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Two Problems Jesus has with the Mormon Doctrine of Eternal Families

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Mormonism teaches that those who are married in a temple can be married for eternity. In Doctrine and Covenants 132:15–20, we find the following:

 

15 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.

16 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 servants, 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.

18 And again, 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.

19 And again, verily I say unto you, if a man marry a wife by my word, which is my law, and by the new and everlasting covenant, and it is sealed unto them by the Holy Spirit of promise, by him who is anointed, unto whom I have appointed this power and the keys of this priesthood; and it shall be said unto them—Ye shall come forth in the first resurrection; and if it be after the first resurrection, in the next resurrection; and shall inherit thrones, kingdoms, principalities, and powers, dominions, all heights and depths—then shall it be written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, that he shall commit no murder whereby to shed innocent blood, and if ye abide in my covenant, and commit no murder whereby to shed innocent blood, it shall be done unto them in all things whatsoever my servant hath put upon them, in time, and through all eternity; and shall be of full force when they are out of the world; and they shall pass by the angels, and the gods, which are set there, to their exaltation and glory in all things, as hath been sealed upon their heads, which glory shall be a fulness and a continuation of the seeds forever and ever.

20 Then shall they be gods, because they have no end; therefore shall they be from everlasting to everlasting, because they continue; then shall they be above all, because all things are subject unto them. Then shall they be gods, because they have all power, and the angels are subject unto them" (emphasis added).


In verses 15, and 18, "if a covenant that is not by me or by my word" (Mormon god speaking), then they will not have an eternal marriage, and they will not be blessed like they would if they were (found in verse 19) "married by my word and by the new everlasting covenant" which concludes in verse 20, "Then they shall be gods" which means in Mormon doctrine, eternal marriage and families. This is one of the greatest desires of Mormons.

If you had any doubts about the interpretation of such, their website removes any questions... “The family is the basic unit of society and the Church. Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believe that families can be eternal. We work to strengthen our families on earth. We also have faith that we can receive the blessing of an eternal family.”[1]


Problem One: Jesus Has come to Bring Division

The Gospel of John records the climax of the Feast of Booths in 7:37-39, 

 

“On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”

 

In John 7:40-52, the text continues with what happens after Jesus had said this during the Feast of Booths. What is most significant in this passage is the idea that it immediately caused division among the people. Regarding the thirsty coming to Jesus to drink, John 7:43-44 says, “So there was a division among the people over him. Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.”

Those who were divided against Jesus used an argument concerning the prophecy of Bethlehem found in Micah 5:2 which says, “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.” The problem for their argument is that Jesus was actually born in Bethlehem. Luke 2:4-7 says, 

 

“And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.”

 

Matthew says the same idea (2:1-6), and so we know that the prophecy in Micah has been fulfilled. Nevertheless, there was still division. Perhaps those who opposed Jesus did so because they wanted the Messiah to be on their own terms. They maybe wanted Him to be exactly how they pictured Him. But then who would be God, if He was what a person demands? The fact is, Jesus is what He is. He is the great I AM. This is why people were divided. 

There are essentially three barriers to the gospel, and I think that one of those barriers are put into play here in the Gospel of John. It seems at first to be the intellectual barrier. They thought that the Christ could not come from Galilee, which they were right about in the sense that He wasn’t to be born there, but they were not right about Jesus coming from Galilee. The fact is that He was born in Bethlehem but stayed in Galilee. So perhaps they would not be so divided if these intellectual barriers were broken down? 

We know from a final reading of the Gospel of John that this is not the case. The problem is someone might find another excuse to build such defenses. This would be the emotional barrier. Someone might say that he does not believe in God because his grandmother got sick and died and if God was real, then He would have fixed that. Or a person might say that if the Christian God is love, then He would allow him or her to love anyone he or she chooses, male or female. So, for many in the LGBT community, they have an emotional barrier to the gospel, because something hurt them, and they, like many, who have barriers against the gospel, have emotional baggage that needs to be healed. 

There are times, however, when someone who has either an emotional barrier or an intellectual barrier, that once these barriers are broken down, we find the volitional barrier. This is the idea that people reject the gospel because they want to do what they want to do. They want to be their own God. Aldous Huxley, the grandson of Thomas Huxley, a. k. a. “Darwin’s Bulldog” writes in his book, Ends and Means, 

 

“I had motives for not wanting the world to have a meaning; consequently, assumed that it had none, and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption… (p. 270) 

…For myself, as, no doubt, for most of my contemporaries, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation. The liberation we desired was simultaneously liberation from a certain political and eco- nomic system and liberation from a certain system of morality. We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom.” (P. 273). 

