Summary: In today’s culture, it’s common to hear people say that marriage can be between two men or two women and those who feel this way, present numerous reasons to support why they believe this to be true, and at the same time they are troubled that others don’t agree with them. This is especially true when it comes to why the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints won’t accept what they believe is a better and more enlightened concept of marriage. This article looks at both sides of this issue

In the beginning, God created man and woman in the image of God and told them, “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.” (Genesis 2:24). Ever since then, marriage has been defined as the union of a man and a woman.

However, in today’s culture, it’s common to hear people say that marriage can be between two men or two women. Those who feel this way present numerous reasons to support why they believe this to be true, and at the same time they are troubled that others don’t agree with them.

This is especially true when it comes to why the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints won’t accept what they believe is a better and more enlightened concept of marriage. The critics argue that since God loves everyone, they find it inconsistent to say that God allows some people to enjoy the benefits of marriage and not others. In their mind, they feel the church is being discriminatory by not allowing them to enjoy the same benefits that others are allowed to have.

They also argue that the gospel of Jesus Christ is all about loving others, quoting Jesus as saying, “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye have love one to another” (John 13:35). Therefore, they claim the church is violating the very principle of the gospel by saying that love can only exist between a man and a woman, but it is wrong for two men to be in love with one another, or two women to love each other. They point out that when Jesus made this statement, he was talking to twelve men, and did not tell them they could only love women.

In addition to this, Christ’s restored church teaches that the gospel is also known as “the plan of happiness” (Alma 42:8). If God’s plan for his children is for them to be happy, then why would God let some people enjoy the happiness that comes from being married, while denying others that same joy?

Furthermore, they argue that since other Christian churches approve of gays and lesbians being married, then why should the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints be against what other Christians whole-heartedly accept as being right in the eyes of Ged?

Since many of those who make these arguments profess a belief in the teachings of Christ’s restored church and say they want to be faithful members of it, they seek to convince the leaders of Christ’s church to sanction and give their support to marriages between two men or two women. Therefore, they plead for the church to change its policy that marriage can only be between a man and a woman.

It’s their feeling that such a concept of marriage might have been acceptable in Old Testament times, where women were viewed as second class citizens and were the property of their husbands, but in today’s more advanced and civilized society, where it’s understood that women are the equal of man in almost every way, that Christ’s church should recognize there is no reason to continue living an archaic law that we’ve long since outgrown.

Although there are many fallacies in these arguments, the real problem comes from not understanding God’s plan for our salvation.

In almost all Christian faiths, it is believed that God’s goal is to save us from going to hell and to save us to live in heaven along with the angels. Furthermore, they quote Jesus as saying, “For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven” (Matthew 22:30). As most Christians faiths understand this verse, after the resurrection all those who go to heaven will not be married but will be single like the angels.

By way of contrast, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches that marriage can be forever but only under certain conditions The Lord has revealed “Verily I say unto you, if a man marry a wife, and make a covenant with her for time and for all eternity, if that covenant is not by me or by my word, which is my law, and is not sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise, through him whom I have anointed and appointed unto this power, then it is not valid neither of force when they are out of the world, because they are not joined by me, saith the Lord, neither by my word; when they are out of the world it cannot be received there, because the angels and the gods are appointed there, by whom they cannot pass; they cannot, therefore, inherit my glory; for my house is a house of order, saith the Lord God” (D&C 132:18).

Unless a man and a woman are married by God’s authorized representative, all other marriages are only valid while the couple lives on earth, and that would also includes gay marriages. But once that couple leaves their earthly existence, they enter another world that doesn’t recognize any contracts made on earth, unless that contract has been made by someone officially recognized by heaven.

To illustrate this principle, when someone goes to work for a company, they sign a contract that may include such benefits as sick leave and paid time off for personal reasons. While that person remains with the company, they are entitled to these benefits, but when they leave that company and go work for someone else, their new employer is not obliged to honor whatever sick leave and personal time their new employee may have accumulated in their former job.

In the same way, whatever contract or commitment someone makes in this world doesn’t carry over into the next world, and that includes the contract of marriage. That contract might be recognized by mortals in this life, but heaven has no obligation to honor it once we have entered its world.

What this means is, if two men or two women were to be married to each other in this life, earthly authorities might recognize their union, but when they die and enter into the next world, heaven no longer recognizes theri marriage to each other. Therefore, then enter into heaven as single individuals. This is what nearly all Christians faiths teach based on what Jesus said in John 13:35, and this is what the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches, with the exception of marriages that have been approved by God.

Protestants will argue that since their pastor is a man of God, therefore, the marriages they perform are accepted by God because they consider themselves to be one of God’s representatives, but there are two fallacies with this claim. The first, and most obvious is, that if Christians don’t believe there are no married people in heaven, then they admit that whatever marriages a pastor or man of the clergy performs, only lasts until death. With such a belief, marriage can only be thought of as a temporary arrangement among mortals.

But the second and more serious problem is that all pastors are appointed to their position by other mortals, and not by God. Many pastors will say they felt led by God to become a minister and therefore claim that this authorizes them to act as God’s representative.

However, since every Christian denomination has pastors of some sort, how can it be said that they are all God’s representatives when each church teaches something different from all the others? Since God is not a God of confusion (1 Corinthians 14:33), then it cannot be said that every pastor of any church is recognized by God as speaking and acting on his behalf.

