Part 2: Scriptural defense of women having the priesthood

Definition of the priesthood:

I’m going to keep it to basics to avoid as much risk as possible of “notionalizing” the priesthood.

True to the Faith says that the “priesthood is the eternal power and authority of God. Through the priesthood God created and governs the heavens and the earth. Through this power He redeems and exalts His children, bringing to pass ‘the immortality and eternal life of man’ (Moses 1:39)” (TttF, 124). Doctrine and Covenants 107:5 says that “all other authorities or offices in the church are appendages to this priesthood.”

            So, the priesthood is the power of God. It is not the office or duty of the priesthood. I think the difficulty in church culture comes from our tendency to equate the priesthood with men. The priesthood is not the power of the holder; it is not the power of men. It is the power of God. It may well be that God has designed it to be held exclusively by men, but that still doesn’t make it male in its nature or essence. It is first and foremost the power of God.

            As I said before, I have a testimony borne out of study, prayer, and the Spirit that women will someday have the priesthood. How or when I don’t know. But women will have the priesthood. Now, let’s get into the scriptures and insights that have led me to this conclusion.

The Nature of God:

            Since the priesthood is the power of God, it is necessary to look into the nature of God. I’m a fan of the teaching that “all spirit is matter” (D&C 131:7). I like to think of God beyond God the person, in the sense of God as the power that created the universe. God is everything that is reality and truth. God is light, God is gravity, God is love, God is thermodynamics, God is peace, God, again, is everything that is reality and truth. “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:3). God the person, as we know Him as our Heavenly Father, and also as Jesus, is within God the power. God the person was once a mortal man, like us. Like Lorenzo Snow said in his famous couplet, "As man now is, God once was; as God is now man may be” (The Teachings of Lorenzo Snow, ed. Clyde J. Williams [1984], 1)." How could a mortal man also be “without beginning or end of days” (Moses 1:3)? How could a mortal man exist at all without his existence first being created by the divine power of God? I think that God the person became Himself, became God, when He was perfected (exalted) in spirit and knowledge and intelligence and glory, or, in other words, became one with God the power. So, God is in everything, because God is perfection and wholeness. “All truth can be circumscribed into one great whole.” I think of that whole as God. You don’t have to subscribe to a set definition or notion of God to feel or know God, in whatever sense or medium you do. In fact, clinging to a notion about God limits God in the sense that you refuse to look beyond your notion to experience God as God actually is.

Anyway, the idea of God as power makes sense to me for the idea of our own exaltation. When we are perfected, we also become one with God. Again, "As man now is, God once was; as God is now man may be." We become “perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48; footnote for “perfect” is “Greek: complete, finished, fully developed). We become God. We share God’s power and glory and knowledge and intelligence. We are subsumed by the power and reality that is God, just like God the person was. So we become God, one with God the power, and become God the persons, too.

The scriptures also support the idea of multiple God the persons within God the power. The name “Elohim” is Hebrew for multiple gods. The creation accounts are particularly fascinating for this idea. Since God (or the Gods, plural, if you read Abraham 4) created man in His/their own likeness and image, male and female, it’s safe to assume that God includes male and female. God, therefore, would comprehend all exalted beings, male and female, who have become one with God the power. So it would follow that the title God would comprehend male and female. Please note, I’m not saying that Heavenly Father, the physical personification of God, comprises male and female. I’m saying that the title, office, and power of God comprises male and female. This, subsequently, clears up, for me, the difficulty of “What about our Heavenly Mother?” God the title, power, and office comprises male and female, so God would be both Father and Mother. This idea is further supported by Jesus in 1 Corinthians 11:11: “Nevertheless neither is man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord.” To be complete and perfect, you need both male and female. God is complete and perfect. God would need to be both male and female.

So it follows that the power of God would be for all of His children, both male and female. Particularly since the point of our mortal life is to become like Him, to be exalted and perfected and one with Him, with God. It seems to me to be impossible to become perfect like God without God’s power, and it seems impossible to become perfect like God without also receiving God’s power.

