Mormons Say Jesus Was Married?

Answering Protestants Blog ^ | 12 September 2014 | Matthew Olson

[matthewrobertolson]

According to Latter-Day Saints (LDS, Mormon) President Orson Hyde, Jesus was married to several women, including Mary Magdalene, and had biological children.

"..[In John 2,] Jesus was the bridegroom at the marriage of Cana of Galilee, and he told them what to do. Now there was actually a marriage; and if Jesus was not the bridegroom on that occasion, please tell who was. ... We say it was Jesus Christ who was married, to be brought into the relation whereby he could see his seed, before he was crucified. ... I do not despise to be called a son of Abraham, if he had a dozen wives; or to be called a brother, a son, a child of the Savior, if he had Mary, and Martha, and several others, as wives; and though he did cast seven devils out of one of them, it is all the same to me. ... I shall say here, that before the Savior died, he looked upon his own natural children, as we look upon ours; he saw his seed, and immediately afterwards he was cut off from the earth; but who shall declare his generation?"

-- Hyde, at the Mormon General Conference, on 6 October 1854. (Printed in Journal of Discourses, Vol. 2, p. 82.)

Apparently, this position had support from Brigham Young, Wilford Woodruff, Orson Pratt, and others.

The LDS organization has since denied these claims. A spokesman said, "The belief that Christ was married has never been official Church doctrine. It is neither sanctioned nor taught by the Church. While it is true that a few Church leaders in the mid-1800s expressed their opinions on the matter, it was not then, and is not now, Church doctrine."

Still, Hyde's is an allowed position within Mormonism. That is concerning.

Of course, Christ is the figurative Bridegroom -- but He is not so literally, in a carnal sense! Also, for the record, the "seed" of His mentioned in Isaiah 53:10 refers to our spiritual relationship with Him, in the sense of John 12:24 and Galatians 3:26.

—

Follow me, Answering Protestants, and Catholic Analysis on Twitter, Like Answering Protestants and Catholic Analysis on Facebook, Add Answering Protestants and Catholic Analysis to your Circles on Google+, and Subscribe to me or Catholic Analysis on YouTube.

—

[Elsie]

What baffles me is just why the LDS religious Organization; based in Salt Lake City; feels it has to LIE about this!!

---

The following are the LYING images that MORMONism has produced, KNOWING that they represent something FALSE!!

 

 

   

                                 

[Elsie]

This article I’m a Mormon, Not a Christian rather spitefully addresses the topic.

A mere reiteration of the old teachings...

---

---

Questions put to Joseph Smith: "'Do you believe the Bible?' [Smith:]'If we do, we are the only people under heaven that does, for there are none of the religious sects of the day that do'. When asked 'Will everybody be damned, but Mormons'? [Smith replied] 'Yes, and a great portion of them, unless they repent, and work righteousness." (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 119).

Joseph Smith: "for the teachers of religion of the different sects understood the same passages of scripture so differently as to destroy all confidence in settling the question by an appeal to the Bible" (from Pearl of Great Price 1:12). "What is it that inspires professors of Christianity generally with a hope of salvation? It is that smooth, sophisticated influence of the devil, by which he deceives the whole world" (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p.270).

 

 

 

Brigham Young stated this repeatedly: "When the light came to me I saw that all the so-called Christian world was grovelling in darkness" (Journal of Discourses 5:73); "The Christian world, so-called, are heathens as to the knowledge of the salvation of God" (Journal of Discourses 8:171); "With a regard to true theology, a more ignorant people never lived than the present so-called Christian world" (Journal of Discourses 8:199); "And who is there that acknowledges [God's] hand? ...You may wander east, west, north, and south, and you cannot find it in any church or government on the earth, except the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" (Journal of Discourses , vol. 6, p.24); "Should you ask why we differ from other Christians, as they are called, it is simply because they are not Christians as the New Testament defines Christianity" (Journal of Discourses 10:230).

