When sharing your faith with a Latter-day Saint, it helps to know what their church has taught on several basic topics. For this reason, Mormonism Research Ministry has provided its Crash Course Mormonism. Crash Course Mormonism includes concise articles highlighting what LDS leaders and church manuals have taught on issues that will probably come up in a typical conversation.
You can find these informative articles at CrashCourseMormonism.com. That's Crash Course Mormonism.com. Our thanks to Adams Road Band for that musical introduction. 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. This week we've been looking at an article that can be found in the August 2021 edition of the Liahona Magazine.
As I've stated before, the Liahona Magazine has replaced the end sign as the magazine for adult members in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This article is titled, Authority Ordinances and Preparation, written by Dallin H. Oaks, who is a first counselor in the First Presidency. It begins on page 7, and just to give a little bit of a recap if you haven't been with us this week, he tells the story of a conversation that he had with the wife of a minister who we assume was getting prepared to join The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He says this happened about 30 years ago, and he says that she came to ask me why she had to be baptized when she had already been baptized a Christian by her minister husband, who had baptized many people in his congregation. She asked, according to Oaks, are you telling me that my husband didn't have any authority to baptize all those people he baptized? He responds by saying, no. Now, he goes on to explain himself a little bit better at why he said no, but I certainly have a problem with him saying no, because he knows very well that this minister would not have any authority to baptize anyone. Only those who have authority in the LDS Church are able to do so.
Now, when he says no, I think he's being a little bit misleading. Now, he kind of rebounds and gives a bit of an explanation as to what he means by that, but in doing that, he makes it very clear that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only true church. He goes on to say, I testify to her that this authority has been restored and now exists only in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And then he proceeds to give a number of examples of how the word authority is used in the New Testament Gospels when referring specifically to Jesus Christ. Nobody would question those verses as he says them, but notice what he does with that word authority under the heading The Role of Ordinances.
He says the most familiar examples of the exercise of priesthood authority involve ordinances. So what he does, Eric, as we were discussing yesterday, he takes all those verses from the New Testament that speak of Jesus' authority, and he tries to give the impression that all of them are referring to what the Mormon Church calls priesthood authority, even though the word priesthood is not used in any of those verses. You don't see that concept in any of those passages that Dallin Oaks gives. His presupposition is quite obvious in the next sentence where it says ordinances and priesthood are inseparable. And so while he has listed all of these verses to supposedly support that idea, it certainly does not support.
No, it doesn't. But what else does he say under that heading The Role of Ordinances? An ordinance is a sacred act of eternal significance done with priesthood authority. It accompanies the making of covenants and the promising of blessings. Ordinances of the restored Church of Jesus Christ include baptism, the partaking of the sacrament, the most frequent ordinance in the Church, and the ordinances of the temple, including marriages for time and all eternity, and the gift of what we call the endowment, which consists of knowledge, covenants, and promised blessings. Now, within Christianity, historically, we have had ordinances such as baptism and the partaking of the Eucharist or the Lord's Supper, the communion.
We don't necessarily call it the sacrament, as Latter-day Saints do, but they're basically the same concept, even though in Mormonism they use water instead of grape juice or wine. But still, we don't see anywhere in the New Testament these ordinances of the temple, including marriages for time and all eternity. There's no reference in the New Testament that early Christians did that, but yet he's making it appear, as it is in the context of Mormonism, to be something that's absolutely essential if a Latter-day Saint wants to receive the best his religion offers him. He goes on to say in the next paragraph the requirement of ordinances is God-given and has eternal effect. He quotes from Doctrine and Covenants 130, verse 20, There is a law irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated.
But then what does he go on to say? And all who have blessing at the Lord's hands shall abide the law which was appointed for that blessing and the conditions thereof, as were instituted from before the foundation of the world. And that's from Doctrine and Covenants 132, verse 5.
Notice carefully the wording. And all who will have a blessing at the Lord's, the Lord's is in brackets, hands shall abide the law. In other words, Jesus isn't enough. You have to abide the law which was appointed for that particular blessing.
