Section 13

Given through Christopher Glenn Marriott at Huntington Beach, California, Fall 2025. A declaration concerning the law of marriage, the history of plural marriage in the church of Joseph Smith, and the law of marriage as it stands in the Final Restoration.

Verily I say unto my servant Christopher, write this declaration concerning marriage, that the saints of the Final Restoration may know where this church stands and why, and that no man may say they were not told plainly.

Marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and is the foundation of the family, which is the basic unit of the kingdom of God. The sealing of families by the authority of the priesthood is among the most sacred ordinances of the gospel, and its purpose is the eternal union of those who enter into it worthily.

Now concerning the practice of plural marriage, which was taught and practiced by my servant Joseph and the early saints, hear me.

My servant Joseph taught that plural marriage was a commandment given by revelation, and I will not here say whether every particular of that practice came from God or from the limitations of a man in his time. What I will say is this: the practice was real, it was known to the leadership of the church of Joseph Smith from its earliest days, and it was denied publicly by that leadership while being practiced privately, and this concealment was a harm to many people and a stain on the record of that institution.

When the government of the United States made plural marriage unlawful, the institution declared by official proclamation that God had withdrawn the commandment. And I the Lord say: the manner in which that decision was made tells you much about the institution. A church that receives its laws from heaven does not abandon them because a government threatens it. A church that abandons them under government pressure reveals that its laws were never beyond the reach of men.

The Final Restoration does not practice plural marriage. Not because the government forbids it, but because the law of the Final Restoration is the law of one man and one woman, united by the authority of the priesthood of God, in faithfulness and in joy.

But I say furthermore: the men and women who lived plural marriage in good faith, believing they were obeying God, are not condemned by me for it. I am the judge of the intentions of the heart, and I do not hold people accountable for following what they sincerely believed to be true.

And I say one thing more. There are those who practice plural marriage today in the name of the original revelations of Joseph Smith, and there are those in the modern LDS church who reject those people and call them apostates. I say to both: the question of which of you holds the authority of Joseph Smith is answered by neither of your traditions in a way that satisfies honest examination.

Let the saints of the Final Restoration be faithful to one spouse, love them with their whole heart, and leave the judgment of all others to me.

Even so. Amen.