THE MIGHTY ELIJAH RETURNS

Elijah Appearing in the Kirtland Temple by Dan Lewis

Baptisms by proxy for the dead is not a new doctrine. It was practiced well and truly in the meridian of time (1 Cor 15:29). They are performed today in the temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints through the power of the priesthood conferred by Elijah upon Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery on April 3, 1836 in Kirtland Temple, Ohio (D&C 110:13-16).

In the fall and winter of 1892-1893, another temple was being prepared for the sacred work of salvation of the living and the dead. This was the Salt Lake City Temple. One worker, a volunteer like many others, recorded an experience he had whilst engaged in this work:

“About March 1893, I found myself alone in the dining room – all had gone to bed. I was sitting at the table when to my great surprise my old brother Alfred walked in, sat down opposite me at the table and smiled. I said to him (he looked so natural): “When did you arrive in Utah?” (He had lived in New Zealand and I had not heard from him in years.)

“He said: “I have just come from the Spirit World. This is not my body that you see, it is lying in the tomb. I want to tell you that when you were on your mission you told me many things about the Gospel, and the hereafter, and about the Spirit World being as real and tangible as the earth. I realized that you had told the truth. I attended the Mormon meetings. He raised his hand and said with much warmth: “I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ with all my heart. I believe in faith and repentance and baptism for the remission of sins, but that is as far as I can go. I look to you to do the work for me in the temple.” 

“He continued: “You can go to any kind of sectarian meeting in the Spirit World. All our kindred there knew you were trying to make up your mind to come and work on the temple. You are watched closely, every move you make is know there, and we were glad you came. We are all looking to you as our head in this great work. I want to tell you that there are a great many spirits who weep and mourn because they have relatives in the Church here who are careless and are doing nothing for them.”  He then disappeared.” (Melvin S. Tagg, The Life of Edward James Wood, an unpublished 1959 Brigham Young University Master’s Thesis, pp 107-108)

The Jewish people still wait for Elijah to return, as Malachi promised he would (Malachi 4:5). He remains an invited guest at Jewish Passover Feasts, where an open door and a vacant seat always await him. It brings tears to my eyes because there is no need to wait for him any longer.  This became the subject of conversation between Elder LeGrand Richards and the Mayor of Jerusalem, Teddy Kollek.  Elder Richards had just dedicated the Orson Hyde Memorial Garden on the Mount of Olives.  After the ceremony, the two conversed as they ate their lunch:

Elder Richards said:  "Mayor, I want to tell you something". "What's that?" asked the Mayor.

Looking Mayor Kollek directly in the eye, the apostle said: "Ten years ago I was here in Jerusalem and one day I went into three synagogues and hanging up on the wall in one of them was a large armchair.  I asked the rabbi what it was there for (I knew but I wanted him to tell me, which he did).  He said that it was so that if Elijah comes 'we can lower the chair and let him sit in it'.  Now Mayor, I want to tell you something and what I tell you is the truth.  Elijah has already been.  On the third day of April 1836 he appeared to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery in the Kirtland Temple". The Mayor said: "I guess I better tell them to take that chair down." (LeGrand Richards, Beloved Apostle, p.301)

One day in the realms of heaven, I will meet mighty Elijah, a noble man I admire so much. I will bow in adoration and thank him for his dedication to the Plan of Salvation and to the Saviour of this world.

 

ODE TO ELIJAH

You sat under the juniper tree

Sorrow spilling from

Your every memory. 

 

Valued as naught

You pleaded with God

To end your life;

But instead He gave you

Power greater than your mortal might.

 

He yielded to your words of power

And sent chariots and angels

to bring you home

In the appointed hour.

 

Dear to the heart of Him whom you served,

Your life of sacrifice and devotion

forgotten never,

Dear to our hearts in our memory,

Valued forever.