It could be understood this way. If you hope to get into the celestial kingdom, you have to keep celestial law. In other words, you have to do the things that have been laid down by the LDS Church that will allow you to qualify to be in that level of Mormon heaven, the celestial kingdom. If you do not keep celestial law, but let's say you're good enough and you keep terrestrial law, then obviously you only qualify to go to the terrestrial kingdom. The same would be true for the telestial kingdom. If you've lived telestial law during your mortality, then you would qualify for the telestial kingdom. You need to abide the law which was appointed for the particular blessing you hope to receive. If you want to get into the celestial kingdom, you better be keeping celestial law. What exactly is celestial law? Well, celestial law is basically keeping all of the covenants that you have made in the temple. In other words, you have promised or covenanted that you are going to keep all the commandments, that you are going to repent of your sins to the point of not just confessing them, but never repeating them again.
If you can manage those two areas, plus you're married for time and eternity in the temple, then you're on your way to the celestial kingdom. If you're not doing that, you're not abiding the law which was appointed for that particular blessing. Where is this in the New Testament? The Latter-day Saint could easily say, we'll see that just proves that many plain and precious things were taken out of our Bible, and that's why there's no mention of it.
Mormonism teaches, according to a church manual, Gospel Principles, that was printed in 2009, page 98, the Church today teaches the same principles and performs the same ordinances as were performed in the days of Jesus. This idea of priesthood, Bill, is also insinuated within the text, and as we saw from yesterday, all these Bible verses that are cited have nothing to do with priesthood, but he assumes it has to do with priesthood. Another page in the Gospel Principles, page 67, says we must have priesthood authority.
There's your presupposition. To act in the name of God when performing the sacred ordinances of the Gospel, such as baptism, confirmation, administration of the sacrament, and temple marriage, the same things that Oakes talks about. If a man does not have the priesthood, even though he may be sincere, the Lord will not recognize ordinances he performs. Maybe this is something that Oakes could have told that lady that you were talking about at the beginning, who is trying to figure out why she has to get re-baptized, why doesn't he just say, well, your husband did not really have the priesthood, and just not say no, but to explain that right off the top, because this is what Mormonism is teaching. Bill, this comes from Duties and Blessings of the Priesthood, Basic Manual for Priesthood Holders, Part B.
This is from 2000, page 33. This is a church manual. It says, the ordinance of temple marriage is also necessary for us to become like our Father in heaven. Temple marriage makes it possible for us to have eternal families. When we receive this ordinance worthily and keep the covenants we make, our families will be blessed to live together throughout eternity. Now, is that something that we would imagine the Apostle Paul would teach?
Would the Apostle Paul say something like that in 1 Corinthians 7? Yeah, verse 8, he said, Now to the unmarried and the widows I say, it is good for them to stay unmarried as I do. Now, of course, none of the General Authorities are unmarried, but could you imagine Oakes or Nelson or Holland or anybody else getting up and saying, you know, marriage is not that important, and in fact, why is marriage not crucial in Christianity? Because it's not something we do in order to be able to be with our earthly family forever. Verse 9, Paul says, If they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion. The reason why, if you're unmarried, it would be good to stay that way because you can serve God full time, but if you can't control yourselves, then you should go ahead and get married. But in Mormonism, it's about having children and about increasing the family. It's all part of, again, that presupposition that we're here to continue to do what Heavenly Father did. And it's interesting that Paul does not give that as a reason for marriage. He doesn't say that the reason is for procreation, it's to control your passions. Interesting that Paul would make those comments in light of what this statement says, the ordinance of temple marriage is also necessary for us to become like our Father in Heaven.
Temple marriage makes it possible for us to have eternal families. Nowhere do we see anything like this taught in the New Testament. And as I mentioned earlier, a Mormon can easily say, Well, yeah, but that's the part of the plain and precious things that were removed from the Bible. That's an argument from silence, folks. That's all it is. It's an argument from silence.
You could say that about anything. You could have any group teach anything and say that that was a part of the Bible. But is it really true?
No, it's hard to prove that because there's no evidence of this at all. This is exactly what the members of the LDS Church are doing. They're trying to prove their point by making a statement that the Bible was corrupt. And obviously, according to them, that corruption included any reference to a doctrine that they are espousing.
This would be one of them. That is the ordinance of temple marriage. There is no such thing in the New Testament. It was never discussed in the New Testament, just as this Mormon priesthood authority was not discussed in the New Testament. Authority is certainly mentioned when it speaks of Jesus. And also I might mention that authority is also mentioned when it comes to those who are believers. To them gave he power or the right to become the sons of God. There's nothing in the New Testament that supports this idea of this priesthood authority that Dallin Oaks is talking about in his article, Authority, Ordinances and Preparation. .