D&C 110:
13 After this vision had closed, another great and glorious vision burst upon us; for Elijah the prophet, who was taken to heaven without tasting death, stood before us, and said:
14 Behold, the time has fully come, which was spoken of by the mouth of Malachi—testifying that he [Elijah] should be sent, before the great and dreadful day of the Lord come—
15 To turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the children to the fathers, lest the whole earth be smitten with a curse—
16 Therefore, the keys of this dispensation are committed into your hands; and by this ye may know that the great and dreadful day of the Lord is near, even at the doors. (Emphasis Added)
3Nephi Chapter 24
1 AND it came to pass that he commanded them that they should write the words which the Father had given unto Malachi, which he should tell unto them. And it came to pass that after they were written he expounded them. . . (Emphasis Added)
The Nephites, of course, did not have the prophecies of Malachi because he was born and served his ministry after Father Lehi had left Jerusalem in 600 BC. Malachi's prophecies therefore could not have been recorded on the Plates of Brass which their ancestor, Lehi, brought with him when he journeyed to the Western Hemisphere.
In my next post I will deal with some of that which Malachi taught that is recorded in 3 Nephi 24. For now we will deal with what is recorded in the following chapter of 3 Nephi:
Book of Mormon, 3 Nephi Chapter 25 Chapter Heading: At the Second Coming the proud and wicked shall be burned as stubble—Elijah shall return before that great and dreadful day—Compare Malachi 4. About A.D. 34
1 FOR behold, the day cometh that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of Hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
2 But unto you that fear my name, shall the Son of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth and grow up as calves in the stall.
3 And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of Hosts.
4 Remember ye the law of Moses, my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.
5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord;
6 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. (Emphasis Added)
The key words of that scripture above, which from my point of view, fit TODAY'S THEME, I have marked in red.
President Joseph F. Smith of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in 1918
Now I'd like to allow you to learn more on this subject. Please click on the scriptural link below after reading the following instructions.
When the scripture is on your screen, please scroll up and click on the word, Listen, which you will see on the upper left hand side of your computer screen. When you hear the voice reading the words of the scripture you can click on the minus (-) sign you will see on the Audio Window which has come onto your screen, so it will be removed and be non-distracting. After you have finished reading and listening to this chapter, please click on the white left arrow in a blue background. This will bring you back to this post.
D&C 138:1-60
There are things I desire to comment on about which you have just read and listened to. The prophet Joseph F. Smith who received that revelation from the Lord Jesus Christ, was a nephew to Joseph Smith, Jr. the first prophet of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in what can be referred to as the "Latter-days."
What was taught in that scripture can give all of us bright hope which could remove our concern about family members we feel died without being qualified to be raised in the resurrection of the righteous about which Alma, the Nephite Prophet, taught us in my just previous post. That which you have just read in D&C 138 is surely calculated to turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers.
That concern mentioned in the previous paragraph may possibly be extended to yourselves and your living family members. All of you can still be taught the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ and become members of His authorized church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and then seek to have the priesthood ordinances (such as baptism and granting the Gift of the Holy Ghost) done for your deceased ancestors.
D&C 138:
19 And there he (Jesus Christ) preached to them the everlasting gospel, the doctrine of the resurrection and the redemption of mankind from the fall, and from individual sins on conditions of repentance.
20 But unto the wicked he did not go, and among the ungodly and the unrepentant who had defiled themselves while in the flesh, his voice was not raised;
21 Neither did the rebellious who rejected the testimonies and the warnings of the ancient prophets behold his presence, nor look upon his face.
22 Where these were, darkness reigned, but among the righteous there was peace;
23 And the saints rejoiced in their redemption, and bowed the knee and acknowledged the Son of God as their Redeemer and Deliverer from death and the chains of hell.
24 Their countenances shone, and the radiance from the presence of the Lord rested upon them, and they sang praises unto his holy name.
25 I marveled, for I understood that the Savior spent about three years in his ministry among the Jews and those of the house of Israel, endeavoring to teach them the everlasting gospel and call them unto repentance;
26 And yet, notwithstanding his mighty works, and miracles, and proclamation of the truth, in great power and authority, there were but few who hearkened to his voice, and rejoiced in his presence, and received salvation at his hands.
