Covenants and Covenant Making

Volume Two—Chapter Three COVENANTS AND COVENANT MAKING

#What Is a Covenant?

A covenant is a two-way promise between two individuals. Each is bound to honor his agreement. Covenants may be classified as being either horizontal or vertical. A horizontal covenant is a promise or oath between two men. Vertical covenants are agreements or vows made between God and man. These latter covenants are the subject of this chapter. Elder Boyd K. Packer taught: “A covenant is a sacred promise, as used in the scriptures, a solemn enduring promise between God and man. The fulness of the gospel itself is defined as the New and Everlasting Covenant” (“Covenants,” Ensign, May 1987, 22-25).

God is the author of these covenants. He spells out the conditions. He asks us—commands us—to enter into these agreements to do specific things. He then specifies blessings he will provide when we live up to our part of the bargain. He never fails to honor his part.

Vertical covenants may also be classified as being individual—between God and a man—or collective—between God and a group of men such as those between God and the house of Israel or between God and the posterity of Lehi. Ultimately, every enduring covenant relationship depends on each individual’s commitment and obedience. They do not depend on the individual’s genealogy.

#Why Covenants?

I have often referred to the central, overriding motive of the Father and Son regarding each member of their human family. This motive appears to be the purpose of their being. It is what they yearn for. It is what they do. It is how they spend their time. They yearn to live with us forever (Moses 1:39). The requirements and necessary conditions of the mortal experience place specific restrictions on all members of the Godhead. To maintain the validity of the mortal test, the positive actions they may take to invite and encourage us to return home must be carefully constrained. Nonetheless, they do whatever they can to invite and enable each of us to return to their celestial presence.

The Father and Son know each of us intimately and perfectly. They know our characteristics, our tendencies, our strengths, our foibles, our quirks, our eccentricities, our humanness. They know how we are likely to respond to this mortal test. They also know what might be of most help for us to be successful here. Consequently, they have designed and involved us in a system of covenants. They understand perfectly the appropriateness, applicability, and potential benefits of such a system. We may regard covenants as their “technique” or “approach” for helping us reach our celestial home. In recognition of this system, the scriptures sometimes refer to the Lord’s people as a “covenant people” (see, for example, 1 Nephi 14:14; 15:14; 2 Nephi 6:13; 29:5; 30:2; Mormon 3:21; 8:21; D&C 42:36; JST Isaiah 49:25).

When the Lord has a people he acknowledges as his own, that people may be identified by his entering into covenants with them. In each dispensation, the making of eternal covenants has been God’s method of binding us to gospel principles essential to our spiritual progress and eventual exaltation.

There is evidence God has made covenants with his people even before the creation of the earth. Abraham 3:26, part of the account of the fourth great premortal council, reads: “And they who keep their first estate shall be added upon; and they who keep not their first estate shall not have glory in the same kingdom with those who keep their first estate; and they who keep their second estate shall have glory added upon their heads for ever and ever.” We entered into covenants with him to “keep” our first (premortal) and second (mortal and spirit world) estates.

Covenants have been important to the saints of dispensations past. They are equally important to us today in this final dispensation. As in times past, today we in the Church are said to be a “covenant people.” The Lord commands us today to enter into sacred, binding commitments and obligations with him.

#The Sequence of Covenants

It is clear the Lord employs a “strategy” to encourage us to enter into and keep our covenants. He commands us to begin with the most basic covenant. Once we begin to have a positive experience with this first one, our testimony, joy, and confidence begin to grow. He then nudges us into a sequence of ever-more binding, challenging, and sacred covenants. This sequence of covenants reflects the Divine hope that if we will keep the first covenant, we are more likely to keep the next, and the next, and so on until we are judged worthy of exaltation. When we become able to keep the highest covenants of his gospel, we qualify for exaltation. If we were in a position to “kid” with the Lord, we might accuse him of trying to “trick” us into living the gospel. Kidding aside, it is poignant to see evidence of his deliberate efforts to lead, encourage, and enable us to return to him.

The Lord’s sequential system of covenants begins with the baptismal covenant. The baptismal candidate promises to enter the fold of God, be called by his name, do the will of God, bear the burdens of their fellow sojourners (including “mourn with those that mourn”), and stand as witness of God (Jesus Christ) at all times and in all places.

Our obligation, then, to obey all of the Lord’s commandments is a covenant one. The “new and everlasting covenant” is the gospel of Jesus Christ. The doctrines and commandments of the gospel constitute the substance of an everlasting covenant between God and man that has been newly restored in our dispensation.

