The Power Of The Sealing

[Brian 2.0]

I think Pres. Snow's ideas as quoted above can be thrown out as per Pres. Joseph Fielding Smith

“It makes no difference what is written or what anyone has said, if what has been said is in conflict with what the Lord has revealed, we can set it aside. My words, and the teachings of any other member of the Church, high or low, if they do not square with the revelations, we need not accept them. Let us have this matter clear. We have accepted the four standard works as the measuring yardsticks, or balances, by which we measure every man’s doctrine” ( Doctrines of Salvation, 3:203).

it seems they conflict with the verses Tepui pointed out

My 1992 quote from Boyd K. Packer would proably most accurately reflect the current church stance on the matter. Unless there is something more recent than I've found. So I don't think this issue cannot be thrown out.

This from Boyd K. Packer in 1992. Boyd K. Packer, “Our Moral Environment,” Ensign, May 1992, 66

The measure of our success as parents, however, will not rest solely on how our children turn out. That judgment would be just only if we could raise our families in a perfectly moral environment, and that now is not possible.

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.

“The Prophet Joseph Smith declared—and he never taught a more comforting doctrine—that the eternal sealings of faithful parents and the divine promises made to them for valiant service in the Cause of Truth, would save not only themselves, but likewise their posterity. Though some of the sheep may wander, the eye of the Shepherd is upon them, and sooner or later they will feel the tentacles of Divine Providence reaching out after them and drawing them back to the fold. Either in this life or the life to come, they will return. They will have to pay their debt to justice; they will suffer for their sins; and may tread a thorny path; but if it leads them at last, like the penitent Prodigal, to a loving and forgiving father’s heart and home, the painful experience will not have been in vain. Pray for your careless and disobedient children; hold on to them with your faith. Hope on, trust on, till you see the salvation of God.” (Orson F. Whitney, in Conference Report, Apr. 1929, p. 110.)

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. President Brigham Young said:

“Let the father and mother, who are members of this Church and Kingdom, take a righteous course, and strive with all their might never to do a wrong, but to do good all their lives; if they have one child or one hundred children, if they conduct themselves towards them as they should, binding them to the Lord by their faith and prayers, I care not where those children go, they are bound up to their parents by an everlasting tie, and no power of earth or hell can separate them from their parents in eternity; they will return again to the fountain from whence they sprang.” (Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, comp. Bruce R. McConkie, 3 vols., 2:90–91.)

This quote does not mention Exaltation by name like Pres. Snow's did, so one could argue that exaltation is not in the cards for these children.

But this clearly talks about some benefits to the children of faithful sealed parents. Benefits that seem privy to children of righteously sealed parents that ARE NOT privy to children of non-sealed parents. Boyd K. Packer is very clear that there is great power in the sealing ordinace, saying that "When parents keep the covenants they have made at the altar of the temple, their children will be forever bound to them."

All of God's children, regarless of sealed or not, will eventually pay for their sin either via accepting Christ or suffering themselves and then inherit a kingdom of glory. So what MORE happens to sealed children of faithful parents who have wandered. Something must be different since Packer "cannot overemphasize" the sealing ordinance. The parents righteousness "save not only themselves, but likewise their posterity."

Edited April 25, 2012 by Brian 2.0

[Brian 2.0]

You earlier said you don't believe in the doctrines or a lot of the doctrines of the Church. Why do you believe in this one and not the others? Doctrines of the Gospel are not mutually exclusive.

I think you believe in them more than you know.

I'm never said I believe in this doctrine. I don't. I also don't believe there are any Kingdoms of Glory. But that's not my reason for posting.

My mother believes in the doctrines of the church, so I am trying to figure out what the chruch's doctrine on this matter are so I can tell her those doctrines to provide her comfort.

My reasons for this post were to figure out the doctrine. My belief or disbelief in the doctrine is irrelevant.