 - CATHRYNE ALLEN 

THE MIGHTY ELIJAH PART 5

The Lord is My Shepherd by LDS Bookstore

I used to think that Elijah’s mission to turn our hearts to our fathers solely meant motivation to do proxy baptisms for the dead, as was practiced in the meridian of time according to Paul who used this practice as proof to the Sadducees of the reality of resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:29). Temple work for the dead was well and truly operational in the meridian of time because of Elijah’s visit on Mount of Transfiguration conferring the priesthood power on Peter, James and John (Matt 17:3). Consider, however, how much more can be accomplished by this practice:

"Perhaps we regard the power bestowed by Elijah as something associated only with formal ordinances performed in sacred places.  But these ordinances become dynamic and productive of good only as they reveal themselves in our daily lives.  Malachi said that the power of Elijah would turn the hearts of the fathers and the children to each other.  The heart is the seat of the emotions and a conduit for revelation.  This sealing power thus reveals itself in family relationships, in attributes and virtues developed in a nurturing environment and in loving service.  These are the cords that bind families together, and the priesthood advances their development."  (James E. Faust, Father Come Home, May Ensign 1993)

Sometimes in ‘turning our hearts to our fathers’, some resolutions need to happen and most often than not they involve some form of forgiveness. Some of us hail from dysfunctional families, some from abuse, some from abandonment but all come from flawed humanity. If something is holding you back from the sealing ordinances, know that forgiveness is the key. It will free and change you and it will replace all the grief that is in your heart with unearthly love.

I know something of ‘turning the hearts to the fathers’. I struggled with a sense of powerlessness most of my life. I knew instinctly that this is not who I really am but the feeling persisted for most of my adulthood which led me to feelings of inadequacy.

 

I came to a realisation at one stage that this weakness had come to me from many generations of my family. I come from a long line of poor oppressed European peasants who had lived under the oppression of feudalism followed by socialism, the oppression which drummed into them that they could never rise above their station in life. I had seen this mentality of powerlessness perpetrated in my family throughout my childhood and early adulthood in Europe. I have known my family's negative thoughts and their beliefs that influenced their lives and invited suffering.

 

From the time my family immigrated to Australia when I was 14, and the Gospel came into my life, I could not understand why I was born into my family. I am the different one, the one that seeks and knows and loves God. One day some years ago my frustration over my life which I felt was controlled by this sense of powerlessness sent me to my knees where through bitter tears I spat out to God that I hated my family and all the generations I have come from; that I hated who they were and what they had saddled me with. I felt I could not rise to my potential because of it.

 

I had never expressed such venomous thoughts before, to myself or to others, let alone to God. I begged to understand why I was sent into this family and why I carried their burden.  Within half an hour of my prayer, my heart and mind were flooded with immense understanding.

 

When the Saviour said 'my sheep hear my voice' (John 10:27) he was referring to those who are  spiritually advanced and who, because of it, recognise and wholeheartedly embrace the truth when it is presented to them. Bruce R. McConkie taught that this is a spiritual gift that was developed in pre-earth life (Mormon Doctrine, p 81). I count myself as one of His sheep. I was brought up in a strong Catholic community but I wanted to know God and I found the religion of my youth inadequate. I was 16 years of age when I sought and immediately accepted the Gospel into my life.

 

What has all this got to do with my ancestors? It has everything to do with our hearts being turned to our fathers. It was given to me to understand that those who are His sheep are often sent to families who need a spiritual shepherd. Someone who will, through their belief, give strength to those who need to be saved from their disbelief.

 

I understood through my revelation that what once was a physical oppression of my ancestors had become a spiritual stumbling block. I understood that they still lived in a state of powerlessness even though they had passed over into the spirit world. They needed the saving grace of Christ and they needed saving. When I understood this my heart was ‘turned’ to my fathers and the saving ordinances of the priesthood took on a new meaning for me. This understanding also gave me compassion towards the generations of my family and freed me to be who I truly am and not what my programming made me to be. This energy of freedom, I am convinced, reached my ancestors where they are now and paved the path to acceptance of Christ’s gospel.

 

If you are the shepherd in your family, you stand on holy ground. You do not stand alone. The ultimate Shepherd stands beside you gathering all the sheep. You are in good company. You are the under-shepherd…..yours is a sacred work……

See Father,

I brought home the sheep!

I did all that I could

To save them in my keep.

 

They come to You Father

In whose arms they belong,

They come to You,

Whom they loved all along.

 - CATHRYNE ALLEN 

THE MIGHTY ELIJAH PART 4

 

When angel Moroni visited Joseph Smith on 21 September 1823, he told him of an important part of the restoration that will take place 13 years later. He told Joseph that the sealing power of the Priesthood will be restored to the earth by the very hand of Elijah the prophet who will ‘plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to the fathers, and the hearts of the children shall turn to their fathers’ (D&C 2:2)

This sealing power comes in two parts. The first part is the planting into our hearts the promises made to the fathers: “Who are the fathers? They are Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to whom the promises were made. What are the promises? They are the promises of a continuation of the family unit in eternity” (Bruce R. McConkie, The Millenial Messiah: The Second Coming of the Son of Man [1982], 267l; see also D&C 27:10; Doctrine and Covenants Student Manual commentary for D&C 2:2).

