Vertical sealings of two kinds: salvation and exaltation

The vertical exaltation sealing: father to child

All the temple marriage sealings we perform are father to child. All of them. The doctrine is based upon Malachi 4:5-6:

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.

When a man goes into a temple and has his bride sealed to him for time and all eternity, that sealing isn’t a horizontal sealing, but a vertical sealing, for men are the heads of women and husbands are the heads of wives:

But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God. (1 Corinthians 11:3.)

For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. (Ephesians 5:23.)

When that eternally married couple have children, we say that these children are “born under the covenant,” meaning they are automatically sealed to their father. We also say that they are “sealed to their parents,” but that’s an incorrect statement, for the ordinance only seals fathers to children and children to fathers. The newly born children do not need a new sealing because the sealing that occurred between their parents is the father to child sealing.

The temple marriage sealing is a vertical line or cord that goes from the father to the unborn children who will be born through his wife. It doesn’t go to the wife, but though her, to the spirits who are still in heaven. Thus, children born under the covenant don’t get a new sealing cord, but use the same one that connects their mother to their father, for the father is a tree trunk, the mother is a branch attached to him by the sealing and their children are fruits that come forth on that motherly branch, which are likewise attached to the fatherly trunk by the same sealing.

When a man and his wife are sealed together for time and all eternity after their children have been born, the already-born children may be sealed in a separate ordinance, but this sealing isn’t a new sealing cord. It’s merely the grafting of already fallen fruit into the same sealing cord that attaches the wife to her husband.

For strait is the gate, and narrow the way that leadeth unto the exaltation and continuation of the lives, and few there be that find it, because ye receive me not in the world neither do ye know me. (D&C 132:22.)

A woman is sealed to her father through her mother, her father’s wife, and her sons and daughters are sealed to their father, her husband, through her. The first sealing (father to daughter through mother) puts her into the family of God and the second sealing (father to child through wife) allows for the continuation of the lives, for no part of the family of God can be sterile, but must produce an endless bounty of fruit. Likewise, a man is sealed to his father through his mother, his father’s wife, and his children are sealed to him through their mother, his wife.

Again, when a father is sealed to a son or daughter, that son or daughter is accounted as part of the family of God, and when a husband is sealed to his (unborn or already born) child through his wife, that husband and wife are accounted as fruitful, even if they are never able to have any children in this life, because the sealing promise is of eternal and endless seed in the next life.

This shows that there is two-step process for exaltation and the continuation of the lives. If you only get one of the sealings, it is not enough to exalt you. If you marry a wife for time and all eternity but never get sealed to a father, you are out of the family of God and the eternal marriage sealing you got comes undone. And if you were born under the covenant but never marry for time and all eternity, you get kicked out of God’s family as a sterile tree and the father to child sealing comes undone.

(Additionally, we will be double-judged according to our behavior towards the one we are sealed to. For example, if you are a child sealed to a father, and you break the 5th commandment (“Honor thy father and thy mother” Exodus 20:12, which puts the children below both father and mother, making a vertical line from father to mother to child), rebelling against your father, but later as an adult you get sealed for time and all eternity to a spouse, and you treat your spouse righteously, but you never repent, make restitution and reconcile with your father, that first sealing will come back to haunt you, for it will be undone by the Josephite, which will also undo your marriage sealing, and you will end up debarred from exaltation. All those who get these two sealings, then, must make sure that righteousness has been done on both accounts, otherwise the Josephite will judge you unworthy of exaltation, and remove you from the list of the exalted.)

The two sealings are the same type of sealing (father to child) except that in the case of a woman, one sealing goes to her, while the other goes through her. In the case of the man, one sealing goes to him while the other proceeds from him.

Those who inherit a telestial, terrestrial or non-exalted celestial kingdom are sterile trees. They need to be sterile because if they produced eternal fruit, those new souls could never obtain God’s exalted status, for a telestial tree can only produce telestial fruit, a terrestrial tree only terrestrial fruit and a non-exalted celestial tree only non-exalted celestial fruit. Only exalted people produce fruit capable of achieving all heights and depths, therefore everyone below exaltation will be sterile in the resurrection.

Now, children aren’t sealed to the mother, at all, for mothers do not have the seeds of life in their bodies. They only have pots of soil (ova) into which the seeds of life (semen) are inserted. Only men have these seeds, and it is these same human seeds of life that are used by God to grant “eternal lives” (D&C 132:24,55), which is the eternal posterity of the gods. Therefore eternal lives come only through men. All sealing, then, is to the man, for only the man has life in himself, he being a “fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself” (Genesis 1:11).

God has power to take the man, who is a temporal fruit tree, and make him an eternal fruit tree, and so everything and everyone attached to that now eternal man likewise becomes eternal. His temporal seed then becomes eternal seed, thus continuing God’s works and posterity forever.

The aim of the temple marriage sealing is, then, posterity. Outside of posterity, it has no purpose or meaning, whatsoever. This is why God says the following about the purpose of sealing wives to a husband:

But if one or either of the ten virgins, after she is espoused, shall be with another man, she has committed adultery, and shall be destroyed; for they are given unto him to multiply and replenish the earth, according to my commandment, and to fulfil the promise which was given by my Father before the foundation of the world, and for their exaltation in the eternal worlds, that they may bear the souls of men; for herein is the work of my Father continued, that he may be glorified. (D&C 132:63.)

