Since those days, however, further light has been revealed from heaven, which gives enlarged views in respect to the plan of human redemption, and brings out in strong relief the justice and mercy of God; enlarges the hope, and dispels the gloom of wretchedness that man-made systems of theology have cast over religion.
The principle which has performed all this, a principle which is permeating all religious thought and shattering to their foundations the old schools of theology, was first revealed by the prophet Elijah, in the Kirtland Temple, in 1836.
It is written in Malachi: "Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse."[B]
[Footnote B: Mal. iv: 5, 6. The manner in which Moroni quoted this scripture to the prophet Joseph Smith was, "Behold I will reveal unto you the priesthood by the hand of Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and terrible 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 the fathers. If it were not so, the whole earth would be utterly wasted at His coming." (Pearl of Great Price.)]
This prophecy, for so long before the people in the Jewish scriptures, yet no one knowing the meaning thereof, was fulfilled by the aforesaid coming of Elijah to the Kirtland Temple, on the 3rd of April, 1836.
This appearance of Elijah is described as follows—by the way, however, his appearance was preceded by a vision of the Lord Jesus, then of Moses, then of Elias, who committed the keys of the dispensation of the gospel of Abraham—"After this vision had closed," says the prophet, "another great and glorious vision burst upon us, for Elijah the prophet, who was taken to heaven without tasting death, stood before us and said. Behold, the time has fully come, which was spoken of by the mouth of Malachi, testifying that he (Elijah) should be sent before the great and dreadful day of the Lord come, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the children to the fathers, lest the whole earth be smitten with a curse. Therefore the keys of this dispensation are committed into your hands, and by this ye may know that the great and dreadful day of the Lord is near, even at the door."[C]
[Footnote C: Doc. and Cov. sec. cx.]
The key of knowledge this prophet revealed was in relation to salvation for the dead; the means by which the principles and ordinances of salvation could be applied to those who had lived in those periods of time when the gospel was not upon the earth; and also to those who had lived when the gospel was on the earth, but who had not the privilege of hearing it; aye, and even to those who had heard and rejected it; though the spirits of this last class of persons must go to the prison house where they will be required to pay the utmost farthing for their wickedness in rejecting the mercies of God; and will, through their disobedience, have shut themselves out from the heights of glory and exaltation they might have attained unto had they but accepted the truth in the love of it, and walked in harmony with its teachings.
This key of knowledge, I say, gives enlarged views of the mercies of God, and reveals the fact that every man, both in time and eternity, will always have the privilege of doing right, and reaping the reward of his righteousness. It brought to light the grand truth that this earth was not the only place where men could hear the gospel and give assent to its doctrines. On the contrary it gives us to understand that in the spirit world the gospel is preached to the departed spirits of men, that is, to those who have departed from this life and that there they are instructed in the way of salvation.
These facts give life and meaning to the scripture which says: "Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit; by which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; which sometimes were disobedient, when the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is eight souls, were saved by water."[D]