Doctrine and Covenants 131:1–4

Elder Bruce R. McConkie:

“In the same sense that baptism opens the door and starts repentant persons traveling on the path leading to eternal life, so also does celestial marriage. This holy order of matrimony also opens a door leading to celestial exaltation. …

“As everyone who has been married in the temple knows, those so united—by the power and authority of the holy priesthood and by virtue of the sealing power restored by Elijah—are promised an inheritance of glory, honor, power, and dominion in the kingdom of God. But, as with baptism, all the promises are conditional; they are specifically and pointedly stated as being contingent upon the subsequent faithfulness of the participating parties. If they keep the commandments after celestial marriage, their union continues in the life to come; if they do not conform to the standards of personal righteousness involved, their marriage is not of force when they die and they revert to their separate and single status. …

“… Because having one’s calling and election made sure is the receipt of a guarantee of eternal life—it was the most natural thing in the world for the Lord to reveal both the doctrine of eternal marriage and the doctrine of being sealed up unto eternal life (meaning having one’s calling and election made sure) in one and the same revelation. In effect one grows out of the other. The one is a conditional promise of eternal life; the other is an unconditional promise. …

“… We must so live as to receive the guarantees to which we have thus been called, and the assurances that appertain to our election, and which are given on a conditional basis only in celestial marriage. As with baptism, so with celestial marriage; after the glorious promise of eternal life that is part of each of these covenants, we must press forward in righteousness until our calling and election is made sure; and this high achievement grows out of and is the crowning reward of celestial marriage” (Doctrinal New Testament Commentary, 3 vols. [1965–1973], 3:331, 332, 333).

Doctrine and Covenants 131:4

Elder David A. Bednar:

“Two compelling doctrinal reasons help us to understand why eternal marriage is essential to the Father’s plan.

“Reason 1: The natures of male and female spirits complete and perfect each other, and therefore men and women are intended to progress together toward exaltation. …

“By divine design, men and women are intended to progress together toward perfection and a fulness of glory. Because of their distinctive temperaments and capacities, males and females each bring to a marriage relationship unique perspectives and experiences. The man and the woman contribute differently but equally to a oneness and a unity that can be achieved in no other way. The man completes and perfects the woman and the woman completes and perfects the man as they learn from and mutually strengthen and bless each other. …

“Reason 2: By divine design, both a man and a woman are needed to bring children into mortality and to provide the best setting for the rearing and nurturing of children” (“Marriage Is Essential to His Eternal Plan,” Ensign, June 2006, 83–84; boldface and italics removed).

True to the Faith:

“Some members of the Church remain single through no fault of their own, even though they want to marry. If you find yourself in this situation, be assured that ‘all things work together for good to them that love God’ (Romans 8:28). As you remain worthy, you will someday, in this life or the next, be given all the blessings of an eternal family relationship” (True to the Faith: A Gospel Reference[2004], 99).

Doctrine and Covenants 131:5

“The more sure word of prophecy means a man’s knowing that he is sealed up unto eternal life, by revelation and the spirit of prophecy, through the power of the Holy Priesthood” (D&C 131:5). This blessing is also referred to as making one’s “calling and election sure” (2 Peter 1:10).

“Righteous followers of Christ can become numbered among the elect who gain the assurance of exaltation. This calling and election begins with repentance and baptism. It becomes complete when they ‘press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end’ (2 Ne. 31:19–20). The scriptures call this process making our calling and election sure (2 Pet. 1:4–11; D&C 131:5–6)” (Guide to the Scriptures, “Calling and Election,” scriptures.lds.org).

Elder Bruce R. McConkie:

“Those members of the Church who devote themselves wholly to righteousness, living by every word that proceedeth forth from the mouth of God, make their calling and election sure.That is, they receive the more sure word of prophecy, which means that the Lord seals their exaltation upon them while they are yet in this life. Peter summarized the course of righteousness which the saints must pursue to make their calling and election sure and then (referring to his experience on the Mount of Transfiguration with James and John) said that those three had received this more sure word of prophecy. (2 Pet. 1.)

