Obedience. The necessity to keep the commandments of God. Many LDS leaders have commented on this issue and how vital it is if a person hopes to attain the Celestial Kingdom. According to D&C 25:15 says, “Keep my commandments continually. … And except thou do this, where I am you cannot come.” D&C 130:21 addes, “There is a law, irrevocably decreed in heaven before the foundations of this world, upon which all blessings are predicated— And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated.” Quotes from leaders include:
- 9th President David O. McKay: “FAITH, GRACE, AND WORKS. The fallacy that Jesus has done all for us, and live as we may, if on our deathbed, we only believe, we shall be saved in his glorious presence, is most pernicious. Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, has given us the means whereby man may obtain eternal happiness and peace in the kingdom of our Father, but man must work out his own salvation through obedience to the eternal principles and ordinances of the gospel. For centuries men have been blinded by the false teaching of ‘belief alone sufficient’; and today there is manifest on every hand the sorry plight into which this and other perverse doctrines have thrown the pseudo-Christian sects. The world is in sore need at the present time of the gospel of individual effort—the gospel of faith and works. He who will not grasp this means provided him, will sink beneath the waves of sin and falsehood” (Gospel Ideals, p. 8).
- Apostle Bruce R. McConkie: “To the saints his everlasting counsel is: Obey, obey, obey; keep the commandments; earn the attributes of godliness-and then, and then only, cometh salvation!” (Doctrinal New Testament Commentary 3:124).
- Apostle L. Tom Perry: “God’s eternal blessings are contingent upon our obedience and adherence to the word of the Lord that is revealed to us through His holy prophets” (“We believe all that God has revealed,” Ensign (Conference Edition), November 2003, p. 88).
- Church manual True to the Faith: “One reason you are here on earth is to show your willingness to obey Heavenly Father’s commandments” (p. 108).
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