The following text is taken from the pamphlet "Preparing to Enter the Holy Temple" (2002) and annotated by me.
If
we would understand both the history and the doctrine of temple work we
must understand what the sealing power is. I'm pretty sure chemists and physicists are working on that right now. We will crack the code! We must envision, at least
to a degree, why the keys of authority to employ the sealing power are
crucial. Self importance, perhaps?
Nearly
nine hundred years before Christ, the prophet Elijah appeared in the
court of the king of Israel. He carried with him a sacred authority: the
power to seal. You don't think this story's made up?? I mean, it's from the Old Testament for crying out loud.
Elijah
worked out his ministry, ordained and anointed Elisha to succeed him,
and then—and this is important—he did not die. Like Moses before him, he was translated.
Could he also fly and see through walls?
After
that, his name appears only once in the Old Testament, in the next to
the last verse of the last chapter of the Old Testament. It is here that
Malachi prophesies that Elijah would return and that he would “turn the
heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to
their fathers,” lest the whole earth be smitten with a curse. (See
Malachi 4:5–6.)
I really and truly hate curses. Please tell me Elijah flew back in from wherever he flew off to.
When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?
And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.
He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?
And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
And
Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for
flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is
in heaven.
And
I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will
build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
And
I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatsoever
thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou
shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. (
Matthew 16:13–19.)
You didn't transition at all to these verses. How did you get from Malachi talking hearts to Matthew talking stones and keys so fast?
When
Peter, James, and John went with the Lord to the Mount of
Transfiguration, there appeared with the transfigured Lord two
personages.
It's all true, isn't it? Please tell me there are dead people that can come back and float in the air as we levitate. They recognized them to be Moses and Elijah, who had come to
convey to that presidency the sealing power. (See
Matthew 17:1–8; note that
Elias is the Greek translation of the Hebrew name
Elijah and is often used in the New Testament to designate Elijah, the prophet of the Old Testament.)
If only Joseph Smith knew what you just shared with us he wouldn't look like such an ass today.
Peter
was to hold the keys.
Is that a euphemism for touching one's cock and balls? Peter was to hold the sealing power, that
authority which carries the power to bind or seal on earth or to loose
on earth and it would be so in the heavens.
He could make thinks in the sky the same as on the ground? You need to explain this better. Maybe what you mean is that he had a special glue for his model rockets so they wouldn't fall apart in the air.
In A.D. 34,
after His crucifixion, the Lord ministered to the Nephites. That's miraculous because the Nephites are a fiction. He dictated
to them—and this is remarkable in scriptural history—the last two
chapters of Malachi (which contained the prophecy that Elijah would
return), caused them to write them, and then expounded them. What's truly miraculous here is that the Lord dictated from the King James Bible, which was still about 1600 years in the making. Or Joseph just copied them down from his Bible at home and threw in his preferred interpretation.
When
the Angel Moroni appeared to the Prophet Joseph Smith to tell him of
the plates, he quoted Malachi’s prophecy that Elijah would return. According to one version of the story. This
quotation is now section two of the Doctrine and Covenants. So thanks to Joseph Smith, Malachi is now canonized in Jacobian English in 3 different books of scripture. Impressive.
Thirteen
years after Moroni appeared, a temple had been built adequate for the
purpose, and the Lord again appeared and Elijah came with Him and
bestowed the keys of the sealing power.
He returned again? That's dedication! Unfortunately he got back too late to help Joseph authorize his first plural marriage. Oops.
Those
keys belong to the President of the Church—to the prophet, seer, and
revelator.
Today it's a man who has neither prophesied, seen or revealed anything on behalf of the Church. Despite those shortcomings, don't doubt that he is definitely holding fast to those keys. That sacred sealing power is with the Church now.
Says the Church. Nothing is
regarded with more sacred contemplation by those who know the
significance of this authority.
What is that significance? You haven't really said. Nothing is more closely held.
Because of greed or fear? What would happen if those keys were conferred on an evil man? Would God help you find these keys again if you accidentally lost them? There are
relatively few men who hold this sealing power upon the earth at any
given time—in each temple are brethren who have been given the sealing
power.
Our holy chefs of the original recipe... No one can get it except from the prophet, seer, and revelator
and President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or from
those he has delegated to give it to others.
This is why you have to go with LDS Mormonism. Don't settle for anything less than the most powerful sealing contractors in the business!