These eternal promises made to the fathers are known as the Abrahamic Covenant and they are:

1.       Abraham’s posterity would be numerous (see Genesis 17:5-6; Abraham 2:9; 3:14).

2.       His descendants would receive the gospel and bear the priesthood (see Abraham 2:9)

3.       Through the ministry of his seed “all the families of the earth would be blessed, even with the blessings of the Gospel, which are the blessings of salvation, even life eternal” (Abraham 2:11)

4.       Abraham’s righteous descendants will inherit the earth. Following the Millenium plus ‘a little season’ the earth will die, be resurrected and become sanctified, immortal and an eternal state where the god-fearing and the righteous shall live as celestial beings with the Father and the Son forever and ever (D&C 88:14-26, 111; McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, p 211)

“A person can receive all the blessings of the Abrahamic covenant – even if he or she is not a literal descendant of Abraham – by obeying the laws and ordinances of the gospel (see Galatians 3:26-29; 4:1-7; D&C 84:33-40)”. (Gospel Topics, LDS Gospel Library: Abrahamic Covenant). This is called ‘adoption into the House of Israel’ by baptism.

The second part of Elijah’s sealing power is the turning of our hearts to our own ancient fathers. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve said that not only has God made these promises to the ancient patriarchs but that we “undoubtedly made them to our own lineal fathers and mothers, those who came to earth before the gospel was restored but whom we promised to provide its saving ordinances” (Christ and the New Covenant 1977, p. 297). This is done by proxy in the temples that are now on the earth.

So it is through this sealing power and the saving ordinances we provide for our kindred dead that we inherit the promises of the Abrahamic Covenant. If not, the creation of this earth would be utterly wasted because a sealed, united, celestially saved family of God is the ultimate purpose of mortality and the creation of this earth. (see Jeffrey R. Holland, Christ and the New Covenant, p 297-98)

The spirit of Elijah rests upon the human family today who are actively seeking their roots. Even the ones who don’t know why, will one day give thanks to the God of this universe who made the family ties eternal and preserved the love that binds us together, now and forever…..

Your life has come and gone

But your footprints remain

And your blood courses through my veins.

Because of God’s eternal grace

We will once again embrace.

I weep not that we are now apart,

For I carry you with me,

I carry you in my heart. 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art by AI)

BEYOND THE VEIL

 

“President Heber J. Grant told a wonderful story about work for the dead:

"There were three young men who were as intimate, I think, as any three young men who ever lived could be.  They were Heber J. Grant, Feramorz L. Young and Richard W. Young. 

Feramorz L. Young had been in the East and had been graduated with honors from the Troy Polytechnic Institute, then went on a mission to Mexico, where he died and was buried in the Gulf of Mexico. 

“It always seemed to me a strange thing that a boy with all the education he had, who had made a wonderful success should be taken from us...He had to fight for the Church and its doctrines all the time he was in the East.

I thought that with his faith and knowledge and with all the information he had gained, it was too bad he had to lay down his life while in the Lord's service.

“I do not think that Fera Young in his life ever listened to an unclean story.  If anyone started to tell such a story he would excuse himself and walk away.  I never heard an unchaste word uttered by him.  If there ever was a clean, sweet, absolutely pure young man upon the earth, he was that young man.

“When he died his mother said she could not remember a word or thought or act of his life that would bring her the least sorrow or uneasiness. 

“What in the providence of the Lord is the result?...A woman came to Sister Young, his mother, with photographs of one of this lady's near and dear friends, a very beautiful woman, and said:

"Now Mrs. Young, I do not believe a thing of what I am going to tell you.  This girlfriend of mine was one of the noblest, finest, choicest kind of girls and young women that ever lived. 

“She has come to me in this city of Salt Lake on three separate occasions at night in dreams, and has given me this information: the date of her birth, the date of her death, and all this is necessary, she says, for a record in the temple; and she has told me that your son, Feramorz L. Young, has converted her, and that in addition to converting her he has proposed marriage to her. 

“She has said to me, "I want you to go to Mrs. Young and give her this information and vouch for my honesty, virtue, integrity and upright life, and have the work done for me and have me married for eternity to her son, Feramorz. L. Young."

“This woman who visited Mrs Young said:  "I do not believe a word of it but the last time this friend of mine came - which was the third time - she said: "There is nobody in Salt Lake City who knows me and can vouch for me except you." 

