No Marriage in Heaven?

The popular American Reformed preacher John Piper, like most Christians, doesn't believe anyone will be married in heaven, and he doesn't for two reasons:

• 1. Because of the Sadducee Incident (Mt.22:30; Mk.12:25; Lk.20:34-36); and
• 2. Because, he says, God had planned heaven to be a lot better than anything else we have experienced here on earth (1 Cor.2:9), so marriage will be replaced with something better. This is scientist Hugh Ross' belief too

How It All Was Long, Long Ago

I don't propose to go into those arguments as you can do an exhaustive study on the concept of eternal marriage on the main website and see some of the articles I have written here on HEM. What I'd like to do today is approach this subject from 'the other end' of existence, as it were, and be even more controversial - not looking at how it will all be but how it all was before we were even born...

Human Agency & Divine Omniscience

To do that we first need to get back to some basics as to who our Heavenly Father is and the way...and when...we were originally created. And to accomplish that we must do some very deep digging. First of all, I don't think anyone has a problem with the idea that God is omniscient or all-knowing; and unless you're a Calvinist like John Piper who believes that the Creator has pre-determined absolutely everything, I expect you'll agree with me when I say that in spite of all the millions of choices an average person makes in one lifetime - large and small - the Creator has forseen absolutely everything. How He does this is not as important as that He does but if you're interested in exploring this further, take a look at Molinism. God knows the future and how to weave all our choices into His overall plan, both large-scale and smaller choices.

Even With God for Fellowship, Adam by Himself Was Lonely

Most Christians believe that human beings had no existence prior to conception in the wombs of our mothers. They believe that the Godhead existed before us (obviously) and angels too. As far as the physical universe is concerned, man arrived in the form of, first, Adam, and then, Eve, a little while after when he started getting lonely in Eden and realised that though He walked with God every day, he needed something more for which He had been purposefully designed, and this before the Fall. It will likely surprise you, the reader, when I tell you that there is very concrete evidence in Scripture that implies man existed as a fully communicating, adult-like being able to have a rational conversation with the Almighty, long before He was born into this world of matter.

The Development of Physical Consciousness

Most conservative Christians believe we came into objective, fully human existence the moment we were conceived, and went through a gestation or maturation process over the course of 9 months. But there are questions we must answer about this period of embryogenesis. We know, thanks to Science, that physical brain activity doesn't begin until the age of 6 to 7 weeks. The neural brain tube, which sets the stage for the future nervous system, forms in about Week #5. Thereafter the brain divides into 3 main parts: fore-, mid- and hind-brain which is when initial electrical impulses start. By Weeks #8 to #9 early reflexs and movements can be detected viâ ultrasound, which signals the functioning of the nervous system, and by Weeks #12 to #13, major brain fiber pathways begin forming, linking different regions. This is known as the 'first trimester'. Actual consciousness in the embryo itself does not start until about Weeks #24 to #30 by which time we know that there is rudimentary memory, learning, and reponses.

A Six Month Old Embryo Detects Another & Reacts With Joy

Scripture tells us that John the Baptist sensed Yah'shua's (Jesus') presence in Mary's womb. Elizabeth was 6 months pregnant whilst Yah'shua (Jesus) was a newly conceived embryo only a few days or weeks old only as Mary went to visit her cousin immediately after the Annunciation. We are told that upon hearing Mary's greeting to Elizabeth, John, who was by then 6 months old since conception and so in about Week #24 or shortly thereafter, "leaped for joy" in Elizabeth's womb (Lk.1:41). This tells us a great deal about the consciousness-awareness of a foetus after 6 months. What kind of brain activity this involved is unknown but we may say at the very least that his spirit discerned who Christ was, either as a person or as the Messiah or both. No physical perception utilising the five senses (sight, hearing, smell, taste or touch) was involved so this has to have been John's spirit reacting to Yah'shua's (Jesus') spirit in ways that we, as human beings, who know what joy entails, can comprehend. In other words, John was fully human, something important to know in the charged environment of the modern abortion controversy.

