by Mike Andrew - SGN Staff Writer

God instructed the Mormon Church to exclude same-sex couples and their children, according to church leader Russell M. Nelson.

As head of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and the oldest living apostle, Nelson is second in seniority only to church president Thomas S. Monson.

It was Monson who received instructions from God on how to deal with same-sex Mormon couples, Nelson said, in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's Obergefell decision, allowing them to be married.

According to Nelson, Mormon leaders gathered to pray and consult with each other about the Supreme Court decision, which ran contrary to Mormon religious teaching.

'[W]e considered countless permutations and combinations of possible scenarios that could arise,' Nelson said.

Then Monson, who is considered a 'prophet, seer, and revelator' as well as President of the Mormon Church, declared 'the mind of the Lord and the will of the Lord.'

God considered same-sex couples to be 'apostates,' Monson told the other church leaders, and should not be allowed to participate in church functions. Their children should also be excluded, at least until the children turn 18 and renounce their parents' 'sins.'

'Each of us during that sacred moment felt a spiritual confirmation,' Nelson said. 'It was our privilege as apostles to sustain what had been revealed to President Monson.'

Nelson explained that revelations from God require a process.

'The First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles counsel together and share all the Lord has directed us to understand and to feel, individually and collectively,' he said. 'And then, we watch the Lord move upon the president of the church to proclaim the Lord's will.'

'Prophets see ahead. They see the harrowing dangers the adversary has placed, or will yet place, in our path,' Nelson explained. 'Prophets also foresee the grand possibilities and privileges awaiting those who listen with the intent to obey.

'You may not always understand every declaration of a living prophet,' he added. 'But when you know a prophet is a prophet, you can approach the Lord in humility and faith and ask for your own witness about whatever his prophet has proclaimed.'

Nelson made his remarks at a church conference for Mormon millennials.

This is civilization's 'eleventh hour,' Nelson told them. 'The Lord has declared that this is the last time he will call laborers into his vineyard to gather the elect from the four quarters of the Earth.'

Nelson is 91, and he became president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles last year. He will succeed the 88-year-old Monson if Monson dies before he does.

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