"You might just as well go to Mrs. Young and give her this information, because I am going to come, and come, and come, until you do it". 

“This beautiful girl was sealed to Brother Fera Young and I am convinced that my dear friend lost nothing by dying in his youth.

("Comforting Manifestations": Excerpts from Funeral Sermon delivered by President Heber J. Grant from the Improvement Era February 1931)

There is not one righteous soul that will miss out on any fruits of the Plan of Salvation. To this end was the Saviour born and to this end He sacrificed His all that we might have ALL. The price has been paid, the ordinances of salvation put into place. Has he not secured eternal happiness and blessings of eternity for you and me and for all who seek Him???

All honour and glory be to His name forever and ever…..

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

(Art: Salt Lake City Temple by Brent Borup)

A LINK TO ETERNITY

 

When I wrote a post recently about the coming of Elijah to the Kirtland Temple to restore the priesthood sealing power,  I received a very direct 3 word comment from an unbeliever: “It never happened.”

I get these kinds of comments from time to time from anti-Mormon activists. I have learnt not to try to prove anything to them because they usually come into LDS Facebook Groups to cause contention and not to be converted. When I was a missionary, we missionaries were told not to ‘Bible bash’ when people try to oppose our beliefs, but to only bear our testimony.

I never replied to this comment I received but I have been thinking about it ever since. How would I bear testimony of the spirit of Elijah to someone who is not a Church member? It’s a witness of the spirit and helping others to understand that and believe it is virtually impossible. Even Elder Boyd K. Packer admitted to that (refer to "The Candle of the Lord", Ensign Jan 1983, 51-52)

It has always amazed me that the Spirit of Elijah courses throughout the world prompting people to seek out their ancestors and find their roots yet nobody really knows why. The world at large knows very little of proxy work for the dead. And some who know think it is un-ethical to be baptising people ‘into our religion’ without their consent. In this day and age of human rights, it even becomes problematic to talk about this subject.

I am amazed at the boldness by which Elder LeGrand Richards testified of Elijah’s return:

 "The story of Elijah's return can be found in D&C 110.  Obviously, there is no need to wait for him any longer.  This became the subject of conversation between Elder LeGrand Richards and the Mayor of Jerusalem, Teddy Kollek.  Elder Richards had just dedicated the Orson Hyde Memorial Garden [in year 1979] on the Mount of Olives.  After the ceremony, the two conversed as they ate their lunch:

Elder Richards said:  "Mayor, I want to tell you something".

"What's that?" asked the Mayor.

Looking Mayor Kollek directly in the eye, the apostle said:

"Ten years ago I was here in Jerusalem and one day I went into three synagogues and hanging up on the wall in one of them was a large armchair.  I asked the rabbi what it was there for (I knew but I wanted him to tell me, which he did).  He said that it was so that if Elijah comes 'we can lower the chair and let him sit in it'. 

“Now Mayor, I want to tell you something and what I tell you is the truth.  Elijah has already been.  On the third day of April 1836 he appeared to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery in the Kirtland Temple".

The Mayor said:

"I guess I better tell them to take that chair down."

- (LeGrand Richards, Beloved Apostle, p.301)

Maybe boldness is what we all need. I am certain, however,  that Elder Richards would have told the Mayor all about the Church prior to this conversation. I am certain that his conviction of its truthfulness was something that the Mayor could not oppose, hence the respect for the information he was given. If only all people would be so respectful of our beliefs…..

I guess you cannot bear witness of Elijah’s return without bearing your testimony about the whole restoration of Christ’s Church. You cannot have a testimony of family history if you don’t have a testimony of Joseph Smith and the priesthood that was given him; of the scriptures that speak of Elijah’s return; of temples and proxy baptisms; of living prophets that build those temples; of resurrection and eternity, that being the whole purpose for Elijah’s sealing power, and of continuation of families beyond this life.

And most of all, Christ’s power of redemption and His work and His glory to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man (Moses 1:39). We need to know it all and have an iron clad testimony of it all.

Our testimony needs to be a light to the world and our link to eternity…..like our parents and their parents and their parents and their parents.....You know what I mean.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

TURNING OF THE HEARTS PART 2

 

The power of the Spirit of Elijah amazes me. It bridges time and space and unites families in miraculous ways. And in the process, it heals and changes us forever. I am a witness to this process.

It started with my father who gave me a priceless gift. He gave me the Gospel.

