Pastor Jeff McCullough has put out his latest video about the Church, in which he discusses (and critiques) the doctrine of the eternity of the marriage covenant, and the emphasis placed on its importance, and its sacramental requirement for obtaining exaltation, or the highest degree of glory in the kingdom of God in heaven. In the theology of Latter-day Saints, marriage is intended to be eternal, and last forever. We can make it eternal by solemnizing it in our temples by a special rite of the priesthood that only we are able to perform; and we believe that that rite is a sacramental requirement for obtaining maximum happiness, and the highest level of glory in heaven. The way Pastor Jeff discusses it, tends to give it a bit of an incorrect impression. He makes it sound like we believe that everybody who goes to heaven will be eternally married, otherwise they can’t be in heaven, which of course is not correct. We believe that heaven consists of three levels or degrees of glory (previously discussed here), and in order to obtain the highest, one needs to be sacramentally sealed to his or her spouse for eternity, a rite that only we are able to perform—and nobody else does. Being married by a civil ceremony “until death do you part,” is not going to guarantee someone that higher degree of glory and exaltation in heaven. The way Pastor Jeff discusses it fails to make clear that distinction. If Pastor Jeff thinks that marriage in heaven is not necessary or important, he needn’t worry, he won’t be. If he lives righteously, he will still make it to heaven, but to one of the lesser kingdoms, and he won’t be eternally married. And he will be as happy there as he can be, in his assigned place in heaven. But to achieve the highest degree, eternal marriage is a sacramental requirement—which only Latter-day Saints are able to perform. I had previously discussed this subject in an earlier blog post which can be seen here.
There is, however, a more fundamental point that Pastor Jeff has missed. What sets apart the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from all other Christian churches and denominations is that, unlike the others, it claims to be a restoration of the original and true Church of Jesus Christ, not some kind of a “reformation”. All other churches claim to be some kind of a “reformation” of the original church. They claim that something went wrong with the original church that Jesus established, and they have figured out how to fix it. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, unlike the others, claims to be a restoration of that original church—by prophecy, by revelation, by visions, by the ministration of angels, and by priesthood and Apostolic authority etc. That is what sets apart the restored Church of Jesus Christ in the last days from all other churches.
People as a general rule don’t join this Church simply because they like its theology. Some might, but the majority don’t. They do so because they gain a divine witness of its truth; and they do that by reading the Book of Mormon. That is why it was given. That is its primary purpose, to bear witness to the restoration of the gospel in the latter days. It is God’s special instrument in gathering together his elect in the last days, before the final judgment comes—because the elect “hear his voice,” and “harden not their hearts” (Heb. 3:15; 4:7). That is why Joseph Smith called the Book of Mormon the “keystone of our religion,” because it is the rock on which the Church stands or falls. If the Book of Mormon is true, that makes Joseph Smith a true prophet, and the Church he established God’s one and only true Church on earth. If it is false, then the Church is false, and no amount of “theology” is going to make it right. That is why very few people join the restored Church simply because they like its theology—and nobody in fact should. They should only join it because they gain a divine witness of its truth; and the primary means of obtaining that is by prayerfully reading, searching, and pondering the Book of Mormon, and gaining a spiritual witness of its divine origin.
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