Little Rock Stake Conference

Feb 11^th, 2023

 

Temple Work For Our Own Salvation

 

Malachi 4

5 ¶ Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord:

6 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.

 

This strikes me as a strong warning. I've often wondered why this is and what this means.

 

The Prophet Joseph Smith stated, “The greatest responsibility in this world that God has laid upon us is to seek after our dead” (History of the Church, 6:313). He also stated: “This doctrine was the burden of the scriptures. Those Saints who neglect it in behalf of their deceased relatives, do it at the peril of their own salvation” (ibid., 4:426).

 

 Why is it that our own salvation is at peril if we fail to do this work?

 

Could it be that because there are trillions upon trillions of souls in the spirit world that need this work done by someone in mortality and we are called on to do it for them, or else!

 

Let's think about that for a minute. How many temples operating day and night with how many patrons over how many years would it take to accomplish this? I can't answer that because no one really knows how many people have lived and died on this planet since Adam and Eve.

 

How many people died in the flood of Noah and were visited by missionaries in the spirit world finally sent to them by Jesus after his death, and how many temples have been in operation since that time in which their work could be done, if we only knew who they were?

 

To assume that we will accomplish this work without some divine intervention seems a bit too much. On the other hand, why couldn't God just get it done another way? He's God after all. Does He really have to depend upon us to do this?

 

My point is that with 176 operating temples and another 124 announced or under construction and with a church activity rate of just less than 30% and an endowed membership of around half of that and a current recommend status of 48% of that and then a temple attendance rate that's a fraction of that we're barely scratching the surface. It's practically negligible in the face of so great an undertaking.

 

There has to be more to it.

 

Thankfully, we know that the work of the millennium will be temple work. With a thousand years of peace, with perhaps hundreds of thousands of temples dotting the earth and billions of the faithful working in those temples day and night the work could be accomplished.

Then why spend hundreds of millions of dollars on temples now when that money could be used for humanitarian work, or missionary work? Why so much emphasis on proxy work now when the millennium will get it all done anyway?

 

Maybe there's another reason for this imperative. Maybe it's about us as much as it is about them. I'm not talking about our own endowments and sealings, that's a given, and it would take far fewer temples to do that. I'm talking about the impact on our own salvation as we perform selfless, vicarious work.

 

Let's consider a few things here. What impact would it have on our own lives and the lives of our loved ones to have people on the other side of the veil actively working in our behalf? Another way to look at this possibility is to consider how many spirits there might be in the spirit world. If you took the total number of spirits there divided by the number of people now on the earth who knows how many there are per one of us. Even if you limited that to the number of the righteous including the converted in the spirit world divided up and sent to the aid of the righteous here, how many spirits on the other side would be actively working in our behalf?

 

Consider how many ancestors and extended family in the spirit world who have accepted the gospel and are waiting for their work to be done by a recommend holding member of the church. I would imagine that they would be praying for us and doing everything possible to facilitate our going to the temple for them.

 

 A further consideration and perhaps the most important is that engaging in this work makes us Saviors on Mount Zion. That's a pretty meaningful title.

 

The Lord said:

Moses 1

39 For behold, this is my work and my glory—

to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.

 

We are called to participate in the Savior's "Work and Glory."

The Savior of the world personally suffered and sacrificed that we through our faithfulness and repentance might attain Eternal Life and has commanded that we "follow Him" "do as He has done.” Now we won’t go to Gethsemane and bleed from every poor. But we are called on to personally suffer and sacrifice as needed to bring about the salvation of souls. Scripturally this is called charity. Perhaps this is what Paul referred to as the “fellowship of his sufferings.” We are commanded to be "Saviors on Mt. Zion.”

 

What does it mean to be a "Savior on Mount Zion?"

The mound upon which the temple at Jerusalem was built is called Mount Zion. The scriptural references to Mount Zion, are references to the Temple of God.

To be a Savior on Mount Zion is to participate in the work of salvation in the Temple.

 

The prophet Joseph Smith said:

“How are they to become saviors on Mount Zion? By building their temples, erecting their baptismal fonts, and going forth and receiving all the ordinances … in behalf of all their progenitors who are dead.”

Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith, (2011), 468–478

 

Brigham Young said: 

“We have a work to do just as important in its sphere as the Savior’s work was in its sphere. (Now that's a powerful statement.) Our fathers cannot be made perfect without us; we cannot be made perfect without them. They have done their work and now sleep. We are now called upon to do ours; which is to be the greatest work man ever performed on the earth” (Discourses of Brigham Young, sel. John A. Widtsoe, Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1941, p. 406).

 

My message is this; engaging in this great work not only saves souls in the spirit world, but it also saves us. This selfless service has been compared to the Saviors atoning work. We partner with Him as it were as we sacrifice our time, talents and means, even our all if necessary, just as He did. Those who are willing to do this lay the foundation for their own salvation.

 

Remember what Joseph Smith said “This doctrine was the burden of the scriptures. Those Saints who neglect it in behalf of their deceased relatives, do it at the peril of their own salvation” (ibid., 4:426).

 

This is THE saving work for both us and our dead.

