Thursday, February 18, 2010

Lineage -- It's about Families

Earlier today, I was reading a blog post here. The author begins with referencing a quote in the Old Testament Sunday School manual and then a passage in the new Gospel Principles manual regarding the concept of lineage. Reading through the post and the subsequent comments, it appears that this really opened up a can of worms. Rather than tack on yet another comment onto that same page, I decided to post my views here.

Personally, I find the concept of lineage to be among the most powerful and beautiful doctrines of the restored gospel. Even with all the glory and power of the higher law as taught by the Savior, the fact remains that the Lord made a covenant with Abraham about his family. "And I will show unto them that fight against my word and against my people, who are of the house of Israel, that I am God, and that I covenanted with Abraham that I would remember his seed forever." (2 Nephi 29:14) What a promise! I still just feel chills every time I read that! As a father, I can really think of nothing that I would want more than to have this promise from the Lord -- that He would watch out for my children, and their children, and their children's children forever! Wow!

Many people have argued that the amount of DNA or genetic material that one would inherit from an ancestor living however many thousand years ago is essentially nil. I'm not arguing this, but that argument seems to me about as relevant as saying "Well, you must understand that this has nothing to do with his literal descendants because we don't even know what hair color Abraham had, so you can't say you have the same hair color." What does hair color, or DNA, or anything of that sort have to do with families?!?!?!? The Lord did NOT promise to Abraham anything in relation to "those who inherit your genetic material" or "those of your descendants who inherit X percent of their genes from you." He promised that He would remember Abraham's seed -- his children. It doesn't matter what genetics they have. What matters is that this is Abraham's family.

In Genesis 17:1-9, Abraham had received an amazing series of promises from the Lord. Surely, as Lehi felt after eating of the fruit of the tree in his vision, and as any righteous father would feel, he must have wanted his family (all of them) to receive these blessings as well, and even worried for their well-being, physically and spiritually. This makes the promises that follow all the more powerful:

  • "I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee" (Genesis 17:6)

    • i.e. You're going to have a lot of descendants.

  • "I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant" (Genesis 17:7)

    • i.e. I will covenant with your descendants just like I've covenanted with you -- giving them the same opportunities for the same blessings I've given you.

  • "thou shalt be a blessing unto thy seed after thee, that in their hands they shall bear this ministry and Priesthood unto all nations" (Abraham 2:9)

    • i.e. I will bless your posterity with the opportunity of holding the priesthood, doing missionary work, and carrying these blessings to all nations.

  • "I will bless them through thy name; for as many as receive this Gospel shall be called after thy name, and shall be accounted thy seed, and shall rise up and bless thee, as their father" (Abraham 2:10)

    • i.e. I'm not only going to bless you with a numerous physical posterity (i.e. seed of the body), but I'm also going to bless you to have numerous adopted posterity -- specifically, every man, woman and child who ever accepts the gospel will be counted as your posterity and will count you as their father. (As we can see from other accounts, this adopted lineage is every bit as good as the physical one (if not more so, since the most important blessings promised are really available only to those who receive the gospel).)

  • "in thee (that is, in thy Priesthood) and in thy seed (that is, thy Priesthood), for I give unto thee a promise that this right shall continue in thee, and in thy seed after thee (that is to say, the literal seed, or the seed of the body) shall all the families of the earth be blessed, even with the blessings of the Gospel, which are the blessings of salvation, even of life eternal." (Abraham 2:11)

    • Several parts: "in thee (that is, in thy Priesthood) ... shall all the families of the earth be blessed ..." (Abraham 2:11) -- You, through your Priesthood will be a blessing to all the families of the earth.
    • "... and in thy seed (that is, thy Priesthood), for I give unto thee a promise that this right shall continue in thee" (Abraham 2:11) -- The right to the priesthood will continue in you and your seed (again, of both types). Your seed (physical and adopted) will continue and will not die out. (Perhaps I'm inserting a bit of my own interpretation in this last sentence, but I imagine that this was something that Abraham must have worried about from time to time. I'm sure he had seen entire families wiped out -- people he knew who once had a large family, suddenly left without any posterity. This would have been somewhat common in his day. For the Lord to say that his seed would have the right to the priesthood, Abraham could well have wondered if his seed would eventually die out, and this right with them. Such a promise from the Lord would have surely been a wonderful comfort to anyone feeling such worries.)
    • "in thy seed (that is, thy Priesthood) ... shall all the families of the earth be blessed ..." (Abraham 2:11) -- Your seed, through your Priesthood will be a blessing to all the families of the earth. (This appears to most specifically apply to the adopted seed and those who specifically accept the gospel and receive the blessings of the priesthood.)
    • "in thy seed after thee (that is to say, the literal seed, or the seed of the body) shall all the families of the earth be blessed" (Abraham 2:11) -- Your seed, your physical seed of your body will be a blessing to all the families of the earth. This is an amazing promise that Abraham's physical children would be a blessing to the earth. This is obviously contingent upon their agency, but it is impressive that the Lord would grant this blessing to Abraham's seed, specifically separated from whether or not they ever accept the gospel and receive the priesthood. (Again, perhaps I'm inserting my own reading into this, but that's how I see it.)
    • "... shall all the families of the earth be blessed, even with the blessings of the Gospel, which are the blessings of salvation, even of life eternal." (Abraham 2:11) -- You and your seed, of all types will be a blessing to all the families of the earth, specifically blessing them with the blessings of salvation and eternal life. i.e. The good that you and your children will do will have eternal effects.


