Sacred Texts: Mormons

Doctrine and Convenants: 132. Revelation through Joseph S...

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This is Section 132 of the Doctrine and Covenants, a collection of revelations accepted as scripture by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, presented here as a direct divine communication from God to Joseph Smith. The revelation's central purpose is to establish the theological and legal framework for "celestial marriage" — the doctrine that marriages must be sealed by proper priesthood authority to remain valid after death, without which spouses are separated and cannot achieve the highest degree of glory ("exaltation"). A distinctive and consequential claim is that those sealed by this "new and everlasting covenant" can literally become gods, inheriting "thrones, kingdoms, principalities, and powers" and achieving eternal procreation ("continuation of the seeds"), while those married outside this covenant become ministering angels — saved, but permanently subordinate and unable to progress. The revelation directly addresses and scripturally justifies polygamy, framing the plural marriages of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, and Solomon as divinely commanded rather than sinful, and instructing Joseph Smith to follow the same law. David's fall is presented as a cautionary exception — his polygamy was lawful, but his arrangement of Uriah's death was the actual sin that cost him his exaltation. The text is notable for its highly transactional theological logic, treating salvation as conditional on specific covenantal contracts administered exclusively through Smith's priesthood authority.

Doctrine and Convenants: 132. Revelation through Joseph S...

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