I’m fascinated by the statement that the priesthood would be revealed by Elijah. We know that priesthood was about the sealing keys but the phrases describing it are that the hearts of the fathers would turn to their children and the hearts of the children would turn to their fathers because of the promises which were made to the fathers would be planted in the hearts of the children. What promises made to the fathers are being planted in the hearts of the children? I think the primary answer is centered in the promises made to Abraham but I feel like there is something fundamental behind that.
The promises made to Abraham are most obviously that he would have posterity as the sands of the sea and that the whole world would be blessed through that posterity. Those blessings obviously include the blessings to the whole family of man which come through the atonement of Christ who was a descendant of Abraham but that could have been accomplished through a microscopic posterity—one single unbroken thread from Abraham to Christ—so it must also refer to the blessings that come to the world from a posterity which preserved and spread the gospel of the covenant.
There are direct connections to the sealing of families together—including sealing husband to wife and parents to children thus linking the family of man into a single, complete intergenerational mesh—and to the administration of covenants by proxy—allowing for the ordinances of salvation to be made available to all of mankind throughout history regardless of their temporal access to the knowledge of the gospel.
At its root, I think the core of the promises made to the fathers is that the realization of the greatest possible blessings would come about because of a work that is bigger than any single lifetime and that the plan for the realization of those blessings was sufficiently robust that it would not be derailed by any individual choices. To put it in personal terms, nobody else can take away my opportunity to receive the fullness of the Lord’s promised blessings and unless the whole family of man were to choose to reject His covenants the plan will roll forward despite any opposition to deliver the promised exaltation to every individual who wants to claim it.
When the children have those promises planted in their hearts as the fathers previously had those promises planted in their hearts they will accomplish the completion of the work of which the fathers already accomplished the origin—including correcting for any gaps left by the choices of intervening generations. All of this is made possible because of a perfect plan and the perfect execution by Christ of the linchpin of that plan.
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