Don't give them up. Don’t cast them off. They are not utterly lost. The Shepherd will find his sheep. They were his before they were yours—long before he entrusted them to your care; and you cannot begin to love them as he loves them. They have but strayed in ignorance from the Path of Right, and God is merciful to ignorance. Only the fulness of knowledge brings the fulness of accountability. Our Heavenly Father is far more merciful, infinitely more charitable, than even the best of his servants, and the Everlasting Gospel is mightier in power to save than our narrow finite minds can comprehend.
Turning to what had been purportedly taught by Joseph Smith concerning this principle, Elder Whitney then continued:
The Prophet Joseph Smith declared—and he never taught more comforting doctrine—that the eternal sealings of faithful parents and the divine promises made to them for valiant service in the Cause of Truth, would save not only themselves, but likewise their posterity. Though some of the sheep may wander, the eye of the Shepherd is upon them, and sooner or later they will feel the tentacles of Divine Providence reaching out after them and drawing them back to the fold. Either in this life or the life to come, they will return. They will have to pay their debt to justice; they will suffer for their sins; and may tread a thorny path; but if it leads them at last, like the penitent Prodigal, to a loving and forgiving father's heart and home, the painful experience will not have been in vain. Pray for your careless and disobedient children; hold on to them with your faith. Hope on, trust on, till you see the salvation of God.[1]
Elder Whitney’s comments concerning these principles remained somewhat obscure to the membership of the Church until, in his April 1992 General Conference address, Elder Boyd K. Packer spoke out:
It is a great challenge to raise a family in the darkening mists of our moral environment.
We emphasize that the greatest work you will do will be within the walls of your home (see Harold B. Lee, Ensign, July 1973, p. 98), and that ‘no other success can compensate for failure in the home’ (David O. McKay, Improvement Era, June 1964, p. 445).
The measure of our success as parents, however, will not rest solely on how our children turn out. That judgment would be just only if we could raise our families in a perfectly moral environment, and that now is not possible.
It is not uncommon for responsible parents to lose one of their children, for a time, to influences over which they have no control. They agonize over rebellious sons or daughters. They are puzzled over why they are so helpless when they have tried so hard to do what they should.
It is my conviction that those wicked influences one day will be overruled.
After citing what Elder Whitney said concerning the power of “eternal sealings” upon wayward children, Elder Packer counseled:
We cannot overemphasize the value of temple marriage, the binding ties of the sealing ordinance, and the standards of worthiness required of them. When parents keep the covenants they have made at the altar of the temple, their children will be forever bound to them. President Brigham Young said: ‘Let the father and mother, who are members of this Church and Kingdom, take a righteous course, and strive with all their might never to do a wrong, but to do good all their lives; if they have one child or one hundred children, if they conduct themselves towards them as they should, binding them to the Lord by their faith and prayers, I care not where those children go, they are bound up to their parents by an everlasting tie, and no power of earth or hell can separate them from their parents in eternity; they will return again to the fountain from whence they sprang.’[2]
As Elder Packer closed his address, calm settled over many parents who now considered that their temple marriage unconditionally saved their wayward children. For others, such thinking was difficult to square with moral agency, personal responsibility, and redemption from individual sin on conditions of repentance. To address the confusion and set straight the doctrine, Elder David A. Bednar wrote an article entitled Faithful Parents and Wayward Children: Sustaining Hope While Overcoming Misunderstanding. It is included in the March 2014 Ensign. I highly recommend it. Importantly, any confusion concerning the doctrine of divine tentacles reaching out to wayward children was not cause by what Elder Packer taught. Rather, I believe it was symptomatic of what members of the Church wanted to hear versus what they needed to hear.
What Parents Wanted to Hear (highlighted in red):We cannot overemphasize the value of temple marriage, the binding ties of the sealing ordinance, and the standards of worthiness required of them. When parents keep the covenants they have made at the altar of the temple, their children will be forever bound to them. President Brigham Young said: ‘Let the father and mother, who are members of this Church and Kingdom, take a righteous course, and strive with all their might never to do a wrong, but to do good all their lives; if they have one child or one hundred children, if they conduct themselves towards them as they should, binding them to the Lord by their faith and prayers, I care not where those children go, they are bound up to their parents by an everlasting tie, and no power of earth or hell can separate them from their parents in eternity; they will return again to the fountain from whence they sprang.’