 

This is why we are building temples and expending every effort to get them closer and closer to our members. This is why so much of our effort and recourses are being channeled to temple work. This is why the greatest global effort in the history of the earth is underway to collect and organized data about those who have died. This is why we need to go to the temple. Our own personal salvation depends upon it.

 

That's why President Nelson issued this invitation.

Pres. Nelson Feb. 2017 Family Discovery Day

“I invite you to prayerfully consider what kind of sacrifice—and preferably a sacrifice of time—you can make to do more family history and temple work this year.”

 

Great blessings are promised to us for engaging in this work.

 

President Boyd K. Packer said,

“The Lord will bless us as we attend to the sacred ordinance work of the temples. . . . We will be blessed in all of our affairs. We will be eligible to have the Lord take an interest in our affairs both spiritual and temporal.”

The Holy Temple (1980), 182

 

Elder Renlund said this,

April 2018 General Conference.

“But as we participate in family history and temple work today, we also lay claim to “healing” blessings promised by prophets and apostles. These blessings are also breathtakingly amazing because of their scope, specificity, and consequence in mortality. This long list includes these blessings:

    Increased understanding of the Savior and His atoning sacrifice;

 

    Increased influence of the Holy Ghost to feel strength and direction for our own lives;

 

    Increased faith, so that conversion to the Savior becomes deep and abiding;

 

    Increased ability and motivation to learn and repent because of an understanding of who we are, where we come from, and a clearer vision of where we are going;

 

    Increased refining, sanctifying, and moderating influences in our hearts;

 

    Increased joy through an increased ability to feel the love of the Lord;

 

    Increased family blessings, no matter our current, past, or future family situation or how imperfect our family tree may be;

 

    Increased love and appreciation for ancestors and living relatives, so we no longer feel alone;

 

    Increased power to discern that which needs healing and thus, with the Lord’s help, serve others;

 

    Increased protection from temptations and the intensifying influence of the adversary; and

 

    Increased assistance to mend troubled, broken, or anxious hearts and make the wounded whole.

 

If you have prayed for any of these blessings, participate in family history and temple work. As you do so, your prayers will be answered. When ordinances are performed on behalf of the deceased, God’s children on earth are healed. No wonder President Russell M. Nelson, in his first message as President of the Church, declared, “Your worship in the temple and your service there for your ancestors will bless you with increased personal revelation and peace and will fortify your commitment to stay on the covenant path.”

 

There is no work more important or more impactful than this one.

 

Our families, our communities, our wards and branches and our stake will be directly affected by the devotion that we give to this work.

 

Consider this: I had a dream while on my mission in which I was given to know that my ancestors on the other side of the veil were working directly with the ancestors of those I was teaching here in mortality. Of course, they were. The ancestors of those that I was teaching the gospel to had a vested interest in the conversion of their decedents.

 

In like manner those we do work for in the temple have a vested interest in us and like elder Packer said they would take an interest in our affairs both temporal and spiritual.

 

We don't seem to find it hard to imagine that legions of evil spirits could inhabit and influence a single individual, but have we considered the impact of legions of angels influencing us and those around us?

 

Ok, one last thing. I crunched a few numbers for you to consider.

The Little Rock Stake has a little over 500 endowed members with current recommends. Now, I know that we don't give out temple attendance quotas or set number goals for temple attendance. So, this is purely hypothetical.

 

If 500 endowed adults with active temple recommends from the Little Rock Stake visited the temple and attended just one endowment session per month, our stake alone would fill 12.5 sessions every month. That's just one session per recommend holder per month.

 

Now if I understand it correctly there are 6 stakes in our temple district. If the numbers for each stake were generally the same, then our temple district could completely fill 75 sessions per month. That’s with just one temple trip per month attending just one endowment session by just the current recommend holders. The Memphis Temple currently schedules 32-40 sessions per month depending on the month and those sessions are seldom filled.

 

Think of it, we could double the number of sessions and all would be filled to capacity. That would be awesome in terms of the amount of work being done, but much, much more impactful than that would be the effect on the personal lives and families of those who do it, and the spiritual and temporal impact on our wards and branches and our stakes.

 

Would not God smile upon us for our personal sacrifice? Wouldn't He send legions of angels to our aid and defense? Wouldn't he honor us and bless us in ways that we can't even imagine?

 

Can you see it? A group of people in the spirit world having this conversation.

 

Spirit one: “Hey, have you heard about what’s going on in the Little Rock Stake?”

Spirit two: “Yes, they’re killin it with temple attendance.”

Spirit three: “Was that supposed to be a pun?”

Spirit two: “Huh?”

Spirit one: “What can we do to help them?”

More spirits gather to the group.

Spirit four: “I heard someone say Little Rock?”

Spirit two: “Yeah we’re discussing what we can do to help them out.”

Spirit five: “Brother Soso car isn’t going to last much longer and if he’s going to be able to keep up his temple commitment, he’s going to need a different car.”

Spirit six: “I can help with that.”

And so on. Health problems, relationship issues, finances, etc.

 

Pres. Nelson said,

Oct. 2018 Conference

"I promise you that the Lord will bring you the miracles He knows you need as you make sacrifices to serve and worship in His temples,"

 

It is my hope brothers and sisters that we will take seriously the call to be Saviors on Mount Zion and bring down a flood of miracles and blessings upon us as prophesied by President Nelson.

 

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.