Salvation Universal. III

Salvation Universal.

BY JOSEPH F. SMITH, JR., ASSISTANT CHURCH HISTORIAN.

III.

Salvation for the dead was understood in the days of the primitive Christian Church, and to some extent baptisms for the dead continued to be performed until A. D. 379, when the Council of Carthage forbade any longer the administration of this ordi- nance and "holy communion" for the dead. Paul uses baptism for the dead as an argument against the Corinthian Saints, who, even in that day, were falling away from the true gospel. These saints understood the doctrine of baptism for the dead, yet they doubted the general resurrection. Paul argues with them thus:

Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurreetion of the dead, then is Christ not risen . And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain- Yea, and we are found false witnesess of God; because we have testi- fied of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this

life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resur- rection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. '. . . Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead? and why stand we in jeopardy every hour":*

*I Cor. 15: 12-30.

t

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Joseph Smith, the prophet, informs us that salvation for the dead was introduced in the days of Christ who had reference to this subject when, in addressing the Jews, he said: "That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of the righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.

Verily I say unto you, all these things shall come upon this gener- ation."* Commenting on this, the prophet said the reason that generation would have to answer for the blood of the righteous from Abel to Zacharias, was that in their day the privilege of per- forming the ordinances in behalf of the dead, was within their power, while it had been denied anciently. "Hence," said he, "as they possessed greater privileges than any other generation, not only pertaining to themselves, but to their dead, their sin was greater, as they not only neglected their own salvation, but that of their progenitors, and hence their blood was required at their hands. In this same article the prophet declared that Obediah was speaking of salvation for the dead when he said, "And saviors shall come upon Mount Zion, to judge the Mount of Esau, and the kingdom shall be the Lord's. "$ The work of saving the dead has practically been reserved for the dispensation of the fulness of times, when the Lord shall restore all things. It is, therefore, the duty of the Latter-day Saints to see that it is accomplished. We cannot do it all at once, but will have the thousand years of the Millennium to do it in. In that time the work must be done in behalf of the dead of the previous six thousand years for all who need it. Temples will be built for this purpose, and the labor in them will occupy most of the time of the Saints. One of the most important prophecies, pertaining to the dead, is thatof Malachi. He prophesied that the Lord would send Elijah, the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord, for the purpose of turning the hearts of the fathers to

• Matt. 23: 35, 36.

f Times and Seasons 3: 761.

X Obediah 21.

246 IMPROVEMENT ERA.

the children, and the hearts of the children to the fathers, lest the earth be smitten with a curse, when the Lord should come. This prophecy, which is not understood by the world, has come to pass. When the Angel Moroni appeared to the Prophet Joseph Smith, September 21, 1823, among the passages of scripture he quoted that were about to be fulfiled, was this prophecy of Malachi's- but he quoted it with this variation: "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 promise made to the fath- ers, 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.''* From this, we see that Elijah's mission was to restore that priesthood which would turn the hearts of the children to their fathers, according to a promise that had been made to the fathers. That it was extremely important and necessary, is shown in the

fact that the whole earth would be utterly wasted at the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord, if this priesthood were not restored. This quotation deeply impressed the prophet at that time, although he could not understand it. Three times that night it was repeated, and again on the following day. Gradually, as link after link of the gospel chain was revealed, and the keys and powers were bestowed, the prophet increased in wis- dom and knowledge. In time, a temple was built in Kirtland, but in it there was no baptismal font, or any ot-her provision made for ordinance work for the dead. The reason is that the doctrine had not been fully revealed. This temple, however, served the purpose for which it was erected, a house of the Lord, where he could come, and send his angels to bestow keys and authority necessary in this dispensation. In this temple, April 3, 1836, the Savior and many of the ancient prophets appeared to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery and bestowed upon their heads the keys of the several dispensations. Among these heavenly visitors came Elijah, who placed his hands on the heads of Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery, and gave them the priesthood spoken of by Mala-

*Hhtory of the Church. Vol. 1: 12.

