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 (Melvin S. Tagg, The Life of Edward James Wood, an unpublished 1959 Brigham Young University Master’s Thesis, pp 107-108)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 

WHEN WE LOSE A LOVED ONE

While delivering an inspired discourse at the Salt Lake Tabernacle on Sunday, October 4, 1896, President Wilford Woodruff stated that while labouring in the St. George Temple, he had learned a new principle of the gospel pertaining to the redemption of the dead:

While in the St. George Temple I had a son, who was in the north country, drowned.  He was 21 years of age, and was a faithful young man.  He had a warning of this.  In a dream he was notified how he would die.  We had a testimony of that after his death.  I asked the Lord why he was taken from me.  The answer to me was, "You are doing a great deal for the redemption of your dead; but the law of redemption requires some of your own seed in the spirit world to attend to work connected with this".  That was a new principle to me; but it satisfied me why he was taken away.  I name this, because there are a great many instances like it among the Latter-day Saints.

Marriner Wood Merrill was a member of the Council of the Twelve Apostles from 1889 and Logan Temple President from 1884 to 1906.  Often his excessive temple labours fatigued him, which was later compounded by the death of one son, whose sudden passing Apostle Merrill could not reconcile.  Finally, on one evening following his exhaustive temple work, the Logan Temple President received a visit from his deceased son from the spirit world as recounted by President Heber J Grant:

He once told me that he could not reconcile himself to the death of his son Marriner, who had had charge of practically all his financial affairs, as he gave so much of his time to the Temple, until he received a manifestation in which Marriner seemed to be in the room with him, although not seen, and spoke to his father and said: "Pa, I am where the Lord wants me to be.  I am doing work of more importance than I would be on earth, and it is not pleasing to the Lord for you to grieve as you are doing over my death".  He said this reconciled him to the loss.

In a Church general conference 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

 

 

 

SAVIOURS ON MOUNT ZION

Despite the fact that the forces of evil raged against the saints during the construction of the Salt Lake Temple, marvellous spiritual manifestations continued to attend those who laboured there.  One such labourer at the House of God received such a manifestation:

In the fall and winter of 1892-1893 I worked at painting in the Salt Lake Temple.  Although sick, I felt strongly impressed to go and do my very best.

At noon the third day after beginning, President Woodruff called all of the workmen together.  He said he had been told that some of the workmen had stated that it would be impossible to have the temple completed by April 6th.  he said when he looked at this body of men he didn't believe a word of it.  "Some of you may be sick and weak", (I thought he was talking to me) he continued, "Some of you may give out at night, but you will be here in the morning if you are faithful.  You are not here by accident.  You were ordained in the Eternal World to perform this work.  Brethren, I will be here April 6th to dedicate this building.  I know what I am talking about for this was shown me in a vision 50 years ago in the city of Boston".

Along 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 known 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.

As I sat pondering upon what I had seen and heard, with my hear filled with thanks and gratitude to God, the door opened again and my brother Alexander walked in and sat down in the chair that Alfred had just occupied.  He had died in 1852 in New Zealand.  I did the work for both he and Father in April 1885.  he had come from a different sphere, he looked more like an angel as his countenance was beautiful to look upon.  With a very pleasant smile he said, "Fred, I have come to thank you for doing my work for me; but you did not go quite far enough", and he paused.  Suddenly it was shown to me in large characters, "no man without the woman and no woman without the man in the Lord".

 

 

"Temple Manifestations", page 128

IN THE PALM OF HIS HAND

 

Elder John Mickelson Lang, a temple workers in the St. George Temple, received the following manifestation in the sacred structure in 1928:

One day while baptismal rites were being performed, I distinctly heard a voice at the east end of the font, very close to the ceiling calling the names of the dead to witness their own baptism, allowing a moment for each spirit to present itself.  After hearing many names called, I noticed a difference in the pronunciation of some of them.  It seemed that the spirit who was calling must have a different list to ours.  I was so impressed at the time that I placed my arm about the shoulders of Brother W.T. Morris, clerk, who was passing, and called his attention tot he sound of the voice, but it was not discernible to him.

This occurrence had taken place in March of 1928, and it continued to prey upon my mind for some months, until one day in October I had gone to an upper room of the Temple, as was my custom, to offer secret prayer, asking for the assistance of God in my work, and to thank Him for showing me that there was a recording angel in His house, to keep a perfect record of that which transpired.  I had finished my prayer and was about to leave the room when the question flashed through my mind, "But where and how does He get these names?  Some of them were not pronounced the same as ours".

God knew my thoughts; I never asked of Him to know.  The explanation came to me in these words:
"Every spirit that comes to earth has a guardian angel, whose duty it is to keep a record of the individual's parentage, the conditions under which it was born, its inheritance, environment, thoughts and desires, and when the individual's life is completed, the guardian angel's mission ends.  It returns, makes its report and hands in the record it has kept.  This record is placed upon the other book, spoken of as The Book of Life".

