When my days on earth are done
I'll be lifted above the world below
And I will seek the gilded gate
To welcome me to my eternal home.
I will approach the foot of Father’s throne,
I will kneel and I will weep
When in hope I give Him joy
For eternity to keep.
-
Cathryne
Allen
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(Melvin S. Tagg, The Life of Edward James Wood, an unpublished 1959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
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
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