A person must enter the baptismal covenant with the proper attitudes of humility and repentance, and he must serve God to the end (2 Nephi 31:6-17; Moroni 6:2-4; D&C 20:37). In turn the Lord promises that those baptized will be redeemed, be numbered with those of the first resurrection, and have eternal life.

The recipients of virtually all ordinances administered in the Church enter into a covenant with the Lord as they participate in the ordinance. These include baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, weekly partaking of the sacrament, patriarchal blessings, father’s blessings, anointing and blessing of the sick, and ordination to the priesthood. Men receive the Melchizedek priesthood by entering into a specific and binding covenant, the so-called “oath and covenant of the priesthood” (D&C 84:33-42).

The sequence of covenant making reaches its zenith with those most sacred covenants we make in our temples. These include those included in the “endowment,” the new and everlasting covenant of marriage, and even having one’s calling and election made sure.

As we progress along this sequence, our obligations become increasingly serious and difficult to keep, and the Lord’s promises and blessings become greater and more far reaching.

#The Blessings of Keeping Covenants

It is characteristic of the Lord’s covenants with us, that he promises us vastly more than we promise him. When we enter into and keep covenants, in addition to specific promises of eventual eternal benefits, we may also receive an earthly endowment of power, knowledge, and protection. We are blessed and enabled by him here on earth. We may thus refer to the process of entering into the highest covenants as an “endowment” or gift.1

#The Renewing of Covenants

Because the Lord knows us intimately, he has added a practical and useful provision to his system of covenants. We may renew them. The covenant of baptism is renewed weekly as we partake of the sacrament. The sacrament ordinance offers us the opportunity to literally re-make or renew the covenants made at the time of our baptism.2

The temple ceremony makes no provision for the literal renewal of those covenants made during our first endowment session in the temple. However, we are encouraged to re-visit the temple often. I believe the Lord encourages this partly as an opportunity for us to be reminded of our sacred covenant obligations. Perhaps this reminder is tantamount to a renewal of those covenants.

#The Risk of Entering Into Covenants

One must be cautious in entering into covenants with the Lord. We must not enter into them lightly. They involve solemn obligations. There are unimaginable blessings, both here on earth and in the eternities, reserved for those who keep their covenants. There are also damning penalties or “cursings” awaiting those who break their covenants and do not repent.

As we progress in mortality through the sequence of available covenants, the potential blessings increase for those who keep them. Likewise the gravity of the penalty or punishment increases for those who do not.

Though we don’t usually speak of penalties associated with breaking the covenant of baptism, we may assume there are penalties assessed. A careful consideration of 1 Corinthians 11:27-29 suggests that if a man partakes of the sacrament unworthily he “eateth and drinketh damnation to himself.” And how does he partake of the sacrament unworthily? He does so without full intention of obeying the Lord’s commands. He violates his baptismal covenant.

Today, a special caution is given to every man about to receive the Melchizedek priesthood. This priesthood is received by entering into a covenant called the “oath and covenant of the priesthood.” In D&C 84, the Lord says: “Whoso breaketh this covenant after he hath received it, and altogether turneth therefrom, shall not have forgiveness of sins in this world nor in the world to come” (verse 41). It would have been better for him had he never made the covenant in the first place!

The ultimate covenant man may enter into here on earth would seem to be the blessing of having his calling and election made sure.3 The potential penalty for those who turn all together from this covenant is simply unimaginable. They have committed the unpardonable sin and are banished to live with Satan forever in outer darkness. In this case it would indeed have been better for them never to have been born (D&C 76:32)!

#God Is the Author of the Covenants

It is God, not man, who fixes the terms of the two-way promise. He is the author of the covenant and the guarantor of its terms. Angels function as witnesses. It is man’s role to accept or reject the terms of the covenant.

#Covenants in Old Testament Times

In Old Testament times, covenants were entered into with solemn ceremonies or rituals. In making a covenant, the individual took an oath that included a conditional cursing: “May thus and such befall me if I should violate this obligation.” Animal sacrifices also often accompanied the swearing of oaths. One scholar explained that anciently the sacrificial animal was cut in two, and the individual making the covenant passed between the two pieces (Genesis 15:10, 17; Jeremiah 34:18). This implied that the violator of the covenant would be treated like the sacrificial animal—cut in two! (M. H. Pope. “Oaths” in The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, 3:576). This ritual imagery signals the Lord’s warning that a covenant-breaking Israel might fall victim to the punishing sword. For ancient Israel, this warning proved to be more than just figurative.

