beefcalf wrote:GR33N wrote:Thanks for clarifying. When I read this quote it doesn't appear to contradict to me. It does make it clear that the child might actually lose his place with his eternal family if the parents do not develop a love in the home based upon gospel principles taught in the family home evening manual.
The reason there is a contradiction is this: Smith and Young both stated in their respective quotes that if the parents are sealed, there is an unconditional guarantee that the children will be saved:Joseph Smith, Jr. wrote:“When a seal is put upon the father and mother, it secures their posterity, so that they cannot be lost, but will be saved by virtue of the covenant of their father and mother”
Please take careful note that there is no mention of any requirements on the part of the child, his behavior or beliefs.
Young made the unconditional nature explicit:Brigham Young wrote:...I care not where those children go, they are bound up to their parents by an everlasting tie, and no power of earth or hell can separate them from their parents in eternity...
Now... fast forward 100 years...
The church has now forsaken these clear proclamations. If you grew up in the same LDS church I grew up in, you will know right off the bat that there is nothing a parent can do to unconditionally secure the exaltation of their children. It is up to the children to keep to the strait and narrow path and hold fast to the iron rod.
This is quite similar to the contradiction where some LDS apostles claim Christ's love for his children is "unconditional" and other LDS apostles who claim that, yup, Christ's love is, in fact, conditional upon you not sinning. (A curious side-note to this observation is that an LDS apostle who taught that Jesus' love is 'conditional' denounces as 'anti-Christs' those who teach that Jesus' love is 'unconditional', apparently to include other LDS apostles.)
I didn't leave the church for this precise reason, but it makes it clear in my mind why my decision to separate myself from these ongoing contradictions was the correct one.
We may want to consider what it is that the children are being saved from. It appears to me that these quotes are referring to being saved in the eternities. It does not mean that the child will be saved from suffering for some period of time for sins not repented for. Which indicates that some who are not repentant and not sealed to faithful parents may go on suffering in the eternities. Now what that 'suffering' is can be disputed but doesn't apply to the clarification of the concept of being saved in the eternities.