The Eternal Family

The doctrine behind the Proclamation, and the sealing power that makes a family a unit of eternity rather than of mortality. Read carefully, and with the compassion the subject requires.

2 lessons written1 hr 25 min of reading

01
The Family: A Proclamation to the World
What it says, where it comes from, and the doctrine underneath it
Nine paragraphs read aloud in September 1995, now among the most quoted Latter-day Saint documents of the last century. This lesson reads it as a text — its claims, its scriptural roots, its status, and the places where applying it well requires more care than quoting it does.
Genesis 1:26–28; Genesis 2:24; Moses 3:24; D&C 131:1–4; D&C 132:1940 min4 sections
02
The Sealing Power
Matthew 16, Malachi 4, D&C 128, and what binding on earth actually means
One authority, promised to Peter, foretold by Malachi, restored in a temple in 1836 — and it is the reason a Latter-day Saint temple has a baptismal font in the basement and a sealing room upstairs. This lesson follows the power itself: what it is, who holds it, what it binds, and what it cannot do on its own.
Matthew 16:19; Malachi 4:5–6; D&C 2; D&C 110:13–16; D&C 128; D&C 132:7, 1945 min4 sections