Question from a reader:
Emanuel Swedenborg’s view on marriage in Heaven is that we will be happily married to the love of our lives, our one and only love, our one flesh and mystery. Have you rethought about marriage in Heaven since your wife is there? Marriage is a covenant; is it eternal? It seems like to cancel our marriage is cruel and hurtful. Should we believe that our marriage was not a covenant and did not matter?
Answer from Stephanie Anderson, EPM staff:
I’m responding on Randy’s behalf. I would encourage you to exercise caution when it comes to Emanuel Swedenborg’s religious writings. Here is a resource from the Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry. They say this:
Emanuel Swedenborg was born on January 29, 1688 (died 1772) in Stockholm. His father was a Lutheran minister. Emanuel was very bright and had an inquisitive mind. He was particularly interested in science and religion. In the former, he was recognized as an expert in geology and he also studied astronomy, cosmology, and physics. In 1744 he was stricken with a severe delirium which seems to have affected his mind for the rest of his life since many trance states were attributed to him as his life progressed.
In 1745 he had a vision where loathsome creatures seemed to crawl on the walls of his room. Then a man appeared who claimed to be God. This apparition said that Emanuel was to be the one who would communicate the teachings of the unseen realm to the people of the world. He would be the means by which God would further reveal Himself to the world.
You asked several questions about marriage. In his article “Does Our Marriage to Christ in Heaven Mean Our Earthly Marriage Partners Won’t Be Important to Us?”, Randy writes this:
As I share in my book Heaven, there will be one marriage in Heaven, not many. That marriage will be what earthly marriage symbolized and pointed to, the marriage of Christ to His bride. So we will all be married—but to Christ.
Our marriage to Him is the true Marriage, of which the best of earthly marriages are a symbol and shadow [see Ephesians 5:32]. Those who did not experience marriage or had only a poor marriage on Earth will be delighted with their eternal Bridegroom, who has already gone to prepare a place for them. One day all Heaven will attend the ultimate wedding, and we will be His bride (see Revelation 19:7-9).
Our earthly marriages are fulfilled when we die and enter God’s presence because as earthly covenants, they were pointing to something greater and far more lasting—something full of more joy, satisfaction, and love than even the most wonderful marriage here on Earth. (This also eliminates the problem of multiple marriages which were good and godly but end in death.)
And as Randy says, our loved ones in Heaven will continue to be important to us. He writes this:
I fully anticipate no one besides God will understand me better on the New Earth than Nanci, and there’s nobody whose company I’ll seek and enjoy more than Nanci’s.
The joys of marriage in eternity will be far greater because of the character and love of our Bridegroom. I rejoice for Nanci and for me that we’ll both be married to the most wonderful person in the universe. He’s already the one we love most—there is no competition. On Earth, the closer we drew to Him, the closer we drew to each other. Surely the same will be true in Heaven.
With Nanci in Heaven, Randy believes this more than ever.
It sounds like perhaps this is a painful subject for you to consider, but I hope this provides some perspective. May God bless you and comfort you as you focus on Him and remember the eternal joy that awaits us in His presence. He is good, and what awaits us is so very good. “In your presence is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11).
Photo: Pexels
