All that is unspoken
And all that is unseen
All that I feel
In the depths of my soul
I long to give to Thee.
And all that You ask of me
And all that I am
I will place
On the altar of sacrifice
for Thee.
I give You my all
Because a heart
Can give no more.
-
CATHRYNE
ALLEN
(Artist Unknown)
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.
He hears me when in the
Solitude of my darkest nights
On Him I call.
He hears me when in silence
My heart tries to hide
My fears that I might fall.
He hears me when in crowds
My mind wanders and doubts
Begin their insidious call.
He hears me whether
I cry to Him or not
Because He knows my very soul,
He knows it all.
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
The most
important part of Elijah’s mission was the Melchizedek Priesthood sealing power
by which things that are bound or loosed on earth are bound or loosed in heaven
(D&C 128:8-18). He was the last prophet to have this power before the time
of Jesus Christ.
He appeared
on the Mount of Transfiguration with Moses and conferred the keys of this priesthood
on Peter, James and John (Matt 17:3). He appeared again, with Moses and others,
on April 3, 1836, in the Kirtland Ohio Temple and conferred the same keys upon Joseph
Smith and Oliver Cowdery (D&C 110:13-16). It is for this purpose that he
did not taste death. This was the second part of his earthly mission.
Elijah’s
ascension into heaven on a chariot of fire is one of the most endearing
accounts in the Old Testament. Elisha’s grief at the parting is heart rendering.
As he cried after him, calling him ‘father’, he rent his clothes into pieces in
his distress (2 Kings 2:11,12).
There is a
significant connection between Elijah’s mission and the planet we presently
live on. When Moroni delivered his message to Joseph Smith, he said that the earth
would be wasted if Elijah didn’t come to restore the sealing power (D&C
2:2-3). Malachi goes so far as to say that if it were so, the Lord would smite
the earth with a curse at His coming (Malachi 4:5).
Our Mother
Earth which gave us physical birth (Moses 2:7) was foreordained and consecrated
to establish on its face a family system patterned after the order of heaven
and to become the future celestial abode of exalted sons and daughters of God. She
also has a mission to accomplish like the rest of us.
Had Elijah
not come to restore the sealing priesthood power to bind us together, the earth
would not have accomplished its foreordained purpose and would not have been
able to answer the end of its creation. All men and women would be forever
without root and branch, meaning without ancestry and posterity that would
otherwise extend into eternity.
Enoch
learnt from his encounter with Mother Earth that she had a soul as deep as the
river. Grief came over him and made him
weep when he heard her call us her children and witnessed her mourn over our
wickedness (Moses 7:48). So overcome was Enoch at her suffering that he asked
God three times, ‘’when shall the earth rest” (v 49,54,58).
You think
the earth has no soul? Consider how she groaned when the Son of Man was lifted
up and all nature suffered at the death of its creator (Moses 7:56; 1 Nephi 19:
12). Imagine this big beautiful perfect planet, the workmanship of God’s hands,
with a soul as tender and real as you and I, utterly wasted at Christ’s
coming…..Imagine how Father Adam and Mother Eve would feel to see this earth
wasted after they paved the way for humanity by ‘the sweat of their brow’
(Moses 5:1). We think we have it hard…..we don’t even have to slice our bread…
When the
end comes, this earth will be celestialized and crowned with the Father’s
presence to be an eternal abode for those who will accept the sacrifice of His
Beloved Son who was lifted upon the cross of redemption so that we can return
to live with Him on this Mother Earth forever (D&C 88:17-20).
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
When
You rose from Your grave
With
healing in Your wings,
Did
I live on in Your heart
As
you ascended to Your throne
To
seal my destiny?
Did
You carry us all in Your bosom
With
the crucible of the cross
Forever
etched in Your memory?
