Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Part 4 - Covenants - Melchizedek

God's Covenant with Melchizedek

  • Melchizedek also received the same Covenant that Enoch (and Noah) received. 
  • Was ordained a high priest after the order of the covenant of Enoch. [1]
  • This Order is delivered directly by God's own voice and is available to all [2]
  • Was given the Sealing Power [3]
  • The Order of this Covenant involves translation [4]
  • Was received into Zion [5]
  • Received a New Name (Shem -> Melchizedek)

Denver Snuffer – Lecture 4, Centerville
The next time we have an event on the earth in which a people of righteousness are taught and gathered, it will not be for the purpose of going up to heaven. Instead it will be for the purpose of permitting those who have gone up before with Enoch and Melchizedek to come back down. It will be for the purpose of preparing those who can endure the presence of those who will come. Because those who come, as Moroni put it, will burn up all who are unworthy, leaving them neither root nor branch. Therefore, some few need to be gathered, so that the earth is not utterly wasted at His coming.

What is important is that the great events of Melchizedek’s time began when people humbled themselves and accepted the teachings of this “high priesthood” holder and were, thereby, saved.  Not only saved but also led into a fellowship which eventually turned into a City of Peace, or City of Salem, or Jerusalem, which was taken into heaven.
This prototype was so influential in the thinking of all who followed, that the high priesthood was named after Melchizedek. Even though he held Patriarchal Priesthood with its associated sealing power, he was the one after whom Melchizedek Priesthood was named in the form it was later transmitted which lacked sealing authority.  (Again, another topic.)
What is important in this verse is the connection between the existence of the one holding this authority (Melchizedek), and a humble people who would accept and follow those teachings.  The result of the combination of the two was that God came and dwelt among them.
D&C 76:54-60
54 They are they who are the church of the Firstborn.
55 They are they into whose hands the Father has given all things—
56 They are they who are priests and kings, who have received of his fulness, and of his glory;
57 And are priests of the Most High, after the order of Melchizedek, which was after the order of Enoch, which was after the order of the Only Begotten Son.
58 Wherefore, as it is written, they are gods, even the sons of God—
59 Wherefore, all things are theirs, whether life or death, or things present, or things to come, all are theirs and they are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.
60 And they shall overcome all things.


[1] he was ordained an high priest after the order of the covenant which God made with Enoch - JST Genesis 14:27
[2] It being after the order of the Son of God; which order came, not by man, nor the will of man; neither by father nor mother; neither by beginning of days nor end of years; but of God; And it was delivered unto men by the calling of his own voice, according to his own will, unto as many as believed on his name. - JST Genesis 14:28-29
[3] every one being ordained after this order and calling should have power, by faith, to break mountains, to divide the seas, to dry up waters, to turn them out of their course; To put at defiance the armies of nations, to divide the earth, to break every band, to stand in the presence of God; to do all things according to his will, according to his command, subdue principalities and powers; and this by the will of the Son of God which was from before the foundation of the world. - JST Genesis 14:30-31
[4] men having this faith, coming up unto this order of God, were translated and taken up into heaven. - JST Genesis 14:32
[5] And his people wrought righteousness, and obtained heaven, and sought for the city of Enoch which God had before taken, separating it from the earth, having reserved it unto the latter days, or the end of the world; And hath said, and sworn with an oath, that the heavens and the earth should come together; and the sons of God should be tried so as by fire.  And this Melchizedek, having thus established righteousness, was called the king of heaven by his people, or, in other words, the King of peace. - JST Genesis 14:34-36

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