President Packer: 'Protect nestlings,' family is focus
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PROVO, UTAH
"If this story of birds and serpents is an unpleasant way to begin a sermon and makes us uncomfortable, it was meant to do just that," said President Packer, president of the Quorum of the Twelve.
"We will not always be safe from the adversary's influence, even within our own homes. We need to protect our nestlings. In order to do that, we must first acknowledge that Satan, the devil, lives and what his purposes are and what his intentions will be and what our defenses should be."
He said Satan was lying in wait — no doubt hoping to forestall the Restoration — when Joseph Smith entered the Sacred Grove, and that the adversary was "'an actual being from the unseen world, who had such marvelous power as [Joseph] had never felt in any being'" (Joseph Smith-History 1:16).
"We live in a very dangerous world that threatens those things which are spiritual," President Packer warned, saying that they family, the most fundamental organization of the Church, is under attack from forces seen and unseen.
"The adversary is about," he declared. "His objective is to cause injury to the family. If he can weaken or destroy the family, he will have succeeded."
He said that Paul's warning to Timothy perfectly describes what is going on in the world now — of perilous times in the last days, when "men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, [w]ithout natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, [t]raitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; [h]aving a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof."
Paul admonished Timothy: "from such turn away. [F]or of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth" (2 Timothy 3:1-7).
President Packer said, "These verses serve as a warning, showing us the patterns to avoid. We must be ever watchful, ever diligent.
"But Paul also gave us the key to our protection. Speaking in the same chapter, he identified healing power in this small phrase: 'From a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus'?" (2 Timothy 3:15).
President Packer added, "Much has been done to prepare the Church and its members to resist the forces of evil. We live in a day of revealed direction. I have been a witness as a General Authority to changes that were revealed from time to time in order that the Lord might better bless and edify His children."
By way of example, he spoke of the Seventies, which for a period of time included seven Presidents of the Seventy in the First Council of Seventy and other seventies in stakes. Today, there are eight Quorums of the Seventy with 85 General Authority Seventies and 218 Area Seventies. Each, he explained, has had conferred upon him the apostolic authority. The Seventies role, he said, is to instruct and edify leaders and members of the Church, to build up and strengthen fathers and mothers in their sacred role as parents and leaders in the home, including single mothers who need and deserve His watch care.
He quoted Joseph Smith: " 'Satan cannot seduce us by his enticements unless we in our hearts consent and yield. Our organization is such that we can resist the devil; if we were not organized so, we would not be free agents' " (Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith, 213).
President Packer explained, "The agency defined in the scriptures is 'moral agency,' which means that we can choose between good and evil. … We are free to choose our actions, our responses to life's events and challenges, but we are not free to choose the consequences of our actions," he said.
"I must say something about tolerance," President Packer continued. "Tolerance is a virtue, but, like all virtues, when exaggerated it can transform itself into a vice. The permissiveness afforded by the weakening of the laws of the land to tolerate acts of immorality does not reduce the serious spiritual consequences that result from the violation of God's law of chastity."
President Packer quoted Ether 8:24, 26, in which Moroni declared he was commanded to "write these things that evil may be done away, and that the time may come that Satan may have no power upon the hearts of the children of men. …"
"Do we need any more evidence to understand that we are at war with the adversary?" President Packer asked. "The revelations teach us how to win this spiritual war, that the Lord has given 'a pattern in all things, that ye may not be deceived; for Satan is abroad in the land, and he goes forth deceiving the nations — Wherefore he that prayeth, whose spirit is contrite, the same is accepted of me if he obey mine ordinances' " (Doctrine and Covenants 52:14-15).
President Packer spoke of the Church's efforts to strengthen families. In 1915, the First Presidency encouraged family home evening; the Church produced a manual in 1965 and in 1970 all auxiliaries and agencies of the Church were instructed to set aside Monday for family home evening. He said that family home evening accommodates mothers and fathers in fortifying the home with their combined testimonies, "and the single mother is never far from His watch care." Family home evening is not just an ordinary, routine program of the Church."
He said the document, "The Family: A Proclamation to the World," was issued by the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve in 1995.
"The hope is that Latter-day Saints will recognize the transcendent importance of the family and live in such a spiritually attentive way that the adversary cannot steal into the home and carry away the children, like the serpent did of those nestling finches," President Packer said.
"Our homes are most vulnerable; therefore, the consummate power of the priesthood has been given to protect the home and its inhabitants. ...
" 'The great plan of happiness' (Alma 42:8) provides that an ordinary member can be extraordinary just 'by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the Gospel' (Articles of Faith 1:3). We find safety and security for ourselves and our children by honoring the covenants we have made and living up to the ordinary acts of obedience required of the followers of Christ." — Gerry Avant
Click on the links below for additional education week stories:
Thursday is showering with positives
The Atonemet can heal what we can't
The Best Three Hours of the Week: Getting the Most from
Your Sunday Meetings
Practical Suggestions for Preparing a Spiritual Book of
Remembrance
