I’m fairly certain the bishop asked me to speak because of a text message I sent the Bishopric during General Conference about how much indexing I’d done. Lest you think I’m some genuinely righteous Saint filled with the Spirit of Elijah, most people who know me well would suggest, like most people in my profession, I’m just competitive no matter the setting or the stakes, and winning while feeling engaged in a righteous cause is a double win. I imagine it’s how BYU fans would feel if they could ever manage to beat my Utes on the field. [I’ll probably regret saying that…. Eventually.]
With that said Baptism and other proxy ordinances for the dead is one of my favorite doctrines of the Restoration and hopefully I can share some of that love and spirit today.
The Hand of Elijah
In September 1823, after praying for forgiveness of his sins, Joseph Smith was visited by Moroni 3 times in a single night. Joseph reports he received the same message on all 3 visits, so it’s safe to assume the contents were important. After learning of the existence of the Gold Plates and their record containing the Book of Mormon, Moroni quoted several Old and New Testament scriptures. One of these, Malachi Chapter 4 verses 5 and 6 was quoted slightly differently from the text we have in our bibles
Behold, I will reveal unto you the Priesthood, by the hand of Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he shall plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to the fathers, and the hearts of the children shall turn to their fathers. If it were not so, the whole earth would be utterly wasted at his coming.
Here, in the earliest phase of the Restoration, years before Joseph received the plates, before he had even been baptized, before receiving the Priesthood, or organizing the Church. Before he was married, had children, and moved from New York, to Pennsylvania, to Ohio, to Missouri, and finally to the banks of the Mississippi River in Illinois. Before he’d been tarred and feathered, hunted, faced an order of the extermination of his people, spent months in a hopeless dungeon, and faced his own death, before the tragic, and untimely death of his own older brother Alvin he was being pointed to the capstone of the Restoration. He probably didn’t know or fully understand it yet, but here with all that and so much more history in the rearview mirror WE can see the building of temples, angelic visitations, restoration of sealing keys, and the introduction of doctrines and ordinances that extend the covenants and blessings of exaltation to every single one of Heavenly Father’s children willing to come to him.
For those who may be younger in the gospel for whom that may sound like a stretch; allow me to explain. I don’t think we have a genuinely accurate count on all the humans to have inhabited the planet Earth, but according to an estimate I found on Wikipedia that number might be somewhere in the ballpark of 100 Billion people. The overwhelming majority of those people lived lives absent either
1) any semblance of a working knowledge of God, his plan, and covenants, and ordinances, or
2) a knowledge of God, and a partial understanding of his plan, but lacking priesthood authority to perform essential ordinances to make eternal covenants.
Estimating approximately 20 Million members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in a world that currently contains 7 Billion humans, after a bit of math we learn 0.3% or about 1 in 333 people alive today has received baptism from a Priesthood holder with authority. I work in a field in which I am constantly faced with my own failures and even I feel pretty good about my success rate compared to those numbers. How could an all powerful, and loving God set up a plan that seems like such an abysmal failure? He didn’t. The answer is that those numbers fail to account for an infinite atonement and proxy ordinances.
In May 1829, while translating the Book of Mormon, Joseph and Oliver Cowdery were pondering on baptism and in response to prayer received a visit from John the Baptist who conferred upon them the Aaronic Priesthood.
Upon you my fellow servants, in the name of Messiah I confer the Priesthood of Aaron, which holds the keys of the ministering of angels, and of the gospel of repentance, and of baptism by immersion for the remission of sins; and this shall never be taken again from the earth, until the sons of Levi do offer again an offering unto the Lord in righteousness.
For many years I didn’t really get the last phrase of that ordination. “Until the sons of Levi do offer again an offering in righteousness”? The “sons of Levi” of course were those who officiated the sacrifices and ordinances of the Tabernacle and Temple in ancient Israel. So this ordination foreshadows a restored temple, and some grand event where a righteous offering is presented to the Lord, but is clearly lacking in detail. Fortunately the Restoration did NOT stop in 1829.
It turns out that “line upon line, and precept upon precept” is a thing and many times that means The Lord revisits an idea and repeats himself. Verses from Malachi chapter 4 are quoted three times in the Doctrine and Covenants.
