The following comes from Loren Blake Spendlove, "Mine House is a House of Zion and not a House of Babylon!" Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship 48 (2021): 314-18:
A House of Order
It is apparent
from the scriptures that order is
important to God. Reflective of Paul’s teaching to the Saints in Corinth to
“let all things be done decently and in order” (1 Corinthians 14:40),
the Lord repeatedly instructed the Saints that all church matters were to “be done in order” (see D&C 20:68, 28:13, 58:55).
Twice in the Doctrine and Covenants we find the following counsel:
Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish
a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house
of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God. (D&C
88:119 and 109:8)
Paralleling this message, the Lord also instructed
the church to “set in order the churches”
(D&C 90:15) and to “set in order all
the affairs of this church and kingdom” (D&C 90:16). If the message was not
yet clear, the Lord also stated that “mine house is a house of order” (D&C 132:18).
We also encounter this message of order within the church in the
Book of Mormon. We are told that Alma2 ordained
priests and elders in the church in Zarahemla “according to the order of God, to preside and watch over the church”
(Alma 6:1). While this “order” could be a reference to the
“priesthood of the holy order of God” (Alma 13:6), based on its context it
may refer to a general sense of orderliness within the church itself.2 In verse 4, we read, “And thus they began to establish the order of the church in
the city of Zarahemla” (Alma 6:4).3 In this
passage, the phrase “the order of the church” likely applies to orderliness
within the organization and operation of the church. We know that soon after
Alma1’s arrival in the land of Zarahemla, “king Mosiah
granted unto Alma that he might establish churches throughout all the land of
Zarahemla; and gave him power to ordain priests and teachers over every church”
(Mosiah 25:19). Since priesthood authority was fundamental to the proper
operation of the church in Zarahemla, we cannot infer that “the order” that
Alma2 “began to establish” represented the
implementation of a new or different “order” of the priesthood within
the church. Rather, it appears from context that the “order” that Alma2 “began to establish” was greater orderliness
within the church that most likely resulted from improved organizational
structure and doctrinal understanding. Along the same vein, Elder
Hyrum G. Smith related the following in a General Conference
talk:
We have in the Church a number of men who have
been called and ordained to administer blessings unto the people, blessings of
comfort, blessings of prophecy, when they are directed so to do. These men are
given an office in the priesthood, and just because they have this office, it
does not mean that they can bless everywhere and everybody, but, like the
bishops, elders, and other officers in the priesthood, they are given their
particular field of labor. So we would have the Latter-day Saints understand
that in the Church, which is a part of the kingdom of God, there is order, and the officers of the priesthood are
the men who should establish and maintain this order
in the Church, that the work of the Lord may go on with his
blessings upon it. There are a number of members of the Church who go
about from place to place, from one ward and from one stake to another, seeking
their blessings, which may be permissible if done in strict accordance
with the established order of the Church; otherwise they
are out of order.”4
Just as Alma2 established
“the order of the church in the city of Zarahemla,” Elder Smith explained
that “the officers of the priesthood” have a responsibility to “establish
and maintain this order in the Church” today. After preaching and working with
the church in Zarahemla, Alma2 moved on to
the land of Gideon. Mormon informs us that while in the land of Gideon, Alma2 “established the order of the
church, according as he had before done in the land of Zarahemla”
(Alma 8:1). Later, as Elder Smith would no doubt approve, we are told
that “Helaman and the high priests did also maintain order in the church”
(Alma 46:38).
President Boyd K. Packer wrote the
following regarding the interrelatedness of the words ordinance and ordain and how
they are associated with the principle of order, especially in
the house of the Lord:
The word ordinance means,
“a religious or ceremonial observance”; “an established rite.” The Oxford English Dictionary (Oxford, England, 1970)
gives as the first definition of the word order, “arrangement
in ranks or rows,” and as the second definition, “arrangement in sequence or
proper relative position.” At first glance that may not strike a person as
having much religious significance, but indeed it has.
