Lessons from the Doctrine and Covenants 2021
Lesson No. Twenty
The Proclamation on the Family – A Test For Our Generation of Latter-day Saints
In 1831, when D&C 49 was revealed, there was little question about the importance of marriage – The Shakers were an exception because they “rejected marriage and believed in a life of total celibacy” (D&C 49 Headnote). No wonder the Shakers have faded away. In 1831 the vast majority of the Christian world believed that “marriage is ordained of God unto man” (D&C 49:15).
The earth was created so that families might be – The Lord explained why the earth was created: “And that it might be filled with the measure of man, according to his creation before the world was made” (D&C 49:17). Adam and Eve set the example of marriage and family for all their posterity. The Father Himself sealed them for time and all eternity in the crowning priesthood ordinance of the gospel. From this we see that God’s greatest creation was not Adam and Eve alone, but Adam and Eve sealed together as one, a new creation, endowed with God’s own strength and power – the power to have an eternal family both in this life and in eternity. In his book President Russell M. Nelson said it so well: “Grand as the creation is, it is only part of something even grander – Simply summarized, the earth was created that families might be. Scriptures explain that a husband and wife ‘shall be one flesh, and all this that the earth might answer the end of its creation’ (D&C 49:16)” (Hope in Our Hearts, p 54).
Traditional marriage is now threatened and its importance is questioned – The world-wide movement of gay marriage or no marriage is accelerating. It has developed great momentum in a short time, and Satan is driving it. “The perfect and beautiful union of Adam and Eve excited the envy and jealousy of the Evil One, who made it his prime objective to break it up” (Hugh Nibley, Old Testament and Related Studies, 88). “Satan has never stopped trying to put men and women at odds and keep them there. This battle, which seems so very modern, is really as old as the earth itself. In this final dispensation of the fullness of times, Satan has mustered all his forces to drive a wedge between men and women. He desires to cause man and woman to see one another not as empowering partners but as individuals of unequal worth or even as competitors” (Beverly Campbell, Eve and the Choice Made in Eden, 164).
The Family – A Proclamation to the World – The Lord knew what was coming, therefore, in 1995 before the gay marriage or no marriage movements really got started, He inspired The First Presidency and Council of Twelve Apostles to write and publish The Family - A Proclamation to the World. In a powerful sermon, that should be closely studied, President Dallin H. Oaks expounded on this divinely inspired Proclamation: “Converted Latter-day Saints believe that the family proclamation, issued nearly a quarter century ago and now translated into scores of languages, is the Lord’s reemphasis of the gospel truths we need to sustain us through current challenges to the family. Two examples are same-sex marriage and cohabitation without marriage. Just 20 years after the family proclamation, the United States Supreme Court authorized same-sex marriage, overturning thousands of years of marriage being limited to a man and a woman. The shocking percentage of United States children born to a mother not married to the father came more gradually: 5 percent in 1960, 32 percent in 1995, and now 40 percent.” (The Plan and the Proclamation, General Conference, Oct 2017).
I believe that The Family – A Proclamation to the World is a test and a chance for members of the Restored Church in this generation to stand and prove themselves – I add my testimony to that of President Oaks when he concluded his inspired sermon: “I testify that the proclamation on the family is a statement of eternal truth, the will of the Lord for His children who seek eternal life. It has been the basis of Church teaching and practice for the last 22 years and will continue so for the future. Consider it as such, teach it, live by it, and you will be blessed as you press forward toward eternal life. Forty years ago, President Ezra Taft Benson taught that ‘every generation has its tests and its chance to stand and prove itself.’ I believe our attitude toward and use of the family proclamation is one of those tests for this generation. I pray for all Latter-day Saints to stand firm in that test” (Ibid).