The New and Everlasting Covenant

Eternal Life

“We must begin with the truth about God and our relationship to him. Everything else follows from that….

Dallin H. OaksQuorum of the Twelve(Ensign, May 1995, 84)

“Our theology begins with heavenly parents. Our highest aspiration is to be like them.… The fulness of eternal salvation is a family matter.”Dallin H. Oaks

Quorum of the Twelve(Ensign, May 1995, 84)

“This plan of salvation is family centered. It leads to eternal life, and eternal life is the name of the kind of life which God, our Father, lives. This plan of salvation is designed to enable us to create eternal family units of our own which are patterned after the family of our Eternal Father.”

Joseph Fielding Smith

President("Sealing Power and

Salvation," BYU, 1971)

Intelligence

Exalted MarriageGodhood

Spirit Body

Spirit + Mortal Body

We become Heavenly Parents for other intelligences.

ETERNAL LIFE(God’s Life)

The New and Everlasting Covenant

D&C 132:6

“What is the new and everlasting covenant?… The new and everlasting covenant is the sum total of all gospel covenants and obligations.” 

Joseph Fielding Smith

Quorum of the Twelve(Doctrines of

Salvation, 1:156)

“What is the new and everlasting covenant?… The new and everlasting covenant is the sum total of all gospel covenants and obligations.” 

Joseph Fielding Smith

Quorum of the Twelve(Doctrines of

Salvation, 1:156)

Baptism

Gift of the Holy Ghost

Priesthood

Ordination

Washing/ Anointing

Sealed to Parents

Endowment

Sealed to Spouse

“The new and everlasting covenant” is the fulness of the gospel, and the gospel is the covenant of salvation that the Lord makes with men. It is new because it has been revealed anew in our day; it is everlasting because it has always been had by faithful people, not only on this earth but on all the earths inhabited by the children of our Father.

Bruce R. McConkieQuorum of the Twelve

(Brigham Young University, 6

November 1977)

D&C 132:6

If you receive a fulness of God’s glory, what are you?

D&C 76:56, 58

“Those women who go on to their exaltation, ruling and reigning with husbands who are kings and priests, will themselves be queens and priestesses. They will hold positions of power, authority, and preferment in eternity.”

Bruce R. McConkie(Mormon Doctrine, p.

594)

If you receive a fulness of God’s glory, what are you?

D&C 76:56, 58

What makes this possible?

D&C 76:69; Rev. 5:10; John 1:12

Kings & PriestsQueens and Priestesses

“We do not rear children just to please our vanity. We bring children into the world to become kings and queens, and priests and priestesses for our Lord.”

Spencer W. KimballPresident

(The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball,

p.331)

“[H]e that has overcome and is found worthy, will be made a king of kings, and lord of lords over his own posterity, or in other words: A father of fathers.”

Brigham YoungPresident

(J of D 10:355a-355b)

Eternal Kingship, Priesthood, and Sonship =

“the fulness of my glory” (D&C 132:6)

Our Collective Dilemma

What’s our problem?

Moses 6:48-49

If we are “shut out” from His presence then what else are we

shut out from?

Moses 6:57

Regaining God’s Presence and Becoming

Heirs

Models of Re-inheritance

Moses 6:64-68

“To enter into the order of the Son of God is the equivalent today of entering into the fullness of the Melchizedek Priesthood, which is only received in the house of the Lord….“Adam and his descendants entered into the priesthood order of God. Today we would say they went to the House of the Lord and received their blessings.”

Ezra Taft Benson (Ensign, Aug. 1985,

pp. 6-10)

Heirship & Inheritance

Heirship is a royal word. Children of kings and queens are heirs to the throne and all that their parents have. Children can only inherit what their parents have. If parents don’t have it then they cannot give it to their children.

Once a man and woman have been anointed to become kings and queens and are sealed to one another, then their children “born in the covenant” are heirs of all the blessings of the kingdom.

“Children of the covenant have the right to receive His doctrine and to know the plan of salvation. They claim it by making covenants of sacred significance.”

Russell M. NelsonQuorum of the Twelve(“Covenants,” Ensign,

November 2011, p. 88; emphasis added)

The Chosen Lineage

God, the Father

Jesus Christ

Adam

Seth

Enoch

Noah

Melchizedek

Christ is the Heir of the Father (Heb. 1:2)Adam became “a son of God” (Moses 6:68). He was promised, “a multitude of nations shall come of thee” (D&C 107:55)Promised that “his posterity should be the chosen of the Lord” (D&C 107:42)

The Lord “sent forth an unalterable decree, that a remnant of his seed should always be found” on earth (Moses 7:52)

God swore “unto Enoch and unto his seed with an oath by himself” (JST Gen. 14:30)

Noah

Melchizedek

Abraham • Abraham 1:1-4• Abraham 1:18• Abraham 2:9-11

Noah

Melchizedek

Abraham

Isaac

Jacob (Israel)

Gen. 26:3-5

Gen. 28:12-15

Kingdoms, Thrones, Principalities

(Promised Land)Powers, Dominions

(Priesthood)

Continuation of Seed “forever and ever”

(Posterity)

Gather Israel D&C 132:19

“Through the restoration of the priesthood held by Elijah, knowledge has been given to the Church that each family unit, where the parents have been married for time and for eternity, shall remain intact through all eternity….

Joseph Fielding Smith

Quorum of the Twelve(Doctrines of

Salvation, 3 Vols., ed. Bruce R. McConkie

[1954-56], 2:67)

“Moreover, each family unit is to be linked to the generation which went before, until all the faithful, who have proved their title to family membership through obedience to the gospel, shall be joined in one grand family from the beginning to the end of time, and shall find place in the celestial kingdom of God. In this way all who receive the exaltation become heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ in the possession of eternal family relationships.”

Joseph Fielding Smith

Quorum of the Twelve(Doctrines of

Salvation, 3 Vols., ed. Bruce R. McConkie

[1954-56], 2:67)

“Eventually, when this work is perfected, and Christ delivers up to his Father the keys and makes his report, and death is destroyed, then that great family from the days of Adam down, of all the righteous, those who have kept the commandments of God, will find that they are one family, the family of God, entitled to all the blessings that pertain to the exaltation.”

Joseph Fielding Smith

Quorum of the Twelve(Doctrines of

Salvation, 3 Vols., ed. Bruce R. McConkie [1954-56], 2:67-68)

Questions?