Wednesday, May 29, 2013

178: UNION OF MALE AND FEMALE: MARRIAGE

“Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman,
neither the woman without the man,
in the Lord.”
1 Corinthians 11:11
( I think there is symbolism to the  chapter and verse numbering of this scripture)
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This week my wife and I have noticed a pair of collared doves in our yard. Below is a photo of them on our lightpost. I have never seen a white collared dove which I assume is the female. She is beautiful. Doves themselves represent "motherhood".. and they are a symbol of nurturing, gentleness, and wisdom. Here is an interesting fact: Doves often cease their foraging for food just before their babies are born. This temporary starvation insures a pure formulation of "crop milk" *(otherwise their offspring could not digest bits of solid food in the "milk"). This is great example of maternal attributes as well as self-sacrifice for the sake of their progeny.

*Members of the pigeon family (pigeons and doves) are the best known of the birds that produce a substance called " crop milk" for their babies, with the others being the Greater Flamingo and Emperer Penguin. This is not a true milk, such as the milk produced in the mammary glands of female humans and other mammals.
 

 Sidenote: I first saw these doves appear on Sunday evening, the night that the three planets (Venus, Jupiter, and Mercury) were to align. Little did I know that it would be cloudy that evening and I was unable to see the planets. Instead  that evening, a male dove and a female dove stayed for about 20 minute on top of our lamp post in front of our home. It was symbolic. The male dove symbolized Jupiter, the female dove Venus (Venus is often featured with a dove.) and the light post represented the planet Mercury.

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In contrast to the last post on the direction the world is headed, the following are some thoughts on Gods Ways; The Dyad which is the way of progression, procreation, order and unity. It is:
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MAN and WOMAN
MALE and FEMALE
ADAM and EVE
HUSBAND and WIFE
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Some brief history. Instead of waiting for further instructions, Eve was beguiled, did not wait for further instruction, and thus partook of the fruit prematurely. Adam was then faced with a dilemma or in other words, a priority problem. To partake or not to partake, that was his question. He could either remain faithful and obedient to the Lord and not partake of the fruit, causing him to be a lone man in the Garden by losing his helpmeet who had been given to him by the Father, as well as disobeying the commandment to multiply and replenish the earth OR he could partake of the fruit, stay united with the Mother of All Living. He could not do both. Either way he was going to be "disobedient" to something. Either way he was going to lose something. A choice between the Garden and his helpmeet, he chose to lose the Garden and keep his helpmeet. He chose to stay with his wife and to keep the commandment to multiply and replenish the earth rather than to remain separate and single. Smart man.

“Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife,
and they shall be one flesh.”
Abraham 5:18
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If you read the verse with substituting man with Adam and wife with Eve, as well as capitalizing father and mother. It would then read..

“Therefore shall Adam leave his Father and his Mother,  and shall cleave unto Eve,
and they shall be one flesh.”

(The word cleave means to adhere closely; to cling, to remain faithful, to stick or hold together and resist separation.)

While many are concerned, and rightfully so, of the ills of our society, I believe it has to do with the breakdown of the union of the husband and wife. Selfishness, Greed, Addictions, Lack of Patience. Currently, there are many who are progressing individually. Yes, progression can be individual. But there's a point beyond which you cannot go…without having dyadic progression (male/female unity). Perfect oneness with God involves a marriage that is the development of both husband and wife. Not the product of one person pulling it off. It requires joint development, joint progression and joint effort.

Progression involves multiplying and replenishing. The wife can not have children except through the husband, the Husband can not have children except through the wife.  Unfortunately in this world, we’ve turned marriage into just romance, when the more God-like way is self sacrifice. Having children is gift from God to become and learn to be like a God. It is not easy to have children. They turn your life upside down. Children can be the cause for many marital problems. However, if their are problems that arise in marriage.. work it out jointly… together…. If you can’t work it out.. it is failing jointly. Divorce destroys families.. and it snowballs and effects the children. It has irreversible consequences. The dissolving of a marriage is devasting to the children. It creates chaos in their lives, a life of pain.. almost impossible to repair. The scars remain longer than we might think.