-
CATHRYNE ALLEN
Elijah was
called to preach repentance to one of the most evil kings of Israel. Not
only did King Ahab walk in the footsteps of his predecessor Jeroboam who turned
Israel to idolatry but he did one better than that, he married Jezebel, the
daughter of king of Sidonia, who worshipped Baal. Ahab turned worship of Baal
into the state religion and 'did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to
anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him' (1 Kings 16:33)
Baal, a Phoenician
deity of the Canaanites, worshipped as the god of storm who they believed had
power over water, is mentioned in the Old Testament 58 times. Because the
Canaanite vegetation was rich and the soil fertile, many Israelites were
deceived into thinking the Canaanite god Baal regulated the water supply needed
for the soil.
It is no
wonder then that Elijah, as a fitting punishment to Israel who worshipped Baal
believing he sent water to enrich their pastures and ensure their crops, sealed
up the heavens for three and a half years. You would think that during three
and a half years of drought, worshipping a god who was supposed to be a god of
water and rain, Israel would come to their senses and realise they were on the
wrong track but this did not happen. Sometimes I think we operate in mortality
on the intelligence level called stupidity.
From the
time of his proclaimed drought on the kingdom of Israel, Elijah was a wanted
man and spent much of his time in hiding. So severe had the drought become that
Ahab searched for him far and wide, among all nations, blaming him for the
misfortune that had befallen his kingdom (1 Kings 18:10). All the nations and
kingdoms Ahab searched had to swear an oath that they were not hiding him and
whoever reported seeing him would be executed if Elijah was not there by the
time Ahab's search party arrived (1 Kings 18:12).
Sealing the
heavens began Elijah's life on the run dotted with miracles. He was guided in
all his wanderings by the God of Israel who preserved his life. When the time
came for God to show forth his power by lifting the drought, Elijah was
instructed to return to Israel where he engaged in the most outlandish contest
with the false prophets of Baal who failed to show forth his power in igniting
the sacrifice they were offering.
And how did
the priests of Baal do? Their greatest offering was cutting themselves ‘till
blood gushed out upon them’ crying to their god for rain (1 Kings 18:28). One
ancient author recorded a similar scene he observed in Gaza in Roman times:
“They danced
along the streets to the sound of wild music, holding huge swords and bills,
with whips for scouring themselves….they flew wildly one past the other: their
heads sunk low towards the earth, as they turned in circles: their loose hair
dragging through the dust. Presently they began to bite their arms, and next to
hack themselves with the two edged swords they carried…..one of them, the
leader in this frenzy, commenced to prophesy, with sighs and groans, lamenting
aloud his past sins, which he would now avenge by the chastisement of his
flesh. He then took the knotted whip and lashed his back, cutting himself also
with his sword till the blood ran down.”
(Cunningham Geikie, Hours with the Bible, 3:399-400)
There is
only one deranged entity who would inspire such an ungodly practice and
persuade people of a sound mind to believe this could pass as a form of worship…..and
we all know who that is.
Elijah,
however, drew the hosts of Israel to him so they could properly see, repaired
the altar of the Lord that had been torn down with 12 stones signifying the 12
tribes of Israel and saturated the wood and the sacrificial animal with four
barrels of water, three times. He then appealed to Jehovah to show that He is
the true God of Israel (1 Kings 18:37). Of course, the fire came down and
consumed the whole altar with the surplus water that was in the surrounding
trench (1 Kings 18:30-39). He then instructed the astonished Israelites to
capture all 450 prophets of Baal, took them to the brook Kishon and slew them
there (1 Kings 18:22,40). Now that’s a man of conviction!
Because of
his un-daunting faith in the God of Israel, Elijah was blessed with power over
water like Moses and Joshua and divided river Jordan prior to his ascension
into heaven, never to taste death (2 Kings 2:6-11).
- CATHRYNE ALLEN
(Art by AI)
As the stars in heaven
That burn with everlasting light
So is my love that burns for Thee
On the altar of my heart.
-
Cathryne Allen
