Promise made to the fathers

I've been reading about
the visitation made by the Lord to the Kirtland temple in 1836, and the visions presented to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdry, namely, Moses, Elias, and Elijah.

Moses committed the keys of the gathering of Israel.

Elias committed the dispensation of the Gospel of Abraham (??).

Elijah said, "Behold, the time has fully come, which was spoken of by the mouth of Malachi—testifying that he should be sent, before the great and dreadful day of the Lord come — To turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the children to the fathers, lest the whole earth be smitten with a curse— Therefore, the keys of this dispensation are committed into your hands; and by this ye may know that the great and dreadful day of the Lord is near, even at the doors."

Both Malachi and 3rd Nephi say "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."

When Moroni was visiting Joseph Smith as a young boy, he quoted this scripture, but did it differently enough that Joseph remarked at the change: "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 would be utterly wasted at his coming."

He shall plant in the hearts of the children the promises made to the fathers. The hearts of the children shall turn to the fathers.

No mention of the father's hearts turning to the children. And what is the promise made to the fathers?

I could be wrong here, but this is what I think the promise is (if you know more, please share with me); All who are of the faith, and baptized into Christ, become Abraham’s seed. This is the promise--if you are of the faith and baptized with authority, you become heir to the blessings of Abraham. If your fathers are not so baptized (ordinances), they are not heirs, and the great chain of the family is broken. If your fathers died without this baptism, it has been planted in your heart to attend to your fathers and see that the work is done.

I want to go one step beyond the baptism referenced in Galations (above), and reference President Joseph F. Smith in D&C 138, where he goes on to say the redemption of the dead includes the sealing of the children to their parents. So not only having 'our fathers' baptized, but also being sure the family chain is sealed together, with sealing being the last and highest ordinance of the temple.

The next question is how is the promise planted? A future blog post.

Some quick hands-on training

I just hosted my cousin's son from Australia for a mere 24 hours as he was preparing to enter the MTC. He's serving a mission in Japan. I told him of my new calling, and he was thrilled as he's been a Ward Family History consultant for a year now, using the new system. He was very excited to train me, and we proceeded to spend hours going over the system, how it works, how to do due diligence (can't do enough), and how to find the work to be done. I'm already finding some work in my family lines. Already! Within 24 hours!!! This system is so elegant. There are clearly some improvements that can be made, and I'll see what I can do about getting feedback going up the pipe. And I can see why they were rolling it out in Utah and Idaho last. We're going to kill the system! All the active members who are going to be using the system! And the pioneer families!! The children!!! (The wives!!) I've tried to merge a few stray records already, and the system can't handle the size of the files, so it won't merge. That's going to have to change.

This is exciting stuff. I'm giddy with the yearning to get the work done. Here's the wheel. Put your shoulder to it!