“Joseph Smith taught: ‘After a person has faith in Christ, repents of his sins, and is baptized for the remission of his sins and receives the Holy Ghost, (by the laying on of hands), which is the first Comforter, then let him continue to humble himself before God, hungering and thirsting after righteousness, and living by every word of God, and the Lord will soon say unto him, Son, thou shalt be exalted. When the Lord has thoroughly proved him, and finds that the man is determined to serve Him at all hazards, then the man will find his calling and election made sure, then it will be his privilege to receive the other Comforter.’ To receive the other Comforter is to have Christ appear to him and to see the visions of eternity. [Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, sel. Joseph Fielding Smith [1976], 149–51; italics added].

“Thus, as the Prophet also said, ‘The more sure word of prophecy means a man’s knowing that he is sealed up unto eternal life, by revelation and the spirit of prophecy, through the power of the Holy Priesthood.’ (D. & C. 131:5.) Those so favored of the Lord are sealed up against all manner of sin and blasphemy except the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost and the shedding of innocent blood. That is, their exaltation is assured; their calling and election is made sure, because they have obeyed the fulness of God’s laws and have overcome the world. …

“… The Prophet, for one, had this seal placed upon him. That is, he knew ‘by revelation and the spirit of prophecy, through the power of the Holy Priesthood,’ that he would attain godhood in the world to come. To him Deity said: ‘I am the Lord thy God, and will be with thee even unto the end of the world, and through all eternity; for verily I seal upon you your exaltation, and prepare a throne for you in the kingdom of my Father, with Abraham your father.’ (D. & C. 132:49; italics added.)

“It should be clearly understood that these high blessings are not part of celestial marriage. ‘Blessings pronounced upon couples in connection with celestial marriage are conditioned upon the subsequent faithfulness of the participating parties.’ (Doctrines of Salvation,vol. 2, pp. 46–47.)” (Mormon Doctrine, 2nd ed. [1966], 109–10).

Doctrine and Covenants 131:6

President Marion G. Romney:

“Knowledge of ‘the only true God, and Jesus Christ’ (John 17:3) is the most important knowledge in the universe; it is the knowledge without which the Prophet Joseph Smith said no man could be saved. The lack of it is the ignorance referred to in the revelation wherein it is written: ‘It is impossible for a man to be saved in ignorance.’ (D&C 131:6.)” (“Except a Man Be Born Again,” Ensign, Nov. 1981, 14).

The Prophet Joseph Smith:

“Knowledge saves a man; and in the world of spirits no man can be exalted but by knowledge. So long as a man will not give heed to the commandments, he must abide without salvation. If a man has knowledge, he can be saved” (“The King Follett Sermon,” Ensign, May 1971, 15).

Doctrine and Covenants 132

President Joseph Fielding Smith:

“Now there is a clear-cut definition in detail of the new and everlasting covenant. It is everything—the fulness of the gospel. So marriage properly performed, baptism, ordination to the priesthood, everything else—every contract, every obligation, every performance that pertains to the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise according to his law here given, is a part of the new and everlasting covenant” (Doctrines of Salvation, comp. Bruce R. McConkie, 3 vols. [1954–56], 1:158; italics removed).

Elder Neil L. Andersen:

“There have always been a few who want to discredit the Church and to destroy faith. Today they use the Internet.

“Some of the information about the Church, no matter how convincing, is just not true” (“Trial of Your Faith,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2012, 41).

