Saturday, July 25, 2020

Joseph Fielding McConkie vs. the claim D&C 84:22 refers to the Priesthood being Needed to See God the Father

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)