Mormonism and the Family Part 2

Viewpoint on Mormonism, the program that examines the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from a biblical perspective. Viewpoint on Mormonism is sponsored by Mormonism Research Ministry.

Since 1979, Mormonism Research Ministry has been dedicated to equipping the body of Christ with answers regarding the Christian faith in a manner that expresses gentleness and respect. And now, your host for today's Viewpoint on Mormonism. Welcome to this edition of Viewpoint on Mormonism.

I'm your host, Bill McKeever, founder and director of Mormonism Research Ministry, and with me today is Eric Johnson, my colleague at MRM. Yesterday we were talking about the importance in Mormon theology, the role of the family plays, and how important it is for Latter-day Saints to have this goal of being with their family in the hereafter. As we mentioned yesterday, in our experience, many times when we talk with Latter-day Saints and we ask them, what is it that you hope for in the next life, usually the answer is to be with my family. This is something that leaders in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have stressed. It is a doctrine of the LDS Church.

But how does it actually work? How does it play out in the lives of Latter-day Saints? Let me read you a statement from a church manual. It's called Gospel Principles. This is the newest edition of Gospel Principles, page 211. It says the family is the most important unit in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Church exists to help families gain eternal blessings and exaltation. Now we know exaltation, according to LDS theology, is winding up in the top level of Mormon heaven known as the celestial kingdom.

There are three levels, celestial, terrestrial, and telestial. If a Latter-day Saint hopes to be with their family, they must qualify to be in the celestial kingdom. All their family members must qualify to be in the celestial kingdom, and we're going to demonstrate that in this show. This statement goes on on page 211 to say, the organizations and programs within the Church are designed to strengthen us individually and help us live as families forever.

Now years ago, decades ago, that was a slogan that was put on a lot of bumper stickers that many Latter-day Saints had on their cars. Families are forever. And of course, if you have a good family relationship, that would probably be something that would interest you.

If you have a lousy family relationship, that probably would not be something that would interest you. But two pages later in Gospel Principles, this is what it says on page 213. As husbands, wives, and children, we need to learn what the Lord expects us to do to fulfill our purpose as a family. If we all do our part, we will be united eternally. What do we get from this? First of all, we learn that the Lord expects members of the LDS Church to do something in order to fulfill their purpose as a family. Not only that, if they all do their part, they will be united eternally. So what does that tell us? If you don't do your part, no matter who you are in this family, somehow, as you mentioned yesterday, Eric, this chain, this family chain, seems like it will be broken.

And if it's going to be broken, how can you have that hope of being together in the next life? But yet, this is something that we hear members of the church say often. What they hope to receive in the next life is to be with their family. But it sounds like it is conditional.

They must do their proverbial part. Now, in another church manual, titled Introduction to Family History Student Manual, Religion 261, on page 3, it says this. In the premortal world, you were a member of Heavenly Father's family. Now you are a member of an additional family, a mortal family. Because of Heavenly Father's plan of salvation, it is possible for you to become like Him. It is also possible to secure your mortal family in an eternal bond, allowing you to be together as a family after death.

Notice the language here. This manual does not say it is guaranteed that you will become like Heavenly Father. It does not say it is guaranteed that you will secure your mortal family in an eternal bond, allowing you to be together as a family after death.

No. It says it is possible for you to become like Heavenly Father, and it is possible to secure your mortal family in an eternal bond. The potential is absolutely there, if Mormonism is true, but it's not something that is guaranteed according to LDS theology.

It's only possible. There is something, obviously, that needs to be done on some individual's part, and it seems very clear that the individuals in this context include all members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Whether you're a father, a grandfather, a son, a daughter, you all have a responsibility if you hope for this alleged eternal bond that will allow you to be together as a family after death.

Bill, I want to just throw something out. I don't want anybody listening to think that we don't think highly of the family. We certainly do. We believe in family very much as Christians. The Bible teaches us that fathers and mothers and husbands, wives and children all have roles on this earth, but when it says in the Gospel Student Manual Religion 231 and 232 from 1986 on page 78, only in and through the family unit can we obtain eternal life.

You mentioned this yesterday, Bill. We do not believe that it's a nuclear family on this earth where we hope to spend eternity with that nuclear family, that we have what's called the family of God, that Christian believers individually, together they make the Church, but individually each of us has a personal relationship. And so it's not going to be a guarantee that everybody in our nuclear family is going to be a Christian. We hope to be with our nuclear family in heaven, but we're going to have many others there as well. So this is the difference between Mormonism and Christianity. We don't believe that it's only through the family unit that we can obtain eternal life. That's absolutely correct.