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chi. "Therefore," said he, "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.* What was the promise made to the fathers that was to be ful- filed in the latter-days by the turning of the hearts of the child- ren to their fathers? It was the promise of the Lord made through Enoch, Isaiah, and the prophets, to the nations of the earth, that the time should come when the dead should be redeemed. And the turning of the hearts of the children is fulfiled in the performing of the vicarious temple work and in the prep- aration of their genealogies. Up to the time of Elijah's visit,

there had been nothing done for the dead. The doctrine was not understood by the Saints, and there was no temple built where the ordinances could be performed. But as soon as this priesthood was restored, the hearts of the children commenced turning to- ward their fathers. The knowledge of temple building and temple work was made known to the prophet from time to time subsequently to the 3rd of April, 1836, and he commenced to reveal these things to the Saints. In Nauvoo they were commanded to build a temple to the Lord, for only in temples can these ordinances be performed, excepting in times of extreme poverty, when they cannot build temples for that purpose. "For this ordinance belongeth to my house," says the Lord, "and cannot be acceptable to me (i. e. out- side of the Lord's house) only in the days of your poverty, wherein ye are not 'able to bifild a house unto me."t As the Latter-day Saints were in this poverty-stricken condition when they settled at Nauvoo, the Lord granted them the privilege of baptizing for the dead in the Mississippi river, until a place could be prepared for the ordinance in the temple. Just as soon as a font could be pre- pared in the temple, the Lord, by revelation, discontinued baptisms for the dead in any other place. It was October 3, 1841, when this revelation was given, and on the 8th of the following month, the font in the temple at Nauvoo was dedicated, and from that day, until the Saints were driven from Illinois, that ordinance con-

• Doc. and Cov. 110: 16.

t Doc. and Cov. 124: 30.

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tinued to be performed by them in that house in behalf of their dead.* After arriving in Salt Lake valley, the first commandment

• Some of those who would destroy the work of God, have declared that the Church was rejected, with its dead, because the temple at Nau- voo was not finished; and, say they, the Lord, in this revelation, declared that he would give the Saints sufficient time to build a house (temple) unto him, and if they failed to build it in the sufficient time, they would be rejected with their dead. The fact is, that the Nauvoo Temple was built, and many of the Saints received their endowments in it, and labored for their dead before they were finally driven from Nauvoo by

their enemies. But the meaning of this revelation is perverted; the Lord did not say he would reject the Church, with its dead, if they failed to build the temple, but that they would be rejected if they did not perform the ordinances for their dead in the temple when it was prepared for that purpose. Here is the commandment in question (sec. 124: 31-35):

"But I command you, all ye my Saints, to build a house unto me; and I grant unto you a sufficient time to build a house unto me, and dur- ing this time your baptisms [i. e. outside of a temple] shall be accept- able unto me. "But, behold, at the end of this appointment [i. e. the sufficient time] your baptisms for your dead shall not be acceptable unto me [i. e. out- side of a temple] and if ye do not these things at the end of the appointment, [?'. e. temple work] ye shall be rejected as a Church, with your dead, saith the Lord your God. "For verily I say unto you, that after you have had sufficient time to build a house to me, wherein the ordinances of baptizing for the dead belongeth, and for which the same was instituted from before the foundation of the world, your baptisms for your dead [i. e. in any other place than in a temple] cannot be acceptable unto me, for therein are the keys of the holy priesthood ordained that you may receive honor and glory. "And after this time [when a house is prepared] your baptism for the dead, by those who are scattered abroad, are not acceplable unto me, saith the Lord," [Italics and brackets are mine. J. F. S., Jr.]