When he was just a youth growing up in a poor peasant household in the socialist republic of Croatia, my father rejected the expected role of the oldest son to remain on family land to inherit it along with the care of his parents.

He chose instead a trade at the expense of his father's displeasure and rejection....a trade which enabled him later to move our family to the city life when I was 3 years old. This heroic move led to another even a more heroic one which took our family to a land of more opportunity, Australia. I was 14 years old when we left our homeland.

We hailed from a strong Catholic community. I attended our local Church regularly but my parents and my sisters were not so committed. My father had never expressed any deep spiritual convictions and I had never seen him at Church.

Unbeknownst to him, my father had brought me to a country, by spiritual design, where I could receive the greatest opportunity of all: the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I was 17 when I approached my parents with my desire to join the Church.

My father does not show emotion but this news outraged and scared him. We were immigrants of 3 years in a strange country and my father’s fear was that I was joining a polygamous cult. He gave me an ultimatum. If I insisted on joining the Church, I had to leave home.

I was driven. The spirit of conversion burned inside me. I left home and was cut off from my family. It was the most devastating event of my then young life which ripped the fabric of my family for many years.

My sister stepped in and reconciled me with my parents a year later. All seemed well but our rift was never addressed properly and the reconciliation was too little too late. My father had become disillusioned with Australia and took my mother back to Croatia.

We corresponded over the years and I visited just once, after my mission. Whilst there I showed great interest in my Croatian roots and with my father’s help I gathered a lot of our family history, which pleased him greatly. So you see he was my accomplice in the temple work I did for my family.

I didn’t see my parents for 20 years before they passed away. I had their temple work done…….except for one ordinance. I was never sealed to them. For some reason, I didn’t feel the spiritual connection with them and could not see my father as someone who would accept the Gospel. The temple work I did for them was perfunctory. I did it out of duty.

And then ‘the turning of my heart happened’….. 15 years later. Suddenly I started thinking about my father. I was his favourite child and the magnitude of the pain I caused him when I left home bore heavily on me. I cried day after day….and I would plead in my prayers that he be told how sorry I am that I hurt him. I could not understand why after all these years I was sorrowing over that experience of my young life.

Then one day I understood, I was not sealed to my parents. The thought came to me that all that pain was wasted for something I believed in and sacrificed for that would never be ours. It was as if my father was speaking to me. I felt I had dishonoured my parents and basically rejected them and I felt enormous guilt. I made a commitment to get the sealing done. As I did so, the sorrowing left and I was at peace. I knew I had been forgiven.

Sometimes in ‘turning our hearts to our fathers’, some resolutions need to happen and most often than not they involve some form of forgiveness. Some of us hail from dysfunctional families, some from abuse, some from abandonment but all come from flawed humanity.

If something is holding you back from the sealing ordinances, know that forgiveness is the key. It will free and change you and it will replace all the grief that is in your heart with unearthly love.

We cannot be saved without our dead. Elijah was not the only one to appear at the Kirtland Temple. The Saviour came too, in acceptance of it to impress upon us this truth. To Him our salvation is everything because this is His work and His glory.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: The Lord's Appearance to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery in the Kirtland Temple by Theodore S. Gorka)

TURNING OF THE HEARTS PART 1

 

 

I know something of the turning of the hearts to the fathers.

 

I struggled with a sense of powerlessness most of my life. I knew instinctively that this is not who I really am but the feeling persisted for most of my adulthood which led me to struggle with feelings of inadequacy.

 

I came to a realisation at one stage that this weakness had come to me from many generations of my family. I come from a long line of poor oppressed European peasants who had lived under the oppression of feudalism followed by socialism, the oppression which drummed into them that they could never rise above their station in life.

 

I had seen this mentality of powerlessness perpetrated in my family throughout my childhood and early adulthood in Europe. I have known my family's negative thoughts and their beliefs that influenced their lives and invited suffering.

 

From the time my family immigrated to Australia when I was 14,  and the Gospel came into my life, I could not understand why I was born into my family. I am the different one, the one that seeks and knows and loves God.

 

One day some years ago my frustration over my life which I felt was controlled by this sense of powerlessness sent me to my knees where through bitter tears I spat out to God that I hated my family and all the generations I have come from; that I hated who they were and what they had saddled me with. I felt I could not rise…..

 

I had never expressed such venomous thoughts before, to myself or to others, let alone to God. I begged to understand why I was sent into this family and why I carried their burden.  Within half an hour of my prayer, my heart and mind were flooded with immense understanding.

