"Celestial Pursuit"
September 23, 2003
Elder J. Richard Clarke
When I gaze so admiringly at the transformation of this campus, I remember the word of the Lord:
Zion must increase in beauty, and holiness; her borders must be enlarged;…yea verily I say unto you, Zion must arise and put on her beautiful garments.
May I pay tribute to my old school? You have come a long way from the two-rock building campus of my youth. Yours is an amazing saga of survival and triumph, Ricks College, and I thank you for being such an important part of my life. And your numerous “posterity” “arise up and call (you) blessed.”
You have a new name, but the same wonderful spirit. Enhanced by greater vision and generous resources, you are an international campus. Yours need not be the largest university to achieve excellence, but you can certainly be among the finest.
Today I should like to celebrate a historic anniversary – 180 years ago this past Sunday, a young man of high school age waited patiently for his family to settle down and go to sleep. It had been three years plus a few months since he had experienced the transcendent visitation of God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. Many things they told him which he was not permitted to share, followed by three years of Heavenly silence! He was left to searching his youthful soul and stretching his imagination.
On the evening of September 21st, an incredible, revolutionary event, which would eventually affect every living person or every person who has ever lived upon the earth, was about to occur.
Joseph Smith retired to his bed in what his mother later described as a “serious and contemplative state of mind.” There with unwavering faith, he sought the favor of God for, said he, “I had full confidence in obtaining a divine manifestation as I previously had done.”
Oliver Cowdery observed,
In this situation hours passed unnumbered—how many or how few I know not,…but suppose it must have been eleven or twelve and perhaps later, as the noise and bustle of the family, in retiring had long since closed.
As he poured out his soul to the Lord in prayer, his room became full of exquisite light, from which a personage emerged and stood by his bed. It was Moroni, an ancient American prophet, who lived four hundred years after the resurrection of Christ.
He told Joseph “there was an ancient record engraved on gold plates giving an account of the former inhabitants of the (American) continent.” After telling him these things he quoted selected prophets from the Old Testament, beginning with Malachi. He quoted from the 4th chapter differently from the King James Bible as follows:
Behold, I will reveal unto you the Priesthood by the hand of Elijah the prophet, before 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 be turned to their Fathers. If it were not so the whole earth would be utterly wasted at His coming.
This was an awesome announcement. The mission of Elijah was so imperative that unless fulfilled, the whole earth would be “utterly wasted” at the coming of Christ.
The prophet Joseph Smith declared in 1844:
The spirit, power, and calling of Elijah is that ye have power to hold the key of revelation, ordinances, oracles, powers and endowment of the fullness of the Melchizedek Priesthood and of the Kingdom of God on the earth; and to receive, obtain, and perform all the ordinances belonging to the kingdom of God, even unto the turning of the hearts unto the children even those who are in heaven.
As you know, Elijah, the prophet did appear in the Kirkland Temple on April 3, 1836, and conferred his sacred keys upon Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery.
This is in fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant, which promised that the descendants of Abraham, through the authority of the Priesthood, would bless all the families of the earth with “blessings of the gospel, which are the blessings of salvation, even of life eternal.” So the blessings of missionary work and of the temple have been the two main thrusts of the Restoration and the ushering in of the fullness of the Father.
It is my desire to direct your thoughts and feelings toward the spirit and power of Elijah, which so obsessed the Prophet Joseph and each succeeding prophet since.
You remember Moroni said Elijah would reveal the priesthood. This suggests an on going unfolding of knowledge and power as rapidly as the saints could comprehend it. Part of Joseph’s frustration was that he was being taught from the councils of heaven the things of eternity by the “gallon.” He, in turn, had to “spoon feed” the church members who were struggling to rise from an earthly, telestial culture to the Zion society for which the prophet was preparing them. The Apostle Paul struggled with the same transitional process in his day. To the saints of Rome he wrote,
…be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your minds, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God (Romans 12:2).
The struggle continues in us today, doesn’t it?
I am convinced that the invisible hand of Elijah the prophet, commissioned of Jesus Christ, has been moving across the world. It is inspiring and guiding people and events in an orderly way to bring the sealing blessings of the Holy Priesthood to all the families of the earth. Let us highlight just a few remarkable developments.
