Family history, in its broader sense, may be correctly referred to as a mystery of the Gospel. Why? Because the doctrine is not simple, nor is it found all in one place, a place where just anyone can become easily acquainted with it in its entirety. You might say that most of the doctrine that has been revealed to man is at the same time simple and complex. There are many who have even described some of the practices of the members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as “strange.” The Lord, Himself, in both Isaiah 28:21 and in Section 101:95 of the Doctrine and Covenants, described it as strange. He stated: “That I may proceed to pass my strange act…my strange work, etc.” A person may be converted to Christianity because it teaches one to be good. If one followed the Ten Commandments and/or the Beatitudes, he or she could live a good life and have need for no more scriptures or understanding of them. On the other hand, if they, as an example, were interested in knowing why Christ had to sacrifice His life to satisfy “justice”? Or, why it is important/essential to spend hours searching for one’s ancestors and then spend hours in the temples doing the work for them? The answer to those questions requires one to study the scriptures in some depth. You may ask, “Why is it so hard to know and understand the scriptural doctrine regarding The Plan of Salvation?” Nephi, a Book of Mormon Prophet, described the reason this way: “For he that diligently seeketh shall find and the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto them, by the power of the Holy Ghost. (1 Nephi 10:19) To fully understand the why of the Plan, one must diligently seek. It is like putting together a puzzle of the Sahara Desert with every piece the same color. We find one piece of the mystery written by one prophet and another piece somewhere else written by a different prophet. As the pieces start fitting together, we begin to see and to understand the doctrine. Scriptures are God’s word revealed through prophets, and His Prophets have often been simple men such as fisherman, herdsman, and sometimes, young men or even boys like Samuel. Prophets, for the most part, were simple people who lived just and simple lives. To them, God has revealed and explained His great plan and what was the end or purpose thereof. However, He has revealed His plan a little at a time, as they were prepared to receive it. Therefore, a piece of His plan may be found by reading a revelation (message) received by and recorded by one of these prophets, and another piece will be found in another prophet’s writings. Therefore, the answers to God’s mysteries are found not in one place but throughout the scriptures. The reason for that is to confound the skeptic and the insincere. “For he that diligently seeketh shall find, and the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto them, by the power of the Holy Ghost…” and “by very small means the Lord doth confound the wise (the world) and bringeth about the salvation of many souls.” (Alma 37:6–7) We need to first understand the Father’s purpose as He described it in Moses 1:39: “For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” President Gordon B. Hinckley stated that “There is nothing else to compare with this treasury of family history on the face of the whole earth. I feel the Lord has designed that it should be so. This is his church which carries his name, and one of its purposes is to make available to the millions beyond the veil of death the full blessings that lead to eternal life.” Lets begin this journey by understanding where we started; we were first “spirit,” the very literal spirit off- spring of our Heavenly Father. We are His children. President Heber J. Grant stated that “We have been told of the Lord that before we came to this earth we had a life running back to the remotest stretches of eternity; therefore, as spirits we lived out an existence before we came here, in which we prepared ourselves for life on the earth (referred to as our first estate). Those who kept their first estate came to this earth to obtain knowledge, wisdom, and experience, to learn the lessons, suffer the pains, endure the temptations, and gain the victories of mortality.” This plan was initiated by our Father in order for His children to grow and progress and is referred to as the “Plan of Salvation.” It actually has several other names as well, such as “The Plan of Happiness” and the “Plan of Progression.” That last name is in reference to our progress from the pre-earth to earth life, to the spirit world and then to a kingdom of glory. As spirits, we looked as we do in the flesh, as we learn from the Book of Ether where Jesus Christ showed himself as a spirit unto the Brother of Jared. The Lord stated: “Behold, this body, which ye now behold, is the body of my spirit; and man have I created after the body of my spirit; and even as I appear unto thee to be in the spirit will I appear unto my people in the flesh.” (Ether 3:16) Our goal as mortals is to try to develop the talents we were blessed with and to try to understand Christ, to believe what he taught, and to try to be like Him in our behavior. We all must follow Christ’s example by being baptized: “And it came to pass in those days, that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of John in Jordan.” The significance of that is found in the Gospel of (Mark 1:9) “Jesus answered, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” ( John 3:5) We all must be baptized in water, which is an ordinance that can only be performed on earth. In order for us to grow in strength while sojourning on earth, there had to be opposition. “For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, my firstborn in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad…nor corruption nor incorruption, happiness nor misery, neither sense nor insensibility.” (2 Nephi 2:11) Satan became the opposition when he opposed the Father’s plan: “And there was a war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” (Revelation12:7–9) Temptations and most all of the worldly obstacles that cause us to behave contrary to God’s will can be attributed to Satan or the opposition he provides in this life. Because of that opposition, billions of the Father’s children have been misled. They have not had an opportunity to even know of Christ. Satan has developed opposing churches, many of which have a likeness to that of Christ’s church. When the young Joseph Smith, the latter-day Prophet, queried the Father and His Son as to which of these churches he should join, he wrote, “I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong; and the personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt; that: ‘they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof.’” ( Joseph Smith History 1:19) On September 21, 1823, an angel by the name of Moroni appeared to Joseph again and quoted a scripture from Malachi in the Old Testament: “Behold, I will reveal unto you the Priesthood, by the hand of Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. 