And if ye do not these things at the end of the appointment, obviously does not mean "if you do not build a temple at the end of the appoint- ment," as our critics claim it does, but it refers to the ordinances that were to be performed in the temple, and the failure on the part of the Saints to perform these ordinances for their dead was the thing that would cause their rejection with their dead, and not the failure to build

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President Young received from the Lord was to commence to build a temple where this work could be continued. The members of the Church responded, and four temples have been built, where the living now go to officiate for the dead. The restoration of Elijah's priesthood accomplished more than the turning of the hearts of the members of the Church to their fathers, for the spirit of his mission spread forth and took hold of the hearts of the honorable men and women in the world who have been directed, they know not why, to spend their time and means in preparing genealogies, vital records and various other genealogical data, which they are publishing at great labor and expense. It is a curious and interesting fact that the year following the coming of Elijah, the British government passed laws requir- ing the proper recording of records, and the filing of them in one central place. In the year 1844, the New England Historical and Genealogical Society was organized in Boston; in 1869 the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society was incorporated in New York. Other societies have been organized from time to time in America, principally in the New England States, and they are publishing quarterly genealogical magazines and registers, family records, etc.: disseminating information continually regard- ing our ancestors, that is useful to the Latter-day Saints. The New England Society is publishing, as they express it in their magazine, "by a fund set apart from the bequest of Robert

the temple, which was merely the edifice in which the saving principles

were to be performed. This is in harmony with the teachings of the

Prophet Joseph Smith, who said that if we neglect the salvation of our dead "we do it at the peril of our own salvation! Why? Because we with- out them cannot be made perfect" (Doc. and Cov. sec. 28: 15). The virtue of salvation for the dead is not in the structure of the

temple, but in the ordinances which are performed in the temple. The temple is to the ordinances just what the vessel is to the life-giving nourishment it contains. Those who would reject us on a technicality, because, as they say, "we did not finish the temple," neither build templesn or perform the ordinances for the dead, wherein they prove their rejection by the Lord, according to the revelations of Joseph Smith, the prophet.

250 IMPROVEMENT ERA.

Henry Eddy," to the society, the vital records (births, marriages and deaths) of towns in Massachusetts, whose records are not already printed from the beginning to the year 1850. This is a tremendous work, many volumes of these records have been pub-, lished, and others are in course of preparation.* Eventually they will be printed by this and other similar societies in Massachusetts, a state that has set the pace for her sister states to follow. There, and in other parts, these societies are protected and encouraged by legislative enactment. Besides these numerous societies engaged in this noble work, there are multitudes of individual laborers who are publishing at their own expense family geneal- ogies and vital records that extend back for hundreds of years. In Great Britain the work is carried on by the Harlian Society, the Genealogist Society, Phillimore & Company, the Lancashire Parish Register Society, the Yorkshire Parish Register Society, and similar societies in nearly all of the countries of Great Britain. These societies publish the parish registers of the several parishes in England, and to an extent in Scotland, Ireland and Wales.

*Other societies in Massachusetts are also preparing vital records, among them are the Topsfield Historical Society, the Essex Antiquarian Society, the "Systematic History Fund," Franklin P. Rice, trustee. Of this work Mr. Rice, who is a pioneer in genealogical research, says:

"I hope sometime to give in detail an account of the various under- takings in the line of record preservation with which I have been connected since I began, in the early seventies, with the idea, crude and imper- fect, of subjecting to classification, for easy reference, manu- script materials in public dopositories, many of which were then hidden or unknown, and in many places practically inaccessible.

• • • Thirty-five years ago the interest in such matters was mainly

antiquarian, and the few examples in print in this line had been inspired from that standpoint. Genealogical research was not the powerful factor it is today. As the idea expanded and developed, I came to regard the work chiefly in its practical and scientific aspects, and I applied the term "Systematic History" as best explaining its purpose, to meet the neces- sities of all enquirers and investigators. * * I formulated a plan

sometime before 1890 to require the towns in Massachusetts to print their records, but this met with little favor. Its substantial features are embodied in the Act of 1902. * * * Pursuing the work since 1898 under the operation of the Systematic History Fund, I have been able to secure copies and to print the vital records of more than thirty towns in central Massachusetts.''