 

 

 

Orson Pratt proclaimed: "Both Catholics and Protestants are nothing less than the 'whore of Babylon' whom the Lord denounces by the mouth of John the Revelator as having corrupted all the earth by their fornications and wickedness. Any person who shall be so corrupt as to receive a holy ordinance of the Gospel from the ministers of any of these apostate churches will be sent down to hell with them, unless they repent" (The Seer, p. 255).

 

 

 

Orson Pratt also said: "This great apostasy commenced about the close of the first century of the Christian era, and it has been waxing worse and worse from then until now" (Journal of Discourses

, vol.18, p.44) and: "But as there has been no Christian Church on the earth for a great many centuries past, until the present century, the people have lost sight of the pattern that God has given according to which the Christian Church should be established, and they have denominated a great variety of people Christian Churches, because they profess to be ...But there has been a long apostasy, during which the nations have been cursed with apostate churches in great abundance" (Journal of Discourses , 18:172).

 

 

President John Taylor stated: "Christianity...is a perfect pack of nonsense...the devil could not invent a better engine to spread his work than the Christianity of the nineteenth century." (Journal of Discourses , vol. 6, p.167); "Where shall we look for the true order or authority of God? It cannot be found in any nation of Christendom." (Journal of Discourses , 10:127).

 

 

 

James Talmage said: "A self-suggesting interpretation of history indicates that there has been a great departure from the way of salvation as laid down by the Savior, a universal apostasy from the Church of Christ". (A Study of the Articles of Faith, p.182).

 

 

 

President Joseph Fielding Smith said: "Doctrines were corrupted, authority lost, and a false order of religion took the place of the gospel of Jesus Christ, just as it had been the case in former dispensations, and the people were left in spiritual darkness." (Doctrines of Salvation, p.266). "For hundreds of years the world was wrapped in a veil of spiritual darkness, until there was not one fundamental truth belonging to the place of salvation ...Joseph Smith declared that in the year 1820 the Lord revealed to him that all the 'Christian' churches were in error, teaching for commandments the doctrines of men" (Doctrines of Salvation, vol. 3, p.282).

 

 

 

More recent statements by apostle Bruce McConkie are also very clear: "Apostasy was universal...And this darkness still prevails except among those who have come to a knowledge of the restored gospel" (Doctrines of Salvation, vol 3, p.265); "Thus the signs of the times include the prevailing apostate darkness in the sects of Christendom and in the religious world in general" (The Millennial Messiah, p.403); "a perverted Christianity holds sway among the so-called Christians of apostate Christendom" (Mormon Doctrine, p.132); "virtually all the millions of apostate Christendom have abased themselves before the mythical throne of a mythical Christ whom they vainly suppose to be a spirit essence who is incorporeal uncreated, immaterial and three-in-one with the Father and Holy Spirit" (Mormon Doctrine, p.269); "Gnosticism is one of the great pagan philosophies which antedated Christ and the Christian Era and which was later commingled with pure Christianity to form the apostate religion that has prevailed in the world since the early days of that era." (Mormon Doctrine, p.316).

 

 

 

President George Q. Cannon said: "After the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized, there were only two churches upon the earth. They were known respectively as the Church of the Lamb of God and Babylon. The various organizations which are called churches throughout Christendom, though differing in their creeds and organizations, have one common origin. They all belong to Babylon" (Gospel Truth, p.324).

 

 

President Wilford Woodruff stated: "the Gospel of modern Christendom shuts up the Lord, and stops all communication with Him. I want nothing to do with such a Gospel, I would rather prefer the Gospel of the dark ages, so called" (Journal of Discourses , vol. 2, p.196).

[Elsie]

You obviously disagree with some of our faith, but do not intentionally state that we believe various things that we don't

The way you guys PRACTICE certain things tend to make a LOT of us quite SKEPTICAL when you say you don't 'believe' them.

[Elsie]

."Let's not be shy, Joseph Smith was murdered, lynched, he didn't just die.

How does one MURDER someone who happens to have a GUN shooting at folks outside the jail?

[Elsie]

."Let's not be shy, Joseph Smith was murdered, lynched, he didn't just die.

Lynched???

