Celestial Marriage

Celestial marriage (also called the New and Everlasting Covenant of Marriage, Eternal Marriage, Temple Marriage or The Principle) is a doctrine of Mormonism, particularly The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and branches of Mormon fundamentalism.

Within Mormonism, celestial marriage is an ordinance associated with a covenant that always takes place inside temples by those authorized to hold the sealing power. The only people allowed to enter the temple, be married there, or simply attend these weddings are those who hold an official temple recommend. Obtaining a temple recommend requires one to abide by LDS doctrine and be interviewed and considered worthy by their bishop and Stake President. A prerequisite to contracting a celestial marriage, in addition to obtaining a temple recommend, involves undergoing the temple endowment, which involves making of certain covenants with God.

In particular, one is expected to promise to be obedient to all the Lord's commandments including living a clean chaste life, abstaining oneself from any impure thing, willing to sacrifice and consecrate all that one has for the Lord. In the marriage ceremony a man and a woman make covenants to God and to each other and are said to be sealed as husband and wife for time and all eternity. Mormonism distinguishes itself on this point, citing Matthew 16:19 and Matthew 18:18, from some other religious traditions by emphasizing that marriage relationships and covenants made in this life in the Temple will continue to be valid in the next life if they abide by these covenants.

In the 19th century the term celestial marriage referred more to the practice of plural marriage, a practice which the LDS Church abandoned in 1890. The term is still used in this sense by Mormon fundamentalists not affiliated with the mainstream LDS Church.

In the current LDS Church, both men and women may enter a celestial marriage with only one partner at a time. A man may be sealed to more than one woman. If his wife dies, he may enter another celestial marriage, and be sealed to both his living wife and deceased wife or wives. Many Mormons believe that all these marriages will be valid in the eternities and the husband will live together in the Celestial Kingdom as a family with all to whom he was sealed. In the 1998 edition of the Church Handbook of Instructions, the LDS Church clarified that a woman may also be sealed to more than one man. A woman, however, may not be sealed to more than one man at a time while she is alive. She may only be sealed to subsequent partners after she has died. Proxy sealings, like proxy baptisms, are merely offered to the person in the afterlife, indicating that the purpose is to allow the woman to choose the right man to be sealed to, as LDS doctrine forbids polyandry. According to LDS belief, the celestial marriage covenant, as with other covenants, requires the continued righteousness of the couple to remain in effect after this life. If only one remains righteous that person is promised a righteous eternal companion in eternity.