Celestial marriage

{{short description|Mormon doctrine that marriage can last forever in heaven}} {{for-multi|the Mormon temple marriage ceremony|Sealing (Mormonism)}} {{more citations needed|date=January 2012}} {{Use mdy dates|date=January 2025}} {{Use American English|date=January 2025}}

[[File:Phil and Marlene.jpg|thumb|175px|A couple following their marriage in the Manti Utah Temple]] '''Celestial marriage,''' also called the '''New and Everlasting Covenant of Marriage''', '''Eternal Marriage''' (synonymized after 1890), or '''Temple Marriage,''' is the doctrine that marriage can last forever in heaven, taught in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and branches of Mormon fundamentalism.<ref name="Oxford">{{cite book |chapter-url=https://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199778362.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199778362-e-23|chapter=Celestial Marriage (Eternal and Plural)|title=The Oxford Handbook of Mormonism |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Oxford_Handbook_of_Mormonism/7c0fCgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0 |year=2015 |publisher= Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199778362.013.23 |isbn=978-0-19-977836-2 |editor1-last=Givens |editor1-first=Terryl L. |editor1-link=Terryl L. Givens|editor2-first=Philip L. |editor2-last=Barlow |last1=Daynes |first1=Kathryn M. }}</ref>

==In the LDS Church== LDS Church leaders teach that family relationships can continue beyond death via the sealing ordinance. Today, the church commonly uses the term “celestial marriage” to refer to a monogamous union sealed in a temple for time and all eternity. However, throughout most of the 19th century, church leaders consistently taught that “celestial marriage” was synonymous with polygamy as described in Doctrine and Covenants section 132.<ref name="Smith 23">{{Cite book |last=Smith |first=William Victor |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ITRjEAAAQBAJ |title=Textual Studies of the Doctrine and Covenants: The Plural Marriage Revelation |date=2018-02-27 |publisher=Greg Kofford Books |page=23}}</ref> The ordinance is associated with a covenant that takes place inside temples by those authorized to hold the sealing power. The only people allowed to enter the temple, be married there, or attend these sealings are those who hold an official temple recommend. Obtaining a temple recommend requires one to abide by LDS Church doctrine and be interviewed and considered worthy by their bishop and stake president. A prerequisite to contracting an eternal marriage, in addition to obtaining a temple recommend, involves undergoing the temple endowment, which involves making covenants of obedience and devotion to God.<ref>{{cite magazine|first=Jay M.|last=Todd|url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/new-era/1971/06/information-for-brides-and-grooms-planning-a-temple-marriage?lang=eng|title=Information For Brides and Grooms Planning a Temple Marriage|magazine=New Era|date=June 1971|publisher=LDS Church}}</ref>

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, and being 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. The religion, citing {{lds|Matthew|matt|16|19}} and {{lds|Matthew|matt|18|18}}, distinguishes itself 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 the couple abides by these covenants.<ref>{{cite web |title=What is marriage? |url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/topics/marriage?lang=eng |website=ChurchofJesusChrist.org |publisher=LDS Church |access-date=8 May 2019}}</ref>