The first occurs in, and the members of Deacons quorum should write this down and look this up between Sacrament meeting and quorum meeting, but should definitely keep listening right now, Doctrine and Covenants section 27 where the Lord makes certain allowances for how we prepare the sacrament, but then goes on to outline how the restoration is going to tie together all dispensations for the benefit of all mankind. Its sparse on details, and we need to keep moving, but I wanted to get that plug in for the Deacons.
The second is really important. On April 3rd 1836, shortly after the dedication of the Kirtland Temple Joseph and Oliver were in the temple and received a visitation from the Savior proclaiming acceptance of the temple as his house, and then received visits from Moses, giving them keys to gather Israel, Elias giving them the “Gospel of Abraham” which would bless all future generations, and finally Elijah:
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—
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—
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.
So there it is. The work of “gathering Israel” and “Blessing all generations” is somehow connected to having Priesthood, Keys, and a temple. Done. Obvious. Right?
A Righteous Offering
Nope. More lines. More Precepts. Remember that was 1836 in Kirtland, Ohio and anything resembling “Temple Work” as we know it didn’t begin until 1842 in Nauvoo. Conveniently, Malachi is quoted there as well.
In September 1842 Joseph is in hiding. He says quite plainly in the opening of a letter he sent to members of the church that he’s worried for his own life, and these concerns have led him to ponder on death, and like so many times before Joseph’s struggles and trials bring forth revelation we all enjoy. In prior letters and sermons he’d revealed the doctrine of Baptism for the dead, and in section 127 some of the logistics of the ordinance and recording were laid out, but in section 128 he ties together the angelic visit he’d received 19 years previously, and the visitations of Kirtland. Because revelation isn’t just a function of trials of the prophets who receive it, but is meant to speak truth and challenge it’s hearers, a grand project is laid at the feet of the Latter-Day Saints. I won’t try to improve upon revelation. After quoting from Malachi Joseph offers these truths.
It is sufficient to know, in this case, that the earth will be smitten with a curse unless there is a welding link of some kind or other between the fathers and the children, upon some subject or other—and behold what is that subject? It is the baptism for the dead. For we without them cannot be made perfect; neither can they without us be made perfect. Neither can they nor we be made perfect without those who have died in the gospel also; for it is necessary in the ushering in of the dispensation of the fullness of times, which dispensation is now beginning to usher in, that a whole and complete and perfect union, and welding together of dispensations, and keys, and powers, and glories should take place, and be revealed from the days of Adam even to the present time.… Now, what do we hear in the gospel which we have received? A voice of gladness! A voice of mercy from heaven; and a voice of truth out of the earth; glad tidings for the dead; a voice of gladness for the living and the dead; glad tidings of great joy. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of those that bring glad tidings of good things, and that say unto Zion: Behold, thy God reigneth! As the dews of Carmel, so shall the knowledge of God descend upon them!
The keys and authority associated with the temple allow ordinances to be done for those who die without knowing Christ or his gospel so that all of God’s children have the opportunity to make and keep sacred covenants. Then, to close the loop on John the Baptist’s ordination of Joseph and Oliver in 1829 and that offering the sons of Levi were to make in conjunction with the temple we read in verse 24
Behold, the great day of the Lord is at hand; and who can abide the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appeareth? For he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fuller’s soap; and he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he shall purify the sons of Levi,and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. Let us, therefore, as a church and a people, and as Latter-day Saints, offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness; and let us present in his holy temple,when it is finished, a book containing the records of our dead, which shall be worthy of all acceptation.
So there it is. The Lord indeed loves ALL his children, and he wants all who are willing to make and keep covenants that will allow them to return to him and become like him. The forgiveness, comfort, and love we feel in conjunction with the atonement is extended to all. Healing and growth can and will occur, and we as current covenant makers and keepers are privileged to be part of this work.
In his General Conference address earlier this month Elder Christopher observed
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is uniquely empowered and commissioned to accomplish the necessary preparations for the Lord’s Second Coming; indeed, it was restored for that purpose. Can you find anywhere else a people who embrace the present era as the prophesied “dispensation of the fulness of times,” in which God has purposed to “gather together in one all things in Christ”? If you don’t find here a community intent on accomplishing what needs to be accomplished for both the living and the dead to prepare for that day, if you don’t find here an organization willing to commit vast amounts of time and funds to the gathering and preparation of a covenant people ready to receive the Lord, you won’t find it anywhere.