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.” Shortly thereafter, Joseph was led to where there were ancient plates of gold with a form of Egyptian writing on them. These plates had been buried for hundreds of years. Joseph was led to them by that angel named Moroni who had been the last prophet to have written on the plates. The plates were translated by the power of God. Over the years, the various translations of the Old Testament left out two very important verses (see D&C 2:1–3), i.e. Malachi revealing unto us the Priesthood, and that he would plant in the hearts of the children the “promises made to the fathers.” Just what was significance of the promise made to the fathers—a promise that was first made to Abraham and then Israel? his is the promise: “My name is Jehovah, and I know the end from the beginning; therefore my hand shall be over thee. And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee above measure, and make thy name great among all nations, and thou shalt be a blessing unto thy seed after thee, that in their hands they shall bear this ministry and Priesthood unto all nations; And I will bless them through thy name; for as many as receive this Gospel shall be called after thy name, and shall be accounted thy seed, and shall rise up and bless thee, as their father; And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curse thee; and in thee (that is, in thy Priesthood) and in thy seed (that is, thy Priesthood), for I give unto thee a promise that this right shall continue in thee, and in thy seed after thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed, even with the blessings of the Gospel, which are the blessings of salvation, even of life eternal.” (Abraham 2:8–11) And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice. (Genesis 22:18) Abraham was blessed that through his seed all the families of the earth would receive the Gospel, or in other words, the blessings of salvation and eternal life. Who are Abraham’s seed? The promise described his seed: as many as receive this Gospel shall be called after thy name and shall be accounted thy seed. When a person accepts the Gospel and becomes a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, they are eligible to receive a patriarchal blessing. That blessing describes their lineage as a member of the House of Israel or of the seed of Abraham usually through Ephraim, the son of Jacob. Jacob was the son of Abraham whose name was changed to Israel. Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery were ordained to the Priesthood by a heavenly messenger as promised by Moroni. Sometime in June of the Summer of 1829, a messenger from God laid his hands upon their heads and said: ‘Upon you my fellow-servants, in the name of Messiah, I confer this Priesthood and this authority, which shall remain upon earth, that the Sons of Levi may yet offer an offering unto the Lord in righteousness!’ Having the authority of the Priesthood the brethren established The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on April 6th, 1830. Soon after the Prophet was instructed to build a temple. The prophet while in the Kirtland Temple received further revelation in regard to this great work of redeeming the dead. Elijah appeared to Joseph and conferred upon him the “Keys of the Priesthood,” the power whereby what he sealed on earth will be sealed in Heaven. It wasn’t until nearly a decade later that the Saints began the work for the dead in the Nauvoo Temple. There are literally billions of people (sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father) who have lived on this earth since it has created, who have never had an opportunity to even hear of Jesus Christ let alone know of His Gospel and the Plan of Salvation.
The first Chief Apostle, Peter, wrote: “For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.” (1 Peter 4:6) The Apostle Paul also understood that there is hope of salvation for all. He wrote to the Corinthians and stated, “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.” (1 Corinthians 15:19) The first we read about the actual process of baptizing for the dead is when Peter declares, “Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? Why are they then baptized for the dead?” (l Corinthians 15:29) The early Christian church baptized for the dead until after the third century when they quit the practice. The principle was a true principle and practice, and after the Church of Jesus Christ was restored to the earth in 1830 and a temple was built for that purpose, it again became a common practice among the members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. President Joseph F. Smith described the current practice very well in the 138th section of the Doctrine and Covenants. Faithful members who pass away become missionaries to the spirits who had not had an opportunity to accept the Gospel while living. Those who accept their teachings must await their baptism by a living proxy on earth. All of the proxy work on earth is done in the holy temples that will soon be found in every land and country of the world. That is why you will find people searching the records for their dead, recording the information in the churches database and then going to the temple to do their work by proxy. That is the “Doctrine of Salvation.” Thus, we are about the Father’s work: “For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.” (Moses 1:39)