Family Is Central to God’s Plan

In a remarkable vision, Moses discovered that God’s work is a work of salvation and exaltation for all His children (see Moses 1:39).

The Prophet Joseph Smith learnt that the greatest gift of all the gifts of God is eternal life (see Doctrine and Covenants 14:7).

President Dallin H. Oaks, First Counsellor in the First Presidency, affirmed that “the purpose of this restored Church is to prepare God’s children for salvation in the celestial glory and, more particularly, for exaltation in its highest degree.”

This divine focus on exaltation reveals why family is so central to God’s plan. President Russell M. Nelson explained that “while [the Saviour’s] Resurrection assures that every person who ever lived will indeed be resurrected and live forever, much more is required if we want to have the high privilege of exaltation. Salvation is an individual matter, but exaltation is a family matter.”

The family proclamation further declares that “family relationships [can] be perpetuated beyond the grave [through] sacred ordinances and covenants available in holy temples.”

Modern revelation teaches that God provides for us patterns of righteous living so we will not be deceived by Satan’s lies and deceptions (see Doctrine and Covenants 52:14).

After creating man, God said to His Beloved Son, “It was not good that the man should be alone; wherefore, I will make an help meet for him” (Moses 3:18). And so God created Eve and “brought her unto the man” (Moses 3:22).

President Joseph Fielding Smith (1876–1972) taught: “Marriage as established in the beginning was an eternal covenant. The first man and the first woman were not married until death should part them, for at that time death had not come into the world. The ceremony on that occasion was performed by the Eternal Father Himself, whose work endures forever. It is the will of the Lord that all marriages should be of like character, and in becoming ‘one flesh’ the man and the woman are to continue in the married status, according to the Lord’s plan, throughout all eternity as well as in this mortal life.”

God gave Adam and Eve the commandment to “be fruitful, and multiply” (Moses 2:28). This “first commandment that God gave to Adam and Eve pertained to their potential for parenthood as husband and wife.”

Understanding God’s divine pattern of eternal marriage is essential to understanding the nature of eternal families. After they were married, Adam and Eve were given the commandment to multiply and replenish the earth. The sequence of this commandment is both instructive and intentional.

First, “marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children.”

Second, “children are entitled to birth within the bonds of matrimony, and to be reared by a father and a mother who honor marital vows with complete fidelity.”

Third, rearing children within the Lord’s divine pattern of eternal marriage ensures that they are “born in the covenant.” Children born to parents who are sealed in the holy temple inherit the blessings of that covenant and are automatically sealed to their parents for eternity. The sealing ordinance provides not only the assurance that they belong to an eternal family but also the promise that those sacred relationships will endure beyond the grave and into the eternities.

This divine pattern established in the beginning continues today through temple ordinances. Any marriage that is sealed according to God’s divine law—by His priesthood authority and under the direction of priesthood keys in His holy temples when entered into worthily and sealed by the Holy Spirit of Promise—is “of full force when they are out of the world” (Doctrine and Covenants 132:19). Such marriages, established through sacred temple ordinances and covenants, lead to exaltation and the continuation of family relationships forever (see Doctrine and Covenants 132:19–21).

These same eternal blessings are also extended to husbands and wives who are sealed after a civil marriage: first, to one another, and second, their children are sealed to them. All the promised blessings of an eternal marriage are sealed upon them—and upon their children. Through the sealing ordinance, their family is bound together forever, with all the promised blessings remaining in full effect after death and beyond the grave, if they keep the covenants they make with God. For those of Heavenly Father’s children who do not have the opportunity for celestial marriage in this lifetime, these eternal blessings will be made available to them in God’s own time and way.

In contrast, any marriage that is not performed by God’s law and His priesthood authority and not sealed by the Holy Spirit of Promise in His holy temples is not valid after death and will not endure beyond the grave (see Doctrine and Covenants 132:15–18).

As the Lord declared, “All covenants, contracts, bonds, obligations, oaths, vows, performances, connections, associations, or expectations . . . are of no efficacy, virtue, or force . . . when men are dead, unless sealed by proper priesthood authority according to God’s divine law”( Doctrine and Covenants 132:7).

Heavenly Father has built temples in our midst that witness and assure the eternal nature of families. He has given us prophets who boldly proclaim that families can be eternal. And He has given us His pattern for eternal families. Through sacred temple ordinances, covenants, and the sealing power of God, families can be united forever in love, purpose, and glory. Like that temple I see each morning and evening, this truth stands as a constant witness in our lives. I testify that eternal families are not just a hopeful idea—they can be a divine reality.