Question on Law of Chastity wording

[ransomme]

If marriage is from God, why do we need permission from the state/government in order to get married?

Mike

There are certain types of marriage that should be illegal such as those involving close relatives, children or compulsion. There are also people who'd like to marry animals or objects (which has already happened unofficially), autogamy/sologamy (which is just nutty) and so on. In fact, there are some other forms of potential marriage that are so bizarre they resemble traditional heterosexual monogamy even less than same-sex marriage does.

"Legal and lawful" is an obvious way of saying "we're not polygamists", and kowtowing to worldly authority...

Pres Hinkley explained it this way to the translators and sealers here (because legal and lawful are the same word on Finnish) that legal refers to the state and lawful is God's law.

Hinckley's interpretation of these two words is questionable. The two terms are synonymous, so why use both of them? "Legal" is the French derived term, via the Norman ruling class, and "lawful" is the Germanic derived Anglo-Saxon term of the common people... but other than that there is little or no difference between their meanings, just like "plural marriage" and "polygamy" mean the same thing.

We know fine well that there is God's law, and human law, and that these are often two different things, but that is not a differentiation I see bound up in those two words.

just passing on the information, perhaps an insight to the insider view

[ransomme]

Wasn't there a change to this just in 2019?
I think now it is "legally and lawfully wedded according to His law". So a legal gay marriage will not do.

On the other hand, the current wording is more ambiguous and could be interpreted to allow polygamy:
Pre 2019

shall have no sexual relations except with your husband or wife to whom you are legally and lawfully wedded.

Post 2019

the women of God’s kingdom and the men of God’s kingdom shall have no sexual relations except with those to whom they are legally and lawfully wedded according to His law.

Per the Church, this indeed implies that anyone married to a non-member is breaking the law of chastity.

I disagree. "According to His law" is not well defined. One could interpret it to mean sealing. Or then not. The church do allow civil marriages, so in my opinion those fall under "His law".

I mean looking through, then President Hinkley's interpretation