The Eternal Family (Religion 200)

Questions

1. Why is the family central to our Heavenly Father’s plan of happiness?

   Your response should include:

   • A description of the main purposes of the plan of salvation.

   • An explanation of how righteous families help fulfill those purposes throughout eternity.

   • An explanation of why the doctrine of the family is important to you and your eternal progression.

   • An explanation of how your understanding of the family’s central role in the plan of salvation has affected the choices you make in this life.

2. What are the Lord’s standards for marriage?

   Your response should include an explanation of:

   • The divine roles and responsibilities of spouses and parents.

   • The Savior’s role in marriage and family.

   • The laws governing chastity and fidelity in marriage and the eternal nature of those laws.

   • The ways you can apply these principles to prepare for or improve your marriage and family.

3. How has “The Family: A Proclamation to the World” (Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2010, 129) positively impacted your life during this course?

   You may build on or connect ideas from your previous responses or write about a new topic. Your response should include:

   • An explanation of a specific principle or doctrine from the family proclamation, with an accompanying explanation using scriptures or words of latter-day prophets.

   • An example of how following the counsel of prophets has helped you better understand the principle or doctrine you chose.

   • Examples of blessings you or others have received by heeding the counsel in the family proclamation.

   • A description of what you will do to more fully live according to the principle or doctrine you chose.

Key Points of Doctrine

The following information has been compiled using the key points within the lessons for this course. The numbers in parentheses that follow the quotations indicate the lesson number in The Eternal Family Teacher Manual (2015) where the statement can be found. Compare your response with the information below. If there is a key point of doctrine from this review that you did not include in your answer, consider revising your response before submitting it. You do not need to copy this information verbatim into your response; just make sure that you understand these doctrines and communicate that understanding. Because question 3 requires a more personal response, there are no key points for that question.

1. Why is the family central to our Heavenly Father’s plan of happiness?

   The main purposes of the plan of salvation:

   • “Heavenly Father’s plan provides a way for us to become like our Heavenly Parents” (3).

   • “The earth was created to help bring about the immortality and eternal life of man” (4).

   How righteous families help fulfill those purposes throughout eternity:

   • “The family is a central part of God’s plan for premortal, mortal, and eternal life” (6).

   • “Because of the Fall, Adam and Eve could bear children and their posterity could progress toward eternal life” (4).

   • “With a physical body, we experience conditions of mortality that can prepare us for eternity” (5).

   • “When we enter into the new and everlasting covenant of marriage, we can be exalted in the highest degree of the celestial kingdom” (15).

2. What are the Lord’s standards for marriage?

   The divine roles and responsibilities of spouses and parents:

   • “Husband and wife have a solemn responsibility to love and care for each other” (“The Family: A Proclamation to the World,” 129).

   • “When a husband and wife bring a child into the world, they are fulfilling part of Heavenly Father’s plan of happiness” (17).

   • “Parents are commanded to teach their children to love and serve each other, to keep the commandments of God, and to be law-abiding citizens” (22).

   The Savior’s role in marriage and family:

   • “The Atonement of Jesus Christ makes it possible for each of us to ultimately receive all of our Father in Heaven’s promised blessings” (24).

   • “As families build their foundation on Jesus Christ, Satan will not have power to destroy them” (19).

   Laws governing chastity and fidelity in marriage and the eternal nature of those laws:

   • “Marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God” (“The Family: A Proclamation to the World,” 129).

   • “God has commanded that the sacred powers of procreation are to be employed only between man and woman, lawfully wedded as husband and wife” (“The Family: A Proclamation to the World,” 129) (16).

   • “Changes in the civil law do not, indeed cannot, change the moral law that God has established. God expects us to uphold and keep His commandments regardless of divergent opinions or trends in society” (quoted in Gospel Topics, “Same-Sex Marriage,” lds.org/topics) (7).