There are a few places in scripture that describe exactly who receives the priesthood. In Alma 13:3-6, it says that priesthood bearers were

called and prepared from the foundation of the world according to the foreknowledge of God, on account of their exceeding faith and good works; in the first place being left to choose good or evil; therefore they having chosen good, and exercising exceedingly great faith, are called with a holy calling…on account of their faith, while others would reject the Spirit of God on account of the hardness of their hearts and blindness of their minds…and thus being called by this holy calling, and ordained unto the high priesthood of the holy order of God, to teach his commandments unto the children of men, that they might also enter his rest.

            Further, in Alma 13:10-12:

            Now, as I said concerning the holy order, or this high priesthood, there were many who were ordained and became high priests of God; and it was on account of their exceeding faith and repentance, and their righteousness before God, they choosing to repent and work righteousness rather than to perish;

Therefore they were called after this holy order, and were sanctified by the Holy Ghost, having their garments made white, being pure and spotless before God, could not look upon sin save it were with abhorrence; and there were many, exceedingly great many, who were made pure and entered into the rest of the Lord their God.

            So, here, those who are called to the priesthood are those who, one, have kept their first estate, or who followed the Savior’s plan for redemption, rather than Satan’s; two, have had faith and accepted the Savior; three, have exercised faith and repentance; four, have been baptized (that’s my interpretation of “having their garments made white”); and five, have been sanctified by the Holy Ghost. This describes any faithful member of the church. There is no mention of it being exclusively for men. Unless you argue that the use of “priest” or “brethren” implies an exclusively male priesthood. And if you want to make that argument, you’d have to reconcile the fact that “man” is used to describe all of mankind, male and female, as read in the creation accounts, and that only “man” is described as being able to enter the celestial kingdom after having entered into the new and everlasting covenant of celestial marriage (D&C 131:1-4).

            There is more support for accepting and receiving God as a prerequisite to the priesthood:
D&C 11:30 says “as many as receive me, to them will I give power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on my name. Amen.” The footnote for “sons of God” points you to the “Topical Guide: Sons and Daughters of God.” D&C 25:1 says “all those who receive my gospel are sons and daughters in my kingdom.” Then in D&C 76:58, in referencing Melchizedek priesthood holders, it says “they are gods, even the sons of God.” Again, the reference is the “Topical Guide: Sons and Daughters of God,” as well as “TG: Exaltation,” and “TG: Man, Potential to Become Like Heavenly Father.” So, as the sons and daughters of God, we have the potential to be like Him, that is, to be exalted, to become one with God the power, and in so doing, become God ourselves. “And he that receiveth me receiveth my Father; And he that receiveth my Father receiveth my Father’s kingdom; therefore all that my Father hath shall be given unto him” (D&C 84:37-38). God cannot lie. If we receive Jesus, if we receive our Father, if we receive God, we receive all that God has. That would include His power, the priesthood.

Why Should We Desire the Priesthood?

1. To serve; to build the Kingdom; to fulfill God’s purposes and glory

            “Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness; For the power is in them, wherein they are agents unto themselves. And inasmuch as men do goo they shall in nowise lose their reward” (D&C 58:27-28). The point of this church is to serve: to serve each other as brothers and sisters, to serve in our callings, to serve in perfecting the saints, in proclaiming the gospel, in redeeming the dead, in building up the kingdom of God, in establishing Zion. We are to help bring about God’s glory; we are to help bring about “the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39). Remember the definition from True to the Faith: “The priesthood is the eternal power and authority of God. Through the priesthood God created and governs the heavens and the earth. Through this power He redeems and exalts His children, bringing to pass ‘the immortality and eternal life of man.’” So, the priesthood is the means by which God’s purposes are fulfilled. We’re all supposed to be fulfilling those purposes. It makes sense that we’d all have the perfect power to do so.