All this gave me to understand that in this other book is preserved the names and perfect dates of every spirit that ever came to earth. 

It is also made plain therein, how all things will be proved by two or three witnesses; for instance, in case a child is left on a doorstep, the guardian angel of the child, that of the father and of the mother constitute three witnesses to the child's parentage.  There are two witnesses to all things which transpire between any two persons.  Also, God can give into the Temples a perfect record of the Lamanites, for instance, or any other people who have no earth record.

God is perfect.  His record is perfect.  We will be judged from the books.

I bear record that this testimony is true for I received it from an angel in the house of the Lord.

 

 

 

 

THE WORK OF SALVATION

President Joseph F. Smith, the 6th president of the Church, received an important revelation about the redemption of the dead 6 weeks before he died.  He saw in vision the Saviour's ministry in the spirit world where between the time of his crucifixion and resurrection 'he organised his forces and appointed messengers, clothed with power and authority, and commissioned them to go forth and carry the light of the gospel to them that were in darkness, even to all the spirits of men, and thus was the gospel preached to the dead'. (D&C 138:30)

Every prophet that stands at the head of the Church seems to have a certain task to perform during their ministry, a task that seems very suited to their capacities and talents.  They have all been instruments in God's hands in bringing something significant to the Church for the edification of the saints.  Perhaps none deserved to receive the revelation of the redemption of the dead more than President Joseph F. Smith. 

Joseph F. Smith was Hyrum Smith's son and was only 6 when his father and his uncle, Joseph Smith, were killed in Carthage jail.  He was 7 when his mother, Mary Fielding Smith and her family joined the exodus from Nauvoo and he became the teamster of one of her wagons.  He was 13 when his mother died, leaving him an orphan.  Before he turned 16, he left on a mission to the Hawaiian Islands.  Within three months after arriving in Honolulu, he spoke the native tongue fluently, a spiritual gift conferred upon him by Elders Parley P. Pratt and Orson Hyde of the Twelve, who set him apart.  This boy was not yet 16!  Consider what the 16 year olds in our day and age are doing at such a tender age.  When he was 21, Joseph F. Smith left for another mission, this time for three years in the British Isles.  When he was 28, President Brigham Young ordained him an Apostle. This was one of the special spirits chosen for the express purpose of building the kingdom here on earth. His story doesn't end here though.  This man was acquainted with the poignant pains of physical suffering and death.  Death seemed to be his trial in life as he not only lost his parents but buried a wife and 13 children.  In early 1918 President Smith was devastated by the death of his son Hyrum, then only 45 and serving as an Apostle.  Only a few months after that Hyrum's wife also passed away.  President Smith's health turned for the worse after that.  He was sick for 5 months during which time he studied  and contemplated the scriptures fervently.  The revelation of the redemption was the result and was received 6 weeks before he died.  It was added to the Pearl of Great Price in 1976 and in 1979 was transferred to the Doctrine and Covenants as section 138.

We are engaged in a great work.  Proxy work is being accomplished on both sides of the veil for the redemption of every soul who has ever lived.  On either side of the veil we are acting on behalf of the Saviour trying to save souls, whether we are preaching in the spirit world to those who are in darkness or whether we are doing their temple work here by proxy.  Either way we are Saviours on mount Zion. What an amazing privilege to be able to save a soul.  President Hinckley said as follows:

" I think that vicarious work for the dead more nearly approaches the vicarious sacrifice of the Saviour himself than any other work of which I know.  It is given with love, without hope of compensation, or repayment or anything of the kind.  What a glorious principle." ("Excerpts from Recent Addresses of President Gordon B. Hinckley", Ensign, Jan. 1998, 73)

Knowledge is pretty much worthless unless acted upon.  It can sit in our brains as nothing more than accumulated data.  I am starting to see my role in all this and where I need to improve.  My temple attendance is going to be heavily revised.  I want to be found there engaged in the work of salvation when the Saviour graces us with His presence again.  I know I was a part of this great work before I came here and I want to be engaged in it for the remainder of my days.

