Temple & Family History Lesson 1: Utterly Wasted

 

Temple and Family History Lessons

Lesson 1

Utterly Wasted

 

These Temple and Family History Lessons are prepared as a resource for those wishing to start or continue working in family history using the Church’s Internet Family-History tool, “Family Search”.

Each lesson is short, fewer than 6 pages long, and in the sequence, the lessons build on each other, so the later lessons will be more meaningful after the previous lessons have been completed. 

This first lesson, providing background and motivational thoughts, serves as an introduction to the work and to the subsequent lessons.  The subsequent lessons are designed to be completed the first time through while seated at a computer with Internet access, although it is also intended that they should be reviewed as often as might be helpful, since Family History efforts generally progress in intermittent efforts, often interrupted by lengthy delays requiring refreshing of earlier concepts.

Introduction.

What began in 1894 as “The Genealogical Society of Utah” has, after much iteration, become the Family History department of the Church, with its valuable Internet tool, ‘Family Search”.  The Internet today hosts thousands of web sites that deal with family history and genealogy, and Family Search is one of the most comprehensive of these.  It is intended to be used by all members of the Church who have access to the Internet. 

There is no printed instruction manual for this software.  This is perhaps because the program continuously changes with updates and new features coming out every few months.  Users have to learn to use the software by trial and error or by following on-line help sites.  In both cases the user’s basic computer skills and Internet knowledge are taken for granted.  This is a huge expectation given that many users do not even understand the concept of “right click” or the meaning of “new tab”.  For these reasons these lessons are written to be helpful even at a rudimentary level.  Hopefully this will not be too much of a distraction for more advanced users.

 Now, what is it exactly that we are about?  Why such a fuss over old records, ancestors, and discovering these old families?  It is nothing less than the most important work that men and women have ever been engaged in since Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden.  It is the salvation of human souls through providing, to all the family of Adam and Eve, the ordinances of salvation that Christ tells us are necessary for the soul to be saved in the Kingdom of God.  This work was known and understood by the ancients of every dispensation, but ours is the dispensation when the work is to proceed on a large scale.  The gates of the Spirit Prison have been opened by the Savior. And billions of the spirits of the dead are waiting for their ordinances to be performed in sacred temples designed and constructed for this purpose.

The great burden of this last dispensation is the work of redeeming the dead.  This is the time when temples will be available to millions.  Technologies, travel, communication, records, resources, and knowledge will be made available to the saints of this dispensation to accomplish the work of redemption of the dead.   The scriptures and the latter-day prophets are clear in emphasizing the importance of this work.

The prophet Joseph Smith Jr. wrote; “The greatest responsibility in this world that God has laid upon us is to seek after our dead. The Apostle says, "They without us cannot be made perfect;" (Hebrews 11:40) for it is necessary that the sealing power should be in our hands to seal our children and our dead for the fulness of the dispensation of times—a dispensation to meet the promises made by Jesus Christ before the foundation of the world for the salvation of man. “

                                                                                         (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith p. 356)

Brigham Young spoke of the number of temples that would be necessary to pursue this work; 

“To accomplish this work there will have to be not only one temple but thousands of them, and thousands and tens of thousands of men and women will go into those temples and officiate for people who have lived as far back as the Lord shall reveal.” 

(Disc. of Brigham Young, selections by John A. Widtsoe, p. 394)

Shortly after the visit of Elijah to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdrey in 1836, the Spirit of Elijah began to be poured out over all the earth, particularly in those countries from which the majority of the saints would immigrate.  Joseph Fielding Smith had this to say regarding the effect of the Spirit of Elijah on the world: 

“Before the year 1836 there was very little, if any, research being made anywhere in this world in behalf of the dead. . . . There were no genealogical societies; there were no genealogical organizations; there were no genealogical researches of any systematic character anywhere in the world. . . .  One year after this revelation was given and these keys were bestowed, we find in Great Britain the government passing laws compelling the preservation of duplicate records of the dead on the part of those who kept them. . . .

In 1844, the year of the martyrdom, the first organization for the purpose of gathering together the records of the dead, and compiling genealogical records, was formed in the city of Boston.  It was the New England Historical and Genealogical Society.  In 1869, in the city of New York, another society, the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, was organized.

Since that day societies have sprung up all over the land. . . .  The hearts of the children have since that day turned to their fathers, and they are searching out the records of their dead. . . .

In Great Britain, genealogical societies have been organized in practically every county in that land and in Scotland.  These records have been kept and filed also in other countries in Europe, the countries from which the Latter-day Saints have come.  The spirit has taken hold of the people, not only in the Church, but also of many who are not of the Church, and they too are searching the records and compiling them, of the dead.”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             (Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, 2:124-126)

Elder Howard W. Hunter made it clear that all members of the Church were under obligation to pursue this work.  Said he;

“Genealogical research and temple ordinance work are required of every Latter-day Saint . . . . Our dead are anxiously waiting for this people to search out their names and then go into the temples of God to officiate for them, that they may be liberated from their prison house in the spirit world.”

    (Teachings of Howard W. Hunter , p. 232; quoted from “Primer in Genealogy”. Ensign  (Feb 1971): 4-5)

President Hinckley expressed a similar concern in 1994:

“Ours is a vision greater than that granted any other people who have walked the earth.   It encompasses all of the sons and daughters of God of all generations of time, those who have walked the earth, those now upon the earth, and those yet to come upon the earth.  For the salvation and eternal life of all these we have a responsibility.  No other people in any other dispensation have ever had so great a responsibility"

(President Gordon B. Hinckley to the General Authorities, October, 1994)

 

Elder Hunter also taught:

“Man was not given a choice to do this work when and if he pleased, or when he had time, but the work was given as an obligation to be filled.” 