Edited April 25, 2012 by Brian 2.0

[zerinus]

Not sure how relevant this is to the topic, but there is a verse in the D&C which appears to teach that when a couple are sealed in marriage for eternity, they are guaranteed exaltation no matter what sin they commit, as long as they don't commit murder or deny the Holy Ghost:

D&C 132:

26 Verily, verily, I say unto you, if a man marry a wife according to my word, and they are sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise, according to mine appointment, and he or she shall commit any sin or transgression of the new and everlasting covenant whatever, and all manner of blasphemies, and if they commit no murder wherein they shed innocent blood, yet they shall come forth in the first resurrection, and enter into their exaltation; but they shall be destroyed in the flesh, and shall be delivered unto the buffetings of Satan unto the day of redemption, saith the Lord God.

But the doctrine appears to be ambiguous. For example, compare with the following:

D&C 88:

33 For what doth it profit a man if a gift is bestowed upon him, and he receive not the gift? Behold, he rejoices not in that which is given unto him, neither rejoices in him who is the giver of the gift.

What if someone is just not made of celestial material, he wouldn't be happy there. Would God force him into the celestial kingdom against his own preferences (just because he has performed the ritual), or let him settle where he feels most comfortable? Another interesting scripture that comes to mind is the following:

D&C 137:

7 Thus came the voice of the Lord unto me, saying: All who have died without a knowledge of this gospel, who would have received it if they had been permitted to tarry, shall be heirs of the celestial kingdom of God;

8 Also all that shall die henceforth without a knowledge of it, who would have received it with all their hearts, shall be heirs of that kingdom;

9 For I, the Lord, will judge all men according to their works, according to the desire of their hearts.

So it looks like what we actually do is not the only thing that counts in this life, but where our heart is; and the only one who really knows about that is God.

The above discussion relates to the sealings of husbands and wives in marriage; but I am wondering if they might be equally relevant to the sealing of children to their parents.

Edited April 25, 2012 by zerinus

[Cobalt-70]

Not sure how relevant this is to the topic, but there is a verse in the D&C which appears to teach that when a couple are sealed in marriage for eternity, they are guaranteed exaltation no matter what sin they commit, as long as they don't commit murder or deny the Holy Ghost:

D&C 132:

26 Verily, verily, I say unto you, if a man marry a wife according to my word, and they are sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise, according to mine appointment, and he or she shall commit any sin or transgression of the new and everlasting covenant whatever, and all manner of blasphemies, and if they commit no murder wherein they shed innocent blood, yet they shall come forth in the first resurrection, and enter into their exaltation; but they shall be destroyed in the flesh, and shall be delivered unto the buffetings of Satan unto the day of redemption, saith the Lord God.

Despite what D&C 132:26 says, I think that the modern interpretation of the Celestial marriage ceremony is that it such marriages are not sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise until the couple participates in the Second Anointing. The doctrine as to when people are "sealed by the Holy Spirit of Promise" (meaning that their "calling and election is made sure") evolved during Joseph Smith's lifetime, and probably after. When D&C 132 was written, Smith might have understood this sealing to occur at Celestial marriage. It's hard to tell what he was thinking. But a few months later, he introduced the Second Anointing, which explicitly guaranteed salvation to those who took part in the ceremony. Eventually, the wording of the temple marriage ceremony made it clear that the sealing occurs only "through your faithfulness." (I don't know if this language was added by Joseph Smith or Brigham Young, because some pre-1843 Nauvoo plural marriage ceremonies did not have this conditional language.)

But by the time Smith dictated D&C 132, this doctrine had already been evolving for years. Prior to D&C 132, being sealed by the Holy Spirit of Promise had nothing to do with temple ceremonies. D&C 131:5 says that a "sealing" happens as a result of a prophecy given through the priesthood. A decade earlier, Smith gave a revelation (D&C 84:33-34) stating that people become elect (and thus presumably are sealed) when they obtain the Aaronic and Melchizedek priesthoods, and magnify their calling. Slightly earlier than that, as reflected in in D&C 76:53, a "sealing by the Holy Spirit of Promise" occurred when people exercised enough faith so as to be just and true, such that they have an assurance of salvation, which was basically the teaching of Methodism.

