My CMS The View from a New City

The Lord’s Prayer is one of the most widely used scriptures in the Bible, and yet it continues to reveal truth. It occurred to me in the middle of the night, last night, that the prayer is in the plural. “deliver us from evil,” not deliver me from evil. Is salvation a family affair?

In his first address as the leader of the Church, President Dallin H. Oaks said the following: “We can truly say that the gospel plan was first taught to us in the council of an eternal family, it is implemented through our mortal families, and its intended destiny is to exalt the children of God in eternal families.”

The Bible says their is no giving in marriage in heaven. That is because marriage is a ordinance which must be performed on earth. Their is no baptism in heaven, but baptism is required to get to heaven. If it is not performed on earth, it must be performed by proxy in an earthly temple. it symbolizes death, burial and resurrection. Actions that require mortality. Where possible, the temples are constructed so that the surface of the water in the font is on a plane with the surface of the earth into which persons are buried and from which they are resurrected.

Similar issues apply with establishing and sealing families. See the phrase from President Oaks’ talk where he says exaltation in eternal families “is implemented through our mortal families.”