A Rational Theology, as Taught by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

by John Andreas Widtsoe

We are not the last spirits to enter upon the earth career. There are yet countless numbers of unborn spirits waiting for the privilege of receiving earthly bodies and of tasting the sorrows and the joys of earth. The living, who understand the Great Plan, must not then confine their attention to themselves and to those who have gone before. The waiting spirits must be a concern of our lives.

**Eternity of Sex.** It has already been said that sex is an eternal principle. The equivalent of sex has always existed and will continue forever. As the sex relation, then, represents an eternal condition, the begetting of children is coincidently an eternal necessity. We were begotten into the spirit world by God the Father, and have been born into the world which we now possess.

**The Waiting Spirits.** According to the Great Plan, all who, in the Great Council, accepted the Christ, will in time appear on earth, clothed with mortal bodies. All these spirits must be born as children into the world. A high purpose, if not the main one, of the earth work must be, therefore, to continue the race by begetting children and properly caring for them until they reach maturity. Undoubtedly, the waiting spirits are hoping patiently for their turn to reach the earth—a glorious step in the progressive advancement of man, which the spirits have earned by their righteous lives.

**The Meaning of the First Command.** This doctrine makes clear the meaning of the first great command, to multiply and replenish the earth. It is not only for the joy and satisfaction of humanity that the sex relation, with the possibility of begetting offspring, prevails on earth, but as much for the fulfilment of the eternal Great Plan. It becomes a necessary duty, for all wedded persons who dwell on earth, to bring children into the world. This is the greatest and holiest and most necessary mission of man, with respect to the waiting spirits. Fatherhood and motherhood become glorified in the light of the eternal plan of salvation.

The doctrine that wedded man and woman should not beget children or should limit the number of children born to them, is contrary to the spirit of the Great Plan, and is a most erroneous one. Let the waiting spirits come! Let children be born into the earth! Let fatherhood and motherhood be the most honored of all the professions on earth! Marriage resulting in parenthood is a great evidence of the reality of the brotherhood of man, of the unselfishness of man. However, only in the marriage relation should children be begotten. Looseness of life, between man and woman, is the most terrible of human iniquities, for it leads, assuredly, to the physical decay of the race. With the sanction of the Priesthood, men and women should contract to live together as husband and wife.

**The Family.** The unit of society is the family. The family circle is intimate, and in it the keenest human loves prevail. As the family develops so will society, as a whole, develop. By children comes complete family life. Without children, family life is incomplete. Children are, then, a real necessity in the fulfilling of the possibilities of the Church. The true Church always encourages the begetting of children; the intensifying of family life, and the dignifying of all the duties pertaining to procreation.

**Celestial Marriage.** If sex is eternal, it follows of necessity, that the marriage covenant may also be eternal. It is not a far step to the doctrine that after the earth work has been completed, and exaltation in the next estate has been attained, one of the chief duties of men and women will be to beget spiritual children. These spirits, in turn, in the process of time, will come down upon an earth, there to obtain an acquaintance with gross matter, and through the possession of earthly bodies to control more fully, and forever, the manifold forces surrounding them. It is one of the rewards of intelligent development, that we may be to other spiritual beings, what our God has been to us.

Among those who understand the Gospel, marriage may be, and indeed should be, for time and eternity. Marriage that lasts only during the earth life is a sad one, for the love established between man and woman, as they live together and rear their family, does not wish to die, but to live to grow richer with the eternal years. Marriage for time and eternity establishes a unique relation between husband and wife. Their children belong to them for time and eternity; the family is continued from this earth into the next life, and becomes a unit in the eternal life, and, in all family relations, the vision is cast forward, in anticipation of an undying relationship.

**The Sealing Powers.** Naturally, the power to seal men and women to each other, for time and eternity, and to seal children to their parents for eternal ages, is a supreme power, committed to man's keeping. The President of the Church is the only person on the earth who holds the keys of these sealing ordinances. True, he may delegate his power to workers in the temples, so that celestial marriages and sealings may go on, but such delegated authority may be withdrawn at any moment. In that respect, it differs wholly from the power of the Priesthood, which can be withdrawn from a man only who is found in sin. It is proper that only one man should hold this power, for it is of infinite effect, and should be guarded with the most jealous care, and kept from the frail prejudices and jealousies of men.

The power to bind for time and eternity is the power, also, to loose that which has been bound, should it be found necessary. Undoubtedly, under human conditions, mistakes may be made, but if such mistakes are made and are not rectified on earth, they will, no doubt, under a supervising intelligent Being, be rectified in the hereafter. It is, however, only through the sealing power that the eternal relationship of the sexes, the eternal increase of life, and the consequent eternal joy, may be obtained.