Church of the Firstborn

Multiple scriptures speak of the “church of the Firstborn,” though we have few details as to what this term really means.  In the New Testament, Paul wrote to the Hebrews saying, “Ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all” (Hebrews 12:22-23).  The phrase does not appear again in the King James Bible, but it does in the Joseph Smith Translation in the language of the covenant that the Lord made to Enoch: “This is mine everlasting covenant, that when thy posterity shall embrace the truth, and look upward, then shall Zion look downward, and all the heavens shall shake with gladness, and the earth shall tremble with joy; And the general assembly of the church of the firstborn shall come down out of heaven, and possess the earth, and shall have place until the end come” (JST Genesis 9:22-23).  Both of these suggest that this Church of the Firstborn is in heaven, not on earth. 

               In the Doctrine and Covenants the phrase appears in six different sections.  In the vision on the three degrees of glory, speaking of those who will obtain the celestial kingdom, we read, “They are they who are the church of the Firstborn.”  Later in the section this description is given: “They who dwell in his presence are the church of the Firstborn” (D&C 76:54, 94).  So here the term appears to be synonymous with those who go to the celestial kingdom.  The same connection was made in the Olive Leaf revelation: “This Comforter is the promise which I give unto you of eternal life, even the glory of the celestial kingdom; Which glory is that of the church of the Firstborn, even of God, the holiest of all, through Jesus Christ his Son” (D&C 88:4-5).  The Lord told the Prophet Joseph Smith in another revelation, “For ye are the church of the Firstborn, and he will take you up in a cloud, and appoint every man his portion” (D&C 78:21).  This suggests that he was somehow already a part of this “church of the Firstborn,” or perhaps simply that he would be when he was taken up.  In a later revelation the Lord clarified, “And all those who are begotten through me are partakers of the glory of the same, and are the church of the Firstborn” (D&C 93:22).  As we are begotten sons and daughters through Christ, we become members of this church of the Firstborn.  The Lord further taught that it is the privilege of the holders of the Melchizedek priesthood “to have the heavens opened unto them, to commune with the general assembly and church of the Firstborn, and to enjoy the communion and presence of God the Father, and Jesus the mediator of the new covenant” (D&C 107:19).  Ultimately, to be in the church of the Firstborn is to be in the presence of God, to dwell in the celestial kingdom with the Father. 

               The word Firstborn, given that it is capitalized in most of these scriptures, clearly speaks of the Savior who was the firstborn in the Spirit.  We might also consider it from the perspective of those who belong to this “church” as being those who are “firstborn.”  In other words, that the church of the firstborn is a group of “firstborns.”  The firstborn sons in the law of Moses received a double portion of the inheritance, and certainly those who are a part of this church of the Firstborn will receive an increased inheritance from the Father; in fact, “all that [the] Father hath shall be given unto him” (D&C 84:38).  So perhaps we might say that the church of the Firstborn consists of all those who receive a complete spiritual inheritance, like firstborn children, of the Father.  Whatever the full significance is, certainly we want to be counted in that number in the next life.