I hope you enjoy some insights from my Come, Follow Me for The Family: A Proclamation to the World. If you missed last week’s insight, for Doctrine and Covenants The Articles of Faith and Official Declarations 1 and 2 click here for it. Please share this with your friends or use this picture to save this pin to read later:
The Family Proclamation was once obvious.
Before I want to dive into a few of the doctrinal insights from this week’s Come, Follow Me study of The Family Proclamation it is important to understand the context of the world when this revelation was given. In 1995 when The Family Proclamation was given there were 0, that is right ZERO nations around the world that had legalized gay marriage, let alone anything else on the LGBTQ spectrum.
To paint a picture of how universally accepted the doctrines in The Family Proclamation were, in 2004 Hillary Clinton, nearly 10 years after the Family Proclamation was given, stood on the floor of the United States Senate and defended the sanctity of marriage as defined by the Family Proclamation as the fundamental bedrock organization of civilization.
For more about how the Family Proclamation went from obvious to controversial click HERE for an article just about it
Marriage is ordained of God and defined by God.
“Marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and that the family is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children.”
Celestial Marriage between and man and a wife is the APEX of the gospel. It is the covenant by which we are promised that if faithful we will become kings and queens, even exaltation and eternal life. It is no wonder that Satan has a full-court press against marriage! Satan has attempted to redefine the most sacred of religious sacraments to merely be about lust, claiming “love is love” he hopes to destroy the very concept of marriage.
To those who still believe in marriage between a man and a woman, Satan seeks to prevent at all costs a Celestial Marriage in the temple. And when one enters into a Celestial marriage, Satan knows the war is almost lost, his last hope is to sabotage and hopefully destroy the marriage through infidelity either to one’s partner or to God thereby nullifying the covenant.
Marriage is not just ‘part of the gospel that can be changed as so many progressives within the Church seek to do. Marriage, Celestial Marriage, is the beginning of Godhood, it is the crux of the whole plan, in the words of Russell M. Nelson it is the entire reason we are here on earth! He taught, “The earth was created and this Church was restored so that families could be formed, sealed, and exalted eternally.”
IMPORTANT NOTE For many of God’s children Celestial Marriage feels like an impossibility. But hold on to your promises! Howard W. Hunter taught, “No blessing, including that of eternal marriage and an eternal family, will be denied to any worthy individual. While it may take somewhat longer—perhaps even beyond this mortal life—for some to achieve this blessing, it will not be denied” (“The Church Is for All People,” Ensign, June 1989, 76). So cling to God and keep your covenants! Regardless of your marital status, race, color, sexual orientation, or anything else that the world seeks to define you by, know that God has a plan for your happiness if you but keep your covenants with Him!
We are ALL children of God.
“All human beings—male and female—are created in the image of God.”
The Family Proclamation declares that we are all children of God created in His image. It is important to understand that the vast majority of Christianity do NOT believe that we are literal children of God but merely adopted through the Grace of Christ. Therefore, to most Christians, the unbeliever is not a child of God, neither are they their brother or sister.
When one truly has the knowledge that we are all brothers and sisters, no matter our race, color, nationality, gender, or creed, then we realize that we have far more in common with each other than we have that is different. This is why the fact we are children of God is constantly under assault by Satan, he seeks to divide and subdivide us into demographics that he can then pit against each other, whereas to God, we are simply His Children. When we seek to have our relationship with God define us and others, we become like Him.
Everyone chose to be here! EVERYONE wanted and agreed to the plan.
“In the premortal realm, spirit sons and daughters knew and worshipped God as their Eternal Father and accepted His plan”
The Family Proclamation declares knowledge of our First Estate, namely that we ALL lived with God before we were born. We are His children, we all choose to follow God in the War in Heaven, there were no fence-sitters. We were given glory and a body as a reward for keeping our First Estate. This mortal life is the Second Estate. If we follow the Gospel plan and but choose God and Christ again, then through Jesus Christ, the Lord, we will pass this phase of testing and return home to heaven and obtain our divine potential the Third Estate.
The world speaks so much of being true to our ‘authentic self’ but in reality, our authentic self is a child of God who chose to follow God’s plan and wanted exaltation. NOTHING that comes between us and exaltation is being true to our authentic self. In the words of Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, “What we ‘really are’ is embryonic Gods, and surely this world is trying to make us forget that, make us pursue something else. It does not take a theologian to recognize that anything else will be a tragic disappointment in the strictest prophetic as well as Aristotelian sense.”
Life is sacred and abortion is evil.
“We affirm the sanctity of life and of its importance in God’s eternal plan.”
Life is sacred. Few truths have been taught with as much force by the Prophets and apostles as the sanctity of life and denouncing the evils of abortion, consider just the three following statements:
“As a servant of the Lord, I dutifully warn those who advocate and practice abortion that they incur the wrath of Almighty God”
Russell M. Nelson
“This Church of Jesus Christ opposes abortion and counsels all members not to submit to nor participate in any abortion, in any way, for convenience or to hide sins. Abortion must be considered one of the most revolting and sinful practices in this day.”
Spencer W. Kimball
“When one knows the doctrine, parenthood becomes a sacred obligation, the begetting of life a sacred privilege. Abortion would be unthinkable.”
Boyd K. Packer
For more quotes on abortion by the prophets and apostles see:
The role of the Extended Family.
“Extended families should lend support when needed.”
When I read this part of the Family Proclamation this week it hit me with a lot more force than ever before. Just last week I was listening to an amazing First Presidency address by Marion G. Romney where he taught truths regarding the role of immediate and extended family, he taught:
The same covenant that obligates parents to care for their children also obligates children to care for their parents when they need it… If we would become more godlike in our actions and desires and obtain the Lord’s Spirit, we would see that these same principles also apply to our extended family, or that which we used to call “kin,” that loving group of uncles, aunts, cousins, as well as brothers and sisters, that extends through the branches of the family tree… The immediate family is obligated to help each other; the extended family has the opportunity to help each other. And when our vision of Christlike love matures, we will joyfully take advantage of the opportunities.
First Presidency Message April 1981 “Principles of Temporal Salvation” by Marion G. Romney
I loved this concept, I loved the idea of aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters, cousins, nieces, and nephews all coming together to form the bigger family unit. All coming together in times of need, and all being there to love and support one another in our gospel journey!
God will not be mocked.
“We warn that the disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets.”
The Family Proclamation ends with a warning, a warning that God will not be mocked. As stated previously, the ENTIRE purpose of the earth was to enable men and women to enter into celestial marriages, forge eternal families, and return home to live with our Heavenly Parents. When nations, governments, or peoples make that purpose impossible, and when they are fully ripe, the only merciful and just thing to do to His children is for God to whip out those who have defied and defiled the family. In the words of our current prophet:
“The wrath of God is provoked by governments that sponsor gambling, condone pornography, or legalize abortion. These forces serve to denigrate women now, just as they did in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah.”
Russell M. Nelson