Doctrine and Covenants 132:1

Eliza R. Snow:

“The Prophet Joseph unbosomed his heart [to Lorenzo Snow], and described the trying mental ordeal he experienced in overcoming the repugnance of his feelings, the natural result of the force of education and social custom, relative to the introduction of plural marriage. He knew the voice of God—he knew the commandment of the Almighty to him was to go forward—to set the example, and establish Celestial plural marriage. He knew that he had not only his own prejudices and prepossessions to combat and to overcome, but those of the whole Christian world stared him in the face; but God, who is above all, had given the commandment, and He must be obeyed. Yet the Prophet hesitated and deferred from time to time, until an angel of God stood by him with a drawn sword, and told him that, unless he moved forward and established plural marriage, his Priesthood would be taken from him and he should be destroyed! This testimony he not only bore to my brother, but also to others—a testimony that cannot be gainsayed [contradicted]” (Biography and Family Record of Lorenzo Snow [1884], 69–70).

President Brigham Young:

“If any man had asked me what was my choice when Joseph revealed that doctrine, provided that it would not diminish my glory, I would have said, ‘let me have but one wife.’ …

“… I was not desirous of shrinking from any duty nor of failing in the least to do as I was commanded, but it was the first time in my life that I had desired the grave, and I could hardly get over it for a long time. And when I saw a funeral I felt to envy the corpse its situation, and to regret that I was not in the coffin. …

“… But the saints who live their religion will be exalted, for they never will deny any revelation which the Lord has given or may give, though, when there is a doctrine coming to them which they cannot comprehend fully, they may be found saying, ‘the Lord sendeth this unto me, and I pray that he will save and preserve me from denying anything which proceedeth from him, and give me patience to wait until I can understand it for myself’” (in “Provo Conference,” Deseret News, Nov. 14, 1855, 282).

Vilate Kimball, President Heber C. Kimball’s first wife, received a testimony of plural marriage. Her daughter Helen recounted:

“‘My mother often told me that she could not doubt the plural order of marriage was of God, for the Lord had revealed it to her in answer to prayer.

“‘In Nauvoo, shortly after his return from England, my father, among others of his brethren, was taught the plural wife doctrine. …

“‘My father realized the situation fully, and the love and reverence he bore for the Prophet were so great that he would sooner have laid down his life than have betrayed him. This was one of the greatest tests of his faith he had ever experienced. …

“‘My mother [Vilate Kimball] had noticed a change in his manner and appearance, and when she inquired the cause, he tried to evade her questions. At last he promised he would tell her after a while, if she would only wait. This trouble so worked upon his mind that his anxious and haggard looks betrayed him daily and hourly, and finally his misery became so unbearable that it was impossible to control his feelings. He became sick in body, but his mental wretchedness was too great to allow of his retiring, and he would walk the floor till nearly morning, and sometimes the agony of his mind was so terrible that he would wring his hands and weep like a child, and beseech the Lord to be merciful and reveal to her this principle. …

“‘The anguish of their hearts was indescribable, and when she found it was useless to beseech him longer, she retired to her room and bowed before the Lord and poured out her soul in prayer to Him who hath said: “If any lack wisdom let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not.” …

“‘Before her was illustrated the order of celestial marriage, in all its beauty and glory, together with the great exaltation and honor it would confer upon her in that immortal and celestial sphere, if she would accept it and stand in her place by her husband’s side. She also saw the woman he had taken to wife, and contemplated with joy the vast and boundless love and union which this order would bring about, as well as the increase of her husband’s kingdoms, and the power and glory extending throughout the eternities, worlds without end.

“‘With a countenance beaming with joy, for she was filled with the Spirit of God, she returned to my father, saying: “Heber, what you kept from me the Lord has shown me.” She told me she never saw so happy a man as father was when she described the vision and told him she was satisfied and knew it was from God.

“‘She covenanted to stand by him and honor the principle, which covenant she faithfully kept, and though her trials were often heavy and grevious to bear, she knew that father was also being tried, and her integrity was unflinching to the end. She gave my father many wives, and they always found in my mother a faithful friend’” (in Orson F. Whitney, Life of Heber C. Kimball [1967], 325–28).

