From Liberty Jail to Priesthood Sealing Power

Joseph Smith taught that enduring power emerges naturally, not from force, but from the influence of relationships that we develop together through knowledge, consent, compassion, and persuasion. Such virtues form the underlying relational physics that make social power, and its technical applications, enduring. They describe not only how Joseph envisioned God exercising power, but how any entity must operate to maintain enduring power in a decentralized context. Nothing compulsory persists at the limits of time because compulsion destroys the very relationships on which such power depends.

Joseph’s imprisonment in Liberty Jail confirmed this principle with visceral clarity. In the revelations now found in D&C 121–123, we read that compulsion corrupts authority, coercion dissolves influence, and only love unfeigned can maintain enduring power. For Joseph, these insights weren’t newly conceived ideas so much as newly mature ideas, gestated in his previous teachings on agency, priesthood, and covenant. But after Liberty Jail, Joseph was prepared to deliver the sealing doctrines of Nauvoo, including proxy baptism and eternal marriage as found in D&C 127-132, within a coherent relational framework.

The Relational Physics of Sealing

Sealing is the process by which relationships are affirmed, sanctified, and ordained to endure throughout eternity. Joseph described it as the means of “welding” our human family together, linking us in bonds stronger than death. But for sealing to function as more than a hollow symbol, the relationships involved must operate in accordance with principles that naturally cultivate enduring relationships. Understanding sealing therefore requires understanding the relational physics that govern the stability of all relationships.

Enduring relationships operate by honoring agency, ensuring individuals understand their options and meaningfully consent to their choices. As D&C 131:6 teaches, “it is impossible for a man to be saved in ignorance.” Without informed consent, agency collapses into compulsion, which cannot endure. Whatever proceeds from ignorance or compulsion is neither meaningful consent nor agency.

Because relationships develop within communities, enduring relationships also require a social context that honors agency. The community must recognize and reinforce consensual relationships that increase the resilience of the community. And it must deprecate coercion – oppressing oppression. This results in a natural desire-based ethics that scales up in complexity from one to many relationships.

In D&C 132, the voice of God characterizes enduring relationships as follows:

“And everything that is in the world, whether it be ordained of men, by thrones, or principalities, or powers, or things of name, whatsoever they may be, that are not by me or by my word, saith the Lord, shall be thrown down, and shall not remain after men are dead, neither in nor after the resurrection, saith the Lord your God. For whatsoever things remain are by me; and whatsoever things are not by me shall be shaken and destroyed.”

It’s tempting to interpret this scripture as an assertion that relationships endure because God imposes them. But such interpretations fail to account for the nature of the power of God. Again, as described by Joseph in D&C 121, the power of God arises from consensual honor. Accordingly, relationships that “remain by God” are those that persist by the same power of consensual honor, between individuals within communities scaling up to that of God, whereas all others “shall be shaken and destroyed” – undermining themselves at the limits of time.

Sealing cannot be imposed, even by God, without contradicting the very relational physics that make enduring power possible. Instead, we might understand sealing as a way to formalize, and thereby strengthen, our mutual intent to relate in accordance with the physics of enduring power – the eternal power of God. And we could see this as an expression of the infinite atonement of Christ, wherein each member of the proverbial body of Christ consents to perpetual reconciliation. So it should not surprise us that Joseph’s revelations proceed to extend sealing authority from God to humanity.

Proxy Baptism

Proxy baptism is an ordinance in which a living person is baptized on behalf of someone else. Typically, proxies represent those who died without having been baptized, in anticipation that the dead will have an opportunity to accept the ordinance, but without presuming their decision. Early Christians may have performed the ordinance, referenced briefly in 1 Corinthians 15:29, which inspired Joseph.

Mormons may not commonly think of baptism, whether in person or by proxy, in terms of sealing. But in D&C 128, Joseph clearly describes baptism in terms of “the sealing and binding power.” And he characterizes baptism as an extension of sealing authority from God to humanity, alluding to the New Testament Gospel of Matthew, with these words: “whatsoever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

In D&C 127-128, Joseph elaborates on concrete actions to imbue sealing authority with greater strength. In particular, he directs the Church to assign witnesses and keep records for each baptism. And he rephrases the the scriptural characterization of sealing authority in terms of those records, saying, “whatsoever you record on earth shall be recorded in heaven, and whatsoever you do not record on earth shall not be recorded in heaven.”

Note the decentralization of sealing authority. This is not God unilaterally sealing matters on Earth. This is Earth sealing matters in heaven, at least to the extent of whatever Earth “did in authority, in the name of the Lord, and did it truly and faithfully, and kept a proper and faithful record of the same.” Then, the scripture continues, “it became a law on earth and in heaven, and could not be annulled, according to the decrees of the great Jehovah.”

Some mistake decentralization for anarchy. This is not anarchy. The appeal to the authority of God (in this case using the name “Jehovah”) remains strong. As heaven cannot impose sealing unilaterally, neither can Earth.

Neither can heaven or Earth impose sealing on any individual, living or dead. Scripture characterizes the dead as having substantially reduced agency. As D&C 138 puts it, “the dead had looked upon the long absence of their spirits from their bodies as a bondage.” Accordingly, proxies enact an invitation, offering authorized consent on behalf of the community, which begins but does not conclude conditions necessary for the sealing to have power.