In other words, a wife is given to a man in eternal marriage so that he has posterity both on earth and in heaven, which exalts the wife and fulfills God’s promise concerning the continuation of the seeds forever:

Abraham received all things, whatsoever he received, by revelation and commandment, by my word, saith the Lord, and hath entered into his exaltation and sitteth upon his throne. Abraham received promises concerning his seed, and of the fruit of his loins—from whose loins ye are, namely, my servant Joseph—which were to continue so long as they were in the world; and as touching Abraham and his seed, out of the world they should continue; both in the world and out of the world should they continue as innumerable as the stars; or, if ye were to count the sand upon the seashore ye could not number them. This promise is yours also, because ye are of Abraham, and the promise was made unto Abraham; and by this law is the continuation of the works of my Father, wherein he glorifieth himself. Go ye, therefore, and do the works of Abraham; enter ye into my law and ye shall be saved. (D&C 132:29-32.)

But the whole thing is vertical, going from father to child through the mother. And these temple marriage sealings allow men and women to become the family of God, so that they become begotten sons and daughters of God. Such sealed people are not just saved angels, but exalted gods, and they will form a genealogical chain of vertical links, from Adam to the latest generation.

For we saw him, even on the right hand of God; and we heard the voice bearing record that he is the Only Begotten of the Father—that by him, and through him, and of him, the worlds are and were created, and the inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters unto God. (D&C 76:23-24.)

Wherefore, as it is written, they are gods, even the sons of God—wherefore, all things are theirs, whether life or death, or things present, or things to come, all are theirs and they are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s. (D&C 76:58-59.)

Then shall they be gods, because they have no end; therefore shall they be from everlasting to everlasting, because they continue; then shall they be above all, because all things are subject unto them. Then shall they be gods, because they have all power, and the angels are subject unto them. (D&C 132:20.)

These sealings pertain only to the celestial kingdom and to exaltation. Nevertheless, we read that all things must be sealed:

Q. What are we to understand by the sounding of the trumpets, mentioned in the 8th chapter of Revelation?

A. We are to understand that as God made the world in six days, and on the seventh day he finished his work, and sanctified it, and also formed man out of the dust of the earth, even so, in the beginning of the seventh thousand years will the Lord God sanctify the earth, and complete the salvation of man, and judge all things, and shall redeem all things, except that which he hath not put into his power, when he shall have sealed all things, unto the end of all things; and the sounding of the trumpets of the seven angels are the preparing and finishing of his work, in the beginning of the seventh thousand years—the preparing of the way before the time of his coming. (D&C 77:12.)

What about the people who make it into the celestial kingdom, but who don’t inherit exaltation? What about the people who receive a terrestrial kingdom, or a telestial kingdom? What kind of sealing do they get?

The vertical salvation sealing: master to servant

The saved angels who make it into the celestial kingdom, but who don’t get exalted, are said to be servants:

Therefore, if a man marry him a wife in the world, and he marry her not by me nor by my word, and he covenant with her so long as he is in the world and she with him, their covenant and marriage are not of force when they are dead, and when they are out of the world; therefore, they are not bound by any law when they are out of the world. Therefore, when they are out of the world they neither marry nor are given in marriage; but are appointed angels in heaven, which angels are ministering servants, to minister for those who are worthy of a far more, and an exceeding, and an eternal weight of glory. For these angels did not abide my law; therefore, they cannot be enlarged, but remain separately and singly, without exaltation, in their saved condition, to all eternity; and from henceforth are not gods, but are angels of God forever and ever. (D&C 132:15-17.)

The inhabitants of the telestial kingdom are likewise said to be servants:

But behold, and lo, we saw the glory and the inhabitants of the telestial world, that they were as innumerable as the stars in the firmament of heaven, or as the sand upon the seashore; and heard the voice of the Lord saying: These all shall bow the knee, and every tongue shall confess to him who sits upon the throne forever and ever; for they shall be judged according to their works, and every man shall receive according to his own works, his own dominion, in the mansions which are prepared; and they shall be servants of the Most High; but where God and Christ dwell they cannot come, worlds without end. (D&C 76:109-112.)

From those passages we can extrapolate that everyone (celestial, terrestrial and telestial) below the exalted will be servants. What kind of sealing will it be, then? Why, master to servant, of course:

Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ; not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; with good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men: knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. And, ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening: knowing that your Master also is in heaven; neither is there respect of persons with him. (Ephesians 6:5-9.)

Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God: and whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ. But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done: and there is no respect of persons. (Colossians 3:22-25.)

Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal; knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven. (Colossians 4:1.)

Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honour, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed. And they that have believing masters, let them not despise them, because they are brethren; but rather do them service, because they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit. These things teach and exhort. (1 Timothy 6:1-2.)

Exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters, and to please them well in all things; not answering again; not purloining, but shewing all good fidelity; that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things. (Titus 2:9-10.)

Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward. (1 Peter 2:18.)

The saved servants need a sealing to remain in God’s kingdom. But as they did not qualify themselves as the exalted sons and daughters of God, nor as lost sons of perdition, they will be sealed as kingdom servants:

And he said unto his servant: When I will; go ye straightway, and do all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and this shall be my seal and blessing upon you—a faithful and wise steward in the midst of mine house, a ruler in my kingdom. (D&C 101:60-61.)

Thus, when the First Presidency authorized that Jane Elizabeth Manning James be sealed* as a “Servitor” (or servant) to Joseph Smith, we can see that this wasn’t an aberration, but the spirit of Elias operating, foreshadowing the great sealing of servants that the Josephite would perform during his ministry, in which all those who will inherit a telestial, terrestrial or a non-exalted celestial reward, would be vertically sealed to some saved master as an eternal servant.

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* This sealing was temporary, for in 1979 James was endowed by proxy and will, because of her extreme faithfulness, end up receiving all the temple blessings and entering into her exaltation, despite being denied these blessings in mortality. She stands as an example to all latter-day saints of what it takes to obtain exaltation. She served in mortality but all things will be subject to her in eternity. The saved who cannot match her absolute dedication will not be accounted worthy of that great reward she will receive, but will receive instead her first sealing reward of “Servitor for eternity.”

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