President Kimball said this of Temple work:

"The day is coming not too far ahead of us when all temples on this earth will be going day and night.  There will be shifts and people will be coming in the morning hours and in the night hours and in the day hours....day and night almost to exhaustion, because of the importance of the work and the great number of people who lie asleep in eternity..."(From You to Your Ancestors, Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, 1978, p.2)

 

ELIJAH IN OUR HEARTS

When the angel Moroni came to Joseph Smith, he said that Elijah would 'plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to the fathers" (D&C 2:2)  The fathers in this instance refers to our ancestors, namely the ancient fathers: Adam, Noah,  Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  The promises made to them have to do with the Abrahamic Covenant and are namely eternal promises of land and children and blessings of the priesthood.  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)

Why are these promises so important?  Because without the blessings of the priesthood our time on this earth would be wasted.  What are the blessings of the priesthood?  Saving ordinances and sealing power which binds families together.  One of the primary purposes of life on earth is to establish eternal family relationships.  Without the sealing power, this would be impossible.  Elder Jeffrey R. Holland taught that without the sealing power, "no family ties would exist in the eternities, and indeed the family of man would have been left in eternity with 'neither root (ancestors) nor branch (descendants)'.  Inasmuch as ... a sealed, united, celestially saved family of God is the ultimate purpose of mortality, any failure here would have been a curse indeed, rendering the entire plan of salvation utterly wasted". (Christ and the New Covenant, p 297-98)

But our time on this earth and the plan of salvation 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 through the Prophet Joseph Smith in the Kirtland Temple in 1836.

"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."
(Beloved Apostle, p.301)

 It has always amazed me that people all over the world are infected with the family history fever, seeking out their ancestors and finding their roots.  But we need not be amazed for this is the spirit of Elijah at its work.  The world at large knows very little of proxy work for the dead but we know and we must act in haste for the time is getting so short.  This message comes out loud and clear through the leaders of the Church over and over again.  Elder Neal A. Maxwell has said this regarding family history:

"What we do here is so vital, but it is actually a preparation for our labours in paradise in the spirit world.  The scope in that spirit world is ten times as large as the demographics of this world."
("Our Preparation for Work in the Spirit World", excerpt from Neal A. Maxwell's address to Religious Educators: Salt Lake Tabernacle, 2 February 2001)

There is another aspect of the spirit of Elijah which affects us on daily basis within our families.  In a world full of violence where families are turning on each other we need this spirit now more than ever before.  Elder James E. Faust talked about this spirit in April 1993 conference:

"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, May Ensign 1993)

Studying about family history this time around has brought me to a wider view of this work.  This is not just gathering of names and learning about your ancestors.  This is about uniting the whole of the human family, the work of the plan of salvation.  The Saviour has made all this possible.  He has not left us subject to the sting of death but has redeemed us both body and soul through one amazing selfless act.

"For this is my work and my glory - to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man"
(Moses 1:39)

THE BEGINNING OF A GREAT WORK

President Wilford Woodruff was the Church President who ushered in the most marvellous work in this dispensation, that of family history. During the 1894 general conference he announced that he had received a revelation about genealogical work.  He said:

"We want Latter-day Saints from this time to trace their genealogies as far as they can, and to be sealed to their fathers and mothers.  Have children sealed to their parents, and run this chain through as far as you can get it. This is the will of the Lord to his people. 

"In my prayers the Lord revealed to me, that it was my duty to say to all Israel to carry this principle out, and in fulfilment of that revelation, I lay it before this people.  I say to all men who are labouring in these temples, carry out this principle, and then we shall make one step in advance of what we have had before." (Deseret Evening News, May 19, 1894)

President Woodruff had a great love for this work which might have commenced with a remarkable experience he had in the St. George Temple where he served for a time as its' President.  It was in this temple that endowments for the dead were performed for the first time in this dispensation.

"In 1887, Elder Woodruff was appointed as the first president of the St. George Temple.  Here he experienced some marvellous manifestations.  It was in this temple that the signers of the Declaration of Independence appeared to him and requested that their temple work be done. 

"The spirits of the dead gathered around me, wanting to know why we did not redeem them.  Said they, 'You have had the use of the Endowment House for a number of years, and yet nothing has ever been done for us.  We laid the foundation of the government you now enjoy, and we...remained true to it and were faithful to God'.  These were the signers of the Declaration of Independence (of the United States of America) and they waited on me for two days and two nights...I straightway went into the baptismal font and called upon Brother McAllister to baptize me for the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and fifty other eminent men, making one hundred in all, including John Wesley, Columbus and others". (The Discourses of Wilford Woodruff, sel. G. Homer Durham (1946), 160-61)  He was also baptized for every president of the United States until that time except three." (Church News May 1, 1993)

From 1885 to 1900, many Church members served genealogical missions.  They were invited to Salt Lake City to receive a blessing for their mission from a General Authority.  They were also provided with a missionary card and a letter of appointment.  They visited relatives, recorded names from gravestones, and studied parish records and family Bibles, returning to their homes with valuable information that allowed temple work to be performed.  Many missionaries reported spiritual experiences that gave them the firm assurance that the Lord was with them and often directed them to a needed source or relative.  (Our Heritage, A Brief History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-
day Saints, p 101-2)

You hear many amazing experiences in the Church from members who are heavily involved in family history but none is more amazing than that of Wilford Woodruff who was visited by the founding fathers.  These were faithful, God fearing men who provided the foundation of faith in God on which America stands.  I have always admired them and rejoice in  knowing that the temple ordinances have been done for them.