2. To learn of God

D&C 84:19: “And this greater priesthood administereth the gospel and holdeth the key of the mysteries of the kingdom, even the key of the knowledge of God.”

We can’t become like God, or even approach Him, if we don’t learn of Him. The priesthood holders have received revelation and restored ordinances and knowledge, yes, absolutely. And I think this also means that when you hold the power of God, you have the ability to learn more, to have the mysteries of the kingdom revealed to you. To hold the power of God is to grow closer to Him, to learn of Him, and to ultimately become one with Him.

3. To be sanctified, resurrected, and receive a perfected body

In order to be in God’s presence, to be one with Him, everything about you must be perfected. That includes your physical body. And, “whoso is faithful unto the obtaining these two priesthoods of which I have spoken [Aaronic and Melchizedek], and the magnifying of their calling, are sanctified by the Spirit unto the renewing of their bodies” (D&C 84:33). So, at some point, you have to obtain the priesthood in order for your body to be resurrected and sanctified by the Spirit. Then “they [faithful priesthood holders] become the sons of Moses and of Aaron and the seed of Abraham, and the church and kingdom, and the elect of God” (D&C 84:34). Again, as discussed previously, please note that “sons” does not mean the exclusion of women. Unless it makes sense that only men will be the church and kingdom and elect of God. It doesn’t make sense to me.

4. To become one with God

D&C 107:19: “The power and authority of the higher, or Melchizedek Priesthood, is to hold the keys of all the spiritual blessings of the church—To have the privilege of receiving the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, to have the heavens opened unto them, to commune with the general assembly and church of the Firstborn, to enjoy the communion and presence of God the Father, and Jesus the mediator of the new covenant.”

Again, can you really become God without holding His power? I’ve talked about this issue a lot, so I’ll just let this scripture speak for itself.

Conclusion

So, that is the bulk of my study on this topic. As I’ve written this, I have had the Spirit remind me of scriptures, out of the blue, that have enhanced my understanding and have led me to further inspiration, questions, and thoughts. I have felt peace and a sound mind as I have discovered what the Spirit is telling me is truth. I am confident that women will have the priesthood. I don’t know how or when, and my testimony of the gospel and my relationship with God, do not depend on it happening in any certain timeframe or manner. But it will happen. I think that the major obstacle to it happening right away is a tendency in our church culture, as I said at the beginning, to equate “priesthood” with “man.” This is flawed and dangerous. Priesthood is the power of God, not the power of the person who holds it. This flawed notion obstructs the free discussion of the possibility of all of God’s children, who are all meant to do His work and become like Him, having His power. People get scared, offended, or threatened when the inaccurate notion of priesthood=man is threatened, so they fight, contend, persecute, shame, or punish those who are asking the question that threatens their notion. Remember, only God knows a person’s heart. Only God can judge whether I or anyone else asking this question is doing it with a pure heart, real intent, and faith in Christ. If your reaction to what I’ve shared is one of fear or aggression, please be honest with yourself: is it the Spirit telling you I’m wrong? Or is it fear coming from your notion of the priesthood being questioned? A notion of a thing is not the thing itself. You cannot have faith in a notion; that is like setting up a false god for yourself.
           I remain open to further light and knowledge on the topic. I do not want to publish this entry and close the book on this topic, assuming I have learned everything there is to know about it, that it is full and complete and I need no more understanding. That would be turning this into a notion and obstructing my ability to experience the priesthood for what it really is. If I am wrong about this, I will freely admit it. I want to be corrected by God if I'm wrong. But all of my experience and feedback (the spiritual kind, not the
internet kind J) thus far tells me that what I've written is true. If you have any sort of fear-reaction to what I've shared, please remember that fear is not from God. God confirms truth with power, love, and a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7. I keep referencing that verse because it is true. And I love it. J) Take your fears to God. Get your answer from Him. I'm not saying you have to have the same answer I do. But it is imperative that whatever answer you get be free from fear, that it be accurate, and that if come from God.