What Parents Needed to Hear (highlighted in blue):We cannot overemphasize the value of temple marriage, the binding ties of the sealing ordinance, and the standards of worthiness required of them. When parents keep the covenants they have made at the altar of the temple, their children will be forever bound to them. President Brigham Young said: ‘Let the father and mother, who are members of this Church and Kingdom, take a righteous course, and strive with all their might never to do a wrong, but to do good all their lives; if they have one child or one hundred children, if they conduct themselves towards them as they should, binding them to the Lord by their faith and prayers, I care not where those children go, they are bound up to their parents by an everlasting tie, and no power of earth or hell can separate them from their parents in eternity; they will return again to the fountain from whence they sprang.’
The purpose of this blog is to consider further what Joseph Smith said concerning this doctrine of election and endeavor to square it with the Standard by which we measure all that is taught. Before doing so, however, it is important to note that God has not revealed all concerning the plan of redemption. For example, although the Standard Works establish that all must be saved through the atonement of Jesus Christ and by obedience to His laws, President Brigham Young taught that “there are those who are not capable of saving themselves and will have to be saved, if they are saved at all, by those who are capable of doing it.”[3] Joseph Smith further instructed that “it is necessary in the ushering in of the dispensation of the fulness of times . . . that a whole and complete and
perfect union, and welding together of dispensations, and keys, and powers, and glories should take place.”[4] Precisely what President Young meant by his comment or how a “complete and perfection union and welding together of glories” will take place is beyond what is presently revealed.
Simply put, not all of God’s judgments are given unto men.[5] Only this much I do know—that when we look upon others, we must do so knowing that God “saves all the works of His hands, except those sons of perdition who deny the Son after the Father has revealed Him.”[6] But as to how, where, and when He will save them is left for Him to decide. No one should be too quick to place constraints on the depth and breadth of the Lord’s atonement, the extent of His suffering, how far He reaches, or how merciful and just He is. He truly saves to the uttermost and, with few exceptions noted in scriptures, we should go slow in placing limits on His power to save. Although the doctrine may teach otherwise, I have thought to never consider a single soul as lost to His view or pushed outside the arms of His mercy.
With these comments in mind, I believe it is useful to set forth, in relevant part, four versions of Joseph Smith’s discourse as originally recorded by those present.[7] From these, I will draw some personal and tentative conclusions and try to fit them within a scriptural framework.
Version 1 – Joseph Smith Diary, By Willard Richards
Where has Judge Higby gone? who is there that would not give all his goods to feed the poor & pour out his gold & silver, to the four winds. to come where Judge Higby has gone . . . .
The world is reserved unto burning in the last days-he shall send Elijah the prophet. and he shall reveal the covenants of the fathers in relation to the children.-and the children and the covenants of the children in relation to the fathers.
. . . destroying angels holding power over the 4 quarters of the earth. until the the servants of God are sealed in their foreheads. what is that seal. shall I tell you? No.
Doctrine Election.-sealing of the servants of God on the top of their heads. tis not the cross as the catholics would have it. doctrine of Election to Abraham was in the relation to the Lord. a man wishes to be embraced in the covenant of Abraham. A man Judge Higby-in world of spirits. is sealed unto the throne, & doctrine of Election sealing the father & children together.[8]
Version 2 – Howard and Martha Coray Notebook
There is a thought more dreadful than that of total annihilation That thought is the an assurance thought that we shall never again meet with those we loved here on earth Suppose I had died believing that when having some Idea of a resurection and glory beyond the grave which God and angels had secured and yet had not any knowledge intelligence of any Law or any order by which it is to obtained. Well you lose a friend you come up in the resurection hoping to [meet] him again but find yourself separated from them to all eternity and become aware of the fact that through ignorance of the principles of the resurection and reunion you will never behold that dear friend nor ever enjoy his society this thought I say of being disappointed in meeting my friend in the resurection is to me more dreadful than of ceasing to suffer by a cessation of being
Were I could I tell the fact as it is all that heard me would go home and never say one word more about God or Christ or religion until they had received that assurance from Heaven which would set their souls at rest by placing all beyond a doubt.
What consolation have we what power what reason to expect one thing more than another in eternity . . . .
