Oath and covenant of priesthood

[Guest Doctrine]

As I research the Sunday school lesson I came across this on the church web sit but there were no references to how they got this answer

The Aaronic Priesthood is received by covenant alone. Melchizedek Priesthood holders receive the priesthood by unspoken oath as well as by covenant.

What does it mean the Aaronic priesthood is recived by covenant alone.

I find this statement very intriguing.

[Suzie]

As I research the Sunday school lesson I came across this on the church web sit but there were no references to how they got this answer

The Aaronic Priesthood is received by covenant alone. Melchizedek Priesthood holders receive the priesthood by unspoken oath as well as by covenant.

What does it mean the Aaronic priesthood is recived by covenant alone.

I find this statement very intriguing.

“You have to be worthy to receive [the priesthood],” Elder Perry said in the first of a four-part interview about the priesthood, noting that section 84 of the Doctrine and Covenants specifies that the Aaronic Priesthood is received with a covenant, while the Melchizedek Priesthood is received with both an oath and a covenant.

“When the Lord makes an oath He puts His own reputation and feeling on that oath to be correct, and He’ll live up to that oath,” Elder Perry said. On the other hand, “a covenant is strictly an agreement between two parties, the Lord on one side and man on the other side. So the oath comes by His putting His full weight behind it, His whole being, His whole power, and a covenant is that agreement between the two.”

Take Oath and Covenant Seriously, Elder L. Tom Perry Says

[mordorbund]

And you can also ponder on Hebrews 7:21, where Paul contrasts the Levitical priests with the Great High Priest:

(For those priests were made without an oath; but this with an oath by him that said unto him, The Lord sware and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec: )

[james12]

All those who obtain the highest order of the Melchizedek priesthood obtain the oath and covenant of our Father, first conditionally, and then if they remain faithful, by His very voice, that they are sealed up unto eternal life (see D&C 131:5). This oath and covenant received through priesthood is immutable. Hebrews 6:16-20 talks to this very point.

Now when people take an oath, they call on someone greater than themselves to hold them to it. And without any question that oath is binding. God also bound himself with an oath, so that those who received the promise could be perfectly sure that he would never change his mind. So God has given both his promise and his oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us. This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain into God’s inner sanctuary. Jesus has already gone in there for us. He has become our eternal High Priest in the order of Melchizedek. (New Living Translation)

God could swear by nothing greater, so he made a covenant and swore in His own name that it would be fulfilled. Let us then receive the promise for ourselves and grab hold with all confidence that we will receive.

[ElectofGod]

Going along with james post which said it very well.

The keys are certain signs & words by which false spirits & personages may be detected from true.— which cannot be revealed to the Elders till the Temple is completed.— The rich can only get them in the Temple. The poor may get them on the Mountain top as did moses…There are signs in heaven earth & hell. the elders must know them all to be endued with power. to finish their work & prevent imposition. The devil knows many signs. but does not know the sign of the son of man. or Jesus. No one can truly say he knows God until he has handled something. & these this can only be in the holiest of Holies.

Journal, December 1841–December 1842

This relates to the oath and covenant. I think its also with a penalty at this point too which belongs to the sealing power. Thus the unpardonable sin for breaking this covenant.

[Martain]

Hey Elect!

Having once lived in fear regarding becoming a son of perdition to the point where it prevented me from receiving truth, I have studied in depth the topics regarding unpardonable sins and what it takes to actually become a son or daughter of perdition.

Now maybe I missed something in which case you can do me the honor of correcting me but can you show me where you obtained the doctrine that breaking the covenant of the priesthood is an unpardonable sin?

Even a man who commits adultery and being unrepentant is then excommunicated, who is thus stripped of his priesthood and blessings having thus broken his covenant in such a severe way, who is thus turned over to the buffeting of the Adversary... can still repent and be forgiven.

I enjoyed the quote you gave =).

[ElectofGod]

Hey Elect!

Having once lived in fear regarding becoming a son of perdition to the point where it prevented me from receiving truth, I have studied in depth the topics regarding unpardonable sins and what it takes to actually become a son or daughter of perdition.

Now maybe I missed something in which case you can do me the honor of correcting me but can you show me where you obtained the doctrine that breaking the covenant of the priesthood is an unpardonable sin?

