What is the meaning of earth smitten or destroyed unless fathers and sons hearts are turned to one another?

Answer 1

Good question. This comes from the last 2 verses of the Old Testament, which say: "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." That's found in Malachi chapter 4, verses 5 & 6. This is what it means: # Elijah, the famous prophet from the Old Testament, who was taken up into heaven without tasting death, would return before Jesus' second coming. Jesus' second coming is both a great and dreadful day--it's great for the righteous, because it's something they've been looking forward to for years; it's dreadful to the wicked, because it means their time has passed and their game of wickedness is about to come to an end. A final exam is great for someone who's prepared; it's shear agony for someone who put it off... # Something about what Elijah was going to do at this return of his would turn the attention of parents to their kids and vice versa. # And apparently what ever happens in number 2 above needs to take place or else this whole planet's got a problem. Now for the explanation: Elijah did return. He visited Joseph Smith and a guy named Oliver Cowdery (along with Jesus, Moses, and a man named Elias) on April 3, 1836 in a temple in Kirtland, Ohio. I know that sounds strange, but stick with me. At that meeting, Elijah gave Joseph Smith the authority to perform important ordinances in temples that are helpful to both people who are alive and to people who have already died. One of those ordinances, for example, is baptism, or what we refer to as "baptism for the dead", first referred to in 1 Corinthians 15:29. Jesus said that unless a person is baptized, he cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven (John 3:3-5). So what about all those millions of people who have lived on the earth, never heard of Jesus or his teachings, lived good lives, and then died? Should their rewards be less just because they didn't get the chance to hear about the gospel and the commandments? No, that wouldn't be fair. However, it's kind of hard to baptize someone who's dead, right? So the only way to do that is to have someone stand in for them, in their place--for example, like Jesus stood in for all of us when he suffered so much pain for our sins on the cross and in the Garden of Gethsemane--that way, the dead person can still have a baptism done for them because a live person took the time to do it in their place. Does that make sense? The turning of the hearts to one another is the great genealogy work that goes on around the world where people suddenly get excited about their ancestry, etc. If none of this happens, when Jesus returns, you've got one big problem: a bunch of people who should be able to get into heaven but haven't had certain things done for them--like baptism, for example--yet that was no fault of their own. The prophecy said the earth would be smitten with a curse, not "destroyed". I don't know what that specific curse is, only that unless the work of Elijah is underway and getting done there are a whole bunch of people who would be somewhat worse off otherwise. If I find out more about the actual "curse", I'll let you know. Hope that's helpful!