Eternal Family in Religious Beliefs
Some of you might be aware that I was raised a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints – a Mormon, to most people. Central to the teachings of their founding prophet is the notion of families being together forever which they claim was made possible by a restoration of priesthood and temple rituals that would seal couples together for time and all eternity so long as these rites are performed by a worthy LDS holder of the priesthood. The idea of families being together forever is a major draw for most members who love and care for their spouse and children. If they are anything, the LDS are “family oriented.” Leaving the faith in 2001 was difficult for my wife who loved the notion of being “sealed for time and all eternity” (to me) and that our daughters (and their future husbands and children) would be together in the hereafter – if we all remained worthy. My leaving crushed this in her.
My initial response to families being together forever after leaving the church was that I trusted that God would do what He would do, that it would be far better than what Man could or would imagine, but I would also cite Yeshua who plainly said, relative to marriage,
“For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.” Matthew 22:30
Family as a Biblical Subtext
As the years waned on, and I became more deeply familiar with the biblical text in context, I started to see that the concept of family and even marriage, is a major subtext of the narrative and I ultimately learned that the late biblical scholar, Michael Heiser may have summarized the very creation in this simple way, “God wanted a family.” Looking at the Creation account closely, we can see that when God (plural) made man in His image, the description of this says, “male and female” made He them. I have come to see the best definition of the make-up (ontology) of God is One Perfect Plural = perfect masculinity and perfect femininity. Taking this in hand, it seems to me that God (One perfect Plural of absolute masculinity and absolute femininity) created the human family and then set out, as our creative parent(s) to guide and govern His brood.
When the tempter entered His created household for His children, just like when tempters enter into our homes to persuade our own children to wander, disobey and rebel, our heavenly parents (God – One Plural of Absolute Masculine and Feminine traits – not male and female, by the way) set out to save his human Creations. First, He sought to take a peculiar Nation (called Israel) and to enter into a marriage contract with her, often referred to as the Law. When that failed, He sent Himself in the form of a man, Yeshua of Nazareth to do what no other Nation or human being could do – live obediently to Him.
Symbolism in Yeshua’s Life
We note that in the same vein as the Nation before Him, Yeshua also –
Came out of Egypt
Passed through a sea
Entered into the wilderness
But unlike the Nation before Him, Yeshua was victorious, and having lived perfectly, fulfilled the Law given to the Nation, pleased God, and as true and living Israel, reconciled God to the family once again. Today, all who look to Him in faith, become Israel in this way, are adopted into His family as His children, and if willing, become sons and daughters, joint heirs to Christ, in and through the things they also choose to suffer.
So, while the LDS mythos of eternal marriage and family is certainly the product of one man’s active imagination, there are biblical threads that do speak to a heavenly, eternal family. No, the only eternal marriage in heaven is that of God to His Bride, taken in that day as promised. But all who come to Him in faith enter into heavenly life as His children, His family, endorsing, in a very succinct way, the notion of both eternal marriage and families being together forever.
