My Mormon friend wanted to know what my church's position on eternal marriage is. I asked him what he meant, but I already knew what he meant. The religious organization he belongs to holds that if you're a good enough citizen you will be rewarded with "exaltation" and ascend to the "Church of the Firstborn" where you will have attained the status of godhood.

In this and in a lesser heaven and state of LDS 'spiritual evolution' you may retain your wife or wives if you will, and be married to them throughout eternity. If you're a male and achieve exaltation, you will be given your own planet to rule over and also to populate with a heavenly wife or more likely as it is allowed, a number of heavenly wives.

He proceded to ask me if my church believed we would be married to our spouses throughout eternity. I told him that my church would hold the same position that the Bible holds. He in turn asked me what that meant. I got my Bible and read to him from chapter 22 of Matthew, about the childless woman who successively married each of seven brothers who died.

In verses 29 and 30, Jesus gives the answer; "Jesus answered and said to them, "You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God. 30 For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven."
I told him that that was the position my church would hold on the matter. His response was one of nearly angry disappointment. "That doesn't tell me anything!" he said. I asked, "What do you mean? It answers the question completely." Not good enough for him.

This conversation was a prelude to him talking to me about the fact that my wife and I have no children and that I needn't worry, because there was a way for me to have a second chance at having kids, kids that I could be with for all eternity. I don't know if he had any idea when he was trying to proselytize me just how much of a painful subject that is with me. I really don't give him that much credit, and he may have just been trying to be kind in his way.

I showed him that the reward of godhood for the works of man was an old trick that the enemy has used from the beginning. At first he denied that, but when I took him to the Garden of Eden account in Genesis and read through it with him, he was stumped.

I wonder how many people fall for this stuff. I sometimes just want to grab them and shake them and tell them, "You're not going to be a god!" "You're not going to be married and fathering or giving birth throughout eternity!" "You're not going to create your own planet and rule over it!"

Then I remember the things that would be better to tell them, the things I do tell them when I have the opportunity. "You can have all of your sins forgiven you." "You can be a part of God's family, and you can live with Him forever and be in His glorious presence and have Him spend your eternity proving to you just how much He loves you."

God's Word is amazing and is something we should never be afraid to turn to to try to explain truths to others.