We live is a corrupt, immoral, confused, fallen, sensual world. What is right is wrong and what is wrong is right. We more than ever need to stand for truth even if our leaders don't. Marriage between a man and woman is order. It is harmony. It produces life, peace and "fulfills the measure of creation" which "brings joy." Unfortunately, when it is employed in other ways, it produces pain, misery and sometimes catastrophic results. It is a right of every child to come into a family where they have the benefit of the family as established by God. The father and mother are literally symbols of God. They are in His image and likeness. We can either conform to God's pattern or be destroyed.



 Sidenote: Part of why America has been blessed is that for the most part, the men all have the mark of the covenant, even though the ordinance has been changed to being performed as infants. While for centuries we have received divine favor. It is being lost now. Circumcision was originally connected with marriage. It was to be performed a month before the man would marry his wife. (giving time to heal) Both the husband and wife would be sealing the betrothal with blood. (the wife on the night of the marriage) It is in obedience to the role as a father.. going back to the covenant made by Abraham.

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20 comments:

Karen said...

This was a remarkable post in many ways. Great reminders as well as new insights. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

I just realized as I read this, that Adam was also deceived, for he didn't wait for further instruction either. But they both chose to progress rather than to stay in the Garden. It would have been best if both had taken their dilemmas to Heavenly Father. I believe he would have instructed them to go ahead and eat the fruit anyway, but at least they would have done it all the right way and perhaps there would have been more blessings for doing so.

I agree that marriage is the only way to progress onto Exaltation. Only those who have true unconditional love for their spouse and thus keep their vows and stay faithful to their spouse throughout their life, will achieve eternal marriage.

I believe that Joseph Smith taught that every (unforced) 1st marriage in the world will be eternal, as long as at least 1 spouse has true Christlike love and stays righteous and faithful to the other and doesn't date or remarry, but waits til their spouse returns and/or repents. Thereby by the ultimate power of true love, they gain the power to save their unrighteous spouse and children to the Celestial Kingdom. It appears that Joseph Smith did not believe in sealings or temple ordinances, they are not necessary, except for baptism for the dead, and just a false ceremony started by Brigham Young to help sell his polygamy doctrines, which were also completely against Joseph's teachings.

Today though, everyone seems to ignore Joseph's and Christ's teachings about divorce and remarriage and they think it doesn't pertain anymore, since hardly no one is abiding by it anymore. But divorce and remarriage is still the adulterous abomination Christ taught that it always was, no matter how much churches cave to the world's ways in accepting and allowing it.

Very few people/members believe in Christ's teachings anymore, especially pertaining to marriage, they instead listen to church leaders who preach anti Christ in order to please the masses who clamor for divorce and remarriage.

It is so rare to find anyone who believes in true love today, let alone possesses it and stays faithful to even an unfaithful unrighteous and/or abandoning spouse or even a spouse who has died. Most instead go looking for someone new or easier, etc.

They fail to realize that marriage is a test, to see who will sacrifice to love and save their errant spouse if necessary. For there is no such thing as divorce and remarriage and no such thing as a 2nd marriage being eternal. Remarriage when your spouse is still living is adultery, for the spouse is really still married to the 1st spouse.

In the next life, if neither spouse was faithful to their 1st spouse and vows, then they may end up in lower kingdoms, still loving each other and still the parents of their children, whereever their children ended up, yet they will be filled with eternal pain and remorse that they did not achieve Exaltation and Eternal Life together as they had planned and hoped to, in the beginning before they came to earth.

Anonymous said...

I didn't know doves made milk???

Anonymous said...

At the time Adam partook of the fruit, he did not yet know about Jesus Christ being provided as a Savior for him. He died, with no hope of rising again, in order to begin the human family. Hence, why Adam is one of the most noble and great ones, and the President in the First Presidency over the entire Earth.

Anonymous said...

Birds are not mammals. They do not give milk.
Yes, certainly the Savior condemned divorce. HE condemned all forms of sin; and divorce is almost always
founded upon sin of at least one, if not both, of the parties involved.
I have heard numerous people condemn those who have been divorced as adulterers, stating they will
never achieve exaltation, etc. I have never found a scripture which specifies that divorce is an
unpardonable sin. If you know of such, please cite your reference.
Or is this a case of teaching for doctrine the commandments of men, mingled with scripture?
JR

Steve said...

