Lessons on the Plan of Salvation
Lesson No. Forty-Six
Membership in the Lord’s Church In Time and In Eternity
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the name the Lord gave His Church in the latter days (see D&C 115:3-4). This name distinguishes His Church today from that in other dispensations. The Lord’s Church is organized for imperfect people hoping and striving to be better. As members increase in righteousness the Church becomes more perfectly organized.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is organized and functions in the spirit world – At the funeral of Elder Richard L. Evans of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles, Church President Joseph Fielding Smith gave a wonderful insight about the Lord’s Church in the spirit world. He said:
“The Lord’s work goes on in this life, in the world of spirits, and in the kingdoms of glory where men go after their resurrection. Life and labor and love are eternal, and Brother Evans is now assigned to continue his work in the spirit world, until that day when he shall come forth in glorious immortality to receive his place in the mansions that are prepared.
“The Church on earth has lost the services of one of its most able and competent leaders who was endowed with special talents and abilities which are seldom equaled. But the same Church, which has an even more perfect and effective organization among the righteous dead, has gained another pillar of strength to use in the great labors that are preformed there” (Ensign, December 1971).
The Church of the Firstborn – Of all the spirit children begotten by our Heavenly Parents the Firstborn was Jehovah, as He was known in the pre-earth existence. Jehovah was born into mortality on this earth as Jesus Christ. “He was the Firstborn of the Father, the Only Begotten Son in the flesh, the Redeemer of the world” (The Living Christ: The Testimony of the Apostles). Jesus also became the Firstborn from the dead, the first person resurrected.
“The Church of the Firstborn is also the ‘Church of Jesus Christ’ which is a term used primarily to describe Jesus’ earthly Church – the members of which are not always entirely celestial in nature.
“The Firstborn of the Father is one of Jesus’ titles in eternity, and so the Church of the Firstborn can therefore describe the members of the Church of Jesus Christ who will still be members in eternity” (A Commentary on the Doctrine and Covenants, Stephen Robinson and Dean Garrett).
“The Church of the Firstborn is Christ's heavenly church, and its members are exalted beings who gain an inheritance in the highest heaven of the celestial world and for whom the family continues in eternity” (Encyclopedia of Mormonism, Firstborn).
Gaining membership in the Church of the Firstborn – “Even as the first principles and ordinances, including baptism in water and the reception of the Holy Ghost, constitute the gate into the earthly Church of Jesus Christ, so higher ordinances of the priesthood constitute the gate into the Church of the Firstborn. To secure the blessings that pertain to the Church of the Firstborn, one must obey the gospel from the heart, receive all of the ordinances that pertain to the house of the Lord, and be sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise in the Celestial Kingdom of God” (Ibid).
The Church of the Firstborn is the patriarchal order of the priesthood manifested in the eternal family – “Revelations to the Prophet Joseph Smith reveal that the Church of the Firstborn consists of those who have the inheritance of the Firstborn and become joint-heirs with Christ in receiving all that the Father has. The Lord said, "If you keep my commandments you shall receive of his fulness, and be glorified in me as I am in the Father; …I…am the Firstborn; …And all those who are begotten through me are partakers of the glory of the same, and are the Church of the Firstborn (D&C 93:20-22) The Church of the Firstborn is the divine patriarchal order in its eternal form" (Ibid). As families in this life follow the teachings set forth by modern prophets in "The Family - A Proclamation to the World" the foundation is established for a family and its members to become part of The Church of the Firstborn in eternity.
Membership in the Church of the Firstborn is available to all worthy people, and it begins in the temple – The Church of the Firstborn is comprised of a man and a woman and families who are sealed together in the temple for time and all eternity. It is a most wonderful doctrine that all worthy and desiring children of God, if not in this life, will in eternity be sealed in an eternal family in the patriarchal order of the priesthood, and be members of the Church of the Firstborn.