Ignatius the Kiwi
Dissident
- Mar 2, 2013
- 7,026
- 3,750
- Country
- New Zealand
- Faith
- Eastern Orthodox
- Marital Status
- Single
This is an aspect of Mormon theology that makes little sense for me, because marriage isn't about God fulfilling our needs it's about another of creation fulfilling our needs. Paul mentions this explicitly when he mentions the married will be concerned with their spouses more than they would be concerned with God and obviously he thinks it's superior to be more concerned with the affairs of the Lord than one's spouse. This is why he encourages some to remain unmarried and gives marriage as a concession (this should be unthinkable if a Mormon theology of marriage existed in the new Testament).
I would take the fact that Jesus was unmarried as the ultimate disproof of the Mormon Emphasis on marriage. If Mormons admit the possibility Jesus became perfectly exalted without celestial marriage then what basis do they have for insisting those who are not celestially married now only receive a lesser exaltation? They must logically affirm Jesus was married, but there is no evidence of that.
Mormonism flips Paul and Jesus and says it's better to be married and concerned with the affairs of your wife, than it is to be concerned with the affairs of God alone. That in the next life you will be married to as many people as you were celestially married to in this world. Joseph Smith thus has 40 or so wives currently, some of whom he took from faithful Mormon men (although i suppose he has to workout between himself and Brigham Young which wives are his and the latter's). It does away with the celibate impulse of the early Church which was encouraged and found it's full fruition in Christian Monasticism. The concern to live to God alone is diminished and rewarded with a lesser exaltation. To me this makes no sense.
Marriage is good, Sacramental marriage is even better but it isn't the highest form of existence. In one way, it's a concession to our passionate nature. A necessary regulation and the true expression of love. The meaning of the universe is not found in marriage but in God alone.
I would take the fact that Jesus was unmarried as the ultimate disproof of the Mormon Emphasis on marriage. If Mormons admit the possibility Jesus became perfectly exalted without celestial marriage then what basis do they have for insisting those who are not celestially married now only receive a lesser exaltation? They must logically affirm Jesus was married, but there is no evidence of that.
Mormonism flips Paul and Jesus and says it's better to be married and concerned with the affairs of your wife, than it is to be concerned with the affairs of God alone. That in the next life you will be married to as many people as you were celestially married to in this world. Joseph Smith thus has 40 or so wives currently, some of whom he took from faithful Mormon men (although i suppose he has to workout between himself and Brigham Young which wives are his and the latter's). It does away with the celibate impulse of the early Church which was encouraged and found it's full fruition in Christian Monasticism. The concern to live to God alone is diminished and rewarded with a lesser exaltation. To me this makes no sense.
Marriage is good, Sacramental marriage is even better but it isn't the highest form of existence. In one way, it's a concession to our passionate nature. A necessary regulation and the true expression of love. The meaning of the universe is not found in marriage but in God alone.
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