In the 19th century, the term “celestial marriage” was essentially synonymous with polygamy (called plural marriage), which many leaders taught was required for exaltation in the highest degree of the celestial kingdom.<ref name="Smith 23"/> New polygamous unions were publicly discontinued in the LDS Church with the 1890 Manifesto (though sealings did continue<ref>{{cite book |title=Proceedings Before the Committee on Privileges and Elections of the United States Senate in the Matter of the Protests Against the Right of Honorable Reed Smoot, a Senator from the State of Utah, to Hold His Seat |url=https://archive.org/details/SmootHearings/Smoot_1/page/n45/mode/2up?p=45 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |date=1904 |page=45}}</ref>), the 1904 Second Manifesto, and the 1933 Third Manifesto.<ref>{{cite book |last=Grant |first=Heber J. |title=Messages of the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, 1833-1964 |volume=5 |url=https://www.google.com/books/edition/Messages_of_the_First_Presidency_of_the_/TiMsAQAAMAAJ?hl=en |editor-last=Clark |editor-first=James R. |page=324 |date=1971 |publisher=Bookcraft |location=Salt Lake City}}</ref> Existing plural marriages continued into the mid-20th century.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Embry |first=Jessie L. |year=1994 |title=The History of Polygamy |url=https://heritage.utah.gov/history/uhg-history-polygamy-2 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181107044102/https://heritage.utah.gov/history/uhg-history-polygamy-2 |archive-date=2018-11-07 |access-date=2018-12-31 |website=Heritage.Utah.gov |publisher=Utah State Historical Society}}</ref> The term “celestial marriage” is still used in the polygamous sense by some Mormon fundamentalist denominations which branched from the LDS Church.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Quinn |first=D. Michael |date=1998-07-01 |author-link=D. Michael Quinn |title=Plural Marriage and Mormon Fundamentalism |url=https://www.dialoguejournal.com/articles/plural-marriage-and-mormon-fundamentalism/ |journal=Dialogue| publisher=University of Illinois Press |volume=31 |issue=2 |doi=10.2307/45226443 |issn=0012-2157}}</ref>{{rp|p=2}}

In the LDS Church today, both men and women may enter a celestial marriage with only one living partner at a time.{{citation needed|date=January 2025}} A man may be sealed to more than one woman if his wife dies; he may then enter another celestial marriage and be sealed to both the living wife and the deceased wife (or wives).{{citation needed|date=January 2025}} Many Latter-day Saints believe that all these sealings will be valid in the eternities, allowing the husband and all sealed wives to live together in the celestial kingdom.{{citation needed|date=January 2025}} In 1998, the LDS Church changed its policy and now allows women to be sealed to more than one man after her death, though not simultaneously while living.{{citation needed|date=January 2025}} A woman may be sealed to only one husband at a time while alive, and may only be sealed to subsequent partners after she has died.<ref name = CHOI>{{cite book |title=Church Handbook of Instructions |publisher=LDS Church |year=1998 |page=72 }}</ref> Proxy sealings, like proxy baptisms, are offered to the person in the afterlife.{{citation needed|date=January 2025}} 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|date=January 2025}} If only one remains righteous, that person is promised a righteous eternal companion in eternity.{{citation needed|date=January 2025}}

==New Testament== {{Primary sources|section|date=August 2016}} In {{bibleverse||Matthew|22:28-30|NIV}}, 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."<ref>{{cite book|publisher=LDS Church|chapter-url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/new-testament-student-manual/introduction-to-matthew/chapter-7?lang=eng |chapter=Chapter 7: Matthew 19–23|title=New Testament Student Manual|location=Salt Lake City, Utah|date=2014}}</ref> 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== {{Main|Sealing (Latter Day Saints)}}{{unsourced section|date=October 2025}} Celestial marriage is an instance of the LDS Church doctrine of sealing. 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. 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.

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.

==Relationship to plural marriage== During the 19th century, leaders of the LDS Church consistently used the terms “celestial marriage,” “patriarchal marriage,” and “the new and everlasting covenant of marriage” to refer specifically to plural marriage.<ref name="seer1853">{{cite journal|last=Pratt|first=Orson|journal=The Seer|date=1854|pages=12–15|url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Seer/Volume1/No1/Celestial_Marriage?oldid=398146|title=Celestial Marriage|volume=1|issue=1|via=Wikisource}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Snow|first=Eliza R.|title=The Biography and Family Record of Lorenzo Snow|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v9PUm5ie4o8C|year=1884|pages=69–70}}</ref><ref name=PrattCelestialMarriage>{{cite journal|last=Pratt|first=Orson|title=Celestial Marriage|journal=Journal of Discourses|volume=1|pages=53–66|url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Journal_of_Discourses/Volume_1/Celestial_Marriage|date=29 August 1852 |via=Wikisource}}</ref><ref name="three_discourses">{{cite book|author1=Orson Pratt|author2=George A. Smith|author3=George Q. Cannon|title=Discourses on Celestial Marriage|date=1869|pages=1–28|url=https://archive.org/details/per_utah-and-the-mormons_elders-orson-pratt-_1869|via=Internet Archives}}</ref> Early church leaders, such as Brigham Young, Orson Pratt, John Taylor, George Q. Cannon, and others, taught that “celestial marriage” in Doctrine and Covenants section 132 referred exclusively to polygamy and that plural marriage was required for exaltation in the highest degree of the celestial kingdom.<ref name="dc132"/> They used this terminology in public sermons, private writings, and official church publications well before 1890.<ref name=PrattCelestialMarriage/><ref>{{cite journal|last=Young|first=Brigham|author-link=Brigham Young|title=Beneficial Effects of Polygamy|journal=Journal of Discourses|volume=11|pages=268–269|url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Journal_of_Discourses/Volume_11/Delegate_Hooper%E2%80%94Beneficial_Effects_of_Polygamy,_etc.|date=1866|via=Wikisource}}</ref>