President John Taylor:

“I had always entertained strict ideas of virtue, and I felt as a married man that this was to me, outside of this principle, an appalling thing to do. … It was a thing calculated to stir up feelings from the innermost depths of the human soul. I had always entertained the strictest regard of chastity. … Hence, with the feelings I had entertained, nothing but a knowledge of God, and the revelations of God, and the truth of them, could have induced me to embrace such a principle as this” (in B. H. Roberts, The Life of John Taylor, Third President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints [1963], 100).

Doctrine and Covenants 132:5

President Russell M. Nelson:

“The earth was created and this Church was restored so that families could be formed, sealed, and exalted eternally. …

“… A temple marriage is not only between husband and wife; it embraces a partnership with God.

“… When a family is sealed in the temple, that family may become as eternal as the kingdom of God itself” (“Celestial Marriage,” Ensign or Liahona,Nov. 2008, 93).

“Marriage brings greater possibilities for happiness than does any other human relationship. …

“Marriage is the foundry for social order, the fountain of virtue, and the foundation for eternal exaltation” (“Nurturing Marriage,” Ensignor Liahona, May 2006, 36).

Doctrine and Covenants 132:7

President Joseph Fielding Smith:

“The Holy Spirit of Promise is the Holy Ghost who places the stamp of approval upon every ordinance: baptism, confirmation, ordination, marriage. The promise is that the blessings will be received through faithfulness.

“If a person violates a covenant, whether it be of baptism, ordination, marriage or anything else, the Spirit withdraws the stamp of approval, and the blessings will not be received.

“Every ordinance is sealed with a promise of a reward based upon faithfulness. The Holy Spirit withdraws the stamp of approval where covenants are broken [see D&C 76:52–53; 132:7]” (Doctrines of Salvation, comp. Bruce R. McConkie, 3 vols. [1954–56], 1:45).

Doctrine and Covenants 132:18–20

President Dalliin H. Oaks:

“There are a lot of people that live on this earth that have been married to more than one person. Sometimes those marriages have ended with death; sometimes they’ve ended with divorce. What does the next life mean to them in relation to a covenant they once made and so on? I don’t think those people have much of an answer for that question. It might not bother them because they don’t believe that people will live as married couples in the next life. And if they don’t make and live for the covenants to do that, [as for themselves] they’re right! But for people who live in the belief, as I do, that marriage relations can be for eternity, then you must say, ‘What will life be in the next life, when you’re married to more than one wife for eternity?’ I have to say I don’t know. But I know that I’ve made those covenants, and I believe if I am true to the covenants that the blessing that’s anticipated here will be realized in the next life” (in “Elder Oaks Interview Transcript from PBS Documentary,” July 20, 2007, mormonnewsroom.org).

Doctrine and Covenants 132:19–20

Elder Parley P. Pratt:

“It was Joseph Smith who taught me how to prize the endearing relationships of father and mother, husband and wife; of brother and sister, son and daughter.

“It was from him that I learned that the wife of my bosom might be secured to me for time and all eternity; and that the refined sympathies and affections which endeared us to each other emanated from the fountain of divine eternal love. It was from him that I learned that we might cultivate these affections, and grow and increase in the same to all eternity; while the result of our endless union would be an offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven, or the sands of the sea shore.

“It was from him that I learned the true dignity and destiny of a son of God, clothed with an eternal priesthood, as the patriarch and sovereign of his countless offspring. It was from him that I learned that the highest dignity of womanhood was, to stand as a queen and priestess to her husband, and to reign for ever and ever as the queen mother of her numerous and still increasing offspring.

“I had loved before, but I knew not why. But now I loved—with a pureness—an intensity of elevated, exalted feeling, which would lift my soul from the transitory things of this grovelling sphere and expand it as the ocean. I felt that God was my heavenly Father indeed; that Jesus was my brother, and that the wife of my bosom was an immortal, eternal companion; a kind ministering angel, given to me as a comfort, and a crown of glory for ever and ever. In short, I could now love with the spirit and with the understanding also.

