Elijah's Mission | Truman G. Madsen | 1977

[Music] brothers and sisters this is awesome always just to sit up here it's a grand canyon of faces and there is a story about a professor who was allegedly absent-minded who dreamed that he was speaking to a class and woke up and found out that he was i have had both dreams and nightmares about this experience and i'm only grateful that they gave me short notice if you'll indulge me in one moment of levity there is a solid way of coping with a story that should be buried and that's for everyone to hear it so that he can interrupt the punchline there is as you may have heard a movement afoot on campus whereby we would wear many of us levi's at the knee level cut off as usual with mormon ingenuity an organization was created to cope and oppose this movement and it was named of course the anti-nehi levis you must be you must be curious to know how i can lead into anything serious now but i will try something in the scriptures there is about an offering to be offered up one day by some specific persons namely the sons of levi puzzlement who are they what is the offering let me begin with a glimpse of our history in 1846 brigham young was ill at a place called winter quarters in the midst of that he had been prayerful and his feelings were mixed he still was deeply grieved at the loss of his closest earthly friend and burdened heavily with the kingdom and his leadership he was puzzled over the question of adoption for it had already become a motivation of some of our people whose own literal forbearers showed no interest or even deep hostility regarding the church to wish they could somehow be grafted into a faithful family and some such ordinances were performed now brother brigham is praying about it and he had a dream in which he saw the prophet joseph smith there are some beautiful passages as he recounts it which demonstrate that brother brigham wanted to join the prophet and if you think that wasn't sincere and lasting you should know that his last words were one word three times repeated joseph joseph joseph but that was many decades later after this interchange and the assurance the prophet gives him that he must live on the brigham inquires about adoption the prophet replies and in the account there are seven different ways he says in effect tell the people to get and keep the spirit of the lord there's a marvelous statement about how we know that spirit is the lord's spirit for he says at one point you can always tell the spirit of the lord from all other spirits for it will take malice and envy and enmity from the heart and all evil and whisper peace and joy and your whole desire will be to do good and build up the kingdom of god then the interesting conclusion if the people will seek for the spirit of god they will eventually find themselves organized as they were before the foundation of this world our father organized the human family in the pre-mortal councils but an interesting line but they are now disorganized and in great confusion so much for brigham young's glimpse of the cruciality of the spirit in finding ourselves united in a family relationship and now to the scriptures for a moment the earliest and latest revelation it could be said in the doctrine and covenants touch on this theme the first being section two it was actually given before section one that is the revelation or statement of moroni to the prophet joseph smith in 1823 it says something about elijah it says that he will be sent and what for to plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to the fathers that the hearts of the children might turn to the fathers the last revelation it's called the appendix section 133 the last one to the prophet joseph deals with the same subject in a different way but promises that elijah will be among those who participate in the most glorious family reunion in all history it could be called a sacramental wedding breakfast to be held on the morning of the first resurrection elijah did come he came to the kirtland temple april 3rd 18 1836 you may know that jewish literature is replete with the promise and expectation of elijah that's the last promise of the old testament the last verses of malachi and it is jewish tradition that on the second night of passover they must traditionally leave open the door place at the table head an empty chair and a goblet full of wine in the expectation that elijah may come it is interesting especially to our jewish friends that april 3rd 1836 happened to be the second day of passover the symbolism is beautiful elijah comes as they expect to a home he comes to a goblet of wine the sacramental wine he comes to turn hearts which is more i suggest to you than minds to hearts he somehow bridges some gaps some alienation some separation that has occurred in the human family no subject preoccupied the prophet joseph smith more than this and in his late years he spoke at least eight times pleading with the saints to ponder and pray over this principle and for example he gave us some insight we ordinarily say well elijah did something pertaining to the dead or work for the dead a half-truth in the first place no one is really dead those who are in the spirit world are we are taught by the prophets more alive than some of us elder melvin shea ballard used to say that they have every feeling intensified spiritually and as for their being dead and gone no they are not gone either for the prophets teach us that the spirit world is not in some remote galaxy it is here it is near and as the prophet put it speaking of their feelings for us those who are bound to us somehow by the anxieties of their forbearing he said their bowels yearn over us he said they are not merely idle spectators in the last days he said enveloped in flaming fire they are not far from us they know our thoughts motions one account says emotions and feelings and are often pained therewith and he could have added rejoiced with when the scriptures say all eternity is pained that is i take it a metaphor for their pain and when it says the heavens weep enjoy the same so elijah does have something to do with them but the prophet saw he also has something to do with us and with the living and there is this strange phrase that had he not come then the whole earth would be cursed or in another version the earth would be utterly wasted at christ's coming wasted i take it means at least two things it would be in a sense a waste if this earth created by our father and his son as the dwelling place of their family turned out to be a house barren not a home not a place of genuine familial love and in that sense it would have been a waste to have created it but secondly it would literally be the case were there not a family welded