A Primer To The 4 Phases Of The Priesthood- For Men & Women

All men and women, families and societies must go through the Four Phases Of The Priesthood for success. The Four Phases are:

1- Agency (Obedience, Commandments, Sacrifice)
2- Speech (Expression, Behavior)
3- Family (Marriage & Children)
4- Zion (Community, Gentiles, Neighbors)

Cwic Principles The 4 Phases Of The Priesthood

LDS Mormon

so this episode is a primer on the four

phases of the priesthood what I want to

do is just go over briefly what this

means these four phases and talk a

little bit about what you might do to

prepare for the full episode of the four

phases of the priesthood that is some

scriptures and other things to think

about the four phases of the priesthood

are not something that I just came up

with but they are things that I have

identified with in the gospel within the

Scriptures within the doctrine of the

restored gospel they have to do a lot

with what we've talked about with the

higher and the lower law so these would

fit under the umbrella of the higher and

the lower laws and they are natural

progressions that individuals that

families that societies and even full

civilizations must go through and retain

in order to progress and we see this

throughout the examples of the

scriptures we can apply this directly to

politics we can apply this directly to

history and see history and a different

throughout a different filter that

brings us a lot more understanding in

context and richness to how

civilizations become what they become or

how they fall even it gives us an idea

more about tyranny it gives us more an

idea of freedom and these are all phases

of the priesthood now when I talk about

the priest

I am NOT talking about advancement for

men going through the priesthood we make

the mistake in the church oftentimes in

thinking about the priesthood by whom

the priesthood bearer is and that is a

fallacy a cultural fallacy the

priesthood is named for what it is

because of what it stands for what it

accomplishes and who it serves so for

example and I've stated this before the

preparatory priesthood or the Aaronic

priesthood has nothing to do with young

men who are trying to prepare to become

Melchizedek Priesthood holders that is

false it is nowhere in the scriptures

stated that way it is not part of the

gospel the preparatory gospel is for

everyone men and women and the processes

that we go through in a preparatory

gospel to arrive to the fullness of the

gospel or the Melchizedek Priesthood or

the higher law are all the same we all

go through those things it has nothing

to do with the bearer of the priesthood

and so these phases are for men and

women we all go through these phases of

the priesthood the priesthood

administers to all people so let's just

briefly go over this first of all

imagine if you will

four steps and we're gonna start from

the bottom so phase one is at the bottom

then phase two is a step up phase 3 and

phase four at the top keep that in mind

as we as we go through this they are

split into two sections the higher in

the lower laws or the Melchizedek

Priesthood at the top with numbers three

and four and the ironic priesthood below

with numbers one and two so each

priesthood or each law the higher in the

lower life

we segmented into those two laws have

two phases within them let's back up and

start with number one real quick and

again this is just a precursor this is

this is just to a primer to go over to

kind of whet your appetite a little bit

more on what I will put out within the

next week possibly two but probably next

week and doing a full episode on the

four phases of the priesthood phase

number one under the ironic priesthood

phase number one is agency the

ability to choose to decide for yourself

this goes directly to a lot of

philosophical questions about freewill

and we'll talk about Lehigh especially

with freewill and it also then has to do

with our obedience so our choice how

we're going to live and obedience to

commandments so Commandments are part of

the lower law so Commandments obedience

to those Commandments or disobedience to

those Commandments and any sacrifices

that we would make in order to give

something up to have something higher or

to look towards something in the future

think of the sacrifices that were made

in the Old Testament that were supposed

to always look forward to the sacrifice

of Christ so that is phase one and

that's within the ironic priesthood

phase two in the ironic priesthood has

to do primarily with speech and other

behaviors and expressions that kind of

round out maybe our persona so to speak

but it's primarily I think the best way

to look at this phase two is to look at

speech and this would have to do with

freedom of speech as well but speech and

expression are a part of the lower

and a part of the ironic priesthood so

agency and speech if we were to talk

about one word for each of them it would

be number one at the bottom

his agency number two just above that is

speech and behavior and those are the

two phases within the ironic priestess

so think about first of all this is the