#Scriptural Terminology

In the scriptures there are other words and phrases used synonymously with “covenant” and “entering into covenants.” Examples include the term “word” and the phrase “obey my word” (Numbers 30:2; 1 Chronicles 16:15; Psalm 105:8). Phrases such as “take upon us the name of Christ” (Alma 46:18), “keeping the commandments” (Alma 48:15), and “maintenance of the sacred word of God” (Alma 44:5) are each the scriptural equivalent of entering into and keeping covenants with the Lord. The Book of Mormon teaches that those who keep the commandments of God, the “words” of God, actually enter into a covenant with him. Those who live according to the words of God and thus keep their covenants will have eternal life. One Bible scholar has noted that words such as covenant, law, word, and oath are used virtually synonymously in the Old Testament. He points out that the earliest designation for the Decalogue or Ten Commandments was the “Ten Words.” Also: “The theological usage of the ‘word’ of God may . . . be very closely bound up in its very origin with the covenant” (G.E. Mendenhall, “Covenant.” The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, 1:716).

Another concept that adds to our understanding of the profound significance of the “words of God” was taught by the prophet Mormon when he commented on Alma’s mission to reclaim the Zoramites. Mormon said: “And now, as the preaching of the word had a great tendency to lead the people to do that which was just—yea, it had had more powerful effect upon the minds of the people than the sword, or anything else, which had happened unto them—therefore Alma thought it was expedient that they should try the virtue of the word of God” (Alma 31:5). Obviously the word of God exerts a powerful effect upon the thoughts and behavior of the individual who obeys that word. As an individual accepts that word and diligently strives to obey it, he enters into a covenant relationship with the Lord. The spiritual gifts given to the obedient are given according to the covenant which characterizes the commandments.

#Covenants in the Book of Mormon

Among the Nephite peoples, covenant making was not just an isolated religious phenomenon. The entire social and political structure of society was based upon the making of covenants. There was no separation of church and state.

The most fundamental specific covenant, which defined the relationship between God and the Nephites, was originally revealed to father Lehi. It is reiterated time after time in the Book of Mormon: “Inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments [my covenants], ye shall prosper in the land. . . . And again it is said that: Inasmuch as ye will not keep my commandments ye shall be cut off from the presence of the Lord” (Alma 9:13). This is the “promise/curse” of the Book of Mormon. It is reiterated by every major prophet in the book. Implicit in this covenant was the profound idea that an ideal national relationship could continue only if the individual relationships appropriately conformed to the gospel principles. There was a fundamental principle behind this covenant. Nephite national security and freedom depended not so much on their military might and prowess, as upon their trusting in the power of God (compare Exodus 23:20-25; Deuteronomy 5:6-6:2).

The Book of Mormon record was preserved for our day. Perhaps the promise/curse applies to us today. It has been suggested that the United States of America, this great “Gentile nation” is a covenant land preserved by the Lord for the restoration of the gospel in the latter day and for the gathering of Israel. Might we be justified today in warning the inhabitants of the United States that their very survival as a nation depends upon their keeping certain covenants with the Lord? Would it be appropriate for us to promulgate the idea that “inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments [covenants], ye shall prosper in the land? . . . And . . . Inasmuch as ye will not keep my commandments ye shall be cut off” (Alma 9:13)?

I suspect you might sense, with me, the difficulty with this type of approach in a country whose inspired constitution guarantees both freedom of religion and separation of church and state. Yet, Alma’s deeply held beliefs are indeed valid and needed in our world where pride, dissension, iniquity, and covenant-breaking abound. The prophet Moroni wrote: “This is a land which is choice above all other lands; wherefore he that doth possess it shall serve God or shall be swept off; for it is the everlasting decree of God. And it is not until the fulness of iniquity among the children of the land, that they are swept off” (Ether 2:10). The Lord is committed to preserve the United States of America as a secure center for the establishment and maintenance of his Church. He will do so unless its inhabitants deteriorate to a “fulness of iniquity.” I believe the continued preservation of the United States depends largely on the continued adherence to the covenants of his saints who inhabit the land.

A well-known episode in captain Moroni’s life that typified his covenant orientation was the “title of liberty” incident. The reader may wish to review this account (see Alma 46:11-22).

1 See chapter 15, The Temple.

2 For a discussion of the role of the ordinance of the sacrament in our spiritual growth, see volume 1, chapter 18, Baptism, the Ordinance that Brings Spiritual Growth.

3 See chapter 12, Calling and Election Made Sure.