and united and full of love for christ it would be the case that all mankind would be laid waste at his coming unable to endure his presence but thank god for the restoration of the power to prepare such a family and that conferral came through elijah the prophet said speaking of this how will god come to the rescue of this generation and answers he will send elijah well that generation may have been a difficult one this generation in which you and i live is in some ways a worse one constantly students ask me around the country do you think the world is getting better or worse and i always answer yes the wheat is getting wheatier and the tears are getting terrier and rapidly well how can a mere prophet change a whole generation and an ancient prophet at that will know a few things about him know that his name is interesting literally in hebrew my god is jehovah but more than that symbolizing the ceiling or the union of father and son know that he conferred keys and we understand if only dimly that means authority priesthood authority and there are men on the earth today alive the chief one being president spencer w kimball who hold by direct line of ordination those keys and every marriage that is represented in this group tonight that is binding has been performed under those keys and their delegated authorities but secondly elijah had a revelatory function there is a spirit that is somehow emanating through him and his work and ministry which has reached out far beyond the pales of this church turning hearts and not just heads and one account says that it was his function to reveal to us the covenants made by our fathers and the covenants made by us with our fathers again pointing to something that happened prior to mortality know that elijah also is an exemplar of what is his mission for it is not yet over he had the unique privilege as a translated being one not yet subject to death not yet privileged perhaps by his own request like unto john or the three nephites to return to the father's presence instead to labor and tarry he had the privilege of ministering to the master on the mount of transfiguration in an experience which we're told we cannot yet fully understand and the fullness of the account has been reserved to the future some week or two or three before christ went to gethsemane and golgotha and the jewish apocalyptic tradition is that those two prophets who are to one day testify in the streets of jerusalem to prepare the hearts of the jews to be turned to the prophets which by the way section 98 says is another facet of elijah's mission those two prophets who are to then literally be killed and who will lie in the streets martyrs just prior to the return of christ those two prophets according to jewish literature are elijah and enoch and there is some hint in the writings of joseph smith that he too knew of that and knew of it by inspiration elijah has been patient through millennia to bring earth and heaven back together to tie together the old and the new worlds to take the estranged and the alienated and the embittered and somehow transformed their hearts and to prepare all of the family who will to be a family welded indissolubly in order to greet the christ now brothers and sisters if you'll permit i'd like to draw a few personal and emotional implications from this feeling after all centers in the hearts and i've repeatedly said that the role here is not one of mere intellect it's a matter of feeling something inside we as a church are constantly pushing for behavioral change and our manuals are filled with behavioral objectives my ambition tonight is in some ways humbler and in some ways far more aspiring to somehow reach your feelings your hearts the prophet said on an occasion to the relief society that he grieved that there was so little union of feeling among them and they were marvelous and he went on to say by union of feeling we obtain power with the heavens when on the other hand he introduced the ordinance of the washing of feet in kirtland among the brethren he taught them that this ordinance a sacred one was essential to the union of feeling and affection among them that their faith might be strong and repeatedly the lord has said in modern revelation that he reveals himself by his spirit quote to your minds and your heart behold i will tell you in your mind and in your heart by my spirit which shall come upon you but which shall dwell in your heart a magnificent blending of the intellect and the sentiment now we needn't dwell on the point that the the family in our culture is coming unglued and there are those that recommend it and who hold that the great wave of the future a better future is to totally abandon the notion of unit families one can call attention to devastating statistics outside the church but i want to talk strictly from within one of our statistics and i'm only approximating is that there are well over 600 000 children in this church who are being raised by a single parent i can be corrected on that but that's one of the recent ones i heard from a computer man it is a fact that among the so-called special interest of the church and all of you will sooner or later belong to that organization if you think about it approaching a million there are delinquent fathers there are delinquent children just from conversation in my own office over the years on this campus i have heard sentences that tell it all for example my mother gave me five hundred dollars and told me to go away or again i couldn't possibly tell my father he would kill me or again my mother has been three times divorced again no one in my family cares anything for the church or again just before i left for my mission my father threatened to take my life or again i don't dare go home now even robert frost saw it clearly on the home he said home is where when you go there they have to take you in wood that it were so many who are joining the church in your generation are joining at the cost of never being permitted through that door again my own forbearer wrote a letter from nauvoo he was a squire which is another name then for a kind of amateur attorney who had loved the mormon people but had never joined them and his motivation was elementary he had a wife and a son both of whom said if he ever did that would be the end they would never speak to him again the letter to brigham young says is this what the lord requires of me and brigham young's answer in one word is yes and my grandfather great-grandfather actually joined the church and they kept their word yes brothers and sisters were in the real world we're in a real world and the alienation the pain the hostility the torment the trauma even of latter-day saint homes is a long distance from elijah who said he