(Howard W, Hunter, “Importance of Temple Work.” Regional Representatives Seminar, 27 Sep 1967)

“Our saints will get more spiritual growth from the temple if they submit names for temple ordinance work, then go to the temple and do that work for their kindred dead themselves.” 

(Howard W. Hunter,  “Genealogy.”  Regional Representatives Seminar, 3 April 1969)

“There are some members who engage in temple work but fail to do family history research on their own family lines. Although they perform a divine service in assisting others, they lose a blessing by not seeking their own kindred dead as divinely directed by latter-day prophets.  I have learned that those who engage in family history research and then perform the temple ordinance work for those whose names they have found will know the additional joy of receiving both halves of the blessing.”

                 (Howard W. Hunter, First Presidency Message, Ensign Feb. 1995)

 

This double nature of the work has been reiterated by our more modern prophets.

“Temple and family history work is one work divided into two parts. They are connected together like the ordinances of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost. 

        (Richard G. Scott, Conference address, Oct 2012)

“When members of the Church find the names of their ancestors and take those names to the temple for ordinance work the temple experience can be greatly enriched. . .

We appreciate your efforts to seek out the names of your ancestors and to provide essential temple ordinances.  We pray that the spirit of this sacred work will increase in the hearts of all members of the Church”.

                                                                                         (First Presidency message (letter) 8 Oct 2012)

Elder Boyd K Packer promises protection to the whole church as well as to individuals as we pursue this work for the dead:

 

“The Lord will bless us as we attend to the sacred ordinance work of the temples. Blessings there will not be limited to our temple service. We will be blessed in all of our affairs.

No work is more of a protection to this church than temple work and the genealogical research that supports it. No work is more spiritually refining. No work we do gives us more power. No work requires a higher standard of righteousness.

Our labors in the temple cover us with a shield and a protection, both individually and as a people So come to the temple-come and claim your blessings. It is a sacred work.

                                                (Boyd K. Packer. "Holy Houses." Church News. December 2011 . P. 10)

Elder Packer also repeats this great promise from Elder Widtsoe:  “Brother Widtsoe reaffirmed that “those who give themselves with all their might and mind to this work [genealogical work] receive help from the other side. Whoever seeks to help those in the other side receives help in return in all the affairs of life.”

                                                                                                (Boyd K. Packer, The Holy Temple,  252)

 

The work is always challenging and at times discouraging, but we all need divine help in the “affairs of this life”.  Much more has been said by the Brethren regarding our responsibility in this work, and the promised blessings that are connected to it, but perhaps the strongest comments made are in the revelation recorded in Section 2 of the Doctrine and Covenants:

“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 be utterly wasted at his coming.”

Here Moroni repeats to Joseph Smith the words of Malachi from the Old Testament.  Elijah will come, which he did, in person, in 1836 to the Kirtland Temple, to reveal the Priesthood, or to restore the keys of the sealing power of the Priesthood to Joseph.  Elijah will “plant in the hearts of the children”.  The children may refer to all who will live on earth during this last dispensation, and the planting refers to the spirit putting into the hearts of these children the urging to seek out their ancestors in fulfillment of the promises, “the promises made to the fathers”. 

The fathers here could refer to the line of the patriarchs and prophets who the Savior spoke to, as well as any other early souls who believed in Christ with sufficient faith to receive promises from Him.  The ‘promises’ would be the assurance that in the last times there would be temples erected and records revealed, and keys given that would allow the sacred ordinances of salvation to be performed vicariously for these faithful ‘Fathers’.  With these promises planted in our hearts, we, the children, will seek out the names of our fathers and see that their ordinances are performed, fulfilling the Lord’s promises to them.

If Elijah had somehow failed in his assignment to restore these necessary keys, or, worse yet, if we fail to fulfil those promises that the Lord made to our fathers, after they have been planted in our hearts, the great majority of the souls who ever lived upon this earth would not become eligible for the blessings of salvation with their Father in Heaven.  This would constitute the frustration of God’s plan in creating this earth in the first place, to the extent that his entire effort would be “utterly wasted”.  

Surely none of us would want to be even remotely responsible for such a disappointing outcome.  The promises have been planted in our hearts.  The work is not easy, in spite of what we often hear from the pulpit. President Eyring realistically reminds us that:

 “After you find the first few generations, the road will become more difficult. The price will become greater. As you go back in time, the records become less complete. As others of your family search out ancestors, you will discover that the ancestor you find has already been offered the full blessings of the temple. Then you will have a difficult and important choice to make. You will be tempted to stop and leave the hard work of finding to others who are more expert or to another time in your life. But you will also feel a tug on your heart to go on in the work, hard as it will be.”

But then he offers this reassurance and promise:

“As you decide, remember that the names which will be so difficult to find are of real people to whom you owe your existence in this world and whom you will meet again in the spirit world. When you were baptized, your ancestors looked down on you with hope. Perhaps after centuries, they rejoiced to see one of their descendants make a covenant to find them and to offer them freedom. In your reunion, you will see in their eyes either gratitude or terrible disappointment. Their hearts are bound to you. Their hope is in your hands. You will have more than your own strength as you choose to labor on to find them.”

                                                                                       (Pres. Henry Eyring, Ensign, May 2005, 79-80)

This set of brief lessons is designed to help up fulfil the “promises” that have been planted in our hearts, and to seek out those names which are “so difficult to find” and to properly have their temple work completed.  It is an enormous responsibility, and not always easy, but rewarding and satisfying as are all hard things.  May these lessons offer some help in this great work.