Malachi 4th ch Behold the day cometh that shall burn as an oven and all the proud and they that do wickedly shall be as stubble and they that cometh shall burn them up But although in the beginning God created the Earth standing in the water and out of the water still in the End it shall be burned and few men left-but before that God shall send unto them Elijah the prophet and he shall reveal unto them the covenants of the fathers with relation to the children and the covenants of the children in relation to the Fathers that they may have the priviledge of entering into the same in order to effect their mutual salvation And I saw another angel ascending from the east having the Seal of the living God and he cried &c. sayin Hurt not the Earth nor sea nor trees till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.
Now I would ask who know the seal of the living God Behold the ignorance of the World.
A measure of this sealing is to confirm upon their head in common with Elijah the doctrine of election or the covenant with Abraham-which which when a Father & mother of a family have entered into their children who have not transgressed are secured by the seal wherewith the Parents have been sealed. And this is the Oath of God unto our Father Abraham and this doctrine shall stand forever.[9]
Version 3 – Franklin D. Richards "Scriptural Items"
Joseph. Translation of Mal 4th-5. I will send Elijah the Prophet and he shall reveal the covenants of the Fathers to the children and of the Children to the Fathers that they may enter into Covenant with each other lest I come & smite the whole Earth with a curse-
What is the seal spoken of in Rev 7-3 find it out if you can I will not reveal it now but will drop an idea that I have never revealed concerning Election connected with the sealing of the servants of God in the fore or top of the head Judge Higbee would say that covenants either there or here must be made in view of eternity and the Covenant sealed on the fore heads of the Parents secured the children from falling that they shall all sit upon thrones as one with the God-head joint Heirs of God with Jesus Christ
This principle is revealed also through the covenant of Abraham and his children This is also the blessing and consolation of the Mourners.10]
Version 4 – William Clayton Diary
Went to meeting heard J. preach on 2 Peter 3. 10 & 11-being a funeral sermon on the death of E. Higbee When speaking of the passage "I will send Elijah the prophet &c" he said it should read and he shall turn the hearts of the children to the covenant made with their fathers Also where it says and they shall seal the servants of God in their foreheads &c it means to seal the blessing on their heads (meaning the everlasting covenant thereby making their calling & election sure. When a seal is put upon the father and mother it secures their posterity so that they cannot be lost but will be saved by virtue of the covenant of their father).[11]
From these four different versions of the Prophet’s discourse, I believe three likely conclusions can be drawn.
First, in each of the written accounts, the “eternal sealings” given to faithful parents, which in turn reach out to secure their children, appears to be nothing less than the more sure word of prophecy, or “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.”[12] None of the accounts make explicit reference to the marriage covenant as constituting those sealings. In truth, temple marriages have an end when men are dead and have no saving virtue if not entered into and sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise.[13] Thus, the seal placed upon a couple’s marriage contract by the Holy Spirit of promise[14] to make it of “efficacy, virtue, and force in and after the resurrection” appears to be the sealings of which Joseph Smith made mention. This, I believe, was understood by Elder Whitney as evidenced by his reference to “the eternal sealings of faithful parents and the divine promises made to them for valiant service in the Cause of Truth.”
First, in each of the written accounts, the “eternal sealings” given to faithful parents, which in turn reach out to secure their children, appears to be nothing less than the more sure word of prophecy, or “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.”[12] None of the accounts make explicit reference to the marriage covenant as constituting those sealings. In truth, temple marriages have an end when men are dead and have no saving virtue if not entered into and sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise.[13] Thus, the seal placed upon a couple’s marriage contract by the Holy Spirit of promise[14] to make it of “efficacy, virtue, and force in and after the resurrection” appears to be the sealings of which Joseph Smith made mention. This, I believe, was understood by Elder Whitney as evidenced by his reference to “the eternal sealings of faithful parents and the divine promises made to them for valiant service in the Cause of Truth.”
