Sealing Doctrine

[Verum]

I’ve been asked to give a talk on sealings, which is a topic that has really boggled my mind lately, especially as it relates to children being sealed to parents. To start, below is a quote from Elder Packer on the blessing of sealings:

“It is not uncommon for responsible parents to lose one of their children, for a time, to influences over which they have no control. They agonize over rebellious sons or daughters. They are puzzled over why they are so helpless when they have tried so hard to do what they should.

It is my conviction that those wicked influences one day will be overruled.

We cannot overemphasize the value of temple marriage, the binding ties of the sealing ordinance, and the standards of worthiness required of them. When parents keep the covenants they have made at the altar of the temple, their children will be forever bound to them”

institute.lds.org/manuals/eternal-marriage.../a-c-covenants-1c.asp

Boyd K. Packer is basically emphasizing the blessings of temple sealing by saying that wayward children of parents that have been sealed to faithful parents could still inherit the celestial kingdom. There are many quotes just like this, especially from Joseph Smith.

However, there are also many quotes that deemphasize the benefits of family sealing in favor of emphasizing the need for obedience.

Bruce R. McConkie said the following below about the abrahamic covenant.

"And so when I get married in the temple, I am put in a position where I can strive and labor and learn to love my wife with the perfection that must exist if I am going to have a fulness of the glory that attends this covenant in eternity, and it puts her in a position to learn to love me in the same way. It puts both of us in a position to bring up our children in light and truth and to school and prepare them to be members of an eternal family unit, and it puts us as children of our parents in a position where we honor our parents and do what is necessary to have these eternal ties go from one generation to the next and the next. Eventually there will be a great patriarchal chain of exalted beings from Adam to the last man, with any links left out being individuals who are not qualified and worthy to inherit, possess, and receive along the indicated line.

I am talking now to people who have opportunity to live the law. Anyone who has the opportunity is required to do so; it is mandatory."http://speeches.byu....der.php?id=6171

Bruce R. McConkie teaches here that the links left out from the "patriarchal chain" will be those unqualified and unworthy individuals in the family line who have gone astray. How is this consistent with the quote from Elder Packer above that they are forever bound to them?

There are two seemingly contradictory goals here, 1) comfort the faithful who have been sealed so they can have assurance that the sealing blessings are real even when children go astray, and 2) chasten the unfaithful so as to instill fear that sealing ordinances are not sufficient to save them from their disobedience.

As I ponder this more….what is the real purpose and power of having children sealed or being born in the covenant? If children are not sealed to their parents in the temple, do we really believe that the parents will “have no claim” on their children in the next life? What does that even mean? Your thoughts are definitely welcome.

[LeSellers]

Not even God will force a man into heaven.

Even though those children are bound to them forever, that binding must be ratified by the Holy Spirit of Promise (see Sec 132), and this will not happen to anyone who is unrepentant.

Those children who stray will have to pay the price(s) for their rebellion (or repent accept the Atonement of Christ while in this life): all sin must be recompensed. But it is their privilege to take the place assigned to them in the families once that payment is made and accepted.

This is the reason we do Temple work for people who are, to our eyes, unlikely to accept it: we don't know. Recall Alma's son, Alma, who, while in the torment of his sin remembered his father's teachings and finally called on Jesus Christ to release him from the bondage into which he had sold himself. It might happen in this life, it might happen later (earlier is better), but if it does, the payment has been made, and the bonds will be ratified and confirmed.

Lehi

Edited October 19, 2011 by LeSellers

[Rob Osborn]

Some pretty shakey ground for sure! Not a lot of pure real official doctrine on this issue. People, regardless of whether or not they were sealed to each other in this life still have, in my opinion, a mutual bond of family relationship in the spirit world. It is up to every individual, in order to be saved, to enter into the covenant relationship with Heavenly Father through baptism. Not sure exactly how all the sealings work with family members but either sealing in mortality of post-mortality- it still means the same thing. Individuals on their own have no binding power of salvation without entering themselves through their own choice into the covenant relationship with Heavenly Father.

[Ares]

I will put this in the Social Hall since you are looking for ideas for a lesson and not a full out debate.

[CV75]

As I ponder this more….what is the real purpose and power of having children sealed or being born in the covenant? If children are not sealed to their parents in the temple, do we really believe that the parents will “have no claim” on their children in the next life? What does that even mean? Your thoughts are definitely welcome.

As with any other ordinance its purpose is to testify and bear witness of Christ, His mission and all He is about, to the point that He has a people prepared to live with Him and the Father.

It is a unique ordinance in that a child can receive it in this life in the temples, by proxy the next life, or evidently before this life (in the case of being born in the covenant). It is thus a full expression of that power that binds both on earth and in heaven, whereas most other ordinances only bind on earth for their binding in heaven. Since it is applied between generations, it is truly a turning of the hearts one to another in unity and love, a basic element of Zion, the Church of the Firstborn, exaltation, etc.

It may also be unique in that it represents the fullness of the purposes of God (the exaltation of His children in families). It brings the pre-mortal covenant into this world unlike any other ordinance – even Melchizedek priesthood ordinations (Alma 13) are not a function of birth like being born in the covenant is, and require the laying on of hands upon the individual recipient of the ordinance.