Evidence We Communicated With God Before Conception

Bear all of this in mind as we consider the second-tier of biblical evidence that shows we were fully known by God relationally-speaking, and not just simply as an impersonal or abstract idea or concept. To 'know' someone is to be in an intimate, personal covenant relationship with them. It can be so intimate, in fact, that in Genesis 4 we're told that Adam and Eve 'knew' each other, which doesn't just mean they had a sexual relationhip, but also a deep, emotional and spiritual conection too. If I tell you that I 'knew' a person long ago you would rightly assume that I had interacted with him (or her) as an intelligent, sentient being, likely having had communication of some sort, though possibly obtaining secondary information from others too, though in the latter case, we would usually say we 'knew of' someone. Scripture says:

"Then the word of Yahweh came to me (Jeremiah), saying: 'Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations" (Jer.1:4-5, NKJV).

The Language of Pre-existence is Unambiguous

The language here is precise and unambiguous. The Hebrew word for "know" here is yada' and implies a deep, intimate relationship, and not a mere 'idea' or 'thought' on God's part. This is confirmed by what follows - Jeremiah as an immature and forming human embryo or fetus in the womb was already 'known', 'sanctified' and 'ordained'...he already existed as a connected (and therefore spiritually developped) person. In other words, God did not decide in His mind, 'I hereby intellectually know, sanctify and ordain a person called Jeremiah whom I will make one day'. Jeremiah was there, in some form, not only before his birth but "before I [physically] formed you in the womb" which means he must have had a spiritual pre-existence before his father, Hilkiah (v.1), got his mother pregnant. You would have to substantially twist the plain sense of Jeremiah 1:4-5 to get it to mean that human beings did not have a spiritual pre-existence. The language is oozing with spiritual connection and relationship. There's nothing abstract about this language at all. A reader or hearer from Jeremiah's time would have understood this quite literally.

Everyone Pre-existed as Spirits Before Mortality

Because it has been drummed into us for so many centuries that only Christ [1] and the angels had a spiritual pre-existence (but not humans) I find it necessary to go into such detail today. We may more than reasonably infer that all of us had a spiritual pre-existence like the Saviour and, morever, that God knew us, and we knew Him, and that He called us to various stations in the life-to-come. We are not here advocating for the false, occultic doctrine of reincarnation because there is no thought in this analysis of anyone ever being born again into physical existence except in the resurrection and even in this there will be no need of a physical mother to accomplish the task, for resurrection is a supernatural, instantaneous 'rebirth' as an adult immortal being. I hasten to add that I use the word 'rebirth' with the understanding I am not speaking of spiritual regeneration or of being 'born again' as the Saviour did when he spoke to Nicodemus in their secret night meeting (Jn.3:1-21).

Our Incarnation

This, then, is the picture the Bible seems to gives us. Prior to this physical life, when we were first formed in our mother's womb and gestated there for 9 months before birth, we previously existed as spiritual beings in heaven or the spirit world before we, like Christ, were incarnated. Again, to be clear, this does not mean that we are like Christ in that regard, for in His spirit He was God the Son, and He was conceived without the aid of a natural father but rather supernaturally parthenogenically in a human mother by the Holy Spirit, and was born in the normal way (the Virgin Birth). Christ was born to become the Saviour of the world and to make atonement for all mankind's sins for whosoever choses to make Him Lord and Saviour.

Called Before We Were Incarnated

This means, I believe, that we received our life callings on earth before we were conceived and born in the same way the prophet Jeremiah was. You and I were called to be born into particular families, in particular countries, at particular times in earth's history, and were given assignments. We were called to be husbands and wives, fathers and brothers, brothers and sisters, to find Christ and to serve in His Kingdom in whatever denomination He purposefully placed in our path, whether temporarily or permanently. Some were called to be "apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ" (Eph.4:11-12, NASU). We were called into particular professions and to develop different skills. Along the way we would have been gently 'nudged' by the Holy Spirit to go this way or that. And, yes, sometimes we yielded, and sometimes we resisted in all of these callings, failing to follow our consciences or choosing to deliberately sin. And sometimes we went off course in a major way and sometines we repented and made U-turns.

Isaac & Rebekah and Adam & Eve

Calling us into marriage, and opening doors to accomplish our pre-existential calling to aid us, were all part of the plan. Were not Isaac and Rebekah specifically led together, a 'pre-ordained' marriage? In the account we are told of the miraculous circumstances by which Yahweh accomplished His purpose for the sake of the messianic line, and for their own sakes too. Do believers sometimes marry wrong spouses? Frequently, when they're not listening to God and pursuing their own will and lusts, but even these wrong choices Heavenly Father weaves into His grand scheme of things. Who can doubt Adam and Eve were foreordained? In his case, Adam had no choice in the matter. Indeed, He put Adam to sleep (some kind of anaesthesia) and surgically removed a part of him - whether a literal rib or simply His DNA doesn't really matter - and fashioned a woman for him, a perfect soul-mate to match his need. (And note that even soul-mates sometimes botch their marriages up). What about plural marriages? The same.