27 But his ministry among those who were dead was limited to the brief time intervening between the crucifixion and his resurrection;
28 And I wondered at the words of Peter—wherein he said that the Son of God preached unto the spirits in prison, who sometime were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah—and how it was possible for him to preach to those spirits and perform the necessary labor among them in so short a time.
29 And as I wondered, my eyes were opened, and my understanding quickened, and I perceived that the Lord went not in person among the wicked and the disobedient who had rejected the truth, to teach them;
30 But behold, from among the righteous, he organized 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.
31 And the chosen messengers went forth to declare the acceptable day of the Lord and proclaim liberty to the captives who were bound, even unto all who would repent of their sins and receive the gospel.
32 Thus was the gospel preached to those who had died in their sins, without a knowledge of the truth, or in transgression, having rejected the prophets.
33 These were taught faith in God, repentance from sin, vicarious baptism for the remission of sins, the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands,
34 And all other principles of the gospel that were necessary for them to know in order to qualify themselves that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.
35 And so it was made known among the dead, both small and great, the unrighteous as well as the faithful, that redemption had been wrought through the sacrifice of the Son of God upon the cross. (Emphasis and clarification Added)
As we just learned from this revelation, your deceased family members and all your ancestors can be taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ by His representatives on the other side of the veil.
If you have personally received all the necessary Gospel ordinances (such as baptism by immersion) yourselves, you can do your deceased loved ones' ordinances for them on their behalf, or you can allow Temple worthy LDS members you may or may not know personally, do these ordinances on their behalf. We call these: vicarious temple ordinances.
There most likely is an LDS Temple (often referred to as The House of the Lord) available not too far from where you live. There are according to my count, 146 temples throughout the earth, including those presently under construction and those which are in the planning stages. Please click on this link to access a directory map which will assist you in finding the nearest temple to where you live in the world.
http://www.lds.org/temples/geographical/0,11380,1899-1,00.html
The revelation (D&C 138) you read today significantly adds directly to the pertinent information given by the Book of Mormon prophet, Alma the Younger regarding the resurrection of the dead which we studied in my just previous post.
I will next tell you about an experience related to the above, my wife and I enjoyed the day before this post was published.
Oquirrh Mountain Utah LDS Temple - South Jordan, Utah
My wife and I along with one of my wife's sons and his wife and three school-aged children, attended an open house of the LDS Church's newest temple, which is shown in the official LDS Temple photo above.
Melva and I have attended other temple open houses and have both witnessed something at this Temple Open House that we also had witnessed at each of the other temple open houses we have attended:
Even the youngest children appeared to sense somehow the special spirit in that holy place. There was no acting out, no rudeness to one another, actually, no crying by any of them.
There were a good number of parents with children of all ages there, some were LDS members but others were not. The guides did not ask for reverence there. It just seemed to come automatically.
The guides were very kind and very willingly answered our questions and helped us with things we needed, like finding an elevator or a restroom. If you had been there with us I'm certain you would have made the same observations as we did. It wasn't the beautiful new temple or the helpful guides that kept everyone peaceful, including young children and babies, it was the spirit that could be actually felt that is a part of that building in some wonderful way.
I have heard others, including non-LDS friends, say the very same thing about the childrens' demeanor, as well of that of the adults, at these open houses. We were being led through the entire structure which took about an hour and a half. This included viewing a video in which LDS leaders explained temple matters.
I am now providing a link to a video entitled:
"Why Mormons Build Temples"
I have provided that video in a recent post, but provide it again in case you missed it and also because it fits in today's post so well. After putting on your ear phones and adjusting your volume control on your computer, please click on the following:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-x_-TQivCx8&feature=channel_page-Change-Remove
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I deeply appreciate your readership and hope you found very beneficial that which was presented to you in this blog post.
If you have any questions about what you have read or viewed in this post or in any previous posts of mine, or if you even have a curiosity about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and or its teachings, please e-mail me. I'm Neil and my e-mail address is: jneilmelva@gmail.com. If you contact me I'll get back to you just as soon as possible.
I invite you to let your friends and relatives know about this blog if you think they would be interested. Please be advised that I also have two additional blogs. One is in Spanish: http://varsinaisella.blogspot.com/ and one is in Finnish: http://varsinaisesti.blogspot.com/ The content of each is translated from the English in this blog.
Neil Birch