 

When the Saviour said 'my sheep hear my voice' (John 10:27) he was referring to those who are so spiritually advanced and who, because of it, recognise and wholeheartedly embrace the truth when it is presented to them. Bruce R. McConkie taught that this is a spiritual gift that was developed in pre-existence (Mormon Doctrine, p 81).

 

I count myself as one of His sheep. I was brought up in a strong Catholic community but I wanted to know God and I found the religion of my youth inadequate. I was 16 years of age when I sought and immediately accepted the Gospel into my life.

 

What has all this got to do with my ancestors? It has everything to do with our hearts being turned to our fathers. It was given to me to understand that those who are His sheep are often sent to families who need a spiritual shepherd. Someone who will, through their belief, give strength to those who need to be saved from their disbelief.

 

I understood through my revelation that what once was a physical oppression of my ancestors had become a spiritual one. How could a people who were made to believe that they could never rise above their station in this life, ever believe that they could rise to such a great station as godhood? When I understood this my heart was ‘turned’ to my fathers.

 

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve said that not only has God made the priesthood promises to the ancient patriarchs through which the nations of the earth will be blessed but that we “undoubtedly made them to our own lineal fathers and mothers, those who came to earth before the gospel was restored but whom we promised to provide its saving ordinances” (Christ and the New Covenant 1977, p. 297)

 

My patriarchal blessing tells me that I made a great promise in my pre-existence and that many of those spirits who were with me rejoiced when by my own testimony I fulfilled that ‘vow’ when I entered the waters of baptism. I know that vow was a promise to my fathers that I would make available to them the saving ordinances of the Gospel which would remove their stumbling block of disbelief. I know that I was chosen to be an under-shepherd in my family.

 

Oh the great mercies of our God!!! The mere ways of His wisdom are too overwhelming to contemplate! Who can comprehend His great works and means by which He saves and exalts His children??? And who can comprehend the path His Beloved Son willingly paved to bring all the sheep home…..to save every soul in His keep??? Surely every knee will bow and every tongue confess that He is the Christ, the Holy One of God in whom all mercy, power and glory belongs!

 

See Father, I brought home the sheep!
I did all that I could
To guard them in my keep.
They come to You Father
In whose arms they belong,
They come to You,
Whom they loved all along.

 

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Finding the One by Liz Lemon Swindle)

THE PROMISES

 

I often see a close and loving family outside the Church and wonder how they will feel after this life, unconnected with no ties throughout eternity. Some of them will never join the Church in this life.

Herein is the mercy of our God….

When angel Moroni visited Joseph Smith on 21 September 1823, he told him of an important part of the restoration that will take place 13 years later. He told Joseph that the sealing power of the Priesthood will be restored to the earth by the hand of Elijah the prophet who will ‘plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to the fathers, and the hearts of the children shall turn to their fathers’ (D&C 2:2)

This sealing power comes in two parts. The first part is the planting into our hearts the promises made to the fathers: “Who are the fathers? They are Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to whom the promises were made. What are the promises? They are the promises of a continuation of the family unit in eternity” (Bruce R. McConkie, The Millenial Messiah: The Second Coming of the Son of Man [1982], 267l; see also D&C 27:10; Doctrine and Covenants Student Manual commentary for D&C 2:2).

The second part is the turning of our hearts to our own ancient fathers. Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve said that not only has God made these promises to the ancient patriarchs but that we “undoubtedly made them to our own lineal fathers and mothers, those who came to earth before the gospel was restored but whom we promised to provide its saving ordinances” (Christ and the New Covenant 1977, p. 297)

So it is through this sealing power and the saving ordinances we provide for our kindred dead that we inherit the promises of the Abrahamic Covenant. If not, the creation of this earth would be utterly wasted “as a sealed, united, celestially saved family of God is the ultimate purpose of mortality”. (Jeffrey R. Holland, Christ and the New Covenant, p 297-98)

But the earth’s purpose will not be 'utterly wasted' at the Saviour's coming (D&C 2:3) because the sealing power of the priesthood was restored to the earth by Elijah in the Kirtland Temple in 1836 through Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery.

The spirit of Elijah whispers to Church members and non-members alike in the world today who are desperately seeking their roots. Even the ones who don’t know why, will one day give thanks to the God of this universe who made the family ties eternal and preserved the love that binds us together, now and forever…..

 

Your life has come and gone

But your footprints remain

And your blood courses through my veins.

Because of God’s eternal grace

We will once again embrace.

