Marriage: Meant to Last Forever
Marriage is ordained of God. “And the Lord God said, it is not good that the man should be alone . . . Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh” (Genesis 2:18, 24). The Apostle Paul taught, “Neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 11:11).
LeGrand Richards, a late Apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints wrote,
At the time the gospel was restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith, there was not a church in the world, as far as we have been able to learn, that taught that the marriage covenant was intended to extend beyond death; hence the wording of the marriage ceremony as performed by the ministers of that day and until the present time: “Until death do you part.” (A Marvelous Work and a Wonder, Deseret Book: Salt Lake City, 1976, 188.)
The phrase “until death do you part” echos a verse from the Doctrine and Covenants, “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” (Doctrine and Covenants 132:15).
But the purpose of marriage was not for man and woman to be together throughout mortality, only to be separated at death. “What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder” (Matthew 19:6).
In contrast, a man and a woman may be married in temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints “for time and all eternity.” This is one of the most sacred of ordinances done in the house of the Lord. It is one of the most wonderful blessings we can receive from our Father in Heaven. This ordinance is performed by the power of the Melchizedek Priesthood, which “greater priesthood administereth the gospel and holdeth the key of the mysteries of the kingdom, even the key of the knowledge of God. Therefore, in the ordinances thereof, the power of godliness is manifest” (Doctrine and Covenants 84: 19-20).
In temple terminology “marriage” and “sealing” are synonomous.
Boyd K. Packer, an Apostle of the Church said, ”I believe in marriage. I believe it to be the ideal pattern for human living. I know it to be ordained of God. The restraints relating to it were designed to protect our happiness” (Ensign, May 1981, 14-15).
This scripture teaches that marriage between a man and a woman is essential for true happiness, now and in the future.
“In the celestial glory there are three heavens or degrees;
And in order to obtain the highest, a man must enter into this order of the priesthood [meaning the new and everlasting covenant of marriage];
And if he does not, he cannot obtain it.
He may enter into the other, but that is the end of his kingdom; he cannot have an increase” (Doctrine and Covenants 131:1-4).
Jeffery R. Holland, another Apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said,
I don’t know how to speak about heaven in the traditional, lovely, paradisiacal beauty that we speak of heaven–I wouldn’t know how to speak of heaven without my wife and my children. It would not be heaven for me. Now, you can say that’s wishful thinking; or you can say that’s just because you love each other and you’ve gotten cozy here on earth and you like each other’s company. It’s a lot more than that. There is something eternal in the statement that ‘Neither is the man without the woman, nor the woman without the man, in the Lord’ (1 Corinthians 11:11). That is not just good sociology–that is theology. It is eternal. (Between Heaven and Earth, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, DVD.)
I testify of the eternal nature of marriage and of the love that God has for all of His children. I know that God lives and that obedience to His commandments will bring peace and happiness into our lives.