Priesthood and Family

Aug 22

During the Elders Quroum meeting today in Church, the talk was about the Priesthood and family. The speaker used a talk given by Apostle Boyd Packer at the April 2010 General Conference entitled, “The Power of the Priesthood”.

I remember reading this speech from Boyd Packer in the May 2010 Ensign magazine, but at that time when I read it, I did not receive any sudden insights or revelations or sudden clarity about any spiritual or scriptural subject, but this time it was different.

The elder in class today quoted the words from Apostle Packer,

The priesthood does not have the strength that it should have and will not have until the power of the priesthood is firmly fixed in the families.¹

This time those same words that I read before, suddenly struck a note and I began to realize the impact of these words from Boyd Packer. Those words impressed me so much, I pulled out my insight journal that I normally take to Church and made notes as the inspired impressions flowed into my mind and heart.

Revealed was the importance of the Priesthood for the Church and for building Zion. It all made perfect sense.

How can God build Zion through the many generations of faithful members? This question sets the background to begin understanding the impact of Boyd Packer’s statement. Since Building Zion is important, where does the building of Zion take place?

If we ask the many Christians who are not of this Church, what may they say? Many will claim it is about the personal relationship with God, others claim it is the body of Christ as in the membership, others may claim Zion will be in heaven and not on earth, but the majority will speak of Zion in Biblical terms as they completely miss the entire point of the question, “where does the building of Zion take place?”

Bible only believers do not have any idea of how God will build Zion and this is understandable because none of them have the Holy Priesthood.

Zion is not about building structures, roads, or any infrastructure as we see of the cities of the world. It is true that Zion is about the people of God, or as some others name it, “the body of Christ (membership), but Zion is far more than that. What was lost to the other Christians was the main substance of Zion, that being the family. Many others believe that Zion is merely the people of God, but sorely fail to see that Zion is about family, not just a group of people. To try to claim that the body of Christ, as a group of people is the meaning of family falls sorely short of the grand nature God terms as “family”. There would simply be no Zion without it. There is clearly no possible way to populate a Church of God as the “body of Christ” without family which is the Father, Mother and Children. That is the real meaning of family. This is one of the prime missions of the Lord’s Church on the earth. It is impossible to build Zion anywhere, even in heaven unless there is “family”. There is no idleness in God’s kingdom. Every single thing he does, has and lives by has a great eternal purpose and family is at the top of the list.

How then can God build Zion through families? - The answer is the Holy Priesthood.

To make something holy and have the power to bless and sustain in a spiritual way, there must be the authority and power to make this a reality. There is no other single source of power and authority from God given to man that can stablize, build, protect, lead, bless, sustain and direct, than through and from the Holy Priesthood.

When I realized this I saw that the presence of the Church means nothing if there was no Holy Priesthood to lead the families of God. Salvation would fail if God did not protect one of his greatest assets, the family. The great plan of God started with Adam and Eve becoming the first Father and Mother of humanity – “family”.

Does the Bible show the importance of family? Yes it does. The Book of Malachi, where this prophet of God said,

Malachi 4:1–6

1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

2 But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.

3 And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts.

4 Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.

5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord:

6 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.

Malachi warned that unless the hearts of the fathers and hearts of the children turn to each other, the earth will be smite with a curse and this warning refers to the consequences if there became a total desolation of family. This is what gave rise to genealogy. Is it any wonder that this Church is now one of the largest organizations in genealogy research and the world followed suit? Is this not about “family” and without the blessings of this research, including the work in the temple for those who have passed on, that our salvation would fail?

I am sure the detractors would argue and debate till turning blue that temple work as vicarious baptism has nothing to do with individual salvation, yet no one can truly successfully deny the connection of family to the building of Zion. From that connection comes many things about family and the absolute need for family to gain salvation, else the words of Malachi are nothing more than the ranting of an obscure man.

How the idea that there is no family beyond death and all we become are angels, calling this family, falls sorely short of the meaning, value and purpose of family, both spiritually and temporally. How can God’s glory increase without family?

In the Old Testament, God declared Abraham the Father of Nations and to make a nation requires family as he had a large family himself. God spoke of blessing the seed of his faithful, both in the Bible and Book of Mormon. God told Abraham that he shall teach his children to keep the way of the Lord. The faithful are referred to as the “children of God”. Isaiah spoke of the need to teach children the way of the Lord, Jesus spoke against divorce, even though God provided for it and women are treated as special in God’s eyes as shown by Jesus Christ. Family is paramount and this is seen throughout the scriptures.

To build Zion requires “holy families” and to achieve that goal each family must possess at its head, the holder of the Holy Priesthood. As God the Father is at the head of all children of God, so is this pattern the same with the Priesthood holder at the head of his family. There are other Christian churches that claim to have the priesthood, but their priesthood order only applies to the organization of that church and has no application for the family. The lack of the priesthood for the family is because they lack the doctrine from God that the priesthood be at the head of each family. How can some of the other Christian churches proclaim the same thing when they deny marriage to their priesthood holders? Clearly, by just the Bible, the Holy Priesthood is not just for the organization of the Church. With the absence of the very important “Doctrine of Family”, how can any other church proclaim they are of God?

Without the family made holy, the Church of God becomes nonexistent.

The Church of God, the Church of Jesus Christ, would be dead without the family as paramount and without the Holy Priesthood at the head of each family, leading, directing, teaching, protecting, sustaining it. How worthless the gospel would be without the family. Think about it. Jesus was born into a family, to be raised by a mother and father. He later did the work for his Father in Heaven. The earthly mother of Jesus was a “virgin” to establish purity and the birth of Christ through a virgin mothers sets the nature of family so important, that any person who rejects the idea of family as central to salvation risks damnation . If family was not important and not central to salvation of mankind, Jesus would not have had to be born into a mortal family, but since he was, this shows that family is an intrinsic, intricate part of God’s eternal plan and the image of that plan in mortality is “Family”.

Having realized all this today, afforded me the insight to why the gospel exists in the first place and I am sure, in time more knowledge and understanding will come to further the family and hence, salvation.

Amen.

Footnotes