posted
My spouse and I were doing our nightly scripture reading and we came across a question. We are reading Luke 20:1-46 and got into a discussion on Mormon theology. Usually I can answer any question from the church perspective, but I have run into a brick wall.
In verse 34-36 it reads
quote: 34 And Jesus answering said unto them, The children of this world marry, and are given in marriage:
35 But the which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage•:
36 Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection.
So my spouse asks, "What does that mean? Does that mean we don't have eternal families?"
I responded with, "Well, we don't believe anyone can marry after they die, that is why it is so important for us to do proxy work. We can marry people in the temples."
(For those of you not LDS, we have a Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible and the Doctrine and Covenants to help answer doctrinal irregularities found in the Bible.)
My spouse retorted, "But I heard if you never had the opportunity to marry, you could marry in the next life."
Now I am stuck. I heard that too. If we can marry in the next life, why is proxy eternal unions necessary? We only do proxy unions if they were married in this life. What if someone was single and in the next life met Mr. Right? Would they submit their names to an angel who would take it to our world during the millennium? Will they have a temple to be sealed in? Will they not need temple marriage? *scratches head*
posted
It doesn't, because the issue I am talking about was never addressed.
OK. I have a friend who is a Japanese girl. It seems she will never get married. If she dies but is righteous, I understand she will have a chance to marry. Since she (hypothetically_ never got married in this life, how will those performing the proxy-marriage know who to seal her with? If she doesn't need a proxy marriage, is it so critical that we do temple work for dead married people?
I guess it could e like kids who die before 8 and never need baptized. Anyway, I was just wondering if the church had a clarification on the matter.
This post is actually not intended to be a debate or a bash. It is not intended to bring in other religions and what is right or wrong, I just am wondering if anyone in the church heard an answer to my question.
Posts: 1034 | Registered: Mar 2004
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posted
Alexa, my thoughts on that have to do with the coming millenium we will have after Christ returns to the earth. I believe there will be much work to do between the veil. Temples will be open 24 hours a day just trying to get the work done for all the billions of people that have lived on the earth.
Posts: 2102 | Registered: Dec 2000
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posted
Yeah, I have thought of that. I honestly don't know the answer, but most of us usually say, "It will all be worked out in the Millenium." After all, what about all the records we don't have access to? Won't we need divine intervention for that? I imagine your friend may find her sweetheart in the next life and find a way to let us know during that same period of time.
This also brings to mind the subject of polygamy, the idea put forth by some that by nature in the eternities there will be more women worthy and desirous of eternal marriage than men. But when we tell unmarried women that their hearts desire for marriage will be fulfilled in the eternities, we don't often suggest that it might be in a polygamous marriage because there won't be enough elligable men for each and every woman who wants one. These all get into speculations. Our prophets tell us not to worry about it. Some worry, some don't.
Posts: 7050 | Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
Alexa, are you still determined to keep your gender a mystery? Just wondering. I have my bets on what you are, I'd be interested in knowing if I am right. Plus, I have been away for the last month or so, so you may have revealed and I missed it. If you were willing, you could just email me and it could be our little secret. Posts: 7050 | Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
Alexa, I think it's worth noting that eternal marriage is everywhere described as a "new and everlasting covenant" ... which I take to mean that it is unique to our time, or at least not widely taught by any previous incarnation of God's church. Hence, it wasn't in the picture during Christ's ministry.
Christ was answering a very specific doctrinal quandary proposed by representatives of a narrow sect of the Jewish faith that rejected the idea of resurrection altogether. I don't think His answer necessarily reflects the intricacies of the afterlife as we look at them today. Mostly, his answer seems to say, "Shut up, there is a resurrection, nimrods."
Of course, there's no way to know exactly how things will work in the hereafter. We know little enough from scraps and comments scattered through the scriptures, and as individuals, we all have a tendency to extend our favorite parts of our faith into the unknown. Some people get hung up on organizational details of the celestial kingdom. Some people get swept away by all the nebulous happiness that will go on there. Some people can't stop thinking about the prospect of creating stuff with God.
Personally, I think it'll be a lot like life now, only with a lot fewer mean people. We'll still be humans, just better ones, and I think we'll have the chance to form new relationships of whatever sort ... and we'll probably look back on today with fond laughing memories. "Wow, we used to worry about THAT? Ha ha ha!" Posts: 1907 | Registered: Feb 2000
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posted
Now, I'm not Mormon, obviously, but I've always been fascinated by the interest of Christians in Heaven. My parents loved to go to what I like to call "hymn rallies" where everyone says how tired they are of this life, that they're just wanderers, and that they can't wait to get home to Heaven.
The sacreligious, cynical part of me always wanted to let them all know that their wait needn't last any longer if they were that anxious about it.
Well, anyway, there is so little description of Heaven in the scriptures (although I gather there seems to be more so in Mormon scriptures) and I've never been terribly inspired by the pictures painted by my old Sunday school teachers (reminds me of a Simpsons episode...).
Maybe it just ought to be chalked up to my failed human imagineation... Posts: 1295 | Registered: Jan 2003
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posted
One quick answer to the question is to point out that, in LDS theology, no weddings/sealings will take place after the resurrection. Anybody that is not sealed before the resurrection will never be. In other words, all such ordinances must be completed before the person in question is resurrected.
In those verses, Jesus talks specifically about the conditions at the time of the resurrection.
One further point is that weddings/sealings are conducted only on earth, and performed by mortals. Nobody will participate in a weddings/sealing after they have died, although they may benefit from a sealing performed on their behalf.
Posts: 1652 | Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
fallow- If you're asking if that's the common conception among LDS people, it isn't. I don't think that's what he was saying, either. Maybe you were just being silly, but just in case.
Posts: 377 | Registered: May 1999
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posted
Just a couple of thoughts. First, this is from Doctrine and Covenants 132:"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."
Which is familiar scripture to most Mormons. Basically any marriage not sealed by the spirit of promise has no effect after this life. The people who are not married become angels, according to D&C 132: "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 cservants, to minister for those who are worthy of a far more, and an exceeding, and an eternal weight of glory."
17 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"
now compare the preceding verses with what is said in Luke:
"The children of this world marry, and are given in marriage:
35 But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage:
36 Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels"
They sound very similar, with the exception that the account from Luke appears to be referring to what would be in Mormon doctrine those who inherit the terrestrial kingdom while the D&C132 account refers to those who inherit the celestial kingdom.
Posts: 4548 | Registered: May 2001
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posted
I don't have the time to look this up right now and if I can get to it I will, however, if a person does not have the opportunity to be married in this life through no fault of their own, they will be provided for. I have always understood this to mean they will have a spouse in the hereafter. There are many righteous Saints who pass without being able to marry in this life. Because marriage between a man and a woman is so vital to our progression hereafter I can not imagine that some will be denied that merely because of circumstance.
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