Even a man who commits adultery and being unrepentant is then excommunicated, who is thus stripped of his priesthood and blessings having thus broken his covenant in such a severe way, who is thus turned over to the buffeting of the Adversary... can still repent and be forgiven.

I enjoyed the quote you gave =).

I was going to touch on it but didn't. I will share what I feel is my own opinion.

While reading it, looks like I was slightly mistaken in that statement. Looks like others view it differently than I. I will put new thought into it. Why did I think they commit the unpardonable sin? Well it depends on what sin it is. Some sins qualify some don't. The article does mention how some sins could NOT be the unpardonable sin but still dis-qualify us from exaltation (but still receive forgiveness). If I read that correctly at least. This is how I see it here. The article below explains it more thoroughly. The qualification is to "turneth from the priesthood" which will not cause us to become the son of perdition, but if we shed innocent blood or asscent to Christ's death, that is when we commit the unpardonable sin.

I wouldn't worry about commiting the unpardonable sin if I were you. Its fear put in by Satan. You will only do whats in your heart already. Is it in your heart to turn against God? It ceases our progression. Not to say it doesn't come into my heart as it does sometimes, that fear of committing that sin.

---As I was typing I found a BYU article that answers it. I will just post it :). Read it, its really well written.

17. The Oath and Covenant of the Priesthood (D&C 84) | Religious Studies Center

Two key words mentioned in the oath and covenant serve as a foreshadowing of this great blessing of eternal life: calling (D&C 84:33) and elect (D&C 84:34). Elder McConkie testified that “brethren whose calling and election is made sure always hold the holy Melchizedek Priesthood. Without this delegation of power and authority they cannot be sealed up unto eternal life.”[18] President Romney also gave witness that “we talk about making our callings and elections sure. The only way we can do this is to get the priesthood and magnify it.”[19]

The Prophet Joseph Smith taught that “Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had the promise of eternal life confirmed to them by an oath of the Lord, but that promise or oath was no assurance to them of their salvation. But they could, by walking in the footsteps and continuing in the faith of their fathers, obtain for themselves an oath for confirmation that they were meet to be partakers of the inheritance with the saints in light.

“If the saints in the days of the Apostles were privileged to take the saints for example and lay hold of the same promises and attain to the same exalted privileges of knowing that their names were written in the Lamb’s book of life and that they were sealed there as a perpetual memorial before the face of the Most High, will not the same faith bring the same assurance of eternal life and that in the same manner to the children of men now in this age of the world?”[20]

Thus, those priesthood holders accounted as the seed of Abraham may receive the same blessings as their faithful forebears.

Doctrine and Covenants 84:39–40. “And this is according to the oath and covenant which belongeth to the priesthood. Therefore, all those who receive the priesthood, receive this oath and covenant of my Father, which he cannot break, neither can it be moved.”

Who makes the oath? What is the oath? Who makes the covenant, and what are the terms?

President Romney defined an oath as “a sworn attestation to the inviolability of the promises in the agreement.”[21] President Joseph Fielding Smith explained that “to swear with an oath is the most solemn and binding form of speech known to the human tongue.”[22] In the oath and covenant of the priesthood, it is the Father who makes the oath. Elder McConkie taught that the oath is “that everyone who keeps the covenant made in connection with the Melchizedek Priesthood shall inherit, receive, and possess all things in his everlasting kingdom, and shall be a joint-heir with that Lord who is his Only Begotten. . . . God swore with an oath that Christ would be exalted, and he swears anew, at the time each of us receives the Melchizedek Priesthood, that we will have a like exaltation if we are true and faithful in all things.”[23] This oath is as eternal as the priesthood, and always accompanies it, signifying its validity in providing for the exaltation of God’s faithful children.

