conditions, or stages in the advancement
of the individual soul, specified in Sacred Writ. These are (1)
the unembodied, (2) the embodied, (3) the disembodied, and (4) the
resurrected state.