As implied above, the ultimate purpose of priesthood, or
the work of God, is to bring to pass the eternal life of man, “to be received
into the kingdom of the Father to go no more out, but to dwell with God
eternally in the heavens.” (3 Nephi 28:40). (Note: for our purposes we will
consider the terms ‘redemption’, ‘salvation’, ‘eternal life’ and ‘exaltation’ to
be equivalent and interchangeable.) Jesus defined what eternal life is during
the great intercessory prayer that he offered in connection with his atoning
sacrifice – “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true
God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” (John 17:3). To know God is, in my
own words, to become like him by developing the same godly attributes that he
has, in particular the attribute of charity, and to be brought back into his
presence and speak to him face to face. The prophet Mormon encouraged us to “pray
unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this
love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus
Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall
be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we
may be purified even as he is pure. Amen.” (Moroni 7:48). The brother of Jared had
obtained charity and exercised sufficient faith to part the veil so that “Lord
showed himself unto him, and said: Because thou knowest these things ye are
redeemed from the fall; therefore ye are brought back into my presence;
therefore I show myself unto you.” (Ether 3:13).
We can look at eternal life in two ways. One way is “to
be received into the kingdom of the Father to go no more out, but to dwell with
God eternally in the heavens”, which happens after the “resurrection of the
dead, and … eternal judgment.” (Hebrews 6:2). The other is to be redeemed like
the brother of Jared, enter into the presence of God while in this life and
receive the “promise that [God] hath promised us, even eternal life.” (1 John
2:25). Joseph Smith described this other aspect of eternal life as “The more
sure word of prophecy”, which “means a man’s knowing that he is sealed up unto
eternal life, by revelation and the spirit of prophecy, through the power of
the Holy Priesthood.” (D&C 131:5). This blog will deal more with the
purpose of the priesthood as it relates to what Joseph Smith said regarding the
more sure word of prophecy and what Christ said regarding seeing the face of
God through the priesthood and its ordinances in this life rather than receiving
eternal life in the next life.
Build Zion, Undo
the Works of the Devil, do God’s Will
John Taylor described some intermediate purposes of the
priesthood:
What is this priesthood given us
for? That we may be enabled to build up the Zion of our God. What for? To put
down wrong and corruption, lasciviousness, lying, thieving, dishonesty, and
covetousness, with every kind of evil, and also to encourage faith, meekness,
charity, purity, brotherly kindness, truthfulness, integrity, honesty, and
everything that is calculated to exalt and ennoble mankind, that we may be the
true and proper representatives of God our Father here upon the earth, that we
may learn to know his will and do it; that his will may be done on earth as in
heaven. (Teachings: John Taylor,
Chapter 13)
Essentially, as stated by John Taylor, part of the
purpose and work of the priesthood is to build Zion (as stated earlier), to
undo the work of the devil (corruption, lasciviousness, etc.), to develop godly
attributes, and to learn God’s will (through revelation) and do it. Notice that
he said that by being engaged in this priesthood work, that God’s will may be
done on earth as it is in heaven, which is a reference to the Lord’s prayer –
“Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy
will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:9-10). This implies that
the Lord’s prayer is a priesthood prayer, or that it is a prayer asking for
priesthood power to do the priesthood work of building Zion and overcoming the
devil.
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