REL 200 - The Eternal Family

The Family is Ordained of God:
Priesthood Origins and Blessings
Reading Assignments for the course
REL 200 - The Eternal Family
Prof.  Marcus H. Martins, Ph.D.

Readings:

"The family is ordained of God."

The Family: A Proclamation to the World

Doctrine & Covenants 131:1-4 Doctrine & Covenants 121:34-46
Doctrine & Covenants 107:21-27, 30 Doctrine & Covenants 132:19
.

Pres. Boyd K. Packer Ordinances (1980)
Pres. Russell M. Nelson

President Joseph F. Smith

The Prophet Joseph Smith  #1

Elder Joseph Fielding Smith

The Prophet Joseph Smith  #2

President Brigham Young

Elder Bruce R. McConkie

The Prophet Joseph Smith  #3




Diagrams:

Women's Access to the Priesthood

The Sacred and Eternal Character of the Institution of Marriage

Living Eternal Laws and Covenants Brings the Enjoyment of Eternal Blessings

Marriage Brings Glory

Defining the Melchizedek Priesthood

The Eternal Blessings and Privileges of the Melchizedek Priesthood

The Abrahamic Covenant and Its Restoration

The Melchizedek Priesthood and the Abrahamic Covenant

The "Good Tidings" of Abraham & The Sealing Power

The Orders of the Priesthood

Priesthood Organization in the Church

An analogy regarding tribal affiliations and blessings

Church NewsTranscript of Interview with President Oaks and President Eyring about Revelation in Councils  (Feb 2022)
Dr. Marcus H. Martins The Doctrine of the Priesthood and Gender Issues (PDF)  HTML (2016)

Insights on the Priesthood (video - 2017)
Questions for Review

President Russell M. Nelson
Women's Access to the Priesthood
Conference Report, Women's Session - October 2018
More regular time in the temple will allow the Lord to teach you how to draw upon His priesthood power with which you have been endowed in His temple.

For those of you who don’t live near a temple, I invite you to study prayerfully about temples in the scriptures and in the words of living prophets.

Seek to know more, to understand more, to feel more about temples than you ever have before.

Pres. Joseph F. Smith
The Sacred and Eternal Character of the Institution of Marriage
Gospel Doctrine, p. 272

... [This] institution of marriage is not a man-made institution.  It is of God.  It is honorable, and no man who is of marriageable age is living his religion who remains single.  It is not simply devised for the convenience alone of man, to suit his own notions, and his own ideas; to marry and then divorce, to adopt and then to discard, just as he pleases.  There are great consequences connected with it, consequences which reach beyond this present time, into all eternity, for thereby souls are begotten into the world, and men and women obtain their being in the world.

Marriage is the preserver of the human race.  Without it, the purposes of God would be frustrated; virtue would be destroyed to give place to vice and corruption, and the earth would be void and empty.

Neither are the relationships that exist, or should exist, between parents and children, and between children and parents, of an ephemeral nature, nor of a temporal character.  They are of eternal consequence, reaching beyond the veil ...

The man and the woman who engage in this ordinance of matrimony are engaging in something that is of such far-reaching character, and is of such vast importance, that thereby hangs life and death, and eternal increase.  Thereupon depends eternal happiness, or eternal misery.


The Prophet Joseph Smith  #1
Living Eternal Laws and Covenants Brings the Enjoyment of Eternal Blessings
The Words of Joseph Smith, p.232

All Blessings that were ordained for man by the council of heaven were on conditions of obedience to the law thereof. No man can obtain an eternal blessing unless the contract or covenant be made in view of eternity. All contracts in view of this life only terminate with this life. ...

Those who keep no eternal Law in this life or make no eternal contract are single [and] alone in the eternal world (Luke 20-35) and are only made angels to minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation never becoming Sons of God having never kept the Law of God --i.e. eternal Law. The earthly is the image of the Heavenly shows that is by the multiplication of lives that the eternal worlds are created and occupied ...


Elder Joseph Fielding Smith
Marriage Brings Glory
The Progress of Man, p. 391

The greatest glory that can be given to man is found in the eternal covenant of marriage-- the power to become gods, even the sons of God and to possess the power to create and hold the everlasting right of increase.


The Prophet Joseph Smith  #2
Defining the Melchizedek Priesthood
Teachings,  p. 166

... [the Melchizedek Priesthood] is the channel through which all knowledge, doctrine, the plan of salvation and every important matter is revealed from heaven.  Its institution was prior to the "foundation of this earth...", and [it] is the highest and holiest Priesthood, and is after the order of the Son of God, and  all other Priesthoods are only parts, ramifications, powers and blessings belonging to the same, and are held, controlled, and directed by it. ...

