Who is born into the Covenant?

[dahlia]

Scenario - Two people who are dating convert and are baptized. They get married in the chapel, but are not sealed in the Temple because they haven't been members for a year, yet. As luck would have it, they have a baby within the year. 

Is that child born in the covenant or do the parents have to have been sealed in the Temple?

[SilentOne]

They have to have been sealed. So the baby will need to be sealed to them after they are sealed to each other.

[Jane_Doe]

1 hour ago, dahlia said:

Scenario - Two people who are dating convert and are baptized. They get married in the chapel, but are not sealed in the Temple because they haven't been members for a year, yet. As luck would have it, they have a baby within the year. 

Is that child born in the covenant or do the parents have to have been sealed in the Temple?

"Born in the covenant" means that a newborn is already sealed to his/her parents because the parents are sealed.

In your scenario, the parents aren't sealed, so the baby wasn't born to sealed parents (in other words "Born in the Covenant").  So all three of them can head to the temple, mom & dad get sealed, and then kid sealed to mom & dad.   A family which gets sealed when the kids are 70 years old is just as valid as a family who was sealed before the kids were born. 

[mordorbund]

As a followup to the question not asked: Once the children are sealed to their parents, they are heirs to all the blessings, rights, and privileges as though they had been born in the covenant. If you are endowed, you can perform sealings in the temple and hear the particular wording they use when sealing children to parents.

[The Folk Prophet]

Related: A woman who is sealed to her husband leaves him for another man, but doesn't break the sealing. She gets pregnant by the other man.

Is that child born in the covenant or not?

The answer is yes, btw.

[JohnsonJones]

On ‎11‎/‎25‎/‎2018 at 8:11 PM, The Folk Prophet said:

Related: A woman who is sealed to her husband leaves him for another man, but doesn't break the sealing. She gets pregnant by the other man.

Is that child born in the covenant or not?

The answer is yes, btw.

You answered your own question...

To expound a little upon what you said...

My understanding is that the child is born in the covenant, but is born as a child to her first husband rather than the one she is currently with.  It is whichever husband she is actually sealed to that the child is born into the covenant with, rather than what the world would recognize.

[The Folk Prophet]

Just now, JohnsonJones said:

You answered your own question...

To expound a little upon what you said...

My understanding is that the child is born in the covenant, but is born as a child to her first husband rather than the one she is currently with.  It is whichever husband she is actually sealed to that the child is born into the covenant with, rather than what the world would recognize.

I'm not sure I'd say "as a child to" her first husband. I'd say "sealed to". That may be picking the nit a bit...but....

[MarginOfError]

Wow.  Way to make that weird.

Let's simplify a little and state, up front, that sealings are performed to grant additional blessings--both in this life and the one to follow--to those who maintain their covenants with God.  A sealing is not the same thing as a marriage, and a sealing does not grant ownership of possession of a child born within that sealing.

It would be wise to note that the sealing policies of the Church (which are meant to reflect nuclear family life to some extent) are not direct, one-to-one analogs to family life in heaven.

So, the simplest answer to the question is this: A child is born in the covenant and entitled to the blessing of the sealing covenant if the mother is part of a valid sealing covenant at the time of the child's birth.

[The Folk Prophet]

19 minutes ago, MarginOfError said:

Wow.  Way to make that weird.

[dahlia]

14 hours ago, The Folk Prophet said:

I'm not sure I'd say "as a child to" her first husband. I'd say "sealed to". That may be picking the nit a bit...but....

Yeah, I was just going to say something about that, but you solved the problem neatly.

[GaleG]

On 11/25/2018 at 2:40 AM, Jane_Doe said:

"Born in the covenant" means that a newborn is already sealed to his/her parents because the parents are sealed.

If the child grows up and converts to Islam does the church perform an un-sealing?

Thank you,

Gale

[Jane_Doe]

11 minutes ago, GaleG said:

If the child grows up and converts to Islam does the church perform an un-sealing?

No, the hope is always that they will return.  The only ways a sealing can be undone is if 1) the person resigns from the Church and chooses to have it undone, or 2) is excommunicated from the Church.  

Another big thing to remember here is that we do need to honor our sealing and other promises with Christ.  So while a person who converts to Islam won't have their sealing formally revoked in this life, if they continue to reject Christ until the Final Judgement, then they have rejected this promise.