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Three Men, Three Missions

Posted by Connor on February 16th, 2007

The three-fold mission of the Church is:

  1. Perfect the Saints
  2. Proclaim the Gospel
  3. Redeem the Dead

The keys and missions of the three men to visit Joseph in the Kirtland temple after Jesus’ appearance are as follows:

  1. Moses: Keys of gathering
  2. Elias: Keys of Abrahamic covenant and dispensation
  3. Elijah: Keys of sealing power

What’s interesting is that the keys restored by these three men perfectly coincide with and support their corresponding mission of the Church.

1. Keys of Gathering

With the keys bestowed by Moses to Joseph, the Prophet is able to lead the work of gathering (both physical and spiritual) to Zion. A Zion society is one where the members can feed off each other, build each other up, and strive together to create unity.

The Lord confirms that Zion can only be established by a righteous body of Saints living a higher law:

And Zion cannot be built up unless it is by the principles of the law of the celestial kingdom; otherwise I cannot receive her unto myself. (D&C 105:5)

A gathered group of Saints (ideally) live in exclusion of Babylonian influences, thus creating a clean society wherein Zion can be established and righteousness reign freely. The citizen Saints in such a location are more easily perfected, thus facilitating the first mission of the Church.

2. Keys of Abrahamic covenant and dispensation

The Bible Dictionary succinctly explains this charge:

Being an heir to the Abrahamic covenant does not make one a “chosen person” per se, but does signify that such are chosen to responsibly carry the gospel to all the peoples of the earth. Abraham’s seed have carried out the missionary activity in all the nations since Abraham’s day.

To fulfill the covenant God made with Abraham – having particular reference to the fact that the literal seed of his body would be entitled to all of the blessings of the gospel – a number of specific and particular things must take place in the last days. The gospel must be restored [check!], the priesthood must be conferred again upon man [check!], the keys of the sealing power must be given again to mortals [see #3], Israel must be gathered [see #1], and the Holy Ghost must be poured out upon the gentiles [in process]. All this has already taken place or is in process of fulfillment. (BD, Abraham, Covenant of, comments mine)

If that doesn’t perfectly describe “proclaim the gospel”, I don’t know what does. Spot on.

3. Keys of sealing power

The keys delivered by Elijah allow for the sealing of individuals in the family unit one to another. Elder Bruce R. McConkie, speaking of the importance of such a sealing, has said:

I believe that the most important single thing that any Latter-day Saint ever does in this world is to marry the right person, in the right place, by the right authority; and that then–when they have been so sealed by the power and authority which Elijah the prophet restored–the most important remaining thing that any Latter-day Saint can ever do is so to live that the terms and conditions of the covenant thus made will be binding and efficacious now and forever. (“Agency or Inspiration–Which?”)

Included in such sealing power is the authority and duty to perform vicarious work for the dead, providing them the same saving ordinances we can enjoy. Elder Petersen explains:

But be it understood that if we go to the temple, and not for our own dead, we are performing only a part of our duty, because we are also required to go there specifically to save our own dead relatives and bind the various generations together by the power of the holy priesthood.

We must disabuse our minds of the idea that merely “going to the temple” discharges our full responsibility, because it does not. That is not enough.

We must get down to specifics and do the work for our own dead progenitors.

God holds each of us responsible for saving our own kindred—specifically our own. (Mark E. Petersen, “The Message of Elijah,” Ensign, May 1976, 14)

And so, Elijah restored the sealing (and loosing) power allowing us to bind ourselves to our ancestors.

Conclusion

Three men, three missions. Each restored and conferred the keys pertaining to a specific portion of the Church’s mission which exist as a subset of God’s mission.

It’s a perfect plan. God lives, and He sure knows what He is up to. Thank the heavens for that reassuring fact.

Read quotes about the Church on Quoty

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One courageous individual has opined already. Care to pontificate as well?

The key that Elijah left us encompasses the fullness of priesthood ordinances. It is not restricted to the sealing of relatives to each other as we commonly discuss it in Sunday School, but it covers the powers spoken of in Revelation 7:

3 Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.
4 And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.

This sealing power is the bestowal of the gift of Eternal Life upon the recipient and it is held by the President of the Church and consists of the keys Joseph Smith referred to when he said that he had given the kingdom to the 12. It is also these keys, the keys to take a person all the way to exaltation, that Brigham Young knew he and 8 others of the 12 had, and that Sidney Rigdon feigned possession of. These keys are held by Pres. Hinckley now.

#1 Curtis | February 16th, 2007 12:10 PM

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