I have heard or read something that the LDS church teaches that there will be marriage and even polygamy in the after life for people who are good Mormons. Is this available for all people are just a few? And what are the specific teachings about this?


Preparing for Exaltation Teachers Manual - Lesson 41: Eternal Marriage


If you are married in an LDS temple, for time and all eternity, and you reach the highest of the three degrees of glory after death, the celestial kingdom, and your wife and children reach the celestial kingdom, your marriage and your family is yours forever.

So no, eternal marriage and family are not for everybody.

If a man marries more than one woman while on earth, because of the first wife's death, then he will be married to both women in the celestial kingdom.

Women who make it to the celestial kingdom because of their faithfulness, and whose husbands don't make it to the celestial kingdom, because of unfaithfulness, are eligible to marry a different, faithful husband in the celestial kingdom.

Edited to add answers to the questions in Narnian's comment:

Can you expand on the case where one woman would marry multiple men, because of death? Since she was married to multiple men, whose wife in the afterlife is she?

The woman would be the wife of the earliest celestially worthy husband.

Also, if there happen to be more men than women in the highest degree of glory, would a woman have multiple husbands?

No. There would be men who don't have celestial wives.

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    I disagree with the bit about "the woman would be the wife of the earliest celestially worthy husband". I have never heard that taught. What I hear instead is "we don't know; we assume and have faith that whatever happens will be fair and just for all involved, and that all involved will be happy with the outcome." – Dave DeLong Nov 24 '11 at 20:53
  • @Dave DeLong: Ok. What years were / are you a mormon? I was taught from 1980 - 2005. My copy of Bruce R. McConkie’s “Mormon Doctrine” is at home, so I'll check later. – Gilbert Le Blanc Nov 28 '11 at 13:14
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    @DaveDeLong As I understand it one woman could marry multiple men (because of death or even divorce) but the only way to have an eternal marriage is to have that marriage sealed in the temple. They just don't seal a woman to more than one man, if he dies then they wait. In case of divorce, they are still sealed unless they also petition the church to break the sealing. She can remarry but will spend eternity with whichever man she was sealed to (if she chooses to). – MaskedPlant Jan 20 '12 at 19:15
  • @MaskedPlant: I was thinking of divorce in my response, but your comment is the complete answer for a woman on earth. Thanks for writing. – Gilbert Le Blanc Jan 23 '12 at 15:55
  • More textual references/citations would be useful to this answer, are there not any? – Jeff B Dec 12 '12 at 17:04

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