eternal marriage was mormon temples in article may athos rutgers edu dhammers pacific david hammerslag writes this paragraph brought to mind a question how do you mormons reconcile the idea of eternal marriage with christ s statement that in the ressurection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage luke chapt well here is something i wrote some time ago in response to a similar question i hope it helps begin repeat of previous post as for the scripture mentioned i agree that it does seem to be a problem not only for eternal marriage but marriage in general luke s version has jesus saying that the children of this world marry and are given in marriage but not those who will attain the kingdom of heaven it almost sounds like marriage disqualifies one for salvation matthew and mark both omit this statement i think the accounts are not as clear as they might be let s have a look at the incident and see if we can come up with some reasonable ideas of what it means the scriptures involved are mat mark and luke what happened was that the sadducees who did not believe in the resurrection thought they could trap jesus they made reference to the leverite marriage which required the brother of a man who died without children to take the widow to wife and raise up children the children would be considered children of the deceased just as though the woman s first husband had fathered them it seems obvious from this that the woman was still considered in a way to be the wife of her first husband however the sadducees concocted a scene in which brothers of the deceased each in his turn failed to father children by the widow they seem to imply that the leverite marriage was equal to the first for they ask whose wife shall she be in the resurrection at this point it seems obvious that if she is anybody s wife it is the first husband after all had she borne children they would have been credited to him regardless of which brother was the biological father it is possible jesus was refering to this when he says ye do err not knowing the scriptures or the power of god mat compare mark phrase not in luke s account anyway the sadducees ask whose wife will she be in the resurrection seeing that all had her jesus answer is that in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage mat when they rise from the dead they neither marry mark they which are accounted worthy to obtain that world neither marry luke all accounts go on to say but are as the angels in heaven or the equivalent i find this last not very helpful since the bible does not define angels nor give any idea what their life is like some ministers claim that they are sexless different that humans etc but i can find no biblical support for this i think what jesus is saying here and it is clearest in matthew s and mark s accounts is that marriages will not be performed in the resurrection this goes along with our belief that if a person is to marry at all it must be done on this earth however we do believe that a marriage performed by the authority of god can be binding in eternity in fact the first marriage appears to have been performed by god himself before death entered the world in the garden of eden what therefore god hath joined together let not man put asunder mat jesus also told peter and the other apostles that whatsoever they should bind on earth should be bound in heaven mat i believe that this also refers to marriages performed by the proper authority
