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The Family Proclamation

Is ‘The Family: A Proclamation to the World’ a political tract, or a prophetic restatement of creation, marriage, and the plan of salvation?

Bible

The Bible answers

Bible · Genesis 1:27–28

KJV + NRSVUE

King James Version

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it.

NRSVUE

So God created humans in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.”

Our explanation

Image, male and female, multiply. The proclamation is Genesis on one page.

Bible · Ephesians 5:25, 31

KJV + NRSVUE

King James Version

Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it. … For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.

NRSVUE

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. … “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”

Our explanation

Husbands, love your wives. The two shall be one flesh.

Modern Revelation

The Family: A Proclamation to the World

All human beings—male and female—are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny. Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose.

Our explanation

Gender, marriage, and the duty to children — published on purpose.

Doctrine and Covenants 49:15–16

And again, verily I say unto you, that whoso forbiddeth to marry is not ordained of God, for marriage is ordained of God unto man. Wherefore, it is lawful that he should have one wife, and they twain shall be one flesh, and all this that the earth might answer the end of its creation.

Ancient witnesses

Dead Sea Scrolls and related extra-biblical texts that illuminate the same pattern the Restoration restores.

Damascus Document (CD) 4.20–5.2

The builders of the wall who have followed after Precept—‘Precept’ is a spouter of whom it is said, ‘they shall surely spout’—they are caught in two: fornication, by taking two wives in their lives, whereas the foundation of creation is ‘male and female created he them.’

A Second Temple community already argued from Genesis 1:27 as ‘the foundation of creation.’ The Family Proclamation is not a late American invention. It is the same creational grammar the Savior used in Matthew 19.

Faithful answers

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

The Family: A Proclamation to the World

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

The Proclamation is prophetic teaching, not a think-tank memo. It names heavenly parents, the eternal nature of gender, the duty of fathers and mothers, the calamity that follows the disintegration of the family, and the call for responsible citizens and officers of government to protect the family. Saints who treat it as optional have not read who signed it. Saints who wield it as a weapon against strugglers have not read the sentences about love and righteousness.

We warn that the disintegration of the family will bring upon individuals, communities, and nations the calamities foretold by ancient and modern prophets.

  • Male and female, marriage, and fruitfulness are creation texts, not 1990s culture.
  • Disability, barrenness, and unmarried discipleship are not failures of the plan; they are mortal conditions held by the Atonement.
  • The Proclamation binds the Church’s teaching on marriage. It also binds the Saints to rear children in love.
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The Interpreter Foundation

The Family Proclamation and scripture

The Interpreter Foundation

Read beside Genesis, Matthew 19, Ephesians 5, and D&C 49, the Proclamation is a summary, not a novelty. Critics who date it by the decade of its issuance are practicing chronology as theology. The document’s authority is the keys of the apostles who issued it and the canon it restates.

A proclamation from the First Presidency and the Twelve is not waiting for a vote of the age.

  • Gender as eternal identity is consistent with premortal spirit children and with embodiment in the resurrection.
  • The call to public protection of the family is civic, not partisan.
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Further reading

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