When the Kirtland temple was ready for dedication, the newly organized Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and the Seventy were called home to Kirtland from their missions, so they could be “endowed with power from on high” before they began their world ministry to gather Israel. From Joseph’s dedicatory prayer, revealed by God and recorded as Section 109 in the Doctrine and Covenants, we read,
And we ask thee Holy Father that thy servants may go forth from this house (Kirtland Temple) armed with thy power, and that thy name may be upon them, and thy glory be round about them, and thine angels have charge over them;
And from this place they may bear exceeding great and glorious tidings, in truth, unto the ends of the earth, that they may know that this is thy work, and thou hast put forth thy hand to fulfill that which thou hast spoken by the mouths of the prophets concerning the last days (Doctrine and Covenants 109:22-23).
Later, when the Nauvoo temple was built, the faithful saints refused to leave Nauvoo, even in the midst of mob violence, until they had received the fullness of the endowment. This, according to Church authorities, filled them with the “fire of the covenant,” and was the sustaining power which enabled them to endure the severe hardship of the westward trek.
Brigham Young had been in the valley only four days when he stuck his cane in the midst of the sagebrush and said, “Here we will build a temple to the Most High.” Work soon began on the forty-year architectural miracle.
The first temple built in Utah was at Saint George. It was here, shortly before he died, that the brethren carried Brigham Young, whose body was crippled with rheumatism, from room to room, where he received the endowment for his departed father. His daughter, Susa, was the first person to perform a vicarious baptism for a deceased ancestor in the temple. It was here that the temple ordinances were performed for the signers of the Declaration of Independence after they had appeared to President Wilford Woodruff in 1877. Some seventeen years later, Benjamin Franklin appeared to President Woodruff again and asked if the rest of the blessings not originally performed for him could now be given. He was vicariously ordained a high priest and the blessings of sealing conferred in behalf of himself and George Washington, among others.
In the 1930s, Elder John A. Widtsoe, an apostle, was reading in a Popular Mechanics magazine about a new technique called microfilming. He shared a copy of the article with Brother Archibald F. Bennett at the Church Genealogical Department, and wrote at the bottom of the article, “I would watch this. Something may come of it.”
In 1938, a German convert microfilming enthusiast began our formal entry into this intriguing work, which would eventually send 250 cameras all over the industrialized world. We now have over two million roles of microfilm containing vital birth, marriage, and death records. It has been estimated that 106 billion people have lived on the earth. Written records exist for about 7 billion who died before 1900. We have records for about 3.5 billion of those individuals safely stored in our Granite Mountain vault in Little Cottonwood Canyon, south of Salt Lake City.
Another episode:
Elder Henry B. Eyring was doing his doctrinal studies at Harvard University in 1959. One evening while having dinner with some business executives and other graduate students, he had a conversation with an executive with IBM Corporation. He seemed to be somewhat preoccupied and in a pensive mood. He told Elder Eyring about his recent visit to Salt Lake City and the Mormon Genealogical Department. He said it was one of the most frustrating experiences he had encountered. He said,
I think I got a sense of why the computer was invented. I saw rows and rows of card files and little old ladies in tennis shoes running up and down the aisles, manually pulling cards of millions of names filed there. I thought, ‘If there was ever a natural marriage for IBM computers, this was it.’ But you know, I couldn’t get to first base with them.
Good idea – wrong timing. Back then it took a huge room to house the gigantic computers of the 1950’s. Today a laptop computer makes it possible for individuals to access information that the big dinosaurs of forty years ago contained.
Compact discs came next to enable our members to access the computer data. And now with the Internet capability, millions of people will combine, with our members, to provide names that can be linked together in the temple. This places increasing need for members to attend the temple and perform the sacred ordinances.
An amazing event occurred in 1976. Alex Hailey, the eminent biographer, stirred the hearts and souls of people all over the world with his publication of Roots. He successfully plodded back through his African slave ancestry pulling together family verbal history, slave shipping records, and personal spiritual experiences that ignited an interest in family research before unheard of.
Roots became the best seller in United States publishing history. Translated into 30 languages, it sold 6 million copies. A year later, it was televised in a 7-night mini-series that reached 130 million viewers, the greatest program audience in television history at that time. It has continued to air on cable stations. According to an article in the Congressional Quarterly, Alex Hailey’s Roots is the primary cause of the worldwide surge in interest in Family History, making it the second-most popular hobby today. You may recall Mr. Hailey’s moving statement:
In all of us there is a hunger, marrow deep, to know our heritage…to know who we are and where we came from. Without this enriching knowledge, there is a hollow yearning.