Going back further, for a brief time in 1831, Joseph Smith apparently didn't believe it was possible to have one's salvation sealed by the Holy Spirit of Promise prior to death. See D&C 53:7 (which corrected Sidney Gilbert, who asked Smith to tell him whether he was "called and elect"--the answer: do good works, because nobody can be saved unless they endure to the end). That might be a bit anomalous, however, because there is an example dating from 1829 of a "sealing" in the Book of Mormon. (See 26:20, in which Alma the Elder is sealed to his salvation. See also Mosiah 5:15, which doesn't specify whether the "sealing" takes place in this life or the next.)

[Duncan]

Not sure how relevant this is to the topic, but there is a verse in the D&C which appears to teach that when a couple are sealed in marriage for eternity, they are guaranteed exaltation no matter what sin they commit, as long as they don't commit murder or deny the Holy Ghost:

D&C 132:

26 Verily, verily, I say unto you, if a man marry a wife according to my word, and they are sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise, according to mine appointment, and he or she shall commit any sin or transgression of the new and everlasting covenant whatever, and all manner of blasphemies, and if they commit no murder wherein they shed innocent blood, yet they shall come forth in the first resurrection, and enter into their exaltation; but they shall be destroyed in the flesh, and shall be delivered unto the buffetings of Satan unto the day of redemption, saith the Lord God.

But the doctrine appears to be ambiguous. For example, compare with the following:

D&C 88:

33 For what doth it profit a man if a gift is bestowed upon him, and he receive not the gift? Behold, he rejoices not in that which is given unto him, neither rejoices in him who is the giver of the gift.

What if someone is just not made of celestial material, he wouldn't be happy there. Would God force him into the celestial kingdom against his own preferences (just because he has performed the ritual), or let him settle where he feels most comfortable? Another interesting scripture that comes to mind is the following:

D&C 137:

7 Thus came the voice of the Lord unto me, saying: All who have died without a knowledge of this gospel, who would have received it if they had been permitted to tarry, shall be heirs of the celestial kingdom of God;

8 Also all that shall die henceforth without a knowledge of it, who would have received it with all their hearts, shall be heirs of that kingdom;

9 For I, the Lord, will judge all men according to their works, according to the desire of their hearts.

So it looks like what we actually do is not the only thing that counts in this life, but where our heart is; and the only one who really knows about that is God.

The above discussion relates to the sealings of husbands and wives in marriage; but I am wondering if they might be equally relevant to the sealing of children to their parents.

I don't agree.

Pres. Harold B. Lee taught

"Some folks have the mistaken notion that if somehow by hook or by crook, they can get into the House of the Lord and be married they are assured of exaltation regardless of what they do, and they'll quote 132 section, the 26th verse. But that isn't what the Lord means. The Lord does assure an exaltation to those who make mistakes if they repent.(Roy W. Doxey, Latter-day Prophets and the Doctrine and Covenants. 2nd ed. 4:401)

Edited April 25, 2012 by Duncan

[zerinus]

I don't agree.

Pres. Harold B. Lee taught

"Some folks have the mistaken notion that if somehow by hook or by crook, they can get into the House of the Lord and be married they are assured of exaltation regardless of what they do, and they'll quote 132 section, the 26th verse. But that isn't what the Lord means. The Lord does assure an exaltation to those who make mistakes if they repent.(Roy W. Doxey, Latter-day Prophets and the Doctrine and Covenants. 2nd ed. 4:401)

I don't think that quote from Harold B. Lee contradicts what I had said. I had tried to keep it short. In D&C 132:26 It adds, "but they shall be destroyed in the flesh, and shall be delivered unto the buffetings of Satan unto the day of redemption". Those who commit the sins don't go scot free. They are severely punished, the purpose of which is to bring them to repentance. But at the end of that punishment, according to that verse, they appear to be guaranteed exaltation--whereas without that ordinance they might be assigned a lower kingdom instead (see D&C 76:99-106). I wouldn't like to be at the receiving end of that punishment; but if I am going to take my chances and sin, and be punished for it, I would rather do so with that guarantee behind me than without!

Edited April 25, 2012 by zerinus

[CV75]

they won't be lost.

I think that sealed children won't be lost to the faithful parents who, as celestial beings, will have the power to visit with and bestow upon them their love and affection, enjoy their relationships, and render to their children all the benefits that can be found in immortality, to the extent the childern are wiling and able to receive them.