Got pictures of the ROPE?

[terycarl]

Are they NUTS?! That says that EITHER Jesus is a created being like Lucifer was OR that Lucifer was divine. EITHER/BOTH is/are NUTS!

Lucifer was, indeed, an angel. In fact he was the most beautiful of all the angels...the angel of light...hence Lucifer. I believe that it was Lucifer that spoke to muhammad, not Gabriel as he claimed.

[Elsie]

In my experience, overall, Mormons are better people than your average person.

Good for you!

Stay away from them and your experience will be even better!

You'll not get sucked into yet another Ponzi scheme that Mormons are so famous for!

Oh yeah, there are a LOT of MORMONs in THIS place...

[Elsie]

For me, the theological battles are not interesting.

Then WHY are you wasting time on this thread??

---

 

 

Romans 15:4
 For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

 

 

Romans 16:17
   I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them.

 

 

1 Corinthians 4:17
   For this reason I am sending to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church.

 

 

1 Corinthians 11:2
 2.  I praise you for remembering me in everything and for holding to the teachings,  just as I passed them on to you.

 

 

Ephesians 4:14-15
 14.  Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.
 15.  Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.

 

 

2 Thessalonians 2:15
   So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the teachings  we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter.

 

 

2 Thessalonians 3:6
  In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers, to keep away from every brother who is idle and does not live according to the teaching  you received from us.

 

 

1 Timothy 1:3-4
 3.  As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain men not to teach false doctrines any longer
 4.  nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. These promote controversies rather than God's work--which is by faith.

 

 

1 Timothy 1:7
  They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm.

 

 

1 Timothy 2:7
   And for this purpose I was appointed a herald and an apostle--I am telling the truth, I am not lying--and a teacher of the true faith to the Gentiles.

 

 

1 Timothy 4:1-2
 1.  The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.
 2.  Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.

 

 

1 Timothy 4:6
   If you point these things out to the brothers, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, brought up in the truths of the faith and of the good teaching that you have followed.

 

 

1 Timothy 4:11
  Command and teach these things.

 

 

1 Timothy 6:3-5
 3.  If anyone teaches false doctrines and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching,
 4.  he is conceited and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions 
 5.  and constant friction between men of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.

 

 

2 Timothy 1:13
  What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus.

 

 

 2 Timothy 2:15-17
 15.  Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.
 16.  Avoid godless chatter, because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly.
 17.  Their teaching will spread like gangrene.

 

 

2 Timothy 3:16-17
 16.  All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
 17.  so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

 

 

 2 Timothy 4:3-4
  3.  For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.
  4.  They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

 

 

Titus 1:11
   They must be silenced, because they are ruining whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach--and that for the sake of dishonest gain.

 

 

Titus 2:1
  You must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine.

 

 

Titus 2:15
  These, then, are the things you should teach. Encourage and rebuke with all authority. Do not let anyone despise you.

 

 

 Hebrews 13:9
 Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings.

 

 

 2 Peter 2:1-3
 1.  But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them--bringing swift destruction on themselves.
 2.  Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute.
 3.  In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.

 

 

2 John 1:10
  If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take him into your house or welcome him.

[terycarl]

Precisely why Romney couldn’t win the evangelical vote. If he runs again, he will lose again.

BRILLIANT......this way we get Obama....a moslem...good thinking.

[bobo1]

Excuse me! I am just stating facts.

I voted for Romney, even knowing he would lose. GOPe’s choice, like McCain.

BTW, Barry cannot run again.

If you want to back Romney again fine, don’t count on my help.

[cloudmountain]

Lucifer was, indeed, an angel. In fact he was the most beautiful of all the angels...the angel of light...hence Lucifer.

I know that. I learned that in the first grade. Lucifer was the light-bearer.
SATAN means "adversary" in Hebrew. I'm sure you knew that as well.

=================================================

I believe that it was Lucifer that spoke to muhammad, not Gabriel as he claimed.

Well, you are entitled to your own opinion. It's in a minority but I'm sure that doesn't bother you.

