The Greatest and Grandest Duty of All

[John]

Some of my musings:
As I have read and pondered Ian's posts, I wonder if this line of thinking might be appropriate:

The Church as an institution has articulated its three-fold mission:
Preach the Gospel
Perfect the Saints
Redeem the Dead

These three are inseparably connected with each other. The Church (of which each of us is a part) preaches the gospel in order to set in motion the redemptive processes and power of the atonement for each individual and prepare him for his return to his Heavenly Father.

As I see it, and as I read the prophets, the great and grand duty of the church institutionally, is this preaching of the gospel. Since each of us is a member of the church, we bear serious and sobering responsibility to assist the church with its greatest responsibility, so that more and more of God's children enter through the gate (baptism) and begin their individual duty of working out their own salvation through their works, and the miraculous grace of the Savior.

The church's great responsibility of preaching the gospel is intended to set in motion a chain reaction in the life of each individual member leading toward individual salvation and ultimate collective sealing together of the redeemed into the celestial family of God.

The orderliness of the Kingdom of God is a miracle of efficiency if each member faithfully performs his numerous duties. According to the words of the prophets, as Ian has abundantly shown, the greatest and grandest of these many duties is to work toward the redemptive ordinances being performed for his own kindred dead, since they cannot perform them in the spirit world.

Just as we individually sustain, support and act as resource in the institutional church's greatest responsibility (preaching the gospel), likewise the institution of the church sustains, supports, and acts as resource in our individual greatest and grandest responsibility, Temple work for our kindred dead. Just as the church cannot shuffle off its responsibility to some other party, neither can the individual shuffle off his responsibility to ensure the completion of temple work for his kindred dead to some other person or institution, even if that person is a family member.

The natural result of this synergy between church and individual is the perfecting of the saints.

The work is huge; we need each other; the time to start is now, not when you are 60 years old. If you wait until you are 60 to start, you will have lost 30 or 40 years of manageable,incremental work and its abundant rewards.

We each have numerous duties and responsibilities, but none is greater either in size/magnitude nor in importance. It is the same work as the rearing of your children.

Get to it. Figure it out.
Don't wring your hands and murmur.
Do it.


I'm still waiting for responses.

[John]

Here again, is some help.

Study the pedigree charts. The spirit is the greatest teacher and will inspire you what to do next.
Joseph Smith started his work with questions, musings, and prayer.
No one expects you to arrive at the end of your genealogy work at its beginning.

Study the pedigree charts.
Read the historical tidbits posted here.
Learn to enjoy and love your family.
When we gather, we'll talk more.

[Tuly]

I loved this understanding from President Hinckley's "Why These Temples?"

This vicarious work constitutes an unprecedented labor of love on the part of the living in behalf of the dead. It makes necessary a vast undertaking of family history research to find and identify those who have gone before. To assist in this research, the Church coordinates a family history program and maintains research facilities unmatched in all the world. Its archives are open to the public and have been used by many who are not members of the Church in tracing their forebears. This program has been praised by genealogists throughout the world and has been utilized by various nations as a safeguard of their own records. But its primary purpose is to afford members of the Church the resources needed to identify their ancestors that they might extend to them the blessings that they themselves enjoy. They in effect say to themselves, "If I love my wife and children so dearly that I want them for all eternity, then should not my deceased grandfather and great-grandfather and other forebears have opportunity to receive the same eternal blessings?"

And so these sacred buildings are scenes of tremendous activity, quietly and reverently carried forward. They call to mind a part of the vision of John the Revelator wherein are recorded this question and this answer: "What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? . . .

"These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

"Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple" (Revelation 7:13–15).

[Steve]

Great things have been said and I agree with them.

My final post for the time being (before I simply roll up my sleeves and put my money where my mouth is) restates what I said before:

Truth be told, if our family members don't care about one another enough to participate in a family forum and talk to one another, why would we take the time to seek after people who have passed and no longer talk at all? If we don't care about the living, why would we care about the dead?

In speaking of our families, President Harold B. Lee declared: "The most important part of the Lord’s work that you will do, is the work that you do within the walls of your own home." He repeated this several times over the pulpit in various settings including to BYU students at BYU, to men in General Priesthood Meeting, and to women of the Relief Society from 1961-1973 (and he's been quoted many times since by our living prophets in general conferences over the years).

My belief is that we won't have a family that's fully engaged in the sacred and necessary work of redeeming the dead until the family cares deeply enough to communicate with one another--with those of us yet living. Until conditions are improved within the "walls of our home," despite our distances from one another, I do not foresee a dramatic increase in redemptive work for the generations that preceded us. That's my personal belief on the matter. I want to do better in this regard and hope others do too. I've said it again and again in recent threads; we need better family participation. Almost everyone in the family will read this (as they've read other messages we've posted about participation), but they won't respond. That's really sad, and I cannot for the life of me understand the excuses being made.

Anyway...

