Lessons from the Doctrine and Covenants 2021
Lesson No. Forty-Eight

The Wonderful and Unique Doctrine of Redeeming the Dead - D&C 137-138

In a vision in 1836 Joseph Smith saw his brother Alvin in the celestial kingdom – Joseph “marveled how it was that he had obtained an inheritance in that kingdom, seeing that he had departed this life and had not been baptized for the remission of sins.  Thus came the voice of the Loud 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” (D&C 137:5-7).   This vision was the beginning of Joseph’s understanding of temple worship and redeeming the dead.  From then on his life built up to a great crescendo.  In Nauvoo during the last three years of his life Joseph gave 78 discourses mostly about the temple and after life.  But even then he never revealed everything he knew.  He told the saints he could have taught them a hundred times more about life after death if the Lord permitted it, and if the people were prepared to receive it.

The gospel is being taught to people in the spirit world who did not receive it in this life –President Joseph F. Smith had a vision about the teaching of the gospel in the spirit world:  “I beheld that the faithful elders of this dispensation, when they depart from mortal life, continue their labors in the preaching of the gospel of repentance and redemption, through the sacrifice of the Only Begotten Son of God, among those who are in darkness and under the bondage of sin in the great world of the spirits of the dead.  The dead who repent will be redeemed, through obedience to the ordinances of the house of God.  And after they have paid the penalty of their transgressions, and are washed clean, shall receive a reward according to their works, for they are heirs of salvation” (D&C 138:57-59).

Family history and temple service is essential to our salvation – Joseph taught the importance of the work of redeeming the dead: “The greatest responsibility in this world that God has laid upon us is to seek after our dead” (Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith, 475).  President Wilford Woodruff also spoke about the importance of family history and temple service:  “Oh, I wish many times that the veil were lifted off the face of the Latter-day Saints.  I wish we could see and know the things of God as they do who are laboring for the salvation of the human family who are in the Spirit World; for if this were so, this whole people, with very few, if any exceptions, would lose all interest in the riches of the world, and instead thereof their whole desire and labors would be directed to redeem their dead” (Wilford Woodruff, Discourses, p. 152).  So we can fulfill our responsibilities for family history and temple service the Lord is providing modern technology, communications, and transportation, and temples are being built throughout the earth.  A vast majority of members of the Church live reasonably close to a temple.

The Lord’s work is correlated on both sides of the veil – President Benson, at the dedication of the Sao Paulo Temple said: “The work we are performing here has a direct relationship to the work in the spirit world.  Someday you will know that there are ordinances performed over there, too, in order to make the vicarious work which you do effective.  It will all be done under the authority and power of the priesthood of God” (The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, pp. 252-253).

We live at a remarkable time – The doctrine of redeeming the dead, as understood and practiced today, “which never has been revealed from thefoundation of the world, but have been kept hid from the wise and prudent, and shall be revealed unto babes and sucklings in this, the dispensation of the fullness of times” (D&C 128:18). Primary children understand baptism for the dead, and young people come to the temple in great numbers all in fulfilment of this prophecy. All previous dispensations rejoiced in our dispensation because a new dimension and magnitude of vicarious temple work would be revealed. Elder James E. Talmage wrote of our dispensation: “The present is the age of greatest import in all history, embodying as it does the fruition of the past and the living seed of the yet greater future. The present is the dispensation of fullness, for which the dispensations of bygone centuries have been but preliminary and preparatory. The saving and sanctifying labor incident to modern Temples surpasses that of the Temples of earlier times as the light of the full day exceeds the twilight of the dawn” (The House of the Lord, p. 197).