If a church or a pastor marries two men or two women and pronounces that their union will last forever, that doesn’t mean God must accept it. To think that God is going to sanction something performed by anyone who claims to be acting for him has no scriptural support.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Catholic Church are the only ones who claim to trace their authority directly back to Jesus Christ himself, therefore all other churches have no claim to any direct authority from God to act as his official representatives.

In the Catholic church, bishops have more authority than regular priests, and cardinals have more authority than bishops and the Pope has more authority than anyone else in the church. In the same way, in Christ’s church not every priesthood holder has the same authority. Only certain individuals hold the divine authority to seal a man and a woman together as husband and wife forever and that ordinance can only be performed in sacred buildings that have been specially dedicated and set apart for that purpose. These buildings are known as temples.

Furthermore, these sealings are performed only for those who have already made sacred commitments in the House of the Lord, and their sealing remains in force only as long as the couple remains true and faithful to those covenants. Therefore, the sealing of a husband and a wife forever is not something that is lightly or casually entered into because it involves a great responsibility and specific commitments on the part of the couple.

The question this raises is, why can’t gay couples be married or sealed to each other forever in the temples of the Lord if they are willing to abide by the conditions God has set? The answer is found in understanding the nature of salvation that God offers us.

The scriptures refer to God’s salvation as us receiving eternal life, and Christian faiths understand that to mean we will live with God eternally. However, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints understands this to mean that we will live the kind of life that God, our eternal Father, lives.

And what kind of life does God live? He told us, “For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39). What God’s work is all about is helping his children gain immortality and eternal life, and the more of his children he can help reach that goal, the greater the glory and honor it brings him.

Furthermore, God has told us, “And as one earth shall pass away, and the heavens thereof even so shall another come; and there is no end to my works, neither to my words” (Moses 1:38). That means God never ceases having children and helping them gain eternal life. This is what he will be doing throughout all of eternity! Thus, the term eternal life can be better understood as meaning eternally creating life,

Since the greatest gift God seeks to give us is eternal life (D&C 14:7), then the reason why God seals a man and woman together as husband and wife for all eternity isn’t just so they can be together forever. Rather, the purpose for eternal marriages is to allow couples to legally have a continuation of the seeds forever and ever, just as God does. If it brings God glory to help his children gain eternal life, then it will bring eternal husbands and wives glory as they help their spirit children gain eternal life.

Two men married to each other, or two women married to each other cannot produce offspring, and if they can’t have children, then there is no purpose to them being sealed to each other forever. And if they cannot have children, they’ll be incapable of doing what God does, and neither can they have any glory because they will have no children to help gain eternal life. Therefore, they must “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” (D&C 132:17).

The counter argument is, if God loves us, can’t he make an exception? The counter question is, an exception to what? God created men and women with different physical bodies, and it takes both a man and a woman to have children. That design was not by accident but was specifically done to accomplish a specific purpose.

Someone might say that in heaven our bodies might be different to where two men or two women can have children, but the resurrection is all about our spirit being reunited with our physical body. That means, in the resurrection, we will have the same body we have here on earth except it will be perfect and be incapable of dying. Therefore, in the resurrection, women will have wombs, and the purpose of a womb is to bear children. The very reason why men and women are sealed together as husbands and wives is so they can continue having children forever, just as our Father in heaven does. That’s the very definition of eternal life.

God is not going to change our physical makeup to accommodate the preferences of a few people. The idea of marriage being between a man and a woman is not something invented by humans. It is the law which governs the way heaven works. Just like we can’t do away with gravity because we don’t like it, so also God isn’t going to change the law of marriage simply because a few people want it changed. The scriptures tell us we are to submit our will to God rather than expecting God to submit his laws to fit our desires.

To illustrate this point, if we want to have the privilege of driving, we have to obey the driving laws of the state in which we live. But suppose we don’t like the speed limit laws and feel we should be allowed to drive any speed we want. If a police officer were to give us a speeding ticket, it would be foolish to think we could convince a judge to make us an exception to the law simply because we don’t want to follow it.

In the same way, heaven isn’t going to change its rules so we can do what we want without any consequences. The reason why marriage can only be between a man and a woman is because this is the law of heaven and no amount of wishing otherwise is going to change it. If our desire is to live in heaven, then we have to live by its rules. If we don’t want to do that, there are kingdoms for us to live in after the resurrection other than the one God lives in.

But what if someone doesn’t believe what the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches? God allows us the freedom to join whatever church we want whose teachings we can agree with. But, in that case, people can’t demand that a church they don’t believe in must change their teachings.

However, when someone says they want to belong to Christ’s restored church, they have made the commitment to follow its teachings. When someone joins any church, they can’t pick and choose which doctrines they want to accept and which ones they want the church to change.

But there’s another aspect of this that needs to be considered. Satan’s objective is to destroy God’s plan, and if he can’t completely destroy it, then he will seek to thwart as much of it as he can. If what brings God glory is to bring about the exaltation of his children, then the more people Satan can prevent from becoming exalted in whatever way he can, then he has gained a small victory over God.

If Satan can convince people to abandon having a traditional marriage, then he has thwarted those people from achieving eternal life. No matter how few people he can keep from entering into their exaltation, the less glory it brings God, and that’s all Satan cares about.

The apostle Paul wrote, “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?” (Romans 6:16). Those who choose to yield themselves to the philosophies of men will receive the same reward of those who they choose to obey, while those who choose to obey the servants of God, will receive a prophet’s reward. But God leaves it up to each of us to decide whether we want man’s marriage or God’s marriage.

 

Related article can be found at The Nature of Marriage