A few months before his untimely death, as the Executive Director of the Church Family History Department, I was a guest at Mr. Hailey’s farm in Norris, Tennessee. As we visited, I asked, “Alex, do you have any idea how much impact you and your book have had on the people of the world?”
He answered, “I think so.”
I said, “I haven’t been involved in Family History Administration too many years, but it seems to me there is an invisible hand guiding this work, bringing people like you and scientific developments and special events together toward a pre-determined course.”
He slammed his fist on his knee and said, “That’s right! I felt the guiding hand of the Lord.”
How appropriate that one year after the broadcast of Roots, in June 1978, the historic revelation was announced that all the children of God could enjoy the full blessings of the Priesthood.
One other incredible example of the “invisible hand” operating upon the hearts and minds of people: We cultivated relationships with the USSR for about 30 years in an effort to microfilm vital records. In 1989 one of the employees of the Family History Department, Kahlile Mehr, was in conversation with Dr. Patricia Grimsted of Harvard University, recognized as the top scholar on Russian Archival records. Brother Mehr expressed strong interest in the church being able to microfilm public and church records in the Soviet Union. She told Kahlile that in her opinion this church would never have access to Russian archival records. The Lord thought differently.
As President of the Genealogical Society of Utah, accompanied by Sister Clarke and our European acquisition Manager, Lynn Carson, we traveled to Moscow, Russia in April 1992. Sitting around a table in the offices of the former Central Committee of the Communist Party located at the Kremlin, I signed a contract with Dr. Rudolph Pikhoia, Chairman of the Committee of Archival Affairs for the Republic of Russia. This contract authorized the Genealogical Society of Utah to microfilm vital records in 200 regional archives throughout Russia. What in 1989 was said to be impossible was now reality. “Is anything too hard for the Lord?”
What is the grand purpose of all of these amazing events, and special people raised up, and all the individual research being accomplished by members and non-members of the Church?
After Moses restored the keys of gathering in the Kirtland temple, Joseph the Prophet posed the question: “What was the object of gathering the Jews…or the people of God in any age of the world?” He answered,
The main object was to build unto the Lord a house where by he could reveal unto his people the ordinances of His house and the glories of His kingdom, and teach the people the way of salvation…to prepare them for the ordinances and endowments, washings and anointings, etc. (HC 5:423-4)
Today we are living in the most exciting time in the history of temple building. One hundred and twenty-eight temples have been built or announced. With 115 operating, it makes possible the miracle of nations throughout the world actually having a temple in their land that a few short years ago would be conceived as an impossible dream.
Living and ancestral families may now be endowed and sealed in unprecedented numbers. The spiritual quality of life will increase as members engage in temple worship. The sweet influence of the temple allows us to escape from the world, and experience the “solemnities of eternity.” I am so grateful for the temple in my life, and the love for the temple I gained from my mother.
May I share my experience? I have here a valise, probably 75 years old. On the side are the initials R.R. They stand for Robert Redford—not the movie star. It belonged to my grandfather. He spent the final years of his life as an ordinance worker in the Logan Temple. He passed away in 1939 when I was twelve years old.
After the funeral, mother and her brothers and sisters gathered together to distribute his modest personal belongings. Each family member was given a first-choice selection. Unknown to us, Mother prayed that as her first choice, she could have Grandfather’s temple clothes in the black valise, with the initials “R.R.” printed on it.
Mother’s prayer was answered.
As a teenager, I thought it strange that Mother would prefer that little black bag to furniture or other items of practical value. Years later I went to the temple as a missionary to receive my own endowment. Mother gave me Grandfather’s temple clothing in the black valise. It would be difficult for me to describe my first experience in the temple. It was beyond anything earthly I had witnessed. I didn’t comprehend much that I was taught that evening in the Idaho Falls Temple. But clothed in the inheritance from my grandfather, I shall never forget the sublime feelings that penetrated my soul.
Occasionally, I hear of someone who attends the temple to receive his or her endowment and reports a negative experience. This is so unfortunate. But like any sacred, spiritual experience, we must prepare our hearts and minds with prayer and fasting. I am reminded each time I enter the temple and read the words “Holiness to the Lord” that my offering to him should be a prepared heart.
