SALT LAKE CITY -- A high-ranking Mormon leader says the church policy against same-sex marriage was a revelation from God.

Apostle Russell M. Nelson, head of the religion's governing body and next in line for the Mormon presidency, said in a worldwide speech Sunday that Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints President Thomas S. Monson received instructions regarding same-sex couples directly from God.

"Each of us during that sacred moment felt a spiritual confirmation," he said, reports CBS affiliate KUTV. "It was our privilege as apostles to sustain what had been revealed to President Monson."

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Nelson said that led the church to consider gay marriage a sin worthy of expulsion and forbid children of such couples from becoming members of the church. Those children can become Mormons once they are 18 if they renounce same-sex marriage.

KUTV reported in November on the major policy announcement, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said children living in same-sex households may not be blessed as babies or baptized. The policy took effect immediately.

"A natural or adopted child of a parent living in a same-gender relationship, whether the couple is married or cohabiting, may not receive a name and a blessing," the policy reads.

Nelson, a 91-year-old apostle, described how church leaders arrived at the decisions during a live-streamed speech from the campus of church-owned Brigham Young University-Hawaii.