Second, when the Church historian merged the entries from the Smith (Version 1) and Clayton (Version 4) diaries to create the record from which Elder Whitney derived his conference address, the idea that the “seal placed upon a father and mother secures their posterity so that they cannot be lost” appeared to be unconditional, suggesting that wayward children of parents who receive the fulness of the priesthood[15] can never be disqualified from receiving the fulness of God’s blessings.[16] However, the Coray account (Version 2 above) retained a condition—that that the “eternal sealings” of faithful parents will secure the children “who have not transgressed.” Thus, in accord with scriptural diktat, repentance is retained as an essential element of salvation under the Coray account. And if repentance is retained, then faith would, of necessity, also be retained. Certainly, the tentacles of Divine Providence reach out to willfully wayward children even prior to faith and repentance. But wayward children must at some point yield to that sacred influence,[17] return to the Lord who gave them life, and live by His every word[18] if they are to be secured into an exalted sphere.
This necessity for wayward children to yield to the Spirit if they are to be altogether saved can be briefly illustrated by two familiar individuals and their families—Alma and Lehi.
Alma received the promise of eternal life.[19] As a result,[20] and notwithstanding that his son was wholly undeserving, the Lord ostensibly reached out to secure Alma’s wayward son.[21] His son yielded to the Lord’s invitation, returned to the fold and, in due course, was likewise given the promises extended to his father. In contrast, Lehi was also granted the promise of eternal life[22] and, in a similar fashion, the Lord reached out to secure his wayward and undeserving sons, Laman and Lemuel. But alas, they did not yield as Alma’s son did and, as a consequence, Lehi saw that they refused to partake of the tree of life.[23] Where these two brothers will eventually end up following the resurrection is for the Lord to decide.
It is my observation that the “eternal sealings” of faithful parents may invite divine intervention into the lives of their wayward children, but an appeal to the scriptures suggests that these sealings can neither avert the demands of justice, nor claim the rights of mercy. In supporting this view, President James E. Faust reaffirmed a primary doctrine in order to settle some confusion that had surfaced concerning this subject. Drawing a parallel between D&C 138:57-59 and Elder Whitney’s comments regarding the salvation of wayward children, President Faust noted:We remember that the prodigal son wasted his inheritance, and when it was all gone he came back to his father's house. There he was welcomed back into the family, but his inheritance was spent (Luke 15:11–32). Mercy will not rob justice, and the sealing power of faithful parents will only claim wayward children upon the condition of their repentance and Christ's Atonement. Repentant wayward children will enjoy salvation and all the blessings that go with it, but exaltation is much more. It must be fully earned. The question as to who will be exalted must be left to the Lord in His mercy.[24]
In context of the principle being addressed, President Faust’s discrimination between salvation and exaltation seems critically important. Salvation, although frequently synonymous with exaltation,[25] is a scriptural expression broad enough to encompass even telestial candidates.[26] Concerning such “prodigal sons” that return to the Lord but who have nonetheless, in the days of their mortal probation, spent their inheritance, Elder Joseph Fielding Smith taught:
They have no part in the first resurrection and are not redeemed from the devil and his angels until the last resurrection, because of their wicked lives and their evil deeds. Nevertheless, even these are heirs of salvation, but before they are redeemed and enter into their kingdom, they must repent of their sins, and receive the gospel, and bow the knee, and acknowledge that Jesus is the Christ, the Redeemer of the world . . . .
All who have been filthy and who would not receive the truth and have not had the testimony of Jesus Christ, must suffer the torments of the damned until they are purged from their iniquity, for the blood of Jesus Christ will not cleanse them[27] from their sins without their own individual suffering.[28]
After their suffering, confirmed Elder Bruce R. McConkie, these telestial candidates “are saved from the devil because he no longer has power over them; they have paid the penalty for their sins, and these sins no longer weigh them down.”[29] Nevertheless, President George Q. Cannon noted that, even though such individuals might be saved, they cannot thereafter be exalted:
Those who are unfaithful, those who will listen to Satan, who will lend a willing ear to his blandishments and to his allurements, when they go from this state of existence, they go into a condition where they are subject to his power. They will dwell in darkness, and according to their sins their punishment will be. Some will be consigned to ‘outer darkness’ where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth . . . . They will remain in that condition according to the enormity of their offenses, until punishment will be meted out to them sufficiently to bring them to a condition that they will receive the Gospel of salvation. That Gospel which is taught to us will be taught to them, and they will have an opportunity of obeying it in their damned condition and through repentance will receive salvation.[30]
President Joseph Fielding Smith, I believe, wrote most precisely concerning the right of eternal sealings to lay claim upon the children. His comments are plain enough and leave little room for speculation:
Those born under the covenant, throughout all eternity, are the children of their parents. Nothing except the unpardonable sin, or sin unto death, can break this tie. If children do not sin as John says, ‘unto death,’ the parents may still feel after them and eventually bring them back near to them again.
