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Q: What do the Mormons believe about the family?
A: Mormons believe that the family is the foundation for this life and the life to come.
C: To reiterate earlier observations:
Qu: “Brethren, 225,000 of you are here tonight. I suppose 225,000 of you may become gods. There seems to be plenty of space out there in the universe. And the Lord has proved that he knows how to do it. I think he can make, or probably have us help make, worlds for all of us, for every one of us 225,000” (Spencer W Kimball, Ensign, Nov.1975, p.80)
C: Mormon men intend to become gods, just as their god has done before them. Joseph Smith taught this and, in 1974, Mormon apostle Marion G Romney stated, “God is a perfected, saved soul, enjoying eternal life.” That is what “salvation” is to a Mormon, i.e. godhood. (Salt Lake Tribune, Oct.6, 1974)
Qu. "In the Heaven where our spirits were born there are many Gods, each one of whom has his own wife or wives, raises up a numerous family of sons and daughters... each father and mother will be in a condition to multiply forever and ever. As soon as each God has begotten many millions of male and female spirits, and his Heavenly inheritance becomes too small, to comfortably accommodate his great family, he, in connection with his sons, organizes a new world, after a similar order to the one which we now inhabit, where he sends both the male and female spirits to inhabit tabernacles of flesh and bones.... The inhabitants of each world are required to reverence, adore, and worship their own personal father who dwells in the Heaven which they formerly inhabited.” (Mormon apostle Orson Pratt, The Seer, March 1853, pp. 37-39)
C. In the most fundamental way this describes the Mormon Plan of Salvation, the plan by which God himself became God according to Mormonism. God made this planet to accommodate his spirit children (us) and faithful Mormons will go on to create and inhabit their own planets, which will be populated by their spirit children who will, in turn, worship them – and the whole process starts again. The answer, then, is that there are, or will be planets which Mormons expect to rule after their death and ascension.
The impression given, and gained, from Mormon publicity for the family is that of a warm Victorian picture of hearth and home, thrift and industry and traditional values in support of the idea of the nuclear family. Mormons however expect to become gods, populating their own earth with their spiritual offspring, just as God has done before them. The family, so celebrated in Mormonism, forms the basis of this cosmic dynasty; the extended family writ large across your very own universe.
Q: Can someone who may never marry in life have eternal marriage?
A: God will not withhold blessings from any of his children who may not have the opportunity to marry in this life.
Qu. “If you want salvation in the fullest, that is exaltation in the kingdom of God, so that you may become his sons and his daughters, you have got to go into the temple of the Lord and receive these holy ordinances which belong to that house, which cannot be had elsewhere” (Mormon prophet Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, vol. 2, p.44).
Qu. “It fills my heart with sadness when I see in the paper the name of a daughter or a son of members of this Church, and discover that she or he is going to have a ceremony and be married outside of the temple of the Lord, because I realize what it means, that they are cutting themselves off from exaltation in the kingdom of God.
SORROW IN RESURRECTION IF NO ETERNAL MARRIAGE. These young people who seem to be so happy now, when they rise in the resurrection—and find themselves in the condition in which they will find themselves—then there will be weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth, and bitterness of soul ...” (Ibid., p.60).
Qu. "Restrictions will be placed upon those who enter the terrestial and telestial kingdoms, and even those in the celestial kingdom who do not get the exaltation; changes will be made in their bodies to suit their condition; and there will be no marrying or giving in marriage, nor living together of men and women, because of these restrictions" (ibid. vol. 2, p.73).
Qu. "Except a man and his wife enter into an everlasting covenant and be married for eternity, while in this probation, by the power and authority of the holy priesthood," The Prophet says, "They will cease to increase when they die; that is, they will not have any children after the resurrection" (Mormon Doctrine, 1966, p.238)
C: Exaltation and even happiness in the next life, for a Mormon, depends on being married for eternity, the establishment of “increase” and the building of an eternal dynasty. Without this “there will be weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth, and bitterness of soul ...”
Previous Posts:
Jesus: God the Son, or the son of a god?
What Every Mormon Wants: godhood
Coming Up:
A Cult? You Decide
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