Eternal Marriage: The Backbone Of The Restoration

TheDiscipleMD

If you talk to anyone: I mean anyone,  they share a common belief. With few exceptions, it is a belief that relationships formed in this life will be there in the next. And although most believe it, the religious doctrines of their faith doesn’t match the god given instincts they are feeling. No matter what Christian denominational funeral service you attend, the preacher speaks in one way or the other, about the eternal nature of the soul who has just passed. They will say something like, ” We will miss Fred, but we know he is in a better place and that one day we will see him again!” The implication is always that loved ones will continue to share in the same relationship they have had here on earth with the deceased.

Countless movies show the eternal nature of love;  that of a married couple who are separated by death,  but whose love goes on forever. So it is a wonder to me why so many people don’t flock to the doctrine of eternal marriage and the eternal nature of families. It is a bit puzzling to me! Perhaps it is because they sense that these relationships are “automatic,” without need of an ordinance. But the reason this ordinance is not performed outside of the restored church, is because the doctrine taught is that marriage is not eternal. This might come as a shock to some. Remarkably, many don’t care if their church teaches it or not, they believe the marriage relationship will exist in the next life. Anyone who has ever loved another cannot help but feel that, indeed, love is an eternal attribute and can last forever.

In the past several years three of my sisters have lost their husbands. During that time countless others have gone through the same painful separation. If you have ever really loved your spouse, whether you have been married five years, twenty-five years, or over fifty years, the feeling is that “it wasn’t long enough,” but the love “is long enough to last forever.”

However, belief alone is not sufficient. The glory of the restored gospel is that in temples and through the restoration of the priesthood, the power is now on the earth to seal those relationships so that they can “last forever.”  And that all those who lived before us have the same opportunity! Is there any greater doctrine that could be taught! Those relationships can be sealed forever through proxy work in the temples.

The silence of doctrine offered by the religions of the world do not seem to smother the inherit belief found in the souls of man that relationships are eternal. They believe it, but the restored church of Christ is the only one who teaches it.

Eternal marriage is the backbone of the restoration. Its divine concept supports the rest of the body of doctrine which teaches man of his ultimate fate, and of his glorious reunion in heaven above.

 

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