[the Melchizedek Priesthood] is the channel through which the Almighty commenced revealing His glory at the beginning of the creation of the earth, and through which He has continued to reveal Himself to the children of men to the present time, and through which He will make known his purposes to the end of time.

... the Melchizedek Priesthood ... holds the highest authority which pertains to the priesthood, and the keys of the Kingdom of God in all ages of the world to the latest posterity on the earth; ...


President Brigham Young
The Eternal Blessings and Privileges of the Melchizedek Priesthood
Discourses of Brigham Young,  p. 49

The Priesthood of God, that was given to the ancients and is given to men in the latter days, is co-equal in duration with eternity—is without beginning of days or end of life. It is unchangeable in its system of government and its Gospel of salvation. It gives to Gods and angels their supremacy and power, and offers wealth, influence, posterity, exaltations, power, glory, kingdoms and thrones, ceaseless in their duration, to all who will accept them on the terms upon which they are offered.


Elder Bruce R. McConkie
The Abrahamic Covenant and Its Restoration
The Mortal Messiah, Book 1, p.56

Abraham is everywhere revered as the father of the faithful and the friend of God ... [and] the Lord centered all things in his friend from Ur.  From that day onward as long as time should roll or the earth should stand, the decree was that faithful spirits (in the main), those who would believe God and work righteousness, would come to earth as Abraham's seed.  Those not of his literal bloodline who accept the gospel are adopted into his family, become his seed, and rise up and bless him as their father.

With Abraham, and then with Isaac, and then with Jacob, the Lord made the covenant that their seed would continue, both in the world and out of the world, as innumerable as the sand upon the seashore or as the stars in heaven for multitude.  This is the promise of eternal increase that is made in connection with celestial marriage, and that has been restored in modern times.  It was restored by Elias and Elijah: by Elias, "who committed the dispensation of the gospel of Abraham," under which commission all who enter into celestial marriage receive the promise that in them and in their seed after them shall all generations be blessed; and by Elijah, who brought back the sealing power so that once again legal administrators could seal on earth and have it bound eternally in the heavens.


The Prophet Joseph Smith  #3
The Melchizedek Priesthood and the Abrahamic Covenant
Teachings, p.171;  Journal of Discourses 6:238

... the keys of this Priesthood consisted in obtaining the voice of Jehovah ... in a familiar and friendly manner, [and in obtaining] the keys, the covenants, the power and the glory, with which [the Lord] blessed Adam at the beginning ...

This is why Abraham blessed his posterity--he wanted to bring them into the presence of God. ... In the first ages of the world they tried to establish the same thing: and there were Eliases raised up who tried to restore these very glories, but did not obtain them: but they prophesied of a day when this glory would be revealed. Paul spoke of the dispensation of the fulness of times, when God would gather together all things in one, &c.; and those men to whom these keys have been given will have to be there; and they without us cannot be made perfect.


The "Good Tidings" of Abraham
Pearl of Great Price, Abraham 2:9-11

The Sealing Power

The power and authority by which the administration of any of the blessings of the Gospel of Abraham made by a righteous mortal priesthood holder--which administration is made by means of ordinances and covenants--would be recognized (or validated) in eternity.


The Orders of the Priesthood
As outlined in Doctrine and Covenants 107:1, 5-8, 18-20

Diagram - Orders of the Priesthood

Priesthood Organization in the Church (simplified)
As outlined in Doctrine and Covenants 107:21-27, 30

Priesthood Organization - 2019


An analogy regarding tribal affiliations and blessings -- Imagine a water tank with twelve faucets ...

Analogy of the Water Pipes


Questions for Review

1) According to Pres. Russell M. Nelson, how can women learn how to draw on priesthood power? (Pres. Russell M. Nelson)

2) What three objectives did Pres. Nelson outline for one's study about temples?
(Pres. Russell M. Nelson)

3) What does a person need to do in order to obtain the blessing of an eternal marriage? (The Prophet Joseph Smith - #1)

4) What promise from the ancient Abrahamic Covenant is a key component of eternal marriage? (Elder Bruce McConkie)

5) How should decisions be reached in quorums–and likewise in families? (Doctrine & Covenants 107:27,30)

6) How can one exercise "unrighteous dominion"? (Doctrine & Covenants 121:37)

Be prepared to present your understanding about this topic to your classmates, and see if you have additional questions to ask me.  I'll be glad to answer them.


This web page was published only as a support for classroom discussion.
For more information, contact Dr. Marcus Martins at: martinsm@byuh.edu