Since 1842 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and its members have spent untold time and resources in preparing this righteous offering. As best as I can tell we have 163 operating temples, 11 more are under construction, 35 more have been announced. Soon we will have over 200 temples. Speaking from personal experience I can tell you those numbers translate to very real blessings and changed lives for the saints served by and serving in these temples. Righteous offerings are made thousands of times per day.
The Sons of Levi and the unique place of Peace Offerings
But for those temples to operate, and for those blessings to be experienced by the living and the dead those temples need data. Its sounds distinctly wordly, but its not. Collection and organization of data from scattered hand-written and typed paper documents is no trivial task. In my professional life EVERY DAY is filled with frustration and inefficiency of navigating a system in transition from what has been historically a handcrafted record, to one that harnesses the best of what technology has to offer. It is extremely frustrating, but needs to be done.
The vast, vast majority of what remains of the records of those 100 Billion humans to have ever lived is not easily useable for temple work. Those saving ordinances cannot be performed unless that data is organized. The human family remains disjoined. So long as that is the case we are failing in the task laid at our feet in 1842. More importantly the power of the atonement isn’t yet fully realized in the lives of God’s children.
Indexing is the organization of that information, and our participation in that process furthers the Lord’s work in that portion of the vineyard. It’s not glamorous, but it absolutely must be done. The technology and processes for accomplishing this task has advanced dramatically in our lifetimes. As of 2018 any member of the church can participate at their convenience. I can personally testify that you can sit in an adirondack chair on your front porch in the sunshine of a perfect April day and participate in the Lord’s work. So, maybe it is kinda glamorous. In my case it actually uses up just the right amount of mental and physical energy so that I can listen to, and enjoy general conference without becoming distracted. That has got to be a tender mercy of the Lord. It’s easy, its been broken into small chunks. It doesn’t require a huge time commitment, in general a batch takes me 10-15 minutes to complete, so even in today’s highly distracted world in which time and attention are at a premium the Lord accommodates us in our weakness.
Apart from simply fulfilling a celestial mandate by toiling away as a heavenly data entry drone, in my experience there are actual opportunities for personal spiritual growth associated with indexing. Part of the Atonement and part of why the Savior is able to comfort and heal suffering, sorrow, and pain is that he experienced those conditions. If we are to become like him, and fulfill our covenant to mourn with those that mourn and offer comfort we must also experience those thoughts, feelings and emotions. This is part of life, and part of the plan and we are not in control of how, when, and why we experience life’s trials, but in reading and transcribing the experience of others you re-live or see with new eyes some of those indelible life experiences. Transferring the information of a child who was born and died before leaving the hospital is a heck of a thing. I’ve never lost a child, but I know what it is to lose a close family member, and I’m a parent, and I’ve been in the room as a physician for such an event. The grief that must have been associated with that birth certificate is real, and in some way I think knowing and recording that information is part of the Atonement’s healing grace, and I hope such feelings, however vicariously felt, allow us to better serve the living.
For those who are actually, genuinely filled with what we call “The spirit of Elijah”. For those who earnestly seek to know and understand their ancestors, where they came from, their joys, and their struggles moments like these must be far more real and informative. It is our privilege to assist them by making records more accessible and easily navigated.
To revisit Malachi and the sons of Levi. If you read the entire book of Malachi, its like 5 pages, the scripture Moroni quotes in 1823 comes in the context of the Lord very vividly and specifically pointing out the failures of ancient Israel to make sincere sacrifice and offerings in the temple. There were different types of offerings and sacrifices outlined in Leviticus. Most had to do with atonement and recompense for sins against God or man. But one of them, called a peace offering, was distinct. A peace offering was given after reconciliation had been made, after peace was established between God and Man through other sacrifices. It was the only sacrifice in which the entire animal was NOT burned. The person making the sacrifice partook of portion of the sacrificial animal as part of meal. I think it’s wonderfully symbolic. After reconciliation and a righteous offering everything isn’t burnt, but we sit down together with God and enjoy the fruits of that sacrifice.
MaximumKungFu 
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