I've read comments from Anonymous 12:08 on various forums. What I have not read are citations to back up her opinions.

Thank you for your post. I, having been a victim as a child and as an adult of divorce, certainly hope there is healing from its ravages for me and my children.

Increasingly I think of my wife as a part of myself, to be cherished. She is different from me, and brings essential elements into our marriage.

Anonymous said...

Once you've grown into an adult, it's a good idea to leave the victim mentality behind. Just a thought...

Anonymous said...

I have learned for myself that Jesus Christ will forgive every sin He possibly can. He is not a vindictive, arrogant God seeking to destroy or banish everyone whom He can justifiably "get rid of".
On the contrary, He is a God of unimagineable forgiveness, love, tenderness, and mercy.
There are but two unpardonable sins: shedding innocent blood and denying the Holy Ghost.
When, for whatever reason, anyone makes other sins, even serious sins such as adultery, fornication, divorce, rape, incest, etc., cause for barring souls from exaltation that person is mistaken and in need of repentance. We never know when our words may injure a tender heart, crush another's tender feelings, and be the cause of some person giving up hope and becoming lost to repentance.
Let us deal gently with one another and seek to lift and elevate our brothers and sisters and leave judgment to Him whose judgment is perfect.
JR



BARE RECORD OF TRUTH said...

http://www.stanford.edu/group/stanfordbirds/text/essays/Bird_Milk.html

Members of the pigeon family (pigeons and doves) are the best known of the birds that produce a substance called "milk" for their babies, with the others being the Greater Flamingo and Emperer Penguin. This is not a true milk, such as the milk produced in the mammary glands of female humans and other mammals. Both male and female pigeons, doves and Greater Flamingos produce this "crop milk" while only the male Emperor Penguin does.


Like mammals, the young of some birds are fed on special secretions from a parent. Unlike mammals, however, both sexes produce it. The best known of these secretions is the "crop milk" that pigeons feed to squabs. The milk is produced by a sloughing of fluid-filled cells from the lining of the crop, a thin-walled, sac-like food-storage chamber that projects outward from the bottom of the esophagus. Crops are presumably a device for permitting birds to gather and store food rapidly, minimizing the time that they are exposed to predators. Crops tend to be especially well developed in pigeons and game birds.

Anonymous said...

Though Christ and his prophets continually taught that remarriage is adultery, we can always repent of divorce and remarriage (adultery), by going back to our 1st spouse and making it up to them by keeping our original vows to love, serve and be faithful to them the rest of our life, even if they don't accept us back in this life, they will in the next, if we have truly repented.

It is not a sin to be divorced if we were forced into it by our spouse or if we had to divorce for safety reasons. The sin is in divorcing for selfish reasons and if we date or remarry we commit adultery for we are really still married to our original spouse according to Christ.

Divorce papers don't mean anything to God and according to Him no one on earth can dissolve a marriage, all 1st marriages are eternal as long as 1 of the spouses remains faithful to the other spouse or they both lose their Exaltation.

Eventually, in this life or the next, an unrighteous or abandoning 'prodical' spouse will repent and return and the marriage will be eternal if the righteous spouse kept their vows of true love and waited faithfully.

But few spouses are willing to have true unconditional everlasting love, especially for an unrighteous spouse. Everyone wants true love but few are willing to give it.


Anonymous said...

Steve,

Scriptures about divorce are easy to find. Have you never read Christ's teachings on divorce in the New Testament (3 different places) and in 3rd Nephi he taught the Nephites the same thing? He also had Joseph Smith teach it and many LDS Prophets have restated that selfish divorce is a huge sin and that remarriage is adultery too, like Pres. Joseph Fielding Smith, Pres. Benson, Pres. Hinckley, etc. They lamented that even though the Church and some leaders and members are not following the scriptures, Christ's words are still valid today.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous June 2, 2013 at 2:52 PM
Huge sin, yes without doubt.
Unpardonable sin, i.e., bars one from the repentance process, from coming to Christ, and possible exaltation; no...unless you have something from the scriptures that I have missed.
JR

Anonymous said...