My husband and I lived and worked for ARAMCO in Saudi Arabia for five years. My Saudi boss was the most kind, humble man I'd ever met, besides my priest-first cousin who passed away five years ago.

Actually, the 30 Saudis I worked with were OKAY. None of them would believe that Lucifer and Mohammad were buddies either.
I wouldn't insult them by saying that to them either.

To be honest, if you had worked over there and met guys like them, you wouldn't have said it to them either. You are, without doubt, a nice guy and would respond to THOSE nice guys with civility.

[Springfield Reformer]

Simeon ben Azzai is not a rabbi.

True. My error. However, that only makes the acceptance of his celibacy more to the point.  Jesus was not a formal rabbi either. In fact, the record shows that the only people ever to call Him rabbi were either His disciples or Nicodemus, who was on a path to becoming a disciple.  Simeon ben Azzai received the respect that he did for his outstanding knowledge of the law and for his piety.  If celibacy was truly deviant in the same sense that pederasty is deviant, it would have destroyed his credibility.  No one argues that a true deviant is pious.  So even though Simeon ben Azzai actually argued that others should be married, he excused himself, and he was excused by his peers in the rabbinic subculture.

Another thing to consider. Jesus was just 30 years old at the time.  Postponing marriage is not the same as declaring oneself to be celibate.  Jesus' teaching activity would have shielded him from any immediate pressure to marry.

But even more interesting is what Jesus Himself said about celibacy:

Mat 19:8-12  He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.  (9)  And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.  (10)  His disciples say unto him, If the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good to marry.  (11)  But he said unto them, All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given.  (12)  For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother's womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.

Note the reason Jesus spoke of celibacy.  He has just told the disciples something shocking: God designed marriage to be permanent.  They immediately react by saying, or impliedly saying, "well then, if you can't get a divorce except for fornication, then it's better not to marry."  This would mean they were, according to you, saying it was better to be deviant than trapped. But Jesus doesn't react to it that way. If it was really wrong to be celibate, and Jesus had conformed to that standard, you might have expected him to say, "nope guys, you still have to get married. Just get used to the idea you can't get a divorce if she burns your toast."

Instead, what does He say? He specifically defies the notion of marriage as universally required. He says not everybody can handle being single, but some have, for a variety of reason, the ability (and apparently the right) to be that way.  So either He is explicitly contradicting the social norm of "be married or be deviant," or He is giving an alternate, and more spiritual view of the nature of acceptable exceptions to the rule of marriage.  In either case, He is establishing the propriety of celibacy under the right circumstances, and no one ever challenged Him on this assertion. You would think the Pharisees, if this was truly viewed as deviancy, would have latched onto that statement like a pit bull and dragged Jesus' reputation into the mud over it. That never happened.

Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude He did not marry, given the extremely focused nature of His ministry. He came to die for us.

Which raises another point. You mention elsewhere that it would not have been wrong for Him to marry.  Leaving out the social norming aspect dismissed above, the syllogism to support that must go something like this:

Major premise:  Marriage is good.
Minor premise:  Jesus could do anything that was good.
Conclusion:       Therefore Jesus could get married.

There is a defect in that syllogism. The major premise is fine, as a generality. But as we have seen above, celibacy can be good too. But that's not the problem here. The trouble is in the minor premise. Jesus could do anything that was good *if and only if* it was good within the framework of God's specific plan for His life.  Pointing a gun and pulling the trigger is fine if done at a shooting range or perhaps in self defense and doesn't involve harm to innocent persons.  The same act could be very wrong if an innocent person will suffer needlessly for it. Same act, diffeent measures of goodness. It's also good to live and not die on a cross, as a general principle. But for Jesus to avoid the cross would have been sin, not to mention an utter disaster for us poor sinners.

