I’ve been working on a family history project revolving around my great-grandmother, Zetta Curtis. The catalyst behind the project was some letters my Aunt Bertha lent me about 25 years ago between Zetta and two of her sisters, Lottie and Alice, written from about 1894 to 1901. I’ve worked on the project from time to time since first reading those letters but have been working on it in earnest for the last year and a half or so. Yesterday I took a hike into the woods near Johnsburg, New York in search of Zetta’s childhood home along a little used and unmaintained trail about four or five miles deep into the Adirondack Park. This was my third or fourth attempt but this time I’m pretty sure I found the home site. While driving back home last night I decided to write this little missive.
I think it’s important to preface my missive by saying that whenever I speak about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints it should be understood that I only speak for myself, and my thoughts may or may not be shared by others within the Church.
Many people know the Church for their temples. My wife and I were married in the Washington, D.C. Temple, one of the most well-known of the Church’s temples. Other notable Church temples are the first one in Kirtland, Ohio and probably the most famous, the Salt Lake City Temple in Utah. For members of the Church what happens in the Church’s temples is called temple work. I am not going to speak in detail about what happens in temples, nor should I, and I have not been to the temple in a number of years, but I like to describe what happens in the temple as saying a prayer in behalf of and offering a blessing for those who have already passed away, particularly to our own family members but to others as well, including and most often for complete strangers.
Two of the motivations for Joseph Smith, Jr., the founder and first president of the Church, in implementing temple work were the closing few lines of the Old Testament found in Malachi and a vision he had of his deceased older brother, Alvin Smith.
Malachi 4:5 and 6 reads:
Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord:
And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.
In the context of temple work, this scripture means in part turning our hearts to our deceased family members, those who have gone “beyond the veil” before us. When we do temple work for family members we should be demonstrating that we recognize and appreciate their sacrifices on our behalf. In this respect temple work can be seen and thought of as an act demonstrating gratitude.
In Joseph’s vision he saw Alvin in heaven. Doctrine & Covenants 137:5 and 6 reads:
I saw Father Adam and Abraham; and my father and my mother; my brother Alvin, that has long since slept;
And marveled how it was that he had obtained an inheritance in that kingdom, seeing that he had departed this life before the Lord had set his hand to gather Israel the second time, and had not been baptized for the remission of sins.
Like many other Christians at the time, and still today, Joseph believed that being baptized was a prerequisite to entering heaven. Joseph loved his older brother as Alvin had been a great support to their parents while the family struggled, but he had died many years earlier and had never been baptized. That Joseph’s parents were in heaven did not surprise him although they were still alive, because they had been baptized. But Alvin was different.
Joseph loved Alvin, but how would it be possible for Alvin to enter heaven even though he was not baptized before dying? Likewise, how could heaven be heaven if the ones that we love are not there with us? Joseph’s answer was forthcoming in the next few lines of Doctrine & Covenants 137, in verses 7 to 9:
Thus came the voice of the Lord unto me, saying: All who have died without a knowledge of this gospel, who would have received it if they had been permitted to tarry, shall be heirs of the celestial kingdom of God;
Also all that shall die henceforth without a knowledge of it, who would have received it with all their hearts, shall be heirs of that kingdom;
For I, the Lord, will judge all men according to their works, according to the desire of their hearts.
The solution to Joseph’s dilemma was baptisms for the dead by proxy in the temple, not to make those who have passed beyond the veil members of the Church, but to offer to them a path into heaven if they should so choose.
These were among the key reasons the first temple was built in Kirtland, to turn the hearts of the children to their fathers, and mothers, and the hearts of the mothers and fathers to their children, as well as to bless and do service for those of our family members, and others, who have gone beyond the veil. We return to the temple not to bless ourselves as much as to bless others. Our hearts should be turned to those who came before us, with a sense of humility and gratitude. With love.