This very, very, abnormal. Your entire Mormon experience is very, very abnormal. Sorry this happened to you.
It was NOT abnormal. The manual was printed by your church for Mormon missionaries. My entire Mormon experience was not abnormal. [Staff edit].
I was a missionary in Arizona in 1973. We would have never given a first discussion like that. Even if you were begging us to baptize you, we were still instructed to go through the 6 discussions. That is my experience as a missionary.
And the Mormon missionaries gave me all six lessons in two weeks.
I had all six discussions! That doesn't make the first discussion less true!
The non-member is not told that temple marriage is a commandment because it is not a commandment.
Learn your religion!
"Adam and Eve were married by God before there was any death in the world. They had an eternal marriage. They taught the
law of eternal marriage to their children and their children’s children. As the years passed, wickedness entered the hearts of the people and the authority to perform this sacred ordinance was taken from the earth. Through the Restoration of the gospel, eternal marriage has been restored to earth."
Chapter 38: Eternal Marriage
LDS Doctrine and Covenants Student Manual, Enrichment G, p. 395
“If the family unit continues, then by virtue of that fact the members of the family have gained eternal life(exaltation), the greatest of all the gifts of God, for by definition exaltation consists in the continuation of the family unit in eternity. Those so inheriting are the sons and daughters of God, the members of his family, those who have made their callings and elections sure. They are joint-heirs with Christ to all that the Father hath, and they receive the fulness of the glory of the Father, becoming gods in their own right. (
D&C 132;
Doctrines of Salvation, vol. 2, pp. 58–99.)” (
Mormon Doctrine, 117)...
Heavenly Father has given us the
law of eternal marriage so we can become like Him.
Marriage for Eternity
ONLY THROUGH CELESTIAL MARRIAGE CAN A PERSON BECOME LIKE GOD
The Lord Commands Marriage
"Many people imagine that there is something sinful in marriage; there is an apostate tradition to that effect. This is a false and a very harmful idea. On the contrary, God not only commands but he commends marriage.
While man was yet immortal, before sin had entered the world, our Heavenly Father himself performed the first marriage. He united our first parents in the bonds of matrimony, and commanded them to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. This command he has never changed, abrogated or annulled; but it has continued in force throughout all the generations of mankind." (Joseph F. Smith,
Juvenile Instructor, 1 July 1902, p. 400)
Achieving a Celestial Marriage Student Manual, copyright 1976, 1992, p. 175
It is a blessing that you can obtain only if you wish to. It is highly recommended and talked about a lot, but your bishop cannot look you in the eye and tell you that you must, by commandment, go with you husband to the temple and get married.
It is a commandment and a law.
In a sense, it is commanded if you want that blessing, but you are not forced to go to the temple and be married for time and all eternity. That is why 60% of married people in the church are not married in the temple.
Are you saying that Mormons are forced to keep some of the commandments? I wasn't forced to keep them.
60% of married people in the church have different reasons to not go to the temple. The Word of Wisdom became a commandment even though the D&C says it isn't a commandment. Do all those 60% keep the WOW? I doubt it. Can they all pass all the interview questions? Do they all pay a full tithe? Do they all want to wear the temple garments?
It requries a committment to your marriage and Jesus Christ that some are not willing to abide by.
It is a commandment and a law. Read D&C 132!
Doctrine and Covenants 132
3 Therefore, prepare thy heart to receive and obey the instructions which I am about to give unto you; for all those who have this law revealed unto them must obey the same.
4 For behold, I reveal unto you a new and an everlasting covenant; and if ye abide not that covenant, then are ye damned; for no one can reject this covenant and be permitted to enter into my glory.
5 For all who will have a blessing at my hands shall abide the law which was appointed for that blessing, and the conditions thereof, as were instituted from before the foundation of the world.
6 And as pertaining to the new and everlasting covenant, it was instituted for the fulness of my glory; and he that receiveth a fulness thereof must and shall abide the law, or he shall be damned, saith the Lord God.
7 And verily I say unto you, that the conditions of this law are these: All covenants, contracts, bonds, obligations, oaths, vows, performances, connections, associations, or expectations, that are not made and entered into and sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise, of him who is anointed, both as well for time and for all eternity, and that too most holy, by revelation and commandment through the medium of mine anointed, whom I have appointed on the earth to hold this power(and I have appointed unto my servant Joseph to hold this power in the last days, and there is never but one on the earth at a time on whom this power and the keys of this priesthood are conferred), are of no efficacy, virtue, or force in and after the resurrection from the dead; for all contracts that are not made unto this end have an end when men are dead....
15 Therefore, if a man marry him a wife in the world, and he marry her not by me nor by my word, and he covenant with her so long as he is in the world and she with him, their covenant and marriage are not of force when they are dead, and when they are out of the world; therefore, they are not bound by any law when they are out of the world.
16 Therefore, when they are out of the world they neither marry nor are given in marriage; but are appointed angels in heaven, which angels are ministering servants, to minister for those who are worthy of a far more, and an exceeding, and an eternal weight of glory.
17 For these angels did not abide my law; therefore, they cannot be enlarged, but remain separately and singly, without exaltation, in their saved[
resurrected] condition, to all eternity; and from henceforth are not gods, but are angels of God forever and ever.
- We believe that through the Atonement of Christ, all mankind may be saved, by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the [Mormon]Gospel.