We believe it's only because of the blood of Christ that was shed on our behalf on the cross of Calvary that we're going to have eternal life. So you can see in this area alone, there's a distinct difference between what the LDS people are being taught and what Bible-believing Christians are being taught. Let's look at one more statement. This one is from L. Ray L. Christensen. He was an assistant to the Twelve, part of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. He gave a talk called Three Important Questions, and this is found in the Ensign magazine for May of 1974 on page 25. But an eternal relationship of families does not come about automatically as some suppose.

It must not only be planned for, it must be earned. We must realize that only when we have lived in complete harmony with all the laws and ordinances of the priesthood, including those received in holy temples, should we expect to find ourselves prepared to dwell in what I sometimes refer to as the kingdom of families, the celestial world. Do you think, Eric, that any Latter-day Saint living now, because that was given back in 1974, some Latter-day Saints might argue, well, that seems to be a dated quotation. But do you think, Eric, that that is a dated quotation that has no meaning for the modern Latter-day Saint today?

No, it definitely has a meaning. In fact, we're going to be looking at this article called I Love to See the Temple by Henry B. Eyring that was given in the April 2021 General Conference, and he says the exact same thing as Christensen did. Well, let's look at that article. This is found, as I said in yesterday's show, in the May 2021 edition of the Liahona magazine.

The Liahona magazine has replaced the Ensign magazine, which for a long time was the standard magazine for adult members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You're right. In his talk, I Love to See the Temple, there's a pull quote that's just below the title, and this is what the pull quote says. It is in the temple that we can receive the assurance of loving family connections that will continue after death and last for eternity. This seems to be the carrot in front of the cart, but Bill, is that even a true statement? When we were preparing for this show, I commented to you that when I read that statement, the first thought that came to my mind is, that's an outright lie.

There is no truth to that pull quote that you see directly under the title on page 28. It is in the temple that we can receive the assurance of loving family connections that will continue after death and last for eternity. Even at the beginning of the article when he's telling this folksy little story, Eyring goes on to say, On the outside of our temples we place the words holiness to the Lord.

I know for myself that those words are true. The temple is a holy place where revelation comes to us easily if our hearts are open to it and we are worthy of it. More than once, Eyring emphasizes the personal worthiness of the individual if they hope to benefit from the temple. Bill, I just want to mention when he says that we are worthy of it, every Latter-day Saint who goes to a temple has had a temple recommendation interview with the bishop or stake president, and they have had to answer a number of questions to explain that they are worthy. The question is, could anybody be worthy to be holy, as it says, holiness to the Lord, to be able to enter into God's presence? I mean, all of us have sins that we deal with, and I doubt there are very few Latter-day Saints who don't knowingly lie to be able to get past that interview, so they can get that recommend card so they can do the work for themselves and their ancestors.

How many people are really able to do everything that the 14 questions ask? And I think that's a great point, and not that I think a lot of Latter-day Saints personally lie in their interview, but no doubt, I'm sure many do. For one, if you promise to keep the word of wisdom.

Okay, so you mean you're eating meat sparingly and only in times of winter? Really? That's a part of the word of wisdom.

Who's doing that? Certainly not the Latter-day Saints that I experience living here in Utah, but you're right. They can say pretty much whatever they want, then they get the permission to go to the temple.

But we're all sinners. We've all come short of the glory of God, and at the bottom of page 30, Irene says, if you or I should go to the temple insufficiently pure, we would not be able to see by the power of the Holy Ghost the spiritual teaching about the Savior that we can receive in the temple. When we are worthy to receive such teaching, there can grow through our temple experience hope, joy, and optimism throughout our lives. That hope, joy, and optimism are available only through accepting the ordinances performed in holy temples.

And this is where we get the context for the next line, which is the pull quote. It is in the temple that we can receive the assurance of loving family connections that will continue after death and last for eternity. In tomorrow's program, we're going to demonstrate why that statement cannot possibly be true. There is no way, according to the doctrines of the LDS Church, that you can have this assurance, this assurance of loving family connections in the next life. We hope you will join us again as we look at another viewpoint on Mormonism.