On this point President Brigham Young has said: ‘Let the father and mother, who are members of this Church and kingdom, take a righteous course, and strive with all their might never to do a wrong, but to do good all their lives; if they have one child or one hundred children, if they conduct themselves towards them as they should, binding them to the Lord by their faith and prayers. I care not where those children go, they are bound up to their parents by an everlasting tie, and no power of earth or hell can separate them from their parents in eternity; they will return again to the fountain from whence they sprang.’
All children born under the covenant belong to their parents in eternity, but that does not mean that they, because of that birthright, will inherit celestial glory. The faith and faithfulness of fathers and mothers will not save disobedient children.
Salvation is an individual matter, and if a person who has been born under the covenant rebels and denies the Lord, he will lose the blessings of exaltation. Every soul will be judged according to his works and the wicked cannot inherit eternal life. We cannot force salvation upon those who do not want it. Even our Father's children had their agency before this life, and one-third of them rebelled.
It is the duty of parents to teach their children so that they will walk uprightly and thus obtain the blessings of their birthright.
But children born under the covenant, who drift away, are still the children of their parents; and the parents have a claim upon them; and if the children have not sinned away all their rights, the parents may be able to bring them through repentance, into the celestial kingdom, but not to receive the exaltation. Of course, if children sin too grievously, they will have to enter the telestial kingdom, or they may even become sons of perdition.[31]
From these and other similar statements,[32] it seems clear that even when the tentacles of Divine Providence reach out to wayward children, it is possible that their rebellion may foil God’s desire to secure them into an exalted sphere—they may simply end up being placed into a lesser state of glory.[33] In his October 1995 Conference Address, Elder Packer invoked the situation of king David as evidence of this prospect, declaring that “forgiveness does not . . . necessarily assure exaltation.”[34]
A third, and final, conclusion that might be drawn from the several accounts noted above is that this principle of “tentacles reaching out to wayward children of faithful parents” is fundamentally demonstrated in the covenant which God made to Abraham. Of this covenant and principle, Moses declared to Abraham’s seed:
For thou art a holy people unto the Lord thy God; the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.
The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people;
But because the Lord loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations.[35]
God’s choosing of a covenant children is because He loves them. But His patience and longsuffering with their incessant wanderings and sinful behavior is because He would keep the oath which he had sworn unto their fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The events recorded in Exodus 32 concerning Israel’s worship of the molten calf and the resulting dialogue between Moses and the LORD on Sinai profoundly illustrate this point:
And the Lord said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves;
They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them, they have made them a molten calf, and have worshiped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
And the Lord said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiff-necked people;
Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them; and I will make of thee a great nation.
And Moses besought the Lord his God, and said, Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand?
Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath. Thy people will repent of this evil; therefore come thou not out against them.
Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it forever.
And the Lord said unto Moses, If they will repent of the evil which they have done, I will spare them, and turn away my fierce wrath; but, behold, thou shalt execute judgment upon all that will not repent of this evil this day. Therefore, see thou do this thing that I have commanded thee, or I will execute all that which I had thought to do unto my people.[36]
Today, God’s keeping of His oath is most evident in Malachi’s prophecy that Elijah would return in the last days to turn the heart of the children to the covenants He made with their fathers. In other words, God’s planting in the hearts of the children the promises made to the fathers and causing their hearts to turn unto the fathers is, in itself, a fulfillment of this principle.[37] Hence, the emergence of the fathers to convey the keys of salvation to Joseph Smith in the Kirtland Temple in 1836 was the supreme manifestation of the tentacles of Divine Providence reaching out to secure the children of them to whom the promises were made.[38]
Since the day that the Lord covenanted with Abraham and confirmed it with an oath,[39] the tentacles of Divine Providence have sought after the literal descendants of Abraham’s seed, to whom the promises were made.[40] And though some of the sheep have wandered, the eyes of the Shepherd—patient and longsuffering—have remained fixed upon them. All the day long, He has stretched forth His hand and nourished His vineyard, and digged about it, and pruned it, and dunged it,[41] and, notwithstanding the corruption of His vineyard, patiently spares it “a little longer.” Such is our Shepherd who loveth His children[42] and keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations.[43]
FOOTNOTES
[1] Whitney, Orson F., Conference Report, April 1929, 110.