"I gave you (David) your master's (Saul's) house and your master's wives into your keeping, and gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if that had been too little, I also would have given you much more!" (2 Sam.12:8, NKJV)

The Eternal, Pure & Perfect Holy City's
Gates Named After a Polygamist's Sons

If, as some claim, polygamy was an 'aberation' which God 'permitted' for a while because of the 'hardness of men's hearts' (allegedly - the actual issue was easy divorce which Christ banned, restoring the old ways), then why did He build it into the Millennium (Is.4:1) and even into the very design of the flawless, perfect New Jerusalem, the Heavenly City, when He established 12 gates into the place of purity named after Jacob's 12 sons acquired by means of 4 wives? Would He leave a memorial to either a sinful practice or a less-than-perfect one in a perfect place? Were these marriages mere accidents? Were the children an accident based on sinful choices? Were not these 12 sons all polygamists too? Not only do we see plural marriage spoken of in glowing terms to King David (2 Sam.12:8) but built into God's perfect Torah (Law, Teaching, Instruction) for the conduct of Israel in all eternity (Lev.18 & 20).

Eternal Marriage in the Resurrection

Which leads us to the point of today's teaching. If marriage is eternal, as the Bible seems to implicitly teach, then we may look forward to a grand 'straighening out' of wrong marriage choices made in mortality by the elect, so that they align with what? To the marriage companions we were ordained to live with forever in the pre-mortal world of spirits, at least, with those who made it. Nothing will be left to chance. After all, what are we being resurrected to? To a disembodied spiritual state? Not at all. We are getting our physical bodies back, perfected, pain- and disease-free, living the kind of lives we lived here on earth, though infinitely better, more like Eden, though even better than that. That tells me that all the familiar functions will be there. We'll still be human beings, only glorified.

Resurrection Life Much Like Earth Life But in Perfected Glory

Does this mean, in effect, that we were spiritually married before we were even conceived or born? This is highly likely, it seems to me. If Jeremiah was ordained a prophet before he was formed in his mother's womb (we have no idea how much time had elapsed before that formal act or ordinance was performed - it could have been moments before conception, of course, but the overall tenor of the passage seems to suggest that much 'time' (as that is understood in the spiritual realm) had elapsed in which God and Jeremiah had got to 'know' one another. A similar arrangment may be supposed for marriage. Indeed, is it not likely, if we follow the pattern of Adam and Eve, that the women were somehow made out of their men, foreshadowing the Eden experience, and possibly soon after the men were created in the heavenlies? It is not an unreasonable hypothesis and consistent with divine spiritual patterns.

What Was God's original Intent?

Let's take this even further. What was God's original intention for man? Fact: Adam and Eve were created married in a perfect, heavenly, Edenic world. Marriage was always the ideal condition or state for mankind. We were not designed to be single and we were not designed all to be married together in any literal sense. Granted that He knew the choices Adam and Eve would make, and granted that He built into Creation His anticipation of their Fall, and given that the restoration of mankind is the ultimate goal following cosmic redemption, then does it not follow that marriage is the plan for the Final Restoration too - not just of Adam and Eve, but of all marriages? Alpha (the beginnng, in Eden) and Omega (the end, in Astara, the New Jerusalem) must follow a similar pattern, and be united as Eden-Astara.

A Piperian/Rossian Future?

How, then, would a John Piper or High Ross post-resurrection future reflect back to the original design of man? We are, after all, going to be physical beings (perfect, as at first) and we're going to return to live on a glorified earth in glorified, recognisably human bodies. And whilst we cannot but begin to fathom the glory of that future, will the new reality be so remote from the origiginal Eden experience so as to overturn all our fondest hopes and expectations? I do not doubt that there will additionally be a whole new order of spiritual unity that transcends anything we know today, but won't all of the original categories still be present, which we know so well (like marriage), only perfect and more wonderful? It seems obvious - a given - to this writer.