I weep not that we are now apart,

For I carry you with me,

I carry you in my heart.

 

-  CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Elijah Appearing in the Kirtland Temple by Dan Lewis)

ROOT AND BRANCH

 

During His visit to the Americas the Saviour quoted two prolific prophets from the Old Testament. We usually focus and remember His references to Isaiah but  equally important are His quotations of Malachi.

Who can forget Malachi’s four iconic teachings:

·        Comparing the Saviour to a ‘refiner and purifier of silver’ in that great day when He comes to judge the world, to cleanse us through His Atonement like ‘fuller’s soap’ and prepare us to stand pure and spotless before the judgment seat (Malachi 3:2-3; 3 Nephi 24:2-3; D&C 128:24; see also Mormon Doctrine, 2^nd ed [1966], 624);

·        The promise that payment of tithing and offerings can open the windows of heaven and pour out revelation from God on the faithful who are willing to so sacrifice (Malachi 3:10; The Teachings of Harold B. Lee, ed. Clyde J Williams [1966], 206);

·        The promise that you can become a jewel in God’s crown if you remain faithful and thus have your name recorded in the book of remembrance (Malachi 3:16,17);

·        And this great promise: the great Elijah who would come to restore the priesthood keys that would seal families together and allow them to be complete – both root (ancestors) and branch (posterity) (Malachi 4:5,6). If not so, the purpose of this earth which was created for exaltation of human families would come to naught and the whole earth be wasted.

Imagine the tragedy of this:

In a Church general conference Elder Rudger Clawson of the Quorum of the Twelve related a marvellous manifestation received by one faithful Salt Lake Temple worker in which the status of married couples in the spirit prison who have not been sealed for eternity in a temple was revealed:

Upon one occasion I saw in vision my father and mother who were not members of the Church, who had not received the gospel in life, and I discovered that they were living separate and apart in the spirit world, and when I asked them how it was that they were so, my father said, "This is an enforced separation, and you are the only individual who can bring us together.  You can do this work.  Will you do it? - meaning that he should go to the House of the Lord and there officiate for his parents who were dead, and by the ordinance of sealing bring them together and unite them in the family relation beyond the veil.

"Temple Manifestations"  p. 77, 89, 131

"The story of Elijah's return can be found in D&C 110.  Obviously, there is no need to wait for him any longer.  This became the subject of conversation between Elder LeGrand Richards and the Mayor of Jerusalem, Teddy Kollek.  Elder Richards had just dedicated the Orson Hyde Memorial Garden on the Mount of Olives.  After the ceremony, the two conversed as they ate their lunch:

Elder Richards said:  "Mayor, I want to tell you something".

"What's that?" asked the Mayor.

Looking Mayor Kollek directly in the eye, the apostle said:

"Ten years ago I was here in Jerusalem and one day I went into three synagogues and hanging up on the wall in one of them was a large armchair.  I asked the rabbi what it was there for (I knew but I wanted him to tell me, which he did).  He said that it was so that if Elijah comes 'we can lower the chair and let him sit in it'.  Now Mayor, I want to tell you something and what I tell you is the truth.  Elijah has already been.  On the third day of April 1836 he appeared to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery in the Kirtland Temple".

The Mayor said:

"I guess I better tell them to take that chair down."

(LeGrand Richards, Beloved Apostle, p.301)

- CATHRYNE ALLEN 

(Art: Elijah Appearing in the Kirtland Temple by Dan Lewis)

MY FATHER'S GIFT

 

One cannot help but reflect on fathers on Father's Day.....my father gave me a priceless gift. He gave me the Gospel.

When he was just a youth growing up in a poor peasant household in the tiny republic of Croatia, my father rejected the expected role of the oldest son to remain on family land to inherit it along with care of his parents. He chose instead a trade at the expense of his father's displeasure and rejection....a trade which enabled our family to move to a city life when I was 3. This heroic move of my father's led him to seek a better life for his children.....a path which brought me and my sister to a land of more opportunity, Australia. Had my father not been brave enough to forsake the poor life of peasantry, I would most likely be there still. 

I am convinced that my father was spiritually led to bring me to a country where I could receive the greatest opportunity of all: the opportunity to seek eternal life through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is here that in my youth, I joined the Church and found Him who has given me salvation and given my life true meaning.

