Eternal Family

In The Priesthood Power of Women, the eternal family is the end toward which everything else is organized. The book frames the Church itself as instrumental to it: M. Russell Ballard is quoted that the Church’s proclaiming and administering of ordinances “is really just the scaffolding being used in an infinite and eternal construction project to build, support, and strengthen the family” — scaffolding that “will eventually fade as the eternal family comes fully into view,” while “we will never be released from our eternal callings within the family.”

The book ties the eternal family to the patriarchal order of the priesthood. A husband and wife “sealed together in the temple” enter “the patriarchal order of the priesthood (the new and everlasting covenant of marriage),” each “a contributing partner in the creation of an eternal family, as coequals, without one being the boss over the other.” Ezra Taft Benson is quoted defining that order as “family government where a man and woman enter into a covenant with God — just as did Adam and Eve — to be sealed for eternity, to have posterity.” The argument throughout is that this familial, patriarchal structure (distinct from the hierarchical Church structure) is the temple-centered one in which both men and women exercise priesthood power.

Context: In Latter-day Saint (LDS / Mormon) theology, the “eternal family” is the doctrine that families sealed by temple ordinance can continue beyond death into the eternities — central to the faith’s emphasis on temple marriage and family history work.

Where this appears

• The Priesthood Power of Women — frames the Church as “scaffolding” for the eternal family and organizes the patriarchal order and temple sealing around it.