Conjugial Love #27
27. MARRIAGES IN HEAVEN
People cannot accept as a matter of faith that marriages exist in heaven if they believe that a person is a soul or spirit after death, and hold to an idea of the soul or spirit as being like thin air or a puff of breath. Nor can they accept it if they believe that a person does not live again as a person until after the day of the Last Judgment.
In general, people cannot accept the existence of marriages in heaven if they know nothing about the spiritual world, the world in which angels and spirits live, consequently where the heavens and hells are. Moreover, because that world has till now remained unknown, and because it has not been known at all that the angels in heaven are people in perfect form, likewise that the spirits in hell are people in imperfect form, therefore nothing could be revealed respecting marriages in that world. Indeed, people would have said, "How can a soul be united with a soul, or a bit of breath with a bit of breath, as husbands and wives are united on earth?"
There would have been many other objections, too, which, the moment they were voiced, would have taken away and dispelled belief in the existence of marriages in the other world.
Now, however, many things have been revealed about that world, and what that world is like has been described. This I did in the book, Heaven and Hell, and also in The Apocalypse Revealed. Because of this, the existence of marriages there can be defended, even to the sight of reason, by the following arguments:
1. A person lives as a person after death.
2. A male is then still a male, and a female still a female.
3. Everyone's own love remains in him after death.
4. Especially does a love for the opposite sex remain, and in the case of people coming into heaven, namely, people who become spiritual on earth, conjugial love.
5. All of this has been fully attested by personal observation.
6. Consequently, marriages exist in heaven.
7. Spiritual marriage is meant by the Lord's words, that after the resurrection they are not given in marriage.
Development of these arguments now follows, taking them one by one:
Genesis 10
1
Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth: and unto them were sons born after the flood.
2
The sons of Japheth; Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras.
3
And the sons of Gomer; Ashkenaz, and Riphath, and Togarmah.
4
And the sons of Javan; Elishah, and Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim.
5
By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations.
6
And the sons of Ham; Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, and Canaan.
7
And the sons of Cush; Seba, and Havilah, and Sabtah, and Raamah, and Sabtecha: and the sons of Raamah; Sheba, and Dedan.
8
And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth.
9
He was a mighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD.
10
And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.
11
Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah,
12
And Resen between Nineveh and Calah: the same is a great city.
13
And Mizraim begat Ludim, and Anamim, and Lehabim, and Naphtuhim,
14
And Pathrusim, and Casluhim, (out of whom came Philistim,) and Caphtorim.
15
And Canaan begat Sidon his firstborn, and Heth,
16
And the Jebusite, and the Amorite, and the Girgasite,
17
And the Hivite, and the Arkite, and the Sinite,
18
And the Arvadite, and the Zemarite, and the Hamathite: and afterward were the families of the Canaanites spread abroad.
19
And the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon, as thou comest to Gerar, unto Gaza; as thou goest, unto Sodom, and Gomorrah, and Admah, and Zeboim, even unto Lasha.
20
These are the sons of Ham, after their families, after their tongues, in their countries, and in their nations.
21
Unto Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, the brother of Japheth the elder, even to him were children born.
22
The children of Shem; Elam, and Asshur, and Arphaxad, and Lud, and Aram.
23
And the children of Aram; Uz, and Hul, and Gether, and Mash.
24
And Arphaxad begat Salah; and Salah begat Eber.
25
And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg; for in his days was the earth divided; and his brother's name was Joktan.
26
And Joktan begat Almodad, and Sheleph, and Hazar-maveth, and Jerah,
27
And Hadoram, and Uzal, and Diklah,
28
And Obal, and Abimael, and Sheba,
29
And Ophir, and Havilah, and Jobab: all these were the sons of Joktan.
30
And their dwelling was from Mesha, as thou goest unto Sephar a mount of the east.
31
These are the sons of Shem, after their families, after their tongues, in their lands, after their nations.
32
These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations: and by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood.