 

He is essentially saying that he doesn’t want there to be a God because then he couldn’t sleep around. This is a prime example of the volitional barrier, which it seems to me that the other barriers are easier to break down, but when it boils down to the volitional barrier, this is where it often stops. You might often find that the emotional barrier and the intellectual barrier are the volitional barrier in disguise. I think this is the precise lens through which Jesus divides. Jesus Himself, is the dividing line.

In Matthew 10:34-39, Jesus says, 

 

“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person's enemies will be those of his own household.” 

 

To bring a sword meant that Jesus has come to bring division. A sword essentially divides when it slices through material. 

Think of Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” This is where the word of God is likened to a sword that divides the spiritual from the physical. Soul and spirit, joints and marrow… Like the way that a butcher can see all that the animal is made out of. So, we can see all that we are made of in the eyes of God through His holy Word. His Holy Word is a sword that divides the physical from the spiritual. I say all this to show you the ancient mindset regarding division. John 7:43 says that “there was a division among the people about Him.”

Jesus is the bringer of division, which means that there will be those who are for Him and there will be those who are against Him. There is no middle ground. The middle ground is the blade. There is no false dilemma. This is also the case for families. Jesus says that a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. The reason is because of darkness vs light. The reason is because of true vs false. Either you have the truth in you, or you do not.

 

Problem Two: True Christians are the Bride of Christ

 

Some argue that Christ does not want to divide. Again, Mormons teach that family is or should be our greatest goal or desire. Mormons believe that family is so important that you will take such with you when you die, if you have been sealed in a temple: “Sacred ordinances and covenants available in holy temples make it possible for individuals to return to the presence of God and for families to be united eternally.”[2] It is never, “until death do you part” because temple marriages unite a husband and wife for eternity. 

Again, Jesus tells us why He came to Earth in Matthew 10, “I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person's enemies will be those of his own household.” 

This is often hard and heavy for people to think about. We like to think that societal units (families) are the strongest building blocks of society, so we must do all we can in order to keep the peace in these units. Such is a method for survival. But Jesus says that He has come to divide these. Luke 12:49-52 says:

 

“I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to undergo, and what constraint I am under until it is completed! Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division…”

 

I have long feared that the American church has sissified our Savior. We get caught up in our own perception of who the Messiah should be. We are doing the same thing, at least in some sense, what the Jews were doing in John 7:40-52 mentioned above. They opposed Jesus because they wanted the Messiah to be on their own terms. Perhaps people do the same thing when we think that a perfect family is or should be one of our highest goals in eternity. 


Jesus essentially says, “I wish the world were already engulfed in flames!” I think the reason He says that He wishes that the world was kindled already is because of those who are lukewarm. It is good for us to be on the side of truth, and it is good for us to be all in on the side of truth. We should let the Bible shape who we are, so that we can see clearly the difference between what is light and what is dark. The truth is the dividing line. That is, those who have the truth in them 1 John 2:4 says, “Whoever says ‘I know him’ but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him…” (see also John 8:44 and 14:6). Jesus himself is the dividing line because He is the truth. He is the Living Sword!

The church in ancient Laodicea (in Revelation chapter 3) was a place that had neither cold nor hot water springs. The closest cold springs were so far away that when you finally got the cool refreshing water back home, it was warmed up by the air temperature. Similarly, the hot springs had the same demise. You could load up a bunch of hot water, but by the time you got home, it was no longer hot. Jesus wants us to get off the fence. He does not want us to have one foot on earth and one foot in heaven. He does not want us to be “double-minded” (see James 1:8) He does not want to find us lukewarm (Revelation 3 says that He will spit those who are lukewarm out of His mouth, like the lukewarm water!). The reason it seems that families are often not divided is because of lukewarmness!

Mormonism is deeply concerned with an eternal family. This is another way to show a Mormon that we worship a different Jesus than they do.  Everything about Mormonism revolves around family. The hope of a Mormon is to spend eternity with their family, and have a greater and greater family, but the problem is, Jesus says, “I have come to divide families.” Therefore, Jesus is an enemy to Mormonism. Not only this, but the Bible shows Christians that we will be married to Jesus because we are the bride of Christ. Everything is fulfilled in Him. 

 

“Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.” ~Revelation 19:7-9.










Written by Nace Howell through the grace of the Lord Jesus



  © Nace Howell, 2024
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