These are truly amazing blessings for any righteous father. No wonder Abraham's reaction was "Thy servant has sought thee earnestly; now I have found thee." (Abraham 2:12) Abraham must have been awe struck by the overwhelming magnitude of benevolence and grace that the Lord had showed him. Truly, the Lord blesses parents who seek Him. (See Hymns 296:1)

This approach also seems to me to show the irrelevance another point: "Statistically, just about everyone on earth is already a physical descendant of Abraham. So, why is being Abraham's seed at all special?" The fact that most likely everyone now living already is a physical descendant of Abraham just makes these promises that much more important. In day to day life, we are used to items increasing value with scarcity. Diamonds and gold are expensive and valued because they are rare. A few hundred years ago, technological conditions made pure aluminum extremely rare. As such, it was highly valued. These days, due to much more efficient ways of refining aluminum, it is much more common and thus much more cheaply valued (to the extent that we wrap leftovers in it, and then toss it away (or hopefully recycle it) without a second thought). Things of real worth, however, are exactly the opposite. Which is more valuable, the Bible in the hands of only a few priests and scholars, or the Bible such that every man, woman and child can have access to it, read it, and understand what it says? Isn't it true that the real value of my Book of Mormon increases, rather than decreases, when I share a copy with someone who doesn't have it? Aren't the blessings of the temple that much more precious when we bring them to the whole world? The point that basically everyone already is a descendant of Abraham just makes these promises that much more important and special.

Part II -- What this means to me. I've talked a lot about what lineage must have meant to Abraham. However, I also feel that this knowledge should have direct bearing on us, today. We honestly don't deal with lineage very much any more in a day to day setting. I currently live several thousand miles away from my parents, so no one here can identify me as "so-and-so's son" or anything like that. These days, we are much more likely to identify someone by the person themselves rather than by their families. This has pros and cons. On the positive side, people are responsible for their own actions. They don't have to carry about the stigma from some family member who made some bad choices. On the negative side, we tend to lose our sense of belonging.

In 1 Nephi, when Lehi sends his sons back to Jerusalem to get the plates, he makes the point several times that not only did the plates contain the scriptures, they contained the genealogy of his fathers. Apparently this was something very important to Lehi. Lehi already knew the covenants. He knew that he was in good standing before the Lord. He knew he was a descendant of Abraham, and what that meant. I'm sure he even knew he was a Manasseh-ite. Why did he care so much about his genealogy? Why are ancient scriptures so saturated with lists of ancestors as to lead us to joke about "endless genealogies"? Why is it that when King Mosiah I first encountered Zarahemla that one of the first things he did to identify himself was to give his genealogy by memory (see Omni 1:18)? Our genealogy gives us a sense of belonging, identity, duty, purpose, and testimony.

We are not just individuals. We are members of a family. Our earthly families are a type and reflection of our Heavenly Family. My identity is very much tied in with who my family members are. They give my life identity and purpose.

We also hold a duty and a responsibility to our families, both living and dead. The Lord has made it very clear that "they without us cannot be made perfect—neither can we without our dead be made perfect." (Doctrine and Covenants 128:15) We must seek to have our families sealed together -- not just our immediate families, but our entire families. We are all in this together. We hold a responsibility to our families. As in President George Albert Smith's dream, we owe it to our ancestors to think about "what [we] have done with [their] name[s]." They lived and died to give us what we have. We owe it to them to do our best with the families they gave us. The Abrahamic covenant also gives us the responsibility to bring the gospel to all the world. The Lord promised Abraham that this would be the case, and it is our job to make sure it happens. Abraham's seed (by some accounts this would include everyone on the earth) has a right to the priesthood. (This is, of course, contingent on their worthiness and faith.) It is our job to fulfill that right by bringing the opportunity for such to all of them. We also have specific and personal duties from our lineage as declared in our patriarchal blessings. It is not coincidental that a blessing meant to provide direction and guidance for us in our lives would be the place where the Lord would chose to declare our lineage.

Our genealogy also gives us a sense of testimony. The Lord promised Abraham that "[He] would remember his seed forever." (2 Nephi 29:14) Our family histories -- our lineage -- give us a chance to see that promise fulfilled with our own families. This is not to say that if our line appears forgotten that we must not be children or Abraham, or that the Lord has not kept His promise. We should instead take it as an opportunity to look harder and see how, not if the Lord has kept His promises. I know He has and does.

Finally, the fact that I have a declared lineage relating me to Abraham is a testimony that the Lord, somehow, can possibly see fit to covenant with someone like me, as unworthy as I am, and with my family, just like he did to my father, Abraham. I know that He does covenant with me, and with my children, just like He did with Abraham. It doesn't so much matter to me whether I am a physical or adopted son, because I know I am a child of Abraham, and as such, can be an heir to my father's covenant. This is the amazing blessing I am seeking for, "desiring ... to be a greater follower of righteousness..." and to know that I can "[seek] for the blessings of the fathers" (Abraham 1:2) as Abraham did, and he surely found them (see Abraham 2:12).