Question
Dear Gramps,
I have heard that the reason that polygamy was practiced was because the 1/3 who followed Satin were all men and that left more women than men on this earth. In order for all women to obtain eternal life they have to be sealed to someone. Is this true? This would mean that there were the same amount of men and women in the Great Council. Were we created in pairs?
Lance
Answer
Dear Lance,
Where do all these ideas come from? I would be most interested in the chapter and verse substantiating your first statement. If we find in mortality that there are degrees of righteousness and wickedness in both men and women, I doubt very much there was a cut-off for female spirits in the spirit world, where none were less righteous than two thirds of the male spirits.
The second curious statement is that all women (or men) will achieve eternal life, or exaltation. Only those who live by every word that proceeds forth from the mouth of God are candidates for exaltation, and undoubtedly they will be but a small fraction of all our Father’s children.
The reason for plural marriage as practiced in biblical times and in the early days of the restoration had nothing to do with the relative number of men and women. It’s significance is realized in eternity, and obtains only to those who have been sealed for eternity in the holy temples and who honor and obey their covenants while in mortality.
Gramps