So while marriage in general IS good, it appears it would have been wrong for Jesus to do it. Others here have cited good and cogent reasons for that. Ultimately such decisions rest with the will of God, and we have to rest in the fact that His plans are always perfect, even though we may not have the wit to see how.  Jesus was certainly entitled to the joys of an earthly family. But He gave up whatever He had to, including His own life, to save our miserable hides. Who is to say He didn't also knowingly surrender this earthly joy to receive an even greater joy in our restoration to Him:

Php 2:5-11  Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:  (6)  Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:  (7)  But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:  (8)  And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.  (9)  Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:  (10)  That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;  (11)  And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Peace,

SR

[Springfield Reformer]

I too have met many nice people who happen to be Muslims.  But as a Christian, I am bound to a Christian view of spiritual reality.  The fact is, for Mohammed to come up with the bitterly anti-Christian theology he did, if indeed he received it from a supernatural being, that being was almost certainly either Satan or one of Satan's emissaries. Consider Paul's "uncivil" language on a similar topic:

Gal 1:6-9  I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:  (7)  Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.  (8)  But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.  (9)  As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.

It's a double curse. He says it twice. And he says it to them directly and honestly, not because he desires conflict and rancor, but because he loves them in Jesus. When sharing the Gospel with the lost, conflict is inevitable. Lost sinners believe false things. We are to speak the truth in love, and with well-considered speech, but we are to be truthful.

Nevertheless, I agree in principle it is probably not the best opening move to start with the idea that they are operating under a satanically originated false gospel.  Paul had a well established framework with the Galatians. When a Christian is in the early stages of befriending a Muslim, it is probably much better to begin sharing the Gospel with them, introducing them to Jesus as He is correctly represented in the New Testament, as opposed to the false and diminished view of Him in the Koran. God's Spirit will awaken them through the preaching of His word, so it is better to trust in that than to try and browbeat them into accepting more difficult truths they are not ready to hear. Besides, any person who is lost is following some satanic lie. It's just a question of which one. So there's nothing unique in that, and little to be gained by pointing it out too soon in the conversation. Wise as serpents, harmless as doves.

Peace,

SR

[daniel1212]

MUCH better list than mine!

They are both on the List of Forbidden Books. Thank God for Truth.

[daniel1212]

My only point is that there is nothing wrong, evil or even distracting about Jesus being married or even having children.

No it is not. Your point is that the primary subject of the Bible could have an invisible wife therein, a most conspicuous absence despite th Holy Spirit of Christ providing 4 gospels revealing different sides of Christ, and a myriad of circumstances and details, including who His most closest disciples were, and that the one who felt most beloved was not a women, and how He provided for the care for His mother, but not for a wife, all of which overall makes this cloaking hypothesis simply untenable.

This impugns the Holy Spirit, and you might as well argue God the Father has a wife as well, or many. But that is just what this absurdity goes hand and and with.

[Elsie]

I voted for Romney, even knowing he would lose.

I DIDN'T vote for him; knowing that he has such POOR discernment that he cannot acknowledge the religion he chooses is a heresy.

(I did NOT vote for Obama, either.)

---

Now the whiners will jump in and try to blame ME and others for Obama's rule.

[Elsie]

...or an angel from heaven...

[Elsie]

My only point is that there is nothing wrong, evil or even distracting about Jesus being married or even having children.

I guess Paul was a bit confused about the subject...

1 Corinthians 7:32-33

³² But I want you to be without care. He who is unmarried cares for the things of the Lord—how he may please the Lord.

³³ But he who is married cares about the things of the world—how he may please his wife.

 

For Jesus said...

"For there are eunuchs who were born thus from their mother's womb . . . and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake.  

He who is able to accept it, let him accept it." 

--Matthew 19:12

 

 

 

[Elsie]

I guess Paul was a bit confused about the subject...

1 Corinthians 7:1-5

1 Now concerning the things of which you wrote to me:

It is good for a man not to touch a woman. 2 Nevertheless, because of sexual immorality, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband. 3 Let the husband render to his wife the affection due her, and likewise also the wife to her husband.

4 The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. And likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.

5 Do not deprive one another except with consent for a time, that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again so that Satan does not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

---

Kinda upsets the applecart that Catholicism has created by it's non-biblical picture it paint's of Mary: the mother of Jesus.