When Doctrine and Covenants 132 was recorded in 1843, the Revelation introduced polygamy by referencing biblical figures with multiple wives (e.g., Abraham, David, and Solomon) and used the term “new and everlasting covenant” to mean plural marriage. The text also admonished believers that rejecting this covenant would result in damnation, while its acceptance was portrayed as essential for full exaltation.<ref name="dc132">{{lds|Doctrine and Covenants|dc|132}}</ref><ref name="seer1853" /><ref>{{cite journal|last=Pratt|first=Orson|title=Celestial Marriage or Patriarchal Marriage|journal=The Seer|volume=1|year=1853–54|pages=12–15|url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Seer/Volume_1/Number_1/Celestial_Marriage|via=Wikisource}}</ref> Leaders taught that those who did not enter plural marriage in life but were willing to accept it, if God provided the opportunity, could still receive the highest celestial blessings; but they continually equated “celestial marriage” with plural marriage until the church began renouncing the practice under intense legal pressure from the U.S. government.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Young|first=Brigham|title=The Gospel Incorporates All Truths|journal=Journal of Discourses|url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Journal_of_Discourses/Volume_16/The_Gospel_Incorporates_All_Truth,_etc.| via=Wikisource|volume=16|pages=165–167}}</ref>

Beginning with the 1890 Manifesto, issued by Wilford Woodruff, the LDS Church publicly ended the practice of polygamy and gradually redefined “celestial marriage” to mean eternal monogamous marriage performed in the temple.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Cannon|first=George Q.|author-link=George Q. Cannon|title=Editorial Thoughts|journal=Juvenile Instructor|volume=20|issue=9|date=1 May 1885|page=136|quote="...all hope of immortal glory [was tied to] patriarchal marriage..."}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Grant|first1=Heber J.|title=First Presidency Statement (June 17, 1933)|url=https://archive.org|access-date=14 March 2025|quote="Celestial marriage ... and polygamous or plural marriage are not synonymous terms."}}</ref> In official statements from the early 20th century onward, church leaders declared that “celestial marriage” included any lawful temple sealing of a husband and wife for eternity, omitting the earlier insistence that multiple wives were essential for the highest exaltation.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics/plural-marriage-in-the-church-of-jesus-christ-of-latter-day-saints|title=Plural Marriage in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints|website=ChurchofJesusChrist.org|access-date=14 March 2025}}</ref>

=== Doctrinal dispute === Mormon fundamentalists maintain that the 19th-century usage of “celestial marriage” as plural marriage remains the intended and unalterable meaning of D&C 132. They argue that the church’s post-Manifesto reinterpretation of “celestial marriage” to mean “eternal monogamous marriage” departs from the original revelation and practice.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mormonfundamentalism.com/NEWFILES/IsPMRequiredToday.htm|title=Is Plural Marriage Required Today?|author=MormonFundamentalism.com|access-date=14 March 2025|archive-date=July 24, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100724211938/http://www.mormonfundamentalism.com/NEWFILES/IsPMRequiredToday.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> By contrast, the LDS Church teaches that while plural marriages of the 19th century were understood to be forms of celestial marriage, the eternal covenant of marriage now refers exclusively to monogamous unions sealed in the temple.<ref>{{cite web|last=Nelson|first=Russell M.|author-link=Russell M. Nelson|title=Celestial Marriage|date=October 2008|publisher=LDS Church|url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2008/10/celestial-marriage?lang=eng}}</ref>