I never said divorce and remarriage were unpardonable sins. As I said above, people can always repent from their divorce and adulterous remarriage and go back to their 1st spouse and thus regain worthiness of Exaltation, but very few ever do.

Anonymous said...

And so if I get your drift, unless one attempts to undo decisions made perhaps many years in the past and perhaps involving multiple other people, over whom one of course has no control, and finds it is completely impossible to undo those decisions no matter how much they may wish to...they're toast.

There are only two unpardonable sins in the scriptures, but you are contriving to concoct a whole host of new unpardonable sins. Where is there any hope of repentance in your scheme of things? Where is there any mercy in your way of running things? Where is the love and forgiveness of the Savior in this plan of yours?

Remember, we reap the level of love and mercy and forgiveness we would show unto others.
JR




Anonymous said...

JR,

Once again, no one is toast, divorce and remarriage is forgivable and repentable, if we are willing to go back and make restitution by repairing what we did wrong, by putting the family and marriage back together.

It's never too late to have true love and faithfulness for one's 1st spouse. We can always fall back in love with our 1st spouse, for being in love is just a choice, no matter what the spouse is like.

We may have to wait til the next life for them to come back to us or for them to repent, if they aren't willing to leave their present marriage or situation or if they are not safe to live with yet, but in the next life, according to Christ, only 1st marriages will be valid and eternal, IF at least one spouse had unconditional everlasting Christlike true love.

Where is the love and mercy in divorce and remarriage, especially for the children and a spouse who didn't want the divorce? It is not even mercy or love to allow anyone to remarry, for they just commit adultery by doing so and bring more condemnation onto themselves.

Where is the love for the Savior who had to pay the debt of sin & adultery for that divorce, dating and remarriage?

I agree, only those who have proven their true love here will receive such eternal love in the next life. We reap what we sow.

Anonymous said...

But yes, if we have weaved a tangled web by our breaking of sacred marital vows to a 1st spouse, then yes, it won't be easy on us or others to correct our course and make things right.

Wickedness never was happiness though, and despite what it takes it will be best in the long run for everyone if we repent and correct our course.

Christ says that remarriages are just adultery anyway, cause we are really still married to our 1st spouse, (Divorce papers mean nothing to God, like Brigham Young said, they are like a blank piece of paper to God), so why would we want to stay in an adulterous remarriage no matter how many people it would effect, if we really want to make it to the Celestial Kingdom?

Unfortunately it is children that usually have to pay the biggest price for their parents sins.

Anonymous said...

The "plan of happiness", as you portray it, is a spider web with no hope for any who become entanged in a web of failure or serious mistakes. What misery you seem to wish all those whom you feel smugly superior to!
Thank God for the Atonement! Thank God for His love and mercy! Thank God for His Son!
It is Satan who wants men to believe they have no hope, there is no mercy, no possibility of repentance, no atonement. That is the message you present: A message of emptyness and sadness and loneliness and hopelessness.
There are but two sins which God cannot forgive.
Believe in Him and come to know Him.
He is real! He lives!
JR



Anonymous said...

Interesting thoughts about the mark of the covenant. Do you know the history of circumcision in the U.S. and why it was started here? (Govt idea to prevent masturbation and disease). Was that divine intervention to get it started here among un-religious people?Of all the U.S. babies who were circed as newborns, is there a favorable covenant with God in force? I have two sons who are circed and two who are not. Is divine favor lost on my two sons who weren't cut? After seeing one of my older sons during the procedure, I decided it was genital mutilation and torture for the baby. If my other sons are to make that covenant with God, I want them to make the decision themselves. Thoughts?

Anonymous said...

Well, I'll just give up now. My wife was married before, so I suspect she's committing "adultery" with me and should go back to a former spouse who doesn't pay his bills, isn't active in the church at all, refused to provide for his son, etc. etc. etc., but somehow she's the guilty party.

I call BS on that. However, I will agree with you that children do pay the cost.

Anonymous said...

I know this is one year later but I recently found this site, and I am reading everything.

I do not know how many of you know this information: the Church will not allow divorced men to be called to be Bishop and higher, and if a divorced man is an Elder he can not become a High Priest either. If I remember right this POLICY was enacted in the 1960's.
I think it is totally ridiculous.