Ian, Dad, Mom, and others: I am going to try to do better with my great responsibility to work for the salvation of the dead. I hope the Lord will bless the other pursuits that, as many can relate, take up much of our time and energies. I hope my family, my elders quorum, and others will benefit from the efforts I put forth in this regard. At the very least, I am certain that such an approach will direct my thoughts toward the Lord and His work, as well as His temples. Let's do this.

[Ian]

dad's comments are supported by this explanation from boyd k packer:

The Prophet Joseph Smith said emphatically:

The greatest responsibility in this world that God has laid upon us is to seek after our dead. The apostle says, "They without us cannot be made perfect" [Hebrews 11:40]; for it is necessary that the sealing power should be in our hands to seal our children and our dead for the fulness of the dispensation of times-a dispensation to meet the promises made by Jesus Christ before the foundation of the world for the salvation of man. (HC, 6:313.)

He also said:

This doctrine presents in a clear light the wisdom and mercy of God in preparing an ordinance for the salvation of the dead, being baptized by proxy, their names recorded in heaven and they judged according to the deeds done in the body. This doctrine was the burden of the scriptures. Those Saints who neglect it in behalf of their deceased relatives, do it at the peril of their own salvation. (HC, 4:426.)

The Prophet made a similar statement concerning missionary work -- preaching the gospel to the living. "After all that has been said, the greatest and most important duty is to preach the Gospel." (HC, 2:478.)

On occasions you hear one or the other of these quoted in a sermon. How can each of them be the greatest responsibility?

They are, of course, both parts of the overall work we are commanded to do. Genealogical and temple work may well be missionary work for the dead, and missionary work may constitute the initial part of genealogical and temple work for the living.

President Joseph Fielding Smith made this explanation:

The Lord has given to the Church the responsibility of preaching the Gospel to the nations of the earth. This is the greatest responsibility of the Church. Men are to be taught the Gospel and called to repentance and warned. When they refuse to heed the warning they must be left without excuse.

The Lord has also placed upon the individual members of the Church a responsibility. It is our duty as individuals to seek after our immediate dead-those of our own line. This is the greatest responsibility that we have and we should carry it through in behalf of our "fathers" who have gone before. ("Thoughts on Temple Work and Salvation," The Utah Genealogical and Historical Magazine 20 [January 1929]:42-43.)

By this definition, missionary work is primarily a Church responsibility, with members being called to labor individually. Work for the redemption of the dead, on the other hand, is primarily an individual responsibility, with the Church assuming some of it when it can be done best collectively.

Boyd K. Packer, Holy Temple, Deseret Book (1980), 225-6.

[Ian]

"To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child. For what is the worth of human life, unless it is woven into the life of our ancestors by the records of history?"

— Marcus Tullius Cicero

[Steve]

John on Friday, May 14: Will you do so? I'd like an answer to follow from each one who reads this post.

John on Saturday, May 15: I still await responses from my children to my last post on this thread. I will interpret a lack of response as sophomoric petulance.

John on Saturday, May 15: I'm still waiting for responses.

From True to the Faith: A Gospel Reference:

"Honour thy father and thy mother" (Exodus 20:12). This is a commandment that remains binding even when we are grown. We should always find ways to honor our parents.

...I'm just sayin'.

[Lily]

So weird that I distinctly remember writing something and posting it on this thread, and yet it is not here. It was short: I just said that I haven't really had anything to say on this thread because I haven't done anything aside from creating an account on FamilySearch. I want to review our pedigree, and am hoping to get up to Midway sometime over the next few months (maybe Edward will come along too).

I will also add that my lack of response has not been due to sophomoric petulance as Dad suggested, for I am anything but overly confident when it comes to Family History. It really was because I hadn't done anything, and didn't really know what to do until suggestions were made.

[John]

Thank you for responding, Lily. I appreciate your willingness and good heart.
You are officially removed from the sophomoric petulance list.
I hope you all understand that our desire is to make family history work a joy, and not a guilt-laden burden.
There's no reason it can't be a boatload of very satisfying fun.

They are your ancestors, after all!

Hey Lily, when you go up to Midway, see if maybe you can get some good photos of graves. We are of course looking there especially for the Huntingtons, Rosses, and Alexanders. And since the cemetery IS your ggrandfather's farm, some general wide shots would be cool as well.

At any rate, happy hunting.
There's a joke in there somewhere.

The teaser for the day:
A Family History exercise:
Can anyone tell me my cousinly relationship to, say, Orson Scott Card's children?
And what, then, is yours to them?
Jane's?

One more, before we leave the month of Mothers' Day:
Without looking at the pedigree chart, can you give the full name of my mother?
At Family Home Evening this week, Angela was the only woman in the room other than Mom who could do so.

Do you know how my mother pronounced her middle name?
Do you know for whom she was named that name?

And I'm still waiting for responses
(my apologies to Ian for my use of giant lettering)

[Tuly]

Is any body going to answer dad's teaser????

[Angela]

I'm slowly learning the 4 generation thing, and I almost feel confident about dad's side.
Yes, I know how dad's mother pronounced her middle name, Le-TISH-ah and who she was named for, her mother.