would turn the hearts toward and not away is there hope i'm here to testify there is may i talk now about two things that are not in the nature of what you must do but in the nature of what you must feel first there is forgiveness we are glib i think in quoting the passages that talk about our needing to forgive and even forgive all men they're there one of the strongest passages is in the context of the prophet joseph his own weaknesses pleading the revelation does with his brethren to forgive him and then going on to say that if they don't there remaineth in them the greater sin strong language saying in fact that one's refusal to forgive a sinner is a worse sin than whatever sin the sinner has committed well forgiveness is the very nature of christ's way and i suggest that it may be difficult to forgive your enemies but it's even more so to forgive your loved ones who have sometimes manifested hate and you in response it is harder to forgive your loved ones because you care about them and you have to go on living with them or struggling to and they can go on hurting you over the years and the decades and it's a little hard but your hearts will never turn to your fathers in the way this spirit of which we have been testifying motivates you to do unless you forgive they see you've inherited all kinds of things there is a standard procedure for students with bad report cards they can go home and say look mom or look dad which do you think it is heredity or environment your parents can say neither of the above fact is that you willingly chose to come into the world likely in this time and circumstance and you may have had i do not say i know you did i say you may have had some choice as to your parentage and as to your posterity when you say in your deepest animosity to your folks i didn't ask to be born if they give you the prophet prophetic answer they will say oh yes you did not only ask for it you prepared for a train for it were reserved for it if they want to put down they can say if you had the answer would have been no it's the second wave of your response that troubles me a little first time you seem baffled no i am saying that both you and they are mutually involved and by the way that's a snarl word in our generation involved no one wants to get involved in anything do your own thing be yourself but you're involved it was collusion and therefore as you look back at the 70 men and that's what it would take 50 years each only 70 men to get you back to abraham you might recognize that you have inherited the blood of generations blood may not be a correct word scientifically but it stands in the scriptures for seed which is specifically the heredity the inheritance of tendencies and all of you have them and so you have the blood of this generation which section 88 says you must become clean from that's a strong prepositional ending clean from the blood of this generation if so you will be clean from the blood of every generation because it has compounded and accumulated into now and that includes the blood of some degeneration you do have problems that you can blame on them and if you forgive that and choose to stand close to the lord in the process of purifying your life that will affect your whole family in both directions you are not alone there is no way you can regain solitary and neutral ground you are in it in involvement and this i take it as one of the profound meanings of that long laborious allegory in the book of mormon jacob's allegory of the tame and wild olive tree if you take a wild branch and graft grafted in to a tame tree if it is strong enough it will eventually corrupt and spoil the tree all the way to the roots but if you take a tame branch and graft it into a wild tree in due time if it is strong enough it will heal and regenerate to the very roots you will then have been an instrument in the sanctification even of your forebears do you believe it does that ever sober you in moments where you suppose either that no one cares for you or that whether they care or not your life makes no difference to be that kind of branch and achieve that kind of transformation backward and forward is the greatest achievement of this world but to do it one must be great one must be linked bound to the lord jesus christ he must be mighty why he must be something like a savior and that is exactly what the prophet joseph smith said you are saviors on mount zion and how are you to be saviors on mount zion he asked once in a discourse and he answered i'm paraphrasing by going first building then going into the temples of the lord and in your own appropriate persona in your own first person presence to go through foreign and behalf of loved ones all of the ordinances and he names them all and says by the way the elijah's keys apply to all ordinances not just the final one sealing all of them culminating in that final linkage that binds for time and for eternity saviors redeemers of your families we have so many cases in our history i can't dwell on them but just to take one which i choose not because it is exceptional but because it isn't erased the snow given a blessing by the prophet joseph smith is told in effect brother erastus your father knows nothing of the gospel of jesus christ but the lord god will be your father and he will watch over you and if you will walk in the full path of righteousness the time will come when you will save all of your kindred flesh and in due time if you are worthy these blessings which i pronounce upon you will be confirmed upon you by your own father and then your joy will be full i repeat the capacity to forgive comes only through the capacity for loving the lord jesus christ and he taught us how he said pray for your enemies that's different i remind you than praying against your enemies if you want to know how you can turn feelings of hostility into feelings of forgiveness and love that's the how you pray for them you may choke in the effort but as you keep going the time comes when you mean it and then you not only mean that you want to forgive and feel it but you even find yourself praying that he will and you look with compassion instead of spite at the whole traditional mix that has made you what you are and to some degree what you aren't so much for the word unforgiveness now the other is even harder the word is sacrifice and we know that the family of men were taught from adam down to make external sacrifice with the firstlings or the firstborn and these were consumed burned and an altar all to typify and prepare for the coming of the living sacrifice who was christ himself we now know that when the lord appeared to the nephites he said no longer will i accept burnt offerings but from now on i will accept is your hearts you