President Romney explained that “a covenant is an agreement between two or more parties. . . . In the covenant of the priesthood the parties are the Father and the receiver of the priesthood.”[24] For the preparatory Aaronic Priesthood, Elder McConkie stated,

“Those who receive the Aaronic Priesthood covenant and promise to magnify their callings, to serve in the ministry of the Master, to forsake the world, and to live as becometh Saints. In return, the Lord covenants and promises to enlarge the standing and station of all who keep their Aaronic covenant. He promises to give them the Melchizedek Priesthood, out of which eternal life comes. [The oath from God accompanies the Melchizedek Priesthood.] Those who receive the Melchizedek Priesthood covenant and promise, before God and angels, to magnify their callings, to “live by every word that proceedeth forth from the mouth of God” (D&C 84:44), to marry for time and all eternity in the patriarchal order, and to live and serve as the Lord Jesus did in his life and ministry.”[25]

Elder Asay noted that God’s covenant to faithful priesthood holders includes the following promises: “Promise 1: We Will Be Sanctified by the Spirit. . . . Promise 2: We Will Be Numbered with the Elect of God. . . . Promise 3: We Will Be Given All That God Has.”[26] Elder McConkie explained that to be given all that God has includes exaltation and godhood and admittance to “his eternal patriarchal order, an order that prevails in the highest heaven of the celestial world, an order that assures its members of eternal increase, or in other words of spirit children in the resurrection. (See D&C 131:1–4).”[27]

Doctrine and Covenants 84:41. “But whoso breaketh this covenant after he hath received it, and altogether turneth therefrom, shall not have forgiveness of sins in this world nor in the world to come.” This is a solemn declaration. According to Elder McConkie, “this has never been interpreted by the Brethren to mean that those who forsake their priesthood duties, altogether turning therefrom, shall be sons of perdition; rather, the meaning seems to be that they shall be denied the exaltation that otherwise might have been theirs.”[28]

President Joseph Fielding Smith explained that there is a chance to repent if a man has not altogether turned from the priesthood. If he does altogether turn from it, however, there is no forgiveness. “That does not mean that man is going to become a son of perdition, but the meaning is that he will never again have the opportunity of exercising the priesthood and reaching exaltation. That is where his forgiveness ends. He will not again have the priesthood conferred upon him, because he has trampled it under his feet; but as far as other things are concerned, he may be forgiven.”[29]

Doctrine and Covenants 84:42. “And wo unto all those who come not unto this priesthood.”

As the priesthood is the only source and channel through which exaltation may be obtained from the Lord, it follows that those who avoid it also avoid their only chance for eternal happiness in the celestial kingdom.

“And even I have given the heavenly hosts and mine angels charge concerning you” (D&C 84:42). Worthy priesthood holders have the right to the ministering of angels (see D&C 13), which may come as direct visitations or as communications via the Holy Ghost, for “angels speak by the power of the Holy Ghost” (2 Nephi 32:3; see also 1 Nephi 17:45). Worthy priesthood holders also have the rights of fellowship and communion “with the general assembly and church of the Firstborn” (D&C 107:19), meaning those faithful members whose names “are written in heaven”(Hebrews 12:23), referring to Saints on both sides of the veil.

Patriarchal Priesthood

This is quoted from the website by BH Porter

As Pres. Romney stated that the Oath and Covenant of the Priesthood, is the Endowment received in the temple, these three priesthoods are mentioned as the worthy become A the sons of Moses@ i.e. heirs of the Melchizedek Priesthood. Through our faithfullness we may also become A the sons of Aaron@ (the Aaronic Priesthood) and A the seed of Abraham@ as we inherit the covenants, and promises made to the fathers, and enter into the Patriarchal Priesthood. (Bhp)

The 2nd Priesthood is Patriarchal authority. Go to and finish the temple, and God will fill it with power, and you will then receive more knowledge concerning this priesthood.

The fullness of the Patriarchal Order is to be endowed from on High. To receive the ordinances of exaltation in the temple

Because the order of Heaven is Patriarchal; the endowment is patriarchal in nature. The ordinances to make us a A first born@ unto God, worthy to Inherit A all that the father hath@ to be A encircled about eternally in the arms of his love@ and through the ritual embrace receive the fullness of the Patriarchal power as we are given the A blessings of the fathers@ , A the covenant of Abraham@ the great Patriarch: the Priesthood, Posterity, and Inheritance. (Abr. 2:9-11).

These are the blessings that Abraham sought for and received:

The endowment teaches us how to walk about into the presence of God. What we must become to do so.

It states "no forgiveness in the world to come" which usually accompanies the unpardonable sin, so that is why I thought it did. Something for me to consider and ponder.

Edited July 15, 2013 by ElectofGod