§ What are two or three reasons why work for the
dead is urgent?
In Remarks to General
Church Genealogical Committee in 1963, President David O McKay taught that “in
the spirit world. . . the membership of the Church over there is increasing. It
is imperative,
therefore, that we ourselves do something here to match what is being done
there. On the other side of the veil the people there can only be prepared for
baptism and the saving ordinances . . .” and here we must complete the work for
those thus prepared. (Emphasis mine.)
D. Todd Christofferson,
in a March 2002 BYU family history fireside explained that President Gordon B
Hinckley was equally emphatic in his remarks to new temple presidents and
matrons in October 2000, comparing the urgency of our work in the temples to
the rescue of the Willie and Marin Handcart companies. He said, “If Brigham
Young had not suspended General Conference and dispatched the rescue parties,
all of those in the handcart companies would have perished.” Elder
Christofferson continued, “President Hinckley then stated that those who wait
beyond the veil for the ordinances of the gospel are in desperate circumstances analogous to the handcart pioneers. They
need our help. Those who labor in the temples of the Lord are their rescuers,
he said. We need to wake up the whole Church to their plight.” (Emphasis mine.)
The February 2014 New
Era, explains that service, such as Brigham Young instigated, is the gospel in
action. President Young said, “Many of our brethren and sisters are on the plains with
hand-carts, and . . . and they must be brought here, we must send assistance to
them. The text [of General Conference] will be, ‘to get them here.’ …“I
shall call upon the Bishops this day, I shall not wait until to-morrow, nor
until next day . . . we must have them . . . I will tell you all that your
faith, religion, and profession of religion, will never save one soul of you in
the celestial kingdom of our God, unless you carry out just such principles as
I am now teaching you. Go and bring in those people now [in desparate
circumstances].” (Brigham Young, “Remarks,” Deseret News, Oct.
15, 1856, 252).
The
New Era continues, “‘Save the people’—that is the command. When we serve others, we are engaged in the
work of salvation.” What are we saving people from? From misery, and the
unhappiness and loss of agency whereby they are subjugated to Satan—cast out
from the presence of all that is light and pure and good. Spiritual death is to
be separated from God and unable to return to Him or have the blessings of
family, or joy of any kind. Salvation, the plan God has for all His children,
can save each of His children from spiritual death (2 Nephi 9:8-20) even
after mortality (D&C 20:25-27; 1 Peter 4:6).
Elder Christofferson conveys
to us the urgency voiced by President Hinckley who admonished temple presidents
and matrons, “that we can expect people to do more than they are now doing.
Temples have been multiplied to make this possible.” President Hinckley, as the
Lord’s prophet said, “I have felt a compelling interest in this; it bothers me
night and day.” (Emphasis mine.)
Elder Christofferson
notes, “If it bothers him night and day, so it should us.” As Elder Christensen has
contemplated “the situation of those who die without the gospel and its saving ordinances,
even those who did their best and were decent people by our standards” he has “been given to understand” that their circumstances are “less
than desirable.” He instructs, “It cannot be paradise for any until they have
accepted the gospel of Jesus Christ, repented of their sins insofar as they
can, and entered into the covenant and received a remission of their sins
through the baptisms of water and Spirit. Therefore, it is not a small thing where we have the means to provide them a
baptism that we neglect or delay the opportunity” (How Beautiful Thy
Temples Lord, BYU Family History Fireside - Joseph Smith Building March 8, 2002,
emphasis mine).
President Wilford Woodruff
taught, “We are bordering upon the millennium. We are living in the great and
last dispensation, in the which the God of Israel expects us . . . his sons and
daughters, to perform the work which has been left to our charge. It is our
duty to build these temples. It is our duty to enter into them and redeem our
dead. . . .There are millions of them there, and they must have the Gospel
offered to them. . . . Our forefathers are looking to us . . . they are watching
over us with great anxiety . . . so that in the morning of the resurrection they
can come forth and enjoy the same blessings that we enjoy. We . . . have the
privilege of receiving the Gospel of Christ for ourselves. Our forefathers had
not this privilege; and as their posterity . . . we occupy a position in this
capacity towards them . . . of Saviors upon Mount
Zion (Wilford Woodruff, Journal of Discourses, 26 vols. [London: Latter-day
Saints' Book Depot, 1854-1886], 23: 331).
President Woodruff also
taught, If the “veil were lifted off the face of the Latter-day Saints . . .
this whole people, with very few, if any, exceptions, would lose all interest
in the riches of the world, and instead thereof their whole desires and labors
would be directed to redeem their dead” (Wilford Woodruff, The Discourses of
Wilford Woodruff, edited by G. Homer Durham [Salt Lake City: Bookcraft,
1969], 152).
President Howard W. Hunter 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. . . . Our dead
are anxiously waiting . . . that they may be liberated from their prison house
in the spirit world. . . . With regard to temple and family history work, I
have one overriding message: This work
must hasten. The work waiting to be done is staggering and escapes human
comprehension. . . . No one really dies. The great work of the temples, and all
that supports it, must expand. It is imperative!”
(The Teachings of Howard. W. Hunter [1997], 231–34).
Elder Christofferson
reminds us, “Joseph Smith urged upon us in strong terms the need for us to proceed with all due haste . . . [He] declared:
‘I would advise all the Saints to go to with their might . . . that they may be
prepared against the day that the destroying angel goes forth; and if
the whole Church should go to with all their might to save their dead,
seal their posterity, and gather their living friends, and spend none of their
time in behalf of the world, they would hardly get through before
night would come, when no man can work’” (Joseph Smith, Discourses of the
Prophet Joseph Smith, compiled by Alma P. Burton [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book
Co., 1977], 146, emphasis mine).