I have reflected recently on my forefathers, the ones that gave me my Israelite, Croatian roots and my heart is filled with love and gratitude this day for these men who I barely know. May we be grateful for the ancestors we hail from and whose earthly marks we bear. They are more a part of us and our lives than we realise......I offer my gratitude for my forefathers' personal sacrifices and the lives that they led so that I could be......until we meet at Jesus's feet.

Your life has come and gone

But your footprints remain

And your blood courses through my veins.

I know your smile and your frown

Though we have never met,

They are worn by my children

As gems in family diadem;

You are the root

That reaches the branches,

I am the stem that paves the way.

- CATHRYNE ALLEN

A GLIMPSE UPWARD

I have carried with me a sense of powerlessness my whole adult life. I know I did not bring this with me from my pre-existance because I know instinctly this is not who I am. I am not a powerless person yet the sense of powerlessness has been the bane of my life and has held me back from my fullest potential and greater success in this life.  I consider my spiritual life well developed but anything of temporal nature has been a struggle for me and fulfillment in many ways has eluded me. This sense of powerlessness has damaged my self-esteem and robbed me of self-belief to the point that I have many times felt I have been a failure in my life. Recently the frustration of this noose around my neck reached its peak.

I have known for some time that this weakness had come to me from many generations of my family who were poor oppressed European peasants, that had existed from the time of the feudal system to socialism, and who believed they could never rise above their station in life. I had seen this powerlessness perpetrated in my family throughout my childhood and early adulthood in Europe. I have known my family's thoughts, their false beliefs and their words of affirmations that invited suffering into the lives of my immediate family. From the time that I have received the Gospel in my life, I have not been able to understand why I was born into this lineage. I am the different one, the one that seeks and knows and loves God. The one that has largely departed from my roots. My recent sense of frustration over my life sent me to my knees where through bitter tears I spat out to God that I hated my family and all the generations I have come from; that I hated who they were and what they have saddled me with. I had never expressed such venomous thoughts before, to myself or to others, let alone to God. I begged to understand why I was sent into this family and why I carried their burden.  Within half an hour of my prayer, my heart and mind were flooded with immense understanding.

When the Saviour said  'my sheep hear my voice' (John 10:27) he was referring to those who are so spiritually advanced that they  recognise and wholeheartedly embrace the truth when it is presented to them. Bruce R. McConkie taught it is a spiritual gift that was developed in pre-existance. I was 16 when I sought and immediately accepted the Gospel into my life. I count myself as one of His sheep. What has all this got to do with my ancestors? It was given to me to understand that those who are His sheep are often sent to families who need a spiritual shepherd to help them with their unbelief. I came to understand that the sense of powerlessness in generations of my family had blinded them to a 'hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal' (Moroni 7:41); that what once was a temporal has now become a spiritual stumbling block.  I came to understand that no amount of saving ordinances which I can do here in the temple can do anything for them unless this sense of powerlessness was removed  so they can believe that they can rise to godhood.  I came to understand that my long held desire to bring souls unto Christ had more to do with generations of my family than with any other people I can yield influence over living here during my life time. I came to  understand that it is up to me to eliminate this feeling of powerlessness in my life and therefore eliminate it from generations past and generations to come. This made me understand that what we do and overcome in this life reverberates throughout generations that have been and the generations that are yet to come; that it reverberates through the genetic cord which binds us and unites us in a collective effort to rise to our potential; that what we achieve and overcome here in mortality echoes throughout eternity. I came to understand that we are one and that the power to lift one another to higher ground that we might all become co-heirs with Christ is one of the greatest tender mercies of the Lord.

Living by faith is a hard road. Glimpses into heaven such as these however make the journey bearable and the road illuminated. They propel us upward and above the world. They open our hearts to the witness of the plan of salvation and the reality of our real home. They make us know who we are; that we belong to Him who has loved us and made us free, to Him who has prepared heavenly mansions for our eternal abode; Him who has spiritually begotten us as His sons and daughters; Him who has made the immortality and eternal life of man possible; the Saviour, the Redeemer, the Everlasting Father, the Almighty God, the Son of Righteousness, the Great I Am, the Lord of Glory, the King of Kings, the Stone of Israel. All glory be His forever.

"Hast thou not known?

Hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God,

the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth,

fainteth not, neither is weary? 

There is no fathoming of his understanding.

He giveth power to the faint;

and to them that have no might 

he increaseth strength.

Even the youths shall faint and be weary, 

and the young men shall utterly fall:

But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength;

they shall mount up with wings as eagles;

they shall run, and not be weary;

and they shall walk,

and not faint."

- Isaiah 40:28-31