The Lord protects his most sacred truths and precious blessings from those who come to the temple spiritually unprepared. The Lord’s temple is the symbol of all that is holy. It is the bridge between mortality and the Celestial Kingdom. We go there to receive the highest blessings of the Holy Priesthood to prepare us for the glory of the Father—indeed His Fullness. It is in the ordinances of the Melchizedek Priesthood that the power of Godliness is manifested. In the temple we are invited to “grow up in the Lord” and receive a “fullness of the Holy Ghost.” While the temple is a house of prayer, fasting, and glory, it is also a house of learning. But we must learn how to learn in the temple. Our tutor is the Holy Ghost. The sacred truths of the endowment can be learned only in the temple—line upon line, principle by principle. It is a lifetime pursuit. You can’t take a college course or major in the endowment and other ordinances of the temple. They are carefully reserved for those who “hunger and thirst after righteousness” and they who do are “filled.”
Before the dedication of the Los Angeles Temple, President David O. McKay made this profound observation:
…There are few, even temple workers, who comprehend the full meaning and power of the temple endowment. Seen for what it is, it is the step-by-step ascent into the Eternal presence. If our young people could but glimpse it, it would be the most powerful spiritual motivation of their lives.
The center of all learning in the temples is the Atonement of Jesus Christ. All ordinances and covenants have healing and saving power by virtue of the great sacrifice of our Savior. He entreats us to “learn of (Him) and listen to (His) words, walk in the meekness of (His) spirit and we shall have peace in Him.”
To realize the promised blessings of the temple, we must not only receive the holy ordinances, but we must abide the covenant associated with it. The promised blessings do not come automatically. We must abide the law “that was appointed unto that blessing and the conditions thereof, as were instituted before the foundations of the world” saith the Lord. According to the dictionary, abide means: “to endure without yielding; to bear patiently; to persevere.”
Some may hesitate to enter into such a covenant, but remember, we are preparing for the greatest blessing of the Atonement, which enables us Eternal Lives with our Father in Heaven.
You are being trained and proven for residency in His Kingdom only. There are no ordinances required for the Telestial or Terrestrial Kingdoms. You are heirs for the Fullness of the Father. To achieve this, we must strive for purity of heart and master our physical appetites as fully as possible. Our Father expects none of His children to default on his Celestial covenants, thus forfeiting our royal birthright blessings.
Once we have received the blessings of the endowment and the sealing ordinance, we should schedule, as time and circumstances permit, regular visits to the temple. We do this for two purposes. First, to engage in temple worship, striving to learn the full significance of the endowment and to renew our personal covenants; and second, to make available for our ancestors all the blessings we have received for ourselves. This is a supernal expression of unselfish love. Our Savior has made the gift possible. We are to deliver the gift. Thus we become Saviors on Mount Zion—turning our hearts to them so that we in turn might be worthy of the promises made to them.
One Christmas, I was thinking of the joy we feel in giving gifts. I thought of the perfect give of our Savior’s Atonement. I pondered the question, “What are the characteristics of a perfect gift that I could give? I listed the following:
- A gift one could not get for himself.
- The gift would bless the recipient’s life.
- The receiver is unable to give a return gift. (Reciprocate.)
- The receiver cannot express appreciation.
- The gift does not lose its value over time.
- The gift requires the sacrifice and inconvenience of the giver.
- The gift cannot be received unless someone unselfishly gives it.
I concluded that performing temple ordinances meets the criteria for the perfect gift. By doing this, we extend the blessings of the Atonement beyond the veil—we are the arms of the Savior in redeeming the dead.
For you who are still preparing for your endowment and sealings, may I remind you of a very important opportunity. The most successful mission where more investigators are converted than all the missions in the world combined cannot perform a single baptism. This missionary labor is performed in the spirit world. All the great missionaries who have previously lived in mortality are, we are told, preaching the gospel but they must rely on worthy youth and young adults to be baptized for those who accept the gospel.
When we presided over the temple in Hawaii we were thrilled to see the students of BYU-Hawaii organize into weekly ward groups to perform baptisms in the temple. We estimated that they had performed enough baptisms one year to equal the membership of 10 stakes. It is just a few miles to the Idaho Falls Temple. We hope you will avail yourselves with that great blessing as often as is practical.
Brothers and sisters, the work of the temple is the culmination of all missionary work, whether for the living or the deceased. Though its magnitude of vicarious ordinances may seem overwhelming, it will be done in the due time of the Lord. I testify of that. Let us all live our lives so we can always have the privilege of serving in the House of the Lord.
In the words of the Psalm, I express my fervent wish:
One thing have I desired of the Lord that I will seek after: That I may dwell in the House of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to contemplate in his temple.
In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
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