Refuting the
naïve but popular view that D&C 84:22 means that one cannot see God the
Father without the priesthood, Joseph Fielding McConkie wrote:
By revelation we are told that the
"priesthood administereth the gospel and holdeth the key of the mysteries
of the kingdom, even the key of the knowledge of God. Therefore, in the
ordinances thereof, the power of godliness is manifest. And without the
ordinances thereof, and the authority of the priesthood, the power of godliness
is not manifest unto men in the flesh; for without this no man can see the face
of God, even the Father, and live" (D&C 84:19-22). Commenting on these
verses, some have suggested that holding the priesthood is a requisite to
seeing God. That such an interpretation was not intended is evident from the
verses that follow: "Now this Moses plainly taught to the children of
Israel in the wilderness, and sought diligently to sanctify his people that
they might behold the face of God; but they hardened their hearts and could not
endure his presence; therefore, the Lord in his wrath, for his anger was
kindled against them, swore that they should not enter into his rest while in
the wilderness, which rest is the fulness of his glory. Therefore, he took
Moses out of their midst, and the Holy Priesthood also" (D&C
84:23-25).
Moses was not seeking to sanctify only the
men any more than he intended to lead the men, without their wives and
children, into the promised land. All were to be sanctified so that all—men,
women, and children—could stand in the presence of their God, and all were to
journey together to the land promised them. The story typifies the whole system
of salvation and our sojourn in mortality. We make the journey to our land of
promise (eternal life) as families. All must be sanctified, for no unclean
thing can enter the divine presence. There is no suggestion here that men alone
are to be saved or that they alone are to enjoy the blessings of obedience to
sacred ordinances. Those blessings take on meaning only as husband and wife
stand side by side and then are surrounded by their posterity. When the
revelation says, "for without this no man can see the face of God, even
the Father, and live" the antecedent of "this" is "the
power of godliness," or being sanctified (D&C 84:21-22). The
ordinances of the priesthood out of which "the power of godliness" comes
bring the same promise of blessings to women that they do to men. (Joseph
Fielding McConkie, Answers:
Straightforward Answers to Tough Gospel Questions [Salt Lake City: Deseret
Book, 1998], 147)