Misunderstanding the Sadducee Incident Distorts Everything

The alternative (which I think many Christians imagine, based on a misunderstanding of the Sadducee Incident) is some sort of exclusive mystical marriage in which everyone is married in a 'non-physical' way to everyone else, in physical bodies missing some original parts, a literalising of the Mystical Marriage of Messiah (MMM)? If that is the final reality, it will not be built on any known divine tavnith (pattern) and wouldn't strictly be 'marriage' at all as defined in Scripture - it will, one supposes given this alternative utopian model, be more like perfect relationships in a local congregation expanded to a cosmic level. So why not both? Both kinds of relationship exist (imperfectly) here and are by no means mutually exclusive. We were designed for marriage intimacy and for broader fellowship. Both are part of the rich tapestry of loving, though different kinds of loving. We are to love everyone on one level, but there are categories of love based on physical design too that are limited to a few.

The Back-to-Front Idea of Modern 'Marriage'

This, then, is my vision. What if we were 'married' in some way before we were born? As it would have been an entirely spiritual affair (we had no physical bodies in the pre-existence), what would the equivalent marriage state be here on earth? Betrothal. For betrothal is full marriage but without the physical component. It is the essential covenant of marriage, lost, it seems, from modern marriage altogether in most cultures. Today's liberal views marriage more like a used, second-hand or thrift store transaction. These days couples sleep together to 'try each other out' and if they don't like the experience, they discard each other and try someone else. Or else they 'get married' though biblically this is back-to-front. God says that sex is the physical act of marriage that follows the betrothal contract or covenant.

What If We Choose the Wrong Spouse?

What if we contract with the 'wrong' person? The contract is still binding in Heavenly Father's eyes. And if it's repudiated for any other reason than infidelity, it's adultery with enormous spiritual consequences. So what if a mistake is made? What if God's will is not sought and a wrong choice is made? You are stuck for the rest of your life and must make the best of it. That's Heavenly Father's Law. We break it at our peril. That is why we must consider the selection of spouses so very carefully.

The Isaac-Rebekah Model

Everything is simplified if God is allowed to do the choosing, as He did with Isaac and Rebekah. They were, in this model, already betrothed before they were conceived or born, but presumably they didn't know that. Whatever you call their marriage, it was Yahweh in control, from start to end. In this 'providential' marriage, two sons were born, the one to father the 12 Tribes of Israel (one of which - Judah - would contain the Messianic Line) and the 12 Tribes of Arabia, all essential to the story of the Family of Man - 24 tribes represented by 24 elders or chiefs.

Husband-Wife Teams are Powerful Against Satan

If pre-marriage or pre-betrothal (to be more accurate, remembering that betrothal is the heart of marriage) is a reality, then this would explain why the Enemy wants us to fail in finding our pre-ordained spouses and so goes to great trouble to mess up our search in mortality. The ideal, perfect, echad unity of Adam-and-Eve is a great threat to his kingdom, because a Yahweh-centred husband-wife team founded on covenant-love is a formidable spiritual force, leaving no blind-spots. It's like having an extra pair of eyes in the back of your head! You may be sure Satan, who would know who was premarried to who, would do all in his power to prevent soul-mates from finding each other, particularly those with co-missions. Imagine the complexities of Jacob finding his four wives, the mothers-to-be of his 12 sons and 1 daughter. He initially only wanted one of them, Rachel, and had to be manoeuvered by Yahweh through the machinations of his father-in-law Laban to marry both girls, and then steer the romantic biases of Jacob and the jealousies of his two wives to rival one another into having more children by forcing their husband to marry their servant-girls! This adds a new perspective, does it not, to the way history plays out? After all, the goal was, and remains, the Garden-City of Eden-Astara with its 12 eternal tribal units each possessing a unique set of gates into that city, gates which are pearls, which in scripture symbolise purity, innocence, wisdom abd trabsformation. If the sons are pure, then so are the parents - all four of them, by Yahweh's degree that plural marriage is kosher. Pearls especially point back to the mothers, since they are represented by femininity.

