Ordinances

LDS Quotes on Ordinances

“The Latter-day Saints are a covenant people. From the day of baptism through the spiritual milestones of our lives, we make promises with God and He makes promises with us. He always keeps His promises offered through His authorized servants, but it is the crucial test of our lives to see if we will make and keep our covenants with Him.”

Elder Henry B. Eyring  |  “Witnesses for God,” Ensign, November 1996, p. 30

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“Baptism is a once-in-a-lifetime ordinance. We are baptized on one occasion only—for the remission of our sins, for entrance into the earthly church, and for future admission into the kingdom of heaven.”

Bruce R. McConkie  |  A New Witness for the Articles of Faith

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[A sacrament is] “a pledge and promise on man’s part to forsake personal sins, knowing that if he does so he will be blessed by the Lord. When the saints partake of the ordinance of the sacrament, they promise not simply to keep the commandments in general, but also to serve and conform and obey where they as individuals have fallen short in the past. Every man’s sacraments are thus his own; he alone knows his failures and sins, and he alone must overcome the world and the flesh so that he can have fellowship with the saints.”

Bruce R. McConkie  |  A New Witness for the Articles of Faith

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“A covenant made with God should be regarded not as restrictive but as protective.”

Russell M. Nelson  |  “Prepare for Blessings of the Temple,” Ensign, March 2002, pp. 21-22

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“He [Joseph Smith] conducted us through with all the ordinances he rejoiced very much, and [said], now if they kill me you have got all the keys, and all the ordinances and you can confer them upon others, and the hosts of Satan will not be able to tear down the kingdom.”

Orson Hyde  |  Times and Seasons, September 15, 1844, 651

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“As to the question of authority, nearly everything depends upon it. No ordinance can be performed to the acceptance of God without divine authority. No matter how fervently men may believe or pray, unless they are endowed with divine authority they can only act in their own name, and not legally nor acceptably in the name of Jesus Christ, in whose name all these things must be done.”

Joseph Fielding Smith  |  Gospel Doctrine, 102.

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“Divine covenants make strong Christians. I urge each one to qualify for and receive all the priesthood ordinances you can and then faithfully keep the promises you have made by covenant. In times of distress, let your covenants be paramount and let your obedience be exact. Then you can ask in faith, nothing wavering, according to your need, and God will answer. He will sustain you as you work and watch. In His own time and way He will stretch forth his hand to you, saying, “Here am I.”

Elder D. Todd Christofferson  |  “The Power of Covenants,” Ensign, May 2009, p. 22

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“No more sacred ordinance has been given to us by the Lord than the administration of the Sacrament.”

David O. McKay  |  Conference Report, October 1956, 88.

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“I cannot myself see why these things (ordinances) should be conductors of the new life. But then, if one did not happen to know, I should never had seen any connection between a particular physical pleasure and the appearance of a new human being in the world. We have to take reality as it comes to us; there is no good jabbering about what it ought to be like or what we should have expected it to be like.”

CS Lewis  |  Mere Christianity

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Neal A. Maxwell Headshot

“If we will keep our covenants, our covenants will keep us spiritually safe.”

Elder Neal A. Maxwell  |  Ensign, May 1987, p. 71

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