Marriage

The gospel is all about marriage and family. The creation was for Adam, and creation was not good until Eve was given as a spouse and helpmeet for Adam. From this simple account of man’s origin, one notes that everything from the stars above to the world itself led inexorably to the marriage of Adam and Eve. As a couple, the two were the image of God. The first commandment given to mankind was to multiply and replenish the earth. The account in Genesis testifies that God’s creation of this world was to facilitate marriage of man and woman in order to produce a family. God performed the first marriage before death entered the world. At the creation, marriage was as eternal as man before the Fall. The restoration points to eternal marriage as man’s glorious destiny. The restoration also began to make eternal marriage in the image of God again possible. Therefore, all the elements of the gospel point back to marriage as God’s final purpose for mankind.¹ Marriage is a great venue for learning obedience, sacrifice, chastity, and consecration. Marriage is a laboratory to prove men and women and to see if they will give heed to God’s direction.² Marriage, above everything else, is the image of God. This is what God intends to preserve into eternity. It is so much easier for God to take people who have the kind of marriage that is described in Jacob 2:11 and preserve them than it is to take someone who may know all the mysteries but whose marriage is in ruins and preserve them. The man and woman who have this kind of pure marriage are more godly.³

The Lord has reaffirmed in revealed scripture to this generation that: Marriage was, in the beginning, between one man and one woman, and was intended to remain so for the sons of Adam and the daughters of Eve, that they may multiply and replenish the Earth. I commanded that there shall not any man have save it be one wife, and concubines he shall have none. I, the Lord your God, delight in the chastity of women, and in the respect of men for their wives. Marriage was established at the beginning as a covenant by the word and authority of God, between the woman and God, the man and woman, and the man and God. It was ordained by my word to endure for ever. Mankind fell, but a covenant established by my word cannot fail, and therefore in death they were not to be parted. It was my will that all marriages would follow the pattern of the beginning, and therefore all other marriages would be ordained as at the first. But fallen men refused my covenant, did not hearken to my word, nor receive my promise, and marriages fell outside my rule, disorganized and without me, therefore unable to endure beyond the promises made between the mortal man and the mortal woman, to end when they are dead…. Only those things that are by me shall remain in and after the resurrection. Marriage by me, or by my word, received as a holy covenant between the woman and I, the man and woman, and the man and I, will endure beyond death and into my Father’s Kingdom, worlds without end. Those who abide this covenant will pass by the angels who are appointed, and enter into exaltation. Concerning them it shall be said, You shall come forth in the first resurrection, and if they covenant after the first resurrection then in the next resurrection, and shall inherit in my Kingdom their own thrones, dominions, principalities, powers, all heights and depths and shall pass by the angels to receive exaltation, the glory of which shall be a fullness and a continuation of their posterity for ever. Marriage is necessary for the exaltation of the man and woman and is ordained by me through the Holy Spirit of Promise, or in other words by my covenant, my law, and my authority. Like the marriage in Eden, marriage is a sacrament for a sacred place, on holy ground, in my presence, or where the Holy Spirit of Promise can minister. But rebellion has kept mankind from inheriting what I ordained in the beginning, and therefore women and men have been left to marry apart from me. Every marriage established by me requires that I be part of the covenant for it to endure, for Endless is my name and without me the marriage cannot be without end: for so long as I endure it shall also endure, if it is made by my word and covenant. But know also that I can do my work at any time, for I have sacred space above, and can do my work despite earth and hell….Whenever I have people who are mine, I command them to build a house, a holy habitation, a sacred place where my presence can dwell or where the Holy Spirit of Promise can minister, because it is in such a place that it has been ordained to recover you, establish by my word and my oath your marriages….Therefore the marriage covenant is needed for all those who would likewise seek to obtain from me the right to continue their seed into eternity, for only through marriage can Thrones and Kingdoms be established (T&C 157:34–43).⁴