The Amazing Bethrothal of Rebekah

Seen from this perspective, our marriage pursuits take on a whole new level of meaning and urgency. We are now in a position to go some way, I believe, in resolving an age-long theological controversy as to how marriage is to be organised in clear-cut cases of pre-marriage. For there is a major difference between the Israelite way - with its complex rituals consisting of a formal dedication, formal betrothal with the drawing up of a ketubah or contract to protect against the failures of the flesh, and then final consummation ('full marriage') - and the so much simpler way of the 'marriage' model of Isaac and Rebekah. In the case of Rebekah's wedding, Abraham's servant was undoubtedly led by revelation to the right woman offering him water for his camels, negociated a dowry (jewelry, clothing, etc.), obtained Rebekah's consent (that is very important to remember, this was not a forced marriage), resulting - amazingly - in Rebekah leaving immediately for her betrothed. No hesitation, no delay. We'll pick up the thread of the story in Genesis where we find Rebekah traveling with Eliezer back home:

"And Isaac went out to meditate in the field in the evening; and he lifted his eyes and looked, and there, the camels were coming. Then Rebekah lifted her eyes, and when she saw Isaac she dismounted from her camel; for she had said to the servant, 'Who is this man walking in the field to meet us?' And the servant said, 'It is my master.' So she took a veil and covered herself. And the servant told Isaac all the things that he had done. Then Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah's tent; and he took Rebekah and she became his wife, and he loved her. So Isaac was comforted after his mother's death" (Gen.24:63-67, NKJV).

A Prophetic Picture is Painted

Notice several things here in the text:

• 1. "Isaac went out," another divinely directed event, ensuring that he is the first person to meet Rebekah whom he must have known (by her presence) was already bethrothed to him, the business having already been contracted out of his sight in Haran, a picture of the pre-existence which we cannot for now 'see' or remember;

• 2. Rebekah "took a veil and covered herself", placing herself under his authority and headship, again without so much as a word having been exchanged, a simple recognition of what now already was (i.e. they were married); and, finally,

• 3. Isaac "took Rebekah (his already bethrothed wife), and she became his [full] wife [through intercourse], and he loved her" - no witnesses, ceremony, no further intermediaries, promises, covenants, etc.. They simply 'got on' with married life as though they had always been married!

He Loved Her Without Having First Seen Her Face

Do you see the firstborn pattern here? All that was left for Isaac to do was to lie with Rebekah and love her. Remember, his mother Sarah was already dead, which was why the couple occupied her tent. Because she was veiled (as we are veiled in flesh here in mortality) he had no idea what his wife looked like, because the heart and substance of the marriage was not outer looks but inner beauty, rightness and compatibility - in other words, spiritual. He did not see Rebekah's face until he lay with her. How do we know this was the case, and that he didn't even have a peek? Because that was the custom in those days. That is how Jacob (Isaac and Rebekah's son) would be fooled by Laban, for he did not know he was marrying Leah on their wedding night, she being veiled in the same way, believing he was getting Rachel! This custom, moreover, has a deep spiritual truth embedded deep within it, telling as it were a story of pre-existence. It's not as though Jacob didn't know what Rachel looked like in his case, because he knew what her appearance was very well, having been around her a long time in Laban's household, and had fallen in love with her, intoxicated by her beauty no doubt. So why veil the betrothed bride on the wedding night (we have to assume that Isaac consummated his new marriage the very same night of Rebekah's arrival)? Because it was an enactment - a play or drama, telling the story of their pre-earth life as spiritual/betrothed husband and wife, a truth that is enacted in the firstborn marriage of Abram in our own Third Book of Abraham, in the ordinance of full marriage in chapters 31 onwards.

The Opposite of the World's Way of Marriage

This, to our way of thinking in this ministry, is quite beautiful, a picture of the way of the firstborn. So to recap: there is a spiritual betrothal which takes place in the pre-mortal world that is depicted for us symbolically in the story of how Isaac and Rebekah contracted and consummated their marriage, Isaac not having an inkling of what Rebekah looked liked until he lay with her the same day he met her. This is the complete reverse of the way the world conducts romance, courtship and marriage, before the licentious days beginning in the 1960's and coming to a head in the 21st century. And because this kind of pre-marriage is so 'strange' to all but the very spiritual (and I need to unpack that a bit further in a moment to preclude this principle being abused), it is naturally viewed with either suspicion or contempt.

