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Heavenly Father Has Always Made Covenants with His Children

Heavenly Father has made covenants with his children here on earth since the world was created. We have never been left to wonder or stumble in this life. Heavenly Father uses covenants to let us know His expectations as well as our potential.

We know exactly what we should do here on earth, what he wants us to do and why.

His system of having us make gradual promises, as we keep them and get stronger and more spiritually disciplined, is the perfect system for us to progress.

What is the Abrahamic Covenant?

Heavenly Father makes covenants with individuals, as well as groups of people. The Abrahamic covenant is one of these. Heavenly Father made promises to Abraham and his posterity, if Abraham remained worthy. We know Abraham was righteous and that the Abrahamic Covenant is still in force.

Some of what Abraham was promised:

• He would father numerous descendants.
• All his descendents would be entitled to receive the gospel, priesthood power and authority, all the ordinances necessary for exaltation.
• Through the power and authority of the priesthood, his descendants would take the gospel to all the other inhabitants of the earth.
• Through his descendants, everyone on the earth would be blessed.

Abraham was also promised that all generations of his descendants would receive the covenant, if they remained righteous.

What are Our Responsibilities Under the Abrahamic Covenant?

Since Heavenly Father does not restrict the covenant to Abraham's literal descendants, we can all be adopted into Abraham's covenant, as well as his family, by choosing to make and keep our covenants and be joined to His restored church on this earth.

This means we will all receive the blessings of Abraham's covenant, provided we remain individually worthy.

Since Heavenly Father has restored His gospel to the earth, to reap the blessings of the Abrahamic covenant we need to make and keep all required covenants, do our best to live the gospel ourselves and preach the gospel to others.

Heavenly Father has restored the fulness of the gospel, priesthood authority and power, as well as all the ordinances necessary for exaltation, since they are the temple ordinances. Obviously, he has kept His promises, we need to keep ours.

What is the New and Everlasting Covenant?

The new and everlasting covenant is the fulness of the gospel. This means that all the commandments are available to us, all the priesthood authority and power is available to us and all the temple ordinances are available to us.

These components are not new, per se, but they are new to us because they were lost for a time. Heavenly Father has revealed everything to his children on earth and made all the covenants and ordinances available to them at various points in time. However, some or all of these truths are lost when people become unrighteous.

When people repent and demonstrate their righteousness, he reveals these truths again, as He did with Joseph Smith and His subsequent prophets.

What are Our Responsibilities Under the New and Everlasting Covenant?

At one point, the world was so bereft of spiritual knowledge and instruction that only fragments remained and only a few had access to those fragments.

No more! All Heavenly Father's instruction and commandments are available. All ordinances have been revealed and the means exist for us to perform them. In other words, we have all the spiritual knowledge and tools we need.

Obviously, it is our responsibility to make use of them and help others make use of them.

Church Record Keeping Revolves Around Covenant Keeping

The records and information we record and keep are not really used for statistical purposes. Heavenly Father has commanded us to keep records. The records are records of our making and keeping covenants. Records concerning covenant making and keeping are recorded in Heaven as well.

We keep records of baptism and whether or not someone has received the gift of the Holy Ghost. We keep records of who pays tithing, who makes covenants in the temple and what those covenants are.

Record keeping in the Church is also driven by the fact that out of the books we will be judged. These records that we are making will be used in the final judgment of our lives.

Our record keeping will obviously differ from other religions for these reasons. And, our record keeping may not satisfy our critics or their desires for church financial transparency, because they do not understand our reasons for record keeping.

How Should Knowing All This Change My Life?

We should study and understand all the covenants we make or are a party to.

We should keep all the covenants we make.

We should try and fulfill our responsibilities under all the covenants.

We should make Heavenly Father's judgment of our efforts our concern, not the judgment of other people.

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