must bring to me the sacrifice of a broken heart and a contrite spirit we use the word broken heart to mean radically frustrated in a romance it may very well mean that but in the scriptural usage a broken heart is a malleable meltable movable heart and the contrite spirit is an honest acknowledging spirit that says i am in fact dependent on what i am in fact dependent on there is no self deprecation here only honesty i need help when that is acknowledged it comes the sacrifice i suggest that the sons of levi and the daughters of levi are to offer in the end is the willingness to give yourself in the cause of saviorhood and to care more about family and the preservation and intensification of family than you care about anything else in this world and that has costs some things have to be given up some things have to be postponed and the focus is sacrifice i have to say honestly i believe it is painful i have to say i believe that there are many among us who are easily pulled in other directions and i have to say i consider that tragedy i occasionally hear housewives say that's what they are mere housewives what have you done in the last 20 years oh nothing uh just fed my family three meals a day and more or less kept them together is that all president lorenzo snow said with power on an occasion if a woman did nothing more than that she would be exalted in the celestial kingdom and she didn't do one other thing our generation is making attractive every other thing but and that is not the gospel of jesus christ so i plead with you before giving and be sacrificial may i now pull all this together with an incident bear my personal witness and be done flying in from the far east a time ago i found on the plane a young man obviously recognizable as a mormon elder you probably wonder how i know it was the flip chart anyway we chatted i didn't at first tell him who i was or that i really already did think the mormon church was great but i soon learned that there were three things a little unusual about him his father had died while i was myself a mission president i prayed every night and every morning for two things one that i would not have to send any missionary male or female home in disgrace and secondly that i would not have to send an elder or a sister home dead in a way that's an unfair prayer because there is no way with 25 000 people out in the real world i suspect in the long run not to see some lap sings but i so prayed i had not foreseen another difficulty and that was to have to call in a missionary and tell him that one or the other of his parents or in one case both were gone but this elder had lost his father his father had not been particularly faithful in the church his mother had taken up the burden and of course as is required had sent the monthly check it is a euphemism gentlemen young men of the priesthood it is a euphemism for missionaries to say i'm paying my own way we all know it's your parents i'm not being quite fair because there are missionaries who who do it all and all do some but it is the parents who pay and the cost so far just for that has been over a billion dollars and we're just getting started as brother kimball keeps reminding us the second thing was that he had let his mother know he was coming home but he hadn't told her when and the third thing was that he hoped to come to this institution i told him he'd be in good company as i got off the plane and i was first off i saw a face and something told me that this was his mother i restrained myself from telling her that her son was on the plane i went to a position where i could see both her face and his he got off and walked along a bit casually carrying cameras and briefcase and then he saw her recognition gratitude forgiveness for whatever may have been amiss in the past and a total royal embrace that's it that's everything it is precisely that embrace and reunion which you and i were sent into the world to make possible it will not be possible except we have faith and repentance in the lord jesus christ sufficient to enable us to forgive and to sacrifice and brothers and sisters that is our mission and our commission occasionally on the five different times i have been in jerusalem i have tried to picture in my weakness what he promises us will happen there one day mount olivet or the mount of olives is the place from which he ascended it is the place of his greatest suffering it is the place where there was a garden gat shemin in hebrew garden of oil where he tried as it were the olive press the oil of healing the balm the peace and that place today if you study it carefully as a place of everything except reunion it is a place of destruction graves everywhere shattered things everywhere barbed wire glass the droppings of animals everything you can name and hostility and bitterness is symbolized on that very mount in the fact that different churches each with his own claim build churches build basilica and then refuse to acknowledge the existence of the other there are machine gun remnants there is a monument to a place where paratroopers in the six day war were gunned down by the dozens war is what is symbolized there and yet the promise of the lord jesus christ in section 45 of our doctrine and covenants is that he will descend to that mount his foot will touch it and when it does it will cleave in twain and there will be an earthquake dramatic but true an earthquake covering the whole earth and there will be a transformation of the earth preparing it for its terrestrial condition but as he descends with his worthy hosts the privilege will also be given to those who remain here to be caught up together to meet him we will not have to simply remain and wait but as in every genuine effect of true love we will want to take our own steps toward the full embrace the music you're going to hear in closing tonight is in part a testament from handel's pen of that glory the supreme glory of the lord that will bring us again to reunion i bear my testimony brothers and sisters that these are truths that it is our privilege and calling to become in our own limited way redemptors of not just the human race but the human family ours and his it is impossible to love him truly and not love what is his and the lord god assigned him all of us and it is not possible for you to really love yourself unless you love what is truly you and that is the whole house of israel in which you belong and if you will re-read your patriarchal blessings you will find that exactly that is forecast for all of you i bear my witness that this is true in the name of jesus christ amen you

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Length: 47min 18sec (2838 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 04 2021