The Wife Saw Her Husband Before He Saw Her

Notice one other thing too: Rebekah was the first to see Isaac with her eyes, for though Yahweh was the Matchmaker and Ordainer, Rebekah was the next to choose - first in accepting Eliezer's proposal as Yahweh's proxy, and then the first in seeing Isaac for the first time when she arrived at his camp. That is why in firstborn plural marriage, the women make the proposal of marriage and not the men (see Isaiah 4:1), and on another level, that is why the women are the first as a rule to 'remember' their pre-mortal marriages. Interestingly, Jacob did not realise he had married Leah and not Rachel on his wedding night until the first light of day illuminated her face, because the consummation of their marriage took place in virtual darkness, a picture of the faith required to marry someone you have never seen before. It wasn't until first light that Jacob realised he had been tricked. I am sure it wasn't pitch dark and that the two sisters must have resembled each other somewhat, for in the half light Jacob could not tell them apart.

God's Own Choice is Essential in Plural Marriage

I could say much more about this, for this is indeed a profoundly deep subject with many layers to it. We who are serious about plural marriage know that our spouses must be God's own choice if we are to be successful from the start, and that this choice was made before we were conceived or born. We marry for much higher and nobler reasons that mere physical attraction - not that this is unimportant (quite the contrary), but rather if we begin with the spiritual and remain in it, we shall, like Isaac, quite spontaneously "love" our 'pre-wives' the moment we are in their presence. It is God who ultimately makes the marriage, with our consent and cooperation.

How to Potentially Recognise Pre-Betrothed Partner

I mentioned that this kind of firstborn marriage is open to potential abuse. To be sure charlatans - those who are not soulmates and who have no intention of pursuing sacrificial covenant-love - may view this as an 'easy way' into plural marriage. It's one thing to claim to be a soulmate, quite another to actually be one - so what are the signs that a man and woman are already betrothed from before this world? This cannot be an exhaustive comment on the matter but may be regarded as a start. A couple who are likely to be pre-betrothed (and this will have to be carefully tested) 'sense' each other in a way ulike anyone else (in the case of the woman - the man will sense his other wives similarly). There is present an intense, unspoken, and deeply intuitive connection that transcends typical communication. They are, as it were, on the same spiritual wavelength, with so many signs as to their compatibility and likeness. This is a realm where emotions, thoughts and presence are understood without a word being spoken, Let's unpack this further.

Signs to Look Out For

Those who have this pre-mortal echad union in place possess intuitive understanding - they can read one another's emotions or thoughts effortlessly, often knowing when something is wrong without being told. There is a subconscious familiarity leading to an 'inexplicable' sense of having known each other for a long time. There is an attunement to subtle cues such as eye contact that makes you feel comfortable, understood and safe. There is a deep sense of 'fitting' together - instantaneously, what some call biological 'chemistry'. There is a sense of complimentarity or 'resonance, you 'know' you are kindred spirits, and the evidence that is so keeps on piling up. There is sense of being 'kindred', of being 'intertwined'. With one of my wives there was always an awareness of what the one was thinking of the other even when we were continents apart. If one was asleep, we would wake up and just 'know'. There is a sense of 'homecoming', of feeling grounded and safe.

Comfort in Silence

Another key is what I call 'comfort in silence', something you will encounter in the Abraham Books. Silence with a soulmate is not awkward but peaceful and communicative. You can talk about anything without fear of judgment which in turn leads to easy, open communication. You don't just find time for each other, you create it, because the connection feels more important than external pressures. There is an automatic, mutual understanding where you can read their internal world as easily as your own. Very importantly, there is a mutual appreciation, understanding and interpretation of Scripture - you both know your Heavenly Father intimately.

Conclusion

Now of course many of these features or phenomena occur in other relationships too which is why there has to be a broad scope of clearly recognisable signs over time. And for some the awakening is gradual rather than instantaneous, depending on their connection with God. Though she had never heard of it before, one of my wives immediately felt at home in plural marriage upon learning of it, and desired the intimate companionship of other women too. There were none of the jealousies and rivalries that are common amongst sister-wives who were clearly not a part of any pre-mortal plural relationship. But we must be careful, for as the Abraham Books point out, there are two orders of co-wives, one of which is eternal (and pre-existent) and one life-long only (in the lesser, Mosaic sense). The latter often come about as the result of either wrong choices or for other reasons like protection (e.g. taking care of widows, Levirate marriage, etc.). I will write more of my practical experiences of these matters if time permits at a later date.

Endnotes

[1] The Arian faction, which dominated Christendom for over a century, did not believe that Christ had a pre-existence at all

Author: SBSK