Class Member Study Guide: Lesson 31
Doctrine & Covenants 131:1-4
Doctrine & Covenants 132:4-33
THE LORD HAS PRONOUNCED THAT CERTAIN ORDINANCES ARE NECESSARY TO OPEN GATE TO ETERNAL LIFE AND EXALTATION
The Endowment
Just as Joseph Smith received revelation line upon line regarding baptism for the dead, he also "sought and received additional instructions from the Lord regarding the sacred endowment."
Years later Brigham Young instructed the Saints on the importance of the endowment. Here is his definition:
"Your endowment is, to receive all those ordinances in the House of the Lord, which are necessary for you, after you have departed this life, to enable you to walk back to the presence of the father, passing the angels who stand as sentinels, being enabled to give them the key words, the signs and tokens, pertaining to the Holy Priesthood, and gain your eternal exaltation in spite of earth and hell."Marriage for Eternity
"Shortly after the introduction of the endowment the Prophet revealed that a married couple could be sealed together by the power of the priesthood for time and all eternity."
"In the spring of
1843, Joseph Smith taught the eternal importance of the marriage covenant. First the Lord explained that for any covenant, including marriage, to be valid in eternity it must meet three requirements (see D & C 132:7):
Blessings and Promises It must be "made and entered into and sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise."
It must be performed by the proper priesthood authority.
It must be by "revelation and commandment" through the Lord's anointed prophet (see also D & C 132:18-19)
Celestial marriage is
a covenant, a contract between the two marriage partners and the Lord.
Covenants have “if-then” clauses: if we keep certain commandments, then the
Lord promises us certain blessings. Verses 19–22 form such a clause."
If
a couple—
|
Then
they will—
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1. Are married in
accordance with the Lord’s law
|
1. “Inherit
thrones, kingdoms, principalities, and powers, dominions, all heights and
depths” (v. 19)
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2. Are married by
one who has the keys of the priesthood
|
|
3. Have their
marriage sealed by the Holy Spirit of Promise
|
|
4. Abide in the
covenant
|
Love and Loyalty
Elder Parley P. Pratt, one of the original members of the Quorum of the Twelve in this dispensation, recalled his feelings when he first heard the Prophet Joseph teach these doctrines:
Elder Parley P. Pratt, one of the original members of the Quorum of the Twelve in this dispensation, recalled his feelings when he first heard the Prophet Joseph teach these doctrines:
“I had loved before, but I knew not why. But now I loved—with a pureness—an intensity of elevated, exalted feeling, which would lift my soul. … I felt that God was my heavenly Father indeed; that Jesus was my brother, and that the wife of my bosom was an immortal, eternal companion. … In short, I could now love with the spirit and with the understanding also” (Autobiography of Parley P. Pratt [1975], 298)."
President
Spencer W. Kimball explained:
“When the Lord says all thy heart, it allows for no sharing nor dividing nor depriving. …
“The words none else eliminate everyone and everything. The spouse then becomes preeminent in the life of the husband or wife, and neither social life nor occupational life nor political life nor any other interest nor person nor thing shall ever take precedence over the companion spouse. …
President Gordon B. Hinckley gave this simple counsel to married couples: "Be fiercely loyal one to another" (Ensign, Feb. 1999, 4).“Marriage presupposes total allegiance and total fidelity. Each spouse takes the partner with the understanding that he or she gives totally to the spouse all the heart, strength, loyalty, honor, and affection, with all dignity. Any divergence is sin; any sharing of the heart is transgression. As we should have ‘an eye single to the glory of God,’ so should we have an eye, an ear, a heart single to the marriage and the spouse and family” (Faith Precedes the Miracle [1972], 142–43).