[2] Packer, Boyd K., “Our Moral Environment,” Conference Report, April 1992, 94.
[3] Taken from the minutes of Nauvoo Holy Order Meetings held on 14 December 1845, as transcribed from the journal of Heber C. Kimball.
[7] Joseph Smith delivered this discourse on August 13, 1843 in connection with the funeral services of Judge Higbee, a good friend of the Prophet who died on June 8, 1843 in an accident.
[8] Joseph Smith, The Words of Joseph Smith, compiled and edited by Andrew F. Ehat and Lyndon W. Cook, 238-239.
[9] Ibid, 239 – 241.
[10] Ibid, 241-242.
[11] Ibid, 241 – 242.
[15] In connection with this article, the “fulness of the priesthood” is used to mean “the more sure word of prophecy.”
[16] Such an unconditional would not accord with D&C 20:32 (and a host of other passages), wherein we read: “But there is a possibility that man may fall from grace and depart from the living God.”
[17] Mosiah 3:19.
[18] D&C 84:43-45; compare 1 Nephi 13:40-41.
[19] i.e., the “eternal sealings,” see Mosiah 26:20.
[23] 1 Nephi 8:18.
[24] Faust, James E., “Dear Are the Sheep That Have Wandered,” Conference Report, 6 April 2003, 68.
[27] Note that Elder Smith spells out that it is the blood of Christ that will cleanse such individuals and not their personal suffering.
[28] Smith, Joseph Fielding, Doctrines of Salvation, 2:22.
[29] McConkie, Bruce R., A New Witness for the Articles of Faith, 145.
[30] Cannon, George Q., Gospel Truth, Volume 1, 78-79.
[31] Smith, Joseph Fielding, Doctrines of Salvation, 2:91-92.
[32] See statement by Elder Spencer W. Kimball in the November 1974 Ensign, pages 111-112, wherein he taught: “In each of us is the potentiality to become a God—pure, holy, true, influential, powerful, independent of earthly forces. We learn from the scriptures that we each have eternal existence, that we were in the beginning with God. That understanding gives to us a unique sense of man’s dignity. I have sometimes seen children of good families rebel, resist, stray, sin, and even actually fight God. In this they bring sorrow to their parents, who have done their best to set in movement a current and to teach and live as examples. But I have repeatedly seen many of these same children, after years of wandering, mellow, realize what they have been missing, repent, and make great contribution to the spiritual life of their community. The reason I believe this can take place is that, despite all the adverse winds to which these people have been subjected, they have been influenced still more, and much more than they realized, by the current of life in the homes in which they were reared. When, in later years, they feel a longing to recreate in their own families the same atmosphere they enjoyed as children, they are likely to turn to the faith that gave meaning to their parents’ lives. There is no guarantee, of course, that righteous parents will succeed always in holding their children, and certainly they may lose them if they do not do all in their power. The children have their free agency. But if we as parents fail to influence our families and set them on the ‘strait and narrow way,’ then certainly the waves, the winds of temptation and evil will carry the posterity away from the path. ‘Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it.’ What we do know is that righteous parents who strive to develop wholesome influences for their children will be held blameless at the last day, and that they will succeed in saving most of their children, if not all.”
[33] See D&C 133:62-74.
[34] Packer, Boyd K. “The Brilliant Morning of Forgiveness,” Ensign, November 1995, 19, Footnote #15 (compare Acts 3:13-19).
[35] JST Deuteronomy 7:6-9. That fact that the tentacles of Divine Providence reach out most profoundly to Abraham’s seed is strong evidence that the tentacles have a primeval origin.
[36] JST Exodus 32:7-14; compare Psalms 106:7, 22-23 wherein is written that God would have destroyed the children of Israel “had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach, to turn away his wrath.” In doing this, Moses was a type of Christ, God’s chosen, who also stood in the breach to turn away the wrath of God (compare D&C 109:53).
[37] D&C 1:2; compare D&C 96:6-7.
[38] These promises were likewise placed upon the prophet Joseph Smith that “in him and in his seed shall the kindred of the earth be blessed.”D&C 124:57-58; compare D&C 110:12.
[39] Hebrews 6:13-18.
