Christofferson - Why Marriage, Why Family - April 2015

Elder Christofferson speaks of God's plan of happiness and how that plan is to bring us physical and spiritual rebirth through the Savior Jesus Christ.  He speaks of our role in that plan to partner with Him to bring lives to earth so that all His children can have physical bodies.  He speaks of Christ's role to bridge the gap between the fall of Adam and the desire of the Father to have us return and live with Him again.  Of this plan that the Father created he says that at least four things are needed for the success of this divine plan:

First was the Creation of the earth as our dwelling place.

• Whatever the details of the creation process, we know that it was not accidental but that it was directed by God the Father and implemented by Jesus Christ—“
  

Second is the condition of mortality.

• Adam and Eve acted for all who had chosen to participate in the Father’s great plan of happiness. Their Fall created the conditions needed for our physical birth and for mortal experience and learning outside the presence of God. The Fall brought about physical death needed to make our time in mortality temporary so that we would not live forever in our sins.

Third is redemption from the Fall.

• A Redeemer, the Only Begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ, suffered and died to atone for Adam and Eve’s transgression, thereby providing resurrection and immortality for all. And since none of us will have been perfectly and consistently obedient to the gospel law, His Atonement also redeems us from our own sins on condition of repentance. With the Savior’s atoning grace providing forgiveness of sins and sanctification of the soul, we can spiritually be born again and reconciled to God. Our spiritual death—our separation from God—will end.

Fourth, and finally, is the setting for our physical birth and subsequent spiritual rebirth into the
kingdom of God.

• God ordained that men and women should marry and give birth to children, thereby creating, in partnership with God, the physical bodies that are key to the test of mortality and essential to eternal glory with Him. He also ordained that parents should establish families and rear their children in light and truth, leading them to a hope in Christ.

He speaks of the marriage covenant and that marriage is a divine institution created by God Himself to bring about great results and give His children a chance to succeed.

• A family built on the marriage of a man and woman supplies the best setting for God’s plan to thrive—the setting for the birth of children, who come in purity and innocence from God, and the environment for the learning and preparation they will need for a successful mortal life and eternal life in the world to come. A critical mass of families built on such marriages is vital for societies to survive and flourish. That is why communities and nations generally have encouraged and protected marriage and the family as privileged institutions. It has never been just about the love and happiness of adults.

The role of marriage is not a worldly thing.  It creates a partnership with God.

• Our claims for the role of marriage and family rest not on social science but on the truth that they are God’s creation. It is He who in the beginning created Adam and Eve in His image, male and female, and joined them as husband and wife to become “one flesh” and to multiply and replenish the earth.

Whatever the world says, it will not alter what God has created.  No matter how they marriage covenant is altered by man, God still believes in the unity of the family.

• Neither we nor any other mortal can alter this divine order of matrimony. It is not a human invention. Such marriage is indeed “from above, from God” and is as much a part of the plan of happiness as the Fall and the Atonement.
  

Satan is at the helm leading the plan to destroy the family unit.  He is working in our governments and in our own homes trying to destroy what God has created.

• The adversary is pleased when parents neglect to teach and train their children to have faith in Christ and be spiritually born again. Brothers and sisters, many things are good, many are important, but only a few are essential.
  

Elder Christofferson offers advice to those that find themselves in less than ideal family situations.  He encourages them to keep trying and they too can succeed.

• Much that is good, much that is essential—even sometimes all that is necessary for now—can be achieved in less than ideal circumstances.
  

Those that are not part of the ideal situation, God is mindful of you.  He wants you to have the highest level of happiness you can achieve.  Those with less, can be assured that the Atonement will make up for all that is lacking.  It is the desire of God that all of us achieve the most happiness passible, in this life and the next.

• With confidence we testify that the Atonement of Jesus Christ has anticipated and, in the end, will compensate all deprivation and loss for those who turn to Him. No one is predestined to receive less than all that the Father has for His children.

What a great message.  Despite the marriage debate, some eternal truths are noted in this talk.  We are children of God and His goal is our eternal life with Him.  He has given us tools to find the most happiness possible.  He created marriage when he joined Adam and Eve together in the garden.  Marriage between a man and a woman creates the ideal situation to raise a family and an ideal scenario to influence those children to come to Christ.  Not all are given this ideal situation to grow up in, but Christ's atonement will compensate for those things that are not ideal and make us whole in the end.  How grateful I am that in the controversial debate of our times, we have prophets and apostles that can clarify the truth and give us direction on how we should press forward.