Although the LDS Church stands by its post-1890 definitions, multiple historians have documented that early church authorities, including Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, John Taylor, and Orson Pratt, equated “celestial marriage” solely with plural marriage prior to the Manifesto.<ref name="seer1853" /><ref name="three_discourses" /><ref>{{Citation |editor-last=Roberts |editor-first=B. H. |editor-link=B. H. Roberts |title=History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints |volume=5 |publisher=Deseret News |location=Salt Lake City |year=1909 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m2bEVgSvbS8C |pages=134–136}}</ref> Thus, the doctrinal shift regarding the meaning of “celestial marriage” remains a point of contention between Mormon fundamentalists and the modern LDS Church.

==Swedenborg==

Christian theologian Emanuel Swedenborg taught in his 1750s book ''Heaven and Hell'' that marriage will exist after death,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Almond |first=Philip C. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tbeKDwAAQBAJ |title=Afterlife: A History of Life after Death |date=2016-05-26 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-0-85772-806-7|via=Google Books|pages=165–166|quote= 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.}}</ref> but not procreation.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Meyers |first=Mary Ann |date=1981-04-01 |title=Death in Swedenborgian and Mormon Eschatology |url=https://www.dialoguejournal.com/articles/death-in-swedenborgian-and-mormon-eschatology/ |journal=Dialogue |volume=14 |issue=1 |doi=10.2307/45224958 |issn=0012-2157|pages=61–62|jstor=45224958 }}</ref> Presiding Bishop of the LDS Church Edward Hunter recounted that Joseph Smith told him he believed Swedenborg "had a view of the world to come",<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hunter |first=William Edward|editor-last=Cannon|editor-first=Janath Rusell |url=https://www.familysearch.org/library/books/records/item/63891-edward-hunter-faithful-steward?offset=8 |title=Edward Hunter: Faithful Steward |date=1970 |publisher=Mrs. W.E. Hunter|url-access=registration|via=Family Search|page=51}}</ref> and LDS historian D. Michael Quinn wrote that Smith was influenced by Swedenborg's teachings.<ref name=Magic>{{Cite book| last=Quinn| first=D. Michael| author-link=D. Michael Quinn| title=Early Mormonism and the Magic World View| publisher=Signature Books| publication-place=Salt Lake City| edition=Revised and Enlarged| year =1998| isbn=1-56085-089-2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T4AKAQAAMAAJ}}</ref>{{rp|pp=490–493}} Swedenborg's teachings spawned several Swedenborgian branches of Christianity.<ref name="Spinks2017">{{cite book |last1=Spinks |first1=Bryan D. |title=Reformation and Modern Rituals and Theologies of Baptism: From Luther to Contemporary Practices |date=2 March 2017|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tmlCdu1fCJAC |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-351-90583-1|page=116}}</ref>

==See also== {{Portal|Latter-day Saints}} * Posthumous marriage in Mormonism

==References== {{Reflist|30em}}

==External links== * [https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/topics/family-proclamation The Family: A Proclamation To The World] - a formal statement on marriage and family from the LDS Church * [https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/comeuntochrist/believe/life-has-purpose/families-are-central-to-gods-plan Come Unto Christ: Families] - Overview of LDS Church views on marriage and family

{{Latter-day Saints}} {{FLDS Church}} {{Close plural relationships}} {{Types of marriages|state=autocollapse}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Celestial Marriage}} Category:Latter Day Saint concepts of the afterlife Category:Latter Day Saint ordinances, rituals, and symbolism Category:Latter Day Saint temple practices Category:Latter Day Saint terms Category:Marriage in Mormonism Category:Mormonism and polygamy Category:Sexuality and Mormonism Category:Types of marriage