Among the ordinances we perform in the Church are
these: baptism, sacrament, naming and blessing of infants, administering to the
sick, setting apart to callings in the Church, ordaining to offices. In
addition there are higher ordinances, performed in the temples. These include
washings, anointings, the endowment, and the sealing ordinance, spoken of
generally as temple marriage. The word ordinance comes
from the word order, which means, “a rank,
a row, a series.” The word order appears
frequently in the scriptures. Some examples are: “… established the order of the Church” (Alma 8:1); “… all
things should be restored to their proper order”
(Alma 41:2); “… all things may be done in order”
(D&C 20:68); “mine house is a house of order”
(D&C 132:8). Mormon even defined depravity as being “without order” (Moroni 9:18).
The word ordain, a close
relative to the other two words, has, as its first definition, “to put in
order, arrange, make ready, prepare”; also, “to appoint or admit to the
ministry of the Christian church… by the laying on of hands or other symbolic
action.” From all of this dictionary work there comes the impression that an
ordinance, to be valid, must be done in proper order.5
In addition to the etymological connection, order and ordinances are
also linked in a cause-and-effect relationship: faithful participation in
ordinances helps create order in our lives. President Packer added that an
ordinance is “the ceremony by which things are put in proper order,”6 with the accompanying counsel to “make
sure, in other words, that valid ordinances become a part of your
life; that everything in this regard, for you, is in proper order.”7
Orson Pratt explained that the New Jerusalem, the
latter-day Zion, is to be built differently from other cities on this earth.
Rather than decaying and wasting away, the Lord will protect, preserve, and
sanctify latter-day Zion to prepare it to join a higher, “perfect order”:
It is intended that it will be taken up to heaven,
when the earth passes away. It is intended to be one of those choice and holy
places, where the Lord will dwell, when he shall visit from time to time, in
the midst of the great latter-day Zion, after it shall be connected with the
city of Enoch. That then is the difference.
The Lord our God will command his servants to build
that Temple, in the most perfect order,
differing very much from the Temples that are now being built. You are engaged
in building Temples after a certain order, approximating only to a celestial order; you are doing
this in Salt Lake City. One already has been erected in St. George, after
a pattern in part, of a celestial order. But
by and bye [sic], when we build a Temple that is never to be destroyed, it
will be constructed, after the most perfect order of the celestial
worlds. And when God shall take it up into heaven it will be found
to be just as perfect as the cities of more ancient, celestial worlds which
have been made pure and holy and immortal. So it will be with other Temples.8
Notes for the
Above
2. With respect to “the order of God,” John Taylor
taught, “The principle of ‘heirship,’ which President Young preached about
today, is a principle that is founded on eternal justice, equity, and
truth. It is a principle that emanated from God. As was said by some of
our brethren this morning, there may be circumstances arise in this world to
pervert for a season the order of God, to change the designs of the Most High, apparently, for the time
being, yet they will ultimately roll back into their proper place — justice
will have its place, and so will mercy, and every man and woman will yet stand
in their true position before God.” Journal of Discourses, 1:222 (emphasis added).
3. President Joseph F. Smith related the
following: “I want to say to this congregation, and to the world, that
never at any time since my presidency in the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints have I authorized any man to perform plural marriage,
and never since my presidency of the Church has any plural marriage been
performed with my sanction or knowledge, or with the consent of the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; and therefore such unions as have been
formed unlawfully, contrary to the order of the Church, are null and void in the
sight of God, and are not marriages. I hope you will put this down in your
note-book of remembrance, and bear it in mind henceforth.”
Joseph F. Smith, in Conference Report, 21 (emphasis added), https://archive.org/details/conferencereport1918sa/page/20/mode/2up.
4. Elder Hyrum G. Smith, in Conference
Report, October 1918, 71–72 (emphasis added), https://archive.org/details/conferencereport1918sa/page/72/mode/2up.
5. Boyd K. Packer, The Holy Temple (Salt Lake City: Deseret
Book, 1980), 155–56 (emphasis in original).
6. Ibid., 156.
7. Ibid., 157.
8. Orson Pratt, in Journal of Discourses, 21:153 (emphasis added).