Proxy baptism is, therefore, an expression and model of how enduring power attains, not through compulsion, but through collective consensual action that scales up the principles of relational physics. God extends sealing authority through the Church to individuals. But neither God nor the Church nor any individual can unilaterally empower that authority in the most enduring way – in the only way that sealing is conceptually coherent. To seal the baptism with such power, the relationship must operate as Joseph envisioned in Liberty Jail.

Eternal Marriage

Eternal marriage is an ordinance in which persons are married with intent to perpetuate their relationship and posterity indefinitely, through death and beyond. This contrasts with civil marriage, which we commonly understand to end at death. Joseph cited the Biblical covenant between God and Abraham, described in the Hebrew Bible as an “everlasting covenant,” as inspiration and precedent for the ordinance.

Mormons regularly use “sealing” to describe the ordinance of eternal marriage. This reflects the text of D&C 132:

“If a man marry a wife by my word, which is my law, and by the new and everlasting covenant, and it is sealed unto them by the Holy Spirit of promise, by him who is anointed, unto whom I have appointed this power and the keys of this priesthood; … they shall pass by the angels, and the gods, which are set there, to their exaltation and glory in all things, as hath been sealed upon their heads, which glory shall be a fulness and a continuation of the seeds forever and ever.

“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.”

Note again the decentralization of authority, this time with full recursion. God anoints and appoints others to sealing authority. Those with authority then seal others to eventual Godhood, which positions them ultimately to repeat and extend decentralization. And this is characterized as Earth binding heaven, with another allusion to the New Testament Gospel of Matthew: “whatsoever you seal on earth shall be sealed in heaven; and whatsoever you bind on earth, in my name and by my word, saith the Lord, it shall be eternally bound in the heavens.”

But sealing isn’t inevitable – Godhood cannot be imposed. D&C 132 explicitly mentions some actions, such as adultery and murder, that could nullify sealing. Such actions naturally undermine trust and provoke hatred. And as D&C 121 points out, “no power or influence can or ought to be maintained by virtue of the priesthood,” not even the priesthood and authority of a God, expect “by persuasion, by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned.”

Like proxy baptism, eternal marriage is an expression and model of how enduring power attains, not through compulsion, but through collective consensual action that scales up the principles of relational physics. Again, God extends sealing authority through the Church to individuals. But again, neither God nor the Church nor any individual can unilaterally empower that authority in the most enduring way. To seal the marriage with such power, the relationship must operate as Joseph envisioned in Liberty Jail.

All Ordinances Lead to Sealing

All priesthood ordinances aim to create or strengthen relationships. This is most obvious with the ordinance of marriage. But it also applies to baptism, as I’ve shown, as well as other ordinances of the Church. Holistically considered, then, sealing is not just one ritual but the culmination of all ritual – the fulfillment of all priesthood.

In this light, we can see that Nauvoo sealing theology is a coherent natural extension of the principles that Joseph articulated in Liberty Jail. Priesthood authority, communal life, proxy work, eternal marriage, and even resurrection all converge on sealing the family of God. Eternal life is relational life, which priesthood sanctifies, and love naturally empowers – “that same sociality which exists among us here will exist among us there, only it will be coupled with eternal glory.”

Liberty Jail provided Joseph with a clear vision of the relational physics that enable enduring power, that empower God, and that may yet empower our Godhood. Sealing authority, expressed in proxy baptism and eternal marriage, point our minds to such potential. But the prophecies are forth-telling, not fortune telling. Their realization depends on our desires, and our consent expressed in our actions.

Enraptured by the sublime force of these ideas, Joseph exclaimed:

“Brethren, shall we not go on in so great a cause? Go forward and not backward. Courage, brethren; and on, on to the victory! Let your hearts rejoice, and be exceedingly glad. Let the earth break forth into singing. Let the dead speak forth anthems of eternal praise to the King Immanuel, who hath ordained, before the world was, that which would enable us to redeem them out of their prison; for the prisoners shall go free.

“Let the mountains shout for joy, and all ye valleys cry aloud; and all ye seas and dry lands tell the wonders of your Eternal King! And ye rivers, and brooks, and rills, flow down with gladness. Let the woods and all the trees of the field praise the Lord; and ye solid rocks weep for joy! And let the sun, moon, and the morning stars sing together, and let all the sons of God shout for joy! And let the eternal creations declare his name forever and ever! And again I say, how glorious is the voice we hear from heaven, proclaiming in our ears, glory, and salvation, and honor, and immortality, and eternal life; kingdoms, principalities, and powers!

“Behold, the great day of the Lord is at hand; and who can abide the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appeareth? For he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fuller’s soap; and he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. Let us, therefore, as a church and a people, and as Latter-day Saints, offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness; and let us present in his holy temple, when it is finished, a book containing the records of our dead, which shall be worthy of all acceptation.”

Indeed, brother Joseph, may we offer to God our sealings. May we record them with authority in our books and databases. May we express them with power through the relational physics of our hearts. And may our sealings prove worthy of consent from the God worthy of worship.