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m (→"Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny.") |
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==="Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny."=== | ==="Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny."=== | ||
* "We are begotten in the similitude of Christ himself. We dwelt with the Father and with the Son in the beginning, as the sons and daughters of God; and at the time appointed, we came to this earth to take upon ourselves tabernacles, that we might become conformed to the likeness and image of Jesus Christ and become like him; that we might have a tabernacle, that we might pass through death as he has passed through death, that we might rise again from the dead as he has risen from the dead."<ref>{{Book:Smith:Gospel Doctrine|pages=428}}</ref> | * "We are begotten in the similitude of Christ himself. We dwelt with the Father and with the Son in the beginning, as the sons and daughters of God; and at the time appointed, we came to this earth to take upon ourselves tabernacles, that we might become conformed to the likeness and image of Jesus Christ and become like him; that we might have a tabernacle, that we might pass through death as he has passed through death, that we might rise again from the dead as he has risen from the dead."<ref>{{Book:Smith:Gospel Doctrine|pages=428}}</ref> | ||
− | * "The gospel teaches us that we are the spirit children of heavenly parents. Before our mortal birth we had “a pre-existent, spiritual personality, as the sons and daughters of the Eternal Father” (statement of the First Presidency, Improvement Era, Mar. 1912, p. 417; also see Jer. 1:5). We were placed here on earth to progress toward our destiny of eternal life. These truths give us a unique perspective and different values to guide our decisions from those who doubt the existence of God and believe that life is the result of random processes."<ref>{{ | + | * "The gospel teaches us that we are the spirit children of heavenly parents. Before our mortal birth we had “a pre-existent, spiritual personality, as the sons and daughters of the Eternal Father” (statement of the First Presidency, ''Improvement Era'', Mar. 1912, p. 417; also see Jer. 1:5). We were placed here on earth to progress toward our destiny of eternal life. These truths give us a unique perspective and different values to guide our decisions from those who doubt the existence of God and believe that life is the result of random processes."<ref>{{Ensign|author=Dallin H. Oaks|article=[https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1993/10/the-great-plan-of-happiness.p2?lang=eng The Great Plan of Happiness]|date=November 1993}}</ref> |
==="Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose."=== | ==="Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose."=== | ||
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====General statements==== | ====General statements==== | ||
+ | * The voice of the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in unmistakable terms warns: | ||
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+ | :“… sexual sin—the illicit sexual relations of men and women—stands, in its enormity, next to murder. The Lord has drawn no essential distinctions between fornication, adultery, and harlotry or prostitution. Each has fallen under his solemn and awful condemnation. … [Such cannot] … escape the punishments and the judgments which the Lord has declared against this sin. The day of reckoning will come just as certainly as night follows day.” | ||
+ | |||
+ | :Then speaking of those who condone and justify evil whether from press or microphone or pulpit, they continue: | ||
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+ | ::“They who would palliate this crime and say that such indulgence is but a sinless gratification of a normal desire, like appeasing hunger and thirst, speak filthiness with their lips. Their counsel leads to destruction; their wisdom comes from the father of lies.” (Message of the First Presidency to the Church, ''Improvement Era'', November 1942, page 686.)<ref>{{Ensign|author=Spencer W. Kimball|date=May 1971|article=[https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1971/04/voices-of-the-past-of-the-present-of-the-future.p71 Voices of the Past, of the Present, of the Future]}}</ref> | ||
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* "As we have said on previous occasions, certainly our Heavenly Father is distressed with the increasing inroads among his children of such insidious sins as adultery and fornication and homosexuality, lesbianism, abortion, alcoholism, dishonesty, and crime generally, which threaten the total breakdown of the family and the home…"<ref>{{Ensign|author=Spencer W. Kimball|article=[https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1979/04/fortify-your-homes-against-evil?lang=eng Fortify Your Homes Against Evil]|date=May 1979}}</ref> | * "As we have said on previous occasions, certainly our Heavenly Father is distressed with the increasing inroads among his children of such insidious sins as adultery and fornication and homosexuality, lesbianism, abortion, alcoholism, dishonesty, and crime generally, which threaten the total breakdown of the family and the home…"<ref>{{Ensign|author=Spencer W. Kimball|article=[https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1979/04/fortify-your-homes-against-evil?lang=eng Fortify Your Homes Against Evil]|date=May 1979}}</ref> | ||
* "There is a practice, now quite prevalent, for unmarried couples to live together, a counterfeit of marriage. They suppose that they shall have all that marriage can offer without the obligations connected with it. They are wrong! However much they hope to find in a relationship of that kind, they will lose more. Living together without marriage destroys something inside all who participate. Virtue, self-esteem, and refinement of character wither away. Claiming that it will not happen does not prevent the loss; and these virtues, once lost, are not easily reclaimed."<ref>{{Ensign|author=Boyd K. Packer|article=[https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1981/04/marriage?lang=eng Marriage]|date=May 1981}}</ref> | * "There is a practice, now quite prevalent, for unmarried couples to live together, a counterfeit of marriage. They suppose that they shall have all that marriage can offer without the obligations connected with it. They are wrong! However much they hope to find in a relationship of that kind, they will lose more. Living together without marriage destroys something inside all who participate. Virtue, self-esteem, and refinement of character wither away. Claiming that it will not happen does not prevent the loss; and these virtues, once lost, are not easily reclaimed."<ref>{{Ensign|author=Boyd K. Packer|article=[https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1981/04/marriage?lang=eng Marriage]|date=May 1981}}</ref> |
Did the Proclamation on the Family break new doctrinal ground, or merely reiterate doctrines long taught in the Church?
President Hinckley observed, on introducing the Proclamation:
The doctrines taught are, then, longstanding ones in the Church.
This article reviews each line of the Proclamation and presents a sample of past teachings on the same subject.
See above.
Notes
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