[David T]

I view the principal of sealing as a covenant commitment to unity in the Divine Family, with the sealing to the children being a note that they are in the covenant family, and will only be excluded as they make specific choices to leave.

I view it as a key symbol of the divine pattern - Parental guides who are devoted and committed by love to the teaching and development of those less developed than them in order to help them becoming as they are, devoted to the furtherance of the divine unity of love.

[cinepro]

There are two seemingly contradictory goals here, 1) comfort the faithful who have been sealed so they can have assurance that the sealing blessings are real even when children go astray, and 2) chasten the unfaithful so as to instill fear that sealing ordinances are not sufficient to save them from their disobedience.

As I ponder this more….what is the real purpose and power of having children sealed or being born in the covenant? If children are not sealed to their parents in the temple, do we really believe that the parents will “have no claim” on their children in the next life? What does that even mean? Your thoughts are definitely welcome.

If you really want to get people thinking, you should also mention that if a woman's eternal companion dies and she remarries and has 10 kids with her second husband, those kids "belong" to the first husband in the eternities.

[Saints Alive]

If you really want to get people thinking, you should also mention that if a woman's eternal companion dies and she remarries and has 10 kids with her second husband, those kids "belong" to the first husband in the eternities.

I don't think that is set in stone.

[cinepro]

I don't think that is set in stone.

The more time I spend on this board, the less there is.

[Maidservant]

If you think on it simply and directly, it can be seen that:

1. All human beings must be baptized and receive their temple covenants and be sealed in order to enter [fill in the blank: the kingdom of God, heaven, celestial glory, the presence of the Father, etc].

2. By the work of proxy, all human beings have or will have been baptized and had their temple work and sealings accomplished. There will be no ordinances undone. 100 percent will be done.

3. No human being will be kept out of [fill in the blank: eternal potential, etc] by the token nature of an ordinance. Everyone will have their ordinance "pass" available for them as soon as they want it.

4. Thus, the substantial work of inheriting all that the Father hath is located in some other process than that of ordinances (although I am not stating that ordinances are unnecessary, just that what is necessary in them is completed by grace) . . . inheriting all that the Father hath, including our eternal relationships, is a work of agency and love.

5. You can't make a kid do anything. He's got to figure it out for himself. That goes for God's kids. That goes for our kids. God is sealed to his wife, and look at us? OOOOOORRR, wow, just thought of this . . . does God get that promise too? That since he's sealed to his wife, he won't lose any of us?

6. Love and eternity has a lot of mysteries in it related to our progression that we have yet to see and understand.

The more time I spend on this board, the less there is.

2 Ne 30:6 "their scales of darkness shall begin to fall from their eyes"

D&C 29:23-4 "And the end shall come, and the heaven and the earth shall be consumed and pass away, and there shall be a new heaven and a new earth. For all old things shall pass away, and all things shall become new"

[cdowis]

If you are going to give a talk, I would stay with the basics and stay away from the issue of children who fall away and how the sealing affects them. Check out Conference talks.

[David T]

If you are going to give a talk, I would stay with the basics and stay away from the issue of children who fall away and how the sealing affects them. Check out Conference talks.

Yes. Avoid the questions and struggles that people have and are dealing with, and keep it to what everyone is already okay with.

By the way, I think this recent Mormon Times article by OSC is appropriate: Magical Thinking Is Not The Plan

Edited October 20, 2011 by nackhadlow

[alter idem]

The more time I spend on this board, the less there is.

I think that's because the more we ponder on gospel topics, the more it seems clear that in the past, people made statements on those topics--suggesting they were 'set in stone' when in fact, there was no basis for such a belief.

[alter idem]

Verum, From the view of someone who might be listening to your talk, my suggestion is to first go to the scriptures and research what you can find on the sealing power. I think that will help you determine which statements by church leaders would be good to emphasize.

Personally, I'd hope that you would include in your talk the sealing power in relation to Jesus Christ as our redeemer and the Atonement. Talks to me always miss the purpose of Sacrament meeting if they don't tie in the Atonement. But, I'm sure you'll do great--good luck.

[seashell]

I view the principal of sealing as a covenant commitment to unity in the Divine Family, with the sealing to the children being a note that they are in the covenant family, and will only be excluded as they make specific choices to leave.

I view it as a key symbol of the divine pattern - Parental guides who are devoted and committed by love to the teaching and development of those less developed than them in order to help them becoming as they are, devoted to the furtherance of the divine unity of love.

Along these same lines, as I study the sealing power and attend the temple, I realize that its purpose is to seal the entire mortal family to God. We do sealings through family lines as that is the organization created by Father on earth. It is most important that I (and my family) are bound to the Lord through the sealing power. It is His work and HIs glory to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of men. ALL MEN. Not just a few. Sealing bonds us to Him.

I firmly believe that in order to remove ourselves from the sealing blessings, we must absolutely, knowingly choose to leave. I believe that we will all have an opportunity to look into the Lord's eyes and make that choice. It is always my prayer that I (and those I love) will choose to stay.

ss