preparatory law and the preparatory

gospel we think of the icon of the

Aaronic priesthood who is john the

Baptist and you'll hear something about

him quite a bit repeated from Isaiah

to the Book of Mormon to the Gospels in

the New Testament about crying

repentance right repentance is a lower

law repentance is part of the ironic

priesthood because repentance turns you

back toward obedience and obeying the

commandments so that is part of your

agency and then the second thing that we

hear a lot about with John the Baptist

is the one who is crying out in the

wilderness or crying in the wilderness

now he's preaching repentance but he is

speaking he is expressing himself and

that speech that cry to repentance is

part of that the lower law another

example of that would be the ministering

of angels which is part of the lower law

and the Aaronic priesthood and by the

way this isn't stuff I'm making up it's

just never really been codified before

yeah that I know of and this is all

scriptural so when we go through the

full episode of this I will back all of

this up and I think you'll find it

really really interesting so John the

Baptist is both helping us with agency

and with speech we can look at the

Garden of Eden story I'm not going to go

into that now but you get the same

example there about agency and

Commandments and about speech and

expression as well and that is something

we find throughout all of the scriptures

and throughout all of history these are

the first two steps right then we move

up another phase so this would be phase

3 or phase 1 of the Melchizedek

Priesthood of the higher law and this is

family so we're making a divider here

between the first two phases and the

last two phases below that phase in the

Arana caves and there are two ironic

phases this is the these are the

individual phases the erotic law the way

I see it the ironic law is the

priesthood and the law of the individual

and it is about your own choices and

about your own speech and expression and

behaviors that's the ironic law and

that's what we must have first and never

leave behind remember that Jesus came to

fulfill the law of Moses which would be

a part of the Aaronic law but not to

destroy it not to get rid of it he was

only there to fulfill it he makes it

very specific that he is not there to

destroy it it's never goes away

so the ironic phases are phases of the

individual the Aaronic priesthood is the

priesthood of the individual that's

that's how I see it all right moving

above that divider then and moving up

into the Melchizedek phases so phase 3

is that of the family and with the

family we're now going outside of

ourselves and we have to have even more

sacrifice agency obviously continues to

play a part in this we're still an

individual of course but we are combined

and bonded into an eternal unit at this

point where the higher law is getting

outside of ourselves and moving toward

others so that is the family it is

marriage

and it is children and family that is

the third phase of the Melchizedek that is

part of the Melchizedek law and then the

last phase phase four of the priesthood

for all of us would be Zion or community

it is moving beyond now even the family

and talking about the kingdom of God as

a whole that is where we're serving

others beyond our family that could be

in our callings in the church or this is

how we're going to improve society as a

whole and having a responsibility

bearing a responsibility for society as

a whole for our wards for our stakes for

our neighbors for Humanity and that is

community and Zion so real quick from

the bottom we have agency and then we

have speech those are phases of the

individual and then the upper two phases

numbers three and four of the

Melchizedek law are reaching out to

family so now we're moving into the

Abrahamic covenant which is all

Melchizedek Priesthood we go moving out

to marriage and family and then finally

to Zion and community those beyond just

our family and so and out into the

Gentiles if you will that's a mystic

priesthood feature are the Gentiles and

Zion is a Melchizedek Priesthood feature

family and the Abrahamic covenant is a

Melchizedek Priesthood function so we'll

go over these in depth in a longer

episode a much longer episode where

we're going to stalk specifically about

these four steps and how they apply to

us today not just in our own lives and

not just with our own families but

looking at history and looking at the

Paul

tics of today even and how our societies

are run and it kind of for me as I look

at these they help me make decisions and

formulate opinions on how things should

be because I know that these are core

principles of the gospel again I'm not

coming up with them I'm just identifying

them as these four phases of the

priesthood so I would recommend that you

if you want to follow up with this and

listen to the full episode soon is that

you read sections 84 and section 107 if

you get a chance just go through those

two sections

that'll help give you a little bit of a

background as we go through the four

phases of the priesthood I'll talk to

you next time