In the proclamation on the family,
the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles stated: “All human
beings—male and female—are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved
spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine
nature and destiny. Gender is an essential characteristic of individual
premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose.”[1] From this we are assured
that male and female reproductive organs will remain in their proper place as
gender identifiers for all eternity, worlds without end.
Misled people can make use of all
the science and surgery they can to change these identifiers in mortality, but
in the next life beyond the veil they will see that they still have the same essential
characteristics they were born with to those same heavenly parents in their
pre-existent home. God our Eternal Father is a perfect being with all knowledge
and all power and he knows how to put a male spirit in a male body and a female
spirit in a female body and he has never made one mistake in this regard in all
the history of the world; nor will He ever. For those rare incidents of nature
or other intervention, where some confusion (on our part) is present with these
organs, if nothing sorts them out before then, death certainly will. Surgery
cannot affect the eternal spirit found within the body of a man or woman in any
way.
But there
is a further question as it relates to the resurrection: will those sexual
characteristics/organs be functional—will they be operative? The revelation
says: “In the celestial glory there are three heavens or degrees; And in order
to obtain the highest, a man must enter into this order of the priesthood
[meaning the new and everlasting covenant of marriage]; And if he does not, he
cannot obtain it. He may enter into the other, but that is the end of his
kingdom; he cannot have an increase” (D&C 131:1-4). These verses constitute
the settled doctrine of the church, that those who are resurrected with any
kind of body other than an exalted glorified body in the highest degree of the
Celestial Kingdom, will not be able to have increase, or spirit children—a
continuation of the seeds: “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
132:16-17). This is the eternal law.