“… Joseph Smith … lifted a corner of the veil and [gave] me a single glance into eternity” (Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt, ed. Parley P. Pratt Jr. [1938], 297–98).

In 1916, President Joseph F. Smith, his counselors in the First Presidency, and the members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles declared:

“So far as the stages of eternal progression and attainment have been made known through divine revelation, we are to understand that only resurrected and glorified beings can become parents of spirit offspring. Only such exalted souls have reached maturity in the appointed course of eternal life; and the spirits born to them in the eternal worlds will pass in due sequence through the several stages or estates by which the glorified parents have attained exaltation” (“The Father and the Son: A Doctrinal Exposition by the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles,” quoted in Ensign, Apr. 2002, 18).

Doctrine and Covenants 132:19–33

Elder Enrique R. Falabella:

“When I returned from my mission, I met a beautiful young woman. … She captivated me from the first moment I saw her.

“My wife had set the goal to get married in the temple, although back then the nearest temple required a trip of over 4,000 miles (6,400 km).

“Our civil marriage ceremony was both happy and sad, for we were married with an expiration date. The officer pronounced the words ‘And now I declare you husband and wife,’ but immediately after, he said, ‘until death do you part.’

“So with sacrifice we set out to purchase a one-way ticket to the Mesa Arizona Temple.

“In the temple, as we were kneeling down at the altar, an authorized servant pronounced the words I longed for, which declared us husband and wife for time and for all eternity” (“The Home: The School of Life,”Ensign or Liahona, May 2013, 102).

Doctrine and Covenants 132:22–25

Elder Bruce R. McConkie:

“Those who gain eternal life (exaltation) also gain eternal lives, meaning that in the resurrection they have eternal ‘increase,’ ‘a continuation of the seeds,’ a ‘continuation of the lives.’ Their spirit progeny will ‘continue as innumerable as the stars; or, if ye were to count the sand upon the seashore ye could not number them.’ (D. & C. 131:1–4; 132:19–25, 30, 55.)” (Mormon Doctrine, 2nd ed. [1966], 238; see also Doctrine and Covenants Student Manual, 2nd ed. [Church Educational System manual, 2001], 330).

President Joseph Fielding Smith:

“The term ‘deaths’ mentioned here [in Doctrine and Covenants 132:25] has reference to the cutting off of all those who reject this eternal covenant of marriage and therefore they are denied the power of exaltation and the continuation of posterity. To be denied posterity and the family organization leads to the ‘deaths,’ or end of increase in the life to come” (Church History and Modern Revelation, 2 vols. [1953], 2:360; see also Doctrine and Covenants Student Manual, 330).

Doctrine and Covenants 132:38–39

The Lord declared that David sinned in taking Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah. David later orchestrated the death of Uriah to hide his sin. As a result, David fell from his exaltation. The inclusion of David’s example in Doctrine and Covenants 132:38–39 underscores the strict laws governing the practice of plural marriage. Even in times when the Lord instituted this practice and commanded His people to live it, they were required to do so according to His commandments and the direction He gave to His servants who held the necessary priesthood keys.

Doctrine and Covenants 132:51–56

“No indication is given here or elsewhere of what the Lord had commanded the Prophet Joseph to offer to his wife, but the context seems to suggest that it was a special test of faith similar to the test of Abraham’s faith when the Lord commanded him to sacrifice Isaac. Beyond that, it is useless to speculate” (Doctrine and Covenants Student Manual, 2nd ed. [Church Educational System manual, 2001], 334).

Doctrine and Covenants 132:63

Elder Neil L. Andersen:

“When a child is born to a husband and wife, they are fulfilling part of our Heavenly Father’s plan to bring children to earth. The Lord said, ‘This is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